After the opening theme of our Sunday night radio show – ‘The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring Kaufela’ which airs weekly between 20.30 and 21.30 hours on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station – Milli Jam always asks me to introduce our Guests. Usually this is not an issue but on the most recent edition the Guests (pictured above left to right) were Oystein Lund, Tove Leming and Lars Rotvold and if you’re not Norwegian, as they are, one can struggle with the names, and one did!

Oystein, Tove and Lars are lecturers at the University of Tromsoe in the far north of Norway where temperatures can drop to as low as -20C and where in mid-winter the sun does not come up and in mid-summer it does not go down! “A very different climate from Livingstone!” I remarked to which the response was “yes this place is hot!” Oystein is an expert in information and communications technology, Tove in social sciences and Lars in organizational skills and leadership. The group were visiting Livingstone to follow up Tromsoe University’s long standing links with the David Livingstone College of Education – DALICE, which has seen Norwegian student teachers visit DALICE and Zambian teachers trained in Tromsoe in the past. “Gosh!” I wondered “how did the Zambians cope with those cold temperatured?” With difficulty seemed to be the consensus of opinion.

Our Norwegian visitors were very much into the music we played on the show, and reminisced about a 2005 concert in Tromsoe featuring Peter Gabriel and Johnny Clegg which Nelson Mandela had attended in person, at which they had been excited members of the audience. On this edition we opened with tracks from Bingo Players featuring Far East Movement then Muse. George played Zambian tracks by Mampi and Bryan. Milli Jam chose Usher featuring Will.i.am and Timbaland. Our oldie of the week, when listeners can win a dinner for two at the lodge if they can text us correctly naming the performing artist, was by Mario Vasquez and to my surprise the prize was won. My pick of the week was Ellie Goulding’s ‘Explosions’ and we closed with Amelia Lily. Our Guests told us about the popularity of Admiral P in Norway, a rapper with a Zambian mum and Norwegian dad who rapped in Norwegian. “Bring it on!” We said!

Tove told listeners that at one time in the 80’s she had worked in the north of Zambia in the agricultural sector and had a love for the country and its people. Lars had visited the country before but it was Oystein’s first visit. The group had enjoyed a sunset cruise on the Zambezi and a visit to the Falls during their stay, and that day they had taken the one day safari to Chobe NP in Botswana which they had very much enjoyed, despite not being lucky enough to see big cats. Talking about tourist activities we took the chance to update listeners on the ‘Red Nose Hell And High Water Challenge’ which will see five UK celebrities travel 100 kms of the Zambezi by canoe, raft etc camping on the banks of the Zambezi all the way in aid of comic relief. The challenge was being fully covered by BBC Radio 1. Mel C, Greg James and the other participants hoped to raise a million pounds for the education of children in Zambia.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing our cheerful, and happy Guests told us they would still like to be working at the University of Tromsoe and fully involved with Africa. Great Guests, good music, nice show – as usual!