Mana and More

Ryo is growing so quickly!  It's been fun to see all of her development milestones.  The latest news is that she is on the verge of crawling (time for home baby-proofing!).  She's still got just two teeth, but is well on her way with solid foods, including lentils, squash, carrots, cauliflower, peas, bananas, pears, and apples… she hasn't refused anything yet (just like daddy).  We'll wait a while until we introduce Mopani worms and Quela birds, of course.  She hasn't mastered any actual words yet, but from the sound of it, she's going to be a big talker.

We've continued our exploration of Zim's natural wonders, visiting sites both close to town and farther afield.  One sunny Saturday, we drove about forty-five minutes from our house to Lake Chivero with our friend Greg for some game viewing and a picnic lunch.  We mostly had the place to ourselves, and had a blast driving around the park to see ostrich, various plains game, and even five white rhinos!  In true Zim style, we grilled up some meat on the lakeside, not far from some incredible rock paintings.

Our best recent trip was to Mana Pools, several hours north of Harare on the border with Zambia.  We stayed in a beautiful lodge located on the shores of the Zambezi River, which was filled with hippos and crocodiles.  After a hearty meal in the al fresco dining area and bathing under the stars, we went to bed to the sound of grunting hippos, and woke to a scene of grazing elephants and warthogs outside the huge windows of our room in the morning.  We saw plenty of animals in fact – by boat (I caught my first tigerfish!), on walking safaris, and driving around during the day and at night.  One evening, our fantastic guide, Caz, knocked on our door with an urgent message – a leopard had been spotted in a nearby tree with an adult impala that she had killed – great photo opportunity!  Equally amazing was our rare sighting of an African pangolin, which is critically endangered and very cute.  

Work has been busy these days, especially with the upcoming elections, but Nikki and I are both getting some interesting opportunities.  Nikki was recently featured on TV, speaking about the representation of women in tertiary education on Good Morning Zimbabwe.  I've been traveling a fair amount, and just returned from a site visit to rural Zimbabwe where we landed on a dirt runway in the middle of nowhere.  A few weeks ago, Nikki and I hosted a group of government officials, NGOs, and tourism operators at our house for tea to discuss issues surrounding wildlife conservation.  It's all been a lot of work, but rewarding and unique too.  The next few weeks are sure to prove exciting, as everyone is curious to see how the July 31 elections go.