Lions' Lunch and The Giant Leap--Ari

Ari Day #54

5/9/2022

Ilala Lodge, Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Not surprisingly, these journal entries have become a bit sporadic, something that I guess naturally happens when one approaches the 9th week of traveling. I figured I should recount the last 5 remarkable days, with focus on our last day at Chipangali feeding the carnivores and the kids launching themselves off the side of the Victoria Falls Gorge.

Our final full day at Chipangali was a memorable one: we were assigned to carnivore duty on a day that the other volunteers went on a day “Rhino Walk”, aka safari, so we had the entire orphanage to ourselves. I had been quite nervous for our carnivores over the previous 4 days as they had not been fed as their food supply, consisting of the quite inconsistent calls from surrounding farmers when their animals die and need to be picked up. Fortunately for the hungry meat eaters, two dead cows were picked up the night before our day with them. While I felt ecstatic for the jostling carnivores, I felt a knot in my stomach realizing that we would have the unique privilege of cutting the cows up and feeding them to the animals. Well, the day did not disappoint.

Although the Ballonoff crew did chicken out for the first time at Chipangali and opted not to be the ones actually cutting the cow and throwing the 50-100 pound chunks into the lions’ cages, we did help move the animals to the correct cages, wheeled the wheelbarrows full of ~150 pound of flesh, and were right there, up front and present, while the 14 lions, 3 leopards, 2 hyenas, 1 civet, 4 servals, 2 jackals, and 5 crocodiles were fed portions of 2 large cows. Once again, the lions took the cake when it comes to memorable experiences. The ferocity of those cats when they were jockeying for position for the best piece of meat shook me to my core. Perhaps the most ferocious group was a quartet of male lions who shared a cage. Rambo, the alpha of the group, swiped at Nathan, and cut his eyelid. The 4 lions then proceeded to pick their piece of meat in an order that was predetermined by their well-defined pecking order. This was so apparent that the last lion didn’t even get to eat anything until many hours after the other 3 did because Nathan (whom we affectionately named “Scar” after the villain in The Lion King who also had a wound over his eye) was blocking the way for the last lion to eat. This was quite distressing for all of us (especially Linden), as all the lions had been waiting for 4 days to eat. Due to this distress, Linden and Asher kept trying to encourage Scar to move, only to be met with the amount of aggressiveness that only a lion can muster. Scar would lunge at us, with only the wire cage to prevent him from taking all 4 of us down in 1 fell swoop. It was a lesson on the way of the wild, yet a lesson that was tough to watch.

Dash, the largest and oldest male lion who shares a cage with Arana, a female lion who is somewhat impaired due to age and a seizure disorder, was similarly a pain in the butt. He took his large piece of cow and hopped up onto his 8-foot-high perch, a place Arana cannot reach due to her disability. Then, he proceeded to steal Arana’s hunk of meat and moved it to the perch, out of reach of Arana—not much of a gentleman to say the least. In order to ensure Arana’s lunch, we had to distract Dash and then put in another hunk of flesh into a separate enclosure and secure Arana in it. That’s when I figured that all men are just self-centered buttheads.

Fortunately, my dwindling faith in testosterone was rescued by the last male lion who shared a cage with 2 female lions. This gentleman actually intentionally allowed the 2 ladies to pick their hunks of meat before him. There is still a glimmer of hope that testosterone will not ruin the world…

Then came Teresa, the leopard. She showed us why leopards must be pound-for-pound the strongest cats on earth. She was given a ~100-pound leg of cow and promptly took it in her mouth and carried it straight up the trunk of a tree to about 35-40 feet off the ground and nestled it into an axilla of branches where she deftly picked the meat off the bone. While I knew that leopards do this with entire antelope, seeing this firsthand was striking.

What I have conveniently left out of this summary was the ever-present disturbing aspects of slaughtering a dead cow, throwing the pieces into a wheelbarrow with blood and other bodily fluids dripping out of the bottom, and chucking the pieces into the enclosures. Once again, the smell of flesh, bile, and intestines was overwhelming for our sheltered American family who lives in Cherry Hills. There were thousands of black flies swarming around, yet the 4 Ballonoff family members once again somehow realized the importance of seeing this process firsthand. Our sanitized lives at home, sheltered from these harsh realities, prevents us from understanding how the world really works. Once again, I’m not sure how this will affect/change us long-term, yet I can only imagine it will do so in good ways.

Now, transitioning to yesterday which was one unique Mother’s Day in Zimbabwe. Ever since the 20-something volunteers at Chipangali talked to Asher and Linden about the gorge swing at Victoria Falls, Asher and Linden decided they wanted to do it. I had a hard time believing this as it entails a 230 foot freefall followed by another 70 vertical feet of swinging over the Zambezi River. The day before, we showed them the gorge swing and rather than squelching their desires (which I figured it would), this only solidified their wishes to huck their bodies off the side of a 330 foot cliff.

So, after Cris somewhat jokingly said to me that she was nervous for them to do it tandem (at the same time) as, if the rope broke, we would not have any children whatsoever; for some reason I couldn’t sleep the night before. The entire morning of Mother’s Day, I had a knot in my stomach causing me to be on big Debbie Downer about the whole gorge jumping prospect. Asher and Linden continued their insistence on jumping, so Cris and I broke down and said yes, partially thinking they would decide not to jump at the last minute.

Well, no such luck. We paid the $150 and the process of getting them in their 2 harnesses, tie them to the rope and huck them off the ledge began. I realized that their strategy is to get people from payment to jumping as quickly as possible before they have the chance to think about what they are doing and change their minds. I wanted to cry when they were teetering on the edge, and then…JUMP!!!! They were off. They disappeared from view, and then 4 seconds later, we could see them the size of ants racing above the 170 feet deep rapids below them. They were too small to see if they were ok, but at least the rope didn’t break. After a minute or two, the contraption began hoisting them up. Linden and Asher finished the climb by climbing with their feet up the end of the cliff. Linden was holding onto Asher’s harness for dear life, making sure they both made it up safely. I couldn’t breathe until I saw that they both were intact both physically and emotionally. I am still amazed that neither of them broke down in tears after experiencing something like that.

Now they want me and Cris to do the swing. Well, we are now in the next stage of parenthood where previously we were always encouraging the kids to do scary things with us, and now the kids are doing it and we have absolutely no interest. And, I’m totally ok with that…

Tomorrow we head off onto our Safari in Botswana at Machaba Camp in the Khwai Conservatory. I realized today that we have 1 night here, 4 nights in safari, and 5 nights in Mwandi, and then we are heading off to Paris. This reminds me to slow down and appreciate what an opportunity this is to experience the wonders of Africa. Last night, we had antelope, warthogs, and mongooses running around 10 feet from our sliding door in our hotel; this morning I ran seeing the sun rise over Victoria Falls accompanied by families of baboons on the road. Even these experiences can become routine after 54 days of traveling, yet realizing that we will be leaving this wonderous place in 10 days reminds me to savor this opportunity and live life as we should every day: one day at a time.