Blogs from Zambia, Africa - page 85

Hi All :) This blog entry shall be back-dated as it is now August the 10th in Malawi. I shall still pretend that this entry comes from days gone by in Zambia! What's there to say? Our Zambian excursion started with a 5 day stay at Victoria Falls/Livingstone, the "tourist adventure capital" of Zambia, "the real Africa." Following this we drove through Lusaka then east through Chipata to Malawi. Much fun was had on the way! The half way point of our overland adventure was in Livingstone where most of the people on our bus either ended their tour or were joined another truck on their trek back south to Johannesburg, South Africa. 4 of the original Cape Tonians are continuing on until the end in Nairobi, Kenya. We have been joined by a handful of ... read more

I have come to the realization that my time in Zambia is coming to a close. I was in Kabanze the other day for a livestock meeting and starting making plans to visit another village. I was looking over my remaining time and realized that I would only be visiting one more village, and leaving soon after. A month is a while, but it get taken up pretty quick. Next week I’ll go to Lusaka for the agriculture show, the week after I’ll go to the village, then to livingstone to sort out my visa (always fun) and see the falls, then back here for a week of finalizing. AAAHHHH. So short. For the entire duration of this placement I’ve felt the pressure of time, and now it’s worse than ever. Last week I went to ... read more

If you’ve ever been on a long bus ride in Africa on a nice coach, you’ve probably seen some Nigerian films. These soap opera-ish English-language films are produced by the third largest film industry in the world, Nollywood. Filled with African actors, poor sound, awful lighting, and scandalous plot lines, these films are wildly popular here in Zambia. For the longest time I couldn’t figure out how people could enjoy these films so much. How could you prefer to watch these low budget pictures over slick, expensive, perfectly lit, sharp sounding Hollywood flicks? At first I thought maybe the plot lines resounded better with Africans, or they preferred to watch movies with black casts, or these movies where simply more affordable. With a bit more time I have come to think that it is probably a ... read more

Hey everybody, this has to be very quick and no jokes, I will save the funny stories for when I have longer. Hope you are all OK and enjoying the heat in England. I am having the time of my life meeting wonderful friendly people in the most amazing places in the world. We went on a game drive in Chobe and saw a big herd of Elephants, giraffes, hippo, zebra, antelope, warthogs etc etc all within 1 km of each other. Zimbabwe was great with nice people, that’s where I did the bungee, it was the most terrifying thing I have ever done and will probably never to it again. The whitewater rafting was excellent, I asked the guide for a flip and out of the 8 rafts that day only mine flipped, money talks ... read more

Kids are so damn brilliant. They really do have it all figured out, before society gets everyone all confused. I think your perspective on the world peaks with maximum clarity at the age of seven, and its all downhill from there. Three weeks at the Kondwa Centre did the impossible and uncovered my deeply embedded maternal instinct, one that I was afraid i simply didnt have. The Kondwa Centre is a day centre for orphans and vulnerables aged 4 to 9 in the N'Gombe compound on the outskirts of Lusaka. The children are fed 2 meals per day (meals they otherwise wouldn't get), and are taught at the preschool/ kindergarden level. Its community- based, meaning that funding isn't consistent, but comes in spurts from Zambian and foreign donors alike. The person who keeps it all alive, ... read more