My parents have come and gone, the 17 days they were here went by too fast. The day after they arrived we made them deal with their jet lag at The Phantom of the Opera. We did a lot of damage at the local markets and stores stocking up on souvenirs for ourselves and people back home. There's one store called 'Cambanos' that is probably the best and most affordable place to buy locally made products, and they now know who I am before I get out of the car. They also have started offering me tea and lattes when I come into the store to enjoy while I shop. They're really good at encouraging me to come back! The air cleared up enough one night so were all able to view the Southern Cross in the sky. Winter arrived a couple of weeks ago and there have been some very cold days and nights. It's weird calling it 'winter break' instead of summer. We took Miranda for her kindergarten evaluation at the American International School of Johannesburg where she will go to school in about 7 weeks. After convincing the nurse (sister) here that she needs shots NOW, not when she's 6 like they do here, we're almost ready. Still waiting for the student visa to arrive. So much paperwork!
Rusty and I took a short trip to Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and the Chobe river in Botswana. Zimbabwe only accepts US dollars and sometimes South African Rand, depending where you are. Everything is very expensive! We booked all our excursions in advance and kept ourselves busy. Our hotel, the Kingdom, was a really cool 'African' resort, the architecture based on the Great Zimbabwe Monument in Masvingo. The first day (after waiting in line at customs for almost 2 hours) we went on a sunset cruise down the Zambezi River. The next day we took a helicopter ride over the falls and then walked the path by the falls, getting very wet and stopping half way because the spray was so high that the falls disappeared. It's 'high water' right now so what we did see was spectacular. That night we went to a 'Boma' dinner which literally means 'the eating place.' There were all sorts of local traditional foods and dancers doing their thing. On the drive home there was an elephant in the road. You wouldn't see something like that in South Africa. We cut the night short since we had to get up early the next day to drive an hour to Botswana. We first went on a water safari down the Chobe River and saw a lot of crocodiles, hippos, elephants, impala, and wart hogs. After lunch was the game drive where we saw a lot more elephants that were a little too close for comfort. Our last day in Zimbabwe we went to a local market. The people outside the hotel are very aggressive when trying to sell you something. They will follow you the whole time you're walking from one place to the next (we visited the historic Victoria Falls Hotel down the road) trying to bargain with you. At one point we got a little nervous as we were surrounded by 5 people trying to sell us Zimbabwe dollars which are worth as much as Monopoly money. We had a hotel staff member escort us to the markets since we were a little nervous about venturing out on our own, and I think I did pretty well with my bargaining skills. I managed to talk a guy down from $25 for one little guinea fowl figurine to $5 for two, and one tried to sell me a necklace for $50 that I got for $10. It really is a sad culture and the people do not have the goods that they need. Several men tried to get Rusty to trade their hand made items for his shirt, jeans, and shoes. One guy wanted my socks, my jacket, and my hand towel I was using to protect my camera. I highly recommend reading "The Last Resort: A Memoir of Zimbabwe" by Douglas Rogers to understand why their country is the way that it is now.
If everything goes according to plan, we should be arriving back home in 350 days (yes, I'm counting down). There are a lot of people who work in the office with Rusty who will be leaving in December, so we should know more at that time. I better hurry up and plan the rest of my trips! Next up is Durban.
