The relativity theory in Africa

Photo 1: Former Students of the SAWC

Photo 2: Stephen playing drums with community children.

Photo 3: The end of the curios line

Photo 4: Mana scores five stars for game

Community Children having fun with the Enviro Picture Building Game.

Photo 7: Respect the Enviroment - Group photos with community children.

relativity theory in Africa

I think all the dogs in Africa must have the same father. They are all light brown, medium sized dogs with long faces and tails. Breed? Canis Africanus.

They are very nice and friendly, but can't talk. I mean like you and I can talk. When I introduced myself to one for the first time, he growled at me. I had to switch over to dogspeak to calm him down. Now really...

I envy them for the big backyard they can run in, but the problem is most of them can't really run. Like their owners they are always hungry. Underfed and weak. Relative to them I have a king's life. Come to think of it, relative to any other dog, I have a king's life.

All this makes me think of another example of relativity that I experienced over the last few days on the Outreach. If you go from Mana Pools to Hwange, it seems that you are going from none-graded accommodation to five star. Mana is basic. Very basic. The ablutions are clean, but deteriorated. And apart from a few water taps, there's nothing else in the campsite. Yet, if you want a wild African experience, Mana is five star. At night you hear lion prides from both sides of the Zambezi competing to be heard. Hyenas not only make themselves heard, they come right up to your tent, sniffing for something to scavenge. Somehow they stayed far away from me. Fear I guess...

One night we got very excited when a hippo cruised through the camp. The next moment the main show started when a lion chased the hippo and the hyenas started laughing. Nervous cowards.

However, let me get back to relativity. After Mana Pools, Hwange's neat camp, thatched huts and everything looked superior. But if you know had to go from the Kruger National Park to Hwange, the place might seem rather bleak, basic and run down. It is so sad to see how a flagship could deteriorate like this.

Another interesting thing happened yesterday when we went to Vic Falls to fill up with fuel. Just outside town they have these African Craft stalls. But due to the lack of tourists coming to Zim lately these enterprises have died. I feel sad for the guys not making a few bucks out of the tourists anymore, but I feel happy for the trees. Now that there is less demand, fewer trees are being cut down to make giraffes, hippos and masks. Which brings us to a new type of curios they are selling in town these days. Now that the rand is accepted as local currency, nobody wants to deal in zillion dollar Zim notes anymore. But they are being sold as curios. Soon there will be none left, so the price is going up. The biggest one, a 100 000 trillion dollar note will fetch as much as US$10 these days.

It's all a question of relativity, you see.

This is Buddy, barking off.