Arrival in Zambia

SATURDAY 20.10.07

We Arrived at Lusaka airport about 8am and were met by a contingent of Anglicans and had VIP treatment, bypassing the long queue! We sat in the VIP lounge while our passports were checked. I think having the Bishop of Taunton with us wearing his purple shirt helped! Ken and I tagged along with him!! Bishop David Ngovu ( Bishop of Lusaka), Rev Rodgers Banda ( Administrator of ZAC – Zambian Anglican Council), Rev William Vwapu ( Subdean of Lusaka cathedral) and Rev Charley Thomas ( he will be installed as Dean of Lusaka cathedral tomorrow morning), were all there to greet us! They were all so welcoming.

We piled into 2 vehicles, Bishop Peter and his wife Liz (Bishop of Taunton from Bath and Wells diocese) in one and Ken and I in another. We went to the ZAC guesthouse with Rodgers Banda and Bishop Peter and Liz went to Kainga Lodge (two of the Cathedral congregation own the Lodge and are very generous in letting it be used). Ken and I met Esther, Rodgers wife and we were shown to our room where we had a nap until lunchtime.

After lunch, having contacted Mulilo, we met up with my 3 cousins, Malele, Mulilo, and Chiko. It was wonderful to meet up with them again as it had been many years since I’d last seen them, when they were no more than children. Now they are in their 40s and have families. Mulilo came and picked us up and we discovered we were staying only about 1 mile from his house. Their house is in quite a large area of land, and they have a swimming pool, swings, trampoline etc. We sat on the veranda and met everyone there. Chiko was there with 2 of his children, a girl and a boy, Luka. There is a baby girl who wasn’t there – they have a full time nanny, as Chiko’s wife, Sam, works full time with the British Council and is often abroad. She is in Senegal at the moment. Chiko works as a lawyer. We also met Mulilo’s wife, Donna. She is English – they both met when Donna was renting a room at 65, Birdhurst Rise, Croydon, where Mulilo’s smother was brought up. They have 2 girls about 9yrs and 6 yrs. Donna’s Mum, from Bexhill was also there visiting them for a month. Her name is Noreen and she was originally from Ireland. Mulilo and family are due to travel to Tanzania tomorrow for a few days holiday.

Later Malele arrived straight from work. It was so lovely catching up with her and her brothers and families. She works for an advertising magazine that also has interesting articles. She wants me to write an article for the magazine on something like ‘First impressions of Zambia’!! We gave them all love from Mum and Dad and gave each family a ‘London bus’, full of toffees, which when empty becomes a moneybox. Mulilo runs a ‘dial a cab’ taxi firm. We spent about 4 hours with them – it was so lovely to meet up with them again after so long.

Mulilo dropped us back at ZAC about 6pm and then at 7pm we had supper with Rodgers and Esther in their home next to the guesthouse. Some of their children were there, so it was lovely to meet them. The 2 girls, one a niece cooked a delicious supper of chicken, cabbage a bean mix, nshima (the staple maize food), pumpkin leaves with peanut butter (delicious!). This was followed by ice cream with fresh pineapple, and the final of the World Cup Rugby!! Soth Africa against England. Soth Africa won 15-6. It was a late night. I felt quite exhausted from the plane journey, and lack of sleep, and had swollen legs. We slept under a mosquito net, but didn’t actually notice any of the nasty creatures!!

Leaving for Zambia

ZAMBIA TRIP THURS 18 OCT 07

MEETING FAMILY


Ken and I packed and piled into the car with Simba. We managed to fit in just about everything – our clothes, and gifts from many at Holy Trinity, to our link parish in Lunchu, Eastern Diocese in Zambia We had pencils crayons, toys, soaps, tea towels, bible stories, knitting needles, cards and money collected to buy things out there that are needed etc.!

We left Nailsea and stopped in Maidenhead for a cuppa with my brother, Andrew and his wife, Eve and their family. Andrew is going to Malawi on Saturday, the day after us, with his daughters, Rachel and Lois. The charity side of his company is involved with education, using handheld computers, solar powered or wind up. The amazing thing is that the lessons are all in the local language. He has been out several times to Malawi and the schools, parents and government are excited about what is possible. He first trailed it in 10 schools, and then expanded to more schools, as it was so successful. This time he is taking his 2 teenage daughters and building a classroom to use his technology. Rachel and Lois will take some lessons. Their flight stops briefly in Lusaka!

We arrived at Pam and Peter’s just before 8pm. Peter is my cousin and he and Pam have very kindly said they would have Simba, and our car, while we are away for 10 days in Zambia. Peter had a finance meeting in his study (he is the treasurer at their local church!) and Pam was at a Guiding meeting! She had kindly left some stew in the oven for us. Rachel, their daughter, had just got home from work, and welcomed and fed us. It was so lovely ‘catching’ up with my goddaughter, as we hadn’t seen her for ages. Later in the evening when Pam and Peter had finished their meetings we all watched ‘Question Time’ on television, as Eve’s sister Rosie Millard (‘Fuzzy’) was on the panel! Simba very quickly seems very much at home with Peter and Pam in their home.


FRIDAY 19TH OCTOBER 2007-11-16

Peter took Simba for a walk, and then we all had a leisurely breakfast. Later in the morning we walked to their church and newly built church centre, and had a look around. A lovely crisp sunny day, with Autumn colours and lots of leaves on the ground. When we got back we sat in the sun for a coffee. Lunch was bangers, mash and beans. I spoke on the phone to my sisters, Ruth and Jane and also Mum and Dad and Mary, Esther and Zoe, before flying, to say ‘bye’. I also managed to phone Mulilo, as Jenny Humphries (World Mission Advisor for Bath and Wells Diocese) had given me prefix tel nos. to enable one to have cheap overseas calls! The call to a landline is only 2p a minute and to a mobile phone it is 10p a min. We arranged that we would phone Mulilo when we arrived in Lusaka, and try and meet up with him, Chiko and Malele. They are my cousins on my father’s side of the family. His sister, Mary Poore (nee Ashe) had a daughter, Rosemary who married Patrick, a Zambian. Their 3 children, Malele, Mulilo and Chiko are now in their 40s and have families of their own. Ken and I are very excited to be able to meet them! Last time I met them they were small children, so that’s quite a number of years ago!

Peter very kindly drove us to the airport where we met up with Bishop Peter Maurice and his wife, Liz. The booking of the seats was a bit of a disaster, as unbeknown to us you had to book your seats online 24 hours before departure. We had booked our tickets back in April, but the travel agent hadn’t imparted this rather vital bit of information, so we found we weren’t sitting next to each other. We all tried to make a fuss, which worked with Bishop Peter and Liz – it must have been his purple shirt! – but Ken and I were a long way from each other! The food on the plane, amazingly was quite edible – chicken curry, cheesecake, kitkat, and a ‘superfood’ healthy drink. I passed the hours watching films and chatting to the neighbours on each side of me. On my left a young lady, a teacher from California, teaching at an American school in England near Thorpe Park. She goes to Romania 2-3 times a year helping with an orphan project, and next March she is going on an expedition to Antarctica, with about 70 others in leadership/teaching roles. The man running the expedition is Robert Swan, who is very interested in the whole subject of global warming and is keen to educate others. He takes an expedition each year. He has been to clear up other people’s mess that previous explorations over the years have left behind. On the other side of me was a lad (over 6’ tall!) who had just done his GCSEs at a school in England. He was born and brought up in Zambia and his family own several large farms in Central and Northern Zambia – growing such foods as maize and soya. When we arrived at Lusaka airport he said ‘ There are my parents on the tarmac, and that is our plane, the blue one, that I will go home in’. He wants to go to university in America. His great grandfather was one of the first missionaries to Zambia, ‘one of Livingstone’s ‘side kicks’ he said!

Last Sail of the Season

For the last week of September we chartered two boats from Cornish Cruising - Polbream and Chantan II.

I skippered Polbream and was accompanied by Lois, David Bagwell, Tim Horten Smith, David Heathcote and Gary Wilkins. Duncan Freeman skippered Chantan with Zoe, Roger Bradbury, David Walker and Nick Carter.

We had high hopes of sailing to the Scillies or Brittany but the weather defeated us as it was blowing hard from the west for the first few days of the week. So we sailed west!

Chantan got as far as Plymouth where they went into Mayflower Marina for Sunday night. On Polbream we only got as far as Fowey as several were feeling seasick due to the very lumpy sea.

In Fowey we went up to Mixtow Pill where the visitor's pontoon is now helpfully attached to the shore where there are showers.

On Monday we headed on to meet the others at Plymouth and they kindly sailed out to meet us in a very fresh breeze so we enjoyed running into Plymouth with several of Her Majesty's finest watching on. We went into Queen Ann's Battery Marina as the Sutton Harbour Lock was closed for repairs. We all enjoyed a great run ashore to Aribas mexican restaurant in the Barbican.

On Tuesday Polbreram needed repairs to her Genoa so we had a quiet day with some shore-leave for the crew. Chantan left earlier to see how far they could get along the coast, Dartmouth as it happened. Lois and Zoe decided to leave us in Plymouth as Zoe needed to get ready for Uni.

Polbream sailed in the evening for Salcombe, a really pleasant sail along the coast in the lovely September evening light. We arrived in the dark which was a new experience for everyone to have a taste of night navigation over the Salcombe bar.

On the following day after some boat handling training up river, Chantan joined us from Dartmouth.

On Thursday we sailed back to Fowey stopping en route at the entrance to the Yealm where we anchored for lunch. Then we sailed on in light airs to Polperro where we visited this quaint little harbour for a late afternoon cup of tea. We sailed on to Fowey where we went ashore for a evening meal all together.

Our Friday sail took us to the Helford river with aquick visit to the entrance to Frenchman's Creek. Then we had a very pleasant evening drink ashore before dinner back on board. Then Chantan set off for Falmouth and the Polbream crew went back to the pub to watch the England v Tonga rugby match! This was followed by a very late sail, or rather motor against extremely strong spring tides back to Falmouth Marina.

We thought we had finally arrived after refuelling after midnight only to go aground in the middle of the marina just metres short of our berth.

And that was the last sail of the season!

Reflections

Now that I am back in Parish life I don't have much time to reflect, things have been busy even though it is August.

However I am attempting to write reports, produce powerpoints and get some reflections and even proposals for the future in a presentable form. Here is some of what I have produced:

REFLECTIONS

Original Aims

My two aims were:

1 To qualify as a Yachtmaster

2 To explore ways of using coastal and offshore sailing for a range of Christian ministries.

Yachtmaster
In May I achieved my RYA / MCA “Yachtmaster Offshore” qualification to which I have had added a ‘Commercial Endorsement’. The practical examination took place on board a yacht at Falmouth with the examiner on board for 9 hours. At the debriefing he said “I have only one thing to ask you – why haven’t you done this earlier”!

Leading up to the exam I had to achieve a range of targets and attend a number of related courses.

I needed to log 2500 miles at sea within the last ten years (my total logged under sail is now about 8,000). I had to show 5 days as skipper, 5 passages over 60 miles and 2 overnight (in the last 2 years I have been skipper for 88 days, sailed 114 night hours, 10 passages over 60nm including 4 over 100 and 1 over 200).

I took a range of RYA shore based courses including: Yachtmaster Theory, First Aid, VHF/DSC Radio, Heavy Weather Sailing, Survival at Sea.

It has always been an ambition of mine to get my ‘Yachtmaster’ and I had long thought it would be impossible. So it has been a huge delight and very satisfying to achieve this.

Although I have not been learning an entirely new skill base, I have been pushed to much higher levels of knowledge and skill than before. Along the way I have been stretched, grown in confidence and have learned much about myself.

Thanks
It would not have been possible without the support of many people. Firstly my wife, Loïs who has not only encouraged me but has joined in, gaining her own “Day Skipper “ qualification along the way! The Diocese and Parish have been very supportive in allowing me to do this and helping with funding the training. And I could not have achieved this without the many crewmembers who over the last two years have helped pay for yacht charters and for the privilege of sailing ‘before the mast’ under my command!

Sail Training
Sail Training is not about primarily about learning to sail. It is about training under sail. As a means to recruit crewmembers and raise interest in the project I produced a questionnaire which outlined the possible dates for charters and, more importantly, allow people to express areas of interest.

At every crew briefing I would recite these areas of interest to allow people to express what they have come along to experience.

The main areas include:

Team Building (experience how teams develop and relate)

Character Development (come and learn something new about yourself)

Family Time (quality time with your spouse, child or parent)

Leadership Training (discover the leader in you, learn to trust others)

Spiritual Retreat (meet with God in a fresh and memorable way)

Environmental Awareness (from bird and shark watching to caring for
creation)

Cross Culture (using the Nautical scene as a cross-cultural experience)

Christian Outreach (bring along or sail with non-Christians)

Sailing skills (focus on Sailing, Seamanship or Navigation)

Refreshment (for busy people - ‘a Change is as good as a Rest’!)

Responses to the questionnaire revealed a high interest in Spiritual Retreat and Environmental Awareness. I have sought to develop these two areas with every cruise.

We have noted several clear successes in Character Development ranging from ‘laying ghosts’ from the past where someone had been made to feel they could never do anything right, through to building confidence leading to landing an ideal job.

The five groups from the Mission ship “Logos II” where billed specifically as ‘Team Building’ at the request of the Captain and Chief Engineer. One crew had a whole day, which gave us time to develop competitions using the ‘man over board’ drill under sail as a clear task. However, we proved to ourselves that team building is even possible if the crew are together only for 4 hours, as we repeated that model four times over two days.

Family Time has been popular with couples and Fathers and Sons.

Those who have sailed before have been keen to develop Sailing Skills. Some who have never sailed before have really enjoyed discovering new skills. However there have been those who have been happy either to be a passenger, rest and relax, or focus on another area such as retreat, bird watching or photography, and that has been fine.

Polbream - Fathers and Sons

Half way through my week on Polbream in July I switched a crew of Ladies for 3 Fathers and 4 sons. The culture change was very noticable from me being mothered by four crew to me mothering 7 crew!

Dietmar with Lucas, Alan with David and Ian with Jon and Andy made up a very full crew for this last three days. It was a new challenge for me having a full boat with no other sailing experience on board. We had a great time learning the 'ropes' from basics. I think the lads were keen to get going with the sailing and would have liked to skip the briefings and instruction. However, once they'd had a bit of sea air the tiredness caught up with them and I think we got the right balance of sailing and snoozing.

The weather was very unsettled and mixed so we didn' get to Fowey along the coast. But we did have soke variety going up the Truro river to anchor and mooring in Mylor one night. We also sailed to the Helford river and experienced some poor visibility mixed with some Man Over Board drill on the way back. We nearly got the boat planing one day, but not quite!

Czar

Czar is a Contessa 32 and was skippered by Lois with Gordon as 1st mate, our daughter Esther and friend Mary as crew. After gaining her Day Skipper qualification Lois was very keen to charter a boat as skipper. After booking the boat she gradually got more and more doubtlful about the whole thing! However she did brilliantly and skippered for a whole week in what were very difficult and unsettled weather condidtions.

The original plan was for Lois to do some training just in case I got hit by the boom or fell over board so that she would know what to do. Skippering her own boat was way beyond the call of duty and we were all so impressed with her courage and skill.

She was blessed with a wonderful crew. Esther had recently completed a dinghy racing course and Mary was sailing for the very first time. Gordon was brilliant giving Lois confidence with his experience and familiarity with this kind of sailing.

Polbream Ladies

In July we concluded my Sabbatical with another week chartering Polbream from Cornish Cruising in Falmouth. The first helf of the week was billed as a 'ladies cruise' with Lois and myself and four other ladies. After inviting the others Lois decided to 'jump ship' and skipper her own boat (see "Czar"), so I had Chris, Chris, Sue and Kath all to myself. I think they all thought I was wasting away as I have never had so much concern expressed for my need to eat!

We had a great time exploring the Fal, Truro and Helford

rivers. On Saturday we got away from Falmouth Marina and headed up to the Pontoon at Tregothnan. On Sunday we headed out to sea for a few hours. There was quite a 'lumpy' sea with swells coming from various directions at once - typical of the Western Approaches and very different from the flat seas of Scotland and Turkey!


Over the hext souple of days the ladies enjoyed a range of wind strengths and sea states and coped with it all admirably. We had another night on the pontoon at Turnaware and also a night in the Falmouth Yacht Havern where we went ashore for showers and an excellent meal.


Kath and Sue really enjoyed coming back for a second trip. Sue was thrilled to get away without any seasickness this time, inspite of the windy and roiugh conditions. Kath revelled in the coastal sailing when we gave sailed to Gull Rock and back. Chris and Chris thoroughly enjoyed their first go at sailing.