Zimbabwe Vacation #7&8

Day 7

We were awaken early this morning April 21st by a screaming Gracie! I was still half asleep, and frustrated at the prospect of being up at 1am with a crying baby. I quickly went to hand her to Shea so she could began what I hoped would be a soothing feed that would put her right back to sleep. Right as I was about to hand her to Shea I looked down and her face was covered with at least a dozen ants. I felt horrible! Our poor little 7 month old was being eaten in her sleep by those pesky little ants. I quickly brushed her off, and we changed her clothes. I went to her bed and found a nice trail of ants going into her bed and making a circle around her crib mattress. We killed and cleaned out many ants from her crib and repositioned the crib in our own mosquito net hoping this would discourage any future “attacks”. We tucked her back in bed for the rest of our short night.

We awoke early for the morning as we had a long drive ahead. We quickly packed everything in the van, and hit the road for our long 8 hour journey back to Antelope Park. It was a long, but fairly uneventful drive. Gracie serenaded our van with her screams for at least the first 2-3 hours of the trip. She eventually calmed down, and with the help of some PB&J and some brother bear Beau traveled well almost the whole ride. We have really been lucky to have 3 very good young travelers on our journey across Zimbabwe.

I did have some time in our long drive today to read a bit of CS Lewis's book “Weight of Glory, which is a compilation of essays and some talks that he gave over the span of several years. There was a quote that I found quite profound. It says “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far to easily pleased.” I thought this was a very practical quote. I know too often I dabble around in the shallow end of the pool, as it pertains to the depth of my spiritual walk. Its much easier to give God just enough, rather then everything. By doing this I have come to realize we only experience a fraction of the joy God intended. (And I don't mean physical health and wealth here!) The spiritual and eternal Joy is absolutely endless and unbelievable if we can just give God all of us! I'm tired of being satisfied with just the scraps from our Lords table, when he intends for me to feast on His limitless banquet.

Anyway, just one of many powerful and thought provoking quotes from CS Lewis.(Although I will admit trying to digest Lewis's words in a hot, bumpy car with noisy kids is the easiest of tasks!)

Well, We pulled into Antelope at half past two, and enjoyed some beautiful scenery, cold beverages and a dip in the nice pool. It was great to end our trip here at Antelope. The scenery was gorgeous the river tents were elegant, and the food was perfect (especially the Gnu steak we had for dinner). We really enjoyed the wonderful sunset from the deck of our river tent. What a great trip this has been!Tonight we can “sleep in”(not sure what that means with the kiddos, but we'll try!), and we'll hit the road late morning for the last 4 hours of our trip into Harare. I can't believe our trip is already drawing to an end.

Day 8

Well today, April 22nd we left Antelope Park and headed back to Harare. We enjoyed another great breakfast at Antelope and a nice morning walk before loading the car up, and piling all the kids back in for one last drive. The end of our trip came way to fast. The drive today to Harare was only 4 hours, and all the kids did great. We ate some chips and cookies in the car to keep everyone at peace since we drove through lunch. We arrived safely at Harare around 2pm. Fortunately for all of us there are no dramatic or exciting stories to tell about today. We finished the day by doing some grocery shopping as we prepare for our last month at Karanda, and had a great dinner at the Everswicks house. Tomorrow we pick up Shea's mom Rhonda at the airport, and our excited to have her with us for our last month at Karanda. Then on Saturday we'll head back into the bush for 1 more month. Thanks for following along on our little Zimbabwe vacation. I'm sure we'll have some more good stories in our last month at Karanda, and we'll be sure to pass them along.