Category Archives: Zambia
The other end of the First World War. ‘Tipperary mbali sana, sana’
Imagine a human chain of sixteen and a half thousand people, mostly barefoot and carrying heavy burdens – sixty pounds, twenty seven kilos – on their heads. Some pulling carts. Walking up to fifteen miles a day under the searing … Continue reading
If you would like to see a few more pictures and a video you have to turn sideways to watch, oops! 😉 of the small press I visited and wrote about in Dylan, dogs and the devil it is now … Continue reading
The witch’s cauldron
Hubble bubble. Toil – and so much trouble. It’s been a while since I penned a post. Titles sit alphabetically festering in my file. Symbols, waiting to lead into eloquent cries of woe. Painful shrieks of angst. Or even, you … Continue reading
Precious
It’s one of those Zambian names, along with Gift, that always makes me feel good about my fellow humans. Naming a baby girl Precious is just such a joyful thing to do. Lately I’ve been wondering about the things we … Continue reading
Mad? Lucky? Or just plain stupid, with a death-wish?
A memory surfaces, now and then, which makes my brain freeze. It’s the late 1990s. We’re staying with a farmer outside Lusaka, Zambia’s capital city. He’s very hospitable, bought us new, blue mats to step onto when we get out … Continue reading
Why I spit in the eye of wedding anniversaries. A true story (with the best bit at the end).
It started off as it meant to go on, our marriage. Not quite ordinary. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not mutants from some distant planet masquerading as earthlings. It’s just, we have trouble doing what’s expected of us. Or perhaps … Continue reading
‘To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive’.* Really?
June. Winter in the southern hemisphere. The year 2011. A man walks into the bar – yes I know, I use it too often. But there’s a reason. Besides the fact we’re often in the bar, before you say it. … Continue reading
MEMOIRS OF A HUSK 