Botswana – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

Paul & Angela Metcalfe

Meet Paul and Angela Metcalfe, guests on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient ft George Soulchild, our regular radio show that goes out on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s best loved local radio station, every Sunday night at 20.30 hrs. Paul and Angela (sorry for the blurry quality of the photo above!) hail from Wigan, Lancashire, UK, as Gerald Mweene was very quick to point out when we offered a prize on air for the first person to text us as to where this friendly couple came from. Mr Mweene won himself a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge as a result of his fast reactions!

It was interesting to hear about Paul and Angela’s lifestyle. After years in the oil industry, Paul is now in property management, wife Angela is a retired secondary school teacher – specialist subject? French. Paul and Angela met at University in Bangor, North Wales and have been married 28 years. “Was it love at first sight?” I wanted to know, and Paul admitted he’d proposed marriage to Angela within a week of their meeting. “Did you say yes?” I asked Angela. “No” she replied, making us laugh, “I told him to go away and stop being stupid!” “What changed?” I continued my interrogation. “He was very persistent” she admitted, with a wink! “Where did he take you for your silver wedding anniversary” I wanted to know. “Mauritius”. Can’t be bad!

Paul and Angela have one son and one daughter but no grandchildren as yet. They travel a lot – up to 6 times a year – and in Paul’s oil days lived in Gabon, Algeria and Norway amongst other places. They’ve done a lot since they arrived in Livingstone, including high tea on Livingstone Island that very afternoon, a 15 minute helicopter flight over the Falls, a 3 day safari to Chobe, the lion encounter and the rhino walk. Despite living in Wigan, home of the famous rugby league team as well as Wigan Athletic in the Barclays Premier League, Paul and Angela confessed to having no interest in sport beyond snow skiing, in which they regularly indulge.

The music on the show was good, as usual, and featured two tracks from the latest Phil Collins album – ‘Going Back’ the title track and ‘Jimmy Mack’. Rihanna’s ‘Who’s That Chick’ and Taylor Swift’s ‘Speak Now’ (hilarious) made up a set, and so too did Milli Jam’s choice of ‘OMG’ by Serani ft Usher & Patira and ‘Check It Out’ by Will.I.Am ft Nicki Minaj. George’s local selections were from Danny and Dalisoul.

“How did you come to choose Chanters Lodge” Milli Jam asked Paul. “From TripAdvisor and guide books” replied Paul. “Talking of the internet” Milli Jam directed the question at me “have you gone over the 1000 followers on Twitter”. “With a little help from my friends” I replied, “yes I have.”

19
OCT

activities, Africa, Botswana, Chanters, guests, livingstone, music, radioshow, uk, victoriafalls, wildlife, Zambia

Internet Hope?

Is there hope on the horizon? Given our generally crappy internet connection and speeds – even though we do use the best ISP available, any development like this would be so welcome. Thanks to The Citizen for the story.

Zambia and Botswana authorities have signed a memorandum of understanding to connect the two nations with a universal optic cable that will enhance Internet connectivity and telecommunication services. Zambia’s Telecommunications Company (Zamtel) and the Botswana Telecommunications Corporation (BTC) this week signed the MoU to connect a fibre optic cable network through the Kazungula border post.

The joint telecommunications project will cost US$258,000 and is expected take between three to four months to be built. Zamtel CEO Amon Jere said in Lusaka that once effected, the project would make Zambia a telecommunications hub in the southern African region. Jere said the project would help reduce the cost of international connectivity and improve the quality and speed of Internet services.

He disclosed that that the company was considering connecting another fibre optic cable with Namibia through Kazungula. “We are working on providing high quality but affordable high-speed Internet for all Zambians”, Jere said. “Every Zambian must have access to affordable high quality broadband Internet through both mobile and fixed Internet.”

BTC, which provides the country’s national and international telecommunications services, early this year signed a similar $5 million deal with Powertel of Zimbabwe. Under the deal, BTC provides Powertel with international bandwidth capacity for two years after the two organisations completed cross-border fibre optic connections at Ramokgwebana in December 2009.

Fibre optic cables are a special communication module used to carry data and information, widely used by Internet service providers and in other telecommunication systems. It offers relatively low consumer prices. BTC has already committed to invest P504 million to secure reliable bandwidth connection from an undersea fibre optic through the West African Cable System (WACS).

The picture? Chobe National Park in Botswana, close to Kazangula

16
OCT

Africa, Botswana, infrastructure, internet, Zambia

Luke Ford on 107.7 fm

Check Luke Ford, staying with us at the lodge, guesting on the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient ft George Soulchild, our regular Sunday night radio show that goes out every 20.30 hrs Sundays, on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s best loved local radio station. ‘Let the waves flow’ and ‘imitated but never duplicated!’

Luke is chief executive officer of his own company ‘Gunyah’ (more than a holiday) but also works for World Hotel Link. This is what they say on their website about the company:- ‘Looking for accommodation, tours or activities in destinations “off the beaten track”, or that you’ve read about and can’t find online? Looking for something a little special; a chance to really connect with the destination you are travelling to? Looking to book with people who really care about the local destinations; the people, cultures and environment? Then you’ve come to the right place.’

Luke is helping develop products and tours locally, using local suppliers and agents.

In Livingstone, Luke is dealing with Wildside Safaris – good friends of Chanters Lodge and has been enjoying some of the activities that this part of the world has to offer – the previous day he’d taken the one day safari to Chobe and was amazed at the number of elephants he saw. He also saw lion. “Where do you live?” Milli Jam wanted to know and Luke explained that he travels so much he doesn’t really live anywhere, but of late Vietnam and Prague had both been his base for a while. Luke hails from Australia but had trouble remembering the last time he’d been home!

“How did you come to choose Chanters Lodge” the guys wanted to know, and Luke went on to explain that a colleague of his from Hotel Plan had recommended us, but he’d also ‘met’ me on Twitter and the reservation request had been made through that medium. Luke has almost 4000 followers on Twitter and when I said that made my nearly 1000 look very little, his response was ‘what about those with 100,000 followers?’ He has a point! How did he get so many? ‘Through interaction and Tweetups’ was his reply. We haven’t had a Tweetup in Livingstone, it’s a function where Tweeters meet in person.

The music for the show was very well organized this week. We opened with our new theme Aggro Santos – ‘Candy’, then we played two hot tracks from the current UK top 10 – ‘Heartbeat’ – Enrique ft Nicole Scherzinger, and Tinie Tempah’s ‘Written In The Stars’. Two local tracks – Nasty D with ‘Zikolamutendela’ and Shimasta featuring the late great Lily T – ‘Some Attention’. George will write some news on the local music scene later this week, all being well. Chris Brown’s ‘Yeah x 3’ sounds like a hit, and Milimo brought back memories with Foreigner’s ‘I Wanna Know What Love Is’ and Toto’s ‘Rosanna’.

We gave away the usual dinner for two to the first person to text us as to where Luke came from – Australia was the right answer, and the prize was won by Jasper. When I reached home later in the evening I was told it was a confusing question seeing our guest had said he didn’t really have a home! Point taken!

Where was Luke going after his visit to Zambia? The World Travel Market in London. Where would he like to be and what would he like to be doing 10 years from now? ‘Travelling’ – surprise, surprise!

12
OCT

Africa, Botswana, guests, hotels, music, radioshow, travel, victoriafalls, Zambia

Michelle V Hall on Zambezi Radio

Meet Michelle Hall, pictured here relaxing by the swimming pool at Chanters Lodge during her four day holiday in Livingstone, Zambia just 10 kms from Victoria Falls. Michelle was the latest Guest on our weekly Sunday night radio show, The Chanters Lodge Experience on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, going out live at 20.30 hrs.

“How long have you had your dreadlocks” was the first question Milli Jam, who co-hosts the programme with George Soulchild, asked Michelle. “About 12 years – everyone asks me that!” Was the quick reply. Before she came to Livingstone Michelle had been in Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city for a week, involved in an international conference for trainers across Africa. She’s an educational technologist at Columbia University in New York and works out of the Center for New Media Teaching & Learning. She told listeners that her work involves training non clinician physicians, for which there is a high demand, given that most African countries don’t have enough doctors.

Michelle, a self confessed workaholic, works in New York City though she lives in New Jersey and commutes daily. She originally hails from Barbados in the West Indies. She told listeners that when she arrived in Zambia at Lusaka International Airport, immigration had two lists, one of nationalities requiring a visa to enter Zambia and another of nationalities that are visa free. Barbados didn’t appear on either list! She was allowed into Zambia twice, visa free. The second occasion was coming back into the country whilst she was staying at Chanters, when she took the one day safari to Chobe in Botswana, which she much enjoyed.

On hearing that Michelle was from Barbados, George and Milli Jam immediately wanted to know if she knew Rihanna, who also hails from there. Michelle told listeners that although she wasn’t aware of it, she had in fact taught Rihanna at high school in Barbados. They weren’t much interested however when Michelle and I started talking cricket – Sir Gary Sobers and Joel Garner both hail from Barbados. We asked our guest lots of questions about the island including food – their staple food is Kuku and Flying Fish, Kuku is a combination of yellow maize and okra, and no, George didn’t know that fish could fly! Nor did the rest of us!

Music wise it was a good show. We played Chris Brown ‘I Love You’ back to back with Toni Braxton ft Sean Paul ‘Looking At Me’. The Zambian set was Crystal Shawn ‘Chimami’ (‘Girlfriend’) and Alfa Romeo (I love that name!) singing ‘Rumour’. ‘Ride’ by Ciara ft Ludacris and ‘Unthinkable’ by Alicia Keys both went down well with our Guest who told listeners she’d been brought up on R&B. We also featured ‘Riding Solo’ by Jason Derulo and closed with ‘Love Is Wicked’ by Brick & Lace. The latter had performed in Lusaka the previous night.

As usual we gave away a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge. This week the prize was given for the first person to text us the name of the big American city in which Michelle worked – the response was fair but not as good as previous weeks. Perhaps it was a tricky question considering that we’d talked more about Barbados.

Michelle told listeners that she’d found out about Chanters Lodge from Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor on the internet and had been impressed with the good reviews about us on those sites. She’d enjoyed her stay at the lodge and had loved the Chanters Girls! Don’t we all!

Before we closed Milli Jam asked Michelle where she would like to be and what she’d like to be doing 10 years from now. “Back on Barbados teaching in the University” was Michelle’s reply. I’d put money on her achieving her goal!

24
AUG

Africa, Botswana, Chanters, Customers, education, guests, Lusaka, radioshow, usa, Zambia

The Chanters Lodge Experience

It could be a title of a Guest review couldn’t it? In fact it’s the name of a weekly radio show, sponsored by Chanters Lodge on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The full title of the show is ‘The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Soulchild’. George and Milli Jam, famous local DJ’s, are pictured above. The show goes out live at 20.30 hours every Sunday.

The radio programme is essentially musical, featuring old pop, new pop and Zambian music. Richard Chanter, owner and manager of Chanters Lodge also features weekly on the show. A Guest from the lodge is usually invited to talk about their experiences in Zambia and at the lodge, and the music and chat are intertwined in an exciting and interesting way. Local personalities also feature on the show from time to time, and several members of staff at the lodge have guested on the show.

Last week our Guest was a retired professor of history from Australia who was interesting and entertaining. The music was good. The show featured two Zambian tracks – Exile with ‘Nganalikwe ba le’ (‘If I Had Told You’) and Afunika with ‘Darling’. (George might write more for the blog about these artists and tracks later in the week, time permitting). The show opened with ‘Candy’ by Aggro Santos ft Kimberley Wyatt. The new UK number one ‘Beautiful Monster’ by Ne-Yo featured, as well as Mary J Blige’s ‘Each Tear’. Leona Lewis’s ‘Bleeding Love’ took people back a couple of years while Professor Green’s ‘Just Be Good’ and Usher’s ‘DJ Got Us Falling In Love’ are smack up to date. The show closed with Treysongz ‘Already Taken’.

The lodge gives away a dinner for two with drinks every week. This week the prize was given to the first person to text Richard the Guest’s nationality and as usual there was a good response, showing that after more than a two year run, the show has lost none of its popularity with the local population. Zambezi 107.7 fm has a range of about 65 kms, touching as far as Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and Kasane in Botswana.

Our Guest praised the staff at the lodge on air, which was good news, and the radio show has proved excellent for staff morale. We often wonder what the Chanters Girls get up to while they’re listening to the programme at the lodge! Dancing? We guess so! The staff love to hear their names mentioned weekly and feel proud that the lodge is recognised on radio.

18
AUG

Africa, Botswana, Chanters, guests, livingstone, music, radioshow, reviews, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Hagenbeek Family on 107.7 fm!

It was a great pleasure to host Nadia, Dinanda, Detlev and Edwin Hagenbeek from Utrecht, Holland on The Chanters Lodge Experience, our Sunday night radio show on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm last Sunday, and with Milimo (Milli Jam), George (Soulchild) and myself on hand too, the studio was very full – great fun nevertheless! The family photo was taken outside our new offices just before we left for the studio, Nadia left to right!

The Hagenbeek’s had stayed at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone for a few days last week before setting off for the Kafue National Park in the hope of seeing cheetah. They weren’t lucky with that, but had a great time anyway. One of their special moments was an audience with His Excellency the Litunga in Mongu, King or the Paramount Chief of the Lozi people! They also enjoyed a visit to Sioma Falls. The rest of us admitted shamefacedly we’d never been there, but agreed we’d love to!

It was the second of the Hagenbeeks’ trips to Zambia in a short time. They’d been here last year but were suddenly recalled to Holland when Dinanda’s father became very ill and subsequently passed away. We were sorry to hear this sad news. This year the family decided to come back and see what they’d missed in Zambia. I don’t think, though, they’d thought about guesting on the Chanters Lodge Experience! As mentioned The Hagenbeeks are from Utrecht, and Edwin has been responsible for training Zambians nurses in Katete, though this trip they didn’t visit the East. Dinanda also has a health related project on the Copperbelt.

It was nice to talk to Nadia, 14 going on 19, who rocked to the music we played and told listeners she wasn’t yet sure what she wanted to do when she was through College (though Robin van Persie got a mention.) Detlev 10 was nervous because of speaking in English but told listeners that he was very interested in photography and was waiting to see the photos of leopards he’d taken in Kafue! Wish I spoke another language as well as Detlev.

Music? George, I hope, will write up the Zambian content, Milli Jam was into BoB ‘Nothing On You’ again, and I chose ‘Just To Be Good To Be Green’ by Prof Green ft Lilly Allen and ‘Bang Bang Bang’ Mark Ross and The Business. Oh! And we played ‘Love The Way you Lie’. Great track from Rihanna and Eminem which we all loved!

On Monday we put the family on to the Mazhandu Family Bus Service 09.00 hrs service to Lusaka to start the next stage of their adventure, which is a trip from Kapiri Mposhi north of Lusaka, all the way to Dar Es Salaam by train. They have family in Dar and hope to have a rest on those beautiful Tanzanian beaches. It’s unusual for European or American families to take all the surprises that Africa can offer, both good and not so good, with such patience and good grace as Edwin, Dinanda and their great kids do!

On the show we tried, but failed, not to mention Holland not winning the World Cup! We gave away a dinner for two at Chanters to the first listener to text us the Hagenbeeks’ country of origin and we greeted Guests, Staff and Family! The prize was quickly snapped up!

27
JUL

accommodation, Africa, Botswana, Chanters, football, livingstone, Tanzania, victoriafalls, World Cup 2010

Air Botswana

This from Zambia Watchdog

Air Botswana is set to introduce Lusaka, Zambia as its third destination in August, as the airline moves to make its mark in the region’s airspace. Though officials at the country’s airline were not forthcoming with information save to confirm the latest developments, according to its in-flight magazine, the deal has been sealed and if all goes accordingly come August, Air Botswana will be landing at the Lusaka international airport.

An agent has reportedly been appointed to take care of Air Botswana’s business in the Zambian capital. Flights will run four days a week with two of them being direct while others will have a stop over in Kasane. Kasane is a strategic location. Six kilometres east of Kasane is Kazungula, which serves as the border post between Botswana and Zimbabwe and the landing for the Kazungula Ferry between Botswana and Zambia.

(Kazungula is, of course, less than 1 hour’s drive from Livingstone – ed)

Seems like good news!

27
APR

Africa, airlines, Botswana, tourism, Zambia

No Limit

Seth Godin gets it right on his blog. I wish more people had this attitude.

“It’s absurd to look at a three year old toddler and say, “this kid can’t read or do math or even string together a coherent paragraph. He’s a dolt and he’s never going to amount to anything.” No, we don’t say that because we know we can teach and motivate and cajole the typical kid to be able to do all of these things. Why is it okay, then, to look at a teenager and say, “this kid will never be a leader, never run a significant organization, never save a life, never inspire or create…”

Just because it’s difficult to grade doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taught. Never mind a teenager. I think it’s wrong to say that about someone who’s fifty.

Isn’t it absurd to focus so much energy on ‘practical’ skills that prep someone for a life of following instructions but relentlessly avoid the difficult work necessary to push someone to reinvent themselves into becoming someone who makes a difference?

And isn’t it even worse to write off a person or an organization merely because of what they are instead of what they might become?”

The picture? Or son Henry nearly 8 and full of it, enjoying a day out in Botswana!

6
APR

Africa, blog, Botswana, family, management, staff

Chris The Taxi

‘Chris The Taxi’ aka Chris Mweetwa as you’ve never seen him before! Clowning around! Chris was invited for a party last Saturday night at Chanters Lodge by John and Peggy Powell. He’d taken them to Chobe National Park in Botswana for their two day two night safari, and generally looked after them while they were in Livingstone. John clowns around as I mentioned yesterday when we posted a photo of him with some of the Chanters Girls, and he was ‘kind’ enough to give Chris (and me for that matter) a clown nose!

On a more serious note, Chris is one of Livingstone’s best known taxi drivers and inordinately helpful to Chanters Lodge in many ways – vehicle maintenance, road traffic issues and local knowledge in particular. He handles all our transport requirements that we can’t handle ourselves. He’s a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church and takes his worship and preaching very seriously – though I guess he won’t be in church wearing this particular nose on Saturday!

30
MAR

activities, Africa, Botswana, Chanters, entrepreneurship, guests, victoriafalls, Zambia

Glamour!

I was in trouble yesterday for publishing a photo of my sister Ruth which she described as ‘rather unglamourous’! I guess – though I love those photos of people wearing huge raincoats and hats, still getting soaked at Victoria Falls!

Anyway to appease her, there’s a lovely photo of Ruth Binney enjoying her river safari on the Chobe River during our recent visit to Botswana and the Chobe National Park!

23
MAR

Botswana, family, tourism, victoriafalls, wildlife, Zambia

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