Zambia so far....

Livingstone:

Livingstone was absolutely amazing. My highlights included visiting the Victoria Falls and getting absolutely SOAKED and then going on a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River; we saw a group of hippos (was is the collective noun for a group of hippos?) a large crocodile and a stunning sunset.
We stayed at a hotel the first night, which was nice and then Alice and I stayed with a ladt called Margarete the next night. On Monday morning we visited an orphanage (which we have already blogged about, so I won't go into too much detail), it was lovely to hang out with the kids - they all wanted to play with my hair!


Lusaka:
On Monday afternoon, we flew to Lusaka on a tiny 30-seater plane. It was an incredible experience (we felt everything!!). I was in charge of the emergency exit door, which was a great responsibility, but unfortunately (or fortunately) I didn't get chance to use it :(

The itinerary here has been really good (a little bit Africa time!!). I have been to visit several schools and we have given lots of presentations. Today, we visited a cultural visit, which was nice (but we were hassled a lot t buy things!). Tomorrow, we will catch a coach at 7am to Kitwe in the Copperbelt where we will stay until Tuesday. On Tuesday we will get a coach back to Lusaka to stay for one night (and celebrate the Jubilee) and then on Wednesday morning we will fly to Malawi.

Having an AMAZING time here, a lifetime experience. Ok, signing out now, will try and blog again soon.

Adele :) x

Hindu Prayer Meeting

Last night, I had my first taste of a traditional Hindu prayer meeting with my hosts. It was interesting to hear the worship and see all the traditions and everyone made me feel very welcome. Afterwards, we had traditional Indian food, which was awesome!!!

 Kate Turner and Sebastian Cope meeting with the Corporate Affairs Director for Lafarge Zambia, one of the largest employers and companies in Zambia. Discussions about the sustainability and environmental aspects of the cement producing company were debated as well as different methods and practices of energy sources and requirements with future developments. Lafarge have a huge involvement with enriching local communities, aiming to create a better life for those around the manufacturing plant.

 Alice Jones and Adele Sutton visiting the Libala High School Interact Club yesterday enjoying education into the land management and self sustainability within the school.

So, here it is Bob Nation - One Zambia, One Nation and now the daily Nation by the one and only Bob Nation!

Our last morning in Livingstone and we visited Lubasi orphanage with the President of Livingstone Rotary club, Kaela Patrick Mulenga. Lubasi Home resulted from the vision of a Livingstone rotarian, Mr Antony Ranjan, a Sri Lankan, who felt the need to do something for the orphans who are not being cared for, many living on the streets.

 The picture shows the girls with some of the orpans and a sunoven (not a spaceship) in the background. It is a clever device maximizing the suns heat and energy to heat food and water, it was presented to the orphanage by the rotary clubs of Livingstone, Zambia and many others. Thank you to the Rotary club of Livingstone and the members that hosted us.

 After a short flight, we were greeted at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport by presidents and co-ordinator from the Rotary clubs of Lusaka, Zambia. Above Bob Nation, our team leader offers a Mendip banner to the acting president of one of the Lusaka clubs - the Rotary club of Nkwazi. A full presentation from the GSE team to the club enjoyed by all I think!!

 Bob Nation receives a banner from the Rotary club of Lusaka, Zambia at a lunchtime meeting today. We performed a brief presentation for the club and enjoyed a fantastic lunch at the Southern Sun hotel.

The GSE team at the top of a little known waterfall in Zambia, Victoria Falls or as they say locally "Mosi-oa-Tunya" - The Cloud that Thunders. It was an incredible sight, so we enjoyed seeing, hearing and experiencing the power of the waterfall. We even enjoyed a team shower, now don't get any ideas!
Thanks to John and Arfann from Livingstone Rotary club for our visit to the falls.

First night in Livingstone, Zambia after 14 hours of travelling! Trains, buses, M25 traffic, 2 plane journeys, had Richard E Grant push in front of me at Johannesburg twice and a short car journey to arrive at the Fairmount Hotel in Livingstone. We received a fantastic welcome from members of the Rotary club of Livingstone with special thanks to Suzen and John for arranging it all. A few hours of relaxation and then we performed a presentation to members of the Rotary club of Livingstone.
Here we are pictured above exchanging club banners.

The adventure begins!



Arrival in Zambia!

Just a quick post to say that we arrived in Zambia safely. We had a good journey and are now at the New Fairmount Hotel in Livingstone. Its been a day of firsts, with our first view of Vic Falls from the aeroplane window, Kate's first taste of nchima, and our first presentation to Rotarians in District 9210.We presented to the Livingstone Club followed by a delicious dinner with them. We have had our first experience of the famous Rotary hospitality and friendship, and are being so well looked after. Massive day planned for tomorrow, the team are tired but very excited! 

There are more photos to come, but the web connection has just started to slow a bit too much and I need some sleep!

Ready to go!!!

So, I am all packed and ready to go. I leave for London today as I have an interview tomorrow for a research/internship opportunity when we return. After a lot of packing headaches, suitcases changes and weighing and re-weighing I am finally packed and ready!!! Thank you so much to all of the amazing advice from the team and fellow Rotary members (I couldn't have done it without you guys).

I'm getting really excited now and cannot wait to get to Heathrow on Friday, meet and catch up with the team and embark on this exciting adventure. It still doesn't seem fully real yet. I guess the next time I will be posting will be in Zambia, so see you all then. Signing out... Adele x

Is there enough room in my bag?..

Side pockets... vacuum bags, all spaces considered!lol

As Kate mentioned, we have been busily getting all our things together, sharing advice and doing final prep to our presentation for Africa (Thanks Kate!). And..my guide books have arrived hooray!

All I can say is...there is not enough room in my bag for all the things I would like to bring! But, at the moment I have just piled things on top of my bag and will be properly packing later on today...

Yesterday, I had my last visit with David Conroy (Brit Valley Rotary clubs Secretary) before I am off. I showed him our Africa itinerary, my photo book I am taking and to thank him for all his help and the clubs for getting me to Africa. I am so grateful for this opportunity and will make the most of it, we have a great, dynamic team and I cannot wait to travel with them!

The next time I will be writing will be in Africa!

Kwaheri! (Goodbye!)

It's the final countdown!!

Kate's very organised (!) pile of packing

Well the wait is almost over, on Friday the D1200 GSE team will meet at Heathrow and compare each other’s packing skills, before boarding a plane bound for Africa! There’s been a lot of e-mails flying between the team sharing useful tips and advice that we have found from chatting to past GSE team members. These top tips covered everything from the medical (bring lots of immodium!) to the practical (taking maps to show our hosts where we live). Plus the kind of advice that can only come from those who have been through a busy GSE programme before, such as keeping a daily log to record our experiences, and a very useful template for doing so.

Team Leader Bob discovered the Murphy’s Law of To Do lists... “ The more you do, the more you remember to do” which the whole team can relate to! We are all busy ensuring we have thought of everything for the trip, as well as making sure we leave our professional roles as organised as we can before we disappear from our workplaces for a month.  

So over the next few days no doubt there will be lots of lists, lots of ‘did I remember to...’, and lots of excitement.  Very soon we will be saying ‘shalapo’ to District 1200 and ‘Mulishani Mukwai’ to Zambia and we can’t wait!

Presenting at the District Assembly

On Saturday the team gave a presentation at the District Assembly. We had all prepared for it but I don’t think any of the team was expecting the rather imposing stage and big screen, complete with lights, microphone and steep steps!

The Strode theatre had a packed audience of Rotarians from all over District 1200, and we sat down to listen to presentations including speeches from Eric Sambell, the current District Governor from Chippenham Club, followed by Peter Noble, the incoming District Governor from Dorchester Club. It was very interesting to hear about the wide range of amazing work being done by Rotarians all over the District and to learn about their plans for the coming year.

It was soon our turn and all of the team took to the stage for our presentation; Bob did a great job introducing us and the trip. Then each of us presented who we are, about our families and work life, and what we hope to achieve through the GSE. Whilst it was a little nerve wracking, it was a great experience and we’d like to thank the audience for allowing us to practice on them! We had some really positive feedback about how we did, it was certainly a success and all of the team can feel proud. I think we all learnt a lot from it that we will be able to take on to the trip with us. We will be giving presentations when we visit clubs in the host district so the more practice we can get the better.

It was nice to see some familiar faces in the audience, especially David Yates from Minehead Rotary Club who has been working extremely hard arranging our travel, dealing with paperwork and liaising with District 9210 on our behalf. We’d like to say another big ‘asante sana’ – (swahili for thank you!) - to David for all of his efforts.

After the presentations we had a short meeting to go over some of our final details and we were also very lucky to get some top packing tips from Eric Sambell. Talking about how to organise our bags, and getting good advice on what we might need to take with us suddenly made the trip seem very real indeed. Thank you again to Eric for sharing his packing wisdom with us!

Adele Test Blog

I thought I would try out my first ever blog entry before we leave (just to make sure I do it right!!).
I'm getting really excited now, just booked my transport to and from Heathrow and writing a list of what to pack...11 days and counting. Ok, well that's all for now, back to preparing.

See you all soon :)

How long is your 'to-do' list?

All our preparations are starting to come together for the trip, and time just seems to be flying toward our departure date on 25th May. Our team have now met five times covering, amongst other things, team working, Rotary history, swahili phrases, Foundation ethics & ideals, structure (RI, RIBI & District), the make-up of District 1200 & 9210 & background of countries to be visited. We have had visits from PDG Stan Jones & past team leaders PDG David Yates & DGE Brian Kirkup whose input has been invaluable.They gave us some top tips on what to expect, and it was plain to see just how much they had enjoyed their experiences of GSE, their enthusiasm was infectious. We'd like to say a huge thank you to them again for giving up their time to advise us. Each meeting had a packed agenda and our 'to-do' lists have been very full for the past few months as we get everything organised for our trip.

This week we are making the finishing touches to the presentation for District 1200 Assembly and both the information pamphlet for District 9210 and the calendars to be taken as gifts for hosts and clubs are looking fantastic and are almost ready to go to print. Its very exciting to start to see the finished outcomes of our hard work. I think the team have already learnt a great deal and we haven't even stepped onto African soil yet, which is a great testament to the GSE program!


All travel documentation and medical requirements have been dealt with, uniform/clothing for the trip all sorted (and very smart it is too!), so its just a question of checking and double checking, making sure we've thought of everything and working our way through our lists!