The last 2014 edition of The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Jay Hillz starred none other than Chanters Lodge Assistant Manager Annastasia Mwila Katele as our Guest of The Week. It’s some three years since Miss Anny (as she is known by the Chanters Girls) last appeared on the show and the level of maturity and self confidence she has reached in that time is most impressive. Says a lot about her and her ability to learn – there she is cavorting with Milli Jam and Jay in the picture above! The Experience has now been on air every Sunday on Zambezi 94.1 fm at 20.30 CAT for the past 7 years and in 2015 we go into our eighth year. The show keeps the name of the lodge in the Livingstone public eye, is nice for our Guests staying in the lodge who feature from time to time, and a good staff motivator too. The Chanters Girls love the show, especially when one of ‘their own’ is featured!
Annastasia told listeners she was given that name by her grandmother, her grandfather insisted that he too should be part of the naming ceremony hence the Mwila in her name, meaning ‘air’ in the Bemba language. “So you’re Bemba?’ surmised Milli Jam. Anny told us that her mum hails from Malawi! She has a daughter – Maryam now aged 14 and studying Grade 10 at Linda Secondary School here in Livingstone. Anny has been working at Chanters Lodge for 12 years having first joined on attachment in 2002. ‘Time flies’! Said Milli Jam and he’s not wrong! Anny explained that she had undertaken a course in food and beverage at the Livingstone Youth Community Training Centre run by the Catholic Church in Livingstone in 2000. ‘Are you Catholic’? asked Milli Jam. “No, I’m Moslem” replied Anny, and she is! She explained that both her mum and late dad were of that faith and she had continued in the family tradition. She prayed at the mosque on Obote Avenue when she chanced to be off on Fridays.
The music on the show was good as usual. We played tracks by Echosmith and Madonna. The guys dropped numbers from Sarkodie ft Banky W – a Ghanian act. Also from Izrael, Roberto (so hot in Zambia right now) and Usher featuring Nicki Minaj. Our oldie of the week was the late Joe Cocker’s Heart of The Matter but no-one won the prize we give each week to the first person to text us the name of the artist on the oldie. My pick of the week was OT Genesis’s ‘Co-Co’ and we closed with TINA by Fuse ODG scheduled to become our opening theme for the show in 2015 (‘This Is New Africa’ for the uninitiated.)
Anny told us that she loves all kind of music, her international favourite artist is Miley Cyrus and on the local scene ‘Roberto’. She admitted to loving shoes more than music and that she had lost count of the number of ‘heels’ in her possession! She supports Arsenal and denied that she had been cajoled into it by the director. Her favourite player is Theo Walcott. “Because he’s handsome?” Wondered Milli Jam. “Because he’s a great player’ replied Anny tersely. She told listeners that she loves her job, especially dealing with people, although she admitted that this was also the greatest challenge. Asked where she would like to be and what she would like to be doing in ten years’ time, our pretty, hard working, talented, well spoken strict Assistant Manager told us that she would like to have her own business, be married and have some more children. The subsequent excitement of Milli Jam and Jay was curtailed by my mention of Anny’s mum – the matriarch of the family!
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