Ginger Lemon Tea

 While I was on the cruise with my family last October, I fell in love with Ginger Lemon Tea which I could get at all restaurants in England, Scotland and Ireland - as well as the cruise ship. I found some at home too. When I went to London this month, I could find it at all the restaurants there also. 

In Zimbabwe, I asked for lemon ginger tea and they brought grated ginger, slices of lemon and wanted to serve me regular tea. So I just asked for hot water to pour over the ginger and lemon - and what do you know? It tastes great! Now I know I can have ginger lemon tea for the rest of my stay here in Africa. Nice.

The magic of Victoria Falls

 A ranger/guide/guy with a badge told us that people have paid a lot of money to come here to stand in the mist because it is a blessing from heaven. I thought it was a beautiful fun place to visit. I could see how others would feel like it was a spiritual place. In fact a woman at the conference was telling me about the magic she felt when she was there.

Brent Belnap had been earlier and knew what to look for. He and his son had gone in a helicopter before we had arrived in Zimbabwe, so he knew what would come and what he wanted to capture this visit. He took this picture on the first stop. Drinking in the rainbow.

The old name of the falls from the Batonga people is Mosi-oa-Tunya and means, "the smoke that thunders." The falls are 354 ft down and 5,604 ft, about a mile long. Impressive. Sorry the pictures are so little and narrow - unlike the falls.

Notice the fisherman at the top right of the falls near the trees.
Some people's children!

Ok, short someday!

 This morning was free time as Jeffrey has meetings most of the afternoon - so we went on an Adventure!

We took a helicopter ride over Victoria Falls. This was Jeffrey and my first time in a helicopter. What a great view! We opted for the long trip instead of the short one - twelve minutes versus 25 minutes - and found it was worth it. Our pilot took us on sweeps of the gorge with different views of the falls, and then went up the river between Zimbabwe and Zambia then over the animal preserve where we saw a giraffe, herds of elephants, and some antelope. We had a really great time! 

Jeffrey is on calls and I'm still razzed at our trip. Then to make my day better - I found my computer attachment that reads my SD files in my camera case.  Life is good.

It is hard to show the grandeur and length of these falls in these little small short pictures. Being inside of the picture flying with the birds was a huge high for me. The country is so flat and suddenly the water falls off the edge of these cliffs in a magnificent rush of water. The wind in the gorge pushes the water up so high it will come back down as rain -- as we found out on Monday. 

What a way to start my trip to Africa - With Elephants!

Someday.....

 Someday I will post about the beautiful Victoria Falls. Because right now, I cannot access the files in my camera until I find a part that plugs into the computer and reads the SD file.

I can tell you that the wind sends the mist from the falling water many feet into the air and it comes back down as rain while walking the path next to the falls. My rain coat was totally inadequate and water dripped off my nose and lips while I watched other visitors walking by with umbrellas. 

Beautiful, beautiful place!

Ah, cute!

 I learned something while talking to the staff today at breakfast. The monkeys who come around for handouts (especially the sugar packets in bowls on the table) target women more than men. I thought about it, and yes, Jeffrey wouldn't stand for a monkey by his table while I would say, "he is cute!"

I have been told they will take things out of your pocket if you are not aware.

Bold monkey who steals the sugar packs off the table

ACLARS insights

 I have been spending time at the ACLARS (African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies) conference in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe this week. There are some amazing perspectives and ideas that I have learned about and come to understand. 

For example, Molly told us about the terrible effects of Colonization that have gone on for years. When I talked to her at dinner, we had a conversation regarding my observations that the falls have been here for many hundreds of years, but when Livingstone came along and "discovered" them, they became known as Victoria Falls. In fact there is a big statue of Livingstone where they show that he came in November of 1855 at the beginning of the trail along the falls. That is no time at all in the history of Africa's ancient age and civilizations. (And pretty presumptuous of the English to be the ones to 'discover' something that has been with other people for hundreds of years) Maybe a little like Columbus discovering the Americas when people already lived there.

Molly told me the real name though I cannot pronounce or remember it. She told me it was problematic to change names and places back to before the British and French "settled" Africa. The poorest parts of the community around the falls depend on tourists for their livelihoods. It would have ramifications to change back again to the former name. In fact those people's who once lived and used the falls have been displaced by many others. 

It is like when a ship sinks into the sea and slams onto the bottom of the sea. It will displace and destroy what used to be there. But after years, life grows around it and makes a habitat for other species. 

Though in Africa the colonization has created a poorer and less hospitable place over the long run.

Molly Manyonganise and I at ACLARS

Another class I attended brought up the fact that religion is not taught by religious leaders as much as it was in earlier days. Tic Tok, instagram, Facebook and many other social media markets have a much bigger role in the morals and attitudes than the traditional age and wisdom, or leader roles of 30 or 40 years ago (personal computers were invented in the 80's, the breeding ground for social media to grow).

The first presenter told us about sangomas (Highly respected healer among the Zulu people of South Africa. A sangoma (diagnoses, prescribes, and often performs the rituals to heal a person) and how the spirituality and religion or elder leaders are now in conflict with the miraculous stories and those taking advantage of poverty and who is looking for answers. Where is the influence for spiritual answers and truth coming from. She asked who is the puppet master?

The next presenter (a friend I met in Kenya two years ago) made her point with a story about a rapper who dressed as a muslim leader and videoed his rap song in front of a mosque. It created an uproar. 

And the fallout showed how impressions on social media could be louder than those religious leaders he was slamming. 

The rapper has a bigger following now than he did before.

This was so very insightful for me as I suddenly understood where some of my children were coming from and why they have the views they do. I did not grow up like they did and they all have a much broader and larger fields to draw information from - I was aware of this previously, but now my awareness is acute. 

Thanks to Lee-Shae Scharnick-Udemans from South Africa who made this point clear and understandable to me. I am so glad that I came today to her class.

Jeffrey and I with Lee-Shae