The Animals of a Pan

Hwange National Park, near Bulawayo, Zimbabwe was where I learned that the word, "pan", had several different meanings.  In that part of Africa, it is understood that a "pan" is a watering hole for animals.  During that drought-stricken summer I was in Zimbabwe, locating a pan that was not a dried circle of mud was a challenge. 

Leaving the our lodge early one morning, with our driver negotiating the nearly non-existent roads or choosing instead to go cross country bumping over dry and dusty terrain, we were on the quest to find a watering hole that actually had water.  Finding that treasure would mean we would see animals--animals of all kind and description--animals I had seen only in zoos prior to this African adventure. 

Hwange National Park had a system to help out in the years of drought when the watering holes became drier and drier and animals had to walk further and further for water.  In this huge national park, there were several wells which supplied water via pumps to a select number of pans.  It is for these pans that our driver headed.  However, too often we found that the machinery was not well maintained resulting in yet another dry pan. 

On our trek between pans, though, we did see animals and a lot of them--from giraffe eating away on the tops of acacia trees and graceful gazelle to scampering baboons and wandering zebra.  Oh, and did I mention huge herds of elephant? 

But it was at the pan that the wildlife congregated.

A giraffe bent in half with legs splayed and neck reaching to the water far below

A massive crocodile pulling itself through the soggy mud bank

A mischievous baboon cavorting about

A herd of zebra creating a dizzying black and white pattern

Two ostrich primping their feathers

The nostrils of a hippo appearing in the middle of the pool

Birds and more birds


And, splashing and trumpeting -- those most majestic of all beasts -- elephants! 

Where Do You Want To Perform Next?

We had just returned from the "adventure of a lifetime"--a trip to Sri Lanka where we performed at the American Ambassador's residence, for Radio Sri Lanka, and had toured that exotic country from the palace of the footprint of Buddha in Kandy to the elephant orphanage outside Colombo--when a friend simply asked, "Where do you want to perform next?"  My answer--Africa!

Now Africa is a continent--a very, very large continent at that, so I had not been overly exact in my pronouncement or pinpointed my desire of a performance location too precisely, but performing in Africa was my goal.  This friend, knowing my desire to experience the world and get acquainted with its people (and see some amazing animals in the process)--and in the meantime, play some interesting concerts on interesting organ--wasn't all that surprised. 

As it turned out, he had been to Africa, Zimbabwe in particular, not too many years prior and still had a few connections.  Armed with his "connections," I started the process of booking concerts in a nation that at that time I knew nothing about.  Discovery begins for me with a place name and a map--there it was--Zimbabwe, the former Rhodesia, was near the southern tip of the continent.

In the time before the advent of the internet and all the wonders it affords, making contact with my friend's connections was challenging.  Calling half a world away at the time was also prohibitive, but the handwritten letter and--wonder of wonders--the fax were available.  Letters and an occasional fax flew slowly around the world for sixteen months.  Libraries and bookshops were visited so I could learn as much as possible about the Africa I was about to visit.

Finally, a rudely constructed building along a rather isolated and seemingly short runway came into view.  Our plane landed, the stairs were lowered, and I walked into Africa and all the wonders and amazement of a place to be experienced filled my soul.

Where do you want to travel next?

Raw Octopus or Zwiebel mit Speck

After concert parties and receptions are a time to relax and get to know fellow organists and music-lovers--a time to sample the culture--a time to suspend language barriers--a time to laugh and make lasting memories--and a time to share unique and unimaginable foods.

I recall my first taste of caviar in an Austrian town hall;  raw eggs, fish and even octopus (no, it did not stick to my tongue but it sure was hard to swallow) in Tokyo; zwiebel mit speck (intense onion and barely cooked bacon) in a Hungarian village;  dried fish blood curry (a Sri Lankan specialty);  tea, strong tea and even stronger tea (a given in Zimbabwe--or was that Sri Lanka or England or Australia or New Zealand).

I remember my first and probably the best chai ever at a resort in Sigiriya, Sri Lanka, just after the boa constrictor and cobra show (were those snakes really crawling around under the chairs?);  cream, cream, and more cream (even the ice cream was covered in cream) in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe;  Kobe beef (the specialty of a French restaurant) in Tokyo where choosing which fork to use and how to use it was a challenge for our Japanese hosts.

Music, friends, food--life!

How Many Elephants?

Yes, it is time to return to elephants.  This time, let's go to Zimbabwe, specifically to the Hwange National Park and let's go on safari.  Just the word, "safari" conjures up pictures in my mind of Victorian Englishmen sitting in their canvas tents being served tea while around the encampment the wildlife of Africa roam unafraid and unabated.

A pan in Hwange National Park

Ah, but my safari took place in the late 1990's aboard a jeep with three other musicians and our intrepid English host hoping to show us "his Africa".  And show us he did.  Jeffrey headed out from the opulent Hwange Safari Lodge with three wide-eyed musicians and their cameras stuffed into the back of an open jeep.  The wildlife was abundant from an enormously tall gangly giraffe with long-lashed eyes checking out those who photographed her every move to hippos rumbling like runaway tanks down a dusty road.

The Big Guys!

But where were the elephants on this safari drive?  We had seen several of these majestic animals from our hotel bathing in a pan or water hole a short distance from the deck where we enjoyed tea that morning, but I had hoped for a closer elephant encounter.  As with many things in Zimbabwe, one more turn and all Africa opened before us.

Elephants at Hwange National Park

Following a dusty path around a grove of acacia trees where giraffe lazily feasted and there we were nearly in the middle of a huge herd.  Hundreds of elephant!  Elephants of all sizes, some old, some young and yes, babies too!  Elephants everywhere trumpeting and restless with the intrusion of our little jeep loaded with four individuals who had never seen such a sight and one man, our driver Jeffry, who never tired of such an awesome sight.  Amazing! and forever seared into my memory!  In Africa in the midst of elephants!