I don't have long because this is a borrowed computer, so let's get to it.
Zimbabwe is a beautiful place full of friendly, great people. Everywhere there are people waving to each other, saying hello to you, asking how your day is. Every time I see someone I know, even if it's only been twenty, thirty minutes, it's "Claire! How are you doing?!" The people here are very social and very physical. You always shake hands or hug someone every time you see them, and if you're quiet like me, oh boy, they don't like it. "Claire, what is wrong with you?" "Are you okay?" "Yes, I'm just tired," or "I'm just a quiet person" isn't accepted. If you're not smiling, or are just sitting alone, there's something wrong, and they will find out what and why. The guides, handlers and spotters are great though, and always make a lion walk fun.
So a day at Lion Encounters starts by getting picked up by a truck at 6. Sometimes we have to pick up some of the guys, so we get to the lions around 6:20. From then we have tea and coffee (or just water (what?! Are you sure? No tea?)) and then at 7 we go for our first lion walk. There are 4 lions here: Jalani and Jebari, 11 months, and Monde (Monday) and Mvuthu (voo-two), 4 months. The little ones spend their time pouncing and wrestling with each other, it's quite cute. The J's have been sick since I've been here so they're not their usual selves, but they're still fun to watch and give belly rubs too. The J's are about mid-thigh on me, and the M's are below my knee, with Monde, the girl, considerably smaller than her brother. After the walks we can either have lectures on the bush, the animals, birds, trees, tracking (very interesting), what have you. Or we can just hang out with the cubs and watch them, or play and pet them. There's also meat prep, which involves hacking frozen game meat into 8 and 2 kg pieces with axes and machetes. Since I've been, here it's been buffalo, because 11 of them were killed by lightening a couple of weeks ago so we got the meat. At 12 we head back to Hunters, where we volis stay, and have lunch, then after a quick nap we go back to the lions for the same thing as before: hanging out with the cubs, cleaning, lectures, and then we end the day with the lion walks. Tourists come everyday to meet these guys, so we help with pictures and help to keep the lions in line. They can be naughty. :) The day end at six in the evening when we head back to Hunters for dinner and to sleep, which for me is usually around nine. Sandas, a guide, calls me a lion because I yawn all the time and I sleep a lot.
The first night I got here we went on a night game drive and I saw two giraffes, two elephants, some kudu, waterbuck, and impala. Everyday I see baboons on the side of the road. They're huge! I've also seen some warthogs and have seen two buffalo. So I have 3 out of the Big 5: lion, elephant and buffalo, so I just need leopard and rhino. I got to go on a elephant ride the other day and hang out with the elephants beforehand, which was soooo cool. Also huge, but did you know that elephants make no sound when they walk? They're feet absorb it all, so they walk through the bush in silence. Pretty neat. Although the area I'm in has all the animals, doesn't mean that I get to see much. I see their tracks every day, but still, no sightings. I want to see a hyena so bad and they just taunt me with their tracks in the sand (and, yes, I can tell the difference between a lion and a hyena paw print). I'm still on the lookout of those and my other favorites. We shall see if something comes up.
