Zambia World Wide

We spent most Sunday’s at the boat club for the next few weeks as we were quite keen to learn how to water ski and the boys enjoyed the swimming pool and other activities plus they had a number of friends to play with. Most evenings after the boats were hitched up ready for the trip home we would have a braai outside at the front of the clubhouse with other powerboat members, it was a nice way to end the day. We would talk generally of incidents that had happened during the day, many of which were quite amusing, we would also speak about stuff that we wanted to try the following weekend. There was quite a lot of laughing and joking but all in fun and without malice. Although we were keen to learn to ski and enjoyed spending time at the boat club, this did not interfere with our liking for travelling in Zambia. It did in fact help us to find other places of interest as we met people who had been to places we had not yet heard of. Some of the places talked about seemed quite interesting and we knew we would visit them when we had the opportunity. Since most of this chapter has been devoted to our lives in and around Kitwe, I will for the moment continue.

Every year we had the Mayday Parade, the parade would start in town and make its way along Freedom Avenue to Freedom Park. There were always a large number of floats and people marching and singing. Very similar to a carnival in England, the main difference being that in Zambia all the floats and bands were amateur, they didn’t have the money to spend but made up for it with their enthusiasm. People put a lot of effort into building their floats and although the bands had limited instruments the singing compensated. The parade was very colourful and noisy and enjoyed by all including the spectators. After the floats reached Freedom Park the floats would be parked and the singing and dancing would begin.

The other annual event which I have yet to mention is the Copperbelt Agricultural Show, held at the Showground in Nkana West. This we went to every year, it is similar to the County Shows in England. Again the main difference was finance, the Copperbelt Show was run as a joint venture between the farming community and the government. Very few people were paid, most of the people involved in the running of the show did so for the enjoyment they got from being involved in the event. I am not going to say too much about the show at this time as I will be returning to the subject in a later chapter. There were the usual animal sections, vegetable and fruit stands plus many more stands exhibiting the products made by local industries. There were the bars and food stalls that were expected at a show of this size, at various places around the grounds there were groups of traditional dancer’s. They danced to the music played on their tribal instruments, large numbers of spectators would also join in with the singing and dancing creating quite a carnival atmosphere. I don’t remember us ever having a bad day out at the show which we went to many times over the years.

Another place we have already been to on several occasions is Monkey Fountain Zoo, it is situated off the Kitwe/Ndola road approximately 5miles from Ndola on the right hand side of the road. The zoo is quite small, probably about the size of a small English safari park. There are no large animals there, most of the birds and animals are of a kind that appeal to young children. After all we are in Africa and if we want to see large animals, we go to a game park. There is a large variety of monkeys which most children love to watch. There are other animals also which include, baboons, deer, wild pigs plus many domestic animals which appeal to young children. There are two aviaries which contain a large number of exotic birds, Oops! They aren’t exotic they are all from this part of Africa. There is also a reptile house which contains a number of lizards, monitor lizards which are the largest lizards in this part of Africa, plus rainbow lizards and chameleons and many others that I have forgotten the names of. There were also a number of snakes, many of which are the most poisonous in Africa ie:- Gaboon Vipers, Puff Adders and Spitting cobra’s plus many others. It was a good place to take the children for the afternoon after spending the morning shopping in Ndola. A while back just before Craig was born we came here with Gary for a day out. At the entrance to the zoo there is a café which is about 6 feet above ground level with a concrete wall around the edges. While we were sitting at the café having a drink and cooling off, Gary decided to walk round the top of the wall. Unfortunately he lost his balance and fell on the rocks below. When we reached him his face was covered in blood and he had a large gash under his right eye. Once we got him cleaned up we could see there was no other damage, although the gash was deep and just under his eye. We decided he needed to have it looked at in the mine hospital in Kitwe as soon as possible. All the towns in Zambia have a General Hospital, but we like many people had little faith in them and preferred to use our own hospital. We arrived at the hospital and found that the cut was quite bad and had to be stitched. Gary even today still has the scar from that little episode.