Chabbobboma Banana Plantation

Yesterday we traveled the three hour trip (two hours on dirt washboard roads, up and around mountains) to the edge of Lake Kariba where one of the churches has a banana plantation that they have been working together. It has tripled in size since they first opened it about six years ago, and is supporting the community - including orphans and others living with AIDS. We stopped partway there, for our first glimpse of Lake Kariba.

Keri, Alicia, Lisa and Lauren

Pam and Phil Leslie

Here are the most recently planted tree's, just starting to grow!

Once they flower, the bananas start to grow!

AND GROW!

And grow, until the tree needs help holding up all the fruit!!

They use sawdust around the base of the tree's, to help keep weeds from growing and as it decomposes, as compost as well!

We didn't see any banana spiders (BECKY!!!!), but we did see this cool chameleon!!

We ate a delicious lunch (cooked over open fire by the women of the village) - YUM YUM YUM - under this amazing tree. Here's Lauren and Meagan smiling away! We ate Nshima, green veggies stew and chicken! With our fingers of course! The photo below is of the whole tree - the trunk was just amazing though, the roots seem to grow down around the trunk and expand the trunk over time! It was under this tree that the women first greeted us - with singing and dancing as they shook each of our hands!

What an memorable day!!

Cuteness personified!!

Can you hear the giggle that accompanied that smile??

I still can!!

Community Health Education

This morning we went with a WHIZ Community Health worker to a local village area. We sat on benches under a big shade tree. It was neat for the students to have opportunities to share about various health education topics as well as learning about what things the women had already learned and put into practise. My favorite part was interacting with the children and mothers after the education time as they were preparing to eat lunch. Each week this group of mothers meets together with all their children under 5, for education and to eat a well balanced meal. In the photo below one of the girls, she is 26 months old, is eating Nshima (a cornmeal mush of sorts) with a sauce of Kapenta (small dried fish) and soy chunks.

Here's Estie getting help putting Patrick on her back. She's gotten to play with him a number of Sundays at church and enjoyed carrying him around on her back for a while this morning. They use the traditional piece of cloth, a chetenge, to tie their children on to their backs or sides. The women also use the same material for many other things, including as a wrap around skirt.

Hippo's!!!

It was really thrilling to see so many pods of hippo's! They are cute, in and out of the water:), but don't get too close!!

Their home!!

Ellie's!!!

What fun to see so many elephants so close up!! This picture is for Diane... the first time I saw African elephants in the wild, we mostly had butt shots... sot this was to remind me of that:) This view was acutally from the patio where we ate our meals, just a couple hours before we finished our vacay...

The only place we saw mother's with their young was inside the park. It was harder to get close because they would get nervous easily and start trumpeting.

This guy was wanting to eat some of the tree just by our vehicle, so he mossied on over with his elegant stride... when you have to take your camera out of zoom to see the whole elephant, he's getting a little TOO close!!:)

We saw lots of old dung piles, but this was especially fresh:).

This was my foot inside an ellie's foot print... on a sandbank in the middle of the Zambezi river... at sunset:).

They can drink up to 100 Liters in one sitting!!

These last photo's I took sitting on a boat or in a canoe!

Animals!!!

The lions!!! These three are sisters, two from one liter, their mother used to be part of their pride but died in the past year. They are one of three prides in the area of the park we traveled through, but the only ones we found. One male lion maintains this and another of the prides.

Cape buffalo! They were so interesting to watch, because for a while they just stood there and all stared at us!Impala were the animals we saw the most often, but each time their beauty and gracefulness was thrilling!

Lower Zambezi National Park

Friday we spent the day at my first game park! Here's the rest of the crew (L to R) Dr. Dan Jones, Dr Joan Jones, Jesse, Meredith and Meaghan. It was quite a thrill, with "real" safari transport - just like the movies:):). Stoping for lunch...
Meredith and I attempting to protect our skin from the over 105 degree sunshine!! Meredith decided that "fair skin, doxycycline and safari's do not mix!!" Amazingly, with multiple sunscreen applications:), using the chetenge to block the sun... I managed to survive 12+ hours in the sun without a burn!!

We needed the four wheel drive for some parts of the trail through the park, and even experienced a couple river crossings!:)

Richard was our fabulous safari guide...

Fishing on the Zambezi... skinny dipping on the Zambezi!!

Thursday afternoon we got a chance to go fishing. We stopped a couple times at the side of the river, to barter for fish to use as bait. Our guide traded fish hooks for the fish he then cut up for us to use as bait (I DO have pics of all the steps, among the 760ish pic's I took in 4 days:), but I won't inflict them ALL upon you:). Then we cruised further down river, and set up a spot along the Zimbabwe side of the river. I took a turn at casting... here's the evidence... but then I just enjoyed taking pic's of the setting sun and other's successes!!

So... this is the AMAZING fish that Jesse caught!! We'd been out there just over an hour when all of a sudden he felt a bite, and with 15-20 minutes of HARD work, bending fishing rod, chasing the fish with the boat, etc... this Vundu (giant catfish) - all 53lbs - was in the boat!!! Just watching was a serious adrenaline rush:). God's orchestrating our fun and adventure... the person who caught the fish was the one in the group to whom it would mean the most!!! We heard later that some fishermen staying in the main lodge had been trying for days to land a Vundu, without success!!
This is the drum they played to let us know it was tea time or that dinner was ready! Ahh... ambiance!!:)

Here's once of the chalet's we stayed in. They were up on stilts, with amazing view's of the river and wildlife from the porch!!

The bathrooms were attached by a little walkway and were open to the sky (leaves, bugs, etc) and in full view of the river (as seen bellow)... About a 1/4 of our shower space was visible from the path as well:). SO, especially after dark, when we had little lights around us, it was quite the adventure:)... a little like I imagine skinny dipping would be. The breeze, sunshine and hiding from passing speed boats during daylight hours really made it a "COMPLETE" nature experience!:)

Canoing on the Zambezi

Thursday morning, starting just after 6am, we canoed the 7 miles down river along the island... the wildlife was stunning!! The croc in the picture above I spotted myself!!:):)

Towards the end of our ride, we saw a large herd of teenage male elephants... VERY cool to get so close and get to watch them eating and drinking...

A large flock of bee-eaters migrate to this area each year, digging out nests in the sand cliffs to protect their young!

Local fishermen!

This is one of MANY termite mounds we saw, this one with a bird perched on top!

Kanyemba Lodge - Mini Vacation on the Lower Zabezi River

I just got back from an amazing four day break. Six of the Zimba staff have been making plans for a little vacation for the past few months. The dates of their trip co-incited with the week that two other IWU staff would be here visiting, so I was able to take a few days off! We stayed at this great lodge along the Lower Zambezi River - about 50km upriver from Lower Zambezi national Park. It was about a 5 hour drive from here in Choma. The photo below was taken our last day there, just before we ate lunch. The patio looked over a lagoon that was often frequented by elephants... our little chalet/cabins on stilts, were just a short walk along the ridge. Amazing sunsets, sunrises and all kinds of adventure!!!
We stayed on a 7 mile long island in the middle of the Zambezi, called "Kanyemba Island Bush Camp." We could hear the lions roaring at night from across the Zambezi, in Zimbabwe. The first night we were there, an elephant was traipsing along just by our cabin and eating some leaves off the tree next to us! The next morning, on our way to the boat, another elephant almost started stampeding us! After dark we had escorts back to our cabin's so we would be safe!!
I woke up to this view every morning, and a fresh pot of coffee!! I was reminded of holiday's with the Lambert family in Goa, tea in bed was always a priority:)

This is supposedly the oldest Baobab tree in all of Zambia - 20m around, so nearly 2,000 years old!! BEAUTIFUL!!

The sunset's were absolutely AMAZING... This was on Friday evening as we took the 90min boat ride back up river after our safari... I am grateful for a refreshing break!!! God is ever faithful!!!!