Author: Marc & Vivienne

The time had arrived for our spoil of the trip…celebrating 30 wonderful years of marriage and living life together.

We caught the ferry to Stone Town/Zanzibar City. Arrived at midday and decided to do a tour of Stone Town, the capital city before heading out to our hotel. Zanzibar is famous for being the birth place of Freddy Mercury and infamous for having being a central point for the cruel slave trade.

We were based in the North Western section of the island at a spot with beautiful beaches, turquoise sea and stunning sunsets. Spent the time relaxing and reading on the beach as well as snorkling around Mnemba Island , which is surrounded by a natural protected reef with stunning fish and coral.

On the boat ride out to snorkling around Mnemba Island, I started chatting to a lady who was sitting near us (actually the only other person I spoke to on the trip of the 25 people on the boat). It turns that she is an Italian Jewess, Antonella, living in Australia who also advocates for Israel. What are the chances …. two Israel advocates, one Jewish and one Christian, meeting on a small boat in the ocean, off Zanzibar. We had a good time together and both felt it was a God appointed connection.

Stone Town

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Gold Zanzibar

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Mnemba Island

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Arrived at Crocodile Camp site, near Iringa town, in the evening, after navigating numerous trucks and buses who often overtake on blind corners, which might explain some of the many overturned trucks we passed on the side of the road… It is conveniently situated off the main road, in the middle of a giant baobab forest. I eventually succumbed to an enthusiastic  salesman who kept dropping the price of a really nice chalet on the River’s edge. (from 120 000 shilling to 40 000 shillings = R295 for the evening).

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Travelled through the notorious Nakonde/Tunduma border into Tanzania. Took us three and a half hours without any queues and any bribes (although they tried…on the Zambian side).

The country is beautiful and people are friendly. About 40% Moslem and 40% Christian, but no official religious census since 1967, so just an estimate.  It is good to see many small businesses as well as the growing of local crops everywhere. The local language is Swahili, 2^nd most spoken in Africa, after Arabic. Hakuna Matata (no worries/problem) is often heard.

The new President, John Magufuli,  is causing waves with his strong anti- corruption stance. See link:  http://www.dw.com/en/top-stories/s-9097. Let’s pray and trust that he remains alive to be an example and inspiration to the rest of Africa.

Marc got his first and hopefully only speeding fine ( $15 – doing 61km/h in 50 km/h zone – no signs!)

Arrived at our next camp site, the Utengule Coffee Lodge, which has beautiful views over the valley. Marc enjoyed a good coffee and I a freshly squeezed pineapple, paw-paw and watermelon juice!

Feeling very blessed to be driving through this beautiful continent on which live, and yet know so little about!

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Arrived at the Kalungu FCE base near the Tanzanian border at lunch time. Beautiful  peaceful spot with clean attractive facilities. Also internet (via local MTN sim on our phone)!!

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We  drove past Shiwa houese and arrived at the hotsprings at Kapisha about 20 km further down the road. It is a very beautiful estate and property.

We camped next to the river into which the hot springs as flow. What a treat to find hot water bubbling out of the ground and it all kept in its natural state! We made full use of the spring and sat/floated in the water at least 3 times a day. (It turned out to be a good place to meet other campers). First people we met were from Stellenbosch as well….a young couple, of which the husband resembled my brother, Philip, and it tuned out his name was Philip!

We also met Ursula, the German Consul to Zambia and Harald her husband, who were camping next door to us. They are a great couple and we immediately related well to them. We are hoping to stay in touch with them, as they are planning to visit SA soon as well.

They gave us some good advice about how to help our Zimbabwean friends, Liz and Weston, fund the solar panels and pump they need, through the Zimbabwean German Embassy.

We visited Shiwa house the following Monday moning.  Jo, the wife of Charles Harvey, the grandson of the original builder and owner of the estate, Sir Gordan Stewart-Brown, showed us around and answered our questions regarding the history of Shiwa Estate.
Five different church groups also meet at various times in the chapel which adjoins the main house.

It is an interesting story as the home is almost 100 years old and quite a job to maintain. They run a massive farming operation with many head of cattle, sheep, goats and chicken. They also grow maize and wheat (non GMO!!) crops. I was given home made marmelade, made from the original citrus trees planeted by Sir Gordan as well as fresh cows milk from the dairy (non pasturised!).

We visited the old hospital which now operates as a clinic. It serves the community on the estate and the wider area as well (about 11 000 people). They do basic basic health care such as malaria, TB tests and treatment and delivering of babies etc. The plan is to convert it back into a fully functional hospital serving the other clinics in the area.

They have established an NGO which is not functioning at present. There are a number of govt. run schools on the estate which are not running well at all. We would potentially be open to play a role in these community iniatives if it is a door God opens for us.

Kapishya Hot Springs

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Shiwa Ngandu

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We arrived at FCE (Foundation for Cross Cultural Education – started by South Africans about 12 years) (www.fce.org.za) near Luyansha at 6pm, just as the sun was setting and in time for supper in the dark, as the power had just gone off. They blessed us with comfortable guest cottage accommodation for our next 3 nights (at camping rates).

8 June – Spent first day being shown around the property and all the various projects that operate from there. It is primarily a teacher training centre which trains up community teachers from Zambia and surrounding nations. They emphasise a method of teaching which is Christ centred and kingdom orientated.  They also have a school (with about 210 children, grade 0 to 9) on the property, which serves the surrounding communities, as well as providing an opportunity for practical teacher training.

They offer certificate courses in agriculture and diploma’s in community development. They have also developed an extensive fruit tree nursery, fruit orchards, veg garden, carpentry workshop and a basic clinic. We met many South Africans who volunteer in the various programmes as well as a few from other countries like India, Canada and Germany.  It is wonderful to see the impact on a new generation of children in the community nearby, as well as the impact on many other communities being reached through their good work.  (I am reminded  of the scripture….”that they may see your good works and glorify our Father in heaven!!”)

9 June – Spent the 2^nd day out visiting other community projects near Luansha (Hands at Work) and Kitwe  (LifeSong –  operating schools for orphan education and also income generating farming activities). Was great to meet Eric and his wife and 5 children who have come to serve the most vulnerable in Africa, all the way from the United States.  The schools are of a high standard and they are impacting many lives for the Kingdom.

We also visited our good friends, James and Sukai who used to work with Hands at Work.  It was a real God appointed time and we hope to see them soon again. They keep selflessly accommodating more vulnerable children in their own home amidst their own challenges (presently  eight children).

We spent our last evening at FCE encouraging and sharing with another couple from SA who have semi –retired from farming and have a heart for God’s purposes in their lives and are volunteering at FCE for a month.

(It was a bonus to get our car serviced and the oil changed by Raymond, an Australian volunteer mechanic at FCE, before the next leg of our trip to Tanzania and Kenya.)

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Camped outside Lusaka at Eureka Camp site with Toy and Michael for a last evening together. We headed north the next day towards Luanshya while they spent the day working with farmers in the area who are investigating the possibilities of planting various fruit tree varieties, before they headed back home to SA.

Spent the following morning visiting with Dominic and Margaret Phiri, outside Lusaka. They pioneered very challenging work with orphan care under Hands at Work in the DRC in previous years and now work with YWAM doing mainly peer education, as HIV is still a major challenge in Zambia with unacceptable high levels of infections.

Zambia is showing signs of much developmnet especially around Lusaka area with new malls popping up all over. Mainly SA shops supplying same goods as found in SA at very similar prices.It is sad to hear about ongoing corruption and some are hopeful that the next elections might bring about some changes. When chatting with local Zambians about the evidence of self enrichment of the present President they just smile and say, “but he is the president”, implying that it is the way it should be. When we ask about the inordinate amount of giant billboards with his face on at every major inersection in the country, they reply that some people might be paying for them as a favour to him…and that is also perfectly fine in their eyes.

There are reports of escalating violence between the government forces and opposition supporters in the pre-election campaigns. When we ask about the details of the violence they speak about hitting each other with sticks! The people are generally peace loving and have never been involved in any internal conflicts, although there are 72 different ethnic groups wth 9 main tribes, making up 90% of the population.

We did however experience a number of attempts to blatently bribe us. Traffic and border officials being particularly guilty. We just smile and exercise extreme patience until they give up on us and decide to rather look for the next victim.

Zambia is an amazing country with the potential to prosper and to experience good economic growth once again.

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Camped on the  Zambian side of the Zambezi  river and met interesting people whose families have been in Zambia for many years.

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Met up with some of Michael’s Zimbabwean family at Mana Pools National Park where we camped for next 3 nights.

The park is stunning with beautiful big trees and amazing scenery on the banks of the great Zambezi River. It is the largest River from Africa that flows into the Indian Ocean, discharging 120 100 cubic feet of water per second.

Had most of the camp site to ourselves except for monkeys( who kept Michael  busy in a constant battle with his “ketti”)  and various wild visitors who joined us sporadically.

On the 1st evening, Marc accompanied me to check the donkey fire behind the ablution block. He wondered which animal had the yellow eyes he saw a few metres (literally!) behind us…only to find out a few minutes later as 3 female lions, out hunting, walked past where we all sat (about 10 metres away). We followed them with our torches (sounds crazy, but we were 11 people and I guess had a sense of safety in numbers, although I was told that I most resembled a “bokkie”). We  watched in horror as a couple merrily made their way towards the ablution block from the other direction, directly into the path of the lions. We shouted out ”lions!” as loud as we could and they turned around.  All very exciting!

We saw great game…many hippo families, elephant up close, a herd of buffalo, jackel and many beautiful Rooibok, Waterbok, Kudu and Eland.  Also a number of lion sightings, including a group of 13 lion. ( We were clearly blessed by our Father as He brought out His creation for us to admire because the campers who left the day after we arrived had seen very little game the whole week that they were there).

On the last evening we had a real bunch of animals troop through the camp…including a hyena sniffing for our supper bones around our tent and a leopard who walked through, as well as an elephant and a herd of Rooibok.

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Very blessed to have spent 2 nights at Michael’s cousin’s place on banks of Lake Kariba.  Michael enjoyed taking us out on the lake in the boat even though he did not catch us any fish for supper…but bought bream from a local fisherman which was delicious! Sad to see the decline in Zimbabwe and the lack of development of the potential of this beautiful country!!  The people are really “moedeloos” and presently  compete with Congo for the position of the poorest country in the world.   With the real threat of a currency change imminent, the prospects are not looking good either.

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