I am a 57 year old happily married woman with one married daughter. I left Zimbabwe 7 years ago with my husband, Don, and the rest of our family, and we now live in Port Alfred, a seaside village in the eastern Cape, South Africa. We lost our business and our home when we had to leave Zimbabwe, the country of our birth, as it became too dangerous for us to continue living there. It is my dream to make enough money on the internet to be able to retire. When I "make it" I am going to use some of the money to bless others less fortunate.
Before moving to South Africa we lived in various countries south of the Equator including Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Botswana, where we took clients on safari to remote wilderness areas off the beaten track. Our home consisted of various semi permanent safari camps built out of grass & reeds and our daughter did not have her own bedroom until she was 10 years old. She used to boast to her friends that her Daddy built her Mommy a new house every year! This really impressed them (and their parents) as they didn't realise that we lived in grass huts!
Kavira, Duma, Mumbwa, Liokisale, Loibosit, Gonarezhou, Lugenda, Mbabe.......names which bring a flood of memories ..... I can almost hear the sounds and savour the smells of the places we have lived, each distinct.
I now work part time for a Danish tour operator where I help to set up tours to Southern Africa.
My husband is still involved in wildlife and is a founder member of the Zambezi Kavira Wildlife Foundation, a non profit organisation, which at the moment is assisting with lion research near the Lugenda River in a remote area of northern Mozambique.
Our life has changed a lot over the past few years as we have exchanged our primitive existence for a much more conventional life, but we are forever grateful that we have been able to experience so much of our Continent and its vast, unexplored areas.
We now have two beautiful grandchildren, Amelia who is nearly two and Rebekah who is 4 months old.
They live on the next block so I get to see them most every day. They call me Gaga - don't ask me why!