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!!!!!