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!