October

We took Lizzie, Tori and Joe to the airport (sad day) on Sunday evening and then moved house on Tuesday morning - no problem - no pressure there then!!! Actually it was easy as we just packed everything and piled it up by the door, and at 7.30 the following morning we had lots of Chodort boys to load up the truck and make two trips to the new house, all of half a mile away.

Our first day - temporary furnishings for now

We soon settled in and enjoyed finding homes for everything.  Chodort gave us some furniture made in their workshop; a wooden sofa and chairs made specially for us and also a spare dining table with four chairs and a 3 metre long work table.  We made that into a double desk in the window of the spare bedroom, so that turns it into our office come workroom as well as somewhere for friends to stay.  The house is small but perfectly formed, that just about sums it up really. It is built to a very high standard under the new management (!) and is light and airy with cream tiles throughout and freshly painted white walls.  There is a fitted kitchen, a Chodort custom made special, and all the woodwork was made by Chodort staff and students.  Even a fully shelved pantry with plumbing for our precious washing machine, woo!

 

Small but perfectly formed - our blank canvas

The garden, well, when we moved in it could be described as a square of rough gravelly earth, not a particularly pretty sight.  We had great plans for this as we had grown quite a few cuttings from our previous garden, and we had divided the lovely tall banana palm as well, giving us two new small plants.  

Felix's nursery

We made a trip to what we like to call Choma Garden Centre.  Not quite Chichester Garden Centre, but a good find that had been recommended.  Some years ago a very smart and jolly Zambian gentleman, by the name of Felix, started to sell a few plants in the open space in front of the Post Office, and he also planted a lawn there and tended the neglected flower beds.  The area he cares for has now spread and become a lovely green part of Choma town, the only green part in fact.  We had a few visits to Felix, very enjoyable, and then on his advice took the plunge and bought some plants including orange, lemon and nachee (tangerine type fruit) trees, passion fruit, bougainvillea and hibiscus, as well as an umbrella tree, lemon grass and some herbs. Oh and a proper king palm tree in a pot (concrete one?!) made by Felix, What a shopping list - irresistible - we loved it.

Our back garden, barren and bare except for the washing

 Felix told us that the trees needed deep holes .... waist deep holes.  That was a worry until we asked Eric, the favourite of our three night guards, to dig these for us. He was brilliant, and we paid him the going rate per hole, £1.20. So with help from him and the other lads on the site, everything we had bought was planted and the garden had begun. Some friends of ours brought some grass runners for us, which are planted in a line and then spread out to create a lawn – elephant grass – not how we would plant a lawn at home but, well, TIA.

Hole Number One - still looks like a building site

One of the farmhouse gardens

Jane was still very much enjoying being part of the Kalcho Art Group – (so named after Kal of Kalomo where some live, and Cho of Choma where others come from) thanks due to my friend Sue who gave me a lift every week.  Virtually all the members are white farmers’ wives who love to paint, and we visit each other’s houses to paint and they have beautiful farmhouses, in lovely tropical lush gardens and grounds. We invited Sue and her husband and some other friends to lunch one Saturday in November (whoops wrong month) and they brought us enough plants to start our own nursery, it was amazing, so those quickly went in as well, and our garden was complete, if not overflowing. It was just what we wanted, and we loved watching it turn from a barren wasteland into a tropical paradise. It was important to get everything planted in time for the rainy season which begins in November, and we knew everything would flourish. 

A freezer? Now there's a gift

Something was afoot down at Chodort.  Preparations were being made in and around the church there, St Stephens. They were for the inauguration of Reverend Esther, a ceremony that the whole community was looking forward to with great anticipation. We arrived around 9am (having been told it would start at various times, 7.30 or 8am). Part of the service included gifts being presented to Reverend Esther, and these were varied and, well, not quite what we expected.

Now we wouldn't have thought of that  - floor lino

General milling around in the middle of the service

 These services include not only singing, prayers and sermons but speeches too, and are not short.  In fact, quite lengthy.  When people get restless they just wander off and have a stroll round, or a chat, so we joined them and found quite a lot of activity going on, including lunch for 200 or so being cooked in the usual way, over an open fire by about 20 women.    

Paul having a chat with Edward's wife

Boys of the Boys' Brigade - no one even expects them to stay still for long

Paul and Oden discussing progress on House Two

Since we had moved into House One, the emphasis now on the site was to get House Two finished, to enable a sizeable rent to come in to help finance the site.  Eventually, as we have probably said, the income from the whole site of 17 houses is to fund the running of the college, where the fees are heavily subsidised  The students are given a chance at Chodort, as they do not have to have finished their education at Grade 12 to enrol.

October is the hottest month of the year in Zambia, with temperatures in the high 30s and low 40s, and we would be on the veranda as much as we could. 

Two weeks on - our dining chairs and cardboard box table, with
the laptop providing internet Radio 2

We were enjoying our new house and garden and gradually getting the garden planted.  The early evenings would bring a dilemma – whether to sit outside on the verandah and plan our garden, have a leisurely walk around our new district, or ... get a meal ready before the power went off at the usual time of 6.30 pm.... The latter would often win as needs must ... cheese and biscuits again otherwise.  We were soon organised enough to have a walk and get a meal ready before we lost power.  YES, we would beat the system!

It was decided that we should separate the housing part of the site from the prospective new college part, so Paul was put in touch with a local guy who supplies bamboo fencing, popular and inexpensive. 

Our house (only the left side!) from across the site before the fence went up

September

We returned from our Tazara trip with an appreciation of the finer things in life – mostly a hot shower and a clean bathroom – enough said – a description of the train ablutions is probably best omitted from here, I would hate to put anyone off train travel ...

Choma Life

In early September Paul and his team finished House One, and Jane prepared for the upcoming visit from Lizzie, Tori and Joe – making marmalade from home grown oranges and stocking up the freezer – as well as a first foray into cheese making.  If you want it, you have to make it, that’s the way.

Holiday

Well the day arrived to go to the airport to collect our charges.  We we set off in the Toyota we had hired from our good friend Kissinger – it wasn’t until a few days before we needed it that we finally had a deal in place, phew. We collected the girls and Joe from the airport and headed for a good breakfast at Mugg and Bean, Levy Mall in Lusaka, before we set off on the 4 hour trip to Choma.  A welcome braii was mandatory, then we spent a few days around Choma with some visits around Chodort, the new site, the market, the reading room and of course the museum.

Victoria Falls, Afternoon Tea and a Royal Chat 

  

Victoria Falls without a lot of falls

We all set off for Livingstone to see the sights there – starting with, of course, Victoria Falls, including the very steep walk down to The Boiling Pot where the water looks like just that.  Several vervet monkeys accompanied us and we had been warned of their light fingers – they helped themselves to somebody’s Tango – little monkeys. 

September is when the falls are at their driest and the photo shows the difference with the full flow that we found there in March on our first visit.

Admiring the sunset over the Zambezi
 with a cocktail or two

Next stop was tea – at The Royal Livingstone Hotel -  a touch of luxury in the midst of it all, serving a delicious, full on afternoon tea, with row upon row of cakes and tiny puddings to choose from.  The others elected to stay there the next day too and make the most of the swimming pool overlooking the Zambezi – while we had our VSO reception with Princess Anne no less, at Livingstone Museum.  She was very well informed on what the nine of us were up to and had a work with everyone personally.  Very impressive.

Off on Safari

Good shot Tori

No luxury for long though – we were staying in a five bed room in a backpackers hostel – a good base to explore from, and that’s where we set off on an early  morning start to go on safari to neighbouring Botswana – to Chobe National Park.  After a bit of a commotion at the border we were ushered onto a tiny boat to cross the Zambezi into Botswana, then later we started our morning river cruise.  We had our own guide on the top deck, and he was so proud to point out the wildlife – we saw so much our eyes were out on stalks.

Down to the river to drink

It's a long way down

A lovely lunch was laid on and then we were shown to our safari vehicle – a big open sided truck – we were with some Americans and two English girls who live in the Cayman Islands.  Talk about abundant wildlife – we could hardly turn another corner without seeing animals everywhere -   we counted 22 different species all in all and our cameras hardly stopped clicking.  No way could the batteries last with the hammering they were getting.  We’d been told we would see enough elephants to last a lifetime, (if that’s possible then it’s true) and there were tall gangly giraffes with a sort of folding tripod/deckchair method of reaching down to the water to drink.  We saw hippos and  crocodiles, zebra, sable and warthogs, and we quickly learnt the difference between kudu, impala and lechwe.  It’s all in the stripes.

S -t - r - e - t - c - h

We arrived at our camp in the late afternoon – to find a crescent of 2 man tents around an open fire, reassuringly a trestle table that was later laden with a delicious meal as well as boxes of wine – yes really! We were warned not to wander off into the bush (would you really need to be told) and our guides also told us that the sound we could hear was the lions calling to each other – there was an elephant carcass 50 metres from our camp so they were sharing the news.  We all slept well and after breakfast we set off again – we immediately saw two lions feeding on the carcass – wonderful to see so close up – one patrolling and scaring away the hovering vultures while the other one fed. We spent the day on safari, and amongst everything else we saw lions again, sleeping and then waking and stretching – such a sight.

Sunset over the Kalahari

Lake Kariba

Chilling out on one of our sunset cruises

We made our way back to Choma and our second trip was to Lake Kariba – irresistible as we had loved it there before – lots of lovely meals, relaxing by the pool and game viewing trips out on the old capenta rig – more elephants and hippos to be seen living here.  

One prize fisherman - one Tiger Fish

Our trips were soon all over and back to our base, and we had just enough time to visit Rosemary the UCZ caregiver and her children in her village.  We visited them bearing a few gifts such as a football and some notebooks and pens, which all went down very well.  

Spot the football in action

Soon time for the airport again though for the flights home, and Paul and Jane returned to Choma, ready to move house two days later.  No pressure there then!

August

July soon slipped into August, one month nearer Lizzie and Tori and Joe coming to see us. Alex next year! The boys on the site were making good progress towards finishing House One by the September deadline and the schools broke up for the holidays so Jane worked on the OVC Holiday Programme with the Sisters.

Holiday Programme

Little Loveness with her stencilled African animals

Jane and the kids

The kitchen is under the tree on the far left

This time the treat for the children was a Sports Day with a bouncy castle, so that proved an enormous hit and we used the Choma Trades (rival college) playing field, next to where we are based.  Before the inevitable football game, girls v boys, they ran lots of school sports day style races - including the egg and spoon race, mealie meal sack race and the needle race – where they work in pairs, one runs as fast as they can holding a sewing needle (health and safety all taken very seriously of course) along the length of a football field where the other is holding the thread.  They have to thread the needle and then the other one runs all the way back!  Just watching is exhausting in the incredible heat, but the children just run around and laugh and laugh as if they haven’t a care in the world. 

They just love a game of football

Much excitement in the camp

Mealie meal sack racing

Go Joyce!

Site Progress

House One was pretty much finished.  All down to the detail now - such as the doors for the kitchen units made and fitted, the floor and wall tiling completed, curtain rails (and rings) made by Oden in the workshop and then fitted by Oden, and the brick piers for chain link open fencing built in both rear gardens.

House Two saw lots of action as well – decorating the house internally, laying tiles, fitting the kitchen and laying on the electricity supply – easier said than done. That took numerous visits to the esteemed offices of Zesco.  Yes, Zesco the electricity supply company that give us power cuts many times a week. Ha, Zesco, Zesco – as I write we have yet another power cut.  Well, Paul had to take Mr Mwango with him to enable maximum communication, mostly in Tonga. It all became a big debate over whether to have two connections to two semi detached houses or just a shared one, as is the norm for houses on the compound; for some reason.  It may seem painfully obvious to us to have separate supplies but that’s the sort of thing Paul is up against all the time.  Hey ho, TIA.

Back at Chodort, Mr Lundamo the welder was making the main gate for the site – it was laid out all across the path (more health and safety at work here) ready for spray painting a deep royal blue – excellent choice. The gate was fitted onto a sliding track in the entrance gateway and with a bit of levelling and tweaking it ran very well.

Tazara Trip

The middle of August brought the trepidatious Tazara railway trip – an adventure into our neighbouring country of Tanzania.  A ‘must do’ trip – but you would only do it once.  The route runs for a 1,000 miles from a rather undesirable place called Kapiri Mposhi near Lusaka, through the Northern Province of Zambia into Tanzania, and ends in the port of Dar es Salaam.  When in Africa one has to explore a little, so off we went.

Team Tazara - Ben, Paul, Jane, Rahem

It took almost three days to get to the train which left at 4 o’clock on a Tuesday, and it was due to take two days.  Little did we know it would take three  .... hmm  ... well when the countless delays could last anything up to four hours at a time that’s not really surprising.  The train would often travel at walking pace – we were told it was because we have brake failure ...  At the next stop we asked if they were being fixed and they said “Oh no, this is the border, that won’t be for another three hours or so”.  So hearts in mouths just a bit.  That was in the middle of the night, and various immigration officials would come into our compartment to inspect passports and visas.  Just sit on my bed why don’t you?  The brakes were fixed eventually, and we spent the days contentedly enough; putting Africa and the rest of the world to rights, playing cards, listening to music and eating from our stash of picnic food supplemented by the occasional serving of chips and beer (healthy) from the dining car (ha!) and bar.

Swahili children talking to the Tazara tourists 

Tazara Tourist

When we were stationary – not unusual – the local people would come and sell their wares to the passengers at the open windows, so we could buy bottled water and fruit etc, and we spent many a happy hour talking to the children –them teaching us some Swahili and us teaching them some English.  We played games with them and made them laugh, and persuaded them into having their photos taken which they eventually loved.  So, never a dull moment on the journey, it took 66 hours going and 54 coming back, but we fell under the spell of the Tazara. 

A 45 second walk to the beach

We had just three nights at our destination – Bagamoyo Beach on the Indian Ocean.  Bliss.  We stayed in a small ten room hotel each with with verandas amidst palm trees and flowers on a small grassy slope down to the open thatched restaurant on the beach.  The sand was white and soft, the coconut palms were bendy and beautiful, and the Indian Ocean was shallow and warm.  We swam several times each day, and could sit on our coconut leaf sun beds and order drinks and ice creams from the bar.

Goats passing by on their daily walk to fine pasture -
the cows came later

Refreshed - ready for the Tazara home again?

While we had been to Bagamoyo, Ben had flown on to Zanzibar and enjoyed the delights there – that’s a place we have to visit one day now it sounds lovely.  We met up at the Tazara station in Dar es Salaam and set off on the journey back – not without it’s surprises and delays.

Six months later ....

Well a few hurdles arose with keeping up with this blog, the main one being the lack of internet, and then like an avalanche one thing led to another and suddenly it's February!  July was already written, but the entry for the rest of the year will be brief ...

  

July

Trip to Lake Kariba

To celebrate our birthdays at the end of May we booked the next bank holiday weekend away over the end of June and beginning of July, and we could celebrate Tori’s birthday too.  Having chatted to our VSO friend Famke about the lakeside village of Sinazongwe where she is living and working, we decided to stay there.  On further investigation we found a lodge which had just opened on one of the many tiny islands on Lake Kariba, so we booked the bank holiday weekend.  We both remember hearing about the Kariba Dam when we were at school, it was built during the 50s and 60s and now forms one of the largest man made lakes in the world, at 22 miles wide by 140 long.  Only a couple of hours from Choma, so it had to be visited really.  The journey there was quite an eye opener, especially the last 12 kilometres which were unmade and very potholey – makes for a very bouncy ride reminiscent of some sort of fairground ride ...

ent

Sinazongwe Road traffic

The main road into the village was an eye-opener– when would you ever find children waving at a passing vehicle – just for the novelty of it.  They waved and smiled, the goats, hens and cattle wandered about, and the pedestrian traffic far outweighed any vehicles.

What a view - our pool and the nextdoor island on Lake Kariba

Back to the 21st century ... on our arrival we were whisked off on a speedboat on a 40 minute trip to Chikanke Island – along with another couple, who were friends of friends coincidentally (thanks art group) and their 17 year old son.  From the minute we arrived we all hit it off well and spent most of our time chatting by the pool (yes a pool wo) or at the bar or over dinner, and the delightful young South African couple who were running the lodge could not do enough for us.  

Spot the Fishbourne man

We all had our own thatched lodge complete with screens instead of glass overlooking the lake, and the stunning sunrise pouring in the windows was a joy to behold every morning.  Our individual wood burners were lit every late afternoon for our showers, which were ... just like home!  Fabulous.  We had the four poster style mosquito net we have become so used to (nothing less will do now after all that hard work) along with what seemed like a 7’ bed, covers decorated with beautiful wire work animals, lovely wooden furniture and our own verandah with table and chairs perfect for more relaxing.  We were warned though, not to wander out of our lodge during the hours of darkness – the elephants often swim ashore from the neighbouring island and are not so good to bump into in the night.  Although there was plenty of elephant dung decorating the path we didn’t see them that closely thank goodness.  We did hear the hippos during the night though – they make a noise somewhere between barking seals and barking dogs.  We were told they were a male and female with a baby of one week old, and they travel together. 

The weekend rolled by all too quickly with big hearty brunch breakfasts and lively delicious dinners enjoyed whilst discussing everything under the sun. We went for a sunset cruise in time to enjoy a sundowner on board while watching our first elephants – whoop!  They were busy eating away at the trees, and we also plenty of hippos, crocodiles and the symbol of Zambia the fish eagle – magnificent creature.  The tiger fishing trip was fun – it’s all about the chase isn’t it???  Tiger fish are black and white stripes, funnily enough.

A sunset game viewing cruise on the
 capenta fishing rig

We had a very quick chat with Tori on her birthday in London – a million miles away from a lake in the middle of Africa!  Not so long now until we seen her – only the month after next now!  We just can’t wait to have her and the others here to show them where we’ve been living and what we have been up to all this time.  

On our return, fortified and refreshed by our weekend away, we got stuck back into Choma life again.

The Library

Rahem and I had dreamed of the children using their own school library just as we do at home.  We wanted them to visit it class by class, choose a book from their own age level and sit down and read it, as well as some reading out loud to the rest of the class.  Well we completed this with every class by the end of July before the August break, so that was really rewarding.  We have encouraged the headmaster to establish a library session every week for each class, so we hope that is established in September.  We will stand back a little and see if they can establish this, and then we can go and help them in the library rather than run it.

Two of their favourite books - they just love to pose

The Site

Jane and Mrs Mbawe with the carpentry students

For some on site training Paul asked if the carpentry students could come and spend some time on houses 1 and 2 to help fit fascia boards to the roof.  The entire class of 11 came up and worked hard all day, so as a thank you Paul decided to ask Mrs Mbawe to cook up a nice dinner for them.  She spent the morning in the Chodort kitchen (a brick shed with a charcoal fire, the usual) cooking up a beef stew complete with grisly knuckles, vegetable relish and, essentially, nshima.  Jane helped to dish this up and although there were only eight plates the first user quickly finished up, cleaned the plate mysteriously and returned it for the second user.  Mmmmm.

Work inside house one was moving on and very nearly finished - Paul's deadline was September - realistic because he was aware of the limitations with ensuring the finished quality was what he was after.  The kitchen cupboards were in but still needing worktops and doors, and the floor of the whole house still needed to be tiled.  House two was having the walls and ceilings decorated at the same time, and the floor and wall tiles being laid.

Choma Life

The garden meanwhile was looking good and producing something we had never seen growing before - bananas.  We were quite fascinated by these - a very exotic flower with deep red waxy petals and thick stamens growing in layers between them.  The flower becomes elongated along the stalk, eventually producing many layers, or bunches, of bananas, growing upside down.  You learn something new every day.

The first two bunches of bananas -
 the local, short stumpy ones

Because the preschool is situated within Chodort Jane would pop in quite often and see the children - to a raucous welcome of "Auntie, Auntie ..."   and all running up to me - so very sweet.

Jackline with some of her preschoolers

By the end of July when the schools broke up for the holidays Rahem and Jane made their last visit of term, and we had the whole of Grade 1 in to choose a book and read it to themselves and out loud to everyone.  They loved it - long may it continue.

These three just would not stop posing

Rahem and the library building behind
 the little darlings

Well July soon came to a close and the schools closed for the holiday month of August.  The (oft renewed) deadline for finishing our new house, imaginatively named House One, was the end of September, so that was Paul's next focus on the site and that too was when Lizzie, Tori and Joe were coming out on holiday, which was the next big event, eagerly anticipated.

June

Preschool on 1st    

A scrum for the next thing made of playduff

Friday morning means preschool day for me, and the first time I went to help in St Stephen’s preschool (situated in Chodort) I decided to take some playdough, which proved a big hit.  Here it is called Playduff - I can't work that one out?  Luckily I took 30 balls of it in which was just enough for us all to have one each, and then the teacher Audrine (I called her Audrey for about 6 weeks)  and I spent the next two hours answering requests to make things – Auntie, make me a car!  Auntie, make me a necklace, Auntie make me a bicycle (I ask you how do you make a bicycle from playdough), Auntie, make me a dog, etc etc.  The playdough jewellery was popular with the girls ranging from hair beads (not a huge success) to bracelets, rings etc.  

Royce with her playduff necklace and ring - she's so
beautiful!

Every one of the children, like all Zambians we've seen, is very good at singing, as well as very good at dancing, and at the end of the mornings we either have a story or a song - they prefer the latter.  I was able to teach them a few nursery rhymes they didn't know, but at the end of one morning I was treated to something like a well rehearsed West End musical.  It was amazing!  The children jumped into their positions, some on the desks, rocking and singing away, and every child put so much enthusiasm into it. The lead role was filled by Audrine, equally talented, with their tune – Working in the Kitchen ...

The Site

Mmmm Nshima anyone?
Dublin the woodwork teacher, Jane and Mrs Mbawe,
Odin (Pauls' star trainee site manager) and two
carpentry students

One Friday Paul had all 12 of the carpentry students over from Chodort to fix the fascias on to the first house, and so to thank them for the extra work we treated them to lunch (also saved transport to and from Chodort).  So we asked our friend Mrs Mbawe to cook up some lunch for them which she did, and Jane helped to dish it up from the back of the truck.  Mrs Mbawe is the chief cook and bottle washer at Chodort, and is in charge of  making tea and sometimes meals and she had no trouble whipping up a feast for the boys – nshima naturally, beef knuckles in gravy and a vegetable relish – green beans chopped and prepared with tomatoes and onions. (As that is the law here)  (Well, you would think so.  Whenever you ask how to prepare something that is ALWAYS the answer, oh, take some oil and fry it with tomatoes and onions.)  Anyway it all went down very well, even though there were not enough plates and they had to wash and return them ready for the next person.  

Goat curry

That Friday evening we ventured to the Golf Club with Ben and Rahem as we had heard there was an authentic Indian goat curry served there every week.  We met some Indian people we knew, since this is Choma, namely Rupek our ex-landlord, the very jovial owner of Arupees garage which sells not just fuel but also wait for it, stationery, saucepans, plates and glasses, material, dried foods etc.   Paul meets lots of the Indian businessmen when he’s out and about in town for the site, so he was welcomed by them all.  

The curry was delicious - very meaty goat, and the vegetables we had seen in the huge pot on the brazier (made from a tractor wheel we were advised) had all cooked down completely.  The curry is made on a Wednesday for the white farmers, and on a Friday for the Indians, since those two groups make up Choma Golf Club.  We are learning, we are learning ...

 Jubilee BBQ 

Well it's nearly a Union Flag  - dual purpose scarf

The red the white and the blue

We marked the Queen’s Jubilee in our time-honoured tradition – with a BBQ, naturally  – thankfully I don’t know how to put the short video of us and Ben singing the National Anthem on here.  I have brought a scarf (thanks Tor!) with a square Union flag (yes I know it's wrong!) on it for such occasions, and Paul and I wore our red white and blue.  

Otherwise the main event for us was the following day, where we watched the Jubilees Regatta at the Sports Club.  The locals started to watch supportively, but drifted off after a while, they couldn’t handle

all that water ... 

What does this word say?

Once Upon a Time ...

Library

On our Thursday morning visits Rahem and I are gradually working our way through the whole school, one grade each week in two groups, so they all would know the library and have had a story read to them, which we took in turns. The children all love the illustrations in the books, which are mostly excellent and make the books come alive to the children – they would giggle and gasp as we turned the pages of some of the more spectacular. We worked our way down the age groups, so with the younger ones in Grade 1 and 2 there was very little fluent 

reading out loud from the children, and some of the answers to our questions were rather unexpected, eg "What colour are the shoes?"  Answer "Bananas".  Mmm.  We realised the answers had been correct on the previous page so the kids thought it was worth a try; so we are not too sure about their understanding of English sometimes, but hey ho, we plod on.

Preschool

Sun, stars and the moon, it's all here

This week I made some stencils from cereal packets as the teacher had said we were painting, but she changed her mind and they were colouring, which meant the stencils would last another day, good thinking.  She is pretty organised and always has a plan for what the children are doing. On the walk home that day some of the children were on the way home and shouted out goodbye from the back of a bicycle, and then I met some more children from the Mochipapa School where we had opened the library, it’s so sweet when they call out Auntie, Auntie from across the street. Feeling part of the community.

Choma Life

How's that for a walk home?

Oden passing by - Paul just needs a quick word ...

... and a pose for the camera

Couldn't resist a Pointsettia Tree

That's where the scarf ended up

That's how cold it is at night here - morning of
12th June - frost on the garden

Visit to Rosemary the Brickmaker

Rosemary with one of her grandchildren

We think a lot of Rosemary.  We visited her first back in March with Rhoda and she was kind enough to give us all a slap up lunch.  She is a caregiver for the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) Committee basically meaning she looks after heaps of children, some close and some distantly related.  She not only has a brick making enterprise which she runs with her daughter, but she makes the traditional hand brooms that sell well here, and also grows her own maize.  Then she tells us she doesn't have a job - she's amazing.

The OVC committee meeting that Jane was planning on going to had been cancelled (for the third time), and I met Rosemary outside as she had turned up as well as me.  We got chatting and she invited us to see her brick kiln, so we made a visit on the Sunday afternoon. It is quite a common sight to see these kilns around, as the soil from an anthill is ideal, and there are plenty of anthills.  Not little ones.  They are anything up to about 4 or 5 metres tall, and the soil is nice and sandy and very finely sifted by the ants.  Clever ants, they are the beginning of the brick making process here.

Work is very near home

The brick kiln, very hot and smokin

Thousands and thousands of bricks

Back home to see the family

.




Lusaka Trip

Mr Paul supervising the loading

More building supplies were needed for the houses, specifically floor tiles , so off we set on the Saturday morning at 6am, we made good time, just the four and a half hours (Uh what a journey).  Paul had been sold some Chinese floor tiles in Choma which turned out to be cracked and bubbled, completely hopeless, so we had to go and get some South African ones. We were lucky enough to be able to stay with Sarah from London, so had a great base to use, and some fun evenings too - we saw Richeal and met up with Sarah and Nicky's Zambian friends for a night on the town which was enlightening ...



After  stocking up on supplies which involved sitting in a hot truck in some long lengthy traffic jams, and a supermarket shop, the solace of the lovely Zebra Crossing Cafe was welcome.  It's a combination of art gallery/restaurant/internet cafe/art supplies shop, so it is like an oasis of calm in the chaos and heat of Lusaka.

So long as Paul has his tea all is well

Choma Life

Phew, back to Choma.  Jane is still painting with the art group every Wednesday, one of these days I will put some of my work on here!  We sometimes have a theme, sometimes not, but on one particular day we went out to one of the art group member's dam to spot the lechwe (antelope type) and do a spot of sketching..  It was real African bush, searing heat even in this cold season, and we did see the lechwe. 

Now I am in a tangle with this blog - the captions will not work normally on the following two photos for some reason so this will have to do.

The dam with the in laws house behind

A zoomed in view of the lechwe  

Some sort of e-blip there. 

If it's Thursday it must be the library

So, June rolled away, but the grand finale was a lovely weekend away on Lake Kariba, the largest man made lake in the world at 140 miles long. This blog is playing up so next bulletin for July will include our Lake Kariba trip.  It was the weekend of 30th June and 1st July after all.