Practice Runs and Girly Shrieks

Greetings from Zambia,

Well, life here is not the typical holiday... sitting about sipping pina colada’s with little umbrellas, eating biscuits and watching the world go by. But it sure is interesting!

Yosefe Basic School 

Our friend, the Founder and Co-Director of
Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust, Anna Tolan
Puts her "Hand Up for Conservation!"

We have been in to 6 schools, some twice to visit the 11 clubs and talked to 100’s of children about World Environment Day celebrations for our 4 June Community Event – making up the “Hands Up for Conservation!” signs, and meeting all the Club Patrons and Head Teachers. Some schools are over two hours away down twisting rutted roads, encroached by grass and buffalo bean; which we learned is a nasty filament seed that if disturbed by passing vehicles releases spore that on skin contact drive you mad with itching! Luckily, through diligent window winding and Kaye’s immaculate driving by avoiding hitting the vines we have not had to live with that particular local fun-time.

It has been fun and also frustrating at times. Arranging things in Africa – is well, not quite… like arranging things back home. Sometimes a firm arrangement turns out to have been more fluid than you previously thought. Other times – like on Wednesday – the class was all waiting for us, and Kaye and I having done one activity at Kakumbi Basic School, delivered a letter and picked up some supplies then drove home the 45 minutes to Chipembele with the paint and cards – while the class and Rochelle the Conservation Education Outreach in Schools Manager, wondered where we were! It was a misunderstanding – and we are sorry the children from Chiwawatala Basic School Conservation Club missed out on the activity!

Why We Are Here...

Elephant at far left with snare wound. 

On one day as we drove into Mfuwe we were happy to see a relaxed small elephant family, until Kaye spotted one of the younger members, perhaps a 15 year old with a very nasty snare wound quarter of the way up her trunk. It had healed “open’ so one nostril is permanently open and exposed at this point. 

Wire snares and poaching are a major threat to wildlife lives and wellbeing. This particular elephant seems to have adapted and was dust bathing, and using her trunk despite the wound and the obvious nerve damage the stricture had caused.  This kind of encounter is sobering though and puts a colour on the rest of your day/week/year. If she can bear to live with it, we can bear to witness it and try to do something about it for others of her kind. This is why we are here doing what we do.

Open Day Preparations

At home we have been working feverishly to get all ready for the big Open Day. We are expecting anywhere from 20 to 200! There are 110 invited guests who have confirmed attendance, anyway! We are catering on the day for the 110. A challenge for Kaye’s chefing skills – cooking two hot dishes – a vegetarian and meat option, plus rice and Nshima (the local Mealie maize) over open fires. The ordering and storage logistics have been interesting. We have two gas freezers (that double as fridges but tend to freeze anyway) cooler boxes and lots of fresh produce that came in a week early via a great company operating out of Lusaka called Valley Lodgestics – who ‘pick’ orders from wholesalers and supermarkets for delivery to the many tourist lodges and other community based organisations like Chipembele. Local produce has been purchased wherever possible to assist local businesses. One of the event sponsors Flatdogs Camp (an hours drive away) has kindly allowed us to store the more delicate vegetables and fruit in their walk in fridge. Whew! Thanks Flatties!


Practice Runs!

On Thursday twelve young people selected by the Conservation Club Patrons from Grade 8 to 9 came to Chipembele to practice their “job” for Saturday. They are to be “guides” in the Chipembele Wildlife Education Centre. Jude welcomed them from the truck at 9:45 and following biscuits and cordial we had classes and practice runs for the various “stations” in the centre they will be responsible for. There is the “Who came down to the water to drink today?” exhibit outside the centre – made for Chipembele by previous volunteers Michael and Alison. It is a beautifully crafted concrete and blue painted ‘river’ with various realistic footprints of local wildlife stamped from carved woodblocks and painted black in the concrete. The two boys responsible for this exhibit are funny and fabulous – we are worried people will not be able to get away to look at anything else so thorough and engaging are they!

Chipembele team work, refurbishing the "Who Came down to the water to drink today?" exhibit.
From Left to Right: Richarb, Jude, Moses, Rodgers and Victor.

The Classroom and Library each have their “guides” and they talk through what happens in each room. In the interpretive room, three exhibits – “Animals- Skulls, bones and scat” Trees – seeds, wood and habitat” and “Conservation – poaching and anti-poaching” are each ‘guided’ by knowledgeable young people. Many of the children and young people here do not interact with Muzungu’s (White people) often – Anna Tolan of course, Rochelle and occasional visitors. So this will be a really big thing for them to undertake with many Muzungu guests coming on the day. They are all fabulous – the hardest thing to learn was to initiate the conversation. We practiced this part  “Hello, My name is Sunday, from Such and Such School” often and in the end each was confident and stepped forward.  A boy and girl from each school paired up in a Team (The same team names used in class – Leopard, Lion, Elephant, Rhino, Buffalo and Zebra) and they worked together in their pairs to come up with what they would say about their area or exhibit. Then we practiced it a few times and refined it all a bit. It was a great day and by the end they were all confident and relaxed with it. Serendipitously, we had guests visit Anna and Steve today and they also kindly came and entered into the spirit of the practice – so the “guides” got to practice 5 times all up with various people wandering in and out of rooms. They did a great job! We know they will be superb on the day and do their schools and Conservation Clubs proud. They will also represent their clubs in a Senior Quiz in front of the gathered guests. The prizes are terrific! But won’t tell you yet ‘cos that would ruin the surprise!

Giraffes

You know how, in the city – where you hardly ever see a Volkswagon Beatle car anymore… when you see one, you end up seeing half a dozen? Well here – that happens with Giraffes. We do not see them everyday – and only ever on the drives from and to Mfuwe. But on Wednesday we were astounded – it appeared that behind every bush, tree and corner was a Giraffe! We suspect there was a Giraffe Convention on in the Lupande Game Management Area! Groups of 8 or 9 which is a big herd (or for the fancier collective nouns… ‘journey’ or ‘elegance’), families of 3 or 4. All seemed intent on heading to the same area. We wondered what the convention might have been about. What do Giraffes talk about in large gatherings? Spots? Neck Ache? How hard it is to get clothes when you are so tall? How all the good leaves seem to be taken by elephants standing on their hind legs these days?

Girly Shrieks

No sure exactly why this has started to happen suddenly – but calm collected and living life in the bush has gone hand in hand… well, almost! Tell us, what would you do when…

You open the wardrobe (half dressed of course) and a spider the size of the bottom of a coke can leaps (yes LEAPS!) out and lands on your chest? Well, Jude found out the hard way, and was astonished to discover that she CAN “Girly Shriek”. Mortified by the loss of dignity and the overt ‘stereo-type’ that this sound and the attendant dance that followed she was determined to never repeat the vocal and physical exercise for anything under the size of breadbox.

Unfortunately, she forgot to tell her brain this new information. The following day, a T-shirt came with its own live frog label. Down the back, on the skin… another ‘Girly Shriek’. Kaye, being made of altogether more ‘manly’ stuff thought this was hilarious until… trying to rescue a praying mantis the size of a baseball bat from inside the bush house before we used the can of “Doom” to kill the malarial mosquitoes – let out a… Girly Shriek when the praying mantis suddenly turned on her, mandibles gnashing and front legs waving!  So we are, in theory – calm in the face of lion, elephant, hippo – but critters that fling themselves at you or decide they are part of your clothes get the “Girly Shriek” treatment whether we want to or not! Please, don’t tell anyone!

Actually, we are not as calm as we like to think we are about lion… One night this week we were, as is a nightly occurrence sitting down at the Chitenge overlooking the river to watch the sunset and drink the obligatory African sundowners… After the sun fully set we were still sitting in the dark, chatting – having moved our chairs a discrete distance from Anna and Steve to have our smokes. From about 500 metres or so away – in the bush came the unmistakable lion call, the deep … “Whaarr, uuugh, uuugh , uuugh. Whaarr, uuugh, uuugh , uuugh”. Trying to look nonchalant about this we crabwalked our chairs the metre and a half sideways to sit up close with Anna and Steve… Hoping they wouldn’t notice. Crabwalking plastic chairs, juggling drinks with fags hanging out of our mouths in a nonchalant manner… makes a LOT of noise! Anna and Steve just laughed at us. At LEAST we didn’t let out ‘Girly Shrieks’!

So another week zooms by – and the big Open Day is almost upon us. Only one more ‘sundowners’ and we are “on!” Wish us luck! Still much to do – but it is coming together and we are confident we have all done as much as we can to make the celebration of Chipembele’s 10^th Birthday a great success. If you would like to make a “10^th Birthday Gift” contribution towards Chipembele’s programmes or projects, please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/10-for-10-Cheer-Squad-2011

Thanks if you do! No worries if you don’t… you know we’ll ask another time anyway …

Waves and Love from the Luangwa.

Jude and Kaye

PS: Kaye drove the ten tonne truck today to help drop the kids back to their various schools. Steve drove it to the “tar’ road and Kaye took it from there! Whooo Hooo! What a hoot. She thought “If only my Mother could see me now…”

PS2: The resident baboon troop came through yesterday. The Bush house is a beautiful “hide”. Here the Alpha male sits relax in the morning sun…

A Day in the Park

Excitement mounted last Friday night. On Saturday after a busy and productive week – we were going on our first all day adventure to really look for wildlife, a self-drive into South Luangwa National Park (SLNP). It was important to get a good night’s sleep. The Moon is almost full, the light flooding the Luangwa and the inside of the Bush House. As we prepared for bed we could hear the Hippos yelling out their characteristic loud hoots and grunts. Their sounds carried in the still night air… so close we could have sworn they were in the Chipembele Lake, just 5 metres from our house. The bird known as ‘The Low Battery Bird’ started up – "…Loud trill, Loud trill, soft trill, soft trill - beep, beep, beep (battery’s dead) … repeated over and over.

Then the Unidentified-Owl (UO) started up.

At distance at first, it went like this:

UO: ‘Oooo, Oooo’.

Jude: : “Haven’t heard that owl before!”

UO: ‘Oooo, Oooo’

Kaye: “Wonder what type he is?”

UO closer this time: ‘Oooo Oooo’

Jude: “Gosh, he’s loud isn’t he? He’s really close.”

UO: Oooo, Oooo
Kaye: “Must be looking for a mate.”

UO: “Oooo Oooo’ ‘Oooo Oooo’ ‘Oooo Oooo’.

This went on for hours. Tossing and turning in sleepless beds.

Kaye: “Bloody Owl! Wish he would just shut up!”

Jude: “So much for wildlife-lovin’.”

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Waking at 4.10am precisely, as you do when you are over excited and had a bad nights sleep, we cuppa’d up, had breakfast of wheat-bix, packed our picnic things and went up to Anna and Steve’s house to pick up the keys and vehicle so we could pack the things in the Landy. Steve said “There were Wild Dog up the top of the Driveway this morning did you hear them?” We pouted..."Wild Dog? Wow! ...No, we didn’t hear them!” …Awww, we were rattling around packing up and didn’t hear them…” How disappointing.

Once on the road, we spent 5 minutes looking for the Wild Dog but figured they had moved well off on the hunt, we started on our hour long drive to the SLNP. Off we go! Whoo Hoo!

Oops, no, Have to go back… how embarrassing, Bush Babies we are, babes-in-the-woods. Going on a trip and forgot to pack the Park map! Steve was surprised to see us back in 7 minutes… He thought we had found the Wild Dog! 

Map securely packed we finally took off. Picking Brooke up at the BP, we paid our park fees, ($US 30 per person + K15,300 vehicle fee). Spent the first part of the morning exploring small tracks and taking photos of puku, ducks, zebra and impala. Actually, this is because we got lost. Good thing we bought the map… Taking a short-cut that turned into a 2 hour maze, but it was all good… Found the airstrip and eventually back to the main road we headed out to Chichelele Hill in the South of the Park. Kaye did a great job of the driving and guiding. Brooke is a great safari-companion. She, like us - also loves to just sit and watch and photograph who-ever happens along. She is as glad as we are just to be IN the African bush!

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A Conga Line of Buffalo

The ‘sighting of the day’ was 200 buffalo as they filed in from the bush to the Dambo to drink – we could not believe our eyes – and sat watching them, filming and photographing them for an hour and forty minutes. Beautiful!

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Elephant! Elephant! Elephant!

Lone males, a lone female (we wondered why she was on her own!) small family groups… in various settings, mopane, scrub, wetland (Dambo), elephant heaven…

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Brooke Mundey and our first Elephant sighting for the day

Bushbuck

U.D. (Unidentified Duck)

Ground Hornbill

Waterbuck

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Kaye did such a terrific job as our driver and guide!

When we got back to Chipembele at 5.00pm – Richarb asked Kaye “Madam, did you hear the Wild Dog last night? They were all around.” Kaye, disappointed told him “No – all we heard was an Unidentified-Owl. Saying ‘Oooo, Oooo! Oooo Oooo!’.

“Ah! – No, madam that is the contact-call of the Wild Dog…”

Listen as we might, as we went to sleep last night –

no UO’s… no Wild Dog’s….

Babes-in-the-woods, indeed.

Love & Waves from the Luangwa

Jude and Kaye

PS: Richarb told us the Wild Dogs came back into the grounds of Chipembele in the morning near the Men’s house, while we were in the Park.

Kaye said: “ Ironic isn’t it – we pay 60 bucks to get into the park and saw buffalo. If we had stayed at home we could have seen the Wild Dog for free!”

"Hands Up for Conservation!"

Greetings from Zambia,

We love sharing our tales of lions, elephants and beautiful Betty Baboon. Despite these very tangible reminders that we are in the heart of an African wilderness area, we have not lost sight of the reason we are here! We are in the South Luangwa to support and to volunteer assistance for Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust. Especially, to help celebrate their tenth anniversary of the opening of the Wildlife Education Centre. Education of the local children and young people in conservation and environmental stewardship is their main mission.

The South Luangwa is home to endemic populations of Cookson’s wildebeest, Thronicroft’s giraffe as well as elephant, lion, wild dog, leopard, golden baboon, puku and many other species and important biomes. The Luangwa River is one of the last great un-dammed rivers in all of Africa that still maintains it’s seasonal flows, providing diverse habitats for abundant wildlife. Human encroachment and the attendant human wildlife conflict is a major problem and Chipembele’s Mission is “to teach Zambian children the importance of their wildlife and environment so it may be conserved for present and future generations”.

Our primary purpose here is to organise two events – one, an Open Day at the Chipembele Centre on May 28^th, is well on its way. Invitations were sent a few months ago. The organisation of speakers, guests and the Senior Conservation Club quiz are well in hand.

The other event is a Community Event to celebrate both ten years of Chipembele’s conservation education and World Environment Day (WED). To this end we have been visiting the Conservation Clubs (Senior pupils) and Chongololo* Clubs (Primary pupils) at their schools with Rochelle James, the Chipembele Conservation Outreach in Schools Manager - to start talking to the children and young people about the upcoming WED event.

The theme and message for the Event is ‘Hands Up for Conservation!’.  We have visited three clubs so far and run 30 minute sessions to involve the Conservation and Chongololo Club members in early preparation for the event. 

A talk and Q&A session about World Environment Day and exploring the theme is followed by an activity where every child participates by creating a special ‘Hands Up for Conservation’ sign to be used on the walk down the main Mfuwe Road on June 4^th. The cards are pre-printed with the words and using different coloured paint for each club – the children or young people place a brightly coloured hand print on the card. “Hands Up for Conservation!”. There are 12 clubs altogether each with about 30 to 40 children so we have our work cut out for us visiting each club and running the activity. 

Really encouraging is that in each of the schools visited so far the Head Teacher (Principal) and the Conservation Club Patrons or class teacher have also participated and added their hand print to the message cards to support the activity, the message and the children. Pictured above is the Head Teacher of Chiwawatala Basic School, Mr Zulu encourages his pupils by taking part in the "Hands Up for Conservation" activity at the Conservation and Chongololo Club.

The children and young people have been most responsive and all have agreed to put their hands up for conservation and help carry that message to the wider community.

Chiwawatala Basic School

Chiwawatala Basic School

Chiwawatala Basic School

Kawaza Basic School

Mfuwe Basic School on a visit to Chipembele Centre

In addition, a local tailor prepared a 4 metre ‘banner’ of calico – and a local sign-writer, Paddy Chilwa, is painting the theme message on it to be carried at the front of the walk.

A well-renowned theatre group SEKA Educational Theatre will be performing a play in the heart of the community at the end of the walk for all the participants and others who come along to join in the fun. Local conservation and community based organisations will have displays about their work. A Junior Quiz will take place with one boy and one girl representing each Chongololo Club, they will be assisted by a young man and woman from the Senior Conservation Clubs. The latter selected by their Club Patron and peers, their role on the day is to assist the younger children in the Quiz, to be mentors and encouragers of environmental stewardship with the younger kids.

Chipembele …Giving children hope and wildlife a chance…

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Getting Fuel On Tuesday morning we left Chipembele early so we could stop to fill up the Landy with fuel. The sole petrol station in Mfuwe had been out of diesel for weeks. Ordered before Easter – the truck finally arrived Monday afternoon, we were informed Diesel would be available from 7.30 am. We left Chipembele early as we had a 9.00 am appointment with the Conservation Club at a far flung village school – Kawaza Basic School. Arriving at the Petrol Station at 7.30 – we were second in line at the pump. However, this being Africa – the tanker had only just started to unload. An hour-by-hour update to Rochelle – saw the Kawaza meeting re-arranged three times! By the time the fuel was unloaded there were 15 or so vehicles lined up, many with 44 gallon drums, or multiple jerry cans waiting to be filled on the back, we were told the diesel supply would last only two days and then there would be more weeks of no fuel at the only BP! Finally fuelled up at 10.30 – we travelled the 15 km’s to Kawaza, crossing two rivers and taking the vehicle-width track twisting and turning through fields of elephant grass and food crops… arriving at the school at 11.30!

Wildlife Fix for Wildlife Junkies…

You know you are NOT in a city anymore when there are no traffic lights, you are crossing dry rivers and gullies and red billed hornbills swoop across the track in front of you.

Getting to ‘work’ is an adventure, a bit different than suburban Adelaide (South Australia) where the most exciting thing you see on the way to work might be a moggie sitting on a fence post. We started our day on Monday morning watching a lioness walk across the open area opposite our Bush House while having our first coffee!

Driving to Mfuwe at 7.00 am – we turned out of Chipembele towards town and onto the 16km rutted and gullied track. We wished a sedate young bull elephant good morning. A bachelor group of impala, in their usual high-jinx first thing – were chasing each other backwards and forwards across the road a few kilometres on (They were still chasing one another 7 hours later on our return!). Then the troop of about 30 Golden baboons from the local troop, the big male, many females, adolescents and babies crossed in front of us. Sweet!

Squirrels darted from the safety of the side of the road across in front of us, to run up a tree on the opposite side… begging the question… “Why did the squirrel cross the road?”.

A small family group of elephant browsed peaceably near a cut-away, the youngest member of the family was about 5 months old. A big crocodile sat sunning herself on the Dambo bank on the way to and from town, seemingly not having moved or closed her jaws all day – perhaps she was passively waiting for some tasty antelope to fall in to her gaping maw!

Waves and love from the beautiful Luangwa

Jude and Kaye

PS: At sundowners Tuesday night a sole elephant came to drink at the river, silhouetted against a pink blush sky. Wednesday, a rare sighting of a group of 5 Spoon Bills fished in the shallows while the lilac and blue streaked sky darkened to indigo. Magic!

Lions in the Night

Greetings from Zambia!

We have been trying to learn Nyanja for “Hello and Thank You” which is “Bwangi... Something” and “Zcombi Ncomo” and have failed so miserably one time we were told “Madams – it might be good for you just to say “Hello and Thank you”.

Our home away from home is a strongly constructed grass reed and timber hut, approximately 8m by 5m, with a steeply pitched roof. It is the house Anna and Steve Tolan lived in for three years whilst constructing the Chipembele Centre and then until their own stone house was completed. Our Bush House has a polished concrete floor, solid timber doors and every 3 feet is a rectangular fly-wire window providing a panoramic view of Chipembele campus grounds. The gauze windows also mean that the Bush House is open to all the breezes – making it pleasant to be inside in the hottest part of the day; it is currently, at mid afternoon, only 29 degrees Celsius inside! We feel so privileged to be staying here! We have a glimpse view of the Luangwa down the gully near our back door, where we sit early morning to have our first cuppa’s and the lily and nile cabbage growing on Chipembele Lake catches the golden morning sun. Nice way to start the day. 

Our little house is safe and secure so when we hear the Lions roaring each night, though wide eyed with wonder and smiling from pleasure - we are not frightened as we are quite safe inside.

We briefly wrote about the night when Lion were roaring on and off all night, this continued night after night this week. Following a long, hot and dusty Friday in Mfuwe we returned home to our idyllic bush house to hot showers. Thanks to Moses and Richarb who heat the water over an open fire, climb 10 metal steps and pour the water into a 44 gallon drum, which is plumbed into the shower. Just the ticket after a long and hot dusty day … bliss! Hot water in the bush. We asked Richarb for the fire to be left burning so we could bake potatoes in their jackets in the hot coals for dinner.

It was fully dark so head torch on and bowl of ‘tatties in hand Jude stepped out the 3 metres to the fire. Squatting down and scrapping coals in preparation, every sense at tune…. from out-there in the darkness came the deep, unmistakable territorial call of Lion. Deeply – “Whaarr, uuugh, uuugh , uuugh. Whaarr, uuugh, uuugh , uuugh”. It’s amazing how one can hold one’s nerve, having watched innumerable documentaries and read books understanding that Lion are not likely to leap on you from over a kilometer away while you are tending a fire… Regardless of that knowledge, torch in hand Kaye was watching Jude’s back, and sweeping the torch beam from left to right in case that roaring was just the left-flank!

Back inside the discussion was whether we really wanted the potatoes for dinner…

For the next half hour, the Lion called intermittently – but always still, a good kilometer away. So the potatoes, cooked themselves untended. Brave potatoes. Finally retrieved with the help of Kaye’s light ‘guard’, they were delicious for their garnish of our courage,– albeit a little blackened from the coals.

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An Aside…

During the week we once more tackled the mountain of Uniforms… we are disseminating them all this week as we visit the schools to meet the Cholongololo and Conservation Club members to prepare for our World Environment Day Community Event on June 5.

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Picnic!

On Saturday, Jude worked up at the centre (which is powered by solar) on our notebook, in the morning on the artwork for the commemorative 10 year celebration banner in readiness to send off to the printer in Lusaka. Kaye, confident now having driven the Landy to town and back on Thursday, drove to Mfuwe to pick up Brooke Mundey – a friend of Rochelle’s staying with her for a few weeks. Brooke is a former predator keeper at Australia Zoo, very switched on conservationist and, like most Aussies easy going and fun to be with! It was Brooke’s first visit to Chipembele Centre so Kaye gave her a tour of the centre and campus as Jude finished up her graphics design work. The three of us packed up a picnic and thermos and set off for a nearby salt-spring. A particularly pretty place surrounded by forest. It was lovely being in the bush, self-sufficient, making sandwiches and drinking coffee - watch a flock of 40 or more beautiful crowned crane picking over the shallows in the nearby dambo. 

Kaye went on a small sortie of her own on foot across the plain while Brooke photographed Crowned Crane and Jude photographed bright orange and black beetles. A galloping giraffe frightened the life out of Kaye as she heard it coming – and imagined buffalo! Until appearing out of the bush, towering above her, the giraffe ran on past in the forest. We took Brooke back to Mfuwe in the late afternoon, pausing briefly to see Ground Hornbill, impala and squirrels.

More Lions in the Night

Saturday night following a spectacular ‘sundowners’ we were just showering when Steve came tearing up to our front door in the Landy telling us he and the men had found the Lion! Half dressed just after a shower Jude threw on a pair of trousers under her sarong and our wits scattered from the sudden news - we managed to grab the camera (but forgot Kaye’s you-beaut special red filter night predator viewing torch!) before roaring off into the night to visit the lions. Wow! How lucky were we? About half a kilometer on the Malama Road, in the long grass, a male and female were resting alone.

Ah! This now made sense of the nightly roaring – “Hey, Honey! Wanna do the shakey shakey thing?” “Yes! Yes! Yes!”. Lions mate every half hour for days, it takes a lot of energy and a LOT of resting between bouts and… a lot of yelling apparently. Right then though, they were totally still,  silent and unconcerned at our presence, presumably because they were utterly shagged…

We spent five minutes watching them doing nothing, took multiple blurry photos (see proof right) - then came on back home. After dinner – the roaring set up again, then moments later the most god-awful screaming and trumpeting rent the night, as we presume, an elephant accidently found the Lion in the night. This sound is primordial, a roaring-scream-growl-trumpet. Amazing.

We awoke once more suddenly in the night to the same unearthly Elephant sounds – we were however, safe in our Bush House, under our Mozzie nets, tucked up in our beds. We drifted back to sleep to the sound of the tinkling of Bell frogs as the night settled once more…

Another wondrous African day and night.

Waves of love from the Luangwa…

Jude and Kaye

PS: Every day is punctuated by Beautiful Betty moments…

Elephant in the Room…Almost...

Greetings from Zambia!

Starting Work

Sunday saw us start our ‘work’. Anna had returned from the UK with 5 big sacks of children’s clothes and seven sacks of School Uniforms from Operation Sunshine. These needed sorting into age, size and the uniforms also in colour for various schools, for instance Navy Blue for Kawaza Basic School. Starting early in the Chipembele Centre in the coolest part of the day, Kaye and I sorted the casual clothes according to age sizing. Making a spreadsheet for stocktaking as we went. The big pile of beautiful quality school uniforms are still to be sorted, but hope to have this well underway today.

A Bright Sprite Moment

One bright moment on Sunday was meeting Sprite – the 9 year old bushbuck – who, orphaned in 2001 came to Chipembele for rehabilitation and release. Sprite still returns from time to time, her latest offspring, an almost adult daughter, accompanies her – but she stays well away from the house. Kaye gave Sprite apple and carrot treats and it is always such a privilege to be up close and personal with a wild animal. It is also a real testament to Anna and Steve’s good care – that Sprite has learned the bush sense to survive these 9 years.

Heading into Town

On Monday Anna, the Chipembele Driver/mechanic Victor and us two headed off on the 45 minute bumpy trip to Mfuwe. On the way we stopped to meet Karen and Dave the managers of Project Luangwa. Their house is set in the ZAWA compound – and has a stunning view over a dambo. As we talked about their project and shared a cup of tea – the Hadada ibis and other birds picked their way across the green expanse.

On to Mfuwe proper and stopping at the BP we met up with 5 young men who were engaged to work on the road leading to Chipembele. The Chipembele Wildlife classes start again on Wednesday 9^th May – and the children come to the centre in the Chipembele truck. The road, in places is very rough – and the men have been employed to fix some of the worst spots so we don’t lose any kids ‘overboard’!

Meeting Chipembele Team Mates

We were really excited to meet Rochelle, the Chipembele Conservation Outreach in Schools Manager for the first time. An Australian, Rochelle arrived in the Valley in January and since commencing work has made great headway in the curriculum and connecting with the Conservation Club members. It was great to meet her after so many Skype sessions and emails back and forth. The Computer Resource Centre Manager and Pupil Mentor, Eunice is just lovely and we look forward to our plans of working with Eunice to develop a programme for the newly established Girls Club while we are here.

Victory for Victory Community School

We visited the newly built Victory Community School and met the head teacher James. Some of you may remember the urgent work done on the old school in 2009, the roof was leaking badly, so we raised funds to re-roof with thatch. The front wall of the school collapsed last year – and Schuls Projekt Sambia has provided the funds to build the new class room block. This will be officially opened on Monday.

The Elephant in the Room – Almost!

After a quick shop at the market and picking up the five men who are the road workers, we returned to Chipembele – to find Elephant browsing on the campus grounds. We made cuppas and sat just inside the doors of our Bush House and watched as Elephant wandered right up beside us! He was so close we could have reached out and touched him.

Snakes Alive!

Sundowners was once again splendid – subdued by Luangwa standards – but came to an abrupt end when Coco, one of the two delightful and full on Jack Russells copped a spray in her right eye of spitting cobra venom when she shoved her face in an interesting hole in the bank of the river. Anna grabbed Coco and we ran the 100 metres up to the house – Anna and Jude flushed the venom for two full minutes with the hose and applied antihistamine eye cream. This morning Coco’s eye is swollen and red and she is obviously still in pain, however her instant treatment has bought good results.

Steve has rushed up to the house with us to care for Betty; who was clinging to Anna for dear life, wide eyed - with all the fuss about. Kaye was left behind in Cobra Territory to put away the chairs!

Route Reconnoiter

This morning Kaye is out having a driving lesson with Steve in the 4x4 and to learn the route from Chipembele to Mfuwe and back – there are many side tracks and diversions around gullies and fallen trees and the like – and we would hate to have to “call home”, if we could even get a signal!
Ring Ring

“Hello?”

“We are lost!”
“Where are you?”
“We don’t know…we are near an elephant and there’s a big forked tree”…

Hopefully, the reconnoiter will forestall such an event!

All for now, until next time. Much love and waves from the Luangwa…

Jude and Kaye

PS: OUR SLEEP WAS DISTURBED 5 TIMES LAST NIGHT WITH THE DEEP ROARING OF LION - CLOSE! This morning Moses, one of the men who work at Chipembele pointed out the lion paw prints about 5 metres from the Bush House! WOW!