The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 2,800 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 55 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 59 posts. There were 270 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1gb. That’s about 5 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was September 14th with 114 views. The most popular post that day was Blog Contest #2!!.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were wcpc-tx.org, mail.yahoo.com, wcpc.publishpath.com, Google Reader, and sz0043.ev.mail.comcast.net.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for house of martha zambia, gordy lentz blog, gordy lentz, chasefu theological college, and gordylentz.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Blog Contest #2!! September 2010
1 comment

WEATHER AND OTHER ITEMS, 1/18/2010 January 2010

CCAP Eastern Province March 2010
1 comment

House of Martha June 2010
2 comments

TSETSE FLY August 2010
1 comment

           Last Sunday we were at Chizason’s  church, CCAP Lusaka West.  This was a Licensing service for Lazarus.  It is also the collaring service for him.  After he signed the documents he can be called Abusa (Reverend).   His new church is in  Lusaka South.  It is called St Peters.  They were in such a hurry to get him he was moved on Monday.  They don’t have a building yet, but are meeting in a Basic School in the neighborhood.  I’ve included a photo of this service.

            This week we have flown to London, Houston, and then Chicago.  We got to see all our children and their children this Thanksgiving.  We have so many blessings to count this year.  It will be great to get back home.

Just a quick update.  Graduation was today a Justo Mwale.  It rained last night and was threatening the entire ceremony but it held off.  When it is overcast it is a lot cooler.

            Here is a photo of Lazarus graduating.  The man on the left is Dr. Zulu the rector at Justo Mwale.  The gentleman on the right is Dr. Phiri.  He is the Permanent Secretary, Zambia ministry of Education.  He gave the commence speech.  It was good.  I don’t know who the man in the middle is.

            The next photo is of Lazarus receiving recognition for being top in his class.  Both students we’ve sponsored have accomplished that.

            Tomorrow Corliss and I are going to Chizason’s Church in Matero (a compound in Lusaka) where Lazarus will get his Clerical Collar.  Then he can be called abusa.

            This was done in a hurry.  Corliss and I leave Monday for London.  We’ve had a terrible time shipping personal items because of new US terrorist rules.

            She booked us a morning flight so we could arrive to take our first safari that day.  Mfuwe Lodge is about two kilometers inside the park.  Attached is a picture of a chalet in the lodge.  It has a loft upstairs for sleeping an lounge area downstairs and a modern bathroom.  The rear has a deck which overlooks a lagoon.  As you can see there are a lot of animals roaming freely.  This lodge has 18 chalets.  In the lodge area we saw elephants, impalas, kudus, lions, baboons, waterbuck, and a lot of birds.

            This next photo is of a zebra and her child.  The baby is maybe a week old.  She was wobbly on her feet getting around.  When speaking to another tourist they had seen a impala who had just been born stand up for the first time.

            On an evening ride one of the tourists in the Range Rover noticed a kudu up in a tree.  We went and investigated.  Our guide said it was a leopard who had taken it up to keep his kill away from outer predators.  The leopard wasn’t there.   We went back after dark and found her.   

  There was a colony of carmine bee-eaters along the bank of the Luangwa River.  We visited that local.  There were hundreds of this beautiful bird nesting.  It tunnels in the side of a dirt cliff about one meter and makes its nest. 

            Our chalet had a deck overlooking a lagoon.  Remember it hasn’t rained here since early April so the water tables are low.  These crocodiles would gather near the banks and hope an unsuspecting baboon or impala would venture close.  After dark there were many more of them and they would be joined by hippopotamus.  They could be noisy in the evening. 

            In the lodge a family wanted to take a shortcut.  Who is going to argue with them.  We were told elephants frequently walk through the lodge on their way to the river or returning.

            On the Trek to the Village, the elephants are crossing the river going to town to eat mangos.  They are ripe in Mfuwe.  They go in the evening as people will be asleep and they will have the run of the mango trees and the villager’s gardens.  Notice how the baby elephants are buried in the herd, not in front and rarely on the outside.  The herd is very protective of them.

            We saw lots of lions.  This photo shows part of a pride of 10 male lions.  They are being very destructive.  They wait by the water and take down about one cape buffalo a day.  The buffalo herd has to travel to the river each day for water.  This makes them easy pickings for the lions.  The lions don’t need this much food but hunting is easy.  You can see they appear to be well fed. In the evening the hyenas are feasting on what the lions don’t eat.

            Notice the herd of cape buffalo crossing the road.   They must use a lot territory to keep themselves fed.  If you get close to them you can see they a very malnourished.  You can see ribs cages and they are not real sharp.  Our guide explained to us because they is no rain animals that are preyed upon, buffalo, zebra, impala, kudu are having a difficult time avoiding the lions ,leopards, hyenas.  So the predators are enjoying feasts.  He said two weeks after the rains start this will change.  The buffalo, zebras, kudu and impala will eat the fresh grass have plenty of water and become very difficult for the predator to  capture.  Instead of a single hunt to capture game it will take as many as 5 to 15 tries.  In May the lions will be malnourished and have the sunk in rib cages. 

            A lecturer from San Antonio who has helped raised the funds for building the chapel here comes to Justo Mwale often (yearly).  He and his wife have always taken a trip to South Luangwa at the conclusion of their visit.  I agree with them this is one of the best attractions Africa has to offer.  The number of animals to be seen is terrific. 

            The guide we had was very experienced.  You keep the same guide and traveling partners on the safari trips.  You bond together as beside safari you also eat together. 

            One last thing.  The weather was hot.  The first of November the rains began in Lusaka and that took the edge off the hot weather here.  Right now I would say the temperature is the mid to high 80’s in Lusaka.  With the rains come, clouds cut the heat.  Mfuwe is much lower elevation that Lusaka.  That means it hotter.  I think it was in the mid to upper 90’s at South Luangwa.  What made it rough is the chalets were not air-conditioned.  There was a fan for the main floor and the loft.  The loft was hotter.   It was cool in the morning until about 10 AM.  The rains hadn’t started by the 7^th of November when we left although there were indications they were only a day away.

            I noticed for Zambia the internet was fast.  I’ve tried in the past to upload videos but it just takes too long.  So I picked one of the shortest videos I’ve recorded and started to upload it.

            If you’ve been to Justo Mwale every Friday they have a morning worship service at 7:30 AM.  Each service has a choir.  The choirs changes every week.   This short one is done by the women.  They sang two songs.  This is the first one they sang.  The recording is 1 minute 49 seconds  long.  It took over two hours to upload this video.  I’m sorry the uploading takes so long.  I’ve got some wonderful songs from Justo Mwale and Churches that are in excess of 6 minutes.  Some of the best music is from the UCZ Church in Siavonga by their Rock of Ages Choir.  Their songs easily exceed 8 minutes.  Maybe when I get back to the US I’ll try to upload one.

          When he finished his presentation, the audience was invited up to try their skill at handling the snake.  This last photo shows me giving it a try.  My wife thinks I’ve gone mad.   I was nervous but I just had to give it a try.  This kind of opportunity would never come again.

            First I wanted to have the experience of riding the bus.  My friend John and I decided to take the bus from Justo Mwale to downtown.  It is about 12 km (7 miles).  First we walk from Justo down Munali Roar to where the tarmac is.  That’s where you catch the bus.  John recommended we wait for a larger bus as there is more room on them and they are cooler.  It was hot waiting in at the sun for the bus but after 15 minutes we were on our way.  We made rapid progress until we reached Manda Hill.  We waited at the bus stop until the bus filled up.  Of course we had to wait until the buses before ours filled.  Then we were off.  We went to the bus station downtown.  Our trip was about an hour.  Driving would have been half that  time.  The cost was 3500 kwacha, or about 80 cents.  Quite a bargain.

            Another experience I wanted was to get a haircut from an African Barber shop.  John took me to a barber shop in Kaunda Square where he gets his hair done for 3500 kwacha.  Well I went and got my ears lowered.  It’s shorter than a military haircut.  I won’t need another haircut until I’m back in Texas.  He did charge me more than 3500 kwacha.  Said my hair was very fine and quite different than African’s.  We’ve only got one photo of the haircut.  The camera needed new batteries and there were none to be found in the Kaunda Square market. 

            My last note is a little scary.  Our neighbors, who have two young children, sighted a snake about a week ago.  It was reported to be a large dangerous African snake.  Well, the maintenance man found a snake about a week after the reported sighting.  It is a spitting cobra.  See the photo.  We were told never approach this snake from the front. It will spit venom in your eyes. To disable them you need to hit them in the back. 

         Our housekeeper said we need to close our windows now.  I thought that was strange, but in church during ‘Joys and Concerns’ a woman told of one of these snakes was a room in her house.  This means it’s about time to go home.

            What a beautiful and historical place.  I’ll touch on some highlights of our journey.  We spent two days in Stonetown, four days at the beach, and two days in Dar Es Salaam.

            Zanzibar was the last place to ban selling slaves.  The Sultan of Zanzibar stopped in 1873.  An Anglican Church is built where the slave trading occurred.  The slave chambers still exist.  The alter of the church is the same location as where the auction block was.   There is a photo of the church.  Also there is a picture of a slave chamber which held 75 men chained together for about two weeks before being sold.  The left window has been enlarged, it really wasn’t that big.  Others didn’t suspend slave trading.  At the North end of the island there is another location where slaves were sold.  This was discontinued in 1906.  Unfortunately today there is still a lot of slavery; men and boys sold into bondage, women and girls into prostitution and also bondage.  We’ve seen some newspaper articles from South Africa where shipments of people have been foiled.

            Our hotel had a rooftop restaurant where the picture of the sunset was taken.  It was 99 steps up to the restaurant, 86 to our room on the third floor.  The steps were wooden and like grandmother’s house in Indianapolis none of them were the same.  We huffed and puffed to get up.  Interestingly we met a group who had just come back from their accent of Mt Kilimanjaro.  They were from Australia and Scotland.  They were out of shape, had more trouble on the stairs than we did, did not prep for the trip, yet, of their group 11 of 13 made it to the top of Kilimanjaro.

            We went on a spice tour.  That again was very interesting.  Spices were brought to the island about 1830 by Indians (from India).  The climate was attractive.  We were shown about 30 different kinds of spices being grown.  In the 19^th century (and even today) spices were expensive and a lot of money could be made.

            After seeing Stonetown we next traveled to a resort on the eastern beach.  My ‘o my, was that beautiful.  Attached is a photo of the beach at low tide.  You could walk out a half kilometer.  The sand was fine and white.  In the photo there are some Massi worriers.  They are hired for security.  Their tribe is located in northern Tanzania and Southern Kenya.  They are nomads and as such they are tall and skinny.  They are the ones who win all the running events and marathons throughout the world. 

            We were at a marvelious resort called Sultan Sands.  It was beautiful.  The landscaping and flowers were breathtaking.  I’ve attached a photo of a room.  There are two units in each house.  Tours could be scheduled from the resort and they had a lot of programs offered as part of the resort. Plus they had entertainment after every evening meal.  There were many, many resorts on the island and I would guess you could pick and choose to fit your needs.

      Another tour we took was to a National Park they had on the island.  They have a monkey called a Red Colubus.  It is highly endangered.  There are only about 2500 and they all live in this park on Zanzibar.  It has a beautiful red back.  The photo is of a baby.

            The invitation said it would start at 14 hours, but this being Zambia we knew that wasn’t right.  It started after 15 hours.  It was difficult finding shade in the College’s courtyard.  So we sat with the crowd in the sun.  It was breezy though and I used sunscreen lotion.  See picture of crowd.

            It started with a flare.  Dancers started from behind us.  They were great, colorfully dressed, and were good.  Notice in the photo how well coordinated their feet are.  The music was from recordings.  There were two large speakers.

            The second set of dancers followed.  They were much younger.  They were dressed in white and had glitter on their faces.  There were only four of them.

            The third set of dancers was part of the wedding party.  They were very entertaining.  The wedding party went down the middle of them.  Corliss said if you were part of a Zambian wedding you had to know how to dance.

            We took a gift.  There was a gift table.  About a third of the gifts were wrapped in wedding paper.  The others were in shopping bags.  One of the bags contained six rolls of toilet paper. 

            We were fed.  The wedding dinner was chicken, beef, rice, vegetables, and a salad.  After eating the party went on.  It went on until a little after 18 hours when it gets dark.

            Later we learned the couple had not finished their premarital classes so they hadn’t been married in a church (Jehovah’s Witness).  They had a traditional service in her mother’s house.  They would have the church service when the classes were complete.