Swiss Volunteers on The Experience!

Milena Kettsch & Flurina Borer

Meet Milena Kettsch (above left) and Flurina Borer (right), young, pretty and guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz. ‘The Experience’ is our weekly radio show airing every Tuesday evening from 20.30 hrs CAT for an hour live on Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The girls hail from Switzerland, though Milena has a German passport despite never having lived in that country! Daughter of pastors in the Reformed Church some of her early years were spent in Cameroon. Flurina told us she had spent time in Namibia in the past. The girls had met briefly before coming to Zambia some 3 months ago, since when they had become firm friends!

You might be surprised to learn that the girls, both on gap years between high school and university, told listeners that they’d spent the past two months in Kabwe, Central Zambia (Milli Jam’s home town), as volunteers with Comundo, helping out in a hospice for terminally ill patients run by that NGO. I’m not sure at that age I could have done something like that, and the girls agreed that sometimes it had been quite a traumatic experience. The NGO has a childrens’ centre on the same site which they said helped them with perspective in regard to the hospice.

The girls told listeners that after a few more days in Zambia they would set off to travel to Malawi and Tanzania (including Zanzibar). At the end of their travels Milena would be heading for Basel for a degree course in History and Social Anthropology while Flurina would be going to university in Freiburg to study speech therapy.

The girls explained that they had spent the past week at Chanters Lodge for some R&R – they had been recommended to the lodge by a colleague and were happy with their choice. While in Livingstone they had seen Victoria Falls very early in the morning, which they had loved, getting soaking wet in the process! The day of the show they had spent the day in Chobe NP in Botswana which they had also enjoyed, though they were sad not to have seen ‘big cats’.

The music on the show featured tracks from late Prince, Drake, Callum Scott, Skepta, as well as Wezi, OS Detroi, Kantu and Benny Benassi ft Chris Brown. The girls said they had a very wide taste in music including electro and reggae, but particularly liked Coldplay. No interest in football! One of the girls loves to play volleyball the other enjoys hiking in the Swiss mountains. Both girls are still single, Melina’s boy friend will join her in Tanzania, Flurina had ‘no such complications’!

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years’ from now, Melina wanted to have graduated, have a good job and be travelling, Flurina wanted to be a qualified speech therapist with a good hospital job practicing her speech therapy.

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Dr Mulenga’s Experience!

Dr Teddy Mulenga

We were delighted to welcome Dr Teddy Mulenga (above) to our local radio show as the guest on a recent edition. Dr Mulenga is no stranger to radio – he features weekly on a show on Zambezi 94.1 fm – the same station which broadcasts our show – on which listeners phone in to tell him their health issues and he gives them advice on what to do. Very popular and very professional, hosted by his son Mambo, himself a previous guest on our programme. Our show, The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz, airs every Tuesday evening at 20.30 hrs CAT and is a great mix of latest international and Zambian hit records, as well as chat with our Guest.

Dr Mulenga told us that he had ‘been in Livingstone since 1974’ when he was a schoolboy at Hillcrest Technical Secondary School, just up the road from Chanters Lodge. After passing then ‘Form 5’, now Grade 12, the doctor had proceeded to do his national service, a must in Zambia at that time for all Form 5 graduates. After national service he had attended University of Zambia, where he had read psychology and philosophy.

Upon graduation Dr Mulenga had been selected for the award of a scholarship to study medicine in the then Soviet Union and had spent the next seven years or so in Kiev, now part of Ukraine, where he obtained his medical qualifications. He had also spent time in Sochi on the Black Sea. He still speaks fluent Russian. On return from USSR he had served his internship at Ndola Central Hospital after which he had gone ‘searching for greener pastures’ and had established his own successful clinic in Botswana where he had lived for some 20 years bringing up Mambo and his sister Juliet.

The doctor told us he loves Bob Marley, Lucky Dube and Dolly Parton as well as other musicians who ‘sing proper songs’! On this show we featured tracks from Little Mix ft Sean Paul, Sia, Pink and Charlie XCX. Added to the mix was work from Yemi Alade, Afunika, Avicii ft the Zac Brown Band (the doctor liked that one). Slap D was also included.

Doctor Mulenga is a keen chess player but revealed he usually loses to son Mambo who is himself an excellent player. He has written four books on various topics and is involved in publishing, criticism, as well as sometimes consultancy at Livingstone General Hospital ‘helping the young doctors’. He is ‘The Sceptic’ on Facebook and pretty controversial too! He has never bungee jumped and expressed his medical opinion that people doing that to their bodies might not be wise! He told listeners that he is a long term client of Chanters Lodge and a regular listener to our show.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years’ from now he answered with the one word ‘Parliament’! And then roared with laughter! So did we!

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The Danny D Experience!

Danny D

Our guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz was Danny Anakene (above), better known as ‘Danny D’ – his second appearance on the programme though the first was many years’ ago. Danny is the longest serving member of staff at Zambezi 94.1 fm, and is sales and marketing manager, though in the past he has also served as general manager. ‘The Experience’ is our weekly radio show airing every Tuesday evening at 20.30 hrs for an hour live with great international and Zambian music as well as chat with our guest. This show was no exception.

Danny told listeners that he was a local Livingstone boy, having been brought up here and completing his secondary education at St Raphael’s, one of Livingstone’s all boys secondary schools with a good name. After completing Grade 12, Danny had qualified in journalism at Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka after some years of study. During this time he had developed a taste for radio broadcasting with Radio Phoenix, so it was little wonder that in 2006 he was one of the pioneers of local radio in Livingstone, as Zambezi FM hit the airwaves. Although it had not been easy, since then the station had survived and prospered.

The music on the show was great as usual with hits from Jay Sean ft Sean Paul, Drake ft Whizkid, B-Flow, Casper Nyovest, Sam Fan Thomas, Judy and Will.i.am amongst others. Danny said he was still involved in broadcasting despite being in admin at the station and currently had two shows per week, including his famous Saturday morning spot, often featuring country music.

Milli Jam invited a bombshell when half way through the show he asked Danny where he’d been for the past ten months and listeners were shocked when our guest revealed in public that he had been ‘in jail’! Without going into detail as to how he had ended up in that unfortunate situation, listeners were fascinated to hear details of his prison life including overcrowded cells, tough working conditions, sleeping arrangements and food issues. Danny said that it was his spirituality that had kept him strong and he was expecially proud that the authorities had allowed him to keep his dreadlocks which he’d had for 15 years. That was unusual in itself. He had prayed a lot!

During this time he had been treated with respect by the prison staff and was especially grateful to his wife, family and friends for the moral, financial and physical support he had received while incarcerated. He had enjoyed listening to our show while he was inside and had initiated his fellow prisoners into the delights of ‘The Experience’ every Sunday now Tuesday evenings. We surmised that he must be very strong to have survived this nightmare in the way he had, coming out stronger than when he had gone in.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years’ from now, Danny said that he hoped to be a media director and to have been invloved in broadcasting outside Zambia. We thanked him for coming on our show and sharing his scary experiences with our listeners.

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Yale University Students on The Experience!

Ben Marrow & Alicia Alvarez

Ben and Alicia (above) were our guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz, our weekly radio show airing every Tuesday evening at 20.30 hrs CAT for an hour live on Zambezi 94.1 fm. The show is a lively mixture of international and Zambian pop music, interspersed with chat with our guests.

Ben Marrow and Alicia Alvarez, third year students at the famous, prestigious Yale University, an American private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. Ben is reading Ethics, Politics and Economics, Alicia Economics and Mathematics. High powered? You bet! The guys told us that their college had educated four former US Presidents with a fifth – Hillary Clinton – perhaps on the way to the post. This provoked a discussion about US politics in general and Donald Trump in particular – there’s a surprise! Ben hails from New Jersey while Alicia is from Madrid, Spain. This was their first trip to Southern Africa, visiting family friends in Lusaka, so the guys were determined not to miss the chance of a sight of the mighty Victoria Falls, just 10 kms from Chanters Lodge where they were staying whilst in Livingstone.

Our visitors told us that they had only arrived in Livingstone on the day of the show, having flown from Lusaka with Proflight and having been met at the airport by Richard. Chanters Lodge offers free airport transfers from/to Livingstone Airport for all their guests on arrival and departure. Were the couple ‘an item’ Milli Jam wondered? They claimed they were not but ‘just good friends’ who had met at college and liked to travel together. Alicia seemed a shy mathematician, Ben a more outgoing student. While in town they hoped to have a bike ride to the Falls as well as doing the rhino walk in the Mosi-o-Tunya National Park.

The music on the show was good, with tracks from Ariana Grande, Kelly Clarkson, Zayn, DNCE, Willz ft Red Linso, Tinashe, Alpha Romeo ft Macky 2 and Tommy Dee, as well as Yemi Alade. The guys said they had no particular favourite music or artists but listened a lot to Yale’s own radio station while they were studying. Ben did say he favoured Kanye West and Chance The Rapper.

Alicia surprised us by telling listeners that she was into the sport of fencing and was in Yale University’s fencing team. I warned Milli Jam to control himself otherwise the young lady might take out her foil and sort him out! Coming from where she does it was no surprise to learn that she supports Real Madrid though other members of her family are for Athletico. Does she miss Spain? Not really the States is apparently ‘more exciting’….

Ben comes from a family of academics – both his parents are university professors. Part of his education had been in UK during the time his father was involved with Cambridge University, he had therefore played cricket, rugby and field hockey, as well as mysteriously ending up as a Manchester United supporter. Thereby knowing much more about sport in UK than his peers in America! We moved on.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years’ from now, Alicia said she would like to have finished her studies and to be working for a big international organization, while Ben said he would like to be working, travelling and to be involved in research. We wished them all the best!

 

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The Norwegian Family Experience!

Ingrid, Ann-Sylvie, Anna, Dag Larsen

Meet The Larsens! From left to right daughter Ingrid, mum Ann Sylvi, daughter Anna and dad Dag Rossvang, guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz. The Experience airs live every Tuesday evening at 20.30 hrs CAT on Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, and is a great mix of latest international pop music together with Zambian tracks, as well as chat with our weekly guests, sometimes overseas visitors staying at Chanters Lodge like the Larsens, sometimes Livingstone personalities – occasionally members of the lodge staff!

Dag explained that he and the girls were travelling with Ann Sylvie who was in Livingstone as part of her job. She was in the city to check up on her students from Norway who were on practical teaching exercises in schools including establishments in Linda West and Libala. . Anny Sylvie is a facilitator at Sør-Trøndelag University College or HiST a Norwegian university college located in Trondheim. The school offers higher education within nursing, teaching, economics, food science, engineering and information technology.

Dag himself is a teacher at a prison in Trondheim. “Dangerous work?” We wondered. “Not really” the reply. We wondered whether reports of prisons in countries like Norway being a bit of a soft touch were true, but Dag said not. Anna and Ingrid aged 14 and 12 are both at schools in Trondheim though not attending the same school.

The music on the show was good with tracks from Alan Walker, Jack Garratt, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Zara Larsson, Ice Prince, Shaataman ft Afunika and PLJ, McRule ft Drifta Trek and Zed Anthem – the latter an hysterical cover of Adele’s ‘Hello’ which had our guests doubled up with laughter! Music wise Anna likes Taylor Swift, her dad is into oldies.

Since arriving in Livingstone the family had visited the Falls from both sides and had been enjoying the hot weather and swimming. The girls had escorted their mum on some of her school visits and had enjoyed the experience. “Bungee jumping?” We wondered. “Nooooooooo”! The joint reply!

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Ingrid said she would like to be a kindergarten teacher, Anna a lawyer. Dag said he would like to be doing a different job as he believed that if you are in the same job for more than ten years you become lazy and rot. Ann Sylvi said she would most likely be rotting in her present job which she loves!

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Phyllis Ng’andu on The Experience!

Phyllis Ng'andu

Meet Phyllis Ng’andu (above) guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz, airing every Tuesday night at 20.30 hrs CAT on Zambezi 94.1 fm. Listeners to our show are very familiar with ‘Phyll’, as she likes to be known, being the only full time female presenter employed by Zambezi 94.1 fm at the present time. She told us she is currently involved with show presentation, news reading and production – she obviously loves the job!

Phyll explained that she had, for the most part, been brought up in Botswana, where her dad, an expatriate Zambian, has worked for many years as a radiographer. However she did complete her secondary education back in Zambia at Namwianga Secondary School in Kalomo, some 120 kms north of Livingstone. She also holds a diploma in social work from Evelyn Hone College in Lusaka. “Not exactly social work that you’re doing now” we commented. Phyll explained that she just loved broadcasting! We wondered how she had come to join Zambezi fm, and she explained that this was her second stint with the station having previously been a part time presenter before she went back to school. On completion and her return to Livingstone the station management had demanded her recall and she had been happy to oblige.

A single mother of two year old Mubanga, Phyll told us that she loves house music as well as Zambian music and that her favourite international artist is Adele. “Because of the new album?” Wondered Milli Jam. “No, from way back” replied Phyll. She has never done the bungee jump and didn’t sound too keen on doing so! She supports Liverpool which made Jay Hillz happy! She has two brothers and two sisters of whom she is the oldest. She speaks five languages.

Asked where she would like to be and what she would like to be doing ten years’ from now, ambitious, bubbly Phyll told us that she would like to follow the example of fellow Zambian broadcaster Maureen Nkandu and be working for the BBC. She claimed she would still be single in ten years’ time – we had our doubts about that, but not about her ambition to become an international broadcaster.

 

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From Calgary to Livingstone!

Heather & Doug Spackman & Bev Loney

Meet Bev Loney (left above), as well as Heather and Doug Spackman, guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz. Bev is Heather’s dad, and Doug her husband of the last twenty eight years! Staying at Chanters Lodge, booked through their agent Mike Donovan at Lion Dog Safaris, Bev, Heather and Doug who hail from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, were kind enough to give us some of their time to appear as guests on our local radio show, airing every Tuesday evening for an hour on Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station.

Heather is a school counsellor, Doug an IT specialist in the oil industry and Bev many years retired. Doug and Heather have two ‘kids’ one boy one girl, but no grand children as yet!

Doug told listeners that they had been planning a trip to Africa for the past eight years. Apart from Bev and Heather who had been to North Africa it was the first time for the family to travel to Africa.. Having been told they were at the beginning of a one month trip, “why start in Livingstone?” Wondered Milli Jam. Heather explained that although they had the great Niagara Falls in Canada they had always wanted to see Victoria Falls and now that they had done so, they were certainly not disappointed. They believed Victoria Falls were more impressive.

The family told listeners that apart from seeing Victoria Falls, they had very much enjoyed a one day safari to Chobe NP in Botswana, as well as the lion encounter and elephant safari locally while they had been in Livingstone, and had found Zambians to be very warm and friendly people.

The music on the show was good with tracks from Years and Years, Zayn Malik, Lukas Graham, Charlie Puth ft Selena Gomez as well as Elle King. Also, FJay, Sussie, Mr Veezy and Justin Bieber (in honour of our Canadian guests)!

When they left Zambia the following day the group would travel to Tanzania for a two week safari followed by a week on the beach in Zanzibar! Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years from now, Heather and Doug both wanted to be retired and travelling, Bev wanted to be in good health and still around.

 

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The Tuesday Evening Experience!

Kawana Lubinda

Meet Kawana Lubinda Peter (above), Guest on the first ever Tuesday evening edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz which aired on 26th January. The Experience is our weekly radio show on Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, and has been a regular feature since 2007, in the past on Sunday evenings.

Peter told Milli Jam that he had been working at Zambezi fm for the past week in the marketing department. He is a graduate in Mass Communications and is also an agriculturist. He completed high school in Mazabuka – the sugar town – in Southern Province and indeed had his first broadasting job in that town with community radio in 2004. Since then his experience has been such that he believes he can ‘do anything in radio broadcasting’. Milli Jam wondered whether he had also worked in television or print media but Peter said that aspect was still something for the future.

The music on the show was good. We did not feature Peter’s favourite Boys2Men, but did play tracks from AlunaGeorge ft Popcaan, Ne-Yo, Olly Murs and Pet Shop Boys. There was also work from Shenky Shuga ft Che-Che, Justin Bieber, Slap D and the latest from Sigala – ‘Say You Do’. We do our best to help the station keep up with the new tracks in UK and USA.

Peter told listeners that he has been married for nine years and has two boys and a girl. He sent his love to his wife who was listening. He supports Manchester United and said he thought Louis van Gaal should be given more time to bring back success to his favourite club. His favourite all time player – Ruud van Nistelrooy. He had never done the bungee jump but was looking forward to marketing the station to various of the activity companies in Livingstone as well as other corporates.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years’ from now, Peter told listeners that he would like to be very independent, an entrepreneur and an investor, especially in the agriculture sector with a big farm. We thanked him for letting us be the first show at Zambezi fm to delve into his personality and experience!

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The Avi Assist Experience

Albert de Hoon & Gloria Bitebekezi

Meet Albert de Hoon and Gloria Bitebekezi, guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient ft Jay Hillz. The Experience is our weekly radio show airing every Sunday live for an hour at 20.30 hrs CAT on Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Albert hails from Amsterdam, Netherlands, Gloria from Kampala, Uganda. They are both part time workers for the Avi Assist Foundation, promoting flight safety in East and Southern Africa.

The independent, non profit AviAssist Foundation promotes professionalism in African aviation safety. It analyses the problems and works on practical solutions to them. The Foundation provides pro-active safety support to aviation organisations (government and industry) in the 24 States of the ICAO East and Southern African (ESAF) region. They are also involved with fire fighting advice and there is an annual conference, this year to be held in Rwanda.

Gloria and Albert told listeners that they were in Livingstone to run two short courses on airport wildlife management for airport staff drawn from all over Zambia. We were informed that in most cases birds form the biggest danger to aircraft taking off and landing at airports worldwide and have been the cause of plenty of accidents. Staff at Harry Nkumbula Airport in Livingstone seemed to think that elephant were a bigger problem in their case!

It was Gloria’s second visit to Zambia but first to Livingstone, Albert’s first visit to Zambia. Albert told us he is a full time employee of the Civil Aviation Authority in the Netherlands, while Gloria has her own consultancy in Environmental Management back in Kampala, where she is married to a lawyer. They are both happy to give their services to Avi Assist from time to time.

Gloria has three children all schooling, while Albert has a little girl aged one and a half, already missing him back in Holland! Gloria told us that her musical tastes were for gospel and jazz, while Albert was into house and loved Tiesto among others. The music on our show was good, highlighted by tracks from Foxes, Philip George, The Vamps, Sarkodie ft Stonebooy and Slap D.

While they were in Livingstone the guys hoped to do the rhino walk as well as the ‘under the spray’ tour. Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years from now, Gloria was not sure, while Albert wanted to be happy, healthy and travelling.

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Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown

Meet Gordon Brown (above) frequent guest at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone and also our guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz, The Experience is the weekly radio show sponsored by Chanters Lodge airing every Sunday night at 20.30 hrs for an hour live on Zambezi 94.1 fm, and is an easy mixture of latest international and Zambian pop music, interspersed with chat with our guest. Gordon told listeners that this was his fourth or fifth visit to Livingstone in recent years, and that he found Chanters to be a good place to stay, not a luxury lodge, but homely, comfortable, clean with good food and helpful, friendly staff. That made us feel happy!

Gordon is Canadian from Victoria, BC and spent 35 years as a primary school teacher, headmaster and administrator in the Canadian education system. He had been ‘retired’ for the past twenty years. He is a widower with a son, daughter and four grandchildren all living quite near him in Victoria. Our guest told listeners that he first came to Zambia in 1996 under VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas), a quasi British government outfit, as a lecturer at David Livingstone Teacher Training College in Livingstone. He had also spent time in Ghana under the auspices of VSO.

The music on the show was good with tracks from Fuse ODG, Nero, Hayden James, Chris Brown, Beatenberg, Kayo, Majik Links ft K’Millian and Fifth Harmony. Gordon’s own taste in music he described as ‘very 50’s’! Sports wise he follows ice hockey and his grandson’s support of Wolves in UK has given Gordon a little interest in EPL soccer in UK.

Gordon is very much involved in The Canadian Harambee Education Society (CHES) which helps girls get secondary education by raising funds for scholarships for Kenyan and Tanzanian girls who gain Secondary School placements, but have no funds for school fees. Also by placing CHES girls in boarding schools (wherever possible) to maximize their success. They also support special projects when donations are so targeted such as building dormitories, enriched learning centres and services to support them. CHES sends volunteers (often retired teachers) as agents in Kenya. Gordon is currently busy on a project to provide admin facilities for CHES in Kenya.

Gordon had spent the day of the show in Chobe NP and had been delighted to see both lion and leopard, as well as the usual array of elephant and other animals on the trip. During his visit he would be going across to Zimbabwe to see the Falls from that side, plus a visit to Nakatindi Community School to review progress, as he had been involved in the establishment of that school.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years’ from now he replied that he would like to be alive and productive.

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