Back in Lusaka

We arrived back in Lusaka on Tuesday afternoon after our lovely time in Livingstone — and definitely feeling like we could use a few more days at Tongabezi!

Back in the office on Wednesday, my schedule was mapped out to interview staff and key partners to learn more about the program and look at ways to write-up the work. There was also an event planned for Thursday morning in the Zambia Parliament. SHARe had helped write the strategic plan for the Coalition of African Parliamentarians against HIV and AIDS (CAPAH for short). Building political leadership’s abilities to effectively talk about HIV is a critical component of SHARe’s work. This launch is a key piece in their leadership component.

The Zambian Parliament is a long, low building, seen at the top of a hill. We were ushered into a staid auditorium, where the Parliament PR flack was busy running around, getting everything organized. The US Deputy Ambassador was scheduled to speak (the day before we’d thought the Ambassador would be there — which would have caused significantly more flurry and work, but by the end of the day he’d backed off and left the task to his deputy), along with the Parliament Speaker and the chairman of CAPAH.

Politics is politics (led by the same-style politicians) in whatever country one is in, I think. Lots of pomp and circumstance, and everyone makes speeches that no one really listens to… unless there’s an error made, and in this case, there was a huge one… the CAPAH chairperson thanked SHARe for their support (not mentioning USAID as SHARe’s funder — a big faux pas) and then went on to thank the Chinese government—and even bigger faux pas, it turns out. The many folks in the audience from USAID were decidedly not pleased! I’ve no idea whether the Chinese government has funded CAPAH at all, but, Thursday morning there were many American faces in the audience and no Chinese faces. People were pissed, wondering who reviewed his speech, etc. Oh well. It sounds like everyone’s hoping for an apology now…

Meanwhile, I did interview the guy after snacks and cokes on the lawn-covered second-floor veranda. In our interview he said all hit all the right notes about SHARe and the US government and how instrumental our support has been (and how he wants it to continue — a key quote as our project is due to end next year!).

That afternoon I interviewed another partner, ZamAction, that receives funds for it’s work and training to build their capacity to better manage USAID-funded work (on things like financial systems and reporting requirements, all critical to getting USG funds!). ZamAction is working in the “informal sector” — which means markets and bus stops — essentially workplaces where people gather and work but have no formal workplace systems — like HR or medical care — in place. ZamAction trains peer educators and sets up temporary HIV voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) tents, so folks working in the markets can get advice and be encouraged to get tested and know their HIV status. Before I left the interview with the ZamAction director, we discussed my visiting one of the markets or bus stops where they’ll be working next week—should be much more interesting than sitting in an office!

By the time I got back to the office around 3:30, the power was out and almost everyone had gone home, rather than work in a stifling hot office without computers! So I followed everyone’s lead and went back to our home away from home, the InterContinental hotel.

Friday morning I got a call that the power was still out, so we basically hung at the hotel most of the day.

Meanwhile...

The plan all along has been for Colin to volunteer in an orphanage while we’re here — though nothing had been set up yet. I’d reached out to one place that an ex-pat working for another JSI project here — Wendy Nicodemus — had told me about. The American who runs the facility had emailed me that she’d be out of town but they could definitely use Colin’s help. But when we got here and I reread her email, she didn’t give me any of the contact info on the place. I’ve emailed her back, but haven’t heard back from her yet. A dead end thus far.

There’s a woman at the SHARe office who is involved with a network organizations for Zambian orphanages who said she’d hook us up — but that hasn’t transpired yet either. So Wednesday and Thursday, Colin basically slept in and then came and hung out at the office in the afternoon.

Thursday night we had drinks with a friend of my British cousin Tim Malthouse. Tim Ware has lived here for 14 years and runs a commercial real estate enterprise. He ended up making a few calls on Colin’s behalf and Friday afternoon we went to check out a school here run by the Pestalozzi International organization, a British charity that selects very poor, very bright kids and essentially has them board in their facility (village), sends them to a better school than they’d otherwise attend, and teaches them skills in the afternoon. Pestalozzi runs facilities in India and Zambia.

Once we got to the school it was clear that they’re pretty well-funded and what they really had for Colin was busy-work, helping around the grounds... he will be cutting grass (with a scythe, no doubt) tomorrow. This afternoon (Sunday), however, the kids will be planting trees and we will be joining them in this venture.

Friday night we were both feeling a bit despondent that an orphanage hadn’t worked out—Colin was pretty good about it all, but I talked about shifting expectations and going with the flow.

Saturday I’d arranged to meet up with Wendy Nicodemus. She’s an American who’s been here with JSI’s DELIVER project for about 18 months. She picked us up at the hotel mid-morning and kindly let us tag along as she went to the once-a-month Dutch Reform market (so called because it’s on the ground of the Dutch Reform Church). Lots of ex-pats shop there and Wendy seems to know about 1/4 of them! It was a great market with foods, plants and vegetables & herbs (for planting), and lots and lots of crafts for sale. We bought Wendy some cilantro and basil for her garden and a few things to bring home for folks. We didn’t get as much as we could/should, because I was a bit worried about running out of money. The ATMs I’d tried hadn’t worked for me — and Wendy finally explained that she’s only found one ATM in all of Lusaka that works with her US bank. She ended up loaning us a bit of cash and luckily the ATM in question was nearby and we were able to get some cash.

We then went and hung at out Wendy’s house. She and her husband, Eric, have found a great place with a lovely yard, huge fruit trees, and have slowly been acquiring animals… they now have 2 puppies and 2 tiny fur-ball kittens. Colin was so happy to be around dogs again! The oldest, Bowie, is about a year and a very rambunctious hound/mutt. The little one, Cleo, was a cute-as-can-be 7-8 week old named Cleo (for Cleopatra, because she was found on Cairo Road). Colin happily played with them, charging around the garden for about an hour.Bowie and Cleo want to play!

When Wendy’s husband returned, he invited Colin to help him at the youth center where he volunteers on Saturday and Wednesday afternoons. Colin was thrilled, I think, to hang out with a 30-year old cool guy!

Eric dropped me off at the hotel while Colin ran in to put some sneakers on and retrieve the 4 soccer balls we’d brought over with us. It sounds like they had a blast! Eric had erected basketball nets at the center last week and this was the first chance the kids had to learn the game. They also played Frisbee, foozball, and, of course, soccer with the balls we’d brought.

They didn’t get back ‘til almost 7pm, but it sounds like Colin had a wonderful time with the kids — he got a photo (with Eric’s camera) of a boy who’d lined up one of the balls we gave them next to his “Zambian football,” which was essentially a mass of bags rolled up and wound with string. –I’ll have to try to get that off Eric’s camera before we leave here next week!

Anyway, it sounds like Colin will join Eric again later this week and put in just a day or 2 cutting grass at the Pestalozzi village.

Tongabezi Lodge

There are many lodges designed for tourists in Livingstone, but Tongabezi really is extraordinary! You can see for yourself how it looks at their website (www.tongabezi.com--none of my photos are nearly as good as theirs) - they call themselves a luxury safari, and I think I’d have to agree! I’ve never been anywhere quite like it.

I first heard about Tongabezi from the staff at JSI’s SHARe project. They are a partner in the tourism public-private partnership initiative and some of their staff have been through SHARe’s HIV peer educator training. In fact, many of their staff attended the community event in Simonga and were proudly sporting the yellow wrist bands that were given out after one was tested for HIV.

The Tongabezi driver picked us up on Monday morning after our lovely Breezer breakfast on Livingstone Island (which Tongabezi organizes, so we’d already had a taste of what their level of quality is!). The driver, Raphael, talked proudly of being tested at the VCT tents in Simonga and how easy it was to be tested there as opposed to the hospital, where one needed to stand in line for hours, then wait for the test results. The immediate results and the convenience of the VCT tents was a big plus in getting folks there.

When we got to the lodge area and were checked in, we were led on a long path near the river to our cabin. I assumed we’d be in a smaller one, as we were there on a reduced rate because of the SHARe partnership, but instead we were taken to the very last cabin, “the Dog House.” It took our breath away—and none of my photos do it justice, so do check out the ones on their website. After entering a gate, we walked along a short concrete path, with the river 5 feet or so below on the left, to the house. The central feature was a large bed, surrounded by a wide bed net canopy (to keep the mosquitoes — and wasps — away).

I’d read on Trip Advisor that the wasps were an issue, so we quickly closed the canopy to keep them out. It turns out they’re everywhere, but tend to leave one alone and go back from whence they came at night. At any rate, they didn’t really worry us.

Tongabezi gives a list of activities guests can choose from and we selected the sunset boatride and the morning game drive — knowing we had less than 24 hours there, which was clearly not enough time!

Colin took a nap while I read in the hour or so we had free before the boatride. The trip paired us with a lovely couple from Florida, Richard and Eric, and 2 newlyweds (well, we suspect they were newlyweds!) from Bristol, England. Another boat took other lodge guests out, too. We crossed the river and immediately came across a pod of hippos just waking up from their daily nap. We didn’t see any out of the water, but several yawned widely for our benefit!

We then followed the river south, keeping along the far shore line — which was Zimbabwe, in fact. We saw several crocodiles and lots of interesting birds, and it was just nice to be out on the water.

Photo: On No man's land with G&T in hand!
The sunset was lovely and before it was all the way down we pulled onto a small island (one of the many so-called “No man’s land” islands) where we were served gin & tonics and nuts.

We had also made plans to have drinks at our new friends, Judi and Arthur’s house as they live near Tongabezi. We’d met Judi and Arthur at the Simonga community event — they’re the owners of Zambezi Nkuku and supplied all the chicken at the festival. They are also a SHARe partner. Judi hails from San Francisco and Arthur’s from South Africa (though they’ve both lived here for about 15 years), and after we’d hit it off on Sunday, they’d suggested we stop by. I’d heard their house was lovely, but nothing had prepared me for how great it was. Apparently Judi had designed it herself and it had a lovely mix of an open front veranda with a cozy bedroom and kitchen. Hippos wallowed in the background while we chatted, and apparently they have one that comes up on their yard every night.

Colin, on the other hand was much more interested in their 6 dogs, in particular the 2 big rotweillers. Clearly he’s been missing Bella!

It was fascinating to hear about Judi and Arthur’s life there—not always easy, clearly, but always interesting! After about an hour visiting with them, Arthur kindly took us back to Tongabezi for dinner.

The food there is also amazing—I don’t know where the chef trained, but everything we tasted (but for the papaya sorbet, which somehow missed the mark!) was fantastic. Chicken tikka masala for lunch with salad from their garden, beef tenderloin for dinner. It was all delicious. We sat with Richard and Eric, which was also nice. Eric’s a former architect who now teaches architecture in high school, so he was interested that Colin was looking at colleges and had some good advice for him.

After dinner, we made our way back to the dog house, accompanied by our valet, Charles, who was on the lookout for hippos (we were warned NOT to walk alone at night!). While it’s very hot during the day, it does get very cold at night this time of year, but Charles had been by earlier to turn on the electric blankets on the bed!

I will admit that it was a bit disconcerting for me to sleep so out in the open, hearing the lowing sounds of the hippos and occasional chatter of monkeys. I kept myself awake for some time worrying about animals visiting us in the middle of the night!

In the morning, Charles awoke us with coffee before we made our way to the breakfast area prior to our morning game drive. The small park isn’t far away—in fact I’d driven by/through it several times going between Simonga and town. Colin had told our guide that he was most interested in seeing elephants. I’d seen one earlier in the week, so I mentioned a rhino would be nice—particularly as I’d heard that there were 5 in the park.

We drove around a bit and saw plenty of impalas(the “McDonald’s of the game park,” our driver said!) and then came across about 8 giraffes eating. They are such lovely animals—so unusual and graceful, until they run, when suddenly they just look awkward with those long legs! We also saw buffalo, warthogs, and zebras. After an hour and a half, I was getting a bit worried about time as we had a noon flight to catch (and I still wanted a bath in the Dog Houses tub overlooking the water). Our guide picked up speed, but after we passed another truck, he turned around and followed them. They finally pulled over as 2 game wardens with guns slung over their shoulders emerged from the bush. Apparently they’d located a white rhino and were prepared to take us on a “very special walking safari” to see it. Though time was running short, we plunged into the bush and walked for about 5 minutes before happening on the rhino calming chomping away on grass. The wardens had us squat near the rhino and took our photos for us—clearly this is something they do as a salary supplement and I assumed they knew it was safe!


It was a very satisfying end to our morning game drive. We rushed back to Tongabezi, threw our stuff in our bags (yes, I missed my bath), and high-tailed it to the Livingstone airport.

The final glorious cap to a great few days was having the plane fly past the falls, for a view I’d not anticipated—the water from the wide Zambezi cascading down the face of the gorge, but not being able to see the bottom because the other side of the gorge rose up again so quickly. (Of course, we’d been on both sides, but until I’d seen it from above, I didn’t quite realize the topography!

We were sad to leave, but on to Lusaka to write-up all the good work SHARe is doing!

Community Festival and Victoria Falls

We’re back from Livingstone after a great 2 days vacation.

Colin arrived on Sunday after some long and miserable flights, from the sounds of them. Our driver Joseph and I picked him up and immediately went back to the village where community activities were happening, Simonga Village. Today the older kids were playing netball and soccer and there was also a challenge football match between SHARe tourist company partners and town players. Colin was exhausted, but I figured it was better for him to be kept busy rather than hanging in a hotel room, falling asleep.


Photo: Kids lined up for their chicken lunch
When we got to the village, they had started feeding the kids. SHARe had planned to feed 2,000 children with chicken from Zambezi Nkuku, a partner that provides chickens to the tourist industry. SHARe staff had brought in 2 extra police just to help create order as nutritious meals were handed out for free. They had clearly done their job as there was a line of children probably 450 kids long, snaking around, patiently waiting. Zambezi Nkuku is very focused on hygiene, not just among their staff working in chicken raising, but encouraging staff to bring what they learn home. On Sunday each child had to wash his or her hands with soap and water and receive a stamp to show their hands were washed and they’d been fed.

After all the community activities, we moved from the hotel where all the SHARe staff were staying in the town of Livingstone, out to the swanky hotel next to Victoria Falls, the Zambezi Sun. You can walk through the grounds of the Sun to the falls, so as soon as we checked in, we walked over there. It was 5:30 and the gate was closing at 6pm, so we didn’t have much time.

There are typically guys renting raincoats as you go in, but they’d already packed up for the night. We quickly found out why one wants a raincoat — as we made our way down the damp stairs, stopping at some of the overlooks to take photos as the sun kept moving lower and lower on the horizon, the spray increased until it was a downpour. By the time we got to the bridge that spans a deep ravine, we realized that there was no crossing it without getting soaked. We put our heads down and walked quickly across anyway. By the time we got to the other side, we were drenched and the sun was setting, so we decided not to persevere but turned back to cross the bridge again. This time, the wind must have picked up, because it was wetter than ever! We ran back, just missing photos of the sun going behind the gorge, but did get some nice shots of the sunset.


Colin getting a shower on the bridge opposite the falls

The Sun is a modern, funky orange-painted hotel with cute patterns and designs in the rooms and the grounds. It’s known to be expensive and the dinner was, without being overly delicious (but for the desserts, which were!).

After a good night’s sleep — Colin slept for 10 hours — we had to set an alarm to get up for a visit to Livingstone Island. The island had been strongly recommended by Judi, the American owner of Zambezi Nkuku, as the one thing we MUST do if we could only do one thing while in Livingstone.

The boat to take us to the island left from the other hotel at the falls, an incredibly swanky and stuffy place called the Royal Livingstone. Apparently the rates start at $900/night, so it was a bit beyond our means on this trip! The boat ride to the island only took about 5 minutes, heading from the hotel directly to the island at the top of the Falls. Once we got there, we were welcomed with a local drink of sweet cornmeal (after one sip, I dumped mine in the bush... Colin says he just chugged his to get through it!), and our guide, Alpha-omega, took us around the island. It’s small and after we were suited up with raincoats, we quickly found ourselves next to the edge of the falls. Alpha-omega then encouraged us to get closer, and holding our hands let us look over the side of the 108 meter gorge as just 5 feet away the water rushed over the edge of the falls. You couldn’t see much because the spray is so thick, but when the winds caught the mist we'd get a glimpse of how far down the water cascades.

Colin at the edge of the falls

When the water is lower, later in the summer, there is a place one can jump rocks and swim out to — the Devil’s Hole - and sit in water immediately above the falls, but there was too much water out there for such a dip on Monday!

Once we’d completed the brief tour of the island, we were treated to a lovely breakfast of eggs Benedict under a tent overlooking the falls. Very nice — though both Colin and I are a bit uncomfortable with people doing everything for us... as he said, “I CAN put a napkin on my lap by myself!”

After brunch (or, our “Breezer,” as they called it), we were ferried back to the Royal Livingston and took the shuttle back to the Zambezi Sun. We had enough time to go back to the Falls, this time wearing our raincoats, to really explore the paths and views of Victoria Falls from the other side of the gorge from where we’d just had breakfast. It all looked quite different from the night before, given the sun overhead.

Colin had toyed with the idea of bungee jumping off the bridge that spans the gorge between Zambia and Zimbabwe. From the falls walk, we got an excellent view of what that entailed — suffice to say, Colin reconsidered jumping!

At noon on Monday we checked out of the Zambezi Sun and awaited our ride to Tongabezi, the most amazing lodge on the Zambezi river.

In Livingstone: Community Engagement

Today was the second day of community events near Livingstone. The weekend is structured around 2 soccer games and 2 netball (like basketball) games, with matches between 2 towns on either side of Livingstone, Mukuni and Simonga. Musicians—including 2 nationally known bands that have flown down from Lusaka—opened the day and quickly drew crowds down to the fields. The bands have already been through SHARe orientation, so they not only know the basics of HIV, but have been tested themselves and now proudly show their arm bands and publicly talk about having been tested to encourage others to get tested as well.

Yesterday, SHARe staff met with the athletes and village members from each of the towns to “sensitize” them on the basics of HIV, making sure that the athletes wearing the uniforms (provided by SHARe with USAID and PEPFAR logos very apparent!) also know what the messages they’re wearing actually mean. JSI* staff member, Simon, conducted the sensitization meetings, and was very engaging, effectively drawing in the audiences of about 75, ranging in age from 14-52.

By then the athletes were ready for action—four games were scheduled, two between the middle school soccer and netball teams today, and 2 games tomorrow between the town “professionals.”

As the teams played, the Livingstone District AIDS Coordinating Advisor, Julius Chilongoshi (who looks like actor Djimon Hounsou, from Gladiator and In America) was a masterful master of ceremonies. As he enthusiastically announced the game, he also wove in HIV messages, encouraging the audience of over a thousand to take advantage of the HIV testing tents as well as the other health services provided, including malaria testing, blood pressure, weight, and eye care.

Photo: Crowds from Mukuni village watch the band Mozageta play

I ran around videotaping the musicians, taking photos of the dancers, athletes and the many kids in the audience—half way through I realized I’d not even been over to the health tents yet to get shots of the services we were actually providing!

I also met a wonderful young woman whose aunt, Rajeeta Rao, used to work for JSI. Sheena had volunteered in the village of Makuni for a month and is working in the clinic and school before returning for her senior year at USC. After that, she’ll be applying for a PC position with JSI!

Colin arrives tomorrow--looks like he'll be able to join us for the big events tomorrow afternoon!


*Disclaimer: I work for JSI and World Education as the Director of Communications and travel occasionally for work. This blog is, of course, my own musings on my travels and do not necessarily reflect the views of JSI or its partners or funders or anyone else aside from me!