Skip to main content

Posts

Beautiful Sights of Melbourne

Yarra river The date is 18 September 2023. It is almost dawn. I make my way from my hotel to Yarra river to view the sunrise. On my way to the river I notice a number of commuters with cups of coffee in their hands making their way to the Southern Cross training station. After walking for about 15 minutes, I find the Yarra river and take in different views of the river as the sun rises. The side walk along the river is well paved making it easy to walk along the river.  Later I make my way to my hotel where I take a shower and head to the restaurant for a filling breakfast. Towards midday, John, my work colleague and I step outside to meet my niece Brenda and her husband Khumbulani. After exchanging greetings and planning how to spend the day, we head to the Melbourne International Exhibition Centre to do our conference (Global Entrepreneurship Congress) registration.  We find out that the organisers are not yet ready for the registration. Khumbulani, Brenda, John and I head out to loo
Post a Comment
Read more
Recent posts

Visit to Down Under

Yarra river in Melbourne It is 16 September 2023, I am at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport to begin a long trip to Australia commonly referred to Down Under. I am barely on time with the check in process almost closed. It's important to ensure one is at the airport at least 2 hours before an international flight. Having checked in online makes the checking in process smoother. I am scheduled to travel to Melbourne in Australia via Qatar Airways. I am on a work sponsored trip to attend the Global Entrepreneurship Congress. I am travelling with a workmate John. This is my first ever first to Australia.  At Hamad International airport with John The flight to Doha, Qatar is a smooth 7 hours trip. The Qatar Airways air crew are very friendly and helpful. We land at Hamad Airport at 23:00 hours. The airport is vast, well organised and beautiful. After taking a few photos we find a place to sit and have something to drink and eat. The prices, like in most international airports, are q
Post a Comment
Read more

Revisiting the Zimpraise 15th Anniversary Concert

ZimPraise in action On 15 October 2022, my daughter Twalumba and I were part of the guests at Glamis Arena in Harare that attended the Zimpraise Concert to celebrate their 15th anniversary. Zimpraise is a Zimbabwean interdenominational choir which was established in 2008. Some of the popular albums that the choir has produced are Hymns Night. The choir has groomed a number of gospel musicians who have established successful gospel singing careers. We arrived in Harare the previous night after traveling for 11 hours by bus from Lusaka. The gates to the concert were opened at 12 00 hours. We arrived at the concert venue at 14 00 hours. We had bought general tickets before the concert and were upgraded to the VIP section that was close to the stage. During the concert some of the Zimbabwean gospel choirs that I heard perform for the first time were Chispite Worship Team and Vocal Ex from Bulawayo. The Vocal Ex choir sang very well with Makanaka (praising God for his goodness) as one of th
Post a Comment
Read more

Funeral Service of Late Flora Ngwira

The funeral service of the late Mrs Flora Atuswile Ngwira who passed away on 17 November 2022 was held on 22 November 2022 at Lusaka Baptist Church on Longacres, Lusaka.  Below is a brief description of the tributes made and sermon preached during the funeral service.  Life History Flora Ngwira was born on 7th October 1947 in Kalonga, Malawi.. She went to school at Mzuzu Secondary School and later to Chancellor College in Malawi. She did her tpostgraduate studies in Edinburgh in Scotland. Later she came to work in Zambia at the National Scientific Council fot Research. She later left Zambia for further studies in the UK. She taught at Kalonga Secondary School in Kabwe as well as at the University of Zambia. She and the husband lived in the UK, eSwaitini and South Africa up to 2016. Flors Ngwira is survived by a husband, four children and four grandchildren. Spiritual Life History Flora Ngwira became a Christian in 1978 after listening to the gospel at Kitwe Chapel in Kitwe. She had hea
Post a Comment
Read more

Bereavement: A Shared Experience (Part 2)

In October this year, I wrote the first part of this two part series. To read part 1 go  here .  'I Never Even Said Goodbye': Sudden Death  Our brother Kenneth was admitted into hospital for routine chemotherapy after which he was to be discharged after five days. He had to stay a few more days as the canula was not holding well and so the dosages of chemo were not as required. We thought that with a few more additional days he would be discharged he would come back home to recover. When Matthew and I said bye to him on the night of 18th October, little did we know that was our final bye from Kenny. It was not the bye we expected. I never had the chance to say goodbye to my brother as I would have loved. He was like suddenly snatched away from us. ‘If Only it Had Been Me Instead!: The Death of a Brother The death of Kenneth meant that I had no surviving brother left. It meant that Catherine now had only one brother left and her twin brother gone. How much one death can change i
Post a Comment
Read more

Bereavement: A Shared Experience (Part 1)

After the death of my brother in October last year one of the means that God used to comfort me and help me handle the grief of losing my brother was through reading of books. One such book that I read was "Bereavement: A Shared Experience" by Helen Alexander. This book was recommended by Reverend Joe Simfukwe during a webinar that he and Reverend Joe Kapolyo facilitated on Handling Grief. I have taken the headings from the book and written my own thoughts based on the chapters under the headings below. 'So Alone!': The Fact of Death When I heard the death of my brother Kenneth, I felt that he slipped away from us too suddenly. The evening before around 21 00 hours my brother in law Matthew and I were with him and said bye, the next morning around 02 00 hours we got a call that he was no more. Seeing my brother in the mortuary as we identified his body made my tears flow and made me realize that my brother had passed on for real. Seeing his body in the casket after i
Post a Comment
Read more

Remembering Uncle Eliphaz Twenty Years Plus On

Uncle Eliphaz, known in full as Eliphaz Simwatachela Konayuma, was the young brother to my late father. He was born in 1939 and died in July 2001 at the age of 62. Ba Eliphaz was an accomplished educator who rose from the ranks of a teacher in Southern Province to an Education Officer in Kasempa, in North-Western Province. He was married to Diana Njase with whom he had the following children: Gustav, Peggy, Sladden, Obrien, Africa and Emmanuel. Uncle Eliphaz was a handsome and generally quiet man, but when you were with him, he had a number of stories to tell. He was a humorous man with a winsome smile. He was also an intelligent and smart man with a characteristic style of combing hair backwards which I copied for some time as a child. As a smart man, in terms of bathing he could take at least an hour to bath! Uncle Eliphaz would visit our home regularly especially when we lived in Emmasdale in Lusaka. My late young sister Linda stayed at the home of Uncle Eliphaz in Monze when she be
Post a Comment
Read more