CAPE TO CAIRO - 8

Sunday morning in Hotel Taj Pamodzi in Lusaka. At long last, coffee for breakfast that doesn't taste of dish water. The hotel has also supplied me with a free copy of the Sunday Times of Zambia. The Times, though, isn't renowned for its hard-hitting investigative reporting as it belongs to government, which doesn't think much of critical journalists. There are the familiar stories about Michael Jackson and about President Bush having a soft drink in a pub. Meagre fare. But then on page seven - a sensation: "Son tries out daddy's condom" screams the headline. The ten year old son of the Zambian minister for Aids Prevention had looked for and found a contraceptive in the drawer of his father's bedside table. Not at all bashful, he had tried it on and discovered it was too big. When the minister returned home after hard day campaigning in the battle against AIDS, his son confronted him with words "Daddy, your condoms are too big". Who said that AIDS prevention in Africa was still in its infancy!

Lusaka, 23rd November 2003.