Chanters – Chanters Lodge Livingstone

Jobless, Homeless But Live On The Experience!

No, not George Kaufela, Milli Jam or even me! But the Guests on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Kaufela, our weekly Sunday night radio show airing on Zambezi 107.7 fm in Livingstone, Zambia. Australians Lyn and Malcolm Macdonald (pictured above with Milli Jam) explained to listeners that before setting off on their round the world trip which had brought them to this country, they had given up their jobs, sold the boat that had been their home and taken off! They’d arrived in Zambia a few days earlier, having taken the Tazara train from Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia. The journey takes days – the Macdonalds described it as ‘a great adventure’.

Malcolm had been a doctor specializing in tropical medicine in the far north of Australia, wife Lyn was a nurse by training, subsequently involved with public health. They had been living in Cairns and working in remote places mostly involved with treating Aboriginal people. They were also engaged in an humanitarian refugee programme. Our Guests told listeners that this was the first time either of them had been to Zambia. They had visited Tanzania as Malcolm had worked in that country more than twenty years ago and had wanted to go back and see old friends, which they had done. They had stayed for one night in Lusaka after their epic train journey, choosing Wayside Guest House with which they declared themselves to be very satisfied. They had flown to Livingstone on Proflight.

The music on the show was appealing to various tastes. We opened the show with tracks from The Saturdays ft Sean Paul (‘How About Us’ number one in UK as we went on air) and Madcon. George chose Zambian music from Roberto featuring himself (!) and then a track by T-Sean. Milli Jam went for Alicia Keys and Jessica Sanchez ft Ne-Yo. He chose a track from Eric Benet as the oldie of the week and the prize of a dinner for two at the lodge was quickly snapped up! My pick of the week was Kodaline’s ‘High Hopes’. We closed with John Legend’s ‘The Beginning’.

Malcolm and Lyn described their first view of the Falls as ‘a bit of a fairy tale’. They had loved the full flow of water prevalent at this time of the year and described the experience as ‘spectacular’. They had climbed down to the Boiling Point as well going on to the main bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe, resisting the temptation to bungee jump – they had a myriad of excuses for not doing so! As one does have! They had rounded off their day with lunch at The Royal Livingstone which they had loved. They were looking forward to a microlight flight over the Falls as well as the sunset cruise on Lady Livingstone the following day. They were planning a few days in Botswana before flying back to Australia for a short break, then heading off for China and the Far East.

This lively, interesting and outgoing couple told listeners that they had been married for 12 years and that there had been nothing like love at first sight! Between them they had seven children and six grandchildren whom they adored! Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time, they said they would like to be retired, living in tropical Northern Australia, raising chickens, growing fruit and vegetables and all the while spoiling their grand children.

Sounded like a good idea to us!

29
MAR

activities, Africa, Australia, Botswana, Chanters, Chobe, entertainment, Lusaka, medical, music, radioshow, Tanzania, travel, victoriafalls, Zambia

Solborg Folk On ‘The Experience’!

Once again we were delighted to welcome a group of Norwegians as Guests on the latest edition of ‘The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Kaufela’, our regular Sunday night radio show airing on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, from 20.30 – 21.30 hrs live each week. Meet (from left to right above) Caroline Nordahl, Terje Todnem and Simen Hauge, all from Solborg Folk High School in Stavanger. Terje explained that “Norwegian Folk High Schools are one-year boarding schools offering a variety of exciting non-traditional and non-academic subjects, as well as academic subjects. The idea of folk high schools is learning for life, an opportunity to grow both individually, socially, and academically in small learning communities”. He also informed us that Solborg has 150 students and 8 courses. Caroline and Simen were part of a sports course.

Terje is one of the teachers at Solborg and Caroline and Simen students at the same institution. The three were part of a group of fifteen staying at Chanters Lodge as part of their visit to Zambia. Terje told listeners that he usually took a group to Kenya during the Norwegian winter, but had hesitated to do so this year due to the elections in that country and the possible threat of violence. He had chosen Zambia instead. He said he was happy that he had done so and that he and the students were having a great time in this country.

The students told listeners that they had spent time in Lusaka as well as in Kafue National Park before moving down to Livingstone where they had, amongst other activities, spent two nights living in a village some 20 kms from Livingstone. “How was it?” We wondered. “Interesting!” Seemed to be the reply! “No electricity and purely Zambian food” They added! The group had also had a wonderful two day one night safari to Chobe NP in Botswana and had been excited to see both lion and leopard, as well of course, as hundreds of elephant. For all of the group it was their first visit to Zambia.

The music on the show was great, featuring tracks from Maroon 5, Bastille, K.Koke ft Rita Ora and Justin Timberlake. George dropped tracks from Mampi – ‘Nikutantule’ (‘let me put you out of stock’!) and our very own Shyman’s ‘Longa Katundu’ (‘pack your bags if you’re being abused’). Milli Jam featured awesome tracks from Emeli Sande and Brandy. Our oldie of the week was a Buddy Holly track ‘Peggy Sue Got Married’ but no-one could text us the name of the artist on the record to win the prize of a dinner for two at the lodge! I won! (I’d watched the movie of the same name during the week!).

Whilst in Livingstone for a few days following the show, the group would have a ‘Surprise Day’ the next day and then would continue with school visits and interacting with the local population which was part and parcel of their visit to Zambia. Surprisingly Milli Jam did not start interrogating our Guests about relationships on this show! Our Guests did not show a huge amount of interest in football, though Caroline admitted to being a Manchester United fan and Simen Real Madrid. Simen, Caroline and Terje told listeners that they were very excited to have been granted an audience with former Zambian Republican President Dr Kenneth Kaunda before their return to Norway, and that they were very much looking forward to the meeting in Lusaka.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing 10 years from now, Simen said he wanted to be involved in sales and marketing as well as boxing, telling listeners that he was a former junior amateur boxing champion back in Norway. Caroline wanted to be involved in helping people with special needs such as Down’s Syndrome. Terje hoped to be retired but still bringing groups to Africa twice per year and given their great experience this year in Zambia, he hoped this country would be very much on their itinerary!

We wished the group the best of luck for the rest of their visit to Zambia, and in the future.

24
MAR

activities, Africa, Botswana, Chanters, Chobe, education, entertainment, Kafue, Kenya, livingstone, Lusaka, music, Norway, victoriafalls, Zambia

Vivien Eva Chanter 1914-2007

My mother, pictured above, on one of her several trips to Africa, passed away on this day (19th March) in 2007 age 93. Had she lived she would have turned 99 by now. Just imagine!

It really doesn’t matter how old you are, it is very hard to get over the death of a parent, and you’d be surprised how often she springs to my mind. Actually you wouldn’t if you knew that thanks mainly to her, we were able to install a generator at Chanters Lodge in 2007, and given the number of power cuts of late one obviously thinks of her rather often! In fact every time I go to switch on the generator! Now that’s powerful!

May her soul rest in peace.

19
MAR

Chanters, family

‘Nearly’ Doctors Rock The Experience!

“Is there a doctor in the house?” We wondered at the start of the latest edition of ‘The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Kaufela’. That’s our weekly Sunday night radio show airing at 20.30 hrs CAT for an hour on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Why? Well Adam Moody and Courtney Fiebig (pictured above) are both medical students in the final phase of their training and hence are ‘nearly doctors’!

The guys explained to listeners that as part of their course they have to spend eight weeks working in hospitals overseas, and they were spending four of those weeks working at Livingstone General Hospital while staying at Chanters Lodge. Adam said that his first four weeks he had spent at a hospital in Soweto, South Africa while Courtney had worked in Hanoi, Vietnam. Did they enjoy South Africa and Vietnam respectively? ‘Challenging’ seemed to be the word.

Both Adam and Courtney hail from Sydney, Australia and are single. Courtney has a fiancee back in Australia, also a doctor, while Adam admitted he’d been going out with the same girl for a mere 13 years. We teased him as to when he would tie the knot but didn’t really get a satisfactory answer! Adam and Courtney are both students at the University of Sydney, and for both of these bright, cheerful and clever young people, medicine was their second university degree. Adam had run away from engineering, while Courtney had found herself working in a hospital after her first degree and realised that medicine was what she wanted to do!

The music on the show was good. We opened with One Direction’s charity single for comic relief – a cover of Blondie’s ‘One Way Or Another’, back to back with ‘Falling’ from Haim. George chose Shyman’s new single ‘Longa Katundu’ featuring Shimasta, coupled with JK’s ‘Allow Me’. Milli Jam played Justin Timberlake’s beautiful ‘Mirrors’ along with Rihanna’s ‘Diamonds’. Our oldie of the week was ‘Guys Do It All The Time’ a tribute to Mindy McCready the American country star, recently sadly passed away. I picked Mariah Carey’s ‘Almost Home’ as my track of the week.

Adam and Courtney told us that Adam had been doing more of the tourist activities available in Livingstone than Courtney, as Courtney was visiting Livingstone for the second time and had done many of the popular activities before. They had both, of course, been to Victoria Falls – and gotten drenched – as you do at this time of the year. Adam had taken the helicopter flight over the Falls and had also done the rhino walk in our local Mosi-o-Tunya national park and thoroughly recommended this great activity. The guys had been to Chobe in Botswana for an overnight with four safari activities and had enjoyed that too! They told the presenters that they had chosen Chanters Lodge for their four week stay in Livingstone based on the lodge’s reviews on Trip Advisor, its location and the good rates on offer for a long stay. They said it had worked out well.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years’ time Adam said he would like be only working part time and to have plenty of time for fishing, while Courtney hoped to be married with two children and living by the beach. They both favoured going into general practice when they had qualified rather than any specialization. They went on to thank the people of Livingstone and in particular the staff at Livingstone General Hospital for being so welcoming and hospitable toward them during their stay.

1
MAR

activities, Africa, Australia, Botswana, Chanters, Chobe, entertainment, livingstone, medical, radioshow, training, victoriafalls, Zambia

‘Boss Lady’ Bosses ‘The Experience’!

“You’ve brought ‘The Boss Lady’ to the show!” exclaimed Milli Jam happily when Annastasia Katele and I walked into the studios of Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, for the latest edition of the ‘Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Kaufela’. The Experience is our weekly Sunday night radio show, comprising a cool mixture of international and Zambian music with lively chat between tracks, airing from 20.30 – 21.30 hrs CAT to a 70 km radius around Livingstone, as well as streaming live on the internet.

Anny doesn’t need much introduction (there she is in the photo above with ‘Kaufela’) to regular blog readers and supporters of Chanters Lodge. She told listeners that she’d been the assistant manager at Chanters for the past three years and had actually been employed at the lodge for the past 10 – it would be her 10th anniversary in May. “The lodge will have been open for 15 years in July” I said, “we’d better have a party in June to celebrate both ‘birthdays’!” “Oh yes!” said the presenters eagerly, who are always up for a party, drinks or lunch, whatever might be available! Anny explained that she had first joined the lodge as a trainee, following her catering course at the Youth Community Training Centre in Livingstone, and had then proceeded to work in the kitchen, restaurant, housekeeping and reception sections before her promotion to assistant manager. Milli Jam wanted to know the biggest challenge in her job. “Those girls!” Anny exclaimed apparently referring to the rest of the ‘Chanters Girls’- our staff! “They don’t give me any problems” I commented helpfully, some would say snidely! “You’re a man!” said Anny, pointedly.

The music on this edition of the show was seriously ‘latest’. ‘White Noise’ from Disclosure back to back with Gabrielle Aplin’s ‘Please Don’t Say You Love Me’ opened the programme. George played two tracks from Pompi’s popular new Zambian album ‘Mizu’ meaning ‘Roots’ – a charming blend of songs sung in both vernacular and English. Milli Jam dropped tracks from Swedish House Mafia and his favourite Ne-Yo. Our oldie of the week was ‘Step By Step’ from Whitney Houston and the prize awarded to the first listener to text us the name of the performing artist was quickly snapped up. My pick of the week was Avicii vs Nicky Romero’s ‘I Could Be The One’ – debuting at number one in UK as we went on air.

Anny told listeners that she has a daughter Maryam age 14 currently in Grade 9 and doing well in school. Her favourite music is gospel (despite her Islamic faith) and R&B – her favourite singer Chris Brown – and her favourite football team Arsenal. She told listeners that a large part of her job was recommending and booking activities for Guests, saying that the sunset cruise and one day safari to Chobe were amongst the most popular, as well as swimming in Devil’s Pool in the dry season. She expressed the wish that operators were more timely with their payments! I concurred! The presenters wanted to know why ‘The Boss Lady’ spent more time at the front desk than in her super office. “I love company!” she said and so she does.

Asked where she would like to be and what she would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Annastasia said she would love to own her own restaurant as she loved cooking! I’m sure she will – in the meantime we hope she continues to be the loyal, honest, hard working and talented manager she has become at Chanters Lodge!

20
FEB

activities, Africa, Arsenal, Chanters, Chobe, entertainment, livingstone, management, music, staff, training, victoriafalls, Zambia

Chanters Lodge and Social Media

Inspiration
Yesterday I received this query on the Chanters Lodge Facebook page “Quick question: Is it possible to book two single rooms online and then pay on arrival at Chanters?” There followed an exchange of messages on Facebook which culminated in the following remark from the Guest: “Just booked a night’s stay in Livingstone through Chanters Lodge, Livingstone. Very prompt & efficient communication. A Zambian business using social media well. Kudos.” To which I replied: “We give discounts for bookings through Facebook and for Zambians and Zambian residents. It’s quick, it’s easy and it’s good value for money – Chanters Lodge, Livingstone.” We do not have an online booking system at the lodge, but pride ourselves on replying to booking enquiries within 24 hours – and usually much quicker than that, we have two internet service providers ensuring that we are very seldom totally offline – African internet is not great!

Here’s a general resume of our social media activity and the role it plays in our business:

Facebook
We have 734 likes on our Chanters Lodge Facebook page – I haven’t ‘gone chasing’ for a while but I will! I have 1885 ‘friends’ on my own Facebook page – we post pretty much daily on both pages – the whole idea is to market the lodge, but subtly without direct ads like ‘come and stay at Chanters Lodge’. We prefer to post pictures of Victoria Falls, talk about activities in which our Guests are involved, and post updates on our local radio show. As mentioned, we love to get reservations through Facebook and give discounts! One of the reasons we are so active on Facebook is that it is a very popular medium in Zambia and we would love to have more Zambian business.

Twitter
We have had a Twitter account (@livilodge) for a number of years and follow about 8000 accounts. We have a similar number of followers ranging from friends and family and pop music lovers, through Arsenal supporters, Zambian account holders and people involved with hotels and travel. I love Twitter – it’s a major source of immediate news apart from which you can find yourself talking to people all over the world about common interests. We have had plenty of reservation enquiries from Twitter resulting in confirmed bookings and once again we offer discounts for Twitter reservations. Why? Because we hope it will encourage people to book through this medium. It’s short, quick and immediate and it is, for a small lodge, another means of marketing. Most of our Twitter bookings have come from people in the travel trade or Zambians and we offer discounts to both groups anyway

Pinterest
Pinterest is relatively new but we have had a page (Richard Chanters) for about a year following a recommendation from a Guest. We have boards for the lodge, Victoria Falls, Zambia, family and the Zambezi as well as Africa and Random pictures. I have found it very useful when Guests ask for pictures of the lodge to be able to refer them to Pinterest – meaning the pictures of the lodge which appear on our website are supplemented on Pinterest. For example we recently pinned pictures of the bedroom renovations in progress at the lodge – photos we would not normally post on our web site as it is a work in progress. There are also photos of staff on that board. On Pinterest we have 198 followers and are following about 250 sites. I often upload photos from Pinterest to post on Facebook if the photos are beautiful or more often funny!

Blog
We have been blogging since 2006 – at one time we posted every day but these days usually two or three times a week depending on available material and time to write. These days our weekly radio show forms the centre piece of the blog. We write up the show with a photo of the Guests, reporting the subjects discussed on the programme and the music played – it makes a nice record for the Guests of their appearance on the show as well as keeping blog readers informed. The blog covers a multitude of other issues often involved with the hotel and travel business as well as some funnies. One of the presenters of our radio show, Kaufela, also provides material for the blog writing about Zambian musicians and the local music scene. Thanks to Edward Chanter our blog uploads straight on to our main website.

TripAdvisor
We estimate that some 80% of our accommodation enquiries are a result of potential Guests reading some of our more than 250 Trip Advisor reviews, mostly, but not all good. Once again the advice to ‘get on Trip Advisor’ came from a Guest. We are proud of the certificates of excellence awarded from that site in recent years. We respond to each and every review written in English and encourage Guests to write reviews on departure. Once again thanks to Edward, reviews upload unedited straight on to our lodge website.

Other
We post on to LinkedIn and Google+

17
FEB

accommodation, blog, Chanters, facebook, Pinterest, Socialmedia, Twitter

Who Are Your Guests?

Interesting piece here from HotelInteractive about who’s travelling and why. Interesting too that they talk about the ‘booming’ hotel business in the US at the moment – can’t say it is in Livingstone but if things are picking up in the States, that can only be good for future prospects.

Here’s the piece, slightly edited. The picture? What some of our Guests do when they come to Livingstone!

We all know the hotel business is booming, but looking specifically at who that business is coming from isn’t something we’ve really dug in to. Until now. So who is that consumer knocking at your door? Turns out there are a healthy mix of leisure and business travelers that are combining to make this a very robust time. Toss in ever increasing group business – those folks booking 10 or more rooms at a time and we have a situation where all there major demand groups are doing what they need to do, demanding rooms.

Recovering group business, however, is helping hotels push rates, even if a specific hotel does not focus on group business. As group demand becomes more solid they can get higher room rates for the remaining rooms to sell to transient guests. Plus those with more groups displace transients which sends them to other hotels so those hotels can push rates too. Lodging demand and lodging pricing remain headed in the right direction.

A big chunk of that leisure business is coming from non-vacation trips, which have become more popular in recent years. Research points out that for personal leisure travel, 32 percent travel for special events such a soccer tournament, 28 percent are on the road visiting friends or relatives while 4 percent take trips for medical or health care reasons. Most interesting is that 10 percent are taking trips to events like personal improvement expos or conventions like ComicCon.

People are also vacationing more in spring and fall, which has created a much longer and stronger travel season. Shoulder seasons are growing, it is no longer just summer. Even for vacations summer is still strong but many are pushing their trips into spring or fall. D.K. Shifflet & Associates research also points out that while Baby Boomers make up the vast majority of travelers now, the coming of travel age for the millennial generation combined with the passing away of the Silent Generation is quickly changing the typical age of people traveling. By 2020 Millennials, Gen X and Baby Boomers will each be traveling in roughly equal numbers.

This means hoteliers will have to take several different approached to appealing to their target guests. It also means hotels will have to continually focus their properties on niche customers if they want to create strongly definable product, we believe. One concern for hoteliers is social media of course. Many prognosticators say it is hyper critical to dive in to this emerging communication medium. But is it as important as many believe? For Facebook less than 15 percent of online posts have anything to do with the hotel itself, which 50 percent post photos and 30 percent discuss travel experiences; which usually are more destination specific.

But it’s also more generationally specific. Just over half of all millennial travelers are posting while that number drops to around 35 percent for Genn X and about 22 percent for Baby Boomers. As for Twitter, about 5 percent tweet on travel experience while about half that number tweet on hotels. He said 57 percent of business travelers use a mobile device to access the internet for travel information which is up from 40 percent in 2010. For leisure travelers 38 percent use a mobile device to access the internet for travel information, up from 11 percent in 2010.

13
FEB

accommodation, Chanters, HotelInteractive, hotels

Happy Birthday Annie!

Wishing our assistant manager at Chanters Lodge, Livingstone Annastasia Katele (above) a very happy birthday today! Annie has worked at the lodge for more than ten years, starting as a young trainee waitress and working up to her present important position in our team. Miss Annie (as she is known to the other girls) is very hard working, friendly but tough! She is calm when the owner is not and has bouncebackability!

The place wouldn’t be the same without her and we wish her a very happy day with her family – she has a day off to celebrate!

9
FEB

Chanters, livingstone, management, staff, Zambia

Richard Rocks!

Of course I do! But this time the ‘Richard’ in the title refers to Simon Daka, pictured above, who records under the name of ‘Richard’ – it’s his middle name he informed us, when he was questioned at the start of the latest edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Kaufela. That’s our weekly radio show airing from 20.30 – 21.30 hrs every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The show streams live on the internet too! We often invite Guests staying at Chanters Lodge to appear on the programme, but we also have a reputation for helping to promote young aspiring Zambian musicians and artists, so from time to time they feature and we were happy to welcome Simon to this particular show.

Richard (or Simon if you will!) told listeners proudly that he was really a ‘Lusaka Boy’ but that he’d moved to Livingstone some time ago to stay with his sister who, like their late father, served in Zambia Police. “That’s alright then!” I said “next time I’m stopped by these strict lady police officers at a roadblock, my first question will be are you Simon Daka’s sister”? Richard’s a rapper and has so far recorded about six tracks with various different studios including Rising Sounds. He has a son Chard with his fiancee Nelly and was determined that he would marry his ‘darling love’ this year, telling us that he’d already saved what he needed for ‘lobola’.

We featured one of Richard’s tracks on the show entitled ‘Umusuma’ meaning ‘beautiful’ and dedicated to Nelly. The track is well produced and has a good beat with inspiring lyrics. We also played ‘Okondewa’ by Jemah featuring our own Kaufela. Our ‘oldie of the week’ was also a Zambian track – Joe Chibangu’s ‘System’ and the prize we offer to the first person to text us telling us the name of the performing artist was quickly snapped up by Draria, who won dinner for two at Chanters Lodge. We played ‘Thrift Shop’ the huge hit by Macklemore as well as Every Storm (runs out of rain) from Gary Allen’s USA number one selling Billboard 200 album ‘Set You Free’. Tracks from Davido ft Ice Prince and Blue rounded off the show.

Simon told listeners that apart from rap he really liked hip-hop saying “hip-hop speaks for me!” He listed his inspirations as 50 Cent and Naz. He explained that he had spent some time working in one of Livingstone’s larger hotels as a receptionist and that he really liked the hospitality business. He greeted some of the managers and staff of the hotel who had helped him in the past. He expressed little interest in soccer unless it was the Zambian national team playing, at which point we mourned Zambia’s recent ejection from the ongoing Africa Cup Of Nations!

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Simon ‘Richard’ Daka said he would like to be fully involved with the hospitality business, possibly owning his own lodge, bought from the proceeds of his extra-ordinarily successful career in the entertainment industry! We wished him well.

8
FEB

Africa, Chanters, entertainment, football, hotels, livingstone, music, radioshow, Zambia

Junior Returns!

Today we’re happy to welcome Junior Sililo (above left) back from her one month’s annual leave. The photo was taken when she appeared with Monica Chalumba (another valuable member of staff) on our weekly radio show, the Chanters Lodge Experience, some time back.

Junior has been with Chanters Lodge since April 2005. She is head waitress at the moment but has been head chef in her time with us, as well as standing in at front office when those chaps are on annual leave. Junior recently resat 3 subjects at Grade 12 so she, and we, are keeping fingers crossed for excellent results due out soon.

6
FEB

Chanters, education, staff

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