Här följer ett brev jag fick av en av mina kollegor i Zimbabwe häromdagen...

Greetings to all and I do hope that this year is going well for everyone. Seeing that there is recently so much bad news out there about Zim, I thought I’d just let everyone know that we are still ok here. Janine and I are still busy with our safaris and looking after Kimba Melu – our baby elephant – Whiskey the pig, Kimba’s companion, Tilley the Serval cat, Ned, Carrots, Edna, Tigger and Jupiter the dogs, Pablo the (domestic) cat, all the horses, cows, rabbits, sheep, guinea pigs, chickens and guinea fowls! Of course there are all the staff and school kids at Siya Lima to think about so life is never dull in Zim. Despite the doom and gloom of the international media, there still is life here. The majority of the problems are in the high density residential urban areas – as is the general case with countries like Zimbabwe going through the political maturation process. Yes inflation is rampant but we still can get our food supplies and fuel.

Janine and I are very often on the road driving from Harare to one safari area or other or checking up on the horses in Hwange. At no time do we feel unsafe and generally the rural people are calm and just concentrating on surviving through these difficult times of our countries history.

Only last weekend were we at a farm where we were competing in a Huntin’, Fishin’, Shootin’ and Bikin’ fun weekend. This involves horse riding, clay pigeon shooting, fishing and motor biking by a team. A great chance to catch up with ones friends and have a good time. The police of course arrived, wondering what the heck was going on (having being previously been informed of the weekend!). they just wanted to check on the legalities and make sure no diplomats were there..? Well they were a bit stunned by it all. Here’s a bunch of folk with guns and ‘Huntin’ on horses and not a dead animal to be seen in sight, a bunch of guys out fishing, catching fish and THEN releasing them!!! And of course a mob of guys on motorbikes going nowhere because they are going round and round in circles!!! Very strange these people, and so the police left even more confused.



So yes life goes on, we just change and adapt to each new day and find that without the challenges, life is well, rather anesthetised. So come visit and get your daily dose of survival challenges if you are a rut, feeling bored and would like to come help fix a rural school or come help work on Siya Lima House for a holiday!?



Thank you for thinking of us, see you sometime and if you are missing the bush, get yourself a copy of a fantastic new book by Adrian Bailey and Robyn Keene-Young, ‘Safari. Journey through wild Africa’ ISBN 1 – 77oo7-394-9 or check out http://www.struik.co.za – enjoy!



Best regards

James and Janine