David Kwalela on ‘The Experience’

David Kwalela, pictured above, was our guest on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela. ‘The Experience’ is the weekly radio show broadcast by Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs every Sunday night, sponsored by Chanters Lodge Livingstone, now in its fifth year. The programme is a lively mixture of local and international music, interspersed by conversation with our guest, and we also offer a weekly prize of a dinner for two at Chanters Lodge to the first person to text us, telling us who’s singing our ‘oldie of the week’. On this particular show the oldie was ‘Hail Mary’ by Tupac and the response was excellent!

David told listeners that he is a Livingstone resident and Director and Principal of Livingstone College for Tourism Studies, a college started in 2006 and gaining affiliation with the Zambian Technical, Vocational and Training Authority in 2009. The College offers 3 month courses in food and beverage, front office management, hotel management, tourism studies and housekeeping and also offers practical training on campus – unusual for small colleges such as this. David explained that he arranges industrial placements and attachments for his students at local Livingstone hotels and lodges as part of their course. “Course fees are tailored to make it as easy as possible for students to afford in these difficult economic times” David said “and we also offer advice on career development”.
The music on the show was smart. Opening the show with Usher’s ‘Scream’ back to back with Cover Drive’s ‘Sparks’, we were off to a lively start. George played Roberto’s ‘Salaula’ featuring Enipal and confirmed that Roberto had been in town during the weekend appearing at a show with 107.7 DJ’s at another hotel in Livingstone. Milli Jam dropped Ne-Yo’s ‘Tonight’ featuring Just You and Me together with Lil Wayne and Drake’s smash – ‘The Motto’. Richard – who can spot ’em – featured Tulisa’s ‘Young’ as his pick of the week – not bad seeing the play list is finalized on Thursday and Tulisa topped the UK charts with this single on Sunday! The closing track was Trace Adkins’ country hit ‘Ain’t No Thinkin’ Thing’.
David told listeners his favourite musical genre was R&B and that his football team had been Arsenal since 2000 – that went down well with some of the hosts, especially Milli Jam who shares those tastes! “How did you come to start a college?” Milli Jam asked our guest. David explained that he’d worked for 15 years as a chef at Fairmount Hotel in Livingstone. When he retired he had undertaken a course in hotel and catering studies at the University of Zambia, which gave him the knowledge he needed to fulfill his ambition. He told listeners he was married to Imelda and they had five children – 4 girls and one boy.

Asked where he would like to be and what he would like to be doing in ten years’ time, our interesting, ambitious and hard working guest told listeners that he would like to be a role model in hospitality training in Zambia, and principal of his own much larger, expanded college. We wished him the the best of luck in his ambition.

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Sigrid Lofaldi on ‘The Experience’

We were back to the usual time on the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela last week. ‘The Experience’ is our weekly Sunday night radio show, normally airing between 20.30 and 21.30 every Sunday on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station, broadcasting 24/7 to Livingstone and the surrounding areas, as well as streaming live on the internet! (Links are on the station’s site and on the Chanters Lodge site too!) The previous week the show had been broadcast at an earlier time so that it did not clash with the final of the African Nations Cup, which of course Zambia had won, sparking off week long celebrations across the country!

The guest on our latest show was Sigrid Lofaldi, pictured above, a maths and science teacher from Trondheim in Norway, staying at Chanters Lodge and spending some time in Livingstone checking on the progress of a group of student teachers from University College, Trondheim, currently doing practical teachers training at Linda West Basic School. She told listeners that her students were happy, doing very well and that she was pleased with their progress. Milli Jam wondered whether this was Sigrid’s first visit to Zambia and in replying “no”, she explained to listeners that she herself had been a student teacher in Livingstone back in 2007, and had also taken a holiday in Zambia in 2009, so this was in fact her third visit.

The music on the show was excellent as usual. We opened with Kelly Clarkson’s number one hit in the USA ‘Stronger’ back to back with a new offering from Nicki Minaj titled ‘Young Forever’. George chose Danny’s ‘Ku na Kwa’ coupled with B-Flow and JK with ‘Chitemene System’. Both excellent tracks, Danny’s focusing on electricity outages suffered in Zambia and JK’s on an agricultural system applied to love life!! Milli Jam chose Ne-Yo’s ‘In Love With You’ coupled with ‘Mysterious Girl’ from Peter Andre featuring Shaggy. My ‘oldie of the week’ was ‘We Are The Champions’ from Queen (for the Zambian national team). We give a weekly prize to the first person to text us telling us who’s singing our oldie of the week – if they can – and eventually we had a winner. For a moment I thought I’d won the weekly contest! Our ‘pick of the week’ was DJ Fresh and Rita Ora’s ‘Hot Right Now’, closing with Emile Sande’s ‘Next To Me’ – informing listeners that Emile has a Zambian dad! Our show is always informative about the local and international pop scene.

Milli Jam wondered what the differences were between schools in Norway and those in Zambia and Sigrid replied that the major difference was that classes in Zambia were much larger – in fact almost twice as many students per class as in Norway. Milli Jam also wanted to know how the Norwegian weather compared to that of Zambia and our guest told listeners that when she’d left Norway earlier in the week it was -10C, windy, cold and blowing a snow storm! She loved Zambia’s sunny warmth – which did not surprise us! She also told listeners she was single, that she enjoyed cross country skiing and that her favourite music genre was Indie. She was enjoying the peaceful relaxed atmosphere at Chanters Lodge and thought the staff (Chanters Girls) were very nice. She told listeners that the following week she would be visiting Mongu in Western Province where there were also some of her students doing their practicals.

In ten years’ time Sigrid hoped she would still be teaching as she loved her job, wherever in the world she happened to be! “Great”! We said.

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Junior Sililo & Sandra Banda Taste The Chanters Lodge Experience

From time to time we feature members of the Chanters Lodge staff on our weekly radio show – The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild. The programme airs on Zambezi 107.7fm every Sunday between 20.30 and 21.30 hours Zambian time. 107.7 fm is Livingstone’s leading commercial local radio station reaching a radius of about 60 kms and has recently started streaming live on the internet, though there are undeniable teething problems in this respect.

The two Chanters Girls featured last Sunday, pictured above, were Junior Sililo (left) and Sandra Banda. Both had guested on previous shows but were excited about re-appearing. Junior told listeners that in the past year she’d moved from the position of Head Cook to Head Waitress in the restaurant, explaining that this also involved cleaning rooms and housekeeping duties. Sandra is also a restaurant waitress and Milli Jam demanded to know who was looking after the restaurant, seeing they were both on the show. The girls explained that they had a colleague Mirriam who’d recently joined the lodge and that she was on duty being helped by Anastasia and Susan (those who must be obeyed!)

Junior told listeners that she’d been employed by the lodge for six years having had some previous experience as a cook in a small restaurant in Livingstone. Sandra explained that she had not worked prior to joining Chanters 1 year and 9 months ago but that she’d undergone a course in food and beverage at Patience Pays Institute in Livingstone. Both girls had of course completed Grade 12 at secondary schools within Livingstone. Milli Jam asked the girls the biggest challenge they faced in their jobs and they had different opinions, Junior saying that ‘every day is a challenge in the hospitality industry’ while Sandra replied that as far as her job was concerned she took everything pretty much in her stride. Junior told listeners that she was busy studying to resit some subjects at Grade 12 level.

The music on the show was a treat for listeners, as usual. We played Example’s UK number one hit ‘Stay Awake’ at the top of the show coupled with ‘There She Goes’ – the latest offering from Taio Cruz featuring Pitbull. George featured ‘Banono’ by Jane Osborne and P-Jay as the first of his local tracks and this produced a reaction by text from the lodge – one of the girls messaging ‘hey that’s our kitchen song’! Next up was Omario with ‘Ichikonko’. I liked that one and asked what it meant. It was eventually decided that the title meant ‘bitter’. Boyz II Men’s comeback track ‘More Than You’ll Ever Know’ went down well.

We give away a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge on every show. At the moment we’re spinning an ‘oldie of the week’ and asking listeners to text us the name of the performing artist. The response is growing week by week. The general opinion in the studio was that ‘We Don’t Talk Any More’ might be a tricky one for the listeners but it didn’t take long for someone to text ‘Cliff Richard’ and win. We closed the show with Cover Drive’s ‘Lick Ya Down’.

Milli Jam asked the girls if they liked to go clubbing and dancing on their day off. Junior answered ‘Milli Jam, life’s too short not to do that’! Which is your favourite club he continued. ‘Ayoba!’ Yelled the girls in unison. Milli Jam looked as happy as you’d expect for the manager of that particular establishment! “Funny that” I remarked “whenever they have a night off I ask them if they’re going out and they always say no!” More laughter. “Are you dating?” Milli Jam asked the girls. Junior said she had a boyfriend. “Getting married soon?” He asked. “Milli Jam” said Junior “it’s not me to pop the question!” Sandra told listeners that she was ‘very single!’ George sighed.

We wanted to know which UK football team the girls supported and they nervously said ‘Chelsea’ and seemed to be in love with Didier Drogba. “What’s it like having a boss that supports Arsenal?” Milli Jam wanted to know. “We take cover when they lose” the girls replied! Favourite musical artists? Sandra favoured Beyonce, Junior – Kanye West.

The girls were asked where they would like to be and what they’d like to be doing in 10 years’ time. Junior said that she’d like to be travelling the world and seeing different countries. Sandra said she had a dream to be a nurse in Canada with two children (no mention of a husband!) In closing I remarked that it was great to see the girls with so much self-confidence, ambition and class! And so it was!

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Chanters Girls

I do go on about the Chanters Girls don’t I? Anyway, here are three of the senior ones snapped by a recent Guest, Rein Coppens. Left to right Susan, Junior and Annastasia. Now why are they looking so happy? That’s my next question!

It’s a long, long holiday weekend in Zambia – Heroes and Unity holiday and the Copperbelt Trade Fair. Wishing everyone a fabulous few days!

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Aircraft Maintenance

Another classic from Judy in Australia! Airline unnamed!

Repair Division Of A Famous International Airline.

In case you need a laugh!

Remember, it takes a college degree to fly a plane but only a high school diploma to fix one. After every flight, pilots fill out a form, called a ‘Gripe Sheet’ which tells mechanics about problems with the aircraft. The mechanics correct the problems, document their repairs on the form and then pilots review the Gripe Sheets before the next flight. Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humour! Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way this airline is the only major airline that has never, ever, had an accident.

P: Left inside main tyre almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tyre.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That’s what friction locks are for.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you’re right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny………… (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right, and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last………………
P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

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DJ Muja Blaze

We always enjoy turning the tables on local DJ’s and presenters in our regular Sunday night radio show The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild. The show airs from 20.30-21.30 hrs on Zambezi FM, Livingstone’s leading local radio station broadcasting on 107.7 fm and reaching radios within a radius of about 70 kms from downtown Livingstone. This week we had the pleasure of grilling DJ Muja Blaze on air – real name Mujala Malama, pictured above. “Why are you called Muja Blaze”? I asked and before Mujala had time to reply, Milli Jam answered “because he’s blazing hot Richard”! Seems so! Sizzling!

Mujala has only been with 107.7 fm in Livingstone for about 8 months and is holding down the dreaded graveyard shift three mornings per week between 02.00 and 05.00 hrs. He calls that show Flight 205 (for obvious reasons) and breaks it down into 3 sections, R&B, Hip-Hop and Local. He’s got a great voice for radio and loads of charisma! I reminded Milli Jam that when I’d first heard him on Zambezi FM in 2007 he was the one holding down shifts like that, shivering in an icy studio in the middle of the Zambian winter! Milli Jam needed no reminding! Mujala’s also something of a video star in Zambia having featured on a recent MTN advertisement, filmed in Johannesburg and widely shown on TV back home.

Mujala told listeners that apart from his radio spots he’s established his own company – MM Entertainments – a video recording outfit. They film music videos amongst other things and Mujala informed us that currently he has two music videos being featured on national Zambian TV channels. The company started by filming weddings, private parties, functions and such like. “Could you record a video of Chanters Lodge for our website”? I asked him. “Love to!” was the quick reply “when we’ve finished filming Brill’s latest”! Brill is a local musician who also happens to be Deputy Mayor of Livingstone.

The music on the show was almost as hot as Muja Blaze! We opened with ‘Right There’ – Nicole Scherzinger ft 50 Cent back to back with ‘Guilt’ – Nero ft Alana. George’s local selection included ‘Malaika’ – P-Jay and ‘Bye Bye’ – Ken One ft Exile. We liked the latter, good dance beat and nice lyrics – ‘when you said bye bye you left with my happiness and joy’ the meaning of the lyrics. The Chanters Girls were definitely rocking back at the lodge! Sean Kingston’s ‘Rewind’ and Beyonce’s ‘Ego’ made up Milli Jam’s choice, then we moved on to ‘Don’t Wanna Go Home by Jason Derulo. (I like this one, it samples Harry Belafonte’s ‘Banana Boat Song’ and if that doesn’t take you back in time, nothing will!) ‘Sweat’ by Snoop Dogg and Tracy Chapman’s ‘Fast Car’ wound up the show – both current top ten hits in UK.

We took the opportunity to wish all the Zambian ladies ‘Happy Mothers Day’ which fell on the day of the show and to congratulate (through clenched teeth) Manchester United on their virtual Premiership title (on a day when 3 out of 4 people in the studio supported the hapless, hopeless Arsenal!) We gave a prize of a dinner for 2 at Chanters Lodge to the first person to text us our guest’s radio name and we got a winner – though the response was poor this week.

Mujala informed us that he had one sister also that he’d done part of his education in South Africa where he’d passed his ‘matric’. Although he was single (and hot) he has a little boy aged 18 months. ‘So you’re spoken for’ Milli Jam said (he loves such topics). Pause. ‘Errrr, not really’ replied the hot one, now feeling a little shy! We wanted to know if ‘Blaze’ had ever been bungee jumping and he admitted he had not. ‘We had a guest this week who said the price was scarier than the jump’ I told listeners.

‘Where would you like to be and what would you like to be doing 10 years from now’? Milli jam asked our guest and DJ Muja Blaze replied that he’d like to see his company MM Entertainments internationally renown and prosperous and that he’d still like to be broadcasting. We wished him well with his goals.

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Neil McDonald & Joanne Stevens on 107.7 fm

It was a pleasure to welcome Neil and Joanne, pictured above, to The Chanters Lodge Experience last Sunday night. The Experience is our local radio show that goes on air every Sunday between 20.30 and 21.30 hrs. The programme is co-hosted by Milli Jam and George da Soulchild, two of Livingstone’s most popular DJ’s, on Zambezi FM broadcasting our show on 107.7 fm. I go along to the show for good measure!

Neil and Joanne hail from the USA, Neil from Monroe, Louisiana and Joanne from Boston, Massachusetts. They live in Alexandria, Virginia. Both are retired – Neil told listeners he’d actually retired twice, once from the Federal Government and once from Delta Airlines, whom he’d joined after his Government service. A lawyer by profession he was very interesting about his career and his world wide travels. Joanne has also retired from her career in real estate, but confessed to still having an interest in two homes. This loving couple told listeners about their children and grandchildren scattered across America. Neil was particularly interesting about one of his sons, Lee, who apart from his regular job, is an American football kicking coach. Check his fascinating website Special Teams Solutions.

Neil and Joanne spoke about their trip from New York to South Africa on the magnificent Queen Mary 2 – the biggest ocean going liner in history. Their cruise had taken them from New York to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and then on to South America, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil before reaching Cape Town. Once there, Neil and Joanne had stayed with a friend before coming to Livingstone and Chanters Lodge.

The music on the show was great. We played Lady Gaga’s latest – ‘Born This Way’ back to back with the UK number 1, Jesse J’s ‘Price Tag’. Our Zambian tracks were Ty2’s latest ‘U Say U Love’ featuring Kanji and Kaufela’s ‘Your Smile’ featuring Roberto. Kaufela, for the uninitiated, is George da Soulchild’s stage name. Great track it is too, we all agreed. Wizkid’s ‘Holla At Your Boy’ and Flo Rida’s ‘Dancing For Me’ were Milli Jam’s selections and we also featured Rascal Flatts with their smash ‘I Won’t Let Go’ and Adele’s ‘If It Hadn’t Been For Love’. Wizkid? Aka Ayodeji Balogun a very hot young Nigerian singer!

Joanne and Neil told listeners about their wonderful one day safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana where they’d been ‘lucky’ to see lion as well as a fairly angry elephant. They’d also enjoyed their sunset cruise on Lady Livingstone. When they visited Victoria Falls they got very wet from the spray. They’d very much enjoyed their stay at Chanters, loved the staff and would be sorry to leave the next day.

We gave away the usual dinner for dinner for two to the first person to text us and tell us where Neil and Joanne were from, Mpezeni correctly answered USA and won. We greeted guests and staff at the lodge and thanked everyone involved in the show for their efforts.

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Ethel Mashawila & Shupiwe Mulenga


This week, for a change, on the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Kaufela – our weekly Sunday night radio show, airing at 20.30 hrs for an hour on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm – we featured two of the kitchen staff from Chanters Lodge. Ethel Mashawila (left) and Shupiwe Mulenga pictured above. Shupiwe’s our acting head cook and Ethel ‘the vice’ as she put it, when Milli Jam asked the girls what positions they held at the lodge.

Although the girls confessed to being ‘a bit nervous’ on the way to the studio they had no need to be – they were both well spoken, interesting and happy on air, as indeed they are for the most part at work. “What would you cook for us if we came to eat at the lodge”? George (Kaufela) and Milimo (Milli Jam) asked the girls. “For you Kaufela we’d cook pepper steak with mashed potatoes” replied Ethel. “Mmmm nice” said George. “You, Milli Jam, will have chitonga chicken with nsima” continued Shupi. “Why”? asked Milimo. “You look like a Tonga”! She replied, as we all laughed. The girls went on to explain the preparation of the dishes to the listeners.

Shupiwe and Ethel explained that they’d both worked at Chanters for about 2 years. Milli Jam asked Shupiwe how old she was but she refused to tell him! Pursuing the matter Milimo queried her: “aren’t you too young to be in charge of the kitchen”? Shupiwe acidly replied “leadership has no age barrier”. And that shut him up! Stunning! The presenters, as usual, wanted to know if the girls had boyfriends. Ethel told listeners that she had, and also an 8 month old baby girl, Queen. Shupiwe replied that she was ‘very single’ which made the guys sit up and take notice.

The music for the show was excellent as usual. After our opening ‘Candy’ by Aggro Santos we spun Mohombi’s ‘Bumpy Ride’ back to back with Timati ft Diddy Dirty Money and ‘I’m On You’. George chose a Zone Fam number ‘It’s Alright’ as we’d been blogging about Zone Fam during the week. This he coupled with a latest track from Ty2 ft JK ‘Ubuchende’ – “what does that mean”? I asked. “You’ll be told off air”! Was the answer…and I was! Milli Jam featured Bruno Mars with Damian Marley ‘Liquor Store Blues’ coupled with David Archuleta’s ‘The Other Side’. ‘Drop Down’ Akon ft Ludacris and Katy Perry’s ‘Part Of Me’ wound up a good play list.

“What kind of music are you into”? The girls were asked. Ethel replied that she liked Zambian music and Gospel, Shupiwe slow tracks, with her favourite artists Monica and Whitney Houston. “Stuck in the 90’s with Milli Jam” was my comment on that one! Asked about their ambitions both girls said they’d love to own their own businesses one day involving food production.

After we’d given away the usual dinner for two with drinks, I made the point that one of the least expected positive results of hosting a weekly radio show on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm was the morale boost it gave the staff at the lodge. Ethel and Shupiwe confessed that when it wasn’t busy at work and the show was on, the Chanters Girls back at the lodge danced. “I don’t mind” I said, “I love the big smiles we get when we come back from the studio”! And I do!

In other news one of these girls said she supported Manchester United, the other Chelsea.

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