A look in the rearview mirror
It’s high time to write and post my usual year-end newsletter. Since I have been writing more on another platform (medium.com), I realise that my posts here have been neglected. So here’s a “last post” for 2022. No trumpet sounds in the background, I don’t want to make it all sound too … final, but I certainly will not be posting here again until next year :).
So let’s provide you with some illustrated examples of our activities during 2022:
During April, Quintin and Tessa were finally able to visit us in Zambia. Earlier attempts had been postponed due to a certain pandemic. They did some travelling on their own, made some very cool and life-changing decisions, but those are their stories to tell, not mine. And we travelled together, of course.
I think I’ve already written earlier about our long walk around Mutinondo. Look it up, if you haven’t read it already.
During June, we were visited by friends from the Netherlands and of course we did some travelling with them, too. It’s almost as if we need excuses to visit parts of this beautiful country :).
Marina is still very busy working as Director of Nursing with Medland Hospital, the premier private hospital in Lusaka. After a couple of years as Head of Maternity, they liked what she’d achieved there, and managed to convince her to take on the larger challenge of doing the same, for the whole hospital. She’s almost 10 months in now, and it is indeed a challenge, with more than 100 nursing staff reporting to her, lots of liaison needed with doctors and various other Department heads, etc. But she’s loving it.
I am somehow still doing part-time and short-time consulting jobs. Some of it online, over the internet connection (which is pretty good here, thankfully), some in Zambia and some elsewhere. (There’s a short trip to Tashkent, Uzbekistan on the cards, for a week towards the end of January.) After all these years, people have still not figured out that I’m an expert on anything. Perhaps at being a generalist? I have to admit that I’m starting to look forward to somewhat less work, somewhat more time to travel, and more time to write about it, share pictures, etc.
In between all that, during June, Marina and I spent a weekend in the Kafue National Park, including a quick stay at Kasabushi, which will be Quintin and Tessa’s base soon…
During September I participated in a business trip with colleagues from Sweden, visited a couple of mine sites in different parts of the country. (Yes, I do sometimes travel for work, as well!) But we also stopped off quickly in Livingstone. At that time of the year, the Victoria Falls are rather depleted, and I’m sure that I’ve shared more impressive pictures, earlier.
It’s the time of the year when people tend to have colourfully decorated trees in their living rooms. (We don’t because we will not be home.) But here’s a bit of colour, albeit from October:
As I write the finishing touches to this story, Marcel is on an aircraft en route to Zambia. He will be joining us here until early in the new year, when he returns home to Hong Kong. Quintin and Tessa are already here, having sold their property in Holland and having relocated to Zambia to start their Kasabushi adventure in Zambia. (More about that next month/year…)
We are of course missing Reinhardt and Inga, who have been very busy upgrading (well, almost rebuilding!) their house in Leiden, the Netherlands. All of us in the family have had a little hand in assisting them with stripping old stuff off the walls, removing old ceilings and replacing them with new ones, etc. But now they are in the home stretch and doing everything themselves. It’s looking really good!
Let me close by wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas (or Happy Holidays or whatever you prefer) and the very best for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2023!
Ron's Rambling 