Can you hear the sound of the drums?

Today we travel to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.  The first highlight of the day was the charter flight full of brothers traveling together. What an amazing flight. Although this spiritual jumbo jet seemed to be fueled by God's active force, the flight attendant still had to spray the entire plane interior with some kind of insecticide before takeoff. There was a cloud of smoke residue after she emptied the entire can on us.  Literally.  Besides the chemical shower, the flight was quite enjoyable. The kindness, consideration, and patience shown by all was surely a good witness to the flight staff.

Passport needed for this flight: JW convention badge

Upon arrival, we learned that there were some dignitaries in town for a Heads of State summit.  As a result, half of our plane could not disembark because the president of Malawi was arriving and the president of Zambia was leaving. And we thought the red carpet and those African dancers were there to greet us.

Dance with me?

Mildred from Philly likes to party

Once through customs, we did have some fun with some local dancers and then we were off to the Kingdom Hotel (what an appropriate name given the convention theme, eh?).  We passed a street sign that had symbol for elephant crossing and a park with baboons running around like giant squirrels. The baboons were everywhere - including all around the resort grounds.  We had a few on our balcony when we got to our room.  Stacy saw one pulling the tail of a bird and then running away.

The Kingdom Hotel at Victoria Falls

Want to play?

After a power nap, we were ready for dinner, dancing and drumming at the Boma.  Before we entered the restaurant, we were given an African makeover.  Once inside, the party started right away with synchronized dancing, face painting (Stacy got a lion, Kevin a buffalo) and the grand finale, a drumming session.  Oh yeah, the food.  Crocodile, guinea fowl, game fish, warthog, lamb, chicken, steak, and the highlight was the Mopani worm.  Michelle really enjoyed those worms, looking for any opportunity to take a picture eating one.

Dorca and Maydelle like to party too!

Charbroiled worms anyone?  You'll get a certificate

Hopefully we'll still have day jobs when we return, but just in case . . .

When they gave drums to our table, we brought our own flavor to the event with a few impromptu kingdom melodies.  It was great to try to find the right beat for songs like "The Miracle of Life", "He Will Make You Strong", and "A Victory Song".  We called it the Zimbabwe re-mix.  Sorry, can't find it in stores.

Well, this spirit continued onto the bus ride back to the hotel.  Since the wouldn't let us keep the drums or the African attire, we had to freestyle.  We added to the re-mix these favorites: "My Father, My God, and Friend" and "See Yourself When All is New".  With a few visual effects thanks to Stacy's iPhone AppZilla, the bus was rocking all the way up the road.  Hope we didn't wake the animals.  And we haven't even gotten to the convention city yet. Yes, today was another good day.  Yea Bo!