The Victor Hambayi Overland Experience

V. Hambayi

Why the Victor Hambayi ‘Overland’ Experience? Well, Victor Hambayi, pictured above, was our guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient ft Jay Hillz, our weekly Sunday night radio show airing at 20.30 hrs for an hour live on Zambezi 94.1 fm’ Livingstone’s longest established local commercial radio station. Victor is an overland driver/guide with Nomad Africa Adventure Tours, hence the headline! Nomad boasts a fleet of around 40 vehicles, 150 staff and 40 scheduled departures a month all over Africa. Victor told listeners that he had worked for the outfit for about three years.

Whilst the group has lots of different tours Victor told us that he most often does the trip from Cape Town to Victoria Falls, via Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. He drives and guides and is accompanied by a chef who cooks for the Clients – between 19 and 26 people per trip, sometimes camping throughout, sometimes lodge accommodation throughout, sometimes a combination. Victor clearly likes the guiding side of the job more than the driving which he described as ‘tough’. “Breakdowns?” We wondered. “Occasionally” replied Victor, “but Nomad are well organized when the situation arises and vehicles are seldom stuck with a breakdown for more than 24 hours. Clients are warned in advance that such things do sometimes happen!”

The music on the show was good with tracks from WSTRN, 99 Souls ft Destiny’s Child and Brandy, Years and Years, as well as Format B. Jay dropped two Zambian latest smash hits, ‘Kabouvelo’ by Lloydee and ‘Cocoa Butter’ from Kaladoshas ft Petersen. There was also a remix of Adele’s ‘Hello’ and a South African track from Galza. Victor, whose nick name as a younger man was ‘Mr Smooth’ (“it’s a long story”), told us he likes R&B and that his favourite artists are Bobby Brown and Lionel Richie.

Brought up in Southern Province as his dad worked for Zambia Railways, Victor was educated at St Raphael’s and Hillcrest Secondary Schools in Livingstone and had also been trained in panel beating and spray painting at a local college. By the time he was qualified, Livingstone Motor Assemblers had closed and there were no jobs in his line. He then trained as a driver and worked for Bushtracks in Livingstone before doing a favour for Nomad, ending up working for them. The overland season lasts from February to November so at the time of the show he was enjoying spending time with his wife and family whom he missed a lot when he was on the road. He has four children ranging in ages from 19 to 1 year 2 months!

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years’ from now, Victor said he would like to have a share in an overland tour business with superb guides offering wonderful service, coupled with extraordinary knowledge.

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Howard University Zambian Experience

Annabelle Dorion & Juliette Fombi

Meet Annabelle Dorion (above left) and Juliette Fombi, students at Howard University in Washington DC, USA, and guests 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 airing on Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, from 20.30-21.30 hrs every Sunday night sponsored by Chanters Lodge and is a lively mixture of latest international and Zambian pop music interspersed with chat with our guest-of-the-week. We also give listeners social media and pop chart updates.

Annabelle and Juliette told listeners they had been in Livingstone for the past three weeks on internships at Livingstone General Hospital. They are third and fourth year students at Howard studying pharmacy, and their work at the hospital had been based at the HIV/Aids section dispensing medication and offering counseling to patients. They had been accommodated at Chanters Lodge throughout their stay in Livingstone and had been happy at the lodge, it had been comfortable and convenient, they said. The girls actually seemed sorry they would be leaving for home in America in a few days’ time. The work had been an eye opener and they had made friends.

The music on the show was latest and varied featuring tracks from Fuse ODG, David Zowie, Years and Years, Chefy 187, Natalie la Rose ft Fetty Wap, Salma Sky, Olly Murs and ‘Yoga’ by Janelle Monae ft Jinneda. Our pick of the week was by Jake Miller and the closing track from Little Mix

Milli Jam wanted to know if the girls had had time to undertake any of the many tourist activities available in Livingstone and the girls bemoaned just how expensive most of the activities were for students on a budget. However they had enjoyed seeing Victoria Falls and on Annabelle’s birthday the previous weekend they had taken the sunset cruise on the Zambezi which they had thoroughly enjoyed. “No bungee jump?” I wondered. They laughed and said they’d been scared to do that. They had though, enjoyed some leisure time at the various pubs and clubs in Livingstone. They told us they were both single and had ‘no time for boyfriends’. We wondered about this….

Annabelle’s roots are in Philippines and Juliette’s in Cameroon. Living in Washington had they met President Obama? – Annabelle had! We were impressed. Both girls said they loved all types of music and had no real favourite though Juliette loves Nigerian tracks. Annabelle supports Arsenal in England which made Milli Jam happy and both girls were delighted that USA had recently won the Women’s Football World Cup.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, both girls said they would like to be fully qualified pharmacists, working, married and with families. We thanked them for coming on our show and wished them a nice few days in South Africa when they left Zambia and a safe journey home to Washington DC later in the month.

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The Neopolitan Experience

Giovanni Ceperano

 

Meet Giovanni Ceperano from Naples, Italy, (hence the title), on holiday in Zambia, and 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 we sponsor every Sunday night on Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone longest established commercial local radio station. The show goes out live from 20.30 hrs for an hour and features local and international pop music, as well as chat with our guest, and social media as well as pop chart updates.

Giovanni said that this was not his first trip to Africa as he had been on safari to East Africa some time back, visiting Kenya and Tanzania. On this journey he had stayed for a week in Kruger NP in South Africa and had been lucky to see all of the ‘Big 5’. Since arriving in Livingstone a few days ago he had been on the sunset cruise on African Queen, and the day of the show he had spent the day in Chobe NP in Botswana where he had seen hundreds of elephant as well as a pride of lion. In between times our guest had been to see Victoria Falls from both Zimbabwe as well as the Zambian side and thought the view from both sides ‘very beautiful’. Had he bungee jumped? No he was ‘scared for that!’

Our guest told listeners that he works for the internal security police in Naples and that he has been a detective in that section for some twenty years. Was his job dangerous, we wondered, going after high powered criminals? “It can be” said our guest. ‘Just a minute’ I said – ‘you’re scared to bungee jump but you chase criminals for a living, how does that work?’ Giovanni laughed.

The music on the show featured hot tracks from Blonde ft Alex Newell, Rudimental, Kantu and DJ Gesh, Britney Spears ft Iggy Azalea, P Square ft Don Janzzy as well as DJ Muzengaman.

Giovanni told he us he was not married and that he had an eight year old son Stefano. His favourite band is U2 and he likes both rock and pop. He loves to go out dancing to discos in Naples when he has time. He’s a big fan of Napoli FC, currently fourth in La Liga and goes to watch – again when his job allows the time. Napoli FC is famous partly because of Diego Maradonna one time player for that team.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing ten years from now Giovanni said he would like still to be doing the same work and travelling. He said he was off to Cape Town the next day and we wished him all the best

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