Zambia 2019

Dear reader, welcome to day 15 in the Zambian wilderness!  Early start this morning with breakfast at 7:30 am for our return to Lusaka after a wonderful rest and relaxation at the Musungwa safari lodge!  Just like the team was running low on fuel, so was the bus! In preparation for our 6 hour drive we made a stop at the petrol station, however this wasn’t your quick ten minute stop at the Sainsbury’s pump. We waited for the Zambian power schedule to work it’s magic and got some fuel after a two hour wait, but spirits were still high. During the long journey Holly B managed to have a wee snooze but woke herself up to her own snore!  Ackim (the best bus driver) had some lit worship tunes to make the journey feel a lot shorter! And of course, we had some westlife bops with fabulous singing from our bus-aoke Queen, Jenny Bell.  After a quick costume change the girls were looking fabulous in their matching chitenges, all ready for dinner at Raphsodys! We wine...

After nearly two weeks, it’s my turn to do the blog. We all got a much needed lie in before mum and dad (Kenny and Christine), Mark, Ashley and Michael decided to go for a dip. The latter 3 decided to show us their jumping skills as a means of entering the pool.   Unfortunately for me, due to daily power shedding, there was no electricity for toast at breakfast, although they still managed to produce a full cooked fry.  After breakfast Diane brought a smile to the team’s faces when she appeared with tennis racquets and balls from reception. Despite the state of the court fresh with monkey droppings, both Michael and Rachel offered strong opposition to Downshire chairman Kenny. However the favourite became champion once again with a magnificent behind the back winner, leaving Michael red-faced.  The beating of local drums is our regular call to meals. After lunch, pool games were on the agenda with Ashley, Alice and Phil coming to the fore.  The group t...

Hey guys, Holly T here, and welcome to potentially the most exciting blog post of the trip. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting to be writing much since all we really did today was drive around in various vehicles, but what was looking to be a fairly relaxing day has turned into quite the adventure.  Disclaimer: I am 100% exaggerating events for the sake of the blog, and everyone is safe and sound (so don’t worry mum) but strap in folks, we’re in for a bumpy ride.  Our morning started with a fairly regular 7.45 departure from Backpackers with our hand luggage packed for our few days in R&R, and I found myself squished between Michael and Ashley on the minibus for 6 hours. (I’ve definitely had better seating arrangements). The first half of our journey went fairly normally. We listened to music and chatted and did puzzles and managed to nap a little - until we went off road. We pretty much bounced our way through Kafue National Park for several dozen kilometres, bu...

Today was our final day of mission work but was arguably the best day of the trip. The day started with an early breakfast with some very tired looking faces but these faces soon woke up when we reached Matero. The children's clock's had obviously been adjusted from Zambian time to our time as we were greeted as we drove in by 40 or 50 excitable children. The adrenaline kicked in very quickly as we started the programme off with another crazy game of football and some singing and dancing inside. We moved on next to a couple of songs which got a great reaction and it was really encouraging to hear the children learning the words to the song, despite the language barrier.  The drama team were up next and with a bit of improv brought a touch of humour to the morning.  The first session today focused on the story of Jesus' crucification and how He acted as a 'substitute' for us. After some very worthwhile conversations in group time we went outside for some game...

We started our day with the 45 minute trip to Matero CCAP to continue with our holiday bible club programme which we had introduced on Sunday afternoon. Despite the children having been warned that they needed to be there for 8:45 for a 9:00 start, Zambian clocks appear to be running a little slower than ours. (That being said, there are some children walking from another one of the CCAP church compounds which means they have a two and a half hour walk to get there!) We started with an array of activities at the start to allow for more youth to arrive including football, duck duck goose and skipping.  Once we were ready to go, we launched into singing and actions for ‘One Way’ and ‘Counting on God’ before Ashley gave his first of three talks of the day. We then broke off into our groups for the day to complete worksheets, games and crafts.  This involved creating colourful crosses and a variety of manic parachute games which the kids loved. We then reconvened fo...

Hello! 👋🏻   (M ulibwanji! 👋) Today began with a successful bus journey to Matero CCAP for another three hour long service. We listened to many beautiful songs from choirs of all ages which was followed by our very own ‘choir’ presenting a very fresh sounding version of ‘Every Giant will Fall’. Our very own Ashley gave the sermon which ran with the theme of “that’s not fair” (in reference to God’s free gift of Grace) which we all enjoyed. Following the service, the children from the Sunday school began to sing the familiar song 10,000 reasons and so we all ran in to join them. We were especially amazed by how all of the children sat through the service. After lunch, a few of us decided to teach duck duck goose to about three or four children which multiplied within a few minutes to the biggest duck duck goose game I’d ever played! The team gave an introduction day to Champions challenge: the programme we will be running for the next couple of days, during which we taught ...

We woke up again to another sunny day with a refreshing wind. We gathered ready to go at 8am but unfortunately the bus broke down and didn’t arrive until after 9.30.  Then after almost an hour of travelling, Diane rang us and told us that the youth conference we were taking part in had been cancelled. This sometimes happens in zambia. After returning to base, we had coffee and digestives with Diane and then decided to go to Kalimba Reptile Park. We had a guide who told us all about the snakes. Some of the group had their picture taken with a python round their neck. The brave ones were Michael, Victoria, Lyndsey, Rachel, holly T, Ashley, Alice and Phil. Then we were shown baby crocodiles which had been reared from eggs at the park. We were also shown large tortoises. Again the group were allowed to hold one. Christine, Jenny, Holly T, Holly B and Alice got some cute pictures. Lastly we went to see the adult crocodiles who get fed twice a week on live chickens. They live...