OK everyone,

I was going to post the following last Monday but couldn’t because of capricious Internet connections (three cheers for third-world technology!). I’m now back in the US and have even more adventures to report, but as it’s 2:00 AM Boston time/8:00 AM Zimbabwe time and I haven’t actually slept for the past two days I’m afraid any stories I relate at the moment will be rather lacking in coherence (though what they lack in coherence they would undoubtedly compensate for in entertainment value). So a further update is forthcoming.

From Monday, May 22:

Just a quick report to let you know I'm still alive (despite food poisoning, INTERMINABLE train and bus rides [a four-hour ride may take 8 hours here], kamikaze kombies [local minivan/buses meant to hold a maximum of 27 people but if you try really hard you can fit in at least 35], standing rides on chicken buses, lions that got a little closer than was entirely comfortable [for me, anyway] to our open Jeep and to our [closed] cabin and that then proceeded to make fairly loud noises at fairly regular intervals during the night, one crowd of rather alarmingly aggressive touts [guys paid to fill up aforementioned kombies] who didn't like Americans, time spent stranded by the side of the road 23 km from anywhere in the late afternoon/evening [we could've slept outside, I suppose, except that we were right next to the (non-fenced) boundaries of the game park (see aforementioned notes about lions)], coldcoldcold showers, and miraculous sunset rides in the back of a pickup truck singing the Flower Duet from Lakmé and “God Bless Africa” in both Shona and Ndebele at the top of our lungs while wildebeests and buffalo wandered by), that I got my luggage back (thanks, British Airways!), and that I have now ridden an African elephant (though not by myself, and the driver refused to make the elephant run, despite much pleading by his passengers). New goal: Ride an Asian elephant. Hope to accomplish said goal in the relatively near future.

So I made it to Zimbabwe, along with my carry-on luggage (the suitcase with my clothes, shoes, books, prescriptions, and incidentals is, well, somewhere; either British Airlines is holding it for ransom or someone has decided that as an American I have far too many material possessions and has therefore mercifully liberated me from the selfish trappings of my hideously capitalist society—either way, I'll be wearing the same thing for at least five days instead of a mere three, which makes me a model of both efficiency and dirty dirty clothes), and I'm really enjoying it so far—especially driving, which occurs on the left side of the road, á la the British folks whose spastically driven cars I was dodging yesterday after learning more than I really wanted to know about torture methods at the Tower of London (hadn’t heard of the Scavenger’s Daughter until yesterday; ah, the bliss of ignorance). Will write more later; Internet connections here are scarce and sporadic and broadband is non-existent, so I can’t promise regular updates, but I shall endeavor to keep you all as entertained as I possibly can.