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.

Roaring time...!

When my fairies were younger, given the choice of what to do on a bank holiday, they would always choose Cwmbran Community Farm so, following in the family tradition, I too went to my local community farm!!!

Left home at 7.30am for the three and half hour journey to Flat Dogs Camp. I had been warned that the road is bad. It is bad!


Flat Dogs is in the budget range of camps at South Luangwa but as I am now used to a fairly humble home life, it felt like 7 star luxury – I even had my own shower!

Myself, Francis & Alan stayed in a chalet at the camp – I wasn’t brave enough for the tents. Of most interest is each and every time you want to leave your chalet to move around the camp, to the restaurant for example, you are accompanied by a guard. The reason being that hippos, elephants and baboons roam freely amongst the accommodation. Its okay during the day but at night, the "heepo" is very much in evidence - they were quite daunting to walk past. Needless to say, UK health & safety rules would shut the place down in a nano-second!
Over the two nights we were there, I went out on four safari drives. Two morning drives which have you up at 5am but were so worth it and two evening drives. Evening drives are 4pm to 8pm – after 6pm it is dark so the guides shine huge torches to pick out the animals. It was amazing, when they spot something worth a look, they get the vehicles in VERY close. It is quite scary at times; a notable occasion was when they got us within ten feet of a lion feasting on impala!!
Won’t dwell too much on the details, it was just too fabulous for words… A couple of pics:

Easter will NEVER be the same for me.... !!!!

A special message for a SPECIAL girl

Sending you all my love for a very Happy Birthday, Natalie.

Love you today ...and everyday!

Mammy xxx

Easter Weekend.....

Zambia has, without a doubt, been a rollercoaster of emotions.  One day ecstatically happy, the next bereft..!  Tomorrow was always going to be the toughest, being the birthday of Natalie. 

So, to console myself (!!), I am spending Easter weekend in the splendour of South Luangwa National Park.

The experience of a lifetime lies ahead, I'm sure!!!

Check out the Safari Park   http://www.zambiatourism.com/travel/nationalparks/sluangwa.htm

I'll be staying at Flat Dogs (the African term for Crocodile)  - http://www.flatdogscamp.com/

Will keep you posted.....

Oh what a night!

I am beginning to wonder if I’m cut out for life in the tropics! As time passes, I seem less and less able to cope - physically or emotionally!!


Everyone is being bitten, Francis has around twenty bites per leg, bless her however, she is coping well and has tiny dots to mark out where she has been bitten. I have, thankfully, very few bites but those I have start off with a little spot which progressively spreads …and spreads. The one today takes the form of a circle on the inside of my lower arm and measures 4” in diameter. I am also suffering with bad headaches, dizziness and nausea.

None of that though, compares with last nights little episode…..

It is very, VERY quiet here at night. After bedtime, all there is to listen to is the sound of guard dogs barking in the distance, the sound of the house creaking, insect or snake noises outside the window ….and my heart pounding in fear! Occasionally, I hear Alan snoring in his room which I find extremely reassuring.

Last night, I went to bed to read. Francis and Alan had also turned in so I was, as ever, deafened by silence! With the light still on, I began to doze off. Suddenly I heard, what sounded like a spider wearing stiletto heels scuttle under my bedroom door and run across the floor to the corner of the room, under my clothes rack. I sat bolt upright in bed and even though I was terrified to look, I began adjusting my vision to see what creature was causing this noise. As suddenly as it started, the noise stopped! I was incredibly scared and imagining all manner of beast lurking at the foot of my bed. As the seconds passed, I started to wonder if I had in fact dreamt the noise – I have a habit of dreaming all sorts of nonsense. As my pounding heart began to return to a normal beat, I saw it…..

I have seen many cockroaches in my time here but by far THE BIGGEST cockroach I have ever seen was crawling up the outside of my mosquito net ....not six inches from my face!!!
....I panicked!!!!
....I screamed!!!!
....I picked up my torch,( which I always sleep with) and whacked it off the net!!!

It landed with a thud on the floor under my bed (that’s how big it was!). I had no idea what to do so did the only thing I could think of and screamed for Alan as loud as I could.

Alan & Francis burst into the room, clearly thinking I was being attacked by a lion…! I could barely speak, I was so terrified but through my gibberish, they realised I was telling them about it being under the bed.

Just like Superman, Alan sprang into action with his trusted can of Doom!  A long squirt but still the horrible bug lived on..! It staggered out from under the bed and zig-zagged across the floor, all the while pursued by Alan who, after one final squirt, despatched it to the afterlife!

When it was properly dead, Alan removed it and they left me to recover.

Sleep did not have the decency to take me…! Hours passed with me conjuring up images which were only marginally better than imagining I could feel it crawling on me!!!

It was, without doubt, a most dreadful night.

If only I could have yelled out the words I’M A CIVIL SERVANT, GET ME OUT OF HEEEEEEEEEEERE!!!!!

In the groove (at last!)

My placement here comes at a cost… personal sacrifice by me and financial considerations to WAG. A few weeks into the job, I was feeling quite disheartened at not being utilising fully. Hence, the beginning of last week saw me having a ‘frank and open’ discussion with my employer.


I turned up for the meeting wearing my VSO t-shirt, a symbolic gesture as it states across the front “Sharing Skills – Saving Lives”. I delicately explained my ideas on how best we could utilise all of our time better and share skills. I was careful in my choice of words and of course, kept everything in the Zambian context. Little use comparing worklife here with that at home but, that said, I am here for a short period and want to make the best of my time. Notwithstanding the resource and financial constraints, there is a great deal of time wasting.

My boss, to his credit, was very receptive to my ideas…so much so that I now have full responsibility for planning and delivering an improvements programme that will easily take twice as long as I have left here! I embarked on the programme with great gusto last week and am delighted at how enthusiastically it is being received by my colleagues. I’ve also managed to squeeze in a few IT training sessions for the young volunteers, which been extremely rewarding, they devour every single piece of information with huge fervour.

Apart from work, my Zambianisation is coming along nicely. I have twice managed to cook nshima, and am a dab hand at it (if I say so myself!). When I tell the locals that I served it with a concoction of tomatoes, onions and pumpkins, they all howl with laughter – to them, the combination is like us eating carrots & peas with custard!!

I have also invested in a made to measure traditional outfit. I used all of my western bargaining skills and paid exactly the asking price! My local colleagues tell me off, saying I pay too much, but the cost of 100,000 kwacha, inclusive of material and making, works out around £21..! Look out for me wearing it out on special occasions…Mother of the Bride outfit, maybe?

The honesty that a half-shared language brings is amusing. When the skinny young girl at the dressmakers was checking how the skirt fitted, I quipped that I am a little heavy around the midriff….”yes, you are fat” she replied very matter-of factly. I like to think it was not intentionally that she destroyed my self esteem in one fell swoop!

Will finish now but MUST acknowledge the work of colleagues at WAG for incredibly restoring my laptop to full use. Work here is difficult enough but when the laptop failed, I was really up the Swanee and worried that I’d not get anything meaningful done until my departure. I was staggered to receive a call from a guy in ICT! He told me to take the laptop to an internet café and he would fix it remotely. To be honest, I thought he was nuts, how could he be in Wales and fix a laptop in Zambia?! But he did just that!! Other than our call today, I don’t know him… but thanks very much Rob!

The REAL Zambia...

What a weekend I have had....   I had wanted to get out of Chipata to see the real Zambia so asked the young volunteers at my work if anybody could take me. They said they would think about it and let me know.  So there I am at 8am on Sunday, sitting in my pyjamas, eating an orange picked from the tree in our garden when Jacob rang me to say he was on his way to collect me, he arrived 3 minutes later!   A Toyota pick-up truck was our mode of transport.  Jacob's mother and elder brother were in the cab with Jacob, his younger brother and me standing in the back looking out over the cab.  What a drive....!  It took about an hour in the blazing sun - I had no hat or sunglasses as I had not expected to be exposed to the elements but it was awesome!  The beautiful, bumpy red roads of Africa surrounded by lush greenery were a joy to travel along.   I was clinging on for dear life as we sped along - it was a like a bucking broncho ride at times as we would suddenly veer to avoid a pot hole!!!  I kept thinking if only Nat & Soph could see their mother...!

Amazingly, miles from anywhere, we encountered easily 100 people who were holding a procession to celebrate Palm Sunday.  It was a brilliant spectacle, all were dressed in their best clothes, carrying crosses or  reeds to represent the palms.  We stopped to allow them to pass by, the singing almost made me cry with how wonderful it was

When near the village, we left the red road and drove off-road for about a mile - through all manner of bush and grassland ...it was fabulous!   Finally, we arrived at the village, which is called Msubazi.  A traditional community of small scale farmers.  I have brilliant pictures but sadly as my laptop is still out of action, can't post any.  The homes are traditional round structures with lovely thatched roofs, there are corals made of branches of trees containing cows.  Pigs, goats and chickens roam freely...as do lots of children!  The villagers were very welcoming ...making a huge fuss of me. Everybody came to shake my hand - there is a special 3-stage handshake here which I have finally mastered!  After all the introductions, we all sat under a tree to chat.  I had brought along my little photo album which they all loved looking at.  They were stunned at the pictures of my parents.  It was all so lovely.  Village life is hard, none of the trappings of modern life we have come to expect like running water and electricity.  The farmers work very hard to make enough to feed their families but life there seems idylic.  There is a bore hole nearby from which to collect water, the children walk 2km to school every day ...and community spirts is palpable.

At the end of my visit, I was presented with a LIVE CHICKEN to take home!!! 

Best weekend ever :-)

Technology...aarrgghhh!!!

Having MAJOR IT problems!  My laptop has stopped working ...as has my Hotmail a/c.  I did manage to read a few recent emails but don't think I can access it any longer!

Sorry to use the blog as a messaging portal but needs must I'm afraid....

Hope & Aid Direct :

Best wishes to all the Easter Convoy team!  Wishing you all a safe & successful trip.

John Desty : When you deliver the welding equipment to Branka, please give her and her son ALL MY LOVE and take lots of pics!!  Thanks xx

Graham Crame: Arrive back at Heathrow on 17th April at 17:30 - More than happy to hand over Albert Edward for what seems like the trip of his life!!!  Please give your mobile number to Maggie Beecher so that I can get in touch when I land. 
Maggie, can you get Grahams mobile number to Geraint please?  Johnnie has his number if you don't.

Johnnie Evans:  CONGRATULATIONS on becoming a grandad!!!  Please give my love and best wishes to Jonathan & Louise (and baby Dylan of course).  As you are my 'convoy husband', I wonder if this makes me a Granny?  Hope my other 'grandchildren' Tilly & Roo are not too put out at the new addition!!! 

WAG :

Judith : Thanks for trying to sort out my laptop problems ....no doubt you thought you could take a well earned break from sorting out my issues?  As the saying goes, just when you thought it was safe to pick up the phone....!!!  

Merthyr Office : Can't believe I'm writing this but I'm missing you and am ready to come back to work now please!

Thats it for now.  Hopefully I can get my laptop up and running soon.

Be it ever so humble.....

Ours is one of three houses in a walled compound with 6ft steel gates.  It sits at the foot of the most beautiful hills:

The area we live in is called Moth, not sure why, somebody said it was an acronym for Men of Steel Hats but I’ve not been able to find out why. Moth is in the most prestigious area of Chipata; our neighbours are all wealthy business people, mostly Zambians of Asian origin. Sadly, I have yet to meet any and probably never will. They live behind high walls, only venture out in large 4x4’s and most have big signs on their gates warning of guard dogs or armed security!

By UK standards, our Chipata home is very basic however, in comparison to the large majority of Zambians, we live in total opulence! We have a lady, Brenda, who comes in twice a week to clean and do our washing. Myself, Francis and Alan thought long and hard about doing our own washing but decided that with unemployment running at over 80%, we would be far better employing somebody. As it turns out, Brenda’s husband is too sick to work so without her job, they would be unable to pay the rent or buy food. She is wonderful and has quickly become a friend. She tells us so much about local life and has an almost insatiable thirst for knowledge about our lives. I was telling her that my daughter is marrying in Aug 2011 – she finds it incomprehensible that it takes that long to plan a wedding! It takes two weeks here! There are no taboo subjects with her, she takes delight in asking me all sorts of questions!! When discussing the wedding, she wanted to know much I had been paid for my daughter. When I come home, looks like I need to have a word with Stephen! ‘Bridal Money’ is a fee negotiated for girls and is to compensate the parents for any money they have invested in her education etc.
The homes in our compound share the services of a night security guard, Mr Lunghi. He is a man of few words who doesn’t seem to want to become a friend. When I offered him a cup of tea he replied simply, “Madame, let me work”. We didn’t have to think too long about employing him, we were told it is a real necessity as burglary is rife. I certainly sleep better knowing he is outside, keeping watch!

The house itself is great although the plumbing and electrics would be condemned at home. An electrician came to repair a broken wall socket. When finished, he mixed up some mud from the yard and used it to stick the socket in, no screws here!!

For the budding plumbers (and one in particular), here is the outside of our bathroom – this is how to plumb a bath in, Zambian style:

When I think how afraid of spiders I used to be.  Until very recently, I used to plug the bath overflow holes with cotton wool. Now I sit in the bath and can see straight outside where there are hundreds of spiders and snakes lurking!!!
My Dad would love our garden.  We have the neighbour’s guinea fowl and chickens running around.  They come onto our veranda to poop!  We have trees offering up all manner of wonderful fare. Some we have not yet identified but of those we have, there are oranges, avocado, paw-paw & cashew nuts. Picking an orange off the tree to have with breakfast is definably one element of Zambia that I will sorely miss!

One step forward, two steps back!

The more observant may have noticed that I rarely talk about work on this blog. It’s not because there is nothing to discuss, believe me there is. I have to respect my colleagues, who are working in the most difficult of circumstances, and for me to recount amusing stories at their expense would be unfair. However, worklife trials and tribulations encountered this week cannot go unmentioned….


Monday morning: I set off for work, cycling happily in the direction of my office. I was feeling particularly pleased with myself as, despite a few set-backs on progress last week, I had decided on a strategy that would bring improvements to the normal snail-pace progress. So, there I was on this beautiful morning, feeling good and fully integrated with the many people walking along the roads. (Another great thing about Chipata is the entire community commutes to work on foot or bicycle).     What could possibly go wrong?
 
I was brought to an abrupt halt when, out of nowhere, my colleague Sam called out to me. He wondered where I was going. Since he knew full well that I was on my way to work, I wondered why he wondered where I was going. He casually informed me that today, we were moving to a new office. A new office?!! A new office?!! Nobody told me about a move to a new office!! Considering that we are a small team of five at the most, to say I was surprised is an understatement! After finding out more of the move, I believed the story that the opportunity to move had only come about late on Friday and accepted the office move with relish. It did, after all, mean we were to leave our humble premises and move to a new building that is fifty thousand times better! (No, that’s not an exaggeration!)

The new office is a 12ft x 12ft room on the second floor of a four storey building. It’s a kind of managed office block. There are many and varied other business tenants within, each with a room roughly the same size as ours.
When I arrived at this, our ‘new office’, it was still an empty room. My colleagues assured me they would be moving the furniture over that day and said I should come back tomorrow to begin work afresh. I did manage to squeeze in a meeting with a funding organisation and visit to the internet café before returning home …frustrated that my efforts to actually do some work were thwarted, yet again! Still, onwards and upwards I thought ….tomorrow is another day and with the office move complete, it should be a good day. I had several training activities lined up for Tuesday.    What could possibly go wrong?
Tuesday morning: Up early and ready to leave home when I received a text from my boss advising me to “come at 11.30, we are still shifting”. Grrr, more delays! Still, at least they are “shifting”, that’s a good sign. I arrived at the new office at the designated time only to find the office door locked. Grrr, more delays! Finally, after 1pm my boss turned up to tell me that the vehicle that they had hired to do the shifting had been impounded by the Police for having no insurance.   You couldn’t make it up!!!!

We did manage to get some chairs transported in my boss’s car but the rest of furniture was too big. In desperation, I called upon another local VSO volunteer who has a pick-up but unfortunately, he was busy. The only solution left was for me to lend my boss some money to hire another vehicle to move the furniture. In this context, ‘hire’ means paying somebody with a big enough vehicle to do it. At 4pm, I was sent home and told to await a text message in the morning advising me when to come in…!!

Wednesday morning: I am at home, writing this blog. It is a little after 10:30am and, so far, no text…! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr………!!!!

To be continued……

Special personal message...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHNNIE ONE TAFF!!!!
Thinking of you xxxx

Introducing Albert Edward......

Hello everybody, my name is Albert Edward. I am a knitted Lifeboatman from Clacton-on-Sea with a fondness for world travel.


My escapades began a few years ago when I turned up in a box of aid in Kosovo with the volunteers of Hope & Aid Direct. Knowing that one their regulars does a great deal of RNLI fundraising, I was ordered to report for duty to a certain Mr Graham Crame.

Graham and I shared a happy journey back to his home Harwich …where we got to know each other very well indeed.

Since then, amongst other adventures, I have voyaged aboard the MV Discovery to the Arctic Circle and have abseiled down Southwold Lighthouse.
Now I am accompanying Tina in Zambia. I am both proud and delighted that she has made me an honorary VSO volunteer:

I must admit, it has been something of a culture shock for me to be in such a hot, and land-locked, country. There is barely a light breeze here most days and I find myself yearning for a decent Force-9 gale!! Oh well, there are some great tropical rain storms for me to splash about in.

Tina has introduced me to the delights of Zambia’s own local brew, Mosi Beer. Of course I don’t normally touch alcohol while on duty but as there don’t seem to be any ‘in peril on the sea’, I indulge in a bottle of the golden throat-charmer at the end of a long hot day. It tastes just like my other favourite, Peja Bier!

There are other delights on this trip too, but I’m far too much of a gentleman to go into detail ….suffice to say, Sleepie-Buns is not as quiet as she looks!!

I am always trying to raise funds for RNLI and have a few adventures lined up for when I return from Zambia. If you are interested in taking me on an unusual expedition, please get in touch with Graham at gjcrame@btinternet.com – For a small donation of £25 (and a picture for my album), I will happily consider most things… a climb up Everest, a Polar exploration or, for the real adrenalin junkies, a trip around Liverpool!

Thanks for reading about me, hope we meet up soon,

Albert Edward

* Interested in finding more out about the convoys to Kosovo:  www.hopeandaiddirect.org.uk

Responding.....

Just a quickie to say thanks very much for all the brilliant comments.  I'm not able to respond to each, sorry but want to say please keep the comments coming, I love them! 

PS.  Fi, book your flight!!!!

Wha's Occurrin....

Chipata life continues slowly but steadily. The temperature is easily in the mid 30’s, with no breeze and there has been no rain for four days. The heat combined with being at an altitude of 3,600 metres makes the slightest exertion very tiring. Walking slowly has become second nature to me ..as has sitting out on the veranda for breakfast each morning :-)

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Friday saw ANOTHER public holiday, this time for Youth Day. Ordinarily, I would be delighted with so much time off work but with so little time here to make an impact in my job, I found the three day week more frustrating than anything. There was not as much fuss about Youth Day as International Women’s Day either so the day passed without too much excitement.

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It has surprised me quite how quickly I have become accustomed to the sights and sounds of Chipata but I did stop to take the following photo for Carys…

These little girls were walking along, chatting happily amongst themselves as, all the while, they were swinging live hens ...they were, I was informed, taking them home for dinner!

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As my journey to work is quite a distance, VSO have funded a bicycle for me which I bought Thursday. It’s a second-hand jobby but seems to be in good working order. I certainly hope so as I have noticed that there are absolutely no consumer rights here.

One of the internet cafes I use also sells new and reconditioned electrical items; TV’s, radios etc. There are large signs advising customers:

“Check all items are in working order before leaving the shop as afterwards,

NO Refunds
NO Guarantee
NO Warranty”

When you consider the extremly high cost of goods and the very low earnings, this seems particularly harsh!!

I went out for my maiden cycle ride on Saturday …after less than 30 minutes, I almost fainted with heat exhaustion. Fingers crossed, my fitness and acclimatisation will see improvements soon!!

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For me and most of Chipata, the water supply is turned off around 6pm daily. Am quite used to it now and part of the daily routine is to make sure there are filled buckets of water in the loo for flushing! Friday though (and maybe it was because it was a public holiday) saw us without water for half the day too. My delight at having the water back on late afternoon was tempered slightly by the fact that the electricity went off! About three hours was spent with the whole area in darkness. Apart from the fact I couldn’t cook our dinner, it was not without merit; the stars in the sky were absolutely amazing and while myself, Alan & Francis were gazing up in wonder, we saw a shooting star!!! Also, the darkness in our yard meant we could sit out on our veranda, sipping a beer, watching fireflies… Africa is awesome!

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AND FINALLY….

Those unfortunate enough to have holidayed with me previously will know how much I suffer with mosquito bites which often become infected. Therefore I have been very proud of the fact that my strict regime of applying DEET spray before putting a foot outside was paying dividends and, two weeks in, despite there being a veritable swarm of mozzies around me most of the time, not one mosquito bite had I encountered. That was until Thursday when I seem to have suddenly become dish of the day! I was bitten quite badly around my calves which surprised me a little as it happened during the day, while I was wearing trousers. Anyway, the bites quickly became inflamed and my legs swelled up nicely. After two days of applying afterbite cream the pain was lessening and it now looks more like blood clots and bruising (mmm, nice!). I showed the bites to some veteran VSO’s who informed me that they are not mosquito bites (hoorah) but are in fact spider bites (ew!!!) No permanent damage I’m sure but when I get home, if I suddenly start swinging across buildings on fine thread …you’ll know why.