MICHAEL - our 2 month Christmas trip from Livingstone to Zanzibar

Route nach Dar es Salaam, Tanzania auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

MICHAEL - Gifting us ;-)

After finishing step one of the building project I work on in Zambia, we decided to do some gifting for ourselves...

My birthday was the right moment. We started at 5.00h in the morning...drove to the Victoria Falls, parked Angelique and walked down to the boiling pot. There we jumped in rafts and paddled directly under the falls where we got out of the boat. There are rock pools where we swam in. The water comes down 110 meters, more like a huge shower.

Magnificent and exciting and wonderful and and and...the light and the scenery let me feel like being in a sequence of Avatar. Water...bluish light...mist... 

Later we went to Livingstone Island where had picnic lunch. certainly after we jumped in Devil´s Pool at the edge of the falls. 

The next day we went for a few days to Elephant Valley Lodge, Chobe, Botswana. A quite luxurious tented camp, overlooking a waterhole where the local buffalos,  elephants, impalas and so on came for their daily bit of water. We just sat there watching for a long time. 

I enjoyed that all very much, especially because we had several boat cruises on the Chobe River and game drives in the park with lots of animals. And so I came to see  my first real wild leopard!!!

And some more elephants, buffalos, lions, eagles, hippos, giraffes and warthogs.

Lynette normally prefers something called “walking safari”. There you walk about 5 million kilometres in the boiling sun through either thorny bushes or muddy whatsoevers till you get sore feet and usually after half an hour I´m desperate for a cold beer, a T-bone steak and a pick up helicopter.

This might be the reason, why Lynette doesn´t even think about taking me with on her occasional mountain climbs in Malawi...

Just perfect days...and we have lots of those!

Thank you my love.

in Devil´s Pool

Mathews and Given serving birthday dinner - with chocolate cake!

I often wonder, how Lynette always takes pictures of me where the cigarette is not visible ...

at Elephant Valley Lodge

MICHAEL - GIFTING AFRICA in Livingstone, Zambia

Having been in charge of project development, constructing  and building in Germany for half of my life, I now took the opportunity to get myself voluntarily involved in building houses in Livingstone, Zambia.

The biggest difference for me is working without any machines. If you need tons and tons of concrete you don´t just order a few mix-trucks and a pump...no!

For a 8x8 meter concrete slab you take 8 workers with shovels and spades, 12 bags of cement, 3 wheelbarrows of stones and six with sand. Eventually all the ingredients are mixed “by hand” and the slab is ready after two hours. And we already covered a surface of 500 square meters. It´s incredible to see and even more to do it yourself! After I had the crazy idea of mixing concrete myself I applied approximately 5 layers of Voltaren creme to ease my pain...but you can get used to it..it´s kind of a workout...

I also had to get used to the right interpretation of building specific terms. When the carpenter comes to me and says “We have a little bit of a shortage of 6 inch nails” it means: There´s absolutely nothing left!

In the meantime Lynette is busy getting all the permissions necessary for building a school in the neighbour village. The project is initiated and supported by Waterberry Zambezi Lodge.

Lynette is going to tell the details via the blog now now.

Yesterday evening we saw the Lunar Rainbow the second time we´re here. After discovering that some of the staff working at Waterberry Lodge had never had the chance to see the falls before even though they´ve lived here their whole life, we took the evening´s kitchen team, Josephine, Matthews and Given, with us. Very funny to see them getting wet! Next time we take another group...

Our today´s afternoon task is going to the village, equipped with GPS, a two pound hammer, some sticks and all our creative imagination to survey the plot where the new school is supposed to be built...

...a rooibos face mask...because of the cement!

children in the existing school

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Matthews, Josephine, Lynette, ME, Given at Vic Falls

MICHAEL - Victoria Falls, Zambia

After the Lions Club Conference we explored Lusaka for a few more days, in a way I like to call “walking city safari”. Travelling with Lynette means always a lot of walking. We both enjoyed window shopping at the local markets...Lynette because of the variety of veggies, fruit and fish that we carried home for supper, I because of the broadband assortment of heavy tools, used bolts and cheap cigarettes.

Driving through the occasional side streets of Lusaka (remember: Lynette loves shortcuts) was also some kind of adrenalin kick. I discovered a speed bump -too late- that resulted in a broken leaf spring in Angelique. Not a major problem because she still has 19 intact ones left...but I think we should eventually ask DHL to bring us a new one. Or I start to learn welding...in addition to the ongoing process of increasing my vocabulary of mechanical words like “universal joints at the rear prop shaft” or “hardened valve seats”...it is still easier for me to explain a Collateral Debt Obligation or a Yen-Swap but I´m adapting.

Lynette and I were suddenly both grabbed by the feeling of just driving down to Vic Falls to visit our friend Gail at Waterberry Lodge, the place where I discovered Lynette a year ago.

Returning to this place, the falls and the river is extremely special for me. Having travelled to the most exciting places from Los Angeles to Hong Kong, from the Great Barrier Reef to the Pyramids and wherever else...the moment I feel the Zambesi I realize what it means to be grounded. Not only calm and relaxed, deeply grounded. Like coming to a place where I belong. Certainly I still ignore any metaphysical explanations, but Lynette is working on it...

We´re now spending some time here in Livingstone, exploring, experiencing and supporting projects, connecting to the local Lions Club and the community, repeating our last year’s bungy jump from Vic Falls Bridge and eventually pop into the Caprivi Strip in Namibia for a few days.

We may possibly drive up to Zambia’s Copperbelt, or better: zigzagging through it, heading for the source of the Zambesi in the Kaleni Hills, located in the north-western corner of Zambia.

MICHAEL - The Lions All Africa Conference in Lusaka

We arrived early enough in Lusaka to buy more “formal clothes” for the several banquets, following the daily workshops during the Lions Clubs All Africa Conference...and my tie suits Lynette!

(My mum had to post my tuxedo from Germany via DHL...I hadn´t spent a thought of needing such things while travelling Africa)

Lynette and I were impressed by the tight and very interesting program of the conference and learned a lot about Lionism in Africa. We joined some of the workshops and the functions in the evenings.

Through Rob Fowler, Area Leader Global Membership Team, we had the possibility to address the delegates of the conference on the 5^th of February 2011. We presented our program GIFTING AFRICA and had a lot of positive response after our speech. Lions, Club Presidents and District Governors invited us afterwards to their countries.

The Banquet on the first evening gave us the opportunity to connect to the delegates and introduce GIFTING AFRICA directly. It was also very special to see the ambassador of the United States being inducted as a Lion by Sid Scruggs III, Lions International President.

Highlight of the celebration of 50 years of Lionism in Zambia on Saturday, was meeting the first republican President of Zambia, Dr. Kenneth Kaunda. And this 80something year old man was centre of the dance floor.

Certainly Lynette took her chance, told me to get a box of Lion Cards from the car (I could convince her that I wouldn´t have time to wrap them in the pink paper we used for Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma) and handed them over as a gift to Dr. Kaunda just by following him & his delegation to the car.

So he went home with two presents: A 10.000 US$ donation for his AIDS foundation from Sid Scruggs III and a box of Lion inspiration cards...

Our Sunday morning was a little bit early. We were home very late and had to get up for a radio interview with RADIO 2000 at 6h30, but I was able to watch Lynette managing this interview very professionally - with my eyes not even half open at this time.

For now we plan to stay in Zambia to connect with the local clubs (and there are nearly 60 Lions Clubs in Zambia).



Lion Nick Maré - District Governor, Lynette, Michael, Rob Fowler -Africa Area Leader, Lion Walter



                                                     Lynette & Michael with Lion Rob Fowler



Lunch break



Lynette's preparation (Note the kitty giving advice!)

Michael's preparation




Lynette & Michael with Lion Clement Ndala from Malawi

Dr. Kenneth Kaunda

 

We could get used to this ...



Brushing teeth in long black dress ;-)



Interview with RADIO 2000