CiCA UK | Opening Doors Creating Hope

Non nobis solum nati sumus. (Not for ourselves alone are we born.) ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

by Nick Lugg | 26th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

So that was that, two weeks gone in a flash, and here I am in Nairobi with probably the last blog for a while. Before this trip, two years had passed with restrictions on travel making it impossible to visit Zambia. Then on our final evening, as...

‘Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave but not our hearts’

by Erica Lugg | 25th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

It’s the eve of our departure – I am so not ready to leave. The last two weeks have been wonderful in so many ways. We woke up this morning, we already knew what the day would hold. There is always pressure to get things finished off on the last day…things that need...

Somewhere, something or someone wonderful is waiting to be found…

by Erica Lugg | 24th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

There were many things that I needed to learn quickly and get used to when we lived in Zambia and one of those things was the art of waiting…waiting patiently. Not that I have mastered it, being quite an impatient, everything has to be done now, type of person. But...

Viewpoint is everything

by Nick Lugg | 23rd November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

Today has been somewhat hectic. We drove to Kitwe last night to stay with very good friends from the years when we lived here, Susanna and Abdul. Their eldest daughter, Diana, and Aiden were and still are very good friends going back to their...

‘Life ain’t easy and it ain’t always fair…but there’s beauty in every day.. you’ve just got to know where to look’

by Erica Lugg | 22nd November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

It’s COVID test time again. Helpfully the British government have no requirement for tests anymore when entering the country but because we are transiting Kenya, we have to have one within 96 hours of our journey. The process is not as easy as ‘click and...

Easy like… Saturday morning…

by Erica Lugg | 20th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

We decided on a later start today, imagining that once we got going it would be very busy. I had a list of things to do that depended on other people being available and then I remembered it was Saturday. Lunzuwa is quieter on a Saturday. We felt that...

We are just travellers, passing through…

by Erica Lugg | 19th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

The heavens opened last night as we experienced our first thunder storm of the season. It was incredible but had my mind wandering…should we have put the car in the garage? What if the tree falls down? Did we close the living room...

Money makes the world go round… or does it?

by Nick Lugg | 18th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

Today has been a day marked with the all too familiar cry of the Zambian Kwacha. We have simultaneously been spinning various plates, all of which it seemed needed to be kept going with a ready supply of cash. We have had essential maintenance and repairs...

Opening Doors Creating Hope

by Erica Lugg | 17th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

Today was a CiCA day. We decided that we would set up “office” in the garden at Lunzuwa under the shade of the ornamental cherry tree. Bana Keela had made a bucket load of doughnuts, enough for everyone who would come and there were drinks in the fridge...

50 is the new 80

by Nick Lugg | 16th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

In common with much of the rest of the world, in Zambia, Covid has overtaken the weather as the number one small talk topic. As we sat in the waiting area of our local Isuzu garage waiting for mechanics to work out why the car has lost its ability to...

We need a plan…

by Erica Lugg | 15th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

It’s Monday – the busyness of the weekend is over and we are getting into our stride. First things first, we need a plan! One thing we have become accustomed to over the years is that plans are mostly replaced by something else that comes up. Today it’s sorting the...

Lesa e Kacema Wandi…

by Erica Lugg | 13th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

I find music very emotive. Songs, for me, have the ability to conjure up memories of days gone by, times and seasons that have passed and most certainly they remind me of people. Abba and Lionel Richie will always be Ghana and Billy Joel will always remind me of...

In for the long haul

by Nick Lugg | 12th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

It’s so good to have been back in Zambia for just about 10 hours. So many familiar sights and sounds, it does seem as if we’ve never been away. But we have been away for nearly two years. As I reflected this morning as we emerged...

It’s a little bit funny… this feeling inside

by Nick Lugg | 11th November 2021 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

International travel has been part of my life since, as a student I bought a world map and spent hours looking, thinking and imagining the places depicted there. For any who haven’t seen them, the Michael Palin BBC...

‘A Period should end a sentence, not a girl’s education’

by Nick Lugg | 24th November 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

I never really understood my Dad’s very real logistical headache having a wife and a ton of daughters. That is not until we, as CiCA UK embarked on our reusable sanitary wear project. I am a missionary kid. I was born in Ghana and spent the first 13...

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

by Nick Lugg | 19th November 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

I love asking children the question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” Some have their answers instantly ready, my youngest son from age 4 would always express his ambition to be “a pilot”. His ambition has never changed, and he is...

One Man’s Embarrassment Is Another Man’s Tourist Attraction

by Nick Lugg | 29th July 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

I have spent a large portion of my life avoiding major DIY projects on the basis that there really is so much that can go wrong. The moment of realisation usually comes just after the water has been disconnected or a cut has been made in the wrong direction. It really...

Flower Power

by Erica Lugg | 29th June 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

I have discovered during this lockdown season, that I have a real love for gardening, amongst other things, like developing my basic piano skills and upcycling old ladders! We moved into our current home about a year ago and have spent time unpacking (haven’t...

Walking In The View

by Erica Lugg | 16th June 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

It was 2009 when we made our decision to move from Zambia to Mexborough in South Yorkshire. Accommodation would obviously be a huge consideration when making the move across the world and searching for a home became quite an event especially for me. (I love trawling...

2020 The Year That Was Cancelled

by Aiden Lugg | 9th June 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

“2020 needs to be reinstalled, this version has a virus”. There are so many posts circulating social media about how 2020 is such a crazy year, we would probably be best cancelling it and starting afresh. I agree with these posts often, when I look back on the months...

We Can Be Heroes, Just For One Day

by Aiden Lugg | 1st June 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

This week we heard of the tragic, untimely death of George Floyd. When these situations come up I find myself doing a lot of thinking, and as I’ve mentioned before I find it therapeutic to put my musings into words on paper. If you haven’t heard of this case I’ll...

Generosity is a big piece of the jigsaw

by Erica Lugg | 25th May 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

On Friday I got a parcel. It was a jigsaw puzzle. I had mentioned to someone during a phone conversation that as a family, during lockdown, we had developed this love for puzzles. We have done quite a few. We ordered a couple online, three we got during a 2m social...

Out of Control

by Erica Lugg | 13th May 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

At the beginning of every year I always have a general idea of what the next 12 months will look like. Not necessarily specifics, but enough for my mind to meander forward several weeks and months ahead of me, with mental lists of things to do or to get, in...

Rapid Response Update

by Aiden Lugg | 4th May 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

We have been overwhelmed by the generosity shown by our donors over the last 3 weeks. We launched our COVID response fund knowing that something had to be done. This week we began distributing the funds raised. So far, we have sent enough money to Zambia to buy food...

Unprecedented? Or Same Old, Same Old?

by Nick Lugg | 26th April 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

Unprecedented? Or same old, same old…? There is nothing else for most of us to think about than the strange and unusual circumstances forced on us by the novel coronavirus, Covid-19. The shock at the speed with which it has gone from being nothing at all to basically...

Coronavirus Rapid Response Fund Update

by Aiden Lugg | 20th April 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

We have been running our Coronavirus Rapid Response fund for one week now and have been blown away by the response. Thanks to the generosity of our donors we have raised over £700, for which we are very grateful. As the global pandemic ages by one more week the...

COVID Rapid Response Fund

by Aiden Lugg | 13th April 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

This week while I was thinking about the subject of our blog I really wanted it to not be about COVID-19. I wanted to talk about something different. It seems to be all we talk about, but then again it is a pandemic that has gripped the world. The centre of the...

Blind Spots

by Aiden Lugg | 5th April 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

A few months ago I stopped listening to music on my daily commute, I instead began to listen to audiobooks and podcasts and short stories. I could give some philosophical explanation as to why I made this change. However, the real reason is I just find it makes the...

Together In Isolation

by Erica Lugg | 29th March 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

This week I attended my sister’s funeral service. It had been quite a challenge to organise, made more difficult with all the restrictions in place because of Covid 19. We had planned a church service, where we expected quite a number to attend, followed by a...

Don’t Be Tough, Be Wooly

by Aiden Lugg | 22nd March 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

What a crazy couple of weeks! It was just 3 weeks ago that I wrote my blog about our perspective when looking at the coronavirus. Now it seems that I could have been accused of playing the whole scenario down. This week saw a catalogue of closures and increased...

Let’s Talk About Periods

by Megan Rice | 7th March 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

Periods. I can’t say I have ever met someone who enjoys having their monthly period, yet unfortunately, this is something that most women will have to deal with for a good 30-40 years of their life. If you start your period at age 12 and stop menstruating at age 50,...

Perspective

by Aiden Lugg | 1st March 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

Coronavirus, is there a more topical subject to blog on at the moment? The ‘pandemic’ that has gripped the world, shut down regions and dominated news stations recently. Reports lead us to believe that the world is coming to an end. Action plans are in place to close...

Mwale’s Story

by Aiden Lugg | 23rd February 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

I remember the first day I met Mwale. He was just 3 years old. His story is such a tragic one and yet my abiding memory of this young man is his infectious smile.Mwale was the last born child of a family living in the Kankoyo district of Mufulira, Zambia. His older...

In A World Where You Can Be Anything, Be Kind

by Aiden Lugg | 16th February 2020 | Uncategorised | 4 Comments

This weekend we heard the tragic news of Caroline Flack’s suicide. Tributes have flooded in from various news outlets and across social media. It really shows that a lot of people did care about her. Sadly, she will never see these posts, she will never see the care...

Why We Do What We Do

by Aiden Lugg | 9th February 2020 | Uncategorised | 0 Comments

I started writing this as a sort of therapy for myself, when I feel things going around my head I find it beneficial to get them down on paper, or on screen as the case may be. So, what has been going around my head? For the purpose of anonymity, I have been...

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