Journeys of the Heart:

Part of our tour to Africa included spending time on a game preserve near Johannesburg called Pilansberg. It was an amazing experience to be so close to these animals whose names I first heard when I was a child and mother read books with me at bedtime. An incredible experience!

The elephant came out of the brush towards our truck. He was ready to find a mate and was not in the mood for a bunch of tourists gawking out of the open-air truck, flashing their cameras. These elephants have never been hunted and are relatively safe if visitors follow a few simple rules . . . : no loud talking, no leaving one's seat, no breathing hard/loud, etc. The rhino pictured is a black rhino. Black rhinos are aggressive and don't play well with others. This rhino had lost an ear in an apparent altercation.

This monkey was watching us during one of our rest stops. He was intent on collecting any tidbits of food that might be left after our snacks of jerky and soda.

The giraffes were marvellous . . . and just as I had always imagined.

It was autumn in April in that hemisphere.

This big boy came so close to our truck that I was able to get a picture of his eye. He was so close, some of us could have reached out and touched him. . . . My heart was in my throat . . . But it was the experience of a lifetime!

Tonight is the evening of Super Tuesday in the U.S. and the polls just closed as I sit here and write. My mind has wandered back to my trip to Africa in April of this year. Along the tourist path, I visited a small village in Zambia called the Simonga Village and while American voters are casting their ballots this day, I wonder if their ballots will have any impact on that village. Hillary Clinton was maligned for saying once that it "takes a village to raise a child" - and now when I hear that statement, I can't help but think of the Simonga village of Zambia. It will take much, much more for the children of this village to even survive.

Zambia which is part of the old Rhodesia has a population of 10.2 million people who have an average life expectancy of 37 years. Sixteen (16%) percent of their children die before the age of five (5). Less than half have access to safe water. (43 %) In the Simonga village, there is no plumbing nor electricity. The huts are thatched roofs, mud walls, and dirt floors. Most of the people sleep on pallets on the dirt floors. The people burn elephant dung and peppers in a circle around the village at night to keep the elephants out.

The head lady of Simonga is "Inonge," a dark skinned woman whose face radiates wisdom and gentleness. She smiles easily and makes all decision concerning the village. Inonge had six children, all of whom have died. She is raising her grandchildren. Malaria and AIDS have decimated the population. The governments of South Africa ignored the AIDS epidemic for years, alleging that AIDS was an invention of Afrikkaners to discourage sex and a ploy by pharmaceutical companies to use Africans as guinea pigs to test its drugs. The result, according to the Dallas Morning News of 5/22/07 is that 30 million Africans have died of AIDS since 1982 leaving 12 million orphans. There are no public assistance programs to care for these homeless children. In Africa, it does take a village to raise a child. . . .