Meet Hendrik and Emily from Ghent in Belgium, pictured above in the studios of Zambezi Radio 107.7 fm in Livingstone on Sunday night 7th November, as they guested on our weekly radio show – The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George Soulchild. Emily and Hendrik, staying at Chanters Lodge for their holiday, have been an item for about 3 years. “How did you meet”? Milli Jam wanted to know. “At a party”, they explained. “Was it love at first sight”? I asked. They paused for thought. “Well yes it was really!” Sweet! “Marriage”? I continued. Emily roared with laughter, Hendrik looked shy and started muttering something about a ring! They look happy in the picture, don’t they?

“What made you choose Zambia and Chanters Lodge for your holiday”? Milimo asked, and Hendrik explained that he and Edward Chanter (my son) were friends on the internet through a mutual enjoyment of World Of Warcraft. Hendrik had seen Edward’s pictures of Zambia on his Facebook page, liked the look of it, and made a booking. Makes a change from TripAdvisor doesn’t it?! “World Of Warcraft”? Milli Jam enquired. World of Warcraft, often referred to as WoW, is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft Universe, Hendrik explained. “Is it addictive”? I asked and Hendrik said that it certainly could be – there had been family crises when parents stopped children from playing. “Do you play”? We asked Emily. “Occasionally” she said.

Emily is a carer at De Beweging and Hendrik is in ICT with Eandis, one of Belgium’s largest energy companies. We didn’t talk so much about their work. Milli Jam wanted to know what activities this lively couple had undertaken while they’d been in Livingstone, and they explained that they’d been on the Chobe 1 day safari, the sunset cruise and horse riding, so far. They’d had to stop horse riding before the scheduled time due to the heat. Understandable given the recent searing 40+ temperatures in Livingstone.

The music on the show was good as usual. We featured the current number 1 in UK ‘Only Girl In The World’ by Rihanna as well as the number 1 from the previous week ‘Promise This’ by Cheryl Cole. There were local tracks from B-Flow with ‘No More Kawilo’ as well as Judy & Ston – ‘Doubting’. More on this from George on the blog later this week I’m sure. Milli Jam chose ‘Strike It Up’ by Black Box and CJ Lewis with ‘Calm Waters’. (At this point we received an sms from the Lodge reporting that the stand by generator was not working well, so the waters were far from calm!). We turned it up with Ciara featuring Usher and turned it on with Iyaz. We featured ‘Your Love’ by the awesome Nicki Minaj with Jay Sean and closed with ‘Night Nurse’ – a tribute to the late Gregory Isaacs.

Soccer? George was jubilant – a Liverpool supporter, as his team had beaten Chelsea that afternoon. Milli Jam and I – Arsenal – were fed up that the Gunners had surprisingly lost a home game to Newcastle United. Milli Jam went on to remind our Belgian guests that Charles Musonda, one of Zambia’s best ever footballers, made his career with Anderlecht in Belgium in the 80’s, and that two of his sons were currently playing for the club.

“Where would you like to be and what would you like to be doing 10 years from now”? Milli Jam summarised our popular show with the usual question. They answered at the same time “travelling” said Emily “married with children” said Hendrik – and then they both burst out laughing – again!