Danish Experiences

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Meet Mr Jan Lund who has been working as an engineer in Zambia, he brought his family all the way from Denmark to Livingstone for a few days. In this picture Jan is with his nephew Bue, wife Nicole and their two children Liv  and Ask having a spot of lunch before a Sunset cruise. Welcome to Chanters Lodge. We hope you enjoy your stay 🙂

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Volunteering Experiences

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We currently have 14 students and 2 leaders, Mr and Mrs Gough, from the Arnewood School in Hampshire in UK staying at Chanters Lodge. They are spending 4 weeks here in Livingstone and are here to complete charity work at the Lubusi Orphanage and Maramba care home. Following that they will be completing a building project for the school in Mukuni Village, then moving on to ALERT to do environmental work with the lions and elephants. They will complete their 4 weeks with a safari in Chobe National Park in Botswana. They are doing some great work in our community and we’re grateful to them for that. If you would like to learn more about their visit then take a look at their website. Chanters Lodge are happy to assist you in arranging all your excursions and activities whilst you’re in Livingstone, for more information visit our activities page.

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Richard Chanter 1947 – 2016

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We are extremely saddened to announce the death of our owner and director Richard Chanter. He passed away from natural causes after a short illness on the 20th of May 2016. He was a towering presence who will be missed by all those who knew and loved him.

We would like take this opportunity to assure all our guests that Chanters Lodge is still open for business as usual. In Richard’s words, “The show must go on!” One of Richard’s great contributions to the industry in Zambia was excellent training of his employees. As such the day-to-day running of the lodge is now in the very competent hands of Anastastia, Richard’s right-hand woman and long-time assistant.

Richard’s five children and surviving spouse will be running the lodge going forward and we hope to be able to expand on the foundations he has laid for us.

Thank you to everyone who has sent messages of condolence during this difficult time.

Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides.
~ Lao Tzu ~

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Another Aussie Experience!

Connie Stevens & Wallis Woodhams

Meet Connie Stevens and Wallis Woodhams (above), Australian travellers 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 at 20.30 hrs CAT every Sunday night on Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone leading local radio station. Our guests told listeners that they were traveling as friends, that they both hailed from Perth, Western Australia and that this was their first visit to Zambia. In fact they revealed that this was also their very first visit to Africa! “Is it what you expected?” Asked Milli Jam. They thought about the question for a few seconds and then answered “on the whole yes!”

Connie and Wallis said that they were almost half way through their two week trip to Zambia and that they were loving it. They had already visited Botswana for a full day safari in Chobe NP where they had seen ‘thousands of elephants’. They had walked with lions, and on the morning of the show they had completed a half day birding safari in the Mosi-o-Tunya NP in Livingstone where they had been lucky enough to see more than thirty three different species of birds, all correctly identified by their knowledgable and charming guides. They had also see the rhino in the park on the same trip. In addition to that, they had seen Victoria Falls and visited the Livingstone Museum. On the previous Saturday they had dined on the five star dinner train in Livingstone.

The music on the show was great with tracks from Fuse ODG, Ellie Goulding, Naughty Boy featuring Beyonce and Arrow Benjamin. Milli Jam and Jay chose work from T Sean ft Jusic, Ruff Kaida and T-Boy, Christina Millan, Urban Hype and Cynthia Morgan. Our pick of the week was Sam Smith’s haunting ‘The Writing’s On The Wall’ and we closed with the appropriate for Livingstone ‘Heatwave’ from Robin Schultz ft Akon. Connie said she loved classical music whereas Wally was more into music from the 50’s and 60’s.

Our guests told us that Connie was the manager of a bird shop in Perth, selling exotic birds and also garden ornaments, while Wallis was in the earth moving business preparing construction sites. Connie is a widow with a son and a daughter and two grand children, Wallis is a divorcee and has two sons. They had heard about Chanters Lodge, where they were staying, through Dianne Rapson, a frequent visitor to the lodge and a three time guest on our show. Connie and Wallis were well pleased with the recommendation.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing 10 years from now, Connie said she would like to be retired and relaxed, Wally said he would like to be working, relaxing and fishing!

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The Norwegian Experience 2015!

Meet Rakel Trondal and Robert Hovde (above) from Trondheim, Norway. Rakel and Robert were Guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz, our weekly Sunday night radio show airing on Zambezi 94.1 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Robert is the Deputy Head Teacher at Saksvik Primary School and Rakel is a secondary school teacher at Hommelvik Secondary School in Norway. Both were staying at Chanters Lodge as part of a group of 17 educationalists from Norway on a visit to Zambia.

For both Robert and Rakel it was, they told our listeners, their first visit to both Africa and Zambia. “Is it what you expected?” wondered Milli Jam. “Far, far better!” Replied Rakel quickly. So far they had visited Chobe National Park in Botswana and had loved the wide range of animals they had seen ‘in the wild and not in a zoo”. They had experienced a real tropical thunderstorm during the night on that trip. They had plans for a visit to Victoria Falls during their stay and would be spending three nights in Mongu, Western Province.

“Mongu’s not usually on the tourist itinerary” commented Milli Jam. Our Norwegian guests explained that the purpose of their visit to Zambia was to make physical contact with the schools in Zambia with whom their schools in Norway were ‘twinned’. In Robert’s case his school is a friendship school with Zambezi Basic School in Livingstone and Rakel’s school is a friendship school with Holy Cross School in Mongu. They had brought letters and books to give to the students in the Zambian schools with love from their fellow students in Norway. They expected to collect similar from the Zambian schools to take back to Norway.

The music on the show was good as usual. We opened with tracks from DJ Fresh ft Ella Eyre and Ne-Yo. The guys dropped work from West African Wizkid as well as Zambia’s T-Sean ft Tyce. Other were from Chef ft Macky 2, Ed Sheeran and Ozzy. Ozzy’s ‘If Only’ was our oldie of the week and the prize we give to the first listener to text us the name of the artist on the track was quickly snapped up. Our pick of the week was Sam Hunt’s major country smash ‘Take Your Time’ We closed with 5AM from Calvin Harris ft Tinashe.

Rakel told us that she’s married with three children, two boys and a girl. Robert is also married and has a boy and a girl with ‘another one on the way’. Didn’t they wish that their families had travelled with them to Zambia. Of course they did but pointed out, rightly, that it was an expensive undertaking. Robert revealed that he’s a fan of Rosenberg FC in Norway and of Watford FC in UK. But, he told us ‘handball’s my game’. Rakel loves ballroom dancing and travel. She and her family had visited many countries in Europe in the past including Turkey, Spain and Germany. She is an ardent fan of U2 and is looking forward to attending their concert in Berlin later this year – a treat afforded by her husband.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Robert hoped to still be involved in education, Rakel in education and in politics. We wished them the best of luck, thanked them for coming on the show, and for supporting Zambian schools as well as our lodge!

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Donation

Chanters Lodge recently donated another solar lighting kit to a village primary school in Southern Province of Zambia. There’s a photo above and the acknowledgement below:

Dear Mr. Chanter,

Greetings, I wish to acknowledge with great appreciation the purchase of a solar kit that was donated to Natebe Primary School courtesy of your Lodge. Stay blessed

Sincerely.

Fr. Emmanuel Chikoya
Anglican Diocese of Lusaka
St Andrews Anglican Church

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The Last 2014 Experience! Miss Anny stars!

The last 2014 edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz starred none other than Chanters Lodge Assistant Manager Annastasia Mwila Katele as our Guest of The Week. It’s some three years since Miss Anny (as she is known by the Chanters Girls) last appeared on the show and the level of maturity and self confidence she has reached in that time is most impressive. Says a lot about her and her ability to learn – there she is cavorting with Milli Jam and Jay in the picture above! The Experience has now been on air every Sunday on Zambezi 94.1 fm at 20.30 CAT for the past 7 years and in 2015 we go into our eighth year. The show keeps the name of the lodge in the Livingstone public eye, is nice for our Guests staying in the lodge who feature from time to time, and a good staff motivator too. The Chanters Girls love the show, especially when one of ‘their own’ is featured!

Annastasia told listeners she was given that name by her grandmother, her grandfather insisted that he too should be part of the naming ceremony hence the Mwila in her name, meaning ‘air’ in the Bemba language. “So you’re Bemba?’ surmised Milli Jam. Anny told us that her mum hails from Malawi! She has a daughter – Maryam now aged 14 and studying Grade 10 at Linda Secondary School here in Livingstone. Anny has been working at Chanters Lodge for 12 years having first joined on attachment in 2002. ‘Time flies’! Said Milli Jam and he’s not wrong! Anny explained that she had undertaken a course in food and beverage at the Livingstone Youth Community Training Centre run by the Catholic Church in Livingstone in 2000. ‘Are you Catholic’? asked Milli Jam. “No, I’m Moslem” replied Anny, and she is! She explained that both her mum and late dad were of that faith and she had continued in the family tradition. She prayed at the mosque on Obote Avenue when she chanced to be off on Fridays.

The music on the show was good as usual. We played tracks by Echosmith and Madonna. The guys dropped numbers from Sarkodie ft Banky W – a Ghanian act. Also from Izrael, Roberto (so hot in Zambia right now) and Usher featuring Nicki Minaj. Our oldie of the week was the late Joe Cocker’s Heart of The Matter but no-one won the prize we give each week to the first person to text us the name of the artist on the oldie. My pick of the week was OT Genesis’s ‘Co-Co’ and we closed with TINA by Fuse ODG scheduled to become our opening theme for the show in 2015 (‘This Is New Africa’ for the uninitiated.)

 Anny told us that she loves all kind of music, her international favourite artist is Miley Cyrus and on the local scene ‘Roberto’. She admitted to loving shoes more than music and that she had lost count of the number of ‘heels’ in her possession! She supports Arsenal and denied that she had been cajoled into it by the director. Her favourite player is Theo Walcott. “Because he’s handsome?” Wondered Milli Jam. “Because he’s a great player’ replied Anny tersely. She told listeners that she loves her job, especially dealing with people, although she admitted that this was also the greatest challenge. Asked where she would like to be and what she would like to be doing in ten years’ time, our pretty, hard working, talented, well spoken strict Assistant Manager told us that she would like to have her own business, be married and have some more children. The subsequent excitement of Milli Jam and Jay was curtailed by my mention of Anny’s mum – the matriarch of the family!
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Zambezi 94.1 fm ft Aaron Mertz

Meet Aaron Mertz, guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz. There were two things different about this show. Firstly, Zambezi fm has changed its frequency from 107.7 to 94.1 fm. Apparently this is a temporary change – the station hopes to obtain a frequency lower than 90.0 fm to make it more accessible to local taxi drivers whose radios only reach that range. Secondly, Jay stood in for Milli Jam on this show, so he was the Ingredient and I featured! We managed. Milli Jam had been struck down with an eye infection. There’s also a rumour that he’s started jogging!

Aaron told listeners that he’d arrived in Livingstone that afternoon from South Africa and would just be in Zambia for about 48 hours, before taking the night train from Victoria Falls to Bulaway, then on to see Harare and the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. Whilst in Livingstone he would be taking the one day safari to Chobe NP in Botswana, as well as swimming in Devil’s Pool on Livingstone Island right on the edge of Victoria Falls. He was also looking forward to spending a few hours at the Livingstone museum. Aaron hails from Chicago but is currently living in New York City. He is a postdoctoral fellow at Rockefeller University working in the laboratory of mammalian cell biology and development. “Ah!” We said! Aaron did his undergraduate degree (summa cum laude) at Washington University in St. Louis (Missouri, USA) and his doctorate (with distinction) at Yale University. He is  also a Rhodes Scholar from Oxford University in UK. He told us that he had very much enjoyed the two years he’d spent in England but had not learned how to play cricket or to support Arsenal FC…..

The music on the show was good as usual. we opened with new tracks from Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars, and Oliver Heldens ft KStewart. Both current smash hits in UK. Jay dropped items from Doc Shebekza, Afunika, Kritic and DJ Khaled. Our ‘oldie of the week’ was a track by Jo Klassic ft PJay. Listeners have to text us the name of the artist on the track, but on this occasion no-one won the prize. One contestant forget to mention their own name and another knew the name of the track – Method 2 – but did not text the name of the artist. So, no-one won the dinner for two with drinks at the lodge on offer! There’ll be another chance on the next show.

Aaron revealed that when he’s not working or travelling (his first love), he plays the cello and in fact had recently given his first concert with a friend. He loves classical music and opera and living in New York gives him the chance to go to live shows. He also loves cycling and makes full use of the ‘Public Bikes’ now available in the city for the public to rent, cycle and return to a cycle bank. He revealed that he’d found out about Chanters Lodge from the Lonely Planet Guide Book and TripAdvisor on the internet. He was happy with the choice he’d made to stay with us. Aaron is still single and has one older brother.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Aaron said that he’d like to be a University Professor in Physics and Biology with his own research laboratory. Given Aaron’s academic achievements already, in our opinion that’s a ‘nobrainer’!! Unlike Mr Mertz who is clearly super brainy!

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Free Fast Hotel Wifi

This from Larry Mogelonsky writing on HotelInteractive caught my eye. Here at Chanters Lodge we count ourselves lucky if we can go 24 hours without a break in our wifi. Fast broadband? Never really heard of it. One of our ISP’s says we are on ‘4G’ but it is very slow – perhaps a Zambian 4G is different from 4G in other places. Anyway here’s the piece detailing how important fast free wifi is to hotel guests and therefore occupancy.

“I realize that Westerns aren’t exactly the most popular genre of novels or films these days, but I believe the following comparison still stands. Back in the Old West, the gunslinger who draws the fastest wipes out the competition. Replace the word ‘gunslinger’ with ‘hotel WiFi’ and the same can be applied nowadays.

If you aren’t providing free WiFi to your guests by now then you are doing them a great disservice. Guests expect this for free much like they do heating, air conditioning and tap water (or at least have the costs buried into the nightly rate). It’s 2014, so get with the times.

But it’s no longer just about offering complimentary internet connectivity, but giving it out at a satisfactory speed. To comprehend why fast is just as important as free in this regard, you should first understand the theory of cognitive drift. The basic idea is that if a website takes too long to load, users lose interest. This varies based on patience levels but I’d ballpark it for millennials at around one to two seconds.

Many hotels now offer free WiFi to customers (definitely a good thing) but slow connections frustrate people. It makes them impatient. It makes them feel like they are being slighted. Free WiFi that’s slow rings of false advertising; you’re marketing a service to guests to get them through the door but then you don’t sufficiently fulfill your end of the bargain.

I’m sure you can recall your emotions at a time when you were a victim of false advertising. It’s not great, hateful even. I doubt you’d want those feelings bestowed upon your property for something as small as failing to offer adequate free wireless connection rates. Do yourself a favor and get up to speed (pun intended).

One other note is the use of smartphones and tablets for browsing. I’m not one to tout endless numbers to prove my point, but if you were to look up any current statistics on the topics, no doubt you’d find that these mobile devices represent a very sizeable portion of total internet traffic in relation to laptops and desktops.

Seeing as how smartphones and tablets are wholly reliant on WiFi or 3G/4G, this puts extra emphasis on getting your internet running with enough bandwidth to support an abundance of users. Moreover, websites generally do not load quite as quickly on mobile devices as on computers, further driving home the need for lightning fast WiFi.

While delivering fast and free WiFi to all your guests is a noble goal that I’m sure every hotelier would love to see realized sooner rather than later, for many of us it’s simply not feasible – not with our budgetary constraints and not with the way consumers voraciously gormandize bandwidth through the likes of streaming videos (eg. Netflix) or gigabyte downloads (eg. torrent files). We have to find a middle ground, a compromise as we ease into a world where free internet connectivity becomes the expected norm.”

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