The view from Chivuna

The main form of cooking used. This was the most reliable way to cook as those lucky enough to have electricity often experienced long power cuts.

A newborn baby wearing clothes knitted by parishioners, as often the mothers had no clothes for their baby.

The nearest town, Monze, an hour's drive away from Chivuna.

The AIDS/HIV clinic which was built from the money raised by the parish.

A group of mothers at an outreach clinic where Sr Nalishebo, a midwife at Chivuna's clinic, checked the children's health and tested people for HIV and syphilis.

Myself and Higgins Shanzuwa, a maths teacher at Chivuna basic primary school, who I became good friends with during my stay.

A typical village where large families with around 20 children would live in one small house, which was made of sticks and mud.

Sr Purity cutting down sugarcane, which was readily available to the local people, and formed a large part of their diet.

Local children collecting water from a deep well.

Stood on top of a hill in Chivuna

Sr Nalishebo and the local priest standing on a high platform in a famous tree in Livingstone.

A lion cub in a safari park we visited on the way to Victoria Falls. The lions were fed live animals such as donkeys so that when they were released back into the wild, they wouldn't have lost their survival instincts.

Sr Nalishebo and I in front of Victoria Falls.

Victoria Falls after going over the slippery rainbow bridge, where we got soaked from the spray and were surrounded by rainbows.

The garden at the convent where I stayed, where Precious picked fresh vegetables everyday such as green beans, carrots and many African vegetables, one of which tasted like seaweed.

Myself attempting to cook shima, the staple diet of the villagers, with the aid of Precious. Precious was the nuns' maid who was taken from a local village as a widow and given work and a house so that she could look after herself and her children. She puts the majority of her wages towards her children's education, as two are in college and one is a successful school teacher.

The Grade 9 class who I taught English. They were aged between 13-16 and many were married or had their own children. Although some of them were eager to learn, there was a translation difficulty as they couldn't always understand my accent and vice versa!

The classrooms at Chivuna's basic primary school. Inside, they were dark as there was no electricity and very overcrowded. I taught Grade 8a, Grade 8b and Grade 9, and there was about 50 students per class. The teachers often didn't show up so the children were left to their own devices. There was one computer in the school, where an entire class would have lessons to be taught how to use it.