I spent the last week in absolute bliss! I was offered an opportunity to go to Mana Pools (pronounced marna), which is the Shona word for 4. So there are 4 pools, well kind of, it’s part of the Zambezi that runs between Zambia and Zimbabwe. This is real camping with tents and metal food containers and fire cooking the works! So we stayed at a secluded camp the closest neighbour we had was a mile away we never saw them, heard them or saw lights, occasional we saw their vehicle. What really impressed me was that the friends I went with, the husband is a vet, which is really helpful living with animals in the bush BUT his son is a professional guide. I was exposed to all sorts of things I never would’ve seen, heard, or known otherwise.

For instance elephants have 6 sets of teeth over the lifetime, the set grows in at the front and moves slowly towards the back of their mouth then fall out as a new set grows in, an elephant life is determined on how long their teeth last, an elephant can live up to 80 years but in places like Mana that are sandy, it causes their teeth the sand down faster, going through the 6 sets faster and thus ending life. I also learned that some elephants are born without tusks. Female lions lead the hunt and kill the prey, the males are last in the pride and once a kill has been made he takes over and gets first bite. Hippos kill more humans than any other animal in Africa! Crocodiles eat once a year unless the kill is easy and available and they only kill in deep waters where they are comfortable and as they also drown their prey to kill it. I learned much more but I’ll get on with the interesting stuff.

Brian, the guide brought a shower, that’s right, a shower. I thought I’d have to bathe in a bucket or in the river or something, don’t laugh I HAVE NEVER BEEN CAMPING AND I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT I WAS GETTING INTO. I did have an overnight test run but showering was never an issue. He hooked up a bag with a shower nozzle onto a tree and put up a canvas wall using poles around 3 sides of the shower to create a little room with an open wall that was open to the wildlife. I was told the bathroom was a hole in the ground called a long drop, I got out there and PRAISE THE LORD there was a toilet seat on top so I didn’t have to squat just hover, so basically it was an outhouse.

We went on game drives at various times of the day because you see different things at different times. There are day animals and night animals, 2 complete sets of wildlife, it’s funny to watch the day animals at about 5 or 6 they all leave what they are doing and go home to their trees or dens or whatever like they’re coming home from work. Hippos live in the water, however at night they come out of the water to eat on land, all day and all night you can hear them talking, laughing, burping all sorts going on, I wished I could’ve taped them, it was really funny. At night they would walk through our campsite and you could hear them blump, blump, blump. Hyenas would also come through the site, I never saw them but you could see their footprints in the morning. Baboons are you’re biggest issue during the day, that’s why you lock up EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING and keep your tent closed. During games drives I saw a pride of lions on the hunt, it was amazing and incredible, and how they didn’t even care we were there they just kept going to attack a family of warthogs. It’s not the kill that’s interesting it’s watching them work, the planning, and the timing. We saw painted dogs on a hunt of impala, painted dogs are wild dogs that kind of look like hyenas. The pack was small only 3 and one was lame, they killed an impala but lions got wind of it and scared them off to eat it themselves. We saw loads of elephants; one came daily to eat the bark off a tree at our campsite. One night we were up later than usual and heard a noise in the bush I walked behind Brian as he checked it out and… it was a leopard!!!! It was amazing these green eyes staring back at us and it turns out lions and leopards and any cat really are very skittish animals, unlike hyenas or painted dogs they retreat around humans as a first instinct, so it was a short visit but non the less I SAW A LEOPARD! The only animal I wasn’t able to see first hand was a hyena, oh well next time ☺

Part of constructing a building is “desigining” the inside of the building, the game plan what’s going to happen once the building is built, the resources and such that are going to happen. Part of the inside plan is to have a social outlet, place for people to go instead of the pub (The Village Inn, Troutbeck, Claremont, Mount Clare). There are no movie theatres, coffee shops, place to eat out (except the pubs). This was my suggestion as someone who lives in the village, alone I understand what it’s like. This is one of a few reasons I go to the city for HUMAN CONTACT! I work at home, live at home and spend my nights at home. I am 1 of 5 white people in Nyanga, the other 4 are senior citizens, not that I don’t spend time with them BUT someone my age is 30 minutes away and they have a new born baby. Once a week I get together with friends in the area but in 7 days that’s not much. I also stick out here, everyone knows who I am and where I live, I walk into the village and get hello’s from everyone which is nice to be a part of the community but I like being 1 of a million that no one looks at instead of 1 of 5. I also have talked to others my age in the community and asked what they want most common is a place to go out. One friend goes to Troutbeck on Sunday afternoons for tea just to get out, she’s the district manager of a bank who moved out here in February. She goes to Harare every chance she gets just to have some social contact, this needs to change, especially with the youth as the alternative is becoming politically involved, which is a huge issue out here, friends, family, connections to be involved with the army and ZANPF. Thank goodness for my dogs, that’s right dogs, with an s I got another one, a male, Huck. He was found by a friend on the side of the road, she had him vaccinated and took him to Friends of Animals Foundation, like SPCA, which they also have here but they do something different. FAF keeps him for 2 weeks to see if someone collects him if not he’s open game. There are so many puppies that are not claimed or not adopted and more animals then they can take on, lots are put down. So I took one in, partially as a favor to a friend, partially as it was a sign, partially as he was the only dog Molly didn’t bark at and finally so Molly would have a friend. Huck has shown me how far Molly has come, and how much having 2 dogs makes a positive difference. Huck is 3.5 months old, 2 months younger than Molly and about an inch smaller than here. He’s furry and going to be HUGE and a face almost like a St. Bernard, no one is sure of his breed, I’m told mix with lots of big dogs in the mix.

Monday came around and I went to Council to see what the latest on the drawings was, feeling a bit nauseous thinking what’s the latest snag we’ll hit today. Got there and the drawings had been approved but the application to waive fees had been denied, so I had to find the money to pay for the drawings so they could be stamped so I can continue construction. The money man, Willie is in South Africa so between emails and phone calls we are sorting out the money so that I can pay for the drawings so I can continue construction, thankfully zesa has been accommodating and emailing has not been an issue.

My luck is just garbage!! So I went to pay for the drawing submission, which we failed to get waived. So I went in to find out how much we owed. I was told to come back at 3pm to get the letter of reply explaining why we didn’t get the fee waived. I came back at 3pm with the money and they hadn’t written the letter so I said I wouldn’t pay them until I had the letter so they said they’d get on it and I could wait 90 minutes later, the slowest typist I’ve EVER MET! Slugs type faster it was ridiculous for 3 lines, an address and a signature I waited 90 minutes! So I paid the fee and took the receipt to collect the drawings and it turns out they didn’t charge us for the health appraisal, I asked if they could still give me the drawings and I would bring the money in the morning so we could continue with construction and found out, wait for it… THE DRAWINGS HAVE NOT BEEN APPROVED! They have not been checked, stamped or signed, I thought we dealt with this on Friday when Willie went it guns blazing and asked what the issue was and was told everything was in order, apparently not. So tomorrow will be another day of surprises and we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Today was a day of surprises, I went and paid the health appraisal and saw the secretary’s eyes pop out of his head and the running around that followed as he saw me and realized he hadn’t had the drawings approved!!! He promised if I came back at 2:30 he would have it sorted. I came back at 2:40 and…THE DRAWINGS WERE SIGNED, SEALED AND DELIEVERED! We are now back in business. In order to cover ourselves the inspector is coming back out tomorrow morning 8am to re-check the excavation, which will be fine as he originally thought he was checking it for a 2 storey building so pouring of footings begins tomorrow and all is right with the world WOO HOO!!!!! I will be celebrating by chilling out at home eating chili and watching a movie with my dogs Molly and Huck.