Chipolopolo's game against Ghana

My friends and I went to Ndola to watch a game between the Zambia national soccer team and the Ghanaian team. It was the first national team's game in the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium, so people were really excited about it.

To avoid the traffic jam, we left Lusaka very early in the morning. After about 4 and half an hour of bus ride, we got to Ndola at 10:30am. At the city center, people were already gathered up and having a good time, wearing Chipolopolo's uniforms as well as blowing vuvuzelas. 

After having lunch (open sandwich) and desert (Italian ice cream, gelato!) at the Jacaranda shopping mall, we were off to the stadium. On the way to the stadium, the only two things that I could see were people and vehicles heading to the stadium!!! I heard it only takes about 20minutes to get to the stadium from the mall but it took about less than an hour for us to get there because of the heavy traffic jam. 

The Levy Mwanawasa Stadium was extremely huge and looked modern. When I saw it for the first time, it was so shocked (in a good way, of course)! I did not expect that fancy stadium in Zambia at all! As far as I know, it was actually designed and built by Chinese company (of course the Chinese government paid for the project). No wonder most of the Zambians that I met in Ndola seemed to be in favor of Asians...

The game was quite exciting. When it started, Zambian fans started screaming, singing, dancing and blowing vuvuzelas for the Chipolopolo boys. It was loud! When they scored, the fans got super excited. Just to look at them being happy and experience the moment with them in the stadium really made me glad to be there at that moment. In the end, Zambia won the game by 1-0. I would never forget the amazing game that I watched with the Zambian fans.


After the game, however, it took us forever to get out of the stadium. All the vehicles were stuck because no drivers were trying to follow the traffic rules and even pedestrians like us had a difficult time getting out of the area. "This is Africa!"

Business trip to Chiawa

I went to Chiawa to undertake a development control exercise with my colleague. Chiawa is one of the closest towns to the Lower Zambezi National Park with a lot of lodges that needed to be inspected to see if the owners have already applied and possessed planning permissions from us, the planning authority in the area.

Apparently, Chiawa has fancy lodges in Zambia... you might have to spend $8,000 per night to stay at the most expensive lodge there! (FYI; the least expensive one charges you ONLY $3,000. ) As I have never seen or heard of such lodges / hotels, it was a great opportunity for me to visit and inspect them.

The most interesting part was that almost all the owners of those lodges in the area were mainly white couples. Only one lodge was owned and managed by a Zambian couple. It seems that they have moved to Zambia to spend the rest of their lives here quietly and appreciate the nature that Chiawa has to offer after their retirement back in their home countries (probably either in South Africa or in Europe). I bet they do not need to have their guests all the time... When they do not have any guests, they probably would enjoy each other' companies in huge mansion-looking lodges where the national park is very close by. Visiting those lodges made me think that running a lodge after my retirement could be an option :)

Those lodges were far away from each other, so I was quite exhausted when all the inspections were finally over.. Visiting lodges by lodges could be a pain when you have to be in a car for two days as well as travel on unpaved roads!

At the last evening of the trip, we went on a boat cruise on the Zambezi River. I saw a lot of wild animals, such as hippos, elephants and birds. Of course I enjoyed it a lot and had a great time!