I dozed and read novels in the sun for most of the day, enjoying the river running by, and the birds yelling in the trees. I didn’t realize how much we hear familiar birds in the background and don’t really attend to the them, until I was surrounded by the tweets and whistles of unfamiliar birds.
I managed to phone the endlessly patient and helpful tech guy at work who talked me through the 197 steps needed to unlock my computer. That guy deserves a medal! Once that was dealt with I decided to write my blog, but managed to trigger the hacker-blocker by entering the wrong ID and password…clearly not my best day, technologically speaking.
My friend, Peter, arrived from Nairobi at that point and we headed off for a beer. I always ask for a local beer – there were two from Zimbabwe and I chose the lighter one…it was one of the oddest tasting beers that I have ever had, vaguely sweet, and vaguely flat. An experience not to be repeated. We sat and watched the warthogs wander by, eating the grass. I’m not sure that I could get enough paperwork to bring one home, and they’d probably be hard to keep through the winder, but they are awfully cute. I feel that they might be my totem…they are cute, they take care of their children, they are useful and non-threatening.
When Peter left, I ran into a friend from Zimbabwe, and we went to dinner together. Dinner was a choice of stir-fried meat accompanied by various vegetables. Crocodile or warthog? I had chicken…During dinner there were traditional dancers, accompanied by drummers. As we were having a drink and watching them dance (it’s not hard to watch bare chested men do athletic type things) we turned around and saw two elephants strolling across the lawn about 20 feet from where we were sitting. It was Africa as everyone imagines it is.