vaccinations and visas

Diptheria, Polio, Tetanus and Typhoid; Measles, mumps, and rubella - Ant thinks it sounds like a meeting with the seven dwarfs.... it certainly didn't feel like it. I now have two dead arms and a slightly sluggish feeling. But at least I am now up to date with everything again. Thankfully I don't need a meningitis booster for Zambia and Hepatitis B was only a recommendation - but at £120 for 3 injections I gave that one a swerve. Not planning on swapping bodily fluids with the locals anyway.

I decided to change up our cash in to dollars last week - managed a respectable 1.24 exchange rate - who knows what Brexit will do to the rate over the coming weeks, bit of a gamble but hey it's done now.
Only thing left is the VISA. Going to attempt it online again tonight as this time I believe we have all the right paperwork, in the right format, (and in the right names) to give it a go.
Fingers crossed!

6 weeks to go and I'd like to say "Zikomo Kwambili"!

Wow - I put an appeal out and what a response...

• A reconditioned laptop and snazzy laptop bag for the Linda Farm project manager
• £550 towards the amazon wish list
• 15 working smart phones
• Self-sufficiency books for the new library
• An assortment of items from the Amazon Wishlist

We're off to a good start collecting what we want to take with us too - the shopping has started and the old suitcase almost full already with examples for the teaching sessions, new boodle sticks, cutting mats and nearly new shirts for the community. 

We have just 6 weeks ahead of us to practise the art of boodling and hopefully come up with some simple enough designs that can be taught to those who only speak Njanja and those who are deaf. We are thinking strong shopping bags and floor mats.. bed blankets and seat covers. 

The clock is ticking and the date gets ever closer, so thank you all for your contributions - it really will make a huge difference to their community. Thank you once again for your continued support. Zikomo!

18 weeks to go - that's a surprise!

Wall art at Linda Farm

Crikey that's come around quick. In exactly 128 days Tracey and I will be back on that night flight to Johannesburg to make the transfer into Zambia and back to the place we both fell in love with last summer.... the run-down, charming, basic and incredibly friendly town of Livingstone.
This summer we go for a week longer and have arranged to work on the Linda Farm project that inspired us so much in just the hour we spent there.
Linda Farm occupies a piece of land that the government allocated some years ago to provide somewhere for disabled people to grow their crops. The site is now home to 14 families (of about 6 people each) who live as a self-sufficient community raising animals and crops and providing a place for local young adults to learn about becoming self-sufficient themselves by growing their own crops and taking them to market to sell.
So in preparation for the trip, we are collecting old (but working) smart phones this year to help the teenagers to get their businesses started. We also plan to share the skill of turning old clothes and carrier bags into floor mats and strong shopping bags through the simple art of "boodling". Which is basically crocheting on a large wooden hook with stretchy yarn (or in our case old T-shirts).
We are excited to see how far they have come in the last year with their objectives - the pigs were arriving the week we visited and the water pump was being repaired and was to be turned on that afternoon. We were so gutted that we only visited them on the day we were leaving, but hey that's life.... we are going back and get to spend weeks with them rather than minutes! Very excited, very keen and slightly worried that 18 weeks means we should really get cracking collecting what we need and preparing the teaching materials with easy to follow diagrams that are language and age independent (as well as teach Tracey to use her new Nikon!). Many people have asked about donations this year which is incredibly kind. So if anyone would like to donate any of the supplies we plan to take with us, we have created an Amazon wishlist of some useful items which you can use to order and have delivered to us. Thank you for your support once again.

Day 14 - The last sunrise

Tracey rockin the
sunrise safari suit

I woke early and since it was our last day, I decided to get up and enjoy the sunrise with a brew. Tracey joined me despite it being only 615am. I was making the tea and she was outside getting a dawn nicotine fix when I turned to see her leaping about outside the window, silently, but frantically waving her arms around at me. I collapsed in hysterics. Seeing Tracey filled with that much excitement is both joyous and slightly worrying, so I grabbed the bins and went to see what she was peeing her PJs about... there was an elephant wading in the river outside the tent next door! We spent a good while contorting ourselves to try and see it better through the bushes before it wandered north up the river bank. Magic.
With little time left to pack, we sorted through all the paper work and the remaining cash for the last time and headed over to the main lodge to settle up, post staff tips and wait for our speedboat transfer to Vic Falls town.
Return journeys typically feel longer and harder to make, and this one was no different. The river journey wasn't the meandering affair we'd hoped, since two of our travelling companions were 20 minutes late, and the mini-bus transfer to the border had 3 hotel stops to make en route, collecting a total of 18 people before heading to the Zim/Zam border. Two passengers had no visa so there was a slight delay there, but it wasn't long before we were back Zambian side and driving through Livingstone high street for the last time.
It was sad to be back at the airport where it all started two weeks ago - we'd crammed a lot in, met some amazing people, been excited, happy, sad, tired, inspired, frustrated and overjoyed. It was been a huge experience and most definitely filled up the memory banks, not to mention the camera cards.
And for those of you keen to know.... Tracey finally used a loo on a aeroplane! (albeit stationary, on Jo'burg tarmac).
The two flights home were pretty uneventful (apart from a glass of red wine being sloshed all over Tracey's table and some stern words aimed at the guy who pulled Tracey's breakables bag down from the overhead storage). We watched a couple of films and tried to sleep, but thoughts sadly turned to work and the overflowing email inbox which no doubt awaits me... scared to turn my phone on... and I only have a day at the office before I'm back on a plane to Israel, dreaming of African skies.

Day 13 - Serious scat chat.

Beautiful male Kudu - shame he's in the shade

Grumpy warthog, not liking my lens

545am the in-tent phone went with our wake up call. Tracey had been up for hours keeping watch for hippos and so was pretty shattered before we started, but 615am Joshua arrived to escort us to the lodge for our 630am game drive with a truck load of Americans. This time we were led by a different guide, called Martin. Very knowledgeable but obviously had no idea we had been on the drive last night and proceeded to repeat the entire Baobab tree sermon again. Thankfully we were spared a repeat of the lesson on Aardvarks too, and instead were treated to some interesting lessons in animal toiletry; Herds of Impala like to all use the same spot and create a massive pile of poo pellets to scent mark their territory and to help them find their way home if they get lost. The hyena produces white poo, a bit like chalk, on account of all the bones they eat as scavengers and we learnt how to tell if Elephant dung has been left by a male or a female based on the positioning of the pond of pee in relation to the poo - on top is a female and in front is a male. Obvious really. What was not so obvious was the fact about the weaver birds that make their nests in the western side of trees. We had thought that the 15 or so nests in each tree were a flock of Weaver birds, each with their own nest. Turns out that all 15 nests are made by the same pair of breeding birds and only some are used. One for nesting, one for roosting, one for dining etc. and a number as decoys to fool predators. Talk about living life on the edge.
Numerous species were spotted on the drive; more waterbuck, impala, guinea fowl and warthogs, but also some impressively coloured birds; the Lilac-breasted roller, the white-fronted bee-eater, and my favourite of the day; the Giant kingfisher.
We returned for a leisurely breakfast before spending the rest of the day chilling on our balcony watching the wildlife and looking through photos. Someone came to clean our pool, another person came to restock our fridge and before we knew it, it was time for our last game drive of the trip.

Maribou Stork coming in to land

This time we went out with a highly experienced guide called Nofias from Hwange, and a Japanese couple with their two small girls, one of which squealed in Tracey's ear before falling asleep and the other was actually quite well behaved, that is until she saw a zebra and promptly squealed loudly, sending the zebra dashing over the road. Young children should not be allowed on safari. simple. It should be one of those adult-only treats, like prawn crackers and poppadoms were for me as a kid. I fear children these days will have nothing to save for, or look forward to, they have everything and are allowed to do everything. They are treated like miniature adults who don't have to work or clean up after themselves, but get to do all kinds of things I could only dream of as a kid. There, jealous rant over.

Baobab tree at sunset

We got back to the lodge in the dark after a gorgeous sundowner beer with the Baobabs and a run of about 8 giraffe in 3 different groups - two of them we saw only as silhouettes, which was fortunate as they were mating at the time, and after watching the baboons "at it" earlier and stifling giggles like kids ourselves, I was relieved we didn't have time to hang around.
When we got back to our tent, I needed to wash. So I decided to try out the shower that was installed inside the tent, (it was too dark for me to brave the outside one). There's something both liberating and a little weird about standing naked, in near darkness, under a hot rain-forest shower in a very large open plan tent, with no shower curtain surrounding you, or even a shower tray to stand in. The tent was erected on a raised platform of wooden planks, with the shower head fixed to one wall, so you just stood under it and the water flowed down between the slats. Lovely and hot though, with a cracking range of smellies to choose from.
We knew the staff were planning something for Tracey's birthday at dinner, but I was expecting maybe a cake or even just a candle or two on the dessert, but the staff had gone to great lengths (and inconvenience) to

sharing birthday cake with the staff

set us up a private dining table right down on the end of the boat jetty with our own waiter, Nkanyusi ("Tokyo"), The poor guy had to traipse backwards and forwards all evening down the long walkway to our table to serve us an amazing 3 course dinner with free-flowing wine and topped off with a chocolate cake, complete with candles and an African "happy birthday" sung by a couple of the team. So generous and such a lovely way to end our trip. We giggled, we ate, we drank and we reflected. Then Tracey cut the cake into about 40 pieces and we took it back to the restaurant where the Manager, Andrew, called all the staff out into the dining area for a piece each; sharing a cracking end to a cracking trip.