Twenty years ago, my parents visited Victoria Falls at the end of their safari and dreamed of the children they might have and the adventures they might take them on. Here we are. The dream became real. Although the economy of Zimbabwe has changed drastically since they were here, we still had some special moments.

Victoria Falls is beautiful, the people we met at our compound were warm and friendly, and we enjoyed our time there, but we did not do enough research ahead of time. Zimbabwe is struggling economically and suffers from extreme inflation. The ATM machines don’t work, you need to bring in US dollars or only use VISA and the prices are extremely inflated ($30 for a box of cereal), which made it difficult for our family of six to budget for food much less do many activities.

We booked a driver, Pride, to take us to the Victoria Falls bridge where you can walk across to Zambia. At the Zimbabwe/Zambia border there are trucks in line for hours waiting to pass from one country into the other. Persistent men selling copper bracelets and trinkets escorted us the whole 10 minute walk to the bridge, telling us their life stories and asking about ours before asking us to buy some of their merchandise. Afterwards, Pride was nowhere to be found. We were hot, dehydrated and exhausted waiting in the little bit of shade we could find by the “Welcome to Zimbabwe” sign. We were later successfully reunited and saw Pride almost daily, getting to know him and learning about his life in Zimbabwe–the multiple languages he can speak, local politics, etc.

We splurged to enjoy our first experience having traditional tea at the elegant and historical Victoria Falls Hotel. The sandwiches, scones, desserts, tea (hot chocolate for the little girls) were all delicious! Such a relaxing way to spend an afternoon.

Five days in Victoria Falls was turning out to be too long, as we were running out of budget-friendly things to do (other than our online math courses!). The snake park sounded interesting, but it was closed, so we went to the crocodile farm. If you’re at all concerned with animal rights, I do not recommend going here. If you’re looking for a crocodile leather handbag on the other hand, this is the place to go! There are thousands and thousands of crocodiles bred and raised there. Only some of them are on display for tourists but the rest are sold to other companies. We were devastated to find out they feed elephant meat to the lions (which are there for a tourist draw). It wasn’t at all what we were expecting.

On one of our last nights, we went to the Safari Lodge for dinner. We sat at the bar overlooking the waterhole, watching the elephants come in for a drink.

The highlight of our stop in Zimbabwe was our trip to the Victoria Falls. The falls were obviously amazing and by the end of it we were soaked from the mist.

Dad asked the caretaker of our home where we could go to church. She happily said we could go with her. Instead of the whole family going, because H was ill with fever, only Dad and C went. They took the short walk down a dirt path to the little one-room building and could hear the music from our house. As visitors, they stood out among the local parishioners, who were very friendly and warm to them. They came home still vibrating from the powerful, loud, spirit-filled music. Surely a church service to remember!

Next up, another dream comes true — my parents take us to Turkey!