We are somewhere over North Africa (or maybe the Alps?) in the next to the last row of a Lufthansa 747. The back row is our preference since it is usually vacant and you can lie down and spread out. I actually got several hours sleep thanks to Tylenol PM and white wine.
Yesterday – or our last day in Africa – was interesting. We went ‘behind the scenes’ with Alan on the 7:00am feeding. In our short absence from DeWildt they have moved many animals around. We got to see half a dozen new mothers and their cubs but I am done with photos. We did spend some time with a couple of hand reared adults and played with the ten week old cubs.
There was an unexpected tragedy – Madison, one of the ambassador trainees – suddenly died of unknown causes. It looked fine at 7:30am and was dead at 9:30am. Gabi was devastated. Ann thinks it ate some tainted horse flesh. Alan thinks it choked. Time will tell.
We lunched at Spur to say good-by to Tembah, our waiter friend. We obviously made an impression the night before when we hosted Parks and Eunice and and their kids there. Not many blacks dine out in white restaurants and none go with their white friends. The black staff at Spur think we are heroes but the whites gave us a bit of a cold shoulder at lunch. And Tembah (this was about him, remember?) carved an elephant from leadwood for us. It is not a work of art but it is a very special gift, the first thing he ever carved. We’ll miss all of our friends and and will cherish our African memories.
