9/20/17 Zimbabwe

What a busy night last night!  I heard lions calling far away, hyenas very close by and elephants fairly close.  

At breakfast, we were looking down the hill and saw a klipspringer.  He is a very small antelope about 2 feet high.  He was very quick so I did not get his picture. On our game drive this morning, we saw lions near the river, dwarf mongooses, and elephants - some with babies,.  We learned that female elephants have a hump on their foreheads, while males have a more rounded forehead.  Mafuka told us hold to prepare a guinea fowl.  First you takethe feathers off, gut him and put him in a big pot of boiling water with a big rock.  You cook him for a long time, then throw out the guinea fowl and eat the rock!  I would guess they are very tough.  We saw a large nest that is used by the brown snake eagle, but he wasn’t home.  We saw many of the smaller red-billed buffalo weaver bird nests in the trees.  I don’t know if I have mentioned this before, but the birds all build their nests on the leeward side of the tree so the trees all look a bit lopsided as they can have as many as twenty nests on one side.  We saw a lot of vultures circling around a hill and at one point we saw a vulture and a brown eagle do some in flight squabbling.  Mafuka has the most amazing eyes.  He looked where the vultures were circling and spotted a lioness sitting on a rock at the top of the hill.  She was probably protecting her kill or perhaps letting her cubs eat.  That is why the vultures were not landing.  I did manage to get a photos, but she will probably look like a dark smudge from that distance.  We spotted kudus, impalas, giraffes, and warthogs.  Mafuka pointed out a mahogany tree and then we crossed over a salt spring.  We saw zebras, a large herd of impalas (or as Dave would say - a Chevy dealership) and then stopped to watch some vervid monkeys in a tree.  We stopped by a large stone marker on the side of the road (a road marker for the park) and Mafuka pointed out that the droppings on the top of it were those of a cheetah.  We saw porcupine tracks in the road, some elephants standing in the shade of a tree and then some more very tall candlabra trees.  We saw two yellow-billed kites.  We stopped at a rest area for cold drinks.  We could look over the edge of where we were sitting as she a family of rock hyrax - I took several photos and then I looked closer to the wall and spotted a beautiful dwarf plated lizard.  He was yellow on the front half of his body and a beautiful blue on his hindquarters and tail.  Looking out over the water, I could see a hippo and some waterfowl.  Mafuka told the story of Cecil the lion while we were sitting there.  The dentist bribed a number of people to get his shot.  He broke several laws, but so did the people who were helping him on the hunt.  The local people lost their jobs, but no one was ever prosecuted.  The local people were a bit upset by the publicity stirred up by this event.  It is not unheard of for a child to be eaten by a lion yet there is no outcry when this happens.  When Cecil was shot, however, the story went around the world with much sympathy for the lion.  It goes to show that there are always at least two sides to every event and we must be sensitive to all perspectives.  Vimbai knew Cecil quite well as she used to manage this camp.  He was quite a show-off and would frequently lie down in the road so the tourists could take his picture.  Mafuka told a story about one of the chefs from camp who was going to the kitchens early in the morning to start breakfast.  He was not paying attention and did not notice Cecil in the bushes at the side of the path.  He was so scared when Cecil showed himself that he fell to the ground.  He managed to get up and then took his pants off to wave them around to try to scare Cecil off.  Eventually, Cecil did take off, but the chef was quite shaken up.  We then drove to the reservoir to have lunch.  On the way we stopped to help a disabled land rover.  The female guide had a flat tire and was having trouble with the pump jack.  Mafuka got out to help her get the truck up high enough to put the new tire on, but then the couldn’t find her spanner (tire iron).  Vimbai got ours out of our vehicle and Dave and Vicki got out to see if they could spot hers.  They had no luck  finding it so she sped away with her party of two and we followed behind.  Not too far down the road, we found her spanner.  She must have put it on the frame of the truck when she finished taking the flat tire off the rim and she didn’t notice.  It obviously flew off when she went over a bump.  We were able to finally catch up with her to return it.  We had a lovely view over the water.  There was a large fam=ily of baboons off to the right.  The young ones were having a wonderful time chasing each other,  There were also warthogs across the water and they came to the shore to get drinks.  There was a group of impalas to the left of us also drinking.  Just as we were finishing our lunches, a couple of elephants came to drink and to splash themselves.  One of them waded right in and immersed himself - rolling from side to side to make sure he was totally wet.  For such a large animal, this was a surprisingly graceful maneuver.  On our way back to camp, we saw some kudus, a three-banded plover, a green chunk, and an large rock shaped like an elephant.  We also saw a white-headed vulture, an impala carcass put high up in a tree by a leopard.  We caught a glimpse of a black-backed jackal, saw some more hippos, baboons and some ground hornbills. 

Tonight’s before dinner talk will be given by Sally.  She is going to be talking about her life.  Again, I will try to listen and type at the same time (I did ask her and she said she didn’t mind).  Growing up, she was raised by a single mom.  Her mom married someone, but found out later that he was married to another wife.  She divorced him.  Her mom was then on her own as he refused to pay for the children.  The grandparents died of HIV.  She had to raise Sally and her older sister on her own.  At 17 Sally got pregnant.  She was sent back to the village to live with the parents of the boyfriend for 2 months.  Her sister, who had a textile job in South Africa, came to the village to help her get back to school.  Her mother told her to focus on her education.  In 2008 Sally graduated high school as the second best student.  In 2009 she enrolled in university studying travel and tourism. She worked hard and did well.  During her third year, she went to Victoria Falls and found out about Wilderness Safaris (this camp is run by them).  She did an internship with them and did well.  She was promised a job after graduation.  She was trained for a manager position.  Her mom takes care of her daughter, but Sally supports her monetarily.  She has challenges in this male dominated business.  At camp, she is a boss and manager, but back home, she is submissive to the men as that is the custom here.  She has been promoted and has gained much confidence.  She seemed to have a good head on her shoulders and is looking for a job at some point near Victoria Falls so she can be closer to her daughter and her mom.  I talked to Sally afterwards.  Her daughter, Terry who is 9, wakes up at 5:30, has breakfast and is out the door by 6.  She has a half hour walk to school.  School doesn’t start until 7:30, but many students, including Terry get there at 6:60 to get individual attention before school starts.  She has an hour for lunch and recess and then the school day ends at 3:30.  She walks home and then is helped with her homework by an uncle from 4 to 5.  Then she is free to watch a bit of cartoons before dinner and a shower.  She is in bed by 8.  That is quite a long day for such a young child.

Tonight we did the AGT show before dinner.  The staff sang songs and did some dancing for us.  They are all so talented.  They also showed us some rhythms to beat out on the drums.  I thought we all did a very good job.  During the dances, there was one young man who was very limber - I told him he didn't have any bones - only spaghetti.  For our talent, we had Greg do his juggling act with three oranges.  Three of the men came up to try but they were only kidding and we had a good laugh as a couple of them were very convincing as they came forward to try.  We then did the "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly" song.  Obviously, the winner here is always the home team, but they are very gracious about saying we won.  After dinner we collected our green bags - locked bags for our valuables while we are in camp and were walked back to our tents .   I don't think that I have mentioned that the guides here have to carry rifles in the land rovers and when they are escorting us to our tents.  It is the law here.  The safety of the guests is always on their minds. Tomorrow we will leave for Victoria Falls.