Meet Kathy and Ed Barlow (above) from Elizabethtown, PA, USA, 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 from 20.30 to 21.30 hrs CAT on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The show is a smooth mixture of Zambian and international pop music interspersed with chat with our Guests. On this occasion, as the headline reflects, the chat was about Kathy and Ed’s two months spent as volunteers at Sikalongo Mission in the Southern Province of Zambia.

Sikalongo Mission is run by the Brethren in Christ Church out of the USA and trains Zambian pastors for their church. Kathy and Ed, both teachers by profession, told listeners that Kathy had spent most of her time teaching English to the trainee pastors’ wives, while Ed was busy helping with maintenance at the mission. They had learned some Chitonga during their visit and Milli Jam was quick to start chatting away with Kathy in his own language. Others of us just listened….

This quiet, charming couple, told listeners that their daughter Kelly had visited them during their time in Zambia. They took the opportunity to thank staff at National Airports at Livingstone Airport who, after Kelly had arrived in Livingstone from a very long journey from USA, had safely recovered and returned Kelly’s wallet which she’d left in the ladies rest room at the airport. Everything in the wallet was in tact including cash, credit cards and passport. “Wow!” we said, and meant it. Kelly is trained in physical therapy and had taken the chance to help some of the Sikalongo residents with exercise programmes during her visit.

The music on the show was good. We opened with tracks from Avicii, Melissa Street and Bakermat. Milli Jam and Jay dropped tracks from DJ Cassidy and Robin Thicke, Pompi, and AKA as well as Mampi featuring Judy. Our oldie of the week was ‘Dilemma’ from Nelly and Kelly Rowland. We closed with ‘Faded’ from Zhu.

Ed and Kathy told listeners they had been ‘wowed’ by Victoria Falls and were happy that they had been told before they arrived. that they could not come to Zambia without seeing this particular natural wonder of the world. Their trip to Zambia had been inspired by Dr Dwight and Mrs Carol Thomas, Zambian/Sikalongo veterans and neighbours of the Barlow’s in America. The Barlows had visited Chobe NP in Botswana during their visit and had been delighted and awed to watch a leopard kill a guinea fowl. They had also seen a pride of lion, their first time to see big cats in their natural state. This was their first visit to Zambia and indeed to Africa.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years’ from now, Ed and Kathy said they would like to be retired and free to be the ‘hands and feet of Jesus’. We thanked them for volunteering their time and resources to come and help Zambians in Southern Province.