Alphabet For Oldies!

Judy in Aus can always make you feel older than you already feel!
Here’s her ‘alphabet for oldies’!

A’s  for arthritis
B’s  the bad back
C’s  the chest pains, perhaps car-di-ac?

D  is for dental decay and decline,
E   is for eyesight, can’t read that top line!
F  is for farting and fluid retention
G  is for gut droop, which I’d rather not mention

H  high blood pressure – I’d rather it low;
I   for incisions with scars you can show.
J   is for joints, out of socket, won’t mend
K  is for knees that crack when they bend.

L’s   for libido, what happened to sex?
M    is for memory, I forget what comes next.
N    is neuralgia, in nerves way down low;
O    is for osteo, bones that don’t grow!

P   for prescriptions, I have quite a few,
just give me a pill and I’ll be good as new!
Q   is for queasy, is it fatal or flu?
R    is for reflux, one meal turns to two.

S   is for sleepless nights, counting my fears,
T   is for Tinnitus; bells in my ears!
U   is for urinary; troubles with flow;
V  for vertigo, that’s ‘dizzy,’ you know.

W   for worry, now what’s going ’round?
X   is for X ray, and what might be found.
Y   for another year I’m left here behind,
Z    is for zest I still have – in my mind!

I’ve survived all the symptoms,
my body’s deployed – And I’m keeping twenty-six doctors fully employed!

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Dr Margaret Sherrat

Dr Margaret Sherrat (above), Guest on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient told us before we went on air ‘I don’t want to talk about myself’! And indeed she did not! We did manage to garner that she was a doctor in an inner city practice in the city of Newcastle in the north east of England, that she had been doing the job for some thirty years and that it was a pretty tough assignment. We also gathered that she was active in her church and that one way or another she had done a lot for charitable causes, the vulnerable and for people with problems. We loved her humility as she started to tell listeners all about how difficult it was to live in the north of England in the middle of winter when all the ice and snow made getting to work so difficult!

Margaret was staying at Chanters Lodge with a friend from England of Zimbabwean origin and told listeners that she had found out about our lodge from two guide books – Lonely Planet and Bratt’s Guide to Zambia. She and her friend were happy with the lodge and the friendly staff. They had been to see Victoria Falls from both sides of the border and had been amazed at its size and beauty. They had taken a sunset cruise on the Zambezi from the Zimbabwean side which they had enjoyed, especially as they had seen a lot of wildlife in and on the banks of the river. They had clambered down to the boiling point by rapid number one on the Zambian side, and Margaret told listeners that this had reminded her of fell or mountain walking in UK which was one of her hobbies.

Dr Sherrat explained that she preferred classical music and that her favourite composer was Chopin. On this show we gave her some of the latest international and Zambian popular music from artists such as Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Eminem and Adam Levine. George dropped tracks from Mampi as well as Angozed a Zambian/Angolan combo with a great track translated as ‘Move Your Body’. We speculated that the Chanters Girls listening back at the lodge would be doing exactly that! Milli Jam featured tracks from Flo-Rida with Sia and Far East Movement. Our oldie of the week was Redemption Song by Bob Marley and the prize we give to the first person to text us the name of the performing artist was quickly won. Our pick of the week was Biffy Clyro’s ‘Black Chandelier’ and we closed with Robyn’s electrifying ‘Dancing On My Own’.

Margaret told listeners that she and her friend had really enjoyed their game drive in the Mosi-o-Tunya NP that day and had seen a whole variety of different game including elephant, giraffe and hippo. She hoped that when they went to Chobe NP in Botswana the following day they would see lion, but I warned her that it was a bit of a lottery. She explained that she had travelled quite widely to countries as far apart as America, Bangladesh and South Africa, including visits to India. She rented rooms to students in Newcastle and had made lots of friends that way. She explained that she was involved with Food Banks in England and told us how the system operated to help people with financial challenges to eat regular meals.

Asked where she would like to be and what she would like to be doing in ten years’ time, Margaret said that she was not sure, but volunteering in Africa was one thing that came to mind.

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‘Serious’ Sibu Malambo on ‘The Experience’!

Meet Sibu Malambo (above), programme co-ordinator at Contact Trust Youth Association in Livingstone, Zambia, and Guest on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela, our regular Sunday night radio show on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. The show airs from 20.30-21.30 (CAT) live and is a great mixture of latest international and Zambian music, and chat. Streams live on the internet too and links can be found here and here.

Sibu told listeners that 10 years ago he had been one of the founders of CTYA (Contact Trust Youth Association). The NGO is involved in motivating and educating  the ‘youth’ in Zambia – the age of youth apparently stretches from 10-35 years old in this country but CTYA’s main focus is on 10-24 year olds. The primary objectives of CTYA are HIV/AIDS prevention as well as civic education, and Sibu estimated that since inception, they had helped thousands of young people. The NGO has several sponsors, one of which is partially financed by USAID. There are seven full time staff working in the CTYA premises in Maramba. As well as HIV prevention and civic education CTYA also educates about care for the environment and entrepreneurship.

The music on the show was great. We opened with latest tracks from The Killers and Robbie Williams. George chose Zambian tracks from Macky 2 and Judyo. Milli Jam dropped Beyonce’s ‘Put A Ring On It’. The musical bombshell of the night came from George who had been asked to pick the ‘oldie of the week’ – we give a prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge each week to the first person to text us the name of the artist on our ‘oldie’ track. George chose the most obscure track ever played for the prize – ‘For The Good’ by Ray Price. None of us in the studio had ever heard of the artist or the track and needless to say the prize went un-won – amidst sms protests by listeners complaining that it was ‘just too tough’! Nice one George! My pick of the week was Tulisa’s ‘Sight Of You’ and we closed with AC/DC’s smash ‘You Shook Me All Night’.

Sibu told listeners that he was married ‘to the most beautiful girl in the world’ – after some in-studio debate and observation of photographs on Facebook, we decided he had some right to the claim! He and his lovely wife have one son – Sibu Junior- just 1 year and 8 months old. Sibu has lived most of his life in Livingstone receiving his secondary education at Linda High School in the city. He explained that he is currently pursuing a course in development studies with the University Of South Africa. He told us that CYTA from time to time hosts beauty pageants, one of the most popular was ‘Miss VCT’ which Chanters Lodge and other business houses in Livingstone had helped to sponsor in the past. Musicians like Shyman and Camouflage had been helped in their musical careers by CYTA with assistance from our own Kaufela.

Sibu is a Chelsea supporter – as evidenced by the shirt he wore for the show.  He said he did not agree with the latest managerial sacking and that Didier Drogba was his favourite all time player. Music wise he said he liked R&B as well as Zambian music. Sibu is well known to Zambezi 107.7 listeners because he hosts a popular CYTA show every Wednesday evening on air, sponsored by the station. “Wow!” I said (on behalf of those who have to pay for their shows!).

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing 10 years from now, he hoped still to be helping the Zambian youth in an expanded NGO, and to have one or two more children with ‘the most beautiful girl in the world’! He also mentioned that he would like to be involved in policy making for youth development in the future in Zambia. “Politics?” I queried. “Maybe” was the reply.

In thanking him for appearing on the show, I made the point to listeners that people like Sibu Malambo are the unsung heroes in Zambia – just look at the falling statistics in HIV infection in Zambia and you’ll see why I said that!

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Miracle Miles

 
This from Lusaka Lowdown
Miracle Miles

Thirteen thousand nautical miles. Sixteen thousand road miles. Two thousand five hundred patients. Seven hundred and thirty operations. Six months. This is the gruelling schedule of the doctors at medical charity, FlySpec. Up until just a few months ago, I had never heard of FlySpec although I had, of course, heard about the mover and the shaker behind FlySpec, John Jellis OBE (above), well known Lusaka-based Orthopaedic Surgeon. If you have been here for any length of time then, I am sure, like me this will be the first name that comes to mind if someone breaks an arm or a leg and he will have treated either you or one of your family over the years.

FlySpec is a flying medical service which takes free orthopaedic and reconstructive surgery and more recently prosthetic and orthotic services by air, to disabled people in rural communities all over Zambia; places where such specialist surgery is not otherwise available. Originally set up by John, his partner who is also a pilot is Goran Jovic, a Serbian reconstructive plastic surgeon. Between the two of them, and the odd visiting volunteer specialist, they traverse the length and breadth of this vast country, either by air or by road and when they get there they treat patients who would otherwise have gone untreated. Some of their patients have congenital deformities, but others have deformities as a result of accidents or bone infections. Over sixty percent of their patients are physically disabled children.

In addition to the operations and other treatment, they also work with the Zambian Italian Orthopaedic Hospital workshop to provide prosthetic and orthotic services to disabled people, delivering seven or eight devices per month to both male and female patients, giving them mobility in the already tough rural environment in which they live.

And the statistics are impressive – 2573 consultations and 733 operations in the first six months of 2012, almost 3500 consultations and 936 operations in the first 8 months of 2011. And all for a cost of less than $150 per operation.

But now disaster has struck. During recent routine maintenance, metal particles were found in the oil filter of their Cessna 206 aircraft. Metal particles indicate serious trouble and the aircraft has been grounded. This does not mean that FlySpec is at a standstill, as the pilots of Flying Mission Zambia (FMZ) give their time for free. But FMZ cannot keep their aircraft on the ground for a few days whilst John and Goron carry out their consultations and operations. This means they are dropped at a remote hospital and then picked up again, doubling fuel and aircraft operating costs.

A factory overhauled engine for the FlySpec aircraft costs $44,000. Shipping and importation will cost about $10,000 while the 40-hours of work to refit the engine and the necessary overhaul of other components will cost a further $12,000. Making it $66,000 in all.

FlySpec does have an aircraft contingency reserve account and $25,000 has been paid from this account toward the new engine. The Beit Trust has also given FlySpec a grant of $ 30,000 and €15,000 has been received through Stichtung Muli Shani from supporters in the Netherlands meaning that they have sufficient to cover the cost of the new engine.

Now all that remains is to find the funds to cover the increased cost of flying to keep this worthwhile charity and its dedicated doctors in the air and in the operating theatre until the new engine arrives. Despite promises of a six week lead time we all know that it is likely that this will be longer. Then they have to get the engine here, have it cleared and then have it fitted and then have it all checked before they can take to the skies again.

For more information or if you are able to help in any way, please contact John Jellis on email loret.jej@iconnect.zm

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Fitness!

Advice for an old guy….

I was working out at the gym when I spotted a sweet young thing walking in ….

I asked the trainer standing next to me,

“What machine should I use to impress that young lady over there?”

The trainer looked me over and said,”I would recommend the ATM in the lobby.”

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The Kay Jay Experience

We were happy we didn’t have to use his full name when Kay Jay (above) guested on The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient last Sunday night! Why? Well he’s called Kelvin Lisbon Kangwa de Souza which is quite a mouthful! Kay Jay explained to listeners that his father was half Portuguese and half Bemba, hence his Portu-Bemba name. For the uninitiated The Chanters Lodge Experience is our regular Sunday night radio show airing between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs CAT on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s best loved local radio station. The show streams live on the internet too.

The programme has been running for 4 years and is popular partly because each week we give away a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our oldie of the week. This week the answer was Aliyah and Cedric, age 14, won!
He came for lunch on Monday with his elder sister! Awesome! Older people tried to win as well but perhaps their age made them slower off the mark. Just a speculation!
Kay Jay is a senior producer at 107.7 fm having started with the station as a presenter earlier this year. “Meteoric rise to power” commented Milli Jam dryly, who was quick to apologize to listeners for the absence of George da Soulchild Kaufela, usually the co-host of our programme but absent attending and performing at the annual Born ‘N Bred awards show in Lusaka. Kay Jay told listeners that at 107.7 fm he was responsible for making sure that programmes ran on time, advertisements were broadcast on schedule and that all the presenters knew their schedule, reporting in good time accordingly. We wondered what was the biggest challenge of the job. “Frowning faces” he replied and we needed no further explanation. Milli Jam, one of 107.7 fms longest serving presenters, laughed!
The music on the show was right on point as usual. We opened with ‘It’s Not You (It’s Me) by T-Pain vs Chuckie featuring Pitbull back to back with ‘The Believer’ by Common ft John Legend. Milli Jam’s local selections were Orga Family with ‘Nkuku Nankanga’ coupled with ‘Wounded Buffalo’ by Afunika. We featured Nicole Scherzinger’s smash ‘Don’t Hold Your Breath’ and ‘Lottery’ by Stevie Hoang. After Aliyah’s ‘oldie of the week’ we closed with Chris Brown and ‘Thinking Out Loud’ back to back with ‘Who You Are’ – Jesse J’s latest smash.
Kay Jay was very interesting describing his life before joining 107.7 fm. Educated at all grade levels in all boys schools in Lusaka, he said he was now ‘too excited’ when he met girls and used this and ‘financial instability’ as excuses for not yet being married. “I thought it was about love” Milli Jam commented dourly and I said I was sure the Chanters Girls would agree with that! Kay Jay spent some time in Netherlands with Dance For Life – young people all over the world getting into action to stop HIV and making a move to change the future – The Dance4life platform makes all those efforts visible, encouraging even more people to join the movement, Kay Jay explained. He hosted 10 shows and was proud to be one of only 3 African presenters. He had loved the Netherlands and had visited almost all parts of the country.

As a Gunner (Arsenal supporter) Kay Jay was inordinately proud of having shaken hands with Robin van Persie when he was in Holland. We were very jealous! He also met, hugged and we suspect fell in love with Doutzen Kroes the gorgeous Dutch super model. More jealousy on our part! In 10 years time Kay Jay told listeners he wanted to have his own business, a Phd and a wife and family.

Great ambitions, great guest, great show!

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Kate & Nick Minns on Zambezi 107.7 fm

 
We were delighted to welcome Kate and Nick Minns, pictured above, to Chanters Lodge last week, and indeed as guests on our local radio show ‘The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild’. As regular readers will know, our show goes out every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, at 20.30 hrs and streams live on the internet too! It’s a locally popular show, perhaps because we give away a weekly prize of a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge to the first person texting us the correct answer to the name of the artist singing our ‘oldie of the week’. This week the track was ‘With You’ and the artist Chris Brown. The prize was quickly snapped up!

Kate and Nick are from Adelaide, Australia and are both nurses qualified from University of South Australia. For the past two and a half years they’ve been working in a cardiac unit in a military hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, taking the chance to travel during their breaks. They told listeners they’d been to Spain, Syria, Italy, France, Germany amongst others on a long list of countries! When Milli Jam asked them which country they’d visited they liked the most, Nick rather surprisingly opted for Syria – they’d been there before the current troubles, while Kate said she’d loved Italy, partly because of her family background which contained roots in Italy. During their present trip they’d been to Uganda to see the mountain gorillas, as well as to Kenya and Tanzania. They’d been impressed to see the magnificent migration of tens of thousands of wildebeest in Tanzania.
The music on the show was great. We opened with Flavour’s ‘Adamma’ – a huge hit in Nigeria and a great dance track, back to back with Flo Rida’s latest ‘Parapapa’. Milli Jam had trouble getting his tongue around that. Local tracks were ‘It’s Alright’ by Exile featuring K’Millian coupled with ‘SpotLight’ George Kaufela’s smash with Ty2. We moved on with ‘Talk That Talk’ by Rihanna featuring JayZ and ‘Til I’m Gone’ – Tinie Tempah featuring Wiz Khalifa. Great stuff and we surmised that the Chanters Girls would be dancing back at the lodge. We closed with Maverick Sabre’s ‘I Need’.
Nick and Kate told listeners how much they’d enjoyed their breakfast on Livingstone Island the previous day – Nick had jumped into Devil’s Pool but Kate had not (wise girl!) They’d seen Victoria Falls from both sides and although they’d been impressed with the Zimbabwe side they felt that the Zambian side offered better opportunities for photography. We liked that! This lovely, adventurous couple told listeners that they’d be spending the last few days of their holiday in Cape Town and were then looking forward to flying home to friends and family in Australia, after a long time away.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years from now, their first reaction was to cry in unison ‘we don’t know’ but after a pause for thought agreed that they’d like to be working in Australia, still travelling from time to time and raising a family. Sounded like good ideas to us.

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Yellow Fever – Zambia

SASTM Newsflash

Subject: Yellow fever vaccination recommendations: Africa

The WHO has revised the Yellow Fever (YF) vaccination recommendations for Africa. However, the South
African Department of Health has issued the following information regarding the requirements for travellers
from and to South Africa. Effective 1st June 2011

1. Tanzania
Returning travellers from South Africa to Tanzania and those from Tanzania travelling to South Africa willrequire proof of YF vaccination. This is unchanged from the present regulations.

2. Zambia
Returning travellers from South Africa to Zambia and travellers from Zambia to South Africa will now require
proof of YF vaccination. Previously, proof of YF vaccination was not required.

3. In-transit passengers, irrespective of the time period in-transit, will still require proof of YF vaccination.

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Lusaka Lab In A Container

Don’t you just love creative innovation? I do! Check this from PlusNews

A tiny laboratory capable of doing big things is what Barry Kosloff, working with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has created – a new type of high-tech, low-cost, tuberculosis (TB) lab in a shipping container. He walked IRIN/PlusNews through what it takes to build one.

“I don’t know if this is normal but it’s almost like I had a photograph of it in my head,” said Kosloff, who designed such a lab for the national reference laboratory in the capital, Lusaka. It is part of efforts by the Zambia AIDS-Related TB Project, a local NGO, to expand the country’s diagnostic capacity.

The facility is the first in Zambia to be equipped with infection controls that make it safe for staff to grow the TB cultures needed to diagnose HIV-positive patients, and to determine whether TB patients have successfully completed treatment.

London School Of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine? Now that stirs some memories in my foot!

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Peter Ronald, Jane Miller Erin and Eli play 107.7 fm


Meet Peter Ronald, Jane Miller, daughter Erin and son Eli, traveling around Africa for six weeks in a rented camper van and hailing from Seattle, USA. Peter’s a financier and Jane a surgeon/professor back in the USA.

We had a reservation for the family for Saturday and Sunday but on Thursday they arrived and asked if we had space for two extra nights, which we had! The deal was that if I gave them the room, they’d appear on Sunday night’s Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George Soulchild our weekly radio show, hosted, promoted, directed and financed by Chanters Lodge on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm! Livingstone’s leading local radio station. I think it was the best show we’ve done since we came back on air in June this year. Why?

The Guests were great, lively, talkative, informative and funny. Had Erin (14) received an invitation to Chelsea Clinton’s wedding? ‘No!’ Did she want to be a doctor or a financier? ‘No!’ What was Eli (10)’s favourite kind of music – classic rock, Monkees and Beatles. Was Jane in a hurry to get back to work in Seattle – no! Is it true the family had stood just one metre away from Victoria Falls on Livingstone Island that very afternoon. Yes! Would they come back to Africa one day? Yes! Had they seen a World Cup game in RSA? Yes Holland v Cameroon. Had they enjoyed it? Yes? Did we want a couple of vuvuzelas asked Jane – ‘yes!’ We said – ‘No’ yelled the kids, they were not giving them away! Shame!

The music on the show was great ‘I Want You’ by Treysongz does it for me at the moment, though our American Guests had never heard of him! ‘Today’ by Brandy is a great song which the Chanters Girls love. ‘We No Speak Americano’ by Yolanda Be Cool – top that week in UK, unknown to our Guests from USA – but it had Eli and Erin talking. Typical summer disco track and no, ‘we no speak Americano!’

I hope George will write up the Zambian musical aspect of the show for a blog later this week but Milli Jam featured J Dot ‘Could you be the DJ?’ – I preferred his Chrishian ‘And When You Missed Me’, though I can’t find out much about the artist or the song at the moment. Spelling?

Had our Guests enjoyed Zambia? Yes, especially as by chance they’d been at Mukuni Village at the time there were rehearsals for the famous Lwindi Tradtional Cermemy so they’d seen a lot of traditional dance and had loved that! They seemed to keep themselves pretty busy while they were here.

As usual we greeted the Guests and staff back at the lodge and gave away a dinner for two for the first person to text us Jane’s profession. Doctor – easy winner! We made special mention of the long hours and hard work undertaken by the Chanters Girls during a busy week with very early departures and a lot of running about!

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