It’s quite unusual for us to feature Guests staying at Livingstone facilities other than Chanters Lodge on our regular Sunday night radio show – The Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela – but we were more than happy to host Alrik Green with students Grace Potter and Nino Rapa pictured above. Alrik is a lecturer, Grace and Nino graduate students from Varndean College in Brighton, UK – the guys were actually staying at JollyBoys Backpackers with the rest of their student group. We were delighted to invite them on to our programme so our listeners could hear all about their work with the Kaloko Community on the Copperbelt in Zambia, organized by the Kaloko Trust in UK. Alrik and I have known each other for several years, meeting during one of his previous visits to Zambia. Our radio show airs every Sunday night at 20.30 hrs on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station.
Grace,18 and Nino,17 told listeners that they’d worked for two weeks with the Kaloko Community in Luansobe, some 60 kms from Ndola in Northern Zambia, helping local carpenters to make desks and chairs for local schools that were short of furniture. Were they experienced carpenters themselves, we wondered? “We are now!” Was the smart reply. Where had they stayed while they were there, Milli Jam wanted to know. “In rondavels” they replied, Grace going on to say that the 9 girls with whom she’d shared a ‘dormitory room’ had formed a group now known as the ‘Zambezi Babes’. Had they enjoyed the experience? You bet they had! Some of the group had also helped with some teaching in the local primary school.
The music on the show had an immediate Brighton bias as we featured Conor Maynard’s latest UK smash ‘Vegas Girl’. Conor hails from Brighton and it turned out that Nino and Conor had at one time attended the same school. We coupled ‘Vegas Girl’ with Karmin’s ‘Brokenhearted’ also a huge hit in both UK and USA. Other tracks featured on the show were from Zambian artists B-Flo and Danny, as well as Kelly Rowland’s latest ‘Ice’ featuring Lil Wayne and Nigerian star 2 Face with ‘Bad Girl – Bad Man’. Our oldie of the week was ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ from Puff Daddy Diddy and the prize we give every week to the first person to text us the name of the artist on the track was quickly snapped up! Other tunes were from Cady Groves and Scissor Sisters.
Our Guests told us they are fans of ‘The Seagulls’ – Brighton and Hove Albion, the city’s own Championship football club. “What kind of city is Brighton” Milimo wondered, to which the reply was “big, loud and known as ‘London-By-The-Sea’!” Asked about their favourite musical artists Grace recommended Beyonce, and Nino David Bowie but all three rated Rizzle Kicks – a Brighton band. “So do we” we commented “we’ve played their tracks several times on our show”. Alrik, Nino and Grace all spoke highly of the Zambian music they’d heard when they were on the Copperbelt, and they’d also learned to speak a few words in Bemba.
Had the visitors had time for tourist activities while they’d been in Livingstone? Yes, and Nino would be taking the microlight flight over the Falls the following day.
Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing in ten years time, the students hoped they would be working and living in Zambia, Alrik hoped he would still be teaching and taking students as great as Grace and Nino on tour to places like Zambia! The group greeted friends back at Jollyboys and their families at home in UK. Our show streams live on the net so we hoped the people overseas caught their messages!
Great guys, great show!
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