Aug. 5th Update Elephants, Village and Schools

Hello,
This morning we got up early to drive to an elephant center. The elephants at the center were rescued from Zimbabwe. We were given a little history of how each elephant came to the center and how the babies came to be. We picked Danny, the biggest elephant for our elephant backed safari. Our elephant driver took us on a ride for about an hour. It was an excellent ride! After the ride we were able to spend time with the baby and feed our elephant. Later we stopped at the Simoonga village. We met with a community leader who gave us a history of the traditional village. A local man walked us through the village. We saw homes, gardens, and families. Each family has a plot for their home, kitchen, bathroom, boys house, and any animals they might have. The village has two wells and use a barter system for trading farm animals, vegetables or services. We met a young boy named Robert. He asked us a lot of questions about who we were and where we were from. We were able to visit the school and see the library. We had not planned on this school visit. It was an experience we shall never forget. On our way back to the Tongabezi lodge we stopped at the private school set up by the owners of Tongabezi. The students were getting ready for a national drum and dance competition. They were the national winners last year. We got to see classrooms and talk to teachers. The classes were very small (25 students) compared to the other schools we visited. The school takes in local, rural underprivileged children. The students did an awesome job!