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In January 1998 I had the pleasure to visit Zimbabwe as one of several adult chaperons for eight high school students. I had a wonderful time and spent three weeks working, visiting and touring much of the country. Many might not know where or what Zimbabwe is. It was called Rhodesia until the early 80's and it's about the size of Montana. We landed in Harare, the capital city, and stayed at The Bronte for two nights. The Bronte is a lovely Old English hotel, beautiful grounds and swimming pools. It was a very relaxing start to our adventure following a 12 hour flight from London. Spent New Years Eve poolside listening to the sounds of the city just outside the walls of the hotel complex. In our rented van I drove to Mutare in the Eastern highlands and checked into a Holiday Inn.......yes, even in Africa you can find a Holiday Inn. This would be the end to our luxury as the next eight days were spent at an out of the way mission station called Chikori near the Mozambique border. This mission has been around for a little over 100 years and services a local community for most of its needs. The complex is made up of schools; classrooms and dorms, a church, store, hospital and the homes of the people that keep it all running. Electricity came to the station only in 1989 ! More of the mission station later.......
After our stay in the Eastern Highlands we drove to Great Zimbabwe Ruins near Masvingo then back to Harare and the Bronte for one night. An Air Zimbabwe flight to Hawange National Park and then to Victoria Falls finished our sightseeing adventure....... a flight back to Harare ....to London......and back here to Maine (an ice covered Maine at that!)
A trip like this might come once a lifetime (not for me though) and for those of you that will never make the journey, I'll post a few pictures in the following pages. I hope you enjoy my first attempt at a home page. Thanks for visiting. Thanks Shelley for coming to look at this. I'll be waiting to hear if you enjoy it.
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