Squeaky Bum Time

Three games to go and LCFC needs three points or just one win to become Premiership Champions for the first time in their history. Two of these games are against top five teams (the old regime) – ManU and Chelse (this is how the Zambians say Manchester United and Chelsea). Sadly, I don’t have access…

My Family and Other Beasts

This is my sofa. It is a very comfortable sofa, on my verandah. I share it with a colony of ants and a family of skinks (a pretty kind of lizard with iridescent skin). I am not sure why the sofa is white, because it always looks grubby, but it certainly shows the ants. The…

Rain

Everyone blames el Nino. Instead of having rainfall evenly distributed throughout the recognised rainy season in southern Africa, it has become bimodal. It rains heavily at the start and the end of the season, but not much in the middle. Of course, this is not what the farmers want. In Swaziland, there was not enough…

Today is World Malaria Day

Last week, I have mainly been seeing patients with malaria or HIV, sometimes both together. My stay in the Valley corresponds with the malaria season, at the end of the rains and the beginning of the dry season. Heavy downpours of rain flush out the mosquito larvae breeding in standing water, but if the pools…

First Game Drive

The owners of Wildlife Camp wanted to say goodbye to my predecessor and to welcome me back to the Valley. They invited us to go on an evening game drive followed by supper. It was hot and humid by the time we reached the camp. JC had baked a lemon drizzle cake (try saying that…

Every cloud has a silver lining

The adventure begins. Again. When flying to Zambia with South African Airways, passengers are allowed to bring two suitcases weighing no more than 23kg each. However, the luggage allowance for the internal flight from Lusaka to Mfuwe is just 15kg with 5kg hand luggage with Proflight. The clerk weighed both my cases (one was filled…