Another Weekend - Another Country

On Saturday, Richard and I went to Zambia.  This was work, mind you.  We were driven to the border, and were picked up on the other side by a guy who works for a client of Richard's.  The idea was to spend the day visiting a couple of warehouses, before going off into the bush to visit a village and see produce being picked and  stored.

This picture shows Richard in the newly-acquired warehouse that will store up to 350 tonnes of produce when it arrives from the villages.  The harvest is due within the next month.

We then went out into the bush - a long way out.  We visited a village called Makowa.

At first it seemed to be deserted, but we found a family busy shelling groundnuts (peanuts).  It turned out the the majority of the villagers were out in the fields picking nuts, so we headed off to take a look.

It turned out that the crop had been planted a bit later than it should have been, so to make sure that everything was ready for the date when the buyers would be collecting the produce, all the village had turned out to help bring in the harvest.

We were shown round by Thomas, the Chief of the village (on the left in the picture), who was sporting a fine orange shirt with a depiction of Barack Obama on the back.  I asked permission to take some photos, and when I showed them the photos on the screen of my camera, it caused a great deal of hilarity.

We overnighted at a Lodge called Mama Rula in Chipata.  My room was excellent, with a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen, and with a distinctly African feel to the decor (see picture).

I had an excellent T-Bone steak for dinner, before we went to the bar for a quick drink before retiring.  There was a small fire in a stone hearth outside the bar which was very pleasant to sit by to counter the slight chill in the night air.

Mama Rula's son is a big South African rugby fan, and so the bar is extensively decorated with flags and paraphernalia from the Super 14 competition.

By the way, the Lodge is currently on the market, so if you've got a spare $1 million, you may want to contact the vendors!