A video of hope...and some memories of Zimbabwe and Rwanda.

I don't know about you but these days I am reaching out and trying to keep in touch with those I love. I am checking in making sure that people are okay. I know that everyone is handling what is happening differently. Some are taking it in stride, some are burying their heads in the sand trying to avoid any news coverage, some are feeling like they are losing their minds as they try to tackle the task of working and home schooling elementary age children. Part of my reaching out has included reaching out to friends near and far. Sometimes it is just a text with hey how are you, sometimes it is a funny meme that I have found, sometimes it is a longer conversation or setting up a date for a zoom happy hour or game night, and sometimes we exchange pictures or videos.

Today I connected with a lot of people who mean a lot to me. I got to get out and go for a run with my running buddy Seth. We got to laugh a bit. He is always trying to get me to run faster so when I hit the goal he has been setting for me for over a year now I celebrated and I hit him at our mile mark and kept telling him what my pace was....and like a good relative and someone who always moves the bar higher he pretended I was wrong...he says no that wasn't the goal it was 30 seconds a mile faster :-) . I think maybe it is all the time I spend on Zoom or maybe it is the ethanol I am consuming that is contributing to my increase in speed these days while running. I had a "happy hour" zoom with a great friend too, she had wine and I had water since I still needed to get in my run. I made a birthday video for my friend Clement who will be 27 on April 7 in Zimbabwe!!!

Happy Birthday Clement. So I felt like I needed to give a huge shout out to Clement since he is spending his birthday inside. The days I spent with Clement were amazing. It started with our first safari. He pulls over and asks if I like birds. I tell him they don't really do it for me. Needless to say by the end of my time with Clement and absolutely by the end of my tine in Africa I grew to love bird watching and even bought a book. I think on that same morning safari he pulled over to teach us about the dung beetle. Yes I learned there are four types. I learned all about the termites and the mounds. Clement in his former life was a teacher. He took his love of learning to teaching everything you could ever want to know and even things you never thought you would want to know about African fauna, flora, animals, insects, weather, or anything else that has anything to do with being outside in Zimbabwe. He got to spend a whole day with us taking us to the village. For those of you who don't know the safari guides usually spend from 6:00 am until about 10:30 am with you on the morning safari. Then they disappear to be alone. You don't see them again until 3:30 or 4 when it's time for your afternoon safari. You spend another 3 hours give or take with them. They then rotate who "gets" to eat dinner with us. So spending from 6 am until 7:30 pm with us was either a treat or it could've been the longest day of the year. As it turned out we laughed all day, those big belly laughs. We laughed so hard I cried at times...and if I even tried to tell anyone what was so funny you would look at the three of us like we were crazy. It was one of those magical days that you know you will never forget. On our way home we kept running into very stressed elephants who were right in our path home. It was elephant after elephant. The first set was pretty interesting. Clement was teaching (of course) us how we could tell they were stressed, and the elephants were warning us, and he told us to get our cameras ready. Well he didn't exactly tell us what we were getting ready for. Turns out we were getting ready for the elephant to "fake" charge us. Of course when the elephant charged us, or what we thought charged us, our cameras went down. You can hear Clement on Sue's video "Tell me you got that". What did not get captured on the video is me saying...."um, no you didn't tell us to put our diapers on." Then the second set of elephants was even sort of interesting since we had a four year old elephant trying to charge us and all the adults had different ideas. I think it was 20-30 minutes later and I don't know how many sets of elephants later that I was about over running into stressed elephants on our path to the camp. It was still a perfect end to a magical day.

Well, Clement is celebrating his birthday with the safaris shut down until at least July and Zimbabwe ordered locked down. They are currently on day 8 of 21 day ordered locked down. In Zimbabwe that is not a stay at home order that is a locked down order. They cannot go outside their homes for 21 days. They do not get to exercise. They must stay inside. So hopefully even though Clement doesn't have the crazy old Americans he might have been trying to lose that day I hope he has an amazing birthday. I am sure the animals miss him. Here is a video he sent me today showing what it took for him to be a guide. So I thought I would share it with you.

I also connected with Herbert in Rwanda. If you read any of my other blogs you know that both Rwanda and Zimbabwe touched me in very different ways. Herbert's first impression of me was not necessarily the best. I had just gotten off a 27 hour flight, he had successfully deposited us at our hotel in Kigali. We had eaten dinner. It was close to 11 pm when I realized I had not picked up the tripod I had checked at the last minute at baggage claim. I called Herbert wondering if I should go back to the airport to get the tripod at 11 am in Rwanda. He must have thought I was a crazy airhead American. That tripod was so important. Humphreys (the lens I had rented just for this trip) needed the tripod. Herbert took it all in stride, did some of the worrying for me and explained that me heading back to the airport was perhaps the worst idea I could possibly have. Thank goodness that it was a better week after that. Herbert was amazing! He was always making sure we had the best experiences. The impossible chimp trek in the morning that absolutely physically exhausted us but no way could we miss that 2 mile canopy walk in the afternoon with those really high high high did I mention high cable bridges? Or the absolute hardest, most grueling hike to see the largest gorilla family. It was of course the most difficult gorilla family to reach. I always liked to tell Herbert he was the gift that kept on giving. :-). He really was. I cannot wait for my girls to meet Herbert and his family. We will meet again. I keep telling him that. Herbert and I have been communicating a bit more. My communications with Herbert are updates on the country. He rarely focuses on his family. Herbert is so proud of his country and always wants me to know first how the people of his country are doing. When we spoke Friday it was hard. He told me of how food is scarce and families are sharing their portions of beans with other families so people don't starve. They are also not leaving their homes in Rwanda. In Rwanda they are very much about the village is their community and the village takes care of its own. Herbert told me his community leader rarely comes to visit even. He came to bring some food. He went on to describe how hard it is on his children because they don't remember the genocide they just know that everyone hugs and that is how you greet one another and they are not allowed to hug or express themselves the way they are accustomed to as Rwandans. I worry for Herbert and his country. We made him a video today too just to say hi. He reminded me that today was the day in 1994 that the plane crashed that was carrying Rwanda's president. When that plane crashed the genocide in Rwanda began. So not only are the people of Rwanda not able to gather support from each other during this current crisis and express themselves the way they are accustomed but today begins the anniversary of a very dark time in their history. So when Herbert also sent me a video today it was so nice. This video really gives me hope. I already shared it on my facebook page but I thought I would share it here with some of my favorite images from Rwanda.

I miss the smiles of the children of Rwanda. I miss them turning when would hear us coming and waving and saying Mzungu. But the video Herbert sent shows the hope Rwanda has. It was a video I needed to see today. I will leave you with some of those smiling faces of Rwanda.

Hug those you can. Cherish these moments because even though it doesn't feel like it now they will be ones you may want back one day. Check in on those you love. Find ways to connect. Take care of you.