Starring With the Elephants

by Andrey (Andrew) Shashkov (Russia)

A leap into the unknown Zimbabwe

In early 2019 I've run into a post advertising the 2nd season of a reality show about wildlife. It is broadcast by a Russian Discovery-style cable TV channel. Each episode is one guy or girl learning to take care about one particular species. I was successfull with my casting and lucky enough to be multilingual and vaccines-tolerant so the producer decided to send me to Africa. We were flying in a team of six: me, the second guy who was supposed to get filmed in the ‘rhino’ episode, the director, the two cameramen (not missing the slightest opportunity to excercise their sarcasm skills at each other) and the sound producer. This guy was famous among the colleagues for being able to find a sex date at any country within an hour without a Tinder and a single word of English. First we had a flight from Moscow to Dubai and then Dubai to Harare via Lusaka. At Dubai airport’s Duty free each of the guys bought 2 litres of whiskey. My question ‘how are you gonna drink that all in just one week’ made them burst into laughing. Later I realized this was really one of the best ways to socialize in the absence of wi-fi, and the guys were pretty experienced so they never had problems with waking up at 6 am for work the next morning. The arrival evening was quite creepy, cause first we were stopped at the customs for 2 hours, then the border officer was trying to get some extra money from us and after our embassy personnel had arrived we were finally allowed into the country but with part of our filming equipment taken away. They promised to return it the next day after we file a special application to the Immigration office in Harare - we did so but we could only get the equipment back once we were leaving the country. The centre itself is about 2 hours drive from the capital, in East Mashonaland province, with 2 lodges capable to receive around 30 guests - all of those living in enormous tents looking like 3-star-hotel rooms inside, with electricity from the solar panels, running water etc. It is run by the British with several dozens of employees from the locals, in close cooperation with local community. Apart from watching the rhinos, elephants, impalas, giraffes, zebras and impalas, the centre offers tour visits to local villages, cooking traditional food etc. They even pay 500 USD to locals for any information that helps catching poachers in the area! For the visitors, one day in the centre costs around 100 USD including meal etc. We came in early July, which is the coldest time in Zimbabwe - so we had to sleep in all our clothes and with hot water bottles under the blanket. But luckily it’s also the season when all black mambas are in hibernation! And I was really happy to celebrate July the 4th with a group of school teachers from the US, helping them with the barbecue, sitting around the fire and admiring the starry sky of the Southern hemisphere… The elephant part itself was quite compressed - these animals are incredibly smart and quite dangerous for those who are not properly trained. All I could do is to help clean their sleeping place and feed them. Despite this, I’ll never forget the moments of feeding, with this warm and shaggy feeling of the trunk on my hand. As well as the elephant’s eyes full of kindness and intellect, just like dog’s ones. The last day before going home we moved from the centre to Harare and tried to explore the city. The evening was definitely with a hint of adrenaline - first trying to exchange US dollars into local ones, than looking for a dinner and finally sleeping in a ragged English-style hotel behind the barbed wire…