For the past two months we’ve been distracted by a few visitors hence the lengthy silence. I apologise.
Visitor No. 1
Hanna turned up unannounced on May 1st, my birthday! Bless her! She came bearing gifts, not one, not two but three jars of pesto, kirby grips, the latest edition of Marie Clare, bday pressies and cards and soap from the airport hotel! We spent the whole day – just as you should on your birthday – eating and drinking. We ate a picnic lunch on the only patch of grass you can find in central Lusaka –Adventure Land – Zambia’s answer to a theme park complete with a Ferris Wheel you manually wind to make it go round!
The following day we travelled back to Chipata where everyone begins calling Hanna ‘Sally-Anne’ – she’s a small, young, white female, she must be me (no one seemed to notice she’s got flaming red hair!) Showing Hanna around my Zambian life was great and in a strange way made everything seem a bit more normal. That was until I ran a session for some of my peer educators and they all start confessing their sins giving examples of when they’d changed their behaviour in the past. Now I know how a Catholic priest must feel during confession…‘I was once a thief’, ‘I played truant’ ‘I used to drink a lot of beer’ and ‘I used to think sex was good!’ After all, peer educators shouldn’t be angels – realistic role models with ‘reformed souls’ is much better. Hanna’s own confession ‘I don’t say “what” anymore, instead, I say “sorry” or “pardon”’ and my ‘I’ve stopped asking Henry if he’s okay coz he finds it irritating’ seemed a bit pathetic.
We zipped across to Malawi for the weekend and drank beer from chilled tankards made in the pottery on the beach and learned to play Bao, Malawi’s answer to draughts. Over the past couple of weeks the wind has picked up in this part of the world so we got to play in some decent sized waves but had to move the tent to the shelter of the car park in the middle of the night as we were in danger of being blown over to Mozambique.
Enter visitors 2, 3 and 4
The following Friday Henry set off to meet his mum, aunt and sister in Lusaka and Hanna and I followed behind missioning it all the way through to Livingstone on the Saturday. We crawled onto the 5am bus in Chipata, caught a connection in Lusaka and stumbled into Livingstone at 10pm. It was all worth it for the free can of pineapple juice complete with floating bits we got on the second coach!
The Falls are spectacular at this time of year – full to the brim after the rainy season. We saw some hippos and a baby croc on the Zambezi. Hanna and Laura (Henry’s sister) flung themselves off the Gorge and Hanna played at being Peter Pan on the flying fox zip wire.
Back in Lusaka we said goodbye to Hanna and jumped on the sixth 6am bus in little over two weeks back to Chipata. A couple of days later Henry and his family went off to South Luangwa national park in search of some leopards whilst I got to stay at home with Jimmy and no electricity!
Visitor No. 4, 5 and 6: Hannah Gibbs and the parents.
Hannah number 2 (my Zambian colleagues and Henry’s family now think that all my friends are called Hannah) had coincidentally been in Lusaka for work and luckily I was passing through to meet my parents.
Henry waved his family off as the four of us took long bus journey No. 8 to Livingstone for another dose of adrenalin.
The following day we travelled back to Chipata where everyone begins calling Hanna ‘Sally-Anne’ – she’s a small, young, white female, she must be me (no one seemed to notice she’s got flaming red hair!) Showing Hanna around my Zambian life was great and in a strange way made everything seem a bit more normal. That was until I ran a session for some of my peer educators and they all start confessing their sins giving examples of when they’d changed their behaviour in the past. Now I know how a Catholic priest must feel during confession…‘I was once a thief’, ‘I played truant’ ‘I used to drink a lot of beer’ and ‘I used to think sex was good!’ After all, peer educators shouldn’t be angels – realistic role models with ‘reformed souls’ is much better. Hanna’s own confession ‘I don’t say “what” anymore, instead, I say “sorry” or “pardon”’ and my ‘I’ve stopped asking Henry if he’s okay coz he finds it irritating’ seemed a bit pathetic.
We zipped across to Malawi for the weekend and drank beer from chilled tankards made in the pottery on the beach and learned to play Bao, Malawi’s answer to draughts. Over the past couple of weeks the wind has picked up in this part of the world so we got to play in some decent sized waves but had to move the tent to the shelter of the car park in the middle of the night as we were in danger of being blown over to Mozambique.
Enter visitors 2, 3 and 4
The following Friday Henry set off to meet his mum, aunt and sister in Lusaka and Hanna and I followed behind missioning it all the way through to Livingstone on the Saturday. We crawled onto the 5am bus in Chipata, caught a connection in Lusaka and stumbled into Livingstone at 10pm. It was all worth it for the free can of pineapple juice complete with floating bits we got on the second coach!
The Falls are spectacular at this time of year – full to the brim after the rainy season. We saw some hippos and a baby croc on the Zambezi. Hanna and Laura (Henry’s sister) flung themselves off the Gorge and Hanna played at being Peter Pan on the flying fox zip wire.
Back in Lusaka we said goodbye to Hanna and jumped on the sixth 6am bus in little over two weeks back to Chipata. A couple of days later Henry and his family went off to South Luangwa national park in search of some leopards whilst I got to stay at home with Jimmy and no electricity!
Visitor No. 4, 5 and 6: Hannah Gibbs and the parents.
Hannah number 2 (my Zambian colleagues and Henry’s family now think that all my friends are called Hannah) had coincidentally been in Lusaka for work and luckily I was passing through to meet my parents.Henry waved his family off as the four of us took long bus journey No. 8 to Livingstone for another dose of adrenalin.
It was really lovely spending a day catching up with Hannah, reminiscing about Zimbabwe and comparing notes on HIV, Malaria and marvelling at how little Lusaka has to offer compared to Harare despite the troubles.Visitor No. 7, Cousin (or sister according to Zambian family structures) Lucy
Lucy arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi on June 1st. The following morning she was greeted with a freak two hour down pour just as we were gearing up for a day of sunbathing. The rainy season in Malawi is supposed to finish in March! After swimming on horse back, a crash course in pot making, a couple of African braais, two lionesses with three tiny cubs, a Zambian pop concert, four long, tedious bus journeys, explaining repeatedly that two condoms are not better than one, lengthy theological discussions, a new wardrobe of chitenge outfits and a run in with an immigration office she’s now safely back in the UK and we’re once again home alone.
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