Africa, the birth continent of the Homo Sapiens, Does not only host some of the most promising eexemplarsof this species, but it also has a lot of other species to offer. And after having been now sometime in Africa I finally went on a Safari last Sunday.
So in the morning we woke up early to get to Imire game park. There were nine of us coming along. Oili, three female Finnish volunteers, one father and four Dzikwa kids. These were 14 year old Edwin and Tawanda, who are taking Piano lessons with Sara, ten-year old Nyasha and cute seven-year-old Spalencia.
We drove there by car and as Sara and Jenni had taken on the task of bringing the four children from Dzivara Sekwa to the meeting point in Harare, I decided I would enjoy to spend the trip there with three of the children in the boot. One was always allowed to sit in the front. There first Tawanda, Nyasha and Spale slowly started opening up and telling about their favourite animals and their hopes for this day. We read a book by Spale's sponsor on an elephant who thought he was a Buffalo, who actually lives in Imire game park, listened to some music(Tawanda had the song Call me maybe and a video of him playing piano on his phone), did some voice recording on my phone and sang a bit ourselves. In the middle of the route Edwin and Tawanda changed places so that I could also ask Edwin about his dreams: He wants to be an aircraft engineer and a pianist and after this trip an expert on antelopes -> He should design a piano for antelopes ;)
While we were enjoying the view, Spale fell asleep on top of me, which was good since after that she managed the day bravely and fell asleep only once more.
As we arrived in Imire, the first thing to do was enjoy some tea and then go jump on the trampolin. So much fun! (Even for the volunteers who were running around it in fear that Spalencia would fall onto the metallic bars surrounding the trampolin). Very inspiring is to see, how well they can share the activity without being selfish and especially how caring these two boys were of the younger girls, helping with translation, putting the jacket on, etc.
So here you can see me running around the trampolin trying to catch her for the possible fall. Well, she did fall but never onto the metall bars, thanks god!
We drove in an open Safari car, where we had two drivers and a guide + a few Korean, English and Amercian visitors as companions. To be honest I think the reactions of the kids made the trip better for everyone and we were close to charging the other visitors for this extra benefit ;)
Nyasha, Oili, Antti and Spale in the Safari car Girls writing in their notebooks
At least for me it was more than double as good with the children, who were asking to take pictures with my cameras, looking with big eyes at the animals and asking for spellings of the animals as they all received little notebooks in which they were supposed to write down all the names and information of the animals, so that this trip also had a purpose for them. Edwin's enthusiasm actually went so far as to draw pictures of the animals into his notebook.
First we encountered some caged animals: There was a pair of hyenas who had received the cage as part of their pension since they were rather too old to care for themselves and so now the community has taken on the task to feed them. The next cage inhabitant was the former Oscar, who know has another name as he was kind enough to kill his wife in a fit of rage. He now has a Shona name describing pretty much that incident. For the children the lion was rather calm and resting, but as soon as everybody was leaving my father decided to be a bad role model, first put his hand through the fence while Spalenciya was watching and then he somehow woke the lion so much up that that one started pacing around, licking his teeth and even growling at my father. Here you see my father flirting with a lion.
Next we encountered a wild zeal(they are not called herd) of zebras. And even though here these ones are sharing their food, these animals tend rather to kick each other including poor pregnant zebra mothers =(After that we went to visit Tatenda and his friends. Tatenda is a black rhinozerus and also a film star! He has been the main actor in There's a Rhino in my House (http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/rhino-my-house/). Here you can see only part of his horn, because every two years the horns have to be removed in a painful operation, which nowadays are at least done with sedatives, as otherwise the rhinos would become targets of hunters, who want the horn of rhinos as this is considered a medicine in some African and Asian regions or a hunter trophy in the USA or Europe. Please have a look at this link to learn more about this threat to these amazing animals:
www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2014-10-29-op-ed-are-rhinos-abandoned-by-all-but-shouth-aftrica/#.VFH5A_SUeA1
www.wwf.de/themen-projekte/weitere-artenschutzthemen/wilderei/nashorn-wilderei/
The black rhinos are different from white as they have a square mouth. While they were using these mouths to eat, a family of five warthogs, one mother with her four adorable children, came creeping along to also get their share of food. The family slowly but surely approached the rhinos and in the end they were peacefully eating next to each other. The warthogs also were so attached to us that they decided to follow our car for the next five minutes probably in hope of new food. 
Then we met a lot of different antelopes who are pretty cool as some of them are elegant and rather delicate(Impala), whereas others look sturdy and even weird(Eland) and more aggressive but beautiful sable antelope, who is also the national animal of Zimbabwe.
Sable antelope in all her beauty
http://www.imire.org/2012/12/focus-on-sable-antelope/#.VFaXuPmUclE
The most intricate and stunning part though are always the horns which can be ripped, crescent-shaped or twisted. By the way, the Eland is also the Totem of Tawanda, who is posing here with the Eland. The Totem in Zimbabwe kind of is the allocated animal or body part that one of their ancestors chose and that marks now his clan. Intermarriage or relationships between the same totems are forbidden. As they are in a way relatives, traditional Zimbabweans are also not allowed to eat their totem, so Tawanda will never get to eat Eland antelopes, but that is rather good as it is endangered and only found naturally in Zimbabwe. 
While we were still admiring the Eland a giraffe came visiting from the nearby waterhole and brought her baby along - it was maybe double as tall as me. Have you ever thought about how complicated it is to eat, if you don't have any hands and then add too long legs and a too "short" neck eh voila that's how giraffes eat. A pretty funny sight is to see how they slowly glide into a split and then faster than one blinks they pull their legs together and stand upright. But while the giraffe was an amazing animal with its intricate patterns, its eating style and all its features behind it we were already spotting an elephant group and nothing could tear our attention from them. Especially Nyasha was very excited and had asked all the time, when we were finally going to see the elephants. Well, we weren't disappointed. It was a herd of five including a rather young elephant who was already suffering from an "elephant leg", which seemed to be painful. Poor baby! However, that didn't stop us to admire these magnificent animals. They are absolutely great! Big, rough skinned, grey, gentle and wise eyes and seriously big ears-> bigger than Spale! Also the teeth are elegant and the trunk is an incredible creation of nature. How they find their food with it, and then bend it to put into their mouthes. It is like a far more delicate, but also stronger and more flexible arm of a human, which can also breathe. 
Finally the highlight for the children came: Since Dzikwa has visited Imire with many guests and children over the years a tradition has evolved, which allows the Dzikwa children to ride the elephants! And that was what happened. First Tawanda got onto the back and then Spale bravened by his example followed, but instead of climbing up she was treated more like a doll =D
Next Nyasha and Edwin had their turn and from my perspective it looked like they had so much fun, besides being incredible excited, a bit afraid and more than proud on their place in the world at that moment. After all the excitement was over, we then continued our safari with longing looks back to the elephants. While calming down the exhilarated children. The next half an hour was rather tiring as the sun came out, until then it had been the perfect cloudy but dry day for pictures and the safari car moved like a ship on the waves. What I am trying to say is that Spale soon fell asleep in my father's arms, while he was telling Nyasha eleph-"Antti" and "Antti"-lope jokes. I just love these moments when there are not so many children and you can give your full attention and listening capacity to one child instead of so many without having a bad conscience. 
Then we finally arrived at the border of a small lake, where the most delicious food was awaiting us. Myself, I was very impressed and reminded of home and my mother due to the two bean salads, but that was nothing compared to the children, who probably received one of the most varied and tastiest meals in their life, so that afterwards in Edwin's opinion the lunch even beat the elephant ride as the highlight of the day. One could see the three older ones rushing down their food, while Spale was slowly but persistantly picking at her food with the unfamiliar fork. In the end, my dad decided to help her and here I was seeing my adorable dad sitting in front of this little girl and cutting her food into biteable sizes ^_^
We even got a cake as dessert, which all of them still somehow managed to wolf down. In the meanwhile our warthog family came by and started to enjoy their meal. And yes they also have had to find a way how to reach their food.
Sadly after the meal it got time to slowly but surely move back to the entrance. However, we were lucky enough to encounter still quite a few inhabitants of Imire game park, such as more and more antelopes, a few white rhinos, this crocodile, which is NyashaxSpale, when it comes to age (70=10x7) ;)And our last stop was a buffalo herd, whose matriarch was the elephant Nzou. She had grown up with the buffaloes and believes she is a buffalo herself. So if you ever go to Imire, please don't forget to bring a large enough mirror along XD
All in all, it was one of the best days in my life and that also mainly because of Tawanda, Edwin, Nyasha and Spalenciya and of course not to forget my dad. I just wish we could go again.
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