Busanga Bush Camp Kafue National Park

Today we head out to Mapoko in the Mumbwa area. That's about 120 miles due west on the main highway which is about a third or half-way to the Angola border. We want to visit the Mapoko community where we have expanded our LifeNets cattle and revolving farm credit program. We have several more people that we are stuffing into our pickup truck to take out to Mapoko. One man whose name is Ephraim is the coordinator of the Mapoko LifeNets Farm program ...

There was only one other client when I got to Kafue National Park. A young French guy who is a geologist and works in Zambia and Congo. The place has resident animals, wild dogs, an elephant and a hippo who walked by in the afternoon, entered the restaurant and settled there for the night, cool! I did a boat cruise, a walking safari and 2 jeep safaris. I didn't see much animals compare to the Serengetti, but what an adranaline rush! On the ...

As we had had a late start to our trip, so did we have a late start to the hunting activities. The heat of midday makes hunting during that time rather labourious. Even though we drove around looking for the animals, the heat of midday wears one down and it is more advisable to rest during that period. So it was to pass that we didn't get out until after four in the afternoon on our first day at camp. I sat in the passenger seat while Walter drove along the often winding paths with ...

Let me just begin by saying that at the outset of this expedition I wasn't sure that it was going to be any sort of a success. For beginners, there was my cousin Walter's on again off again commitment to coming; however, he did eventually decide to join us. Add to that, the late start that we got after my uncle's Discovery suffered clutch problems at the last minute. So, instead of leaving by early Friday afternoon around 3ish, we finally departed Lusaka around 9 pm ...

I have a new found appreciation for air. Fresh, flower-scented or fetid - let me have it! However lovely the Zambezi River, feeling pressed to take it a lungful of it, I better understood why it is known as the Mighty Zambezi. Let me be more direct: we have survived rafting the rapids of the Zambezi Gorge, but seemingly, just barely. The Zambezi Gorge is a series of deep lacerations in the earth; the spillage of the Zambezi over one of them forms Victoria Falls. Six of ...

About 7:00 am Kambani Banda came by to pick us for our trip to Mumbwa. Apren Moomba did not return until 10 pm from taking the first load of about 60 people to their homes in Mumbwa. The trailer carrying the luggage had a flat tire and ruined rim that had to be replaced. He barely made it back to Paray's Game Park where the Feast of Tabernacles was held. The remaining second group of 60 people had to pitch tents again. Food had to be purchased for feeding them ...

We live in a little cottage. We are glad that we got the mosquito net not so much for the mosquitoes, but because of all the other creepie crawlies. We chased off the five inch spider, but he as back today! So, we're just going to live with him. Bev has even befriended him calling him "Goliath." He is just over the night stand and we have to be aware not to bump our head into him. Kambani Banda told us that he has never seen such a spider and that he "hopes it's not ...

Unfortunately/Fortunately depending on how some of us look at it, we've had to take today off from working. Our delivery of cinder blocks didn't arrive last night so we had nothing to build with. Things like this seem to be common here. Either people are on what we have begun to call "Zambian time" or there is simply a shortage since the blocks are made by hand. We are also getting really tired from sleeping on the cement floors and dealing with the dust and blazing sun every day, so ...

We are on Day 3 of our build and are about half way done with our first house. Things are moving slowly because of lack fo supplies. We did go to a church service at the Uniteed Church of Zambia on Sunday. It was the most spectacular service I've ever seen. The singing and drumming gave me chills because it was so beautiful and moving. The preacher insisted we women of our group sit in the place of honor. They put us on comfy ...

The guy in the village probably thought I was crazy, running up the sandy path from the road trying to pull the camera out of my shoulder bag. But mad or not, I was determined to get this shot after missing so many great images along the road through rural Zambia. Those images are still in my head if not in my camera, like a few dozen words out of a thousand. On the highway with a tight schedule it's been difficult to take good pictures, and frustrating to ...