On the Ground, Safe and Sound

This is just a quick note for the families and friends of the Zambassadors, who might be looking for updates. The flights were entirely uneventful, everyone made it to Zambia just fine, and all 17 of our bags arrived. This might be a new record.

Our ground logistics crew (Mr. Mike Dubeand Mr. Bachi) were there to meet us at the airport and we got our first camp set up, dinner made and eaten, and our first zebra, waterbuck, giraffe, bushbaby, blue waxbill, crested barbet, and fork-tailed drongo sighted. All is well!

But alas, internet ia really spotty and slow, so my posts may be less frequent, and they may have to include fewer photos (like this one). Every time I try to get a single photo uploaded, my connection times out. So sorry about that, but know that we are all well.

Tomorrow, we head off to Victoria Falls and the mighty mighty Zambezi River!

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In the Village: 25-28 May

Most everyone expressed a bit of trepidation about the village visit before we arrived. Would the villagers be friendly? What about the language barrier? How would we handle our tents, and our meals? Could our cultures interleave for a few days, and enrich one another? The answers are probably specific to each Zambassador. Ask any one of them about it when they return, especially because to a person, the village visit seems to have been an emotional, enriching, and thought-provoking time that provided as much insight on each of us as it did on Zambian village life. On our drive up we were lucky enough to catch the youngest Banda sister, Tasila, on the outskirts of Lusaka. She jumped on board our truck for a while, to meet the students and talk a bit about her work. Dr. Tasila Banda is a remarkable product of the Banda family and Nyanje Village. She is the 10th of 11 children in the Banda family, but among her accomplishments were being among the female graduate in Natural ...

Into the Bush...and safely back: 18-23 May

Kafue National Park, and the Kafwala Rapids Camp did not disappoint for a good wilderness bush experience. We had breakdowns, planned encounters, chance encounters , missed encounters , adventures, and misadventures. Kafue National Park is one of the largest in Africa, and boasts some of the highest species diversity of any national park in the continent. However, it is also underdeveloped, which in many ways may contribute to its high conservation value . One of the important ecological components of African ecosystems is the occurrence of fire. We got to see lots of examples of this, including on our drive in, when the landscape alongside our drive was burning. This is a regular event, and our driver was nonplussed. We set off on the 8 hour drive, picking up our scout, Clement, on the way. Scouts are trained, highly skilled Zambians who travel with us anytime we are on foot in the bush, away from camp. Clement could spo...

Seek and Hyde

With our feet firmly on English soil (beneath the asphalt), all of our bags accounted for (huzzah), and the sleep cleared out of our eyes (momentarily), we made our way through a few Tube stops to our destination, largely no worse for the wear. ( N.B. The London subway system, or “Underground” is also called “The Tube”). We also endured schlepping our bags up and down a lot of Tube steps (not all stops on the Underground are handicapped- or luggage-friendly) and we found our way to our hostel. This is primarily a student hostel, and we have a single room where we all are secure and our belongings and persons are together and lockable. The quarters are tight, with six sets of 3-bed-high bunks, but comfortable, clean, and safe. Almost like we are on a submarine, except this is much more conveniently located in the heart of London. Since our flight was delayed by 8 hours, we weren’t able to spend the afternoon at the British Natural History Museum, as planned. We w...

NMU in Zambia - 2019!

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