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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Elizabeth Rogers

Elizabeth Rogers

Meet Elizabeth Rogers, a guest at Chanters Lodge, pictured above, who appeared 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 night on Zambezi 94.1 fm – Livingstone’s leading commercial local radio station, reaching a radius of about 75 kms around the tourist capital and broadcasting 24/7.

Elizabeth told listeners that this was her first visit to Livingstone which she was very much enjoying, despite the low level of water in Victoria Falls. She had managed to cross on to the Zimbabwe side of the Falls where there is always more water at this time of year – mainly due to our electricity company in Zambia diverting the Zambezi above the Falls to power their hydro electric system. She had really enjoyed the day on both sides of the border.

Elizabeth is a pharmacist by profession, holding a PharmD following 10 years of tertiary education in Virginia, USA from where she hails. We were shocked to learn the length of time she had to study but not really surprised to hear that she was contemplating more studies when she returned to the States. “Do you have student loans to repay”? I wondered. She replied in the affirmative but seemed pretty cool about it! She told listeners that she had been working in Lusaka in public health for the past year – mainly with matters concerning the HIV/Aids epidemic.

The music on the show was good featuring tracks from Ariane Grande, Coldplay, Axwell > Ingrosso ft Pusha T, Omi and Sygma ft Rita Ora. Jay dropped ‘I Love You’ by upcoming Zambian outfit Urban Hype, telling us that he had had the pleasure of interviewing the group during the week on the breakfast show he hosts daily on Zambezi 94.1 fm. He strongly tipped the band for a bright future.

Elizabeth told listeners she had enjoyed a wonderful day out in Chobe NP in Botswana, during her visit where she had been lucky enough to see lions as well, of course, as hundreds and hundreds of elephant. She had experienced a super lunch at Chobe Safari Lodge. She was very excited about the cheetah encounter she had booked for the following morning before her flight back to Lusaka.

She is single, and from the time she leaves Lusaka to return to the States, probably unemployed. We voiced the opinion that neither of these statuses would last long. Music wise she loves Rascal Flatts,and sports wise she is an avid supporter of the USA Ladies Soccer Team – the world champions.

Asked where she would like to be and what she would like to be doing ten years’ from now, she told us that she would like to be married, a mother to her children, and working in pharmaceuticals specifically in the field of drug safety. We wished her all the best!

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