imire safari ranch

For our last weekend in Zim before heading home, we decided to get out and see something since we haven’t done a ton of exploring. Our friends recommended Imire Safari Ranch, just a 140 kms outside of town so off we left on Saturday morning to make it there in time for tea. What a treat – they even greeted us with a chocolate cake!


What we didn’t realize was that Imire isn’t a traditional game reserve but more like an oversized zoo. They have rhinos, elephants, buffalo, lions, hyenas but they each have their own section of the 40,000 hectacres and don’t intermingle. Our first stop of the drive was the lions, which are always majestic, but there was a fence between us and it made me feel just a little sad to see them that way. Still, the cats are impressive and to be that close to them is still a bit of a thrill.


As were driving along we came across 2 young rhinos and their handlers. Imire is actually known for their protection and breeding of black rhinos. Poachers have almost killed the entire population of the black rhinos for their horns, which are valuable because they are thought to be a potent aphrodisiac in places like China. Here, they try to protect the rhinos by shaving off their horns every 3 years – sad but if it keeps the amazing dinosaur-like creatures alive, then necessary. Sadly they had a horrible slaughter 2 years ago and lost 4 rhinos plus one in utero. They have successfully introduced a few rhinos back into the wild which is nice.



On our way to lunch we came upon the 3 elephants and 7 month old baby elephant – they were so close t o us! Just like with the rhinos, they have handlers and to see these behemoth animals allowing someone to get so close is really amazing. Both are a part of the Big 5 (lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo and elephant) and a common misconception is the reason for why there is the Big 5. Evidently these are the most dangerous animals to hunt and that’s why they make the list, not because they are the most impressive animals. So to see these beasts very close and able to pet them, it’s an amazing awe inspiring feeling.


After a nice relaxing lunch, we came across the buffalo herd. What’s really unique about this herd is their dominant leader – she’s an elephant. 30 years ago when she was introduced to Imire, she went straight for the buffalo and ended up becoming the matriarch of their herd. She’s clearly a bit confused because even though she’s almost 30, she’s never given birth to a baby elephant – evidently when she’s in estrous signals are crossed and the bull elephant never gets friendly with her. She goes everywhere with the buffalo and is clearly in charge.


The last fun highlight of the day was going off to have sundowners and snacks while watching the sun set. Because it’s not actually a free ranging reserve, Imire provides food most of the animals and even pen the rhinos and elephants at night to protect them. On our way out we stopped by the pen and we got to feed the baby elephant! It was amazing!


And then I also tried to feed the rhino and that was crazy – the black rhino is different from the white rhino because of their lips. They have a prehensile lip that helps them eat; where as the white rhino has a wide, flat lip (they aren’t actually different because of their color, that’s just a miscommunication).

All in all, a great fun last weekend. We had a delicious dinner then sat and watched the stars and talked about life. A great send off for now – and a good tease to bring us back. Other game reserves are a bit wilder without any fences so the elephants, lions and hyenas actually prowl around the camp at night! That’ll be an experience!

This was the cat that befriended us, stayed up watching the stars with us, then snuck into our room and slept with us. On the floor that is. We woke up to loud purring and thought maybe she was outside...nope, she had joined us in our room.

These were our night watchmen outside our room. Cute little buggers.

Roar.

Happy Thanksgiving

What I’m thankful for this year:

• The amazing life I lead, despite the fact that I haven’t had a job for awhile, which is taking a toll on my psyche; I am here, living in Africa. Something that I dreamed about for a long time and I’m living it now.

• That I get to live this amazing life along side Jason, finally. He’s an amazing man and I must be the luckiest girl in the world to have found him. He loves me and I get to marry him in less than a month and a half.

• Despite the economy and restricted budgets, my parents and Jason’s are giving us a dream wedding in Puerto Rico. And so many of our family and friends are making the trip to join us, that’s pretty special. Somebody pinch me now!

• For my new family – Ann Marie and Charles Rosenfeld are amazing parents and I’m honored that I get to be a part of their family. Scott, Jason’s brother, and his wife Amalie are wonderful. I’m excited that we get to spend some time with them and their beautiful kids, Will and Reese, while we’re home.

• For my own unique family that continues to grow – Mom and Dad are the most loving and giving people I know, offering whatever they can to ensure that their family and friends are taken care of and have love to surround them. Anne-Marie, my older sister, is a woman that I will always look up to because of her strength to endure and her love for her husband Lee, and their 2 beautiful kids, Cameron and Ana. Rickey, my amazing big brother, for his dedication to live life without boundaries and for his laugh and sense of humor. And then there’s Katie, the peanut. Although my younger sister, I look up to her because she’s got her life together – she knew her dream from a young age and pursued it, made it happen and is now living the life with her new hubby Paul. Finally, last but of course never the least, there is Teresa. The baby of the family but also a strong willed beautiful young woman now – I’m proud of all that she does and love her youthful energy and spirit.

There really is so much to be thankful for this year. Jason and I went out to dinner to celebrate with peri-peri chicken for him and a pizza for me. We thought of everyone we miss from home and toasted to all the yummy dinners they would be enjoying. Hope you ate a slice of pie for me!

christy's cryptonite

Today’s the sort of day that I would love to sit at home, wrapped in a blanket watching movies. It’s overcast, raining, a bit chilly and I have a headache that is just resonating in the back of my skull, making my teeth ache. Any other day I could have stayed at home – I don’t have a job so it’s not like I HAVE to come to Jason’s office with him. But today I have a skype call scheduled with Maria, our wedding coordinator, for 2 pm (8AM PR time) so I’m making the most of it.

The last couple of weeks have been a bit difficult for me. The process of searching for jobs is exciting, with the possibilities that each potential position holds leading me to daydream about the happiness of having a job and money will bring. But slowly the daydream fades, first as I start the business of writing the dreaded cover letter. Each letter is filled with my experiences catered to the details of the minimum qualifications, which of course sometimes have to be stretched and twirled into wording that would make the potential employer believe that even though I don’t have the min 5-7-10 years of experience, I’m still worthy of their consideration.

The day dream completely goes grey and fades into the background after I email the tear and sweat stained cover letter and cv (or resume, whatever they prefer). Initially I’m happy because I don’t have to revise any longer and just clicking the ‘send’ button gives me a sense of accomplishment. But as the days go on without any response besides the initial “we received your application” email, the hopeful picture is replaced with the continued job search. On the upside, after writing cover letter #4 (and submitting it this morning), I realized it actually gets easier with each letter because I don’t have to recreate every sentence and instead can cut and paste from the others!

We also just realized that Jason’s job has ZERO stability at the moment. He doesn’t have a contract past the end of November so we actually have no idea what will happen when we return to Africa in mid January. The day we completely comprehended this was the gloomiest yet, with both of us now in the job searching position and no real control over how to change this fact. Not exactly the way you want to start off your marriage but deep down, we know something will work out. It always does, somehow. There is a lot of potential funding in the pipelines for his organization and the situation is likely to change and he (we) won’t have to worry so much. Plus, I heard I was short listed for one of the jobs so that gives me a bit of hope.

Another cause for my less than chipper mood is the constant power cuts from ZESA, the main electrical power company here in Zim. For whatever reason Jason’s office isn’t affected and we don’t seem to have interruptions in the power supply (knocking on wood constantly) during the working hours. But every day for the last 2 weeks there has been a power cut (http://allafrica.com/stories/200911130777.html) to the neighborhood where we stay, Chisipite, and every other neighborhood in the city as well. Even when I am in a good mood, the moment we pull into the driveway and realize that the electricity is out, depression just washes over me.

The one luxury that we have at this house is TV, which we mainly use to watch the France24 news channel but also the occasional show on one of the SABC channels we get. I’m not a huge fan of wasting hours in front of the tube, but for the little bit of time we watch in the evenings (or in the mornings during breakfast) it’s our link to the outside world and the act of sitting in front of the TV just makes me feel normal for a brief moment. And then to come home and find that refuge taken away is just maddening. Usually after a few minutes I can adjust to the fact that we’re destined for an evening without electricity and try to make the most it and do things like reading, exercising, cooking (we use a gas burner), having a romantic candle lit dinner, and finally squeezing in a few episodes of Scrubs on Jason’s computer before the battery completely goes flat.

Last night it was seriously depressing to come home after it was dark and drive past the pitch black shops with not even the glimmer of an obnoxious neon sign to catch the eye. The only lights came from those fortunate enough to have generators, like the Chinese food restaurant, the petrol station, the girls high school and a few houses throughout the neighborhood. We are not one of the fortunate and have to rely on candles or my super duper phone that has a flashlight (which is much brighter than my headlamp at the moment). We watched a few Scrubs episodes and then finally the lights came back on around 9. It’s amazing how the relief I feel is instant, even though it’s late and there is nothing much left to do but sleep.

And so I drifted off to sleep, content, with the whir of the fan in the background and with the Scrubs theme song ushering in my dreams, ‘I can’t do this all on my own, no I know, I’m no superman…

I’m no Superman.’

the first four weeks

For the first 4 weeks we spent in Harare, we settled into a routine and reported to an office every day, providing structure to our day that both of us appreciated. I was able to look for jobs and for the few postings I found, I spent hours upon hours working on cover letters and even enjoyed the fact that I was sitting at a desk (back in South Africa I was relegated to the couch)! I was also pretty efficient with the wedding planning stuff and was able to check off a few things from the to-do list and make some much needed headway.

We managed to engage in a few social outings – we even went to a party the first weekend we were here. Thanks to friends of friends, we’ve managed to find some nice places to eat, shop and have some adult beverages. I’ve tried to get a feel from everyone, from NGO foreign nationals to local Zimbabweans, about what it’s like live here. Some NGO folk don’t quite get why they are here – a lot of them are used to working in extreme emergency situations and they've been told there is some sort of emergency situation going on here but nothing like Sudan, Ethiopia or Honduras. The actual emergencies are hard to identify – last year there was the Cholera outbreak which affected over 98,000 people and killed almost 4,300 (WHO report) but the rainy season passed, people recovered and now the NGO’s are here to try to prevent the same thing from happening this year. Clearly there is a government crisis going on and the progress that was thought to be made in January with Mugabe and the ZANU-PF agreeing to work with the MDC has all but sputtered out and some seem to worry that it was all just show. So the question still remains: what exactly is the emergency?

Jason and I did a little bit of sightseeing and drove north on one of the main arteries out of town and found hiking at Domboshawa. It was a little awkward because the park seems to be right in the middle of a village setting and you have to hike around people’s houses to get up into the rocks/hilly area. I don’t know what came first – the park or the people. Due to the farm seizures of white Zimbabweans, the black population has moved onto the land and slowly settlements have sprawled out, encroaching on the once beautiful bush land. Maybe this area is a result of that but I don't know. We managed to find our way up a rock face and had a nice picnic lunch overlooking the valley below.


Our living situation is not ideal but we’re making it work. The hardest part is the shared space and cooking situation. The pans are thin and not quite up to par and cooking anything without some sort of a disaster rarely happens. We use a gas burner and one night we left water to boil and after an hour not even one rolling bubble appeared. How does water NOT boil? Usually at least once a week one of us will flip out and storm out of the kitchen, but it’s a trade off and the other one is always there to calm the situation and rescue the meal. One night we took refuge at our friends Liz and John’s house where we completely took over their kitchen to make a delicious Tex Mex taco dinner, complete with refried beans (bought in South Africa), Spanish rice and guacamole. I even learned how to improvise and make sour cream out of yogurt and lemon juice – handy trick to know! We had a great time and next time we promised to have tequila and margaritas so we could enjoy the full Tex Mex experience!

Harare is a pretty city that has a lot of potential. It’s run down, all the street signs are ancient and rusting, stop lights barely work (today we ran across a light that had both the red and green lights going at the same time, very confusing), if at all, the municipal water system doesn’t work (the reason for why we don't have running water), there are electricity outages a couple times a week but still, after almost ten years, people seem hopeful. It’s strange that I live in this city along with the seats of government that are causing this country so much pain and agony – how can there be any harmony directly surrounding people who have a total and complete disregard for their fellow human beings? I pass one of Mugabe’s homes and The State House barricaded with brick walls topped with razor wire and militia men armed with rifles and serious scowling faces. The streets on either side of these complexes seem inviting, lined with gorgeous jacarandas and flamboyan trees (neither indigenous but a big part of what makes this city beautiful), but cameras are forbidden and the roads close to all traffic including pedestrians and bicyclists from 6pm to 6am, something Mugabe himself implemented after taking power in 1980.

Despite all the problems, we're enchanted by this place. Maybe it’s the geographical change, maybe it’s the thrill of exploring a new place, maybe we just want to be settled somewhere and not live out of a suitcase, whatever it is, we want to make this our new home. We'll see how things unfold, with his job, my applications and of course, the government situation.

why do i write this?

It’s hard to write a blog sometimes. First, the pressure of writing makes me put it off and then all of a sudden a few weeks have passed and there is a lot more to update the world on and I have no idea where to start. Plus, there is so much stuff to process and for me, the old almost outdated method of actually using a nice pen and writing in my journal helps me sort it out in my head. So then trying to type up a blog seems awkward and forced.

So why do you do it then, Christy? Good question – the one big reason would be that I want my family and friends back home to know what it’s like on this side, what I’m doing with myself and how I’m living my life. At least my Dad is a loyal reader and he reminds me to keep updating. It’s a way to stay connected but the only problem is it’s one sided. I wish all my family and friends would keep a blog so I could stay updated on their lives as well.

Another reason is that I want to improve my writing skills. It’s frustrating when you sit down next to your significant other, both setting out to write about your experiences, and he produces this lyrical masterpiece in the same amount of time it’s taken me to write a few measly paragraphs that lamely chronicle the days gone by. Part of me also has this secret wish (not so secret anymore, I guess) to become a star. Not Hollywood style, but someone that does something important with her life, makes a difference in the world somehow and maybe even gets recognized for it. Figuring out what the hell I’m actually doing with my life is the biggest barrier to achieving that goal.

Finally, it is another good outlet for processing all that I’m seeing and experiencing – writing in my journal is good but writing for my blog helps me understand and present it in a way so others can picture and understand as well, at least on some level.

So this still begs the question, what has been going on for the last few weeks in Zimbabwe? Yet another good question. Answer to come tomorrow, I promise.