"Mayday-Mayday ,bravo one is in the air!",these were the words that clapped me back to reality when l was busy checking our ride out and being mesmerized but the take off! If you have never been inside a helicopter or rode in one dear friend then let me be the first person to tell you that it's not as fancy as we assume it is! It makes a lot of noise and everytime it veers off a bit you feel like your insides are turning inside-out with fear and yes,for first-timers,you may actually poop yourself with anxiety! However,l have never travelled so fast and yet so far to a place in any form of transport before,it was lightning fast.They took us to a hospital near the Zimbabwe and Mozambique border from the Chimanimani and Chipinge side and let me tell you that our jaws hit the mud running when we saw convoys of helicopters landing to deliver all types of aid and sorrow! If it wasn't a box of food or medication being carried it was a coffin! Silver sparkly coffins to be precise,that could be carried by two people or at worst, rolled away like a suitcase on wheels! No honor,no dignity,nothing! This is what had become of us, a people carried out and in order to be told they won't make it even after the cyclone had passed!
You see some wounds weren't just physical scars,those were actually better because they heal after a while but the emotional one's were killing us even as we seemed to get better. I met people in sheds and tents,people that shared the same fate and trauma as l did and all we could do was communicate with our own cyclone of tears and screams as we awaited the medical examiners and doctors! They attended us as per need but l was more worried about my daughter since her doctor was suggesting cutting off her forearm if her hand was taking longer to heal. I wanted to bite off his head for even thinking about that but he was the expert and l was just an overly protective dad overstepping my grounds. If l consented to it,my princess would be disabled forever but atleast she would live a long and healthy life but if l disagreed ,my selfishness could have potentially cost me the only living family member,child,relative and friend l had left! So l agreed to the doctor although l disagreed in my mind because you can never fathom such horror and bad omen happening to you concurrently without even giving you the time to steady yourself for the next blow!
My child is a "natural and throughout" lefty now! We don't talk about using both hands or the right but we acknowledge the power and boundless abilities of using what's there and functioning. I love her and she's my world but l had to find out what happened to my wife and her siblings so l left her in the care of the caregivers that NGOs and government institutions had provided us with. Obviously they took necessary details and l made sure to take their's as well just incase anything happened. So when we were finally discharged and cleared to be medically fit and healthy, l voluntered to join the groups that had the duty to go out and look for other survivors or corpses of those who didn't make it! In some crazy way, l wished l had superpowers to reverse the days or just save everyone from the cyclone but most importantly l wanted closure in knowing where and how my family died? Yes, l wouldn't be able to change anything about their death but it would give me a piece of mind just knowing that they shared their last moments together!