Greeting’s from Zambia’s capital city, Lusaka.

We have now been camped at the Eureka campground for 5 days and spirits are high. This has no doubt been aided by the fact the showers here are great and that Terry, Gareth and Mike have been putting together some awesome braai’s (BBQ’s). Evenings have been taken up by games of rugby based volleyball and walks around the campground to find the assorted wildlife that live here, including giraffe, buffalo and zebra.

Rugby wise the group have been busy preparing the Lusaka schools for the tournament at Muleya Basic School. Time has been tight as the groups have had one less day to prepare. However, since a number of the schools we coached last year have been diligently using the equipment we left for them, in a lot of ways the coaching has been made easier. This has not been the case though with the 2 new orphanages that we have come into contact with through Baobab school that had never seen a rugby ball before, but their coaches are confident they will be ready.

Today will be taken up with selecting the teams that will represent the 8 schools that we have been coaching. The tournament will follow the same format as that in Kitwe with 12 teams competing for the 3 trophies, the cup, bowl and plate. All of these trophies will be awarded in the name of Norman Nkandu our trusted Lusakan enthusiast who sadly passed away last year. It is expected that the Zambian Minister of Education will be there to present the trophies.

After the tournament we will be heading to the British High Commission for a reception hosted by the outgoing High Commissioner, Alistair Harrison. This will be followed by a final braai at the campsite before we head off to Livingstone on Friday morning for some well earned rest and recuperation.

Apologies for the single photo from this week, as there are electricity and network cuts that make getting a report through an absolute triumph, let alone a series of photo’s. HQ in London will include some choice photo’s from last years tour to Zambia, we know it’s not quite the same, but better than nothing I’m sure you’ll agree.

Dylan, Trevor & Chris

Tour Leaders