Keith's Commercial Debut!

Hello,

We're in the States for a visit with family and friends, taking advantage of the fast internet and satisfying my consumerism instinct, having millions of boxes delivered from Amazon daily (boo, hiss).

As a point of followup, Keith's commercial is now airing in Zambia.   Please enjoy.

Elephant Charge 2012 and a big Thank You

  First I would like to thank everyone the was able to donate to the Elephant Charge, for our team New Kasama Five O,  we really appreciate your help and we had a great time.  For an example of how the money is used you can look at the pictures of the elephant orphanage in our previous posts, from when my parents visited.  The money also goes to anti-poaching efforts among other conservation efforts, take a look at the website.   If you were not able to help financially we appreciate your thoughts.

A couple of days before the race the race organizers give out the location of the
race and everyone goes to that location and gets their campsite assignment.  At the location there’s a main tent that’s catered and there usually a nearby river, although this year the organizers constructed a pool.  This year they had clay pigeon shooting, which was pretty fun.

This year the location was 2 hours outside of Lusaka, at a gold mining operation called Jessie Mine.  The terrain is very hilly, but there were some flat areas.  The weather was not that hot and there were no flys this year which is really a blessing.

  The premise of the race is orienteering with cars, each team has a gps and plans a route with a map they receive the night before. The Charge cars, 21 this year, are divided between 10 starting check points.   Each car must pass through each of the 10 check points in any order using any route they can, and return to the starting check point in 8 hours, this may be on or off road.   Our team was among the 9 that finished on time, the others lost their way, had mechanical failures or got stuck.

Here’s the team from last year, where we also finished the race on time in one piece:

And the pictures you’ve been waiting for…the 2012 Elephant Charge!

The Camp: 
First picture: Angela, her brother Dominic and Yours Truly.

2nd pic: Renee (left) a new team member, and Jack returning for more abuse this year.

The gathering location before the cars move out in convoy to their starting check points.  What’s funny is that the car in the foreground is the car we rented from the charge organizers last year driven by…the guy we bought our car from this year.

Before the race, left to right: Chasonga (sp?) Angela’s daughter, Angela, Me, Kim, Jack, Renee, and Dominic.  Angela was not in the car this year as she was running a check point.

And after.  Everyone in the back got really dirty.  Note that Kim is spotless.

Kim relaxing with Cato, who gets bigger everyday.

Again Thanks to everyone for your philanthropic and moral support!

A good bye and a new friend

  As you may or may not be aware, we had to put Yoda down before we visited the US in July.  His back legs were both weakening quickly and he falling down a lot , which is no way to live for a dog.   His resting place is under a tree on the property of the kind woman who rescued him.   We miss him.

We do have a new friend, Cato, who is 9 weeks old.  He’s a 3/4 Lab 1/4 Alsatian mix  and he is 100% awesome.   We picked him up from a friend who’s bitch had a litter of 8 pups.  Cato is most Alsatian looking, another pup is a close second, the rest of his litter mates are fuzzy blonde, black and brown labs.

Without further ado, here’s Cato:

He likes to nap under the wicker table on the porch.

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Being dried off, he’s a pretty good sport about baths

And when the moon comes out….

Till next time.

Keith’s Foray into Zambian Televison

 

A friend sent Keith an email on Monday asking if he’d play an Italian Chef for a television commercial here.  End result unknown but filming took place last nite.  Hee Hee….

Hello to the few of you who very nicely check for updates and find it frustrating that we don't post very often. Since we are still playing catch up we will now cease to follow chronology and just give you updates and pictures.



Our first visitors have arrived!! Hint, nudge, wink to the rest of you. Keith's parents, Rosemary and Gayton are visiting us, they arrived on Friday nite and will be in Zambia till the end of February. We've had a relaxing weekend and introduced them to a handful of our favorite places here in Lusaka.



Today we went out to a local lodge that rehabilitates orphan elephants, they had 4 there ranging in ages 5 months to 1 1/2 years, incredibly sad that they are orphans whose mothers were poached for ivory, but damn they are cute.







and they had a bush baby which are excellent and reminds me vaguely of Keith.



In December and January, we had our first trip back to the States, mostly spent in Boston (Thank you to everyone who put up with our interloping) which was hectic and wonderful however I lost my voice, probably from so much talking.

This picture which has nothing to do with that, is a my flock of seagulls look, when i stopped using shampoo upon first moving here, it was not the best look.