From the school we went to a little native village were they made pottery. There were 3 women who were the wives of the chief who hand made all of the pots and painted them with graphite and a red ocher. We also saw a lady in one of the homes making mallie (sp) the traditional food of the southern African nations. These pots are beautiful but too difficult to get home. We drove via mini bus back into down town Louis Trichardt and went out on our own to have lunch and to wind some wifi to try and send some emails. We walked around a bit getting different directions to where wifi might be. We both noticed that we were the only 'whites' on the streets we were on, but never really thought about it. When John noticed a white women getting out of a car in front of a shop he asked her if she knew where there might by wifi - she looked at us like we were "nuts" and said 'here come with me' and she led us to a shop. However they would not or could not give us the wifi code. This wonderful lady, merely turned to us and said 'follow me.' Next thing we know we are outside her office, while she is unlocking the door telling us we can use her office wifi. We sit in her office for about an hour having tea and downloading our mail and reading what view message we have. Her name is Jessie Bird and she runs the office for her families business which is big game hunting, here in Zimbabwe and also South Africa and Zambia. Shirley finally gets concerned that we are going to miss our train and says we must get going. Jessie wants to know where we are going and when we tell her we are going to walk to the train station she is "struck with horror!" "No way" she says, "with those computers and backpack you are walking target." Coming from a game hunter's wife and mother, it sounds pretty convincing! She pulls out the keys to her Mercedes SUV and tells her secretary that she is taking us to the station - which we know is only a twenty minute walk from her office. When we get to the train station she tells the native train guards, "take these two to the Shongololo train and look after them!" Now we never felt in danger once, however her tone and demeanor made us wonder what it must feel like to live in a world like this. She told us that they never walk any where - even her secretary takes a vehicle to the post office, which was only around the corner from their office. Steve the main guide on the Shongololo train was adament that we were perfectly safe to walk from town to the train. We don't know who was correct, but we do know the Jessie was a wonderful women who went out of her way to help us not only connect via email, but also did her best to keep us safe. What great people live here!
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