African Mother's Day and Vacation

This has been an exciting month getting to share our life here with family.  Christopher's mother visited us for just over two weeks.

 A part of her time here was over Mother's Day and what a special Mother's Day it was for Dontie.

After church, the women's group came to our house singing and dancing.  They surrounded Leena and Dontie in a time of prayer and blessing as a welcome to Leena.  There was a spiritual challenge given to Dontie as a parent and the pastor's wife blessed our sweet girl.  This meant so very much to Dontie to have the women share this special time with her and for Christopher's mother to experience it as well.  We then were invited to a traditional Shona meal at the home of one of the church ladies.  What a treat!

After giving Christopher's mom a good rural exposure to Zimbabwe, we headed off for Victoria Falls on a 12 hour busride!  Victoria Falls is one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.  We stayed in a lodge that's walls opened up onto the gamepark like a tent and wild animals just wandered around in our "yard".

warthogs everywhere around the lodge

We were able to relax and also fill our time with fun explorations of the area around us.  Here are some of the animals seen on a safari that Christopher and his mom took for a day.

 A kingfisher bird

Giraffe with oxpeckers on his neck

Wonderful views of hippos

This is an area of Africa where there are many elephants.

A male kudu

We enjoyed learning about the Ndebele culture (the tribe of this part of Zimbabwe),

 and then Christopher bungee jumped off the third tallest jump in Africa.

After all that excitment, we walked the trail around the falls and were thoroughly soaked as the mist (which at points was like a rainshower) billowed up from the powerful falls.

We are so thankful to have the chance to get away and enjoy another area of Zimbabwe, making memories, and sharing them with family.