One of my urgent jobs when at home was to gather better equipment for the Rangers. I did a uniform inspection before I left and found the boots in a woeful condition. All bar one pair (Unkaheli’s) were in a terrible state – bits of metal poking out and large holes. They had been renewed 2 years before but from second-hand odds and ends available here, and working in the tangled bush is heavy duty business.
A lot of my time was spent on line and in army surplus shops trying to track down combat trousers, caps and boots – that are affordable, buying for 10 rangers mounts up and I am painfully aware of not actually having an income at the moment.
As part of this uniform research and replacement process I write my first two sponsorship requests one to Doc Marten and one to Timberland. I have a video of D polishing Unkalhli’s (Elder, Ranger and Witch Doctor) boots, a pair of brown medium height Doc Marten’s – I have tried to upload it below (an exciting step forward if it works) - but please excuse me sounding like a strange loud frog in the background. Unkaheli has a wonderful way with clothes – and wears these seemingly indestructible boots with style. (He often sports a pale blue tweed jacket with collar turned up when on patrol, while all else are shielded by bleached t-shirt material, and has been spotted head toe in a glittering suit in Town, Pemba.)
While I am on the Timberland website I find a new world of cool, equipped outdoor living- not only do they have a section on corporate responsibility but they have wonderful motifs on their t-shirts of simplified nature, they would look so good worn by our Rangers – in action protecting nature. And their stuff looks so new! Nothing is prized here like newness – (Elias still has the sticky label on his new dark glasses, now 4 months old, despite the fact it’s directly in his vision). While on the website I wonder about practical, non-rip trousers, belts, nice camps with a good peak against the sun (and then wish I could have a lovely small leather suitcase I spy.)
Anyway I wait a week and no response from my request letters. So back to surfing ebay and visiting the dark, dusty and expensive local army and navy surplus store (wondering who buys this gear?) I do my best and spend nearly £200 but cannot be sure I have exactly sizes right (translated from cm to UK standard shoes sizes with a chart I find on the web), durability and it turns out Trisa has size 4 ½ feet and it is impossible to find a good outdoor boot designed in a child’s size.
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| Bacar, Saleman, Trisa and Jose at the front (with confiscated snares behind) |
Then just as I am thinking about how to send this stuff....I get a letter from Timberland! It is such a great boost – a short, kind response. ‘We love the sound of your project and would like to supply boots. Please send me the sizes.’ I feel a swell of success – someone took the time to read my letter and their new new stuff will be so much better than anything the Rangers have ever seen. I send a full response thanking them greatly and explaining the need for shirts/t-shirts/trousers/belts too – and then worry I am pushing my luck...(but I refrain from telling them how much I would like that small leather suitcase myself!)
Second phase....my parcel is despatched using DHL at a cost of £189 (but it includes some other essentials for D...two newspapers, some coffee, pistachios, 40amp fuses and paint brushes). The expense is hard to bear and now the agonising hope that it actually arrives. I track it obsessively on line and then it seems to get stuck in Maputo. When I ring DHL they say merrily that they don’t deliver to Pemba, a local courier is used from Maputo. Oh no....that does not sound good. Many many things get lost and stolen here.
Well D tries to get the parcel and discovers it has arrived but he is charged $180 customs – my parcel of second-hand german army tropical boots (and Trisa’s brand new ladies walking boots) is becoming stupidly expensive. When he returns with the money the office is closed. Then a week after my arrival – I go with him to DHL with heart in mouth. There in the back room is the battered repurposed John Lewis box, my box. It is covered with tape and labels that spell concern but at least it is here in some shape and form. I open and find my coffee and bag of fuses and a pile of boots! All looks good and we go home.
Third twist...we get it home and unpack fully. The pair of size 6 women’s walking boots I had bought for Trisa, the only new pair and most expensive (and too big for him) have been stolen. D can only say...’why didn’t you check the package properly at the office?’ I am so upset and this comment does not help at all and indeed what if I had? – they would take no responsibility and blame Maputo or Johannesburg or the courier. Mozambiquan gloom sets in, the success has become failure. I decide to smoke a cigarette, despite having given up and D leaves the room in disapproval.
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| Results of the boot check |
Oh please may Timberland's wonderful wares arrive – the same day I receive an email saying they have dispatched TWO parcels, so as well as boots (new) there may be T-shirts (new) – how thrilling. They have used TNT and according to D they are sent to the main post office and he has not received the last 3 parcels sent there. So now we wait with restrained hope for what could be the most exciting thing that has happened in a long time...or the most disappointing.
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