May 2006

In May alongside life as usual there are a series of tragedies in the valley . . .

Thursday, 04 May 2006

"I said to Kelvin yesterday how surprised I am that it is already May and we are nearly half way through 2006. I still have done nothing this year towards the book except for the Grandmother story.

"There is just too much going on all the time, particularly now that I have got into renovating Community Camp. I have a carpenter here from Mugurameno, a guy named Katikalengwa, who seems to know his stuff and is building some steps and a deck area for the reception building.

"I mentioned the process to Grant yesterday and he was not at all happy about the idea of there being a bar at CC, suggesting that it would become a haven for prostitution and crime. I am not sure how alarmist that is but it gives pause for thought and I will have to insist that the place gets a liquor license in either Isiah or Jones’ name. I am not prepared to apply for one myself and am not sure if I am even eligible to apply."

Saturday, 06 May 2006

"As soon as I turned on the base set this morning it was to hear bad news. Two local workers out fishing last night got attacked by a hippo. The body of one of them is missing. The guy on the radio from Ndorochena was deeply upset and it was difficult to make out what he was saying but it seems that the incident occurred opposite Munyameshi, the next lodge upstream from Ndorochena and that there were two fishermen in a canoe, presumably staff. One man was rescued by the Munyameshi motor boat but the other, I think named Tofa, was not found."

Wednesday, 10 May 2006

"Here in Lusaka again and this time for a whole week which will be to the dismay of my staff – sorry for that – I need to get various paperwork sorted out. Trust nobody, rely on no-one comes into play again as Alan Harkness fails to make good his promise to let me have the blanks for the year-end PAYE return forms.

"Tonight I attended the stakeholder meeting for Zambezi Resources to hear of their works for the exploration of mining possibilities in the LZNP. Possibly the most interesting thing of the evening was the speech – if that is the right way to describe the remarks of Paramount Chieftainess Nkmeshi who was given the near to final say in the evening to express her frustrations and problems in relating to the mining company in that they had not treated her and the other Chiefs with the respect that they felt they merited. She came out with a couple of really good lines:

“The gap between you the explorers and we the nobles is very wide and it needs to be narrowed”

“We have the people, we have the wildlife, we have the minerals. We are the custodians.”

"Very cool, it sounded almost like a colonial protest and I was quite impressed with the rest of speech which although went on too long and repeated too many times the points she wanted to press in the usual way did press home many of the issues that the people will be concerned with. She made the interesting point that the minerals below the soil may rest in the remit of the Presidency but in order to reach them the miners would need to cut through the surface which belonged to the people; a novel point reminiscent of Shylocks predicament.

"The other classic of the evening was the Warden. He highlighted the appalling level of communication within ZAWA by suggesting that Zambezi Resources were not paying their way and being advised that in fact that they were paying $80,000 per annum to ZAWA. Then he said that they should have ZAWA escorts on all their flights and that on one occasion that scouts had almost “dropped their helicopter”.

"The Managing Director of Zambezi Resources, Julian Ford, formed a diplomatic response:

“Shooting down a helicopter is a bit of a safety concern which we don’t want to happen”.

"He then explained that all their flight plans were filed with Chilanga.

"For an example of lack of communication between the departments and hierarchy of ZAWA this stands as a perfect case, particularly as the Warden is supposed to be a high flyer."

Monday, 22 May 2006

"It has been quite an eventful week and perhaps the major drama should go down first. Anna from CLZ went down with stomach pains on Thursday afternoon and Adrian was radioing up and down the valley for a doctor. As none was forthcoming, I logged on to the American Medical Library and plugged in the symptoms for an on-line diagnosis. It came up with a number of suggestions, all bad, and none saying that she would get better of her own accord. I advised Adrian to get medical assistance as soon as possible and she duly went to CFB where she was further diagnosed with appendicitis and had to be evacuated to Johannesburg for an operation. I spent much of Saturday liaising between a number of parties to get Adrian on a plane to Lusaka to follow her and found myself doing “All Stations” radio calls for the first time. It was all quite dramatic and thanks to the satellite system and Skype through which I was able to reassure Anna and make the necessary arrangements. I do wonder how we coped in the olden days.

"Speaking of encroaching technology, we now have cell reception here. That is some phones have cell reception. My phone does not because it is a weedy cheap little thing but the older bulkier ones do and that puts me in a bit of a dilemma. Should I buy a high gain antenna and stick it up the mast?

"I have just noticed that a flock of little bee-eaters have dropped in. They are the first I have seen this year, a sign of approaching mid-winter.

"Works progress at Community Camp slowly but surely. The reception/bar is more or less complete and ready to go and three of the ablution blocks have been painted and the plumbing secured (sort of). There is more finishing up to do but I hope to have this phase completed by Thursday. Mweemba always leaves things unfinished so I will have to keep on top of him to make sure he finishes our two braii spots on target.

"In the village Isiah’s house burned down last week and he lost many of his belongings and quite a lot of money that he had stashed there. I am not sure what the consequences of that will be but he will certainly be looking for ready cash now and I await his response to the draft lease I circulated to see if some cash element appears in the rental.

"I have got to get on with the damn book but nothing is inspiring me at the moment and has not done for months. It is a lonely process, writing, and I get more interesting conversation and a sense of doing things through work at CC and getting tied up with the ins and outs of CLZ. I know that it is my own fault and I am doing it out of the old habit of never finishing anything I start – that is perhaps why I can relate to the locals in one sense."

Tuesday, 23 May 2006

With Adrian and Anna gone it seems that I am the temporary Ops manager of CLZ again. Chops is coming to me for clearance on everything and now I find myself dealing with the warden over scout training subsidies. The problem is that I do not have a clue of the ups and downs and ins and outs so I am just flailing around in the dark. It is good to feel wanted?

Wednesday, 24 May 2006

"The big news today is the missing plane. One of Star of Africa’s planes took from Lusaka on schedule this morning but has not been seen since and nobody knows where it is. It has guests for Mwambashi Camp on board. Hopefully it has come down safely somewhere. We wait to learn what has happened but right now a big search is being launched as the flight should take thirty minutes and the plane has been missing several hours.

Thursday, 25 May 2006

"The aircraft is still missing and now a major search operation is underway as several planes and a helicopter cover the ground where it was last observed. The search started early this morning and still nothing has been located, it is now around 10:30. It was last spotted heading upstream from Kaila and then turning and heading back downstream. This sounds as though the pilot was lost and trying to get his bearings.

"It seems unbelievable that an aircraft could totally disappear in this limited area but the sky is overcast and the cloud line is quite low so it is difficult for the observers to see anything and maintain a safe altitude. I cannot imagine that the plane will not be found before long but it is not easy. The managers, Steve and Roddy, from Mwambashi are coordinating the effort as it was their guests on board and I can tell that there is a certain amount of desperation developing in their voices.

"14:30 and there is still no news. Not a sign of the plane anywhere."

Tuesday, 30 May 2006

"The plane was spotted by a search helicopter yesterday afternoon and a team of scouts walked in on Monday to the location where they found three bodies, the pilot and two passengers who had died on impact. It had crashed into the northern side of Kaila hill which was obscured in the low cloud on Thursday last week.

"The thick bush and steep slopes had made the climb very difficult and also made the wreckage very difficult to spot from the air until the weather improved sufficiently for higher flying with a greater range of vision."

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