Welcome to a belated news letter from us here in the South Luangwa valley. December and January have flown by; I can’t believe we are already well into February. We have been quite busy, so much so that we haven’t managed to get our previous two letters out to in time. So, here is a letter that covers events over December and January to bring you up-to-date with what’s happening here in the camp.
The past few months have definitely been ones for comings and goings. Herman managed to escape the workshop for a few weeks to visit his family in South Africa, before traveling to Mozambique with his brother and his family. He spent 2 weeks in the sea, sand and surf. Herman’s attempts at Deep sea fishing were not too rewarding with him suffering from terrible sea sickness. However a good holiday had.
I managed to sneak away to Lake Malawi for a few days in December. On an educational tour. It was a great trip, visiting different lodges and camps in the area… It was great to see, and I definitely would recommend visiting the Lake, if needing advice on where to stay, I would be happy to assist in you with your bookings.
Dora went home to Switzerland for Christmas and New years and came back with some
delicious Swiss chocolate, and some beautiful photographs of the very cold and snowy
Swiss country side.
Patsy left for her great adventure to Thailand. She was away until the end of January. I know that she had enrolled her self into some Thai cooking lessons, and can’t wait to try out the new recipes.
The river has had the lowest water levels for January that I have seen since living in the Luangwa and although a bit of rain around. Nothing compared to my first 2 years of seeing the Luangwa in flood. However it is rising slowly.
Game viewing has been great, with the wild dogs on a kill being one of the great sightings this month. The Lions; managed to kill a large giraffe, and that kept them feasting for several days. And some lucky clients got to see 3 leopards playing in the rain together in front of our lagoon chalets. Bird watching is fantastic at this time of the year, the colours, calls are breathtaking to see and hear.
I thought this month I would talk about something different. As you know, Wildlife Camp is part of the Zambian Wildlife Authority. Which donates 60% of all our accommodation fees to the education of Zambian children.
What some of you may not know is that we also have our own very little school here in camp, which I run and am the teacher. It is a small little classroom, with a few children of various ages. Two of which are Patsy and Herman’s youngest children and several other children from the near by village. The school has been now officially going for 2 years going into our third year.
We have been very fortunate to have some very special people, donate books, crayons, pencils and other goodies for the school. Which have been a huge help with the running of the school, and with out the donations the school would not be running as it is. We are so grateful to those that have helped with the school.
Every time I have received a parcel or donations, I have always kept some aside to help assist with the local schools and orphanages in the area. Today the children and I set out to deliver a few boxes of clothes, crayons, pencils and pens, paints and reading books.
We visited a local school called Yosefe basic School, where we dropped off a box of readers for various aged children and some pencils and crayons. We then went across onto a new orphanage that is currently under construction. We were given a little tour, of Hanada orphanage, and met some of these very dear little children. We handed out the clothes, shoes and school equipment to the children. It was a heart warming experience.
As pictures are worth a thousand words, I decided to share some of the special moment I have had working with the children and our visit to the orphanage today.
Until next month, take care and safe travels.
Colleen and the Wildlife team.
