Bike Ride

 This morning I (Bridget) went for a bike ride so I thought I'd take some pictures and show you a bit of what it's like here.

Through the market

Quick stop for a bottle of water because I forgot to bring one.

Past the new bus station

Onto the tarmac road, which lasts about 300 yards!

Past "ma sewage"

Past the fire station

And out of town onto the open road.

A short pause in the shade

Past farm land.  The stalks of last season's maize still standing.

And bush.

And back through the market to buy veg.

Traditional Dance

 Before the break for the long Easter weekend, the school children gave us a display of traditional dance.  Enjoy..

Baby Shower

 Well, it's been a long time, sorry about that.

I thought I would chat about a baby shower I went to recently.  Here in Zambia, the baby shower happens when the baby is about a month old and marks the day when the baby is taken out of the house and seen with the mother out and about.  It is an opportunity for the mothers of the community to get together and give the new mother advice about taking care of the baby, the other children and her husband, as well as bringing gifts.  It is a very joyous occasion and is very much a party.  The men are excluded.

This baby shower was for the grandchild of a friend of Amos.  I was invited, and the grandfather appealed to Amos to escort me there so that they could spend the afternoon together, exiled from the house!

It was a lovely party, lots of talking, sharing words from the Bible, praying and singing.  After the gift giving the baby was taken out of the house and the ladies sang and danced in celebration.  You will see from the video that the baby is handled very vigorously and doesn't seem to mind.  This is the way it goes at all the baby showers I've been to.  However much the baby is tossed into the air, I have never seen one complain!

A bit of R & R. And some animals

 We've just had the opportunity to spend a couple of days in Livingstone.  This included a boat trip on the Zambezi, some relaxing by a tributary river and of course, animals.  And meeting some friends returning from the States.

Here are some of the animals:

Elephants, some young mothers and their babies coming down to the river for a drink

A hippo, showing signs of a recent fight

A couple of crocs

African grey hornbill

Giant kingfisher

Pied kingfisher

And a beautiful sunset

Autumn or Spring?

 One of the things about being here that is the most different from being in Wales is the seasons.  Here we have hot, wet, and cold.  The boundaries between them are blurred and the seasonal markers we have in the UK don't seem to apply.

The cold season is just finishing.  Leaves have been falling from the trees and at the same time new leaves are growing.  No months of naked trees here, take off one suit of clothes and put on the next.  Here are some examples:

Some trees are in their fresh spring attire while others still stand naked

Some are still wearing last year's leaves, brown and crisp and ready to fall

The mangoes have their fresh leaves and flowers above the dark green ones yet to come down

Some are still changing colour.  This one is always the last to change, when the new leaves begin to show here we will know that the hot season is well and truly upon us

All Creatures Great and Small

There's not much new to tell you here.  Schools have closed, so we have no classes and consequently more time on our hands.  One result of this is that we have had more time to see the things that have been  wandering, crawling and flying around near our home.  Here are some of them...

Herald snake in the garden

Spiders making massive webs in the mango trees above Amos's hammock

Zambezi giant blind snake, just after it had slithered over Amos's foot.  Behind the house

Meyers parrot, waiting for us to get out of the garden so it can eat the sunflower seeds

Groovy caterpillar outside the front door

Chameleon crossing the path 

Road Trip

We have recently had a visit from our friend Jono, from Aberystwyth, and his friend Kevin.  Kevin had some family business to attend to in Koama, so we went on a road trip.
Here are some of the pictures:

Day 1
Choma to Livingstone, which of course included a visit to Victoria Falls

That's Jono and Amos under those umbrellas - we got very wet!

Jono at the top of the falls

Day 2
Livingstone to Mongu.  510 km on a VERY bad road, almost 12 hours travelling.  We followed the Zambezi for much of the way, so got to see a different view of it:

We continued over this bridge and on to Mongu

Day 3
Mongu was a bit of a blur, we just stayed the night and continued in the morning to Kaoma, another longish day of travel.

Chewing the cud at a comfort stop.

Days 4 & 5
Kaoma

A small town, typical of the area

It was good to have time to stay still and chat with new friends:

Food and chat

Jono, Rabecca and Kevin

Day 6
Kaoma to Kafue National Park
A night in the park, what a treat.  We arrived for lunch and then did some game watching.  Here are some highlights:

Fish eagle

Hippo

Dragon fly

Jono and a croc

The croc a bit closer

LEOPARD FOOTPRINTS!!!!
We were very excited about this!

Puku

Later, as the light was fading we went for a short drive and saw these:

Elephants, with baby

And...

A LION!!!
We were not on foot, you can see Kevin and Jono in the vehicle.  We followed the lion for about a kilometre down the road!

Day 7
On to Lusaka for Jono and Kevin to get their flight and Bridget and Amos a bus back to Choma.

Bridget's personal highlight:

Stoked