Well, it's been about 3 weeks since my last blog, and am now back home so everything from here on in has been loaded up on return and as I get to write it up. I had one more field trip while in Chipata; a trip to see the chief of an area in which Caritas is helping. No photos, but was rather odd- we were the ones helping him (with money from our donors) but it was us kneeling, clapping at him and saying his praises. A bit of an eye-opener on the way back. Am used to seeing young [View Full Entry]

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Zimbabwe's problems were too serious for us to visit, and we had to cut directly from Malawi into Zambia instead. But imagine my delight in finding out that the national currency here was also called Kwacha! The change of plans worked out well for us though, as we had a few extra days to kill and decided to make our own way North to check out South Luangwa National Park. This would turn out to be one of the best decisions we made, because the game drives we did were nothing short of spectacular. We stayed at Flatdogs campsite which was [View Full Entry]

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Coming to the end of an era now, as my placement is drawing to a close. Last week we had a final review session in which the whole organisation visited each office in turn. Each programme officer described their new classification system, were tested on it by colleagues and we identified any remaining threads to tie up during the remainder of my time here. So, enjoy the 'after' photos as promised in an earlier blog- lots of tidy boxfiles with shiny new labels! Have also been spending some time helping out with some more general business systems issues, but these aren't [View Full Entry]

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Another, far happier, event last Saturday was an invitation to another wedding; the kitchen party but also the wedding reception, and this time I managed to get photos! My first kitchen party was a very Christian affair; this was more traditional. We ate first, and were entertained by some dancing before the bridal party came in, and when she did, it turned out that my new chitengi suit matched the wedding colour theme. I apologised profusely, but I think it was taken as a compliment rather than a faux pas as it would have been at home. As before, the bride's [View Full Entry]

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Chipata is in mourning this week. On Saturday a bus travelling from Chipata to Lusaka travelling at what is thought to be high speed burst a tyre near Nyimba and overturned. Carrying over 20 more passengers than there should have been (over 80 rather than the 60 specified), 28 people were killed and 55 injured (radio this morning). A family of six died, a colleague's brother and his family were hurt and the nephew of one of 'my' Sisters died. The bus driver was reported as having fled the scene and the police are looking for him. Families have been having [View Full Entry]

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It's definitely winter here, and I hear the UK has been having some particularly good weather the last few days. The temperature has been down to about 8-9 degrees at night and is just about struggling to the early 20s at lunchtime. Even so, the weather news on the television last night said that Chipata was the warmest place in the country. In the last week I have gone from one blanket on my bed to three; at least it means the mozzies have given up on me for a bit! Speaking of television, I have joined the Sisters in becoming [View Full Entry]

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After Lake Malawi, the second of my two big weekends away was to the South Luangwa Game Reserve. We stayed at Wildlife Camp (http://www.wildlifecamp-zambia.com/) for two nights in very posh tents and had 3 drives into the reserve. The camp was great- a bit of luxury after Chipata, with proper steak and other decent pubstyle food. It was right on the river, with hippos and crocodiles basking outside; have attached a video of the night noises made by the hippos as recorded from outside my tent. Also had my first ever outside shower (with hot water!) and with the sun in [View Full Entry]

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Chipatans are proud of their traffic lights; it's a good sign the town is developing, and was a key landmark of the town as first described to me in Lusaka. However, I haven't yet worked out the rules of their usage- are they as in the UK (in theory Zambians drive on the left) or elsewhere, where you can turn left on red? Not helped by the frequent powercuts when it's every driver for themselves. It's also known as the 'bicycling city'- there is a bicycle factory on the outskirts, and bikes are a key transport for agricultural produce brought in [View Full Entry]

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A field trip to Mphunza, on the occasion of a visit by Sister Ivy from a donor, Caritas Australia (equivalent of CAFOD in the UK) to see progress and discuss next year's plan. Was forewarned this time, and don't think I got quite so sunburnt! The format was fairly similar to last time (see 'Amazing first day') so won't give a detailed description. However, hope you enjoy the photos and videos. There was a chap leading the singing and dancing with the most spine-tingling voice I have ever heard- I have a good snippet of him and will let you judge. [View Full Entry]

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Work- well, it's certainly not particularly onerous at this precise moment. This week's very quiet as most people are off on field trips, doing 'activities'. I'm sat here in a spacious office which have just moved into, playing music on my laptop and awaiting the return of an electricity supply. My job is to help the organisation sort out their documentation (mainly paper). There have been considerable changes of staff over the last year or so and the new recruits are finding it difficult to locate information prior to when they started. In addition, the overall numbers of staff have increased, [View Full Entry]

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