Natalie King & Olivia Butler on ‘The Experience’

Natalie King & Olivia Butler on ‘The Experience’
 
 
Meet Natalie King (left) and Olivia Butler from UK, guests on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela – that’s our regular Sunday night radio show airing weekly at 20.30 hrs CAT on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Natalie and Olivia are teachers, visiting Zambia as a result of student and teacher exchanges that happen thanks to Laura Tilling of IntroZambia  “a “not for profit” organisation, founded in 2002 by Steve & Caroline Curtis with Laura Tilling, on the principle of fairly trading with local people, to support economic development through grass roots tourism” (quote), though I guess it has developed a lot since they wrote that!

Natalie teaches at Wincanton Primary School and Olivia at Ansford Academy, Castle Carey, both located in Somerset, England. Exchanges are in operation between Mufulira High School and Ansford Academy as well as between Wincanton Primary School and Kamuchanga and Mutundu Basic Schools also located in Mufulira on the Zambian Copperbelt. We noted that these exchanges must be a steep learning curve for all concerned!

Natalie and Olivia told listeners that they’d arrived in Livingstone that very day after spending a week working in Mufulira. For both it was their second visit to Zambia but their first journey to come and see Victoria Falls. They had plenty of activities lined up for the few days they would spend staying at Chanters Lodge, including a game drive, a river safari, microlight/helicopter flights and in Olivia’s case, horse riding. Natalie, a primary school teacher, said she was married with a 17 year old son in UK. She greeted her husband Jamie, listening to the programme back at the lodge together with the other members of the group of seven on the exchange programme. Olivia is single and told listeners that she teaches secondary school level science – and loves it.

The music on the show was good. We featured tracks by Sean Kingston, Chris Brown, Dandy Krazy, B1, Adele and Bruno Mars. The ‘oldie of the week’ was Daniel Powter’s ‘You Had A Bad Day’. I thought listeners would struggle with the name of the artist, but not so, and the prize was quickly snapped up with a text message! A dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge! Our pick of the week was Justin Bieber’s ‘Boyfriend’ and we closed with Nicki Minaj’s smash, ‘Starships’.

We wondered how these fantastic exchange programmes were funded and the girls said there were various ways. Olivia explained that the students, teachers and parents of Ansford go to tremendous lengths to raise funds ‘everything from pig races to barn dancing’ she said. They were lucky to have also had some funding from the National Lottery, as well as a kind donor from the Minor Metal Trading Association. Natalie said that in the past they had received funding from the British Council but that this might not be the case in the future.

The two girls told listeners that they would be leaving Livingstone the following Wednesday, some of the group would be heading back to UK, while others would be going to Atkins Farm in Monze for some more Zambian experience! Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing 10 years from now, Natalie said she would ‘still like to be doing what I do’ and Olivia said she would like to have a PhD and to still be enjoying the adventures that life had to offer.

5
APR
0

activities, Africa, Chanters, education, entertainment, radioshow, tourism, victoriafalls, Zambia

Tim and Diane Seaborn Brown on ‘The Experience’

Tim and Diane Seaborn Brown on ‘The Experience’

We were delighted to have guests all the way from San Francisco, California on the most recent edition of ‘The Chanters Lodge Experience with The Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Soulchild Kaufela’ our weekly Sunday night radio show, airing at 20.30 hrs CAT on Zambezi 107.7fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station and streaming live on the internet. Our popular show is known locally just as ‘The Experience’. Each week we offer a great mixture of local and international popular music, interesting and entertaining conversation with our guests of the week, as well as pop chart news from the UK and USA. One thing that makes our programme popular is that we give away a dinner for two with drinks at Chanters Lodge every Sunday to the first person to text us, telling us who’s singing our ‘oldie of the week’. This week the track was Dionne Warwick’s ‘Heartbreaker’ – I thought our audience would struggle but we got a text with the correct answer very quickly!
Our guests Diane and Tim Seaborn Brown (above) told listeners they’d been married for 39 years and that Tim had recently retired from his job as a high school teacher of maths and computer science. When we asked Diane if she’d also retired she was rather hesitant with her answer. She did tell listeners she’d owned a pre-school for 25 years educating 100 students at a time and employing 10 teachers. She’d also spent time as a stock broker and as a recreational therapist for children with Down syndrome. Tim hailed originally from New Zealand where he and Diane had first met on a blind date, organized by mutual friends. “Was it love at first sight”? Asked Milimo (as usual). “Yes!” they agreed in unison! “One of the first things we did together was to watch a rugby match” Diane told listeners, explaining that as an American she’d understood very little of the game and totally didn’t understand that no-one was yelling and screaming when one of the teams scored points! “Quite different from the States!” She observed.
The music on the show was as entertaining as it should be. Flo Rida’s UK number one ‘Good Feeling’ opened the account, back to back with One Direction’s ‘One Thing’. George chose ‘Kawilo’ by B-Flow, Maureen Lilanda and Danny, coupled with Ozzy’s ‘Chimutengo Chamango’ for our local tracks, and Milli Jam picked ‘Oh Yeah’ by TI featuring Trey Songz and ‘Party’ by Beyonce (this latter track in honour of Beyonce’s recently born baby.) My tip of the week was the haunting ‘Home Again’ – Michael Kiwanuka’s UK hit. ‘Troublemaker’ by Taio Cruz closed the show.
Tim and Diane told listeners about their fabulous African adventure explaining that they were about half way through their journey. Before arriving in Livingstone for four days they’d spent three weeks on an overland tour through Namibia, Botswana and Lesotho in the company of 17 young Australians. From Livingstone they would leave the following day for Zimbabwe and then on to Johannesburg. A four day safari in the Kruger National Park was on the agenda as well as two weeks ‘lying on the beach’ in Zanzibar. This energetic, loving couple would then spend some time as volunteers in Arusha before taking off for another safari through the Serengeti.

Having been asked the usual closing question Tim and Diane told listeners that ten years from now they’d still like to be travelling worldwide and saw no reason why this should not be the case. We saw no reason either!

17
JAN
0

Africa, Botswana, charities, education, entertainment, music, Namibia, radioshow, Tanzania, tourism, travel, usa, Zanzibar

Kate & Nick Minns on Zambezi 107.7 fm

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.

22
NOV
0

Africa, Australia, Chanters, Kenya, livingstone, medical, music, radioshow, Tanzania, tourism, victoriafalls, zambezi, Zambia

Andrew Deane & Marion Gibson Experience ‘The Experience’!

Andrew Deane & Marion Gibson Experience ‘The Experience’!
Meet Andrew Deane and Marion Gibson (above) from High Wycombe in UK – guests on the most recent edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient, featuring George da Soulchild. ‘The Experience’ is the weekly radio show we sponsor on Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station. Our programme airs from 20.30-21.30 hrs every Sunday night and is a great mixture of local and international music as well as lively chat. 107.7 fm streams live on the internet and you can find the link on their site or ours. (Links are above).
Andrew and Marion told listeners they’d been in Livingstone for the past few days staying at Chanters Lodge, although they’d been so busy with activities they hadn’t spent much time there! They’d already been on a one day safari to Chobe National Park in Botswana and the very day of the show they’d been white water rafting on the Zambezi. They described both experiences as ‘amazing’! Marion particularly liked Chobe due to her love of elephants – Chobe NP has the highest concentration of that particular animal in the whole world – Andrew loved the rafting.

Andrew explained that he’d been a police officer with Thames Valley Police in UK for the past 13 years. “It’s true” said Milli Jam, “I’ve even seen and touched his badge!” “Stop sweating and shaking!” I advised George who looked apprehensive. Marion told listeners that she’d spent a large part of her career as a social worker but had been laid off a while ago as a result of recent budget cuts in England. Luckily she’d quickly found another job with APH Mortgages, which she loved. This engaging and lively couple told listeners they been in love for the past 6 years and although they had no children together, Andrew had a 12 year old son Joshua from a previous relationship.
The music on the show was great. We featured ‘Fireball’ by Willow Smith ft Nicki Minaj back to back with ‘We Found Love’ by Rihanna ft Calvin Harris – number one in the UK actually! George featured ‘Man Dem’ by Zone-Fam ft Cactus Agony & Macky 2 – taken from Zone-Fam’s brand new album. He coupled this with Exile’s ‘So Lucky’. Milli Jam dropped Ne-Yo’s ‘Break Up To Make Up’ and Sean Paul’s ‘She Doesn’t Mind’. Oldie Of The Week was Johnny Clegg Savuka’s ‘Scatterlings Of Africa’. Silence, no-one knew the artist until almost the end of the track when Angela texted the right answer and won the dinner for 2 with drinks at the lodge!
Andrew told listeners that he’s an Arsenal supporter – we were happy about this especially as they’d won that afternoon. Marion supports Wycombe Wanderers, her local team. They both love Take That and Robbie Williams. They were looking forward to breakfast on Livingstone Island the next morning with a swim in Devil’s Pool and had scheduled a sunset cruise on the Lady Livingstone for the afternoon. Marion told listeners she’d first visited Victoria Falls some years ago and had liked it so much she’d determined to bring Andrew to see it for himself. They’d chosen Chanters Lodge after reading the reviews on TripAdvisor.

Milli Jam asked Andrew and Marion which of the many countries they’d visited they loved the most. Marion said Bermuda, Andrew replied USA, explaining that he and Marion both loved rollercoasters and in their opionion the USA had the best in the world. Asked what they’d like to be doing and where they’d like to be in 10 years’ time – Andrew said he thought he’d still be working, Marion wanted to be retired and they both wanted to still be together and travelling. Nice couple! Nice show!

19
OCT
0

accommodation, activities, Africa, Arsenal, Botswana, Chanters, Chobe, Customers, entertainment, guests, livingstone, music, reviews, tourism, TripAdvisor, victoriafalls, wildlife, zambezi, Zambia

Tourism in Africa

Tourism in Africa


I liked a piece by Beth Kormanik on Hotel Interactive I’ve edited quite a lot of it and added my comments specifically for Zambia at the end.

“As the continent of Africa realizes new heights with global tourism – bolstered by the FIFA World Cup in South Africa last year – new facts and figures are telling the story of a continued growth in 2011. Key issues such as difficulty in crossing borders and concerns over security, though, are stalling that growth.

Tourist arrivals to Africa in 2010 reached 940 million, an increase of 6.6 percent compared with 2009. North Africa is the biggest draw, thanks to Egypt, with 29.7 million arrivals that accounted for $21.7 million in receipts. The figures were among those in just-published State of Tourism in Africa, a report sponsored by the World Bank, the Africa Travel Association and New York University’s Africa House.

“It seems there is room for us to be optimistic,” said Fatou Mas-Jobe Njie, Minister of Tourism and Culture for the Republic of The Gambia and president of the Africa Travel Association, which held its sixth annual Presidential Forum on Tourism Tuesday in New York. While travel and tourism hold the promise of growing GDP, creating jobs and encouraging sustainable development, the current reality is of low consumer confidence and investment.

“Still, we need to caution our optimism as uncertainty still remains,” she said. “We cannot ignore what happened to the tourism industries of Egypt and Tunisia after the shocks of political change.The reality is that the possibility of growth and development are not yet fully recognized or realized in Africa’s political corridors. That’s why ATA has a critical role to play. ATA can help raise awareness of the importance of the industry among decision makers and across the general public in Africa.”

First, though, African countries need to resolve long-standing issues that hamper travel, such as the difficulty crossing borders, according to Nigel Vere Nicoll, managing director of Advancing Tourism to Africa. “Why is it that the border between Kenya and Tanzania is impossible to cross?” he asked. “The two parties just don’t talk to each other. It doesn’t make sense.”
Ezekiel Maige, Tanzania’s Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, said the two countries have issues over border security and also of a fair distribution of tourist dollars. “We are discussing in the region how we can sort out these problems,” he said. “The assurance I’ll give here is we’ve reached a very good stage.”

David Scowsill, president and CEO of The World Travel and Tourism Council, pointed out that air service agreements in Africa are terribly outdated – many in East Africa still operate under rules developed at the Chicago Convention in 1944. Travel across borders within Africa remains difficult. “I suspect our predecessors were having similar conversations 10, 15, 20 years ago,” Scowsill said. “We’re not working fast enough.” Being a tourism minister is a lonely place to be.The focus on travel and tourism and what it does for job creation and wealth creation overall is an agenda that is only going to be driven by the president of a country. If we could find two, three or four visionary African presidents who really understand the power of travel and tourism and are prepared collectively to move things and change things, to open the skies and to have common visas things would happen, without that, I can’t see anything changing very quickly.”

Another challenge is marketing Africa as a safe and desirable location, according to Gregg Truman, vice president of sales and marketing for South African Airways.

“If Africa wants to be recognized it must be willing to spend resources in marketing the destination,” he said. “That’s what we don’t do well most of the time. Yet we have beautiful scenery, a lot of cultural tourism, eco-tourism. We have diverse products that people can learn from and enjoy”

In Zambia’s case:

I should think our new Minister of Information, Broadcasting and Tourism, Given Lubinda and President Michael Sata are very busy with other things, but the sentence I’ve highlighted above about tourism needing to be presidentially driven bears thinking about!
The ATA has been around for a long time, I’m not sure how much they’ve really done for tourism in this country.

Recommendations for Zambia: 1. Re-introduce the successful visa waiver scheme for bona fide tourists with advance reservations.
2. Allocate a good budget to Zambia Tourist Board for overseas marketing in Europe and USA.
3. Improve tax incentives and concessions for the hospitality and travel industries in order to stabilize prices and to change the perception of Zambia being an expensive destination.
4. Improve air (and road) links between the different tourist destinations within Zambia and surrounding countries and encourage competition to reduce air fares.
5. Make the Victoria Falls accessible to tourists from both sides of the border without visas and immigration formalities. (Dreams division)

The photo? Victoria Falls – the Zimbabwe side for a change!

1
OCT
0

Africa, ATA, infrastructure, innovation, Kenya, Tanzania, tourism, travel, visas, Zambia

Emirates To Fly To Zambia!

Emirates To Fly To Zambia!


From SkyClub.com

“Emirates is launching flights to two new African destinations from February next year. The airline will be offering five flights per week from Dubai to Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, and Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, from 1st February 2012.

Travellers visiting Zambia or Zimbabwe with Emirates will be within easy reach of Victoria Falls- the largest waterfall in the world. Labelled a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Victoria Falls is 1.7km wide and cascades over 100 metres. Both destinations also have world-class national safari parks for any travellers wishing to observe some African wildlife.

Passengers travelling with Emirates to Zambia and Zimbabwe will be able to experience Emirates’ luxurious First and Business Class cabins. The A330-200 operating the route has a three-class configuration with 12 First Class seats, 42 Business Class seats and 183 Economy seats. Guests in all classes of travel will enjoy meals prepared by gourmet chefs, as well as hundreds of channels of entertainment and the facility to send and receive emails and text messages.

“Emirates has long understood the enormous potential of Africa, which today is one of the fastest-expanding economic regions of the world, benefitting from a combined market of over one billion people, rising consumer demand and an abundance of natural resources,” said His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group.

“Zambia and Zimbabwe will be our 20th and 21st African destinations and their addition to our global network will enable us to provide new flexibility and choice for customers, help to grow trade routes and create important new inbound and outbound markets for tourism,” added His Highness.”

Now, all we need is a direct flight from Europe to Livingstone. Come on!

29
SEP
0

Africa, airlines, infrastructure, innovation, livingstone, Lusaka, tourism, transport, travel, Zambia

Lusaka International Airport

Lusaka International Airport


LusakaTimes reports:

Government has entered into an agreement with a Turkish firm Guris Holding to upgrade the Lusaka International Airport. The re-modeling will be done in three areas including the face-lifting of the terminal building, the VIP section and the improvement of the marketing side.

He added that Government will not use any money on the project but that this will be financed by the private sector. Minister of Finance Dr. Musokotwane could however not disclose the total cost of the project but said that will be determined after negotiations are concluded in four weeks time.

31
JUL
0

Africa, airlines, Lusaka, tourism, travel, Zambia

Fly Zambia Airline

Fly Zambia Airline


This piece from Times of Zambia caught my attention: The investors say they’d like to use the old Zambia Airways logo and in a blast from the past there’s a photo of one of the old airline’s planes clearly showing the much loved logo. Most people felt it was a great mistake to allow the airline to go out of business in the 90’s.

A GROUP of investors from South Africa and Zambia have formed a partnership and staked about K105 billion for a new national airline called Fly Zambia Airline which will be launched in September this year. The company is in consultation with the Government on the possibility of adopting the logo which was previously used by the defunct Zambia Airways.

Fly Zambia Airline Limited chief executive officer Theunis Crous said his company was in discussion with the Government to allow the firm use the Zambia Airways flag and logo on their Fokker aircraft. The defunct Zambia Airways was founded in 1964 as a subsidiary of Central African Airways, but went into liquidation in 1995.

In an interview in Lusaka, Mr Crous explained that the establishment of a national airline was a private initiative hence would be managed by experienced Zambian and South African team.
Mr Crous said the airline would use the Fokker 100 and Fokker 50 aircraft which have low operational costs. “We will start with four aircraft, two of which are Fokker 100 and the other two will be Fokker 50 including a cargo aircraft. We will do a lot of training of the staff in the aviation sector because our planes will be landing in Zambia for the first time and they need to be shown how they operate,” Mr Crous said. He said the airline would initially start with local and regional routes before expanding its routes internationally.

The regional routes include Zambabwe, Angola, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “The firm will also service the domestic market and will set up a car hire company linked directly to the airline,” Mr Crous said. He said as a result of the investment, the airline would create 150 jobs for the local people.

Mr Crous said the introduction of the national airline in Zambia would give the local people the glory of having their own national airline. He said they would use the airline to attract tourists because tourism was a fast-growing industry. “The tourism industry has the potential to even grow and we shall aim to promote tourism from within the region and make Zambia the best destination by providing the services through our airline,” Mr Crous said. He said due to improved macroeconomic indicators and attractive investment incentive, the airline was able to invest in the aviation sector.

Mr Crous commended the Zambian Government for its continued efforts in enhancing the business environment for the private sector to invest in Zambia.

15
JUL
0

2011, Africa, airlines, development, entrepreneurship, infrastructure, innovation, tourism, travel, Zambia

Rein and Jeannetta Coppens on Zambezi fm

Rein and Jeannetta Coppens on Zambezi fm


Meet Rein and Jeannetta Coppens from the Netherlands, pictured above, guests on the most recent edition of our regular Sunday night radio show, The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild. The show goes out weekly, live on Zambezi FM Radio at 20.30 hours and now streams live on the internet too! It’s a vibrant mixture of music and chat.

Rein and Jeannetta were visiting Zambia on holiday and staying at Chanters Lodge in Livingstone, combining their stay with a two night trip to Chobe National Park, Botswana where they camped. They’d been excited to see a lion killing a warthog though Jeannetta felt sorry for the warthog. “That’s natural” we said, cleverly.

Before arriving in Livingstone this friendly and lively couple had been on safari in Kafue National Park, staying at Delai Camp operated by Bongwe Safaris – they didn’t see as much game as they would have liked but told listeners that the scenery was spectacular. From Livingstone they were leaving the following day for South Luangwa National Park staying at Flatdogs. They were very much looking forward to that safari.

Rein told listeners that he was retired. Prior to retirement he’d been a chartered accountant with KPMG and during his work as an auditor of auditors he’d visited some 80 different countries. He said his favourite place, which he’d visited with Jeannetta, was Spitzbergen – technically part of Norway and far North near the Arctic Circle. They’d loved the polar bears. Their least favourite country was The Gambia where they’d been confined to their hotel, scared to go out. (Don’t confuse Zambia and Gambia they warned, saying they loved Zambia and the Zambian people.)

The music on the show was great! We opened as usual with Candy – Aggro Santos and Kim Wyatt, and after the introduction of our guests, played Ne-Yo’s ‘Lonely Again’ back to back with Example and ‘Changed The Way You Kissed Me’. Our local selection featured ZoneFam ft Slap Dee, General Ozzy and Petersen with ‘Chikali’ (‘I’m The Best Bad News’) coupled with J.O.B and ‘Halleluja’. This track features a sample of Halleluja from Handel’s Messiah, very surprising! Good track though. Milimo featured Lionel Richie’s ‘I Call It Love’ and Mario’s ‘How Do I Breathe’. We closed with Brandy’s ‘I Don’t Care’.

Jeannetta told listeners she’d been born in Indonesia where her parents had been working. She and Rein had been married for 41 years and they had two daughers, neither of whom were married and who had not yet produced any grandchildren. They were hoping this situation might soon change!

We gave away our usual dinner for two at Chanters Lodge to the first person to text us telling us which country the Coppens came from. We also gave listeners chart and blog news and expressed our condolences to the family and friends of the late ex-President FTJ Chiluba on his sudden passing.

22
JUN
0

accommodation, activities, Africa, Botswana, Chanters, Chobe, entertainment, Kafue, music, Norway, radioshow, South Luangwa, tourism, victoriafalls, wildlife, Zambia

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