Travellers has yet another new project to announce! This time you could work with Chimpanzees in Zambia….

You’ll work at a Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Orphanage. This project has over 100 chimpanzees and other animals that you will live in close contact with. They also have bush babies, monkeys and squirrels. Witness incredible animal relationships in close knit chimpanzee family structure, and be part of the day to day care of the orphanage inhabitants.

For further details click on the picture below:

For further details on all our projects in Zambia, click HERE

Our organiser in Zambia, Lameck, has sent us a wonderful Zambian folklore tale. It tells the story of the legendary powers of the chief of the Choma Tonga people. The Singani-Chooma kingdom (located 270 kilometres north of Livingstone) has been in existence since before colonialism. The chief of the kingdom is chosen by selected members of the chief’s clan. The Chief has always been regarded as a spiritual leader and protector.

This story tells the tale of a 19th century chief, and goes like this:

Chief Singani – Chooma has always been peaceful. But each time his Chiefdom was attacked by enemies, he used his mysterious powers contained in the traditional sacred clay pots. In the 19th Century the Chief used these mystical powers as Chief Singani – Chooma’s land was attacked at two different times by two powerful tribes, the Ndebele ( Matebele) and the Lozi (Makololo).

When the Ndebele came to attack Singani – Chooma’s Chiefdom, the chief went into the Sacred Hut and opened the pot that contained the “COLD”. And out came the “cold” in the area where the Ndebele were camped. The place became so excessively cold that the Ndebele failed to get enough firewood to make fire to warm them up. So they started using the handles of their spears and axes as firewood. Finally they were forced to withdraw from the chiefdom without causing any harm to the Chooma Tonga.

The second story is about the intended attack on the Singani Choma kingdom by the Lozi -Makololo of the western part of the country. When the Chief received the information about the approaching Lozi-Makololo he again went into the Sacred hut and this time he opened the pot full of stinging flying insects. These came out and formed into a very big fat bull. The  Chief, using his powers  then  guided the “animal” on to the path of the coming impis (warriors).When the Lozi-Makololo saw the big fat animal they were excited, thinking that they were going to have plenty of meat. They decided to slaughter it—alas! There was no meat but out came billions of stinging flying insects!!  Stung so much by these insects the Lozi- Makololo quickly withdrew, heads hung in shame, from the Singani Chooma’s kingdom without harming the people.

If you’d like to hear more Zambian folklore tales, why not volunteer on one of our exciting projects in Zambia and you can ask the locals yourself!! To explore the opportunities we have available in Zambia, click HERE

Ross Horowitz taught in Zambia for two weeks. He wrote a very open and detailed blog of his fantastic experiences whilst he was there. You can view the full blog by clicking HERE. Here is an extract:

I get up early. It’s hot and sticky as per usual.Robert is picking me up at 8. I’m full of nerves about class. No idea if I’ve prepared enough or too much. Robert has his son with him and drops him off at another school on the way. We go to the school from a different road and pass through another town of Maramba and see their open market, and as we get closer to the school, the much smaller open market of Linda.

When I get to the school, I meet Catherine the principal who wasn’t there on Friday. She introduces herself and tells me about the school. She asks about Friday and she tells me that I should have more of an orientation to the school before teaching a lesson. So I get to watch the teachers teach a couple lessons. One teacher teaches a lesson about flowering plants that it’s clear she doesn’t quite get herself and is reading from the book and she misspells a couple of the bigger words. Ok, photosynthesis is a hard word even for native English speakers. And then another teacher teaches addition. They have a whole process of expanded notation of addition of large numbers that is quite burdensome. I suppose it makes sense in a country where the smallest currency is a 50 Kwacha note. The children are taking exercises from the board and writing them in their books. I get to mark them. This gives me an idea of process.

And then they have break. I expect break to be mealtime as it was on Friday. But I find out they don’t have enough food for the kids. I ask what they need. Soon I’m going with the principal to the Maramba market to buy food. The Linda market is too expensive. Luckily as we’re leaving, Lamock is outside with a car. He had come to take pictures of me with the class. He gives us a ride to the market.

When we get back, I find that the children have gathered mangoes from a tree within the school grounds. Catherine shows me that they have a whole garden they’re growing food in, but harvest time won’t be for a couple months.

The children are reading books for the rest of the time. They’re obviously donated from the outside. Likely from England from the various British style in the books. Not Africa based. One book is about bears playing in the snow and a child asks me what snow is. I ask her if she knows what ice is, and tell her it’s like fine ground up ice, and it falls from the sky like rain.

Robert picks me up at 12:30 like he’s supposed to. Tomorrow he will get me at 1:30 so I can see where some of the children live. On the ride back, Robert and I wind up talking about television and I tell him that people in America who have satellite TV can get hundreds of channels. He says in Zambia on satellite you get 40 or 50 and most of them are religious. But he says that they like watching American wrestling. And he asks me if it’s real. I explain it isn’t and it’s all about the performance and the drama. It’s not a real competiton.

Ross summarised his placement with Travellers in a paragraph:

I know that I would not have felt comfortable making a trip like this on my own. Travellers Worldwide was a good guide to enable me to see a part of the world I likely would not have seen without help and enabled me to meet people that I would not have met otherwise. The experience is one that will stay with me forever.

If you’d like to find out more about our projects in Zambia, click HERE

If you’re an adrenalin junkie you’ll love this video one of our volunteers sent us. He is bungee jumping at Victoria Falls – one of the highest bungee jumps in the world! If you fancy having a go yourself you can easily access the Falls from any of the placements in either Zambia or Zimbabwe! Enjoy:

For more information on our placements in Zambia, click HERE or for information on our projects in Zimbabwe, click HERE