MISCOMMUNICATION!

What excitement!

We gathered in anticipation at the venue to finally meet our new family member. They’d been married for a couple of years and, because of international distance, we had yet to meet.

The hour came and went. In the normal course of events, this may not have been a problem but Johannesburg is not the safest city and they had flown up from Cape Town and were not familiar with the area. We were only mildly concerned at this stage since we knew that they were camping and that coverage in the camp area was not good. We also thought that perhaps they had been unable to charge their phones before leaving and add to the mix that traffic issues are always a possibility. We did question why they hadn’t called to tell us of any delay though. That was out of character.

After an hour we began to try and phone them. This set off alarm bells as calls to their phones went directly to voicemail but their social media accounts showed signs of recent activity. Why were they not answering yet their phones kept becoming active and inactive by turns?

I left messages for the Chief of our CPF (Community Policing Forum – a volunteer community group) to find out what he recommended we do but he was unavailable.

We  were in full-blown panic by this stage.

After two and a half hours of attempted communication, we were desperate. As panic began to set in, so many scenarios that we didn’t want to think about began to be discussed.

They were going to use one of the taxi services.

What if they had been in an accident? We phoned all the hospitals on what we thought would be their route. No accident victims had been admitted at any of them.

We also phoned the police stations in the area of the route but, as we didn’t know what questions to ask or where to even begin, this wasn’t any help.

What if they ordered their ride and they were picked up by criminals instead? Our hearts were racing by this stage as it was three hours after they should have arrived.

I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of helplessness that my family and I felt when we couldn’t contact our family members and when we didn’t have a clue on who to turn to for help.

We finally made a difficult decision to report them as missing persons at our local police station.

When anguish sets in, it’s difficult to think coherently but I did at last remember that I belong to an Emergency group which included Missing People and reached out to find out if they could help us, as I didn’t have a clue on what to do and who we could turn to for help. I’m so very glad that I did. I sent a text message to the group and the administrator phoned me back straight away and helped to settle my nerves a bit even while telling me what we had to immediately do, like going to the nearest police station; what forms needed to be completed; and what documentation we needed from the police in order to proceed. He also sent through a questionnaire for me to fill out with as much information as I had so that it could be posted on to the group to reach as many eyes as possible.

At the same time, I managed to get hold of the Chief of our CPF. As luck would have it, he was on duty at our local police station when we arrived and his help was invaluable as we navigated the process to file the Missing Persons Report. This was difficult for us in our state of panic as we were, understandably, stressed and irritated by what we considered to be irrelevant and indifferent questioning while our family could be in danger. I think that this may be a panic reaction by many people. We found it difficult to be rational at this stage. It was as much of an ordeal for the police who had to try and get as much relevant information from us as possible.

We became more and more despondent as the hours ticked on.

All the while, family from around the world were trying to contact our errant guests. At times the mobiles were active but each time anyone tried to call, the phones were deactivated. This added to the drama of their perhaps having been abducted (which does happen). Everyone, including the police were also now very concerned.

Finally, a call got through to one of the mobiles and a family member was able to speak to one of the couple. They were camping in Cape Town. They were not in Johannesburg and they are only due to arrive next week. They had gone sightseeing and neither had taken their phones with them. They arrived back at their camp to find hundreds and hundreds of calls and messages on their phones (more than 600).

As we looked back over earlier correspondence, it became clear where the mix-up occurred and I’m grateful that they are safe and that we did not finalise the Missing Persons report.

What we did learn from the whole episode is what to do if anyone we know ever goes missing. This is a lesson we are unlikely to ever forget.

Thank you to those who guided, comforted and helped us. Their comfort and advice helped to calm me (and us) in what was a very stressful time.

Relaxed at last, we enjoyed a pleasant family get together until much too late but, after our afternoon, we deserved it.

We are now looking forward to next week when we finally and uneventfully get to meet our new family member.