The Tough Get Going

It may look bad but it's Saturday afternoon and I'm still at the office

We’ve had a difficult week trying to find time for everything that needs to be done and making some tough decisions. I didn’t get much chance to take pictures and since we don’t have internet at home anymore, I have to find time to Blog on Saturdays at the office. Anyway, here’s where we’re at.

Theatre:
We took January off due to the fact that there are hardly any tourists in Livingstone and we felt it would be a good time to rehearse for Marilyn’s new show. It will be called BaZambia. I’ll have more details later but it is really cool and our biggest extravaganza.

We had some tough decisions to make this past week. Without much revenue in December and none in January, LiPAF is in danger of going broke. Hey, whose fooling who–we’ve been broke for a long time and only through donations and dipping into our own savings have we survived the 2009 economic crisis. Anyway, we presented our staff with the grim news and they rose to the challenge. They’ve accepted a reduced work week and a cut in wages. That’s not easy when you figure they get paid $120.00 per month. Still, we all believe in what we are doing and the prospects for a successful season if the economy recovers.

Marilyn is so very passionate about this project and this week she worked so hard to make contact with many lodge owners, etc. to see if we could get some concrete support for our shows. She got a great response and we are all a bit pumped by the prospect of having support among the Livingstone tourism community which has been lacking somewhat in the past. It does seem as though still being in business has helped us cement a reputation.

I’m letting my name stand as a member of the Board of Directors of the Livingstone Tourism Association which is also undergoing a renewal following a tough year. I hope I can help in some way to bring people in the tourism industry to work together for the benefit of all. I also hope to contribute some articles for their advertising of Livingstone as a tourist destination.

We did manage to kick off February with a good size crowd. The volunteers from the US who were in Livingstone building a school signed up 33 of their members to attend on Feb 2nd and we sold another 9 tickets at resorts. We met the coordinators of this project on the flight from JB to Li.

House Hunting:

We have had to take a lot of time to house hunt. We see lots of places but few are suitable either because they are too big (and expensive), too old (and dirty), or not as secure as we would like. Anyway , the word is out that we are looking and many of our friends have been quite helpful. We did find a house on Airport Road, a fair distance from town, owned by a lovely Zambian couple. We agreed on a price and gave our deposit last night.

Today, we got a call from a female lawyer in town who said she has some houses for rent. We drove around with her today and looked at a 12 room lodge, a 1 bedroom cottage, and a 3 bedroom house. Now we don’t know what to do. I think if we can get our deposit back from the other home we might prefer the three bedroom house we saw today. It is in town and is fully furnished. The price is a bit high but we may be able to negotiate.

Linda West School.

Linda West School Debate

Yesterday I delivered some letters from Canadian sponsors and met with the students we are all helping to get an education. Gosh I love these meetings. Such wonderful smiling faces. The letters from Canada that we brought with us were appreciated and so were the gifts of school supplies. Each child wants to write back to those in Canada so I am going to collect these and send them as a package to our son Ryan and ask him to mail them out.

We also hired the electrician and plumber to complete the bore hole project and have ordered the supplies. Unfortunately, some have to be picked up in Lusaka.

While at the school, I also stopped for a bit to see a school debate being held on the grounds. The students were debating the topic “Should there be any difference in the educational expectations of men and women in Zambia”. It was fun to watch and there were definitely some future lawyers and politicians in the group. A panel of teachers was judging the debate.

We are happy to be back in Zambia and have received such a warm welcome from all our friends and acquaintances. It’s a tough time right now and still a couple of months away from the beginning of the tourist season but we have lots for which to be thankful and know many of you reading this blog are rooting for us.