Day 17: July 10, Zimbabwe

This morning was another crisp, beautiful one and the camp was bathed in soft sunlight this morning. We visited Ngamo village today... ... and the school in the village...
The kids were fabulous - in 6th grade, aged between 10 and 13 years old. They were too sweet, and we talked about everything from customs to boyfriends, education system to favorite foods, etc. The girl who first approached me was named "Martha" (too funny) and she's in the center of the photo below:
She was too sweet, and once again, the kids had a great time taking photos with my camera:
They danced for us...

.. and even though they were not supposed to, they asked us for pens and school supplies anyway (how could they not? they're in 6th grade!) Martha told me at one point that she liked my hair... and I told her that I liked hers as well. It was too sweet:
The school buildings:
We also visited Johnston, the leader of the village (called the Headman) and his homestead. Johnston oversees a group of about 50 homesteads, and his family was so warm and friendly as they showed us around their home. Here is his granddaughter, Sandy, who was born at the homestead two years prior... an absolutely gorgeous child:
Their homes are gorgeous, and follow the local tradition of painting the outside. The tradition in this part of the world is to keep the exterior of your home as gorgeous as possible, as this shows that you have a happy, healthy and well cared for homestead that you are proud of. Johnston's son - and heir apparent - had painted this on his home. (Note the solar panel on the left, which was given to them by the government.)
As we were at the homestead, the Johnston kids came home from school, so of course we had to play with the digital camera again:

On our drive back to the lodge, we saw lots of animals, including zebra, kudu, giraffes, warthogs, wildebeests, monkeys, bushbucks, bat-eared fox, black-backed jackal, baboons, duiker, dwarf mongoose, ground hornbill, and an eland antelope (below):
Here's the front of our tent:
The afternoon drive was wonderful as well, and saw tons of animals at the water holes. As we left, there was a group of very happy elephants playing in the mud. (I especially love the little baby on the left who was having a grand time rolling around in the muck):
Here's a very happy, very muddy elephant:

It was rather a night of romance as well, as we stumbled across a mating pair of lions. I did give them a bit of privacy when they did the deed, though, and didn't take photos of the mating moment. (The researchers that had stopped to study them, however, were not quite as discreet. Side note that's completely irrelevant: Lion researchers are really cute!) The variety of animals was fabulous:
Here's a local bar:
And token dorky shot of me and an elephant:
Even the baboons were getting in the romantic mood, and several of them were mating too. (I didn't get a photo of that... just a few sitting on a termite mound catching the last warm rays of the setting sun.)
Sunset...

On the way home, more lions:
And that night, we had a drumming circle and we danced until we were all out of breath. They taught us some traditional local dances, and we taught them the Bunny Hop. (Yay Joanne!)
The stars here - if it's even possible - are even more impressive, especially now that there is no moon until after midnight. The darkness is complete, and the heavens are simply stunning with all of the stars twinkling in the sky. It's so painfully romantic I can't even express to you how breathtakingly beautiful it is to see. I am so sad that I can't get a photo of the stars... but I'll have to just take a mental photo and keep it in my heart...

It's brutally cold tonight... but tomorrow morning is our last game drive so I have to suck it up and go. I can't believe this trip has gone by so quickly, and that I'll be back in the states in just a few more days. First, though, we slowly move back into civilization, with stays at Victoria Falls and Cape Town... looking forward to that.

G'night.