Zambezi Kiwi

Admittedly this is old news now. We have had interwebs since a high court ruling a few weeks ago found the complete internet blackout illegal.

This is all great, mostly because Shongwe Lookout is now getting a little busier for me.

As you all know, our little man started school this month, which means I have four hours a day to get our booking systems, internet, social media, marketing strategy and a bunch of other things done.

Here’s a little peak preview into how Shongwe is looking, by the way. It may not look like much, but the gardens are growing, the bar and reception areas are going in, and soon the interior of all the rooms will soon be underway. That middle pic up top is the swimming pool!

• 

• 

• 

• 

There have also been some other important developments. Will’s garden is finally fruiting, which means we have some fresh vegetables. His fruit trees aren’t far behind.

BUT, the baboons are on to us. Lately a troupe of them has been moving in, which makes the dogs go crazy, and also me to be fair. Now, let me explain what these humanoid rats are like; just the other day as I was chatting to a friend, I watched a couple of baboons run into an open doorway, emerging with a skirt and a bag. They boosted from the crime scene faster than you can say “hey!”, and then played around with their new toys right in front of the victim. The baboon that stole the skirt actually put it on, and pranced around in it until it fell off. Yes it was hilarious, but it was also just plain nasty. What sort of criminal toys with your mind like that? Only a psychopath, which is what all baboons are.

Back to our place. Suffice to say we are “managing” the problem in our own unique, Zimbabwean way:

I have to say I’m still getting used to dealing with the wildlife around here, and I don’t just mean my new threenager. Part of this is the extremely strong, obsessive streak in all Zimbabwean over conservation, which makes them not want to harm any animal, including snakes and baboons (which I want to shoot). To be Zimbabwean means to have grown up outside, in the bush. To be a cool Zimbabwean means to drive the oldest, toughest Land Rover you can find and have crazy stories about escaping from a hippo’s mouth. I’m making small, tentative steps in this direction with a new-found love of chameleons.

Unfortunately, I recently had the rather traumatic experience of seeing a chameleon get run over while I was staring at it.

The result is an irresistible urge to stop and save chameleons whenever I see them crossing the road, which is often, and must have something to do with rainy season (as does the appearance of the snakes in our garden, apparently).

Being a kiwi, this probably isn’t the wisest thing to do, since I don’t really know the rules of interacting with wildlife/whether Chameleons can hurt you…hence this embarrassing little situation:

Thankfully, it all turned out alright:

Anyways, that’s all from us for now. Other than the wildlife and the internet and the shortages of fresh fruit and vegetables thanks to the stay-away, we are enjoying the cooler weather brought on by the rainy season (we have even dipped below 30 degrees Celsius!).