MAY 13, 2019 - CAMELTHORN LODGE/HWANGE (morning)

May 13, 2019

Just when I think we’ve experienced the highlight of our trip, something new happens to elevate this trip to yet another level. Today was one of those incredible days. We started out by getting to sleep in until 6:30AM (woohoo!!) and from there set out to see the village and surrounds instead of a safari. First up was the medical clinic they are trying to get built, they have no doctor in the village and the nearest hospital is 300km away. The funding is sporadic so they build as money permits. When the facility is complete then the government will send a doctor to work there, but the village has to fund the construction through donations. They mix the concrete in the dirt and each brick is hand cast. Just the footings for one building took 150 bags of concrete at $10 a bag. Next up was a visit to the anti-poaching team headquarters located deep in the woods. After driving through the dense brush for quite some time, we came across a log over the road blocking our path. Our guide got out to move the log and from all sides the woods just erupted with activity, 9 guys jumped out of the bushes in full on camo with branches and leaves stuck in their clothing and masks on their faces. Our guide ran back to the jeep and my first initial thoughts were sheer panic, were we being mugged by guerillas, or will we be taken hostage? Soon laughter erupted and it became clear that it was a prank on our guide by the anti-poaching team - but i know my adrenaline was still pumping for the next 10 minutes! My life flashed before my eyes! We followed them into their camp headquarters where they gave us a talk and demonstration about what they are doing to protect the wildlife. Mainly they are patrolling the woods looking for snares set by the poachers and much of what they are finding are old abandoned snares but they also found one that was just a couple months old, so it is still an issue. They haven’t caught a poacher yet but they are primed and ready for the challenge. These young men were the best of the best out of 500 applicants for the job, and there are about a dozen of them. They’ve been trained like green berets to survive in the wilderness, to conceal themselves, and to deal with all kinds of wildlife. The company that owns our lodge is very involved in the community trying to bridge the gap between the animal/human conflicts and conservation. Sometimes the animals do have to be killed if they are killing villagers or livestock, or ruining the farms. But they are also being educated on alternative ways to balance the need for subsistence and also preserving the wildlife. By creating monetary rewards through creation of jobs, and giving back to the community in ways such as helping with funding to build the medical clinic, the “older” villagers can see how the safari industry actually helps them and provides benefit to the village. For instance, because of this industry, our guide has been able to educate all three of his children. This is not the norm here. Families have to pay to send their children to school even at the elementary school level, along with buy uniforms and supplies. Which brings us to our next stop, the local school through age 12 where we met the principal and head teacher. There are 450 children attending this school, some of whom have to walk up to 13km each way just to get to and from school each day. They were the most well behaved children we have seen, were smiling, happy, healthy, and found us white people to be quite interesting! We were taking pictures and showing them their photos and they would just erupt in laughter and would crowd around us hamming it up. Every day the Moms make up 3 giant cauldrons of porridge that the kids would eat for lunch. There is no running water at the school, the kids squat over a hole to eliminate, and teachers are paid about $150/mo. They rely on donations from a Christian organization although I didn’t catch which one it was. Considering the lack of infrastructure, these kids couldn’t have been more cheerful. Next stop was the village “Sub Chief” which we understood to be second in charge behind the actual Chief. He was 86 years old, had 3 wives, several girlfriends, over 20 children and we learned it is just all the norm for this culture. Even our guide’s father had 5 wives, although he said if he took another wife there would be war at home so he is monogamous. We talked about the role he serves which is sort of like an arbitration. Parties in disagreement or accused of a petty crime come to him for judgment. He decides the penalty, which is usually a cow or two, or for really egregious offenses maybe up to 5 cows. He is the stop gap before something is actually reported to police, so he keeps it in the village. Next stop was the local marketplace where we picked up a few souvenirs - our baggage allowance is basically nothing so it’s sort of hard to bring much of anything home. Back to the lodge for lunch.