esherhighzambia2019

Evening Everyone Just a brief update: Tujatane school (Tongabezi) is a school about 20km from Livingstone that was founded for the staff at Tongabezi Lodge but has grown in to a school for all the poor and underprivileged families in the area. The rule is that all children must walk to school - at the moment in groups because of elephants!  I have arranged to sponsor their sports programme on the understanding they develop Tag Rugby . They will send a regular update on their sports fixtures. In addition we have made a donation to Zambezi Sawmills school where the elephants 'broke in' and as the pictures above shows smashed through a wall and devastated the crops. When I was there today I was told one of the bull elephants came back last night. The donation will help start the re-building and crop replacement. One more day of coaching and Victoria Falls tomorrow! Chris Thursdays Exciting Adventures By Rosa Tims Today we got up ear...

Evening Everybody Elephants attacked a wall at Sawmills school to ravage the crops inside a couple of nights ago causing major damage. We were coaching in schools during the morning and then in the afternoon learned how to make bottle bricks for a local project.  In the evening it was a candle-lit dinner as the power was off.  Deep fried caterpillars did not go down that well and the stuffed chillies may cause a few difficulties in the morning!! Chris First Full Day In Livingston By Niamh Wilson First of all, Happy Birthday to my dad I hope you have had an amazing day even without me ;) I miss everyone back at home lots and love you all! Anyway, today was our first day of coaching in Livingston and we were all up and about by 8am and then back for lunch about 1ish.  All the kids we coached were over the moon about learning how to play Tag Rugby, although it could have been because they missed a lesson.  After lunch we made eco-bricks from plastic...

Off To Livingston By Hannah Conroy Don’t we all love waking up at 4.15 in the morning only to wake up next to a grumpy, tired Niamh.   We hopped onto our buses only for me to find out I was sat next to the delirious Miss Perks who seemed to be in her own world, making up songs.   We finally reached the airport, to see the plane or more specifically the size of the plane.   We walked up the steps to notice that there were only enough seats for our group of 28.   To the parents, I’m not going to write in too much detail as all you reading this would not let us get on that plane, including you Mum! I just know you would have been screaming the whole way.   After 45 minutes, we finally landed all in one piece – we had arrived in Livingston. We re-entered the mini-bus where I was squashed between our driver, Mr Horrod, and our entertainer, Mr Taylor.   After a short drive we arrived at the luxury Fawlty Towers, where our walls and ceilings were actually att...

The tough schedule continued with our third event. During our time in Lusaka we have organised events where over 1,000 children have participated - a record for Esher and Tag Rugby!! Chris Olly – East tournament Good morn to all the fellow human beings of the world. Me and my merry band of comrades set sail for our last tournament of the Lusaka leg today. As we dispatched from the mother ship in the Horrod mobile and Taylor wagon, we were set for an extremely entertaining and sad last day in our final day in Lusaka. As Chainda swept through the tournament (or tourney) to win not only the under but also the over sections of our courageous tourney. As we set sail back from our intrepid tourney to the mother ship in the Taylor Wagon and Horrod mobile we were overjoyed with how the day had turned out. As we arrived home we were set to relax, however the elders had other ideas. After a good 2 hours of hard manual labour we settled down for dinner. Then after final goodbyes to Akim w...

A photo of the group with James and his family - in his teaching practice suit!! Sunday – Ava Matthews – Going to the elephant orphanage Today was the most chilled out day we’ve had on the trip so far. (it was amazing!) the previous night after a long tournament we were told to have a lay in as we needed to leave for the elephant orphanage at 10.30 which is a very big change for me, usually needing to set my Bruno Mars alarm for 5.30. Anyways as me and Georgie have now found we are used to getting up early we woke up at 6.00. After we were ready to leave we were surprised by an amazing full English breakfast which I’m literally still dreaming about now. After that we left to go see the baby elephants and we watched them gallop through the gates into their pen to get fed 2 litres of it apparently which they would just gulp down immediately (which we found very impressive) we learnt so much about the elephants and one of the keepers of the place opened our eyes...

By Leo Cooper Today was the second day running that we woke up at 5.30 ready for a 6.30 departure from camp. We gt to SOSCO and began setting up the pitches. soon the 400 kids began flooding in singing all the way. once all the teams had been sorted and the national anthem had been sung it was time for my dancers to shine. We had so much fun performing "we're all in this together" and the kids all enjoyed themselves. Then the reffing began. Although finding our teams was a struggle and there were a few wobbles, me Maisie and Ella pulled through, being in charge of the pitch with the most matches. After a long day of ups and downs , my favourites (shh don't tell) Guardian Angels won the overs tournament. Then we said all our goodbyes to all our new friends we made and headed back to camp for lasagne. Max wont let me leave until I put him in, he's hip swag. Sosco Tournament Day By Libby Earl We were meant to be up and getting ready at 5.30 to leave at 6.30 y...

Tournament Day By Phoebe Stokes Today was really tiring.  We started off by waking up at 5.45am to leave early for the tournament.  Although we didn't have food until 4pm and we had to stand around in the sun for a long time, it was all worth it to see the bright smiles on all the kids faces.  One of my favourite teams, Overspill, won after training for a whole year just for this one day.  After, we went to get burgers and drove home.  I'm having such a good time on this trip but my favourite part is when we can all relax at the end of the day of coaching and tell funny stories together. P.S. Love you all back home and miss you loads. Thank you Phoebe for an illuminating blog... we feel we should add that it wasn't a 'three meal a day' they had some food to keep going and the 'burgers' and meals were eaten at the Lusaka country club with polo ponies training in the background, quite a contrast to the venue of the...