Neil McDonald & Joanne Stevens on 107.7 fm

It was a pleasure to welcome Neil and Joanne, pictured above, to The Chanters Lodge Experience last Sunday night. The Experience is our local radio show that goes on air every Sunday between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs. The programme is co-hosted by Milli Jam and George da Soulchild, two of Livingstone’s most popular DJ’s, on Zambezi FM broadcasting our show on 107.7 fm. I go along to the show for good measure!

Neil and Joanne hail from the USA, Neil from Monroe, Louisiana and Joanne from Boston, Massachusetts. They live in Alexandria, Virginia. Both are retired – Neil told listeners he’d actually retired twice, once from the Federal Government and once from Delta Airlines, whom he’d joined after his Government service. A lawyer by profession he was very interesting about his career and his world wide travels. Joanne has also retired from her career in real estate, but confessed to still having an interest in two homes. This loving couple told listeners about their children and grandchildren scattered across America. Neil was particularly interesting about one of his sons, Lee, who apart from his regular job, is an American football kicking coach. Check his fascinating website Special Teams Solutions.

Neil and Joanne spoke about their trip from New York to South Africa on the magnificent Queen Mary 2 – the biggest ocean going liner in history. Their cruise had taken them from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and then on to South America, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil before reaching Cape Town. Once there, Neil and Joanne had stayed with a friend before coming to Livingstone and Chanters Lodge.

The music on the show was great. We played Lady Gaga’s latest – ‘Born This Way’ back to back with the UK number 1, Jesse J’s ‘Price Tag’. Our Zambian tracks were Ty2’s latest ‘U Say U Love’ featuring Kanji and Kaufela’s ‘Your Smile’ featuring Roberto. Kaufela, for the uninitiated, is George da Soulchild’s stage name. Great track it is too, we all agreed. Wizkid’s ‘Holla At Your Boy’ and Flo Rida’s ‘Dancing For Me’ were Milli Jam’s selections and we also featured Rascal Flatts with their smash ‘I Won’t Let Go’ and Adele’s ‘If It Hadn’t Been For Love’. Wizkid? Aka Ayodeji Balogun a very hot young Nigerian singer!

Joanne and Neil told listeners about their wonderful one day safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana where they’d been ‘lucky’ to see lion as well as a fairly angry elephant. They’d also enjoyed their sunset cruise on Lady Livingstone. When they visited Victoria Falls they got very wet from the spray. They’d very much enjoyed their stay at Chanters, loved the staff and would be sorry to leave the next day.

We gave away the usual dinner for dinner for two to the first person to text us and tell us where Neil and Joanne were from, Mpezeni correctly answered USA and won. We greeted guests and staff at the lodge and thanked everyone involved in the show for their efforts.

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