Imire safari

Wednesday I went to Imire with Oili, Ngaa (our movie star), Parkkonen family and their “child” Chipo. Imire is an hour and a half drive from our place, Ngaa, Linnea and I sat on the trunk (bouncy and uncomfortable). Before the tour with a car we had refreshments like Mazoe (local orange juice). Imire is a safari and our guide was driving and when we saw an animal he would stop and tell something about it and let us take pictures and video. We saw a solitary black rhino which was accompanied with a guy with a gun. Every rhino has a guard because pouching (killing without permission) is common because some Chinese people are willing to pay great deal of money for rhino horns. They think it will increase their sexuality or something. We also saw elephants and we got to come down from our vehicle and feed them with pellets and this one elephant took a hat off my head, put it in his mouth and then gave it back if asked and afterwards rewarded. Other kids and I did it, but the adults didn’t.  After being in the elephants mouth couple of times the hat was more brown, than the original colour, white. We saw a crocodile, zebras, warthogs (like Pumba on Lion king), buffalos, giraffes, monkeys and gnus (the type of antelope which killed Mufasa on Lion king). One elephant is moving with the buffalos thinking that she is a buffalo herself. She is the biggest so the leader and she has killed 14 male buffalos that have tried to challenge her. Elephants are matriarchal and buffalos patriarchal so that is why the lady elephant thinks she is the leader and that is also why the male buffalos are trying to be in control because it is their nature. It was funny to see how the elephant was pushing buffalos farther from the food with her legs. Rhinos are also funnier creatures than I thought, for such big animals they make a ridiculously small noise; it is quiet and high pitched. We also saw two lions but they were boring and the male walked away. We saw a pig, it was not food for the lions, but a pet at a office, it slept under a desk with a puppy.

Thursday the Finnish boy Luukas turned 14 years old. We made pancakes in the morning and I gave him very-cool-green-shoelaces and a chocolate bar. (I know I’m generous).In the evening we went to a restaurant and the waiters sang Happy Birthday to him, Parkkonen family also took their other “child” with them this time it was; Nomore. The food was good and company even better.

Today I had an English lesson and Nyasha took pictures to send to Kinder Musik. I am going to send the pictures and I also have to remind some sponsors about their payments. Tomorrow morning our bus will leave at 8 am and be at Vic Falls around 8 pm, I have 4 books, MP3 player and the gift of sleeping.

Now I have to stop because I still need to shower and pack and it’s already 10.20 pm.

Love,

 -Laura