Voyages & Views

We traveled about 15 minutes to the National Stadium in Harare for the convention. Attendance is about 22,000 in person and another 20,000 in 12 different locations in the country that tie-in for the talks by branch representatives Gage Fleagle and Michael Banks. There were 549 baptized at the stadium and another 335 at the other locations.

There are two video walls for the English side and 6 for the Shona language side.

Bev and I noticed how well-behaved the children are; listening and taking notes.

We gave out buttons that Bev designed with Arizona motifs. This young girl gave me her drawing in exchange. It says “We Welcome You”.

Had to get a pic of this little guy having fun with stickers.

Safe and secure.

This girl wanted to be hugged.

Aleisha and Kalisha are cousins who were seated next to us. Aleisha is 12 and was baptized last January. She is in the choir for the Evening Gathering so we already enjoyed her talents.

Some sisters from Tucson joined us with our convention banner. It went to the Rwanda convention two weeks ago with friends attending from Tucson. When we return home, we’ll hand it off to others going to Sri Lanka then Indonesia.

When I handed young Mudiwa a convention button, he gave me this note. So I had to get a pic with him and the note to remember who gave it to me. It was so thoughtful that he wanted to have something to share. Mudiwa means Beloved in Shona.

I greeted this sister and she asked me how I was enjoying Zimbabwe, then she proudly said that her daughter Koruna was baptized on Saturday. At 8 years old, she was the youngest baptized and the oldest was 92.

How exciting for her to be baptized at a special convention.

We had so many who wanted to get photos holding the banner. I joked with Bev the photos will be on many family refrigerators in Harare.

Her mom was happy when I asked to take a pic of this precious girl.

One of the highlights of our week was working in the ministry with the Dema congregation. It is a community about an hour from Harare and there is an English and Shona Congregation. We learned some greetings in the primary language of Shona as well as some local customs for approaching the householders.

As with all of our activities we are provided bus transportation.

Zimbabwe is truly a “preaching paradise” as the people are hospitable and have a love and respect for the Bible. No one turned us away and many would watch a video or read a scripture with us.

A local brother or sister took two delegates with them in the ministry. I envy the brothers like Gabe from Hawaii who can wear an Aloha shirt for all theocratic activities!

The homes are very modest but the response was encouraging. Bev’s partner Brenda has 7 bible studies and said that some pioneers have up to 20 studies. That is me at the back of the group with my practical sun hat on. It is winter but we are at 5,000 feet altitude so the sun is intense.

Of course the kids were adorable and curious about us as foreigners.

Our service group took a break and our group leader treated us to Coca Cola.

He also treated us to the local snack Maputi.

Eugene was from Dema and guided us in the ministry. Sister Lily is from Boston.

The brothers and sisters were so welcoming!

With a free morning, we decided to visit Avondale Market which is an open air market for crafts and souvenirs.

As convention delegates had been visiting all week, the vendors learned to call out to as “brother or sister”. Savy marketing!

Quite a variety of wares including wood and stone carvings.

Very attractive carvings but no space in the luggage…

The animal bead art was very colorful and appealing.

During the global financial crisis, Zimbabwe experienced “hyperinflation” to an extreme degree. The government kept printing higher denominations to the point that a Trillion Dollar note was not enough for bus fare. I purchased these as souvenirs as they fit in my luggage so I am now officially a billionaire 🙂

One of our activities was a visit to Wild is Life a wildlife conservation organization that rehabilitates and “rewilds” orphaned and injured elephants and other animals.

A baby elephant that was rescued after being orphaned.

A Kudu

Giraffes and impalas roaming the grounds.

We had never heard of a Pangolin before learning about them at Wild is Life. It is an ant eater with scaly exterior armor made of keratin (like fingernails). The tongue is as long as the body so it can search in ant hills for food. Unfortunately it is endangered as there is a market for the scales similar to a Rhino’s horns.

Johnny is one of two Pangolin caretakers who look after this one named Marimba full time.

High Tea is served as we sit on the veranda watching the wildlife.

Fancy!

We were transported to the open air Assembly Hall for a meal and the evening gathering. While we asked not to post anything about the program, trust us that it was filled with exuberant song and dance including the most adorable “If I were a Cart” number with little children!. We’ll invite you over to the house to watch the videos.

The welcome banner entering the site.

We enjoyed visiting with our brother Zealous.

Young sister Precious was hard at work with food service.

Delegates from Portugal, Andre and Marta told us how they met when he was serving in the Lisbon Russian congregation when she and her brother arrived as refugees from Ukraine. Their first meeting together in person was the 2022 Memorial and 2 1/2 years later they married.

We met little Achipa and her mother who were seated by us during the program.

We took a short hour flight from Victoria Falls to Harare the capital of Zimbabwe.

Our hotel for the week is the Bronte Garden which was built in 1911 as a private residence. The grounds and colonial style are beautiful.

The brothers and sisters at the hotel delegates information desk were very welcoming and helpful.

Delegates received a sling bag with the attractive elephant logo for the convention.

We had a 6:45 am departure for our first activity, a visit to the Pamuzinda Safari Lodge about 90 minutes from Harare.

This street sign caught my eye. Which street would you choose to visit???

3 buses of delegates met at the Pamuzinda Safari Lodge to enjoy a morning of animal encounters and jeep game drives followed by lunch.

Jasmine is the resident giraffe. She was orphaned and raised on the property with the horses so the guide said she thinks she is a horse :).

A herd of wildebeest.

Our guide Wayne explained that the female zebra will separate from the herd to give birth. She will spend 2-3 weeks with her newborn foal so it can visually imprint on the mother’s stripe pattern. She will then always be able to pick the mom out of the herd.

The Vervet monkey is known to be very cheeky and will steal your food if you are not careful.

We joined a guided jeep tour of the game preserve adjacent to the lodge. Michael has been a game guide here for over 30 years and we enjoyed his narration along our trip.

There are only 6,500 black rhinos in Africa and about 600 in Zimbabwe. The park rangers cut the horns to make them less desirable to poachers who kill them for their valued horns. Like finger nails, the horns grow back over several years.

A herd of water buffalo crossed our path.

Michael explained that the giraffe’s coat darkens with age so this male was about 20 years old.

Zebras have very poor eye sight so they smartly stay with a herd of impalas at night. The zebra will be alerted to predators by the fleeing of the impalas.

The land cruiser had a grill protector that transformed to a bar top for serving drinks.

Michael stopped for us to enjoy the sunset. Glad our driver is sticking to coke. Gotta get me one of those grill guard/bar tops for my truck!

We toasted the African sunset 🙂

Bev booked a morning elephant encouter experience where they take a group out to a group of 7 elephants and allow us to interact with them.

This herd of 7 includes the male Chambo who is 42 years old.

It was a very exciting a somewhat intimidating experience. Even though they had been trained, you are always conscious that it is a 10 foot tall, 15,000 lbs wild animal that flick its trunk at you or step on your foot.

We met up with friends from Tucson who had just attended the Rwanda Special Convention for a sunset dinner cruise on the Zambezi river.

It was a very enjoyable cruise and dinner and allowed us to catch up on their experiences in Rwanda.

Victoria Falls, known as “Mosi-oa-Tunya” or “The Smoke That Thunders,” was first documented by European explorer David Livingstone in 1855, who named it after Queen Victoria. It forms the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia on the Zambezi river.

We took about 2 hours to walk through the rainforest along the edge of the Falls stopping at 24 viewpoints along the way,

The paths were quite slippery from the mist which turned to rain at certain points.

Victoria Falls is classified as the largest based on its combined width of 1,708 meters (5,604 ft) and height of 108 meters (354 ft), resulting in the world’s largest sheet of falling water.

The bridge connecting Zimbabwe with Zambia was built in 1905 and includes a railway. The vision was to connect Cairo to Cape Town by rail.

When you straddle the border on the bridge, it is called doing the “Zim-Zam” 🙂

The view of the falls from the bridge.