Banks, Elephants and Aussies

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YOU ONLY LOOK FUNNY WHEN YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE

This is something that it seems some people don’t think about, like being the only person in a tuxedo at the beach.

The World Cup is only days away in South Africa and while people in the other countries are talking about it, they are nowhere near as pumped as they are in South Africa.

So this morning at breakfast when 4 Aussies walk in to the dining room wearing Australian green and gold jackets, jumpers, scarves, beanies, yellow rimmed sunglasses and yellow spray painted hair they draw some attention.

We hear the waiters talking near us in their own language. What we hear is blah, blah, blah, blah, Australians, blah, blah, blah, hahahaha, blah, blah.

WHEN A SIMPLE PHONE CALL TO THE BANK BECOMES A SAGA

So the first job today is to arrange an emergency cash transfer through Mastercard International since no banks will accept our Mastercard. It’s supposed to be simple enough, call Mastercard, put the order in and within 2-4 hours they call you back with a transfer number and off you go.

Since the mobile network keeps dropping out I have no choice but to phone on the room phone, I have to phone Australia first who put me through to America, at $3 USD a minute the first call ends being almost an hour and $150 USD, but the order is in now, they will phone us back in a few hours. I started this morning at 8am.

They call me back at 11am and say that Australia has declined the amount, even though the funds are there, AAARRRGGGGHHH!!!!!! So America puts me through to Australia (at least they are paying the bill this time) and it is explained that the limit is $2,000 AUS per day, we have asked for $5,000 USD as we’ve not been able to get any money for the last 3 weeks and we are doubtful we can get any while on tour through Egypt and Jordan. So after many calls getting cut off and the retelling of the story every time the mobile network gets going again, I finally get a supervisor in Australia, Jeremy, who after working very hard gets America to agree to the amount we need, whew at last!

It’s now 2:25pm, we are told we will get a call back within 30 minutes at the most, since the bank closes at 3pm we head over there to wait for the phone call. At 2:55pm the phone call still hasn’t arrived so we have no choice but to exchange some of the last Australian dollars we have, we haven’t wanted to because of the appalling exchange rate we get.

So we go into the bank and with a very rushed teller we are given $700 USD so at least if the transfer doesn’t go through we can pay our hotel bill tomorrow and have tea etc tonight.

I try so hard not to let all this bank stuff get me down, but it’s hard not to feel frustrated and powerless, I do try hard not to be too cranky but it’s tough. And that makes it tough on Tim, because he can’t do anything to make it all work better, and he has to listen to all these phone calls that seem to go nowhere and where I have to keep repeating myself over and over. I will be just glad when it’s all over! The bank is still investigating the fraud charges and because there are so many it’s taking them longer than anticipated.

My philosophy of not worrying about things because everything is fixable is definitely being tested!


OUR ELEPHANTS

Hopefully our afternoon trip to do an elephant back safari will lift our spirits.

On the way, we find out there will be just the 2 of us which will be nice and the guide who will be armed and walking in front of us is the same guide who took us for our Victoria Falls tour.

We have an elephant each and mine is Miss Ellie, she’s 29 years old and is right handed, Tim’s is Ganga and is left handed. You can tell by whichever tusk is shorter.

Then it’s away we go. There is a handler on each elephant and we sit on the back. Mine is really quietly spoken and he talks constantly about the elephants but unfortunately I don’t hear most of it! But just the walk and serenity is nice.

Tim is in front and his elephant eats constantly (it’s nice that they let them, we have been on other elephant walks in Asia and they are not allowed to do what they naturally want and need to do), but because he eats constantly, what goes in must come out - charming to follow!

We see a herd of water buffalo which is pretty cool but that’s about all, but as said earlier it was just so peaceful seeing anything is just a bonus not critical to the experience.

When the elephants aren’t doing the walks they are free to roam and meet up with the herd on the property. They have to hope they come when they are called to do the walks! They are just a small company and will only take a maximum of 4 clients per walk, some companies will take up to 50!

So after all our goodbyes, photos and some snacks we are back to the hotel.

RIPPED OFF BY A BANK!

We have a shower then start organizing to go down the street for dinner.

I go through the cash we were given from the bank to put away what we need for the hotel etc and we discover that we have been short changed! He gave us 6 bundles of $10 notes and each only had 9 not 10 in each bundle! I am livid, not only at the bank, but at myself for not counting it there, what was I thinking trusting a bank!

We decide that we will not use the money and will go back there tomorrow and see the manager. Even though we realise that we probably won’t get the extra $60 back as a whole night has passed and we should have counted it there, we want the manager to know that perhaps he has a thief in his midst.

So instead of heading out, we order room service for tea, at least it’s a lot cheaper than eating in the restaurant!

FINALLY, HOPEFULLY, THE TRANSFER IS ARRANGED

So again, I have to contact the banks to arrange the transfer for tomorrow as nobody rang us back from Mastercard. The network drops out again and again and then finally I get to make an entire call. I end up with a supervisor at Mastercard and she is the most helpful person at Mastercard I have come across, she deserves her position!

The transfer is arranged, I have all the numbers I need and also learn that we are not limited to having to go only one bank, we can go to any bank in Zimbabwe that has a Western Union branch attached, perhaps if we’d known that earlier it would have made a difference. But now that know so that’s okay.

I can now eat my icecream with sprinkles, sitting on the balcony listening to the Smoke that Thunders, in calmness knowing that after a day of hellish phone calls it we will finally get our cash!

WHEN YOUR COUNTRY TAKES OVER

This kind of goes back somewhat to this morning at breakfast.

All of the rooms at the hotel pretty well circle around the pool area and the pool bar. By now there are a lot of people from different countries having some holiday time here before they go to the World Cup. So even though there are people from all over the world here, like Brazil, Ireland, England, Spain and America, all you can hear is Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi. Really loud, certainly would give the Americans at Addo a run for their money.

Other people walk over to the bar, stay for not even 5 minutes shake their heads and leave.

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