Chapter 1, The Jumblies Summary and Analysis

Flying to Africa, Mark dozes with his head against the airplane window. He dreams a nightmarish scenario that as a beautiful, swift cheetah chases an antelope it is waylaid by a hidden fence. The cheetah tears and breaks the proud animal and throws it to its death in a pile of dirt. After a short hop in another plane and a train ride, Mark and Delia wind up in Gaborone, Botswana. With $1,500 of the $6,000 they brought with them, they buy a third-hand Range Rover. They drive on to the last vestiges of civilization, a village called Maun where they can get gas, water and supplies. They need to establish themselves in a credible research project area in order to get grant funding. If they do not, they will not be able to fully pursue their dream.

They...