RIP Charlie

I've been crying a river for our little boy Charlie. He sadly died on Saturday 9th January 2010 from injuries sustained after being flung from a tree during a hail storm.

God chose Pierre and I to take care of Charlie when he was found abandoned under a tree at a few days old, still sporting his umbilical cord. How blessed are we to have had this wonderful little creature in our lives. He brought us so much love and joy and our time in Lumwana would not have been the same without him.

We are extremely sad to know that we'll never see him again, that the cuddles are gone forever and that Pierre's hair will have to go without grooming now. But we know that God freed Charlie from this world so that Pierre and I can finally free ourselves from Lumwana.

R.I.P. Charlie. You'll be in our hearts forever.

I feel that this sad event marks a fitting closure to our time in Lumwana and this blog.

God bless to you all and thank you for reading my stories over the past few years.

Elna

Time is flying past at a frightening speed and before I know it, a new day has dawned and the previous one is just a blur! I’ve been back to Lusaka and managed to finish the office move and décor. It was a very tiring and frustrating few days as obviously everything (and everyone) operates on African time. But, the job is done and everyone seems pleased with it. Here is a photo of the main reception area. I’m out to SA for a few days in November. I’ve booked three tickets for myself, Pierre’s mom and Tannie Alba to attend a doggy fashion show on 12 November at Monte Casino. Some SA celebrities and their pooches walk the runway in their designer outfits (especially the doggies) and the money raised goes to a nominated animal charity every year. I’m very much looking forward to it – think it will be great fun. As some of you are already aware, Piérre has resigned after five years on the project and we will be leaving Lumwana next year. On the one hand that makes me very sad – sad to leave such a great community of people, beautiful surroundings and most of all little Charlie and all his bush friends. I’m going to miss it all so much. But then I’m also happy to know that there is life after Lumwana and we’re looking forward to all the new and exciting opportunities that the future holds. Until next time.

Travelling and other news

Over the past two months I've been quite a busy bee. We were off site for five weeks on holiday. It was the first time in years that Pierre has taken more than his usual three week break - he needed it! We decided to visit the East and invited Henk and Rachelle to join us. Pierre had loads of SAA Voyager Miles so he exchanged his miles for four return flight tickets from Johannesburg to Hong Kong. We spent a couple of days in Hong Kong and then boarded a cruise which took us to Keelung (Taiwan), Okinawa (Japan) and Shanghai (China). From Shanghai we took a flight back to Hong Kong before returning to Johannesburg. The trip was fabulous – great shopping, food and sightseeing. We all particularly loved Okinawa. We generally found people everywhere to be very friendly. It was a bit of a pain to go through swine flu check points every time we boarded a flight, embarked/disembarked the ship, took a ferry, etc but it was interesting to see how well they’re set up to this extent.

We have also recently purchased a 1 hectare plot in a small game farm development just outside Barberton on the road to Nelspruit. After our return from Hong Kong we spent a few days in Barberton to meet with the architect and builder. We have now received our final set of plans and are hoping to start building by end October. We’re very excited about it all and looking forward to the project. As Sharon Woods would say, “we live in hope” that it will be an enjoyable experience.

I was just getting settled back on site again when I was asked to go to Lusaka to assist with the décor and move of the mine’s Lusaka office. A larger office space has become available in the same building and they’re relocating in September. I spent a few days in Lusaka’s shops but have to say that I found it extremely difficult to source decent interior decorating items there – especially something that would suit an office. Most of the items available are either really expensive or not the look we want. I’ll be going back there in a couple of weeks’ time and have been recommended a few other shops to try so hopefully I’ll be more successful this time around. Luckily I love doing interior decorating projects so I’ll make do with what I can find.

I’m also doing a few other small projects so I’m really keeping busy. Days just fly past and before I know it, another week is gone. It is amazing how you can live in a place like this and still sometimes be too busy to see your friends or go bird watching.

Well that’s me for now. It is now 06h15 so I’m off to have some coffee.

A Charlie Update

For those who are interested in Charlie's progress, herewith an update. He is now almost 10 months old and has grown into a very independent little fellow. For the past three weeks he's been sleeping out somewhere in the bush but we suspect it is fairly close to the house. He still comes to visit us every evening as I'm still putting out nibbles for him and he also visits most mornings between 04h00 and 05h00 when we are up and Pierre leaves for work. He doesn't like to be told what to do anymore and can inflict a mean bite (drawing blood I tell you) if he feels like it so I often have a scar somewhere. He is still a little sweetie most of the time though and sometimes just wants a cuddle and a scratch and in return grooms us very lovingly. He especially likes to groom Pierre's hair or my fluffly dressing gown. It is mating season at the moment and we've noticed that their cries have died down at night. Pierre say's he hopes Charlie is taking precautions but I say NO - I hope he has absolutely no moral standards and is off making babies all over the place. Unfortunately Charlie seems to be getting into fights fairly often as there is a resident male around and Charlie is obviously interfering in his territory. He then chases Charlie all the way back to the house and we can hear Charlie screaming and huffing and puffing all the way. He usually runs to the verandah and waits here for the other male to disappear. I call the other male the "Dikgat Boelie" which is Afrikaans for "fat bully". Dikgat is quite a bit bigger than Charlie and Charlie usually ends up with an injury which results in him hopping along on three legs for a few days. But then, it is like Henk says, if you mess with another man's girls you will get into trouble. Anyway, Charlie is doing well for himself generally and we are very pleased with his progress.

I'm Back

A few months ago I decided to can this blog as I just never seem to get time anymore to do any posting on it. The only reason I haven't yet removed it is because Pierre was not keen on me doing so. I started this blog originally because I had to find something to do when I first moved to Zambia as I was the only wife here on site at the time. Over the past few months I've been so busy doing other things that I've neglected the blog. I somehow figured that nobody reads it anyway so it doesn't matter if I don't post. To my surprise I found out recently that quite a few people are still following it. Many thanks to all of you out there who are still interested in the blog. I'll make an effort now to post again.