Two Men of Broken Hill

In this series of articles I have been telling you about the work my father and I have done in Zambia with the National Police Aid Convoys. Now I would like to do something a little different, and tell you how it all started; with two men born two hundred thousand years apart. Both were born at Broken Hill in Zambia, and both spent their formative years there, when neither of them wore shoes. One left with a promise to return, the other stayed there for all of his days.

One man is my father, the other could be the father of us all.

The Broken Hill Skull, also known as the Kabwe Cranium, was found in a zinc mine in 1921. It belonged to an adult male, and he belonged to an early species of human called Homo rhodesiensis. Many believe that H. rhodesiensis evolved into modern man. For all his significance to us now, Broken Hill man would have lived simply; eating meat that he hunted with his spear, using tools that he knapped from flint, socialising with his extended family unit and speaking with them using a rudimentary language. He would have known other men who passed through the area on their way into the rest of the world, but he stayed where he was, happy in his home with all that he could need.

Sadly there were many dangers in the life of Broken Hill man. His species spread all over the world, and the remains of another H. rhodesiensis man have been found in Boxgrove Quarry, West Sussex. They were gnawed on by a large carnivore. At this time humans were not the top predator, and while Boxgrove Quarry man was bested by a wolf or a bear, Broken Hill man would have had to deal with ancestral lions, hyenas, and wild dogs, not to mention the dangers of hippos, elephants, mosquitoes and tsetse flies. Disease would have been a constant presence and it is likely that he lost more than one family member before he himself died. His skull shows that ten of his top teeth had cavities in them, and pitting in the bone suggests that he suffered a great infection before he died, either from the infection itself or from starving to death because it was too painful to eat.

Two hundred thousand years later the other man from Broken Hill is returning to the land of his birth, now able to heal the hurt that tooth decay can cause. He is too late for Broken Hill man, but he can help hundreds of others by providing a facility to which anyone may come for help. My father is in the process of furnishing a dental clinic in Lusaka to give something back to the country which gave him so much. 

First published in Southwell Life, June 2015.

July's edition of Southwell Life is published tomorrow. Be sure to take a look at all of its fine articles!

It's that time of year again folks...

June is looming and we are once again gearing up to follow our containers out to Zambia. Since last year the good people of the National Police Aid Convoys (NPAC) have sent twenty-eight shipping containers to seven different countries, four of which went to Zambia full of clothes, books and medical equipment. The primary ethos of NPAC is that nothing gets wasted, even space on the containers. Every inch is crammed full of aid donated by companies and generous individuals. On one memorable occasion an ambulance was loaded in, and then filled with latex gloves, dressings and sanitising hand gel.

This time last year we were heading off into the unknown. I had never been to Africa before, the closest being a holiday to the Canaries, and while Dad was born there he moved away fifty years ago. A lot can happen to a country in fifty years. Independence, the movement to democracy, a slowly growing economy and a steadily growing gulf between rich and poor. The trip with NPAC last year started in Lusaka, launching us right in with a few days of hard work at the Makeni and Mycepa clinics for dentistry and cerebral palsy respectively, before we set out to see exactly what the combined might of NPAC is capable of. Nyimba East Primary School was a delight. The kids were smart and enthusiastic, and the teachers told us how much they love working there with the equipment they’ve received. The children are proud of their uniforms and books and their school choir is winning contests. They let us sit in on a dress rehearsal for an upcoming event and it was a joy to see. Search for Nyimba East School Choir on youtube and you can see the choir for yourself. We left Nyimba on a high, but under no illusions that every school would be so fortunate. As we drove away from the capital we saw a steady decline in living conditions around us until we came to an area ravaged by tsetse flies, where cattle are impossible to keep and crops are trampled by elephants so parents have to choose between feeding their children and sending them to school.

I have often been asked how I dealt with the emotions inherent in such a trip, and while I can’t deny that on occasion tempers ran high, the itinerary was planned so cleverly that we ended the experience tired, determined and hopeful. To view success first meant that we knew what we could achieve and allowed us to keep that in mind while planning how to help struggling communities. It also helped that we were in a great group of people and we kept each other going with humour and comfort when it was needed. I’m excited to see people we met last year and find out how our friends are doing in Nyimba and Mwape.

If you’d like to help, visit www.npac.org.uk to find out more.

First published in Southwell Life, May 2015.

Our Lunch with KK

Last time I wrote about Kenneth Kaunda’s political career. This time I’d like to tell you about the man we met at his home in Lusaka.

KK turned ninety last year, and as he knew David Scott and the work NPAC does in Zambia, we were invited to lunch at his home. We arrived after we’d been reclaiming our luggage at the airport, so all we’d had to change into is the clothing we’d packed in our hand luggage. Fortunately I had all of my clothing in my rucksack, and so I was feeling pretty fresh, but Dad had made a schoolboy error and packed his anti-malarial medicine in his suitcase. Luckily he had a clean dress shirt, tartan tie and his Caledonian Society presidents’ medal. My Dad has great priorities.

When we arrived we could hear music coming from the reception room and entered to find a bit of a jam session in progress. KK frequently has lunches to which he will invite many interesting visitors, and we were in attendance with a German music group who came to Zambia to investigate the possibility of setting up a dedicated music college. It turns out the first president of democratic Zambia has hidden talents. He’d pulled out a guitar and the whole group was singing along to a well known hymn, shortly followed by the Zambian anthem. After the musical interlude was concluded conversation turned to our purposes for visiting Zambia. KK was delighted to learn that Dad was born there, and that they had a Caledonian connection, KK’s father having been an ordained Church of Scotland missionary, and when Dad presented KK with a glass vase he had made in the colours of the saltire it took pride of place on the table in front of him. We have since learned that KK keeps the vase in his bedroom, along with the policeman’s helmet that David Scott had given him on a previous visit.

While we ate KK told us about his wife, Betty, to whom he was married for sixty-six years and who died in 2012. She was a strong woman and a good friend and advisor to KK, who consulted her frequently on affairs of state. It’s clear he misses her desperately, and his personal assistant, Linda told us that he regularly visits her grave in the gardens of his house to sit and talk to her. Dad told KK about my Mum and how they’ve been married only thirty years, and he responded with the advice to “have patience”.

KK came to the front steps to wave us off and sang Good-bye-ee, then this ninety-year-old man who has to walk with a cane ran up to his balcony like a dynamo and waved his trademark handkerchief as we drove away.

You can tell why KK was chosen to bring his country to democracy. He is gracious and commands the attention of a room when he speaks, but he is also humble and has a sense of mischief that belies the gravity of his office. He made us welcome in his home and shared his wisdom with us, while giving his full attention to each person and making it clear that he learns from everyone he meets.

First published in Southwell Life, April 2015.

Kenneth Kaunda

In 1962 my grandparents played host to a young man with a vision of a democratic Zambia. Kenneth Kaunda was 38 at the time, and president of the United National Independence Party (UNIP). Forty-eight years later my father would finally meet the man he’d peered at from behind his nurse at the age of four. The man who became the first president of an independent Zambia.

Kenneth Kaunda, known affectionately as KK, was born in 1924 in Lubwa, Northern Rhodesia, to Malawian parents. His father was a Church of Scotland missionary, and instilled in his eight children the values of the church, especially charity and love of your fellow man. KK was the youngest of the eight and trained as a teacher. In 1951 he quit teaching and became the Organising Secretary of the Northern Province Northern Rhodesian African National Congress (ANC). That’s a heck of a title, so in 1953 he became Secretary General of the ANC instead. In 1955 the ANC, led by its president Harry Nkumbula made an unsuccessful bid for the leadership of the country against the largely European led Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (FRN). Later that year Nkumbula and KK were imprisoned for two months for ‘distributing subversive literature’. This turned out to be a formative experience for KK. Upon their release his friend and colleague Nkumbula changed his stance and started to sympathise more with the FRN and their view of power with property. KK disagreed with the new stance of the ANC and so in October 1958 he formed the Zambian African National Congress (ZANC). Six months later the ZANC was banned and KK was sentenced to nine months in prison.

During his early political career KK had garnered a lot of support for his view that life would never improve for black Zambians unless they were proportionally represented in government. While he was in prison some of his supporters formed the United National Independence Party (UNIP) and upon his release in 1960 he was elected president. Using his position at the head of this new party KK set about building a successful campaign. He visited Martin Luther King Jr in Atlanta, Georgia, but in 1961 the UNIP staged protests which turned to violence, leading to road blocks and arson. The 1962 elections saw a UNIP-ANC coalition with KK in the post of Minister for Local Government and Social Welfare. In 1964 UNIP gained a rousing victory with KK at its head, making him the first President of an independent Zambia.

KK remained in power until the joint pressures of economic downturn and international pushes towards democracy meant that Zambia could either spiral into civil war, or a drastic change was needed. KK implemented a ruling which allowed for multi party elections, thus effectively ending any chance he had of re-election. A free and democratic election took place in 1991 and UNIP lost to the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD). He was one of the first African statesmen to relinquish power in the name of a democratic vote.

Next month I will tell you about the time that we met this hero of a man. How he commands the attention of a room, how he is a gracious and wise host, and how he plays a mean guitar.

First published in Southwell Life, March 2015.

Back to Their Future

Everywhere you go in rural Zambia, it is usually the children you see first. They line the roads waving and grinning because to even see a car is a terribly rare event. They are thrilled to meet new people and will greet you over and over, to show off the English they know and in hopes of becoming friends. You are dragged over to meet their families and welcomed in to eat with them with smiles and open arms. Family is important here, because often family is all you have between you and the world, but sometimes family does not offer the safety it should. There are countless cases of the abuse of girls and young women at the hands of their male family members. For a long time this went unchecked and unchallenged, but education is helping to counter the damage done by ignorance. Project Luangwa works to educate young people, to help make their lives better. At present they are focusing on teaching young women that they do have a choice about what happens to their bodies, and teaching young men that they too have a choice. Tradition does not have to dictate their future, and they do not have to bow to pressure from ‘the way it has always been’. There is no shortage of minds to soak up knowledge and combat ignorance. The schools we visited with the National Police Aid Convoys (NPAC) were bursting at the seams with children so keen to learn that they even did what their teachers told them!

PEPAIDS is another charity which aims to educate, in particular, young people who have been affected by HIV/AIDS. Often these children are the sole carers for sick relatives or younger siblings, so when PEPAIDS gives them the chance to have some time off they leap at it. Camp Zambia is run so that children and young people can come and learn some life skills, as well as being able to relax and be children for a while. One particularly heartwarming story is that of Jack. His father had died and his mother was seriously ill, so he was the head of the family, responsible for caring for his siblings and his mother. He came to camp Zambia with nothing more than the clothes he stood up in. He didn’t even have any shoes. Volunteers at the camp got him to stand at one side of the yard and imagine everything he could want on the other side. He told them he just wanted to feed his family. They asked what he had on his side of the yard, and how it could help him get to the other side. He had a slingshot to scare off monkeys, so he decided he could go out into the bush and catch guinea fowl. This he did, and his family had a decent meal for the first time in weeks. One day he caught two guinea fowl, so he took the spare and sold it at market. With the money he bought himself a pair of pink jelly sandals, meaning he could walk further into the bush and thus catch more fowl to sell.

They say the children are the future, and Zambia’s future must be bright!

If you’re interested in the work done by any of the charities mentioned, please take a look at their websites:

Project Luangwa: www.projectluangwa.org

PEPAIDS: www.pepaids.org

NPAC: www.npac.org.uk

First published in Southwell Life, February 2015.

Charity Connections

The National Police Aid Convoys was founded on a basis of strong links in the community. During the Balkan war local police officers used their knowledge and connections to deliver aid directly to people in need. NPAC now sends shipping containers to around a dozen countries around the world from Albania to Zanzibar. Freight costs are high for regions that are less accessible but money raising efforts through warehouse sales, talks and presentations, legacies and donations keep the aid moving. A recent talk by three Southwell dentists at the Bramley Centre library raised £315 for NPAC, Bridge 2 Aid and the Mercy Ships. NPAC have to plan a long way ahead how much aid to send and where it’s needed. We use out links with local people and visits in person to find out if aid has arrived, is being used, and is being looked after. As long as these three criteria have been fulfilled we will offer more support in the future.

NPAC has links to organisations in the UK that supply specialist items such as sewing machines, shoes, bicycles, and artificial limbs. There is a surfeit of equipment in this country which is perfectly serviceable; the major challenge is getting it where it can do some good. NPAC is ideally situated to provide transport that smaller charities cannot afford. The large containers that NPAC sends run at about £4000, but if a charity wants to send smaller items they are invited to pay just a share of the container so their shipment can get to where it needs to go.

NPAC has warehouses all over the East Midlands where volunteers give their time to sort through the goods donated and decide which can be sold to pay for shipping costs, and what could be better used in specific projects abroad. During our trip to Zambia my father, John Peterson, was involved in setting up the dental clinic at the Makeni Trust in Lusaka. He had sent over some equipment already, including a dental chair and some cabinetry, but there is plenty more to take out on NPAC’s next trip, in June 2015. The warehouse closest to us is gradually filling up with medical and dental equipment donated by the Nottingham Dental Society, Westbridgeford medical practices and Lincolnshire podiatrists and physiotherapists ready to be serviced and tested before shipping. John says “I have seen the difference these donations make to the people we visited and hope to do more. NPAC cannot fulfil every request that comes in but we do like to keep our promises.”

If you’re interested in the work NPAC does, check their website at www.npac.org.uk or email secretary@npac.org.uk.

First published in Southwell Life, January 2015.

African Appetisers

Mum and I are the gastronauts of the family. Brother and Sister will experiment within the food groups they like, and Dad will eat what he’s given and be grateful, but Mum and I like to do something a little different every year. Everywhere we travel influences the food we make, and heading over to Zambia opened up a whole new continent of gastronomic possibilities for me.

While we were there I crossed three new animals off my Glutton Club list. Goat – delicious stewed, tender and flavourful; impala – similarly tasty, especially breaded and fried; and kudu, which is another type of antelope. Kudu I did not like. It wasn’t an unpleasant texture, being something like tender lamb, but the flavour was unexpected, being something like tuna. It did not marry well in my head.

Most people in Zambia get their carbohydrates from nshima, the Zambian national dish. It is made by adding mealie meal, a finely ground corn flour, to boiling water, and stirring until the desired consistency is reached. The nshima is formed into a ball, and is then used to scoop up the accompaniments. Make no mistake, to Zambians this is more than a mere alibi food, nshima is the central component of the dish, and all else is frippery. My father grew up in Zambia and has fond memories of mealie meal. Indeed, most ex-Zambians speak of nshima with misty nostalgia in their eyes. It isn’t quite the same anywhere else.

The meal I enjoyed most was probably with our good friend Chieftainess Mwape. She served us nshima with goat casserole, greens, beans, carrot salad and boiled potatoes. Quite the feast, considering her village is in the middle of both elephant country and tsetse fly country. The elephants trample and eat any crops other than cotton and tobacco, and the tsetse flies cause sleeping sickness in cattle. The people of Mwape struggle for food at the best of times, but while we were there it was a particularly lean season. The river was low and the food was scarce, but thanks to the work of NPAC and the tremendous organisation of the Chieftainess, most of the people of Mwape will not need to buy clothes or supplies for school, so they will be well fed until the river rises and the crops can grow and be sold.

First published in Southwell Life, December 2014.

This was apparently the only food we took a photo of. These little golden plums were tart and refreshing, and I still don't know what they're called!

A Binary Country

For a country so fiscally poor as Zambia, any extra income is extremely welcome. As such, a thriving tourism industry has made the most of the country’s extraordinary beauty. Its geography and wildlife mean that it has tremendous attraction for the more adventurous tourists, literally off the beaten track, while those who appreciate their creature comforts a little more can relax in one of the many top class hotels in Livingstone. On our trip we were largely working in the bush with remote communities, but at the end of the trip we spent some time in Livingstone, to reacclimatise to civilisation after washing in hippo water for a fortnight. It was as well we did take this time to readjust. One day we were visiting schools in desperate need of basic supplies, like shoes, and the next we were amid the decadence of the Royal Livingstone Hotel, sipping gin cocktails while the sun set over the Victoria Falls and zebra roamed through the grounds.

One woman who embodied the best of both worlds within this binary country was the inestimable Chieftainess Mwape. She grew up in the Mwape district, along the banks of the River Luangwa, with her mother, the former chieftainess. When she finished school she left the area and made a new life in Lusaka. She met her husband and had children. She had a nice house and a good job, and was happy for years. Then one day she got the news that her mother had died and she had been selected as the next chieftainess. She left it all. She travelled back to the scene of her childhood, leaving her children, her friends, her life in Lusaka, and started again, building on the legacy of her mother and bringing the knowledge she had gained in the big city to bear in a very different setting.

NPAC has been working with Chieftainess Mwape for many years now, and they are impressed with the techniques she is using to ensure all the aid they send gets to the people who need it most. When the containers arrive she stockpiles everything in her guest house and puts the word out to all the settlements in her district, announcing the day that everything will be shared out. The people gather, and the first to choose are the elderly and vulnerable, followed by the families, and then the rest of the group. The first thing you touch is the thing that you take, so there is no picking over the offering for things to sell, and everyone takes what they can carry on their cart or bicycle. Baby bundles are sent to the clinic, and the new mothers do not receive anything unless they bring their children in for check-ups and vaccinations, thus ensuring they remain healthy. This strict control means that the aid sent is fairly distributed, and it is gratifying for NPAC to know that someone in such a position is working so carefully to make the most of what we can send.

If you’re interested in the work NPAC does please visit www.npac.org.uk or call 0115 9390 999.

Chieftainess Mwape and David Scott.

A Tale of Two Schools

The National Police Aid Convoys support many schools around the world, but here I would like to focus on just two of them. On their recent trip to Zambia NPAC visited schools that they have sponsored in the past including Nyimba East Primary School. Nyimba District is situated in the Eastern Province of Zambia. The headteacher of the school, Lita Zalimba has been in contact with NPAC for 10 years. She was originally a teacher at Mwape School, further west, but in 2010 she moved to the newly built Nyimba East School. In the time she has been there the school has gone from strength to strength, having been filled by generous donations to NPAC. The school is equipped with all the desks, chairs, books and sports equipment they need, and during their last visit the playing fields were levelled and kitted out with netball hoops and goal posts. The playing fields are used by many schools in the area for tournaments and the school choir is entering regional competitions. Nyimba East is a success story for Lita and NPAC, and we hope that they will continue to grow and develop talented and enthusiastic minds.

If you’d like to hear more about Nyimba East School, take a look at Andrew Whittingham’s new book “Ninety Days in Nyimba”. Andrew grew up in Nottinghamshire, and his book follows his time teaching alongside the dedicated staff at Nyimba East.

Another school that NPAC supports is Mnyazi Primary School, also situated in Nyimba District. Mnyazi is further outside the main town of Nyimba, along roads which can barely be called such. A small group of us travelled the 45 minutes to visit this school and what greeted us was something quite different to Nyimba East. There are 422 pupils currently enrolled from the ages of 6 to 22. They were very grateful for the equipment NPAC had already sent, but it was clear to see that there was much more to be done. The older children and teachers needed desks which were big enough for them, the children needed uniforms, school bags, and in some cases shoes, and the school would benefit from tools to cultivate a garden to grow food for the children.

One thing that we noticed wherever we went was the gratitude and generosity of spirit which greeted us. Both Nyimba East and Mnyazi schools insisted on their choirs performing for us, which prompted goosebumps and not a few tears. These children who are so grateful for the simplest things wanted to show us what they could do, and it was breathtaking. None of it would be possible without desks, books and materials sent by NPAC. Without this basic equipment the schools cannot retain either teachers or students and huge districts are left without the basic right of access to education. Such a huge problem is so easy to fix with excess and redundant stock from our local schools which you give to NPAC. All we do is get it where it is needed.

If you’re interested in the work NPAC does, visit their website at www.npac.org.uk.

First published in Southwell Life, September 2014.

Healthcare in a Third World Country

In my last article about the National Police Aid Convoys’ trip to Zambia I wrote about our visit to Nyimba and the different conditions faced by the schools there. Nyimba District Hospital is the major state hospital for the region, yet it only has two surgeons resident. General anaesthetics are available, but only for short-duration operations due to a lack of expertise. The acting clinical director and the newly qualified junior surgeon both felt that they could do a better job if they had equipment that hadn’t broken down. When we visited, the main steriliser which served the operating theatres did not work, so the instruments they used were transported around the hospital to find a working autoclave on one of the wards. The clinicians had no idea if a technician would ever be sent to repair the non-functioning, essential medical equipment. The most basic supplies were missing. The hospital had run out of dressings, so wounds often resulted in amputations, and of course there are no wheelchairs or crutches or artificial limbs available for discharged patients.

We were able to leave surgical instruments, text books, lung function monitors, baby development indices, blankets, knitted toys, toothbrushes and toothpaste. This was just what we had with us at the time, so we hope to be able to send more soon. They need laboratory equipment, IV antibiotics, dressings, hand sanitizer, mobility aids, baby bundles including blankets, nappies, toys, and ideally an anaesthetist to show them how to use the equipment they do have!

We were fortunate enough to then spend a lot of time driving through the bush, but that situation has inherent dangers. Every time we left our camp we had a guide with a gun to make sure we were safe. One day our guide was called Geoffrey, and he had lived along the banks of the Luangwa River all his life. He took us to the schools we wanted to visit, and showed us around the game scout school where he studied. He was generally a tremendously knowledgeable and interesting man, so we got to talking. He asked why we were there and I explained about my father’s connection with Zambia. When he heard about Dad’s profession his face lit up. It turned out he had a terrible toothache which had stopped him working for a week and he asked if Dad could help. Of course Dad could help! He performed a couple of emergency extractions with the anaesthetic and instruments he had brought with him. Geoffrey was delighted and told us that he didn’t know anyone else who had been treated by a dentist. We hope to make Geoffrey’s case a rare one. We hope to make sure everyone has access to medical help when they need it, and with your help it’s a very achievable goal.

Southwell dentist, John Peterson, is working with NPAC to set up a dental clinic at the Makeni Trust in the centre of Lusaka. The Trust currently provides primary medical care for the local population at minimal cost. NPAC have provided support for the last seven years, but this clinic is something new. So far there is a dental chair, a filing cabinet, four cupboards and a sink – there is much still to be done!

If you think you can help by donating your time, equipment or expertise, get in touch with NPAC on 0115 9390 999 or by email at enqs@npac.org.uk.

First published in Southwell Life, October 2015.

Here we go again...

It's today. Today we are going back to Zambia.

As you can probably tell, I'm not ready.

I mean, I'm packed and all, but I'm not prepared. I wasn't prepared last year either, and look how that turned out...

The Last Day - 2-07-14

This is the end of the wild part of our trip. From here on it's reintroducing ourselves to civilisation in Livingstone, but first we had an hour to kill before our flight, right on the edge of the South Luangwa National Park. Time for a spontaneous safari!

Look at me, I'm invisible!

EDIT: I just noticed there's a hippo in the river here. Turns out he's better at camouflage than the zebra.

A youthful giraffe. These guys defy physics when they run.

Here is a video of a running giraffe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsaOn85TqUE

Video credit to user marsicana. Giraffes can run up to 35 mph and always look like they're in slow motion.

The battery on my camera ran out at this point so I'll let Dad take it from here. Joan had been to Zambia and Kenya a number of times but she'd never seen a lion, so that was the mission of the day. We'd been bumping about for a while, getting tips from other safari groups when all of a sudden:

The ladies were relaxing in the shade, and there was a young male a little way off.

Fortunately they'd eaten during the night so they didn't leap through the sides of our convertible jeep.

Flushed with our leonine success we turned and headed back to town so we could catch our flight. We were about 500 yards from the exit when Dad yelled "STOOOOOP!"

"Mum chucked me out."

He was a young male, probably not long left his mum, just sitting by the side of the road about three metres from the jeep. The shouting and resultant shower of gravel didn't put him off and he sat and posed for us for a while before trotting off into the bush.

He stayed long enough that we could get some good photos.

The Best Day - 1-07-14

Three different factions went off today to investigate different schools provisioned by NPAC. David S, Hilary, Dad and I went to the game scout training centre and Malanga school and Dad got to drive the jeep. This made him a very happy man. The rest of us were in the back and honestly didn't spend too much time airborne. On the way we picked up our guide for the day, Geoffrey. He pronounced his name as it's spelt and rode in the back with me. I tell you it's very difficult to get used to an AK47 in the back of a jumpy jeep.

We headed to the game scout training centre and it was in pretty good shape. They had computers provided by ReBoot, Hilary's company, and solar panels to power them. The students there eat well and learn vital skills which earns them jobs at hunting lodges all over the area. The only requirement of joining the school is that you are a young man or woman with good boots and your own gun. They are encountering problems with their water supply, since it is contaminated by the surrounding rock and comes up salty, but that is a relatively easy fix with a solar distiller.

A basic solar still. 

Image source: jouneytoforever.org

Malanga school was a little worrying. NPAC have sent them aid in the past but when we asked to see it all the books were piled in a side room and covered in dust. The teachers were young and well dressed, fresh from Lusaka, but not happy at being posted to somewhere so out of the way. They had not taken care of the equipment we sent and that is one of the conditions for continued aid. If the stuff we send is not looked after there's no point sending more, so David S gave them an ultimatum. Either bookshelves were built or NPAC would remove their support for the school. This sounds harsh, but there's no point sending aid after useless aid. People cannot rely on the kindness of strangers because they get complacent and nothing really improves. The teachers at Malanga complained that there was no way to get bookshelves, so could we send them some. David S refused. There are plentiful talented carpenters in Zambia, so why shouldn't they be given the trade? The teachers (ready with plenty of reasons not to try) told us there were no good carpenters in the village. Within five minutes we had met Menno Witteveen and he pointed us towards the carpenters currently hanging the doors on the church they built. Menno is of the same mindset as David S, in that if the community builds the church themselves it is their church, and something to take pride in rather than a gift and something to be taken for granted.

While we were negotiating the manufacture of bookshelves Dad took the opportunity to give the children of the school a lecture in dental hygiene. While this sounds less than thrilling to most, the kids were delighted with the toothbrushes we gave them and Dad enjoyed their enthusiasm.

Most of the people in Zambia speak English well, but for the intricacies of oral hygiene Dad enlisted the help of a translator.

On the way back to Tundwe I got chatting with Geoffrey. He asked why we were there in Zambia, and I explained about Dad being born there, and now that he's a successful dentist he wants to give something back to the land he loves. Geoffrey got very excited at the news that Dad's a dentist and revealed that he'd been off work for a week with terrible toothache. Dad agreed to take a look, so Geoffrey came back to camp with us. Sadly, before Dad could take a look at his teeth, we had to wait for our tusked visitor to vacate again.

Dad ended up taking two of Geoffrey's molars out and he was utterly delighted. The pain was gone and he was the only person he knew to have been treated by a dentist.

In the evening we had some more dancing, except this time we dragged some of the camp workers in on it too. It was highly entertaining, since they had no idea what they were doing, but they were laughing just as hard as we were!

Project Luangwa - 30-06-14

I got up early this morning to see the dawn over the Luangwa river, because how often does that opportunity come up? 5:30 saw me, groggily stumbling towards the firepit with a torch. In the distance I could see someone waving with a torch, so I waved back then turned my torch off since the light was slowly bleeding into the sky. Suddenly one of the staff came running at me out of the dining area, frantically waving his arms and hissing "Elephant! Elephant! Elephant!"

Just in case you're not familiar with the concept of 'elephant'.

There's apparently a pachyderm partial to a palliative picnic who wanders into camp and eats the fallen marula fruit. This fruit, which looks like a large golden plum, is actually related to mangoes and is desired by animals of all sizes, from mammoths to mouses. Small rodents know the soft spots to nibble on the stone of the fruit to release the seeds inside. Elephants like the fruit because of its intoxicating qualities. So there I stood, in the gathering dawn of an African morning, watching a huge bull elephant enjoying his breakfast.

After making everyone very jealous with my close encounter of the tusked kind we set out to meet Karen at Project Luangwa. Karen and her team work with the people of the Luangwa valley to develop education and help protect the local ecosystem, and improve the health and wellbeing of everyone who lives there. At present the focus is on women's health, and educating young women about puberty. There is a lot of misunderstanding still about the nature of menstruation, and a lot of people still believe that it is something dirty and shameful. Most girls don't have any way of dealing with it, because sanitary towels are not available, so they stay away from people, including school for that part of the month. Project Luangwa has devised a discreet and washable sanitary pad, which can be stuffed with raw cotton, plucked straight from the bush and they are running workshops with local women teaching them how to make them for themselves. While the women are there they can also talk about their lives, and often find out that they're not alone in whatever problem they're facing.

After lunch we visited Anna Tolan at Chipembele. Anna runs an animal sanctuary and education centre. The animal sanctuary is limited to caring for young animals orphaned by humans, so hunting or road accidents mostly. At present she is officially caring for two young monkeys and Cosmo the baby baboon, but Anna's house is akin to something from a Gerald Durrell novel. Also on the premises is George the vicious squirrel and his unnamed ladyfriend, Maureen the baboon who won't leave, and Douglas, a sizeable hippo that Anna rescued as a baby.

There's Douglas, chilling in the shade. This was as close as we could get because he is, after all, a sizeable hippo.

David S told us a story of the last time he came to visit Anna. They were supervising the sunset with a swift gin and tonic when David felt a warm breeze and a damp weight on the back of his neck. Douglas had come to investigate the newcomer and bestowed upon him a gift which would keep on giving. Hippos exude a red oil which both keeps them cool and stops them getting sunburned. It also gives them that characteristic pinkish hue. It is also impossible to clean off. For days David was wiping red goop off the back of his neck, but on the bright side he didn't get sunburn.

David S minus red hippo-goop, plus baby baboon bottom. He just has an affinity for animals.

It had been a thought provoking day, so we returned to Tundwe and cracked open some more wine as fuel for setting the world to rights.

Team building - 29-06-14

Today was a long day. We had a nine hour drive north east along the Luangwa river from Nyamvu camp to Tundwe camp. Most of the way was paved, so that was nice, but when we got to Chipata the tire on our jeep finally gave up the ghost. Three hours passed while it was reinflated/repaired/hit with sledgehammers. We were bringing wine and nibbles for a gathering at Project Luangwa so the delay was irritating, as it meant we missed the reception. On the bright side we managed to break down on the mechanic's mile in Chipata. On the even brighter side we were left with a gathering's worth of wine and nibbles. Party at Tundwe!

Mwape again - 28-06-14

Hunting is a part of life here. People hunt for food and tourists hunt for sport, bringing money to the area. Lodges are situated all along the Luangwa river and run for the hunters that come from the beginning of July to the end of October. Each area has a quota of animals which can be killed without damaging the ecosystem and hunters pay a high price for the privilege, so the game is fiercely protected to make hunting a sustainable industry, but as with all things there are people who think they are outside the law.

This crocodile tried to take a man outside the village, so it had to be hunted and shot.

On the way to Mwape this morning Gulam radioed to inform us that poachers had been caught in the area. They had killed two female elephants and removed their tusks, but while trying to cross a river with the ivory they were taken by local people. The fury facing poachers should be an efficient deterrent. These men faced a tough time at the local police station, followed by transportation to Lusaka and months awaiting trial. The likely sentence was life in prison. This was a tough one. Poaching is reprehensible by any standard, but seeing those men and the fear and desperation in their eyes was difficult to deal with. We were told that these would be local men, paid off by black market ivory dealers. Catching these men did not do anything to solve the underlying problem, and it's unlikely that they even knew who their employers were.

Our day in Mwape definitely helped to lift our spirits. As we were shown around the village we gathered a crowd of kids wildly excited to make friends with the strangers and competing with each other to hold our hands. We split into three groups and every time we saw another group in the distance a clamour would go up. It put me in mind of us on safari, spotting... well anything at all!

Hilary with her most devoted followers.

The little boy in the green shorts in the photo above is called Smart. A lot of the people here have lovely names like this, either qualities their parents wish to bestow, Smart, Charity, Joy, or names letting them know how special they are. Precious, Gift, Princess. When Dad was born it was the custom to name your child after the first thing you saw when they were born. He knew a lot of Towels.

Chieftainess Mwape laid out a veritable feast for our lunch, with nchima, carrot salad, green beans, boiled potatoes and goat stew. Goat is surprisingly delicious. Nchima is a staple carbohydrate in Zambia and it is made by pounding maize into a fine flour, then cooking it while water is stirred in. The result could be used as mortar. It is thick and glutinous and doesn't really taste like anything, but it is remembered with a misty-eyed nostalgia by Zambian ex-pats. It is the ultimate alibi food, but Zambians are so fond of it that it has been made their official national dish.

While we were there, the constantly canny Chieftainess persuaded us to buy cloth from their village shop. Ladies in Zambia wear sarongs called chitenge and these are made from a long stretch of brightly coloured and patterned cloth. There were some lovely patterns in the shop and I bought myself a 15ft bolt of waxed cotton. When we get home I shall make a skirt.

P.S. I made the skirt. It's awesome.

Mwape - 27-06-14

There were three separate visits today, to various villages in Mwape chiefdom. Chieftainess Mwape has been in contact with NPAC for many years now and she definitely knows the drill regarding the shipping containers. She has gathered all the baby bundles, clothing, furniture, medical supplies, toys, books and all the things NPAC has sent most recently in the guest house. She will circulate a date upon which all the people of the chiefdom can come to the guest house and claim their portion of the shipment. The baby bundles will go to the clinic and only the mothers who bring their children for vaccinations and checkups will benefit from them. This all sounds a bit callous, but it is the fairest way to distribute the aid NPAC sends. Making new mothers attend the clinic means that both they and their babies are safer, and the bundles provide incentive for them to travel to the clinic. The other items stored in the guest house are distributed to the elderly first, and then to other groups with a pressing need.

Sorting the items we brought with us.

Reading glasses are always in high demand.

We made sure to take plenty of pairs of reading glasses. It wasn't something I had thought of, but it makes sense that there's no point sending books if the readers can't see the words. There are people who have never seen the plumage of a lilac-breasted roller, or the stripes on a zebra, or the faces of their grandchildren. NPAC wants to make sure that the people who need it most get all the aid we can give.

The children of Mwape village.

NPAC is based on people. We raise money only so we can afford to send 40 foot containers all over the world. Most of the power we possess comes from the warehouse heroes, the volunteers who plan and sort and pack. The people who make sure it all goes to the right place, the Chieftainess Mwapes and the Isaacs and the KKs. And the power comes from the generosity of the people who donate their time and unwanted possessions to those who can make use of them. NPAC wouldn't be able to do any of their work without the support of people like you, so thank you.

Women washing clothes in what's left of the river. During the rainy season the river will rise and cover a lot of the flat ground outside Mwape Village.

The head teacher at Mwape school, Mwenda Lovemore, is another impressive person. He teaches in a difficult place, where parents are often torn between paying to send their children to school or paying to feed them, but he turned down a lot of the aid we offered, saying that what they had was enough because they took such good care of it. We did make a list of things to send, particularly for the children who board at the school. They need proper beds and cooking equipment, and of course a school always needs more books and pens.

While we were there Dad took a look at the clinic and made a long list of things they need. It's mostly disposables, like gloves, bedcovers, antiseptic wipes and hand gel. It's just impossible to get enough of this type of thing out to the people who need it.

The day ended with some more fishing and a rousing bout of ceilidh dancing. We gathered quite a crowd at the camp to watch the mad Brits dance, but oddly no one volunteered to join us.