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In a few days on the way back through Kasane we will stop and see how the elephant made out. I took out my camcorder to tape him and found out that it wasn't working. I had taped a whole tape of nothing! We had a lot of good footage also. We had a lion stalking an impala, african fish eagle and some other type of beautiful brown eagle fighting over and eating a vervet monkey, elephants swimming across the river, etc... Nothing showed up on the tape. We saw lions on two different days at Serondela. It was the same pride both days, 5 lions. We also saw two dead elephants, one very young skeleton with skin still on at Serondela, and another closer to Ihaha.
One night at our campsite we were sitting in the dark with our flashlights and using them as spotlights to look for eyes in the bush. I spotted eyes, and then saw it was a small cat. Not sure what type it was, but it wasn't a lion or a leopard.
Today we came into Zimbabwe, got a campsite and walked into town to do some shopping for curios. Everyone on the streets wants to exchange US dollars for Zimbabwe dollars. The bank will give you 55 Zim dollars for 1 US dollar, and the street people will give you up to 650 Zim dollars for 1 US dollar. We changed a 100 dollar bill, and got 65,000 Zim dollars, I felt like I robbed a bank! The security guard at the rest camp did it for us, so we wouldn't get ripped off. It is illegal to use the black market to change money, and they have signs posted, but everywhere in town people are trying to get you to change it, even right in front of the police.
We parked the bakkie (truck) close to the fence to camp, and these young boys were on the other side of the fence just standing there watching us, so I gave them each a ball, a whistle, and a balloon. Later, two of them came back and I gave them each two quarters, a dime, nickel, and penny US coins. I also noticed one boy had his flip-flops in his hand and one was broken, so I gave them each a pair of flip-flops. I took polaroids of them and gave them to them, and they loved that.
3 Oct. 2002
Still in Zimbabwe. All day today we went to town shopping at the outdoor market. I must have had dealings with 100 different people; all but about 10 were men. As soon as we walked out of the rest camp guys start trying to sell us stuff. Before we left, we both put on a pile of Mardi Gras beads around out necks. When they started trying to sell us stuff, we said "we are selling these beads". They loved them, and we were selling them for about 100-200 Zimbabwe dollars, trading them, and giving them away also. For about a mile people are trying to sell us stuff, exchange money, etc... It was really a pain to Doug, but I loved it. They would say "Come to my shop, look I have elephants, giraffe, bushmen, big five" We traded everything from hats, t-shirts, beaded necklaces, toys, shoes, baby clothes, etc...
A friend of ours gave us the Mardi Gras beads to bring, and they were a big hit! One guy even tried to sell us back our own beads for 2300 Zim dollars. Another guy came up and told him they came from us, and they laughed and walked away. The market is just rows of men with wood and stone carvings, baskets, etc. all line up on the ground. They are asking about double the price of the local shops. We have to tell them that we can get it cheaper in the shops, and then they come down on their prices.
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