I have learnt over the last few years that it is quite satisfactory to cut out the middle man and buy yourself something you really want. It leaves no room for disappointment.

This year I have bought myself two things.

The first is twenty two sets of football kit to be sent out to Lusaka via an airline pilot for the Bank of Zambia’s two football teams and the other present I will show you tomorrow….

Off to teach now.

I have now been asked to provide football kit for several local teams in Lusaka. Which amounts to quite a lot of money. I will do some fundraising locally BUT does anybody know how to add a “Just Giving” or a “donate here” widget on to my blog so that I can enlist the help of the blogosphere? Just a pound here and there will help raise the £600 I need. I’ll write a bit more about the team another time, but for the moment I just need some help with putting the details on to my sidebar.

Thanks!

Emotional and exhausting and a touch scary in parts.

We visited my Grandfather’s grave and laid some flowers (not at all easy to find) and the remains of my Grandmother’s ashes on his grave. What a peaceful and well kept place it turned out to be. Run by a deaf mute who took great pride in maintaining the grounds.

We drove around the city looking for three different houses that my father and/or my uncle had lived in – all a very different picture now, compared to how it was all those years ago. Amazingly even the first house my father lived in sixty years ago is still standing.

We spent several hours at the Zambian archives office, sadly to no avail and we visited Janelle’s friends at Jagoda Gems to say hi – I think they thought I was a bit mad…”I’m a good friend of Janelle’s but we’ve never actually met” I told them.

I’ll tell you about the scary bits later – computer not working very well and we’re now off to have a drink with the lovely Tanvir’s (who’s currently bonding with her new guide dog) father for a drink.

Off to the Valley tomorrow for our safari experience. Hooray.

So. It’s Tuesday morning (I think, bit disorientated). We are now going off on a tour around town so that my father can take endless pictures of hotels that are now in the place where he used to live. I hope there are still some places that still look the same for him. Fifty years is a long time to have been away…

..and I need to find some flowers because we’re going the cemetery where my grandfather is buried and we’ve got a little bit of my grandmother left to sprinkle on his grave so that they can be together again after all these years, mixed in that African soil.

Will update later today hopefully – M can you send big love to Ma and tell her I’m looking after him x