Cats and a daylight mugging
The lodge has three rather permanent residents: Jimmy, Nook and Misty, all cats. Nook and Misty came with the property, but Jimmy came with Darlington, the manager.
Last Sunday, I realized that Jimmy had been gone for at least two days, possibly longer and I have to admit, I had started to get worried. Over the next couple of days, we went through every nook and cranny at the lodge, but didn’t find the cat. We could do nothing much but wait.
Then, today, he suddenly arrived again. Thin as a board and with some nasty wounds on one of his back paws. Luckily, nothing was broken and by the end of the day, he was already starting to very, very slowly move around a little bit. He know walked like Nook, the Sarah of the three at 16 years, blind in one eye and no longer with a tail.
Misty is the queen of the cat population at the lodge. Only a couple of years younger than Nook and half persian, she acts very regal and only gets petted if she explicitly wants to get petted.
Mugging
During HIFA, some other guests at the lodge were John and Semia. He’s Zimbabwean but living in Mozambique, she’s half German, half Tunisian, living in Germany. They’re getting married early next year and were now enjoying Harare. Several times, we went out together.
Today, John had come back from South Africa. Semia had left for Germany last week and now John’s about to move back to Mozambique again.
When he pulled up to the lodge, no-one was there to open the gate, so he got out of his car to do it himself. Just then, four guys got out of a vehicle that was approaching him from the opposite direction and tried to grab his bag from the car. A fight ensued, John was able to get his bag back, while his phone fell on the floor. They grabbed his phone and ran off.
Most likely, they had been following him around, to see where he’d go. Although John’s Zimbabwean, he’s driving a Mozambican car.
Last year Bowas, a friend of Darlington, had his car hijacked right in front of the lodge’s gate. It was found, several months later, in Malawi. It took him months to get it back again.