Zambia | See It Do It Live It

All Aboard the Tazara Express

For many years Zanzibar has been at the top of my dream holiday destination list. By great coincidence, Kapiri is at one end of a train line to Dar Es Salaam, and so the next phase of our journey was planned. The Tazara trains are half owned by Zambia and half by Tanzania, and the line was built by the Chinese. The trains used to have a reputation of reliability, but that has slipped in recent years. The online reports warned that Kapiri station is chaotic on departure day, and…read more

Monkeying Around

What do you get if you cross two sheep, a circus monkey, a few talking parrots, peacocks and about a hundred chimpanzees? Answer: Chimfunshi Wildlife Sanctuary, tucked away in the depths of the forest in Zambia’s Copperbelt, just near the border with the DRC. And it was to this remarkably un-touristy attraction that we made our way on our last weekend in Zambia. In fact making our way there was (as always in Africa) its own little adventure, involving a crowded but entertaining 3-hour bus trip, an overnight in the…read more

Watching the Warriors

Match Report: Man of the Match: Webster the taxi driver Lemon of the Match: The Kabwe Keeper for regularly lying down on the pitch What to do with a free Saturday in Zambia, at the start of the World Cup? Go and watch a Zambian Premier League football match of course! Lana, Graham and I jumped in a taxi to Kabwe with the plan of watching Kabwe Warriors play Nchanga Rangers. During the journey it turned out that, by chance, our driver was the famous Webster. He is well known…read more

A typical day

My alarm goes off about 6:15 – a good two hours earlier than I’m used to back home! Breakfast is usually a couple of slices of toast or some oatmeal washed down with ‘Ricoffy’ (coffee and chicory). Water needs to be boiled for 5 minutes here before its safe for drinking so we’ll normally try and boil a pan of water at this time as well which is then left to cool during the day. Just after 6:45 we bundle out of the house for the 30 minute walk to…read more

A Zambi-Brit-US-Belarussian Party

14 people, 5 nationalities and one birthday to celebrate (oh, and also the launch of some football competition or something). So of course we decided to have a party. Partying on a school night is a tricky business, as our normal bed time is about 9 pm. But we decided to throw caution to the wind, and go for it anyway. I introduced the Zambians to chilli and butterfly cakes, Karolyn brought jelly and ice cream and everyone discussed how birthdays are celebrated in their countries. We thought the birthday…read more

Life at Vinjeru School

For our 7 weeks at Vinjeru school, we are helping out with everyday school jobs. Recently, we have been spending the mornings sorting out a storgae container filled with literally thousands of books. Most homes here don’t own any books, meaning that no-one practices reading at home. The selection here will give the school one of the best libraries around. In the afternoon though, the fun begins. School lessons here finishes at 13:30 (we start at 07:30), and after lessons end there is a compulsory 30 minutes of cleaning for…read more

Match Report: Derby Disappointment for Vinjeru’s Girls

Posted by Graham in Africa, Trip, Zambia

Man of the Match: Miriam – surely a future star of Zambian Netball. A rock in defence. Lemon of the Match (a CSHC tradition): The Van. For reasons that will become apparent. Inevitably whilst travelling, you will have nights when, tucked up in bed with your mind still projecting the events of the day like a home video on the bedroom ceiling, you realise that today will forever be a ‘defining moment’ of the place you’re in. Friday was one of those days. This was to be Vinjeru school’s second…read more

Kapiri Mposhi

Our internet access in Kapiri is very limited, so it might be difficult to blog. We arrived a few days ago, and went to meet Karolyn and Martin for dinner. They have set up and run the school here. It was great to catch up with them and get some ideas about the work we will probably be doing here. The next day we got a tour of the school. There are currently 3 classes, all in the equivalent of year 7. The children are between 12 and 20 years…read more

Livingstone Bridge

There is so much to do in Livingstone that I could have happily stayed for much longer, but our last day has arrived. We decided to head back towards Victoria Falls and do the zip line across the river to Livingstone Bridge. This was a really kind gift from the ladies at Cambridge South hockey club. We spent the first hour there watching people doing bungee jumps and the gorge swing off the bridge. I don’t think anything would persuade me to give that a go! In fact, my legs…read more

A Lunar Rainbow

As we crossed the border from Namibia to Zambia, we immediately noticed that we had changed country. Namibia is an underpopulated country, with less than 3 people every square kilometer. We drove along mile after mile of road without seeing any sign of human life. Zambia has a much higher population, and as we crossed over the border we passed through lots of villages. Things also seem to be much less organised in Zambia. The main road we travelled on was in a terrible state, with huge pot holes everywhere….read more