Feliz Navidad In January

This post comes weeks  late and several Kwacha’s short. Is it too late to say merry Christmas and Happy New years ? Probably but nonetheless I hope you enjoyed both.  I was too busy living it up on Christmas and New years to sit down and actually write about how I was living it up this festive season. By  “living it up” I mean travelling, visiting family and enjoy the sights of this lovely country. I think I'm thoroughly falling in love with Zambia. Shes a little rough round the edges but she's mine. 

 I thoroughly enjoyed my 2014/2015 festive season ….   Among other things I got to spend some much needed down-time tucked into some corner of the Kafue National Park (which until recently I had never heard of. It's about three hours’ drive from Lusaka. Just three hours to a completely different world. Where the sound of the river flowing and birds chirping replaces city traffic and trains blaring (random unless you live near a train station, which I do). In case you haven’t figured out yet I’m a bit of a hippie and occasional tree hugger.

I’m not gonna lie,I did NOT spend hours in the bush staring at nature and finding my inner child. I’m an ecologist, staring at nature is a HUGE part of the gig. Truthfully if I had been locked in my room and only called out for meals I would have been more than happy. Looking at the pictures of the place you can see why. I’m not one to gloat (snickers) but I’m calling it. This is the best tent in the history of tents! To call it a tent isn't fair really. Tents are those tiny dome shaped things made of some plastic or canvas. They fit you, a sleeping bag and not much else. This my friends was a palace!

 The lodge I stayed at has this "one with nature" vibe I love. no fences or gates, just you and the animals. If only the had a mall nearby, I would never have left.

The thing that stuck in my mind is how so few people knew about this place. How so few could visit a place like this, how many of these guests were even locals? I tempted to rant but all Im gonna say is why do we wait for people from outside to come show us how beautiful our country is ? One of my missions with the blog this year will be do a lot more promotions of local places and people. It’s about time we started repping each other, nobody else will. How do we intend to succeed 

if were still assuming everything foreign is superior?

 So here's to Zambia, Africa and the World! Okay fine I'm getting carried away nut ah, you know where I'm going with this right?

Happy New year lovelies!

2014 Reflections

Sorry I’ve been scarce friends, but it has been a long year, the longest I’ve ever had. I haven’t posted in months and my only excuse is I was too busy wading through all the muck this year has thrown as me… and MAMA I MADE IT! *electric shuffle*

The past year in retrospect

I’ve had a few tough months of debilitating sickness, some heart breaking disappointments and the realisation that trusting other people with your heart is a gamble, my advice is, don’t play! I’ve learned that no matter how much you want to, don’t compromise on who you are for other people,that my friends, is the recipe for disaster.

But it wasn’t all bad… I started a new school in a new town, I made some new friends, and have finally learned that the only person in the whole world that can make me truly happy is myself. Learning to be my very own best friend helped me get through some tough times. You best believe the only person you can fully depend on in this world is yourself, so when you make promises to yourself, don’t break them. It’s hard enough knowing that in life you will inevitably disappoint other people, don’t add yourself to the list.

So here’s to a new year and a chance to keep trying to be the person I’ve always imagined myself to be. Practice makes perfect.

“Seems everything around here stays like stone

Seems it’s about time darling, about time, we let this all go

Cause everything, must start again anew

Cause everything just goes away my friend

And every king, knows it to be true, that every kingdom

Must one day come to an end”

-Ben Howard

Just know that whatever difficulty you may be going through right now will pass. Nothing ever stays the same. Everything will end. The only constant is change.