Monday, November 7

Well this morning started with great excitement.  Some guests at the resort left their door open and a troop (is that the right collective noun?) of baboons came in and started to rearrange things!!  (and, no, it wasn't one of us leaving the door open!).  Just shows you that even on your worst day THAT wasn't something you had to deal with!!

We spent the morning packing up and getting ready for the trip back to Harare.  Time for a short shopping trip in Victoria Falls to buy a few more trinkets ... although judging from the size of the trinkets that Dona Lou and Patricia had to carry all the way back on the plane, trinket may not be the word we are looking for.

The trip back to Harare was without incident ... Air Zimbabwe has really good cabin service.  The flight takes just an hour.  Once we got on the ground again, however, we ran into trouble.  No bus from AU to ferry us back to the Holiday Inn.  Turns out there was a schedule mix up.  So after a number of phone calls we hopped into three taxis and tore out of the airport.  And away we went.  The shocks in at least one of the taxis probably haven't worked since independence in 1980.

But we made it back, retrieved the luggage that we had left behind in the storeroom at the hotel and started the process of rearranging and repacking.  Many of us left our big suitcases behind at AU for students to use so now we have to share out the space.  And, of course, there seems to have been a lot of economic support of local industry that happened while we were here!! (i.e., shopping).

We have had a wonderful trip. The wheels are already starting to spin about what comes next ... presentations to various churches and groups, articles to write, contacts to maintain, people to nag and so on.  And the joking, teasing and laughter continues -- we've really gotten to know each other well in these weeks together.  But now it is time to go home.  We've accomplished what we set out to do and then some.  We will leave a bit of ourselves in this place (to say nothing of several suitcase of stuff!!).

Blessings to all and to all a good night!