We raced back to the hotel..... A long really fast walk which made us sweaty and tired!! We madeit back late and were told Anne left and said to call when we got back so we did that. She came back to get us and all of our school supplies and we headed over to Chinotimba. We missed the graduation ceremony which was a huge bummer... We heard it was adorable and all of the gowns were too big on the kids which made it even cuter. Walking into the school grounds was like we were celebrities walking into a school in the US. The kids all smile, point, stare, shout and laugh at things in Ndebele, their local language. English is spoken at school though and all of their 2nd language. We met with the head master/principal, introduced ourselves and she came out to organize a little giving ceremony with the kids. We told them we were from the US and had brought things for them... I think everyone was shocked at how much we actually brought and we kept getting asked how we got it all there. They didn't even know that about 70 spiral notebooks and 30 boxes of crayons were missing in our lost baggage (which was supposed to have arrived, but didn't- here we go again!). The kids were so thrilled though for any little thing... Most of the things like colored erasers, sparkly stickers, sports erasers, and individual colored pencil sharpeners are things they have never even seen before. It was very neat to see their faces as they checked out the goodies. We took some pictures with them and they were all so eager to hold as many supplies as they could fit in their little hands! After wards their teachers told them to put the things back and they got in lines and took the supplies where they were told. So obedient and willing to help, Kyle was most amazed by this. We walked around the school and took part in the conversations between the principal and the Rotary rep as to what was in the agenda to help out the school in the future. Their playground was a trash dump, so it sounded like the next thing to be done is to be able to maybe add a small playground with a swing and slide and maybe a soccer goal or something. The crazy thing is that although this school is possibly the worst in the area, once you get in the more rural areas of Zimbabwe they have even less.... Pretty much nothing. Classes are held under trees. Our future children better be good and never take school for granted or we have the perfect place to set them straight!!
We had to get back to the lodge for our afternoon lion walk where we would be signing our life away for the 2nd time. Our day was one big rush. We were picked up not long after we returned and set off to walk with lions. What a cool experience the lions were!!!! When they brought out the lions we were thrilled to see 2 lions which were not small at all! They told us their names, but they were not easy ones, and Simba and Nala was much easier for Kyle and I to call them. The male lion really liked Kyle... When it was his turn to go pet and sit by him for pictures the lion rolled over on it's back wanting Kyle to pet his belly.... It was like our dogs! After we all took still pictures we began walking around the reserve area with them. We learned that just 2 days prior during the lion walk the female lion had spotted an injured water buffalo (very large creatures!) and decided to take off after it. Of course the male followed while everyone else just watched along. They 2 youngsters ended up taking the buffalo down which was amazing for the trainers to see since they are not to an age level ready for release into the wild yet by any means. It was a long battle, but we saw the remains of the buffalo on our walk... Not much more than bones left, we got pictures of that as well.... Just wish we were there to see that fight!!!!!! We got the video and the pictures of the lion walk we can share..... Cool stuff!!!
We once again were in a huge rush after the lion walk... We had reservations for the Boma Dinner, which is a dinner comparable to a luau in Hawaii, but with traditional African dancing & singing (which we actually found more entertaining and fun than the luau's in Hawaii). When you arrive they put what Kyle called an "African Toga" on everyone and painted our faces with tiny traditional tribal face paint. There was very interesting game meat for the main course at dinner- not much of which I enjoyed- but that doesn't say much because I am an extremely picky eater!! The dancing was so fun though and so was the music. We each got our own African drum to learn to play and we did games on it. Afterwards everyone was dancing in a circle and calling out people to dance in the middle similar to a wedding in the US or something. All in all, a great experience!!!!
We once again were in a huge rush after the lion walk... We had reservations for the Boma Dinner, which is a dinner comparable to a luau in Hawaii, but with traditional African dancing & singing (which we actually found more entertaining and fun than the luau's in Hawaii). When you arrive they put what Kyle called an "African Toga" on everyone and painted our faces with tiny traditional tribal face paint. There was very interesting game meat for the main course at dinner- not much of which I enjoyed- but that doesn't say much because I am an extremely picky eater!! The dancing was so fun though and so was the music. We each got our own African drum to learn to play and we did games on it. Afterwards everyone was dancing in a circle and calling out people to dance in the middle similar to a wedding in the US or something. All in all, a great experience!!!!
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