You're not going to believe this....

....I'M HOME!!!

After the drama of the previous day and completely out of the blue, I got a call from BA at 1am yesterday (Tuesday) morning advising me that I was on standby for the first flight out of Lusaka at 11:45am that day...!   Excitement was matched by concern; I wanted to be home but didn't fancy being one of the first passengers flying through the ash cloud! 

Luckily the prospect of being home outweighed the fear element and I reported to Lusaka Airport at 9:30am - I was allowed to check-in, my luggage was weighed and labelled but at that point, along with about 50 others, I was still on standby,

There was a real sense of camaraderie amongst the standby people and when, ten minutes before the scheduled departure, I was given the go-ahead to board, I was sad to leave about 20 passengers who had not been lucky enough.

True to form, once all the passengers were onboard, the Captain announced that there was a problem....!  

Something to do with tail winds on the runway meant that NONE of our luggage was coming with us!  At that point, I was quite philosophical about it all... who cares about luggage, being home safely is the important thing.  Any who did not to wish to fly without their luggage were given the option to leave the flight.  12 people did leave although curiously, the gentleman who had the ashes of his deceased father in his luggage, decided to stay onboard. 

As some had left the flight and me having a letter stating that I was suffering from 'acute spider-bite-itis', I was given three seats to spread across and keep my leg elevated!!  

And we were off.... 

The Captain told us that at that point he was heading for Heathrow but as the airport was still closed, there was a very real possibility that we would be re-routed.  This became a reality when our flight, after circling in the skies over Europe waiting for Heathrow to open, got low on fuel.  We were diverted to Barcelona to re-fuel after which, finally were allowed to fly on to Heathrow.  There was a slight air of concern in the aircraft as we flew on to Heathrow but, if we did fly through the ash cloud, we passengers did not experience anything other than the normal lumps and bumps. We finally landed safely sometime after 1am this morning.

As Mr Shakespeare would put it, "All's well that ends well"

Grateful thanks for getting me home, go to:  

British Airways
Southern Sun Hotel, Lusaka
Friends & Colleagues at WAG 
Friends, Volunteers and Staff of VSO, Zambia. 
Geraint xx



.

Travel Update .....Still no idea when I can come home!!!

What a few days this has been! It’s been a real rollercoaster of emotions!

After an amazing couple of days at Victoria Falls (will do a proper blog on that soon, with lush pics), Saturday morning found me in agony with the spider bite. Having completed the antibiotics the previous Wednesday, it seemed wrong that I was still in so much pain ....so yet another trip to the clinic.
The 'kind' doctor said he would need to cut out the dead tissue and remove the poison that was still there - eek! He told me he would not use anaesthetic and suggested I hold onto the side of the bed - double eek!! He then did the cutting and removing of poison bit. Being squeamish I didn't look but will describe what I think he did from then on... First, he rubbed the injury with some type of brillo pad, then he poured acid over it! Blimey O'Reilly, did it hurt?!!! Anyway, the good news is that, and I quote my dear friend Emily, "every spider bite has a silver lining" because he said he would give me a letter advising British Airways that due to my medical condition (which, for dramatic purposes, I have named Acute Spider Bite-itis) I should be given priority boarding. Yay, yay, yay, I thought!

Off I trundled to BA to claim this special concession. BA confirmed that I could have priority boarding (more yays!)

I spent the weekend with the, getting lovlier and kinder by the minute, Dan & Helen.
Today, Monday, saw me moving out of Dan & Helen's and into the 5 star Southern Sun Hotel in Lusaka, courtesy of BA. I was beginning to relax and think how much worse it could be when all BA guests were called to a briefing in the hotel.  They told me that the earliest flight I can get, (and that is if flights start-up immediately), is Thursday of next week!!!!

I am totally stunned and will of course, pursue as many options as possible but it's not looking good.

I'm not suffering in any way, shape or form and realise that I'm very lucky to be in this hotel but to be honest, after being in Chipata and seeing the suffering there, I feel quite uncomfortable staying here. On the plus side, I have a TV so can watch the news and have internet access.

But, all I want to do is come home....

It's official, I'm NOT coming home tomorrow

Not hearing or seeing any news for weeks, a text message from Sophie yesterday asking if the 'ash cloud' would impact on my flight, had me very confused.  I thought predictive text was at work and tried and tried to figure out what words she had been meaning to text. Not being able to get any sensible anagrams out of 'ash cloud', I gave up and asked her what she meant.

So, there I was, sitting down, recovering from a long, hard walk up from the bottom of Victoria Falls, where I had been quietly been saying my emotional goodbyes to Zambia, when a further text from Sophie clarified the situation and sent me into panic mode! 

To say I'm devastated is an understatement.

I have visited the BA office in Lusaka where the very helpful staff advised me that they are not able to advise me....!!!  All they are prepared to say at present is that my flight tomorrow is definitely cancelled.  They are not able to tell me when I can fly but somebody in the waiting room at their office told me that I'm probably looking at Thursday!

PAM FI DUW?!!!

More drama.....

Not wanting to alarm my nearest and dearest, I didn’t blog about this yesterday. But as its all turned out fine and I know there are certain friends (Johnnie) that enjoy hearing about my misfortunes, here is the latest…..


Thursday evening, the young YDF volunteers threw me a going away party at my house which included playing nice singing, clapping, jumping in my garden. It would appear that YET AGAIN, I was bitten by a spider!

So, Friday saw the little bite on my leg which was annoyingly itchy but nothing more, develop into a rather large, painful blister....

Saturday morning, feeling quite ill, I went along to Chipata Health Centre to seek medical advice. The nice doctor said I had been bitten by “dangerous spider”. He popped the blister and giggled as the yukky liquid spilled all over his practice floor, gave me a course of anti-biotics and said I’d be fine in a few days. He also advised AGAINST covering the now popped blister. I’m afraid I felt quite poorly all afternoon, leaving Francis and Alan to do all the work for our party that night. During the party, despite feeling less than 100%, I joined in the merriment as much as possible – I’m nothing if not a martyr to the cause of partying!

Sunday morning with the prospect of an 8 hour drive to Lusaka ahead of me, I wanted to curl up and die! I don’t travel well at the best of times and with the nausea and vomiting before even left the house, I was dreading the journey…. Luckily for me, the lovely man who was driving the car had a medical background and seeing the now puss-filled lump on my leg, put me in the front seat with my foot elevated as much as possible and fussed over me throughout. He wanted to take me straight to a clinic on arrival in Lusaka but relented when I promised I would go first thing in the morning.

Dan & Helen who are accommodating me here is Lusaka were great. Dan took me to the clinic first thing Monday morning where the doctor confirmed it as a spider bite. He said the blister should never have been burst and it should have been kept covered to prevent infection, which is what I now have and why I was feeling so sick! A nurse cleaned and dressed it and I was sent on my way after being told to report back to the clinic at 4pm for the surgeon to decide if it needed operating on…!!!! At that point I did not want to be in stupid Africa, I wanted to be home, with my Mam feeding me 'googies' to make me all better!!
But I was a very brave little soldier and duly reported back as instructed.



I am delighted to report that the surgeon said it was okay and did not need to be cut out! I was sent on my way with a tube of antibiotic cream and a large bag of saline solution to clean it with. When I arrived back at Dan & Helens, they could only see my top half through the window and seeing me carrying this bag, they thought I was hooked up to a drip!!!

So…. sorry to disappoint you Mr Evans but the good news is I have been to the clinic again this morning for another dressing change and I am allowed to travel to Livingstone this afternoon!!!!

I believe and I very much hope that all who kindly donated to my fundraising page http://original.justgiving.com/tinawilliams6  will agree that although I did not manage to honour my pledge to hold a live spider whilst here, the fact that I have suffered at the teeth of these cruel arachnids, will suffice. 

Please say yes.....

Back in Lusaka.....

Awwww, it was a sad farewell to Chipata for me yesterday - I really will miss the place and the lovely friends that I made there. Obviously, I'll miss Frances and Alan most but we'll stay in touch and when their 2 years is up, we'll have a great reunion party.  Unless, that is,  I decide to come back to visit them while they're still out here!

Fortunately (for me but not for blog readers) , there are no crazy travel stories as I didn't have to get the post bus after all - I was given a lift to Lusaka by Achim, a German guy, a development worker in Chipata who needed to travel to Lusaka on business.

Am being put up in Lusaka by a lovely couple from Buckinghamshire (both VSO volunteers). I'll say this for being a VSO community of volunteers, you make some great friends, very quickly.  I've only met Dan & Helen once before and yet they are more than welcoming and have put themselves out no end picking me up and dropping me off.  As they are so lovely, theirs is definitely the accommodation of choice for any volunteers who are travelling through Lusaka.  They have 'guests' staying over at least 3 days a week!!!  Last night they had Ros (from Livingstone) and me, tonight they have Rob (From Mazabuka) and me ...and probably some others later in the week!

Attended the Global Exchange meeting this morning, welcomed the returning Zambian youngsters and their British counterparts ...they were a great group!

Off to Livingstone tomorrow to stay with another VSO volunteer, Emily.  Using public transport to get there so may have a more interesting blog soon...!   Wanted to leave on the 9am 'Luxury' coach in the morning but other commitments mean I must travel on the 1.30pm 'standard' service - ooh-er!!  Will hopefully arrive Livingstone by 8pm and, even more hopefully, be met off the bus by Emily.

Last of the Chipata Days....

Today (Friday) is my last day working for YDF in the Chipata office.  Its gone so quickly!!
The young volunters gave me a wonderful farewell party yesterday with lots of singing, dancing and speeches ...I'll never forget it.

Tomorrow we are hosting a party at our house.  It's a double celebration; Alan's birthday and give me a send-off!    In such a short while, I have met very many lovely people ....it should be a good party!  I'll have to practice moderation in alcohol intake as, 7am Sunday morning, I shall be accompanying the mail on the Post Bus to Lusaka.  Monday, I will be representing YDF and greeting 10 UK students who are arriving to take part in a 2 month Global Exchange visit - their Zambian counterparts, who been staying in Swansea for the past two months, will be arriving back with them.

Then, THAT IS THE END OF MY VSO PLACEMENT!!!!

Just enough time for me to travel down to Livingstone for a few days to see the famous Victoria Falls before travelling back to Lusaka to fly HOME on Saturday!

Very mixed emotions.... as much as I am looking forward to being home with my loved ones, I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to beautiful Zambia.

This is Brendah

I deliberately keep my blogs light hearted, fully appreciating that it would make very uncomfortable reading if I were to constantly recount all of the poverty, squalor and deprivation that I see on a daily basis. That said, it has occurred to me that, by telling only the amusing stories, I am painting a very one-sided picture of life here.


It would be a long and painful blog if I were tod detail everything that I have experienced but to redress the balance a little, I would like to tell you about one lady – I think her story sums up the situation here quite well.



Brendah is 32 years old, married, with two children; a twelve year old daughter and seven year old son. Her husband is sick so cannot work therefore Brendah is the only bread winner. She works five days a week as a cleaning lady – two of those days are at my home, the other three are spread over other VSO volunteers. Brendah is actually very lucky, with unemployment running at 84%, she is one of the few in Zambia that has a job. She is also lucky to be working for westerners which means she is given lunch every day – probably the only meal she eats.

She lives in Sido Compound, a collection of 100 or so houses on the outskirts of Chipata. Home for Brendah is in a shared building and consists of one living room and one bedroom. At night, the living room doubles up as a bedroom for the children. Brendah’s bedroom is not in a part of the building with an outside wall and therefore has no window; she has to light a candle to see, even during the day. The bedroom has no wardrobe or drawers so when she has washed and dried the family’s clothes, they are wrapped up in a chitenga (a piece of material) and stored on the floor. Brendah asked me if she could have an empty cardboard box that was in our spare room explaining that she wanted it to store clothes in! All meals are cooked outdoors on a charcoal brazier (a bucket with holes). There is no running water. Brendah walks 500 meters to a small building with a tap owned by the Water & Sewerage Company where she buys her water. It costs 50 kwacha for 20 litres. With no hot water and the cost of buying it, water is a precious commodity so she washes her clothes in a stream. The toilet is a communal pit latrine.

Brendah is a highly intelligent woman with a brilliant sense of humour – she has been a great friend and adviser to me during my stay. Don’t know how I would have managed without her! In another country where there are opportunities for talented people, she would be a high flying executive but alas in Zambia she will remain a domestic help for as long as she is able to work. She walks one hour to get to work daily. I look forward to her arrival, we usually have a chat over a bowl of cornflakes then she gets down to washing, which she does in a back-breaking bend over the bath!

Normally, she doesn’t complain but yesterday she was very upset and relayed the following to me: 2am the night before, she had been struggling to carry her husband to the outside toilet when he fell. He has probably broken his hip. All she was able to do, was get him back to bed where he remains, in agony. Without the money to pay for health care, he has no access to a doctor or hospital. Brendah must continue working but with him bed-ridden, she wakes at 4.30am, prepares the family meals and cleans her house before setting off for an eight hour shift cleaning for us. She is terrified of the future. She can’t simply leave him to suffer but equally, cannot pay even for a check-up to establish what is wrong.

Brendah’s total monthly income is 365,000 kwacha, which when you take out her rent of 60,000 per month, she is left with around 10,000 per day to feed and family of four. To put this into context, a loaf of bread costs 3,380 kwacha so she earns the cost equivalent of less than three loaves a day!!!
She has to buy water plus feed and clothe a family of four on this meagre wage. She is struggling but determined to educate her two children; schools here charge pupils to attend and parents are required to buy the specified uniform along with all books, pencils etc. Health care has to be paid for too.



It would be easy for Brendah to loose hope but she feels lucky ….the saddest fact of her story is that she genuinely is one of the lucky ones.