11 July 2010
Well we finished our marathon shopping trip in South Africa and picked up the clients from the Joburg airport. They are Charlie and Russ, both from the south and both hilarious. Charlie somehow got to calling me Elizabeth, and I was going to correct him but I loved how it sounded in his awesome southern accent so I didn’t. He later on found out what my real name is and was somewhat confused as to why I kept letting him call me ‘Lizbeth. Guess he just didn’t understand.
We headed north the next day and were appalled when we arrived at the border. The line to get in to get our passports stamped was half a mile long and probably would have taken us six hours or so to get through had we been required to stand in it. However, Tokkie knows some reliable people at the border who help expedite the process for him in return for an occasional impala or warthog. Sometimes I wish things worked that way in the States.
The day after we got back to Threeways was Sunday. Having discovered there is a church branch in Masvingo we decided to make the trek out there and see what it was like. We showed the address to Tokkie before we took off and he looked at us doubtfully and told us it was in the “townships,” which is another word for ghetto-ish neighborhood full of black people. We were not deterred and made the 2 and a half-hour journey to Masvingo where we were directed to the correct area by a number of different people. We had no idea whether to be looking for a house, store, hovel or some other sort of building as we had heard it was a fairly tiny branch and so we were astonished to spy a very Mormon-ish looking brick building with a steeple on it and a big plaque on the side with Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints written on it.
We pulled through the open gate into the parking lot where there was only one other vehicle: a white truck with the “LDS Charities” logo on the side. We cautiously entered the building and were greeted by a smiley young man in his Sunday best. They were just singing the opening hymn as we made our way to our seats in the chapel. To our surprise there was a white face sitting up behind the pulpit, and another one playing the electric piano. The rest of the congregation was black, but all were nicely dressed and singing their hearts out. It was fast and testimony Sunday and nearly every person in the room got up and bore their testimony. It was a very neat experience and we had a great time. The white couple apparently only made it out to Masvingo once in a month or 6 weeks and so we were lucky to have caught them. They were from Canada and were serving a mission out here, but will be going home in a few weeks.
Back on the ranch, Charlie and Russ have been making life a lot of fun. They love to joke and play around. They’re always making fun of each other, one saying how the other is deafer than a doornail, the other saying he would use the one as leopard bait but the leopard would never come because he smells so bad, and so on and so forth. They actually remind me a lot of David and Sean when they get together. Lots of fun.
Charlie’s main goal was to shoot a croc, and so for the first 4 or 5 days he and Quinn made daily trips down to the Limpopo to find him a good one. On the 2nd day I asked if I could go along and film the hunt. Charlie obviously had some reservations about whether or not I’d be able to keep up and whether or not I would do anything to put his hunt in jeopardy. I reassured him I knew how to handle myself in the bush and after a while he accepted me as part of the group.
When we finally decided which one he was going to shoot, everything happened fairly quickly. Quinn led us down to a small reed patch on the river and we crawled forward slowly until we were in position. Charlie was just taking the first look down his scope and I was still moving into position to get the shot on film. Generally a hunter will take a minute or two to get comfortable and be 100% sure of the shot on a crocodile because the target area is only about the size of a quarter and any mistakes will mean a wounded croc with almost no chance of recovering the trophy. So Quinn was whispering into his ear to take his time and I was lining up to find the best angle to film from when BANG!! The shot took Quinn and I both by surprise. Quinn’s ears were uncovered and my recording of the event was mediocre at best. Apparently all Charlie heard was Quinn tell him to shoot, and so he shot. Deafer than a doornail.
Anyway, the shot was true and after 2 more just to be sure, the croc gave a few last spasms which shook it off the bank and into the water. However, he was in an eddy and was not swept away in the current. All that was left to do was send Fani out in an inflated tire tube with 2 shovels for paddles and some rope to attach to the croc and we had the trophy on the shore. We took plenty of pictures and skinned the thing. I had a lot of fun digging around in its insides and seeing what was there. It was a female and full of eggs and all sorts of other fun surprises. The heart was beating in my hand long after I had cut it out of the chest and sliced each chamber open to see what was inside. Really cool.
I was actually relieved to have the croc hunting over, as it meant a daily 3-hour each way journey in Quinn’s Toyota Hilux pickup truck. Charlie and Quinn of course sat in the cab, and I had to figure out how to make myself comfortable in the bed with the trackers. It was cold and windy and uncomfortable and my eyeballs were constantly at risk from the thorn bushes flying past my face.
Back here at Threeways Russ has been hunting for a week for his leopard. He and Tokkie are sitting tonight in a blind where a bait has been eaten. Hopefully they will be successful. After leopard Russ wants a croc and a hippo. Not excited for another croc, but a hippo might be fun.
One really nice perk about being based at Threeways instead of the concession is my new piano. I worked long and hard to find it while in South Africa, but finally succeeded. At first we went to look at some really nice refurbished upright pianos. The price was decent and they looked and sounded great. The problem was that we were not going to be able to transport any of them back to the ranch that trip. It would have to wait another 2 weeks or so. So I started thinking that maybe an electric piano was the way to go. They are portable, cost about the same, never need tuning and can be resold for nearly the same price without too much hassle. So I called every ad in the classifieds and finally found someone who had a good enough one for a decent enough price. The piano was delivered to us the morning we were leaving South Africa, and I was playing it that night in my room.
I have since relocated the piano to the lounge area where I entertain (in more than one sense of the word) any guests who are there in the evenings. My repertoire is small and simple but I’m working on expanding it. It’s amazing the amount of free sheet music available on the internet. It’s also amazing the difference it’s made in my state of mind. Without music things just never quite feel complete.
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