Eirin Ravndal, Zlata Sovinskaya & Turid Nilsen play 107.7 fm


Meet, from left to right in the above photo, Eirin, Zlata and Turid, three of the five Norwegian student teachers currently staying at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone while they gain teacher experience at Rainbow School just across the road from Chanters. The girls were guesting on The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George The Soulchild last Sunday. The show airs every Sunday on Zambezi Radio
107.7 fm, live from 20.30 – 21.30 hrs and features music and chat.

Having only been in Zambia for a week the girls were worried about speaking in English on the show and to add to their concern none of them had ever been on radio before! They had no need to be nervous, they were very happy and funny and there was a great audience response. How do I know? Well, every Sunday we give away a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge for the first person to text us the answer to a simple question – in this case which country did our Guests hail from. I judge the audience response from the number of text messages we get answering the question, and on this show there were plenty! Was Zambia what the girls had expected? They hadn’t known what to expect!

“What grades are you teaching”? Milli Jam asked the girls, and they explained that they were teaching pre-school. Little ones. “Is there a big difference between teaching methods in Norway and here” I wanted to know, and the girls commented that in Norway there was much more play teaching than here where the pre-school was more serious. Which was the better method? A combination would be best the girls agreed. They told listeners they were teaching in the mornings, and in the afternoons were enjoying the sun by the pool at Chanters Lodge. Had they had time to do any of the wide range of activities available for visitors to Livingstone? The girls informed us that they’d just spent two days and one night in Chobe National Park. Had they seen lots of animals – they had – and loads of insects as well! “Were you scared”? I wanted to know. “Of the insects, yes”! They shrieked, and then roared with laughter!

“Have you got boyfriends back in Norway”? Milli Jam and George inevitably asked fairly early on in the show. Eirina and Turid had, Zlata had not. “Zlata” I pointed out enquiringly “you don’t sound Norwegian”. Zlata explained that she was in fact Russian, although she’d lived in Norway for about 10 years. “I think I’d like to learn Russian” George said quickly!!

The girls enjoyed the music on the show. As usual we opened with Candy by Aggro Santos then this week followed up quickly with ‘S&M’ by Rihanna (sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips excite me!) And Nelly’s ‘Just A Dream’. The two Zambian tracks George chose this week were ‘Naya’ by Judy (meaning ‘I’m leaving’) and ‘Wilala’ by Masi. (‘Don’t sleep before you resolve the problem’). Milli Jam selected Soulja Boy’s massive hit ‘Kiss Me Thru The Phone’ and Bow-Wow featuring Chris Brown with ‘Ain’t Thinking About You’. We also played ‘Happiness’ by Alexis Jordan and Rihanna’s ‘Love The Way You Lie (Part 2).

The guys wanted to know if the girls had been dancing at any of Livingstone’s night clubs and yes they had, the first weekend they were in town. Milli Jam quickly followed up with an invitation for them to visit Steprite, the club he manages in Livingstone when he’s not being a DJ on 107.7 fm. This coming weekend the girls intend to visit Victoria Falls which they haven’t yet seen.

Were they missing home? Yes, but not the -15C temperatures, or for that matter the dark days when the sun barely makes it over the horizon in Northern Norway. Pretty, intelligent, talkative and happy, these Nordic lasses were great Guests on the Chanters Lodge Experience.

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