Back in Canada

I'm back!!!!  Well I"ve been back for a week now but have been sick with a stomach bug for the last week and a half so haven't really felt up to doing much.  But I have neglected you for far too long and I know you are dying to know how my trip went.  I thought the best way to do that is just copy out of my journal that I kept for the trip.  So HOPEFULLY each day for the next 15 days, I'll post one day out of my trip.  And add some pictures.

Here we go!

Days 1-3 ~~ November 6-8 (well I didn't journal anything on Nov 6th )

November 7th

It was an exhausting flight to London.  I barely slept maybe a half an hour.  That made for a tiring day in London.  We did manage to visit Buckingham Palace where we caught the changing of the guard.  I didn't see much because of course I'm short and there was a huge crowd.  Don D held the video camera up for me so hopefully we caught something.

We also saw Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London.  I got some cool pictures for the boys.  We also stopped at a fish n chips diner called "The Laughing Halibut" for lunch and they had the best fish n chips I have ever tasted.

By the time we did all that, we were ready to go back to the airport and rest.  We didn't get much rest though by the time we got through all the trains and through security.

Now we are waiting for our flight to Nairobi, Kenya.  I took a gravol and I'm really hoping to get a good night sleep.  I think it is a ten hour flight.

November 8th ~ Nairobi

9Am ~On another plane heading to Johannesburg.  The flight from London was actually only almost 8 hours and I'm happy that I was able to sleep for most of the flight.  I'll look forward to sleeping in a real bed tonight.  Thinking of my birthday girl today and missing them all terribly.

9:45 pm ~White River, South Africa

 

It is amazing how good a shower feels after being in the same clothes for 3 days.  We finally made it through our three flights today.  The airport we flew into in Nelspruit was so cute but I forgot to take a picture.  Maybe someone else did.  We finally got to the base here in White River.  There was a huge storm when we were trying to land in Johannesburg so it was a really rough ride and I even saw some lightening outside the plane window.  We got here to the base (Michael's Children's Village) around 6 or so.  When we got here they had made us a traditional South African meal.  It consisted of fried chicken (although Barry called it fried crow) rice, coleslaw, beets, another cabbage looking dish, something that looked like really starchy, gluey mashed potatoes, (Barry thought it was made of ground up corn... mealy meal I think it was called) and a soup that had a broth with potatoes, onions and carrots. I think it had chicken in it as well.  It was all very good but the best was putting the soup over the rice and mealy meal.  

When we got there we were greeted by two very sweet and animated girls around 12-14 years old. They told us that their names were Abigail and Bridget but we found out later that they just made up english names for themselves.  It was there job to show us around the guest house and they had fun with it.  Their english was very good.

After we ate, we cleaned up, sorted the stuff that we are donating to them, had showers (with HOT water YAY) and played crib until we were too tired to think anymore.   One of the thoughts I had to day... Our driver from the airport, Johnny said that they have electricity about 75% of the time.  He said it went out about 3 times in the last week usually for about 4-5 hours but sometimes several days.  I just tried to imagine going without electricity for several days.  We go crazy after it's been out for an hour.  They cope without it here though.  I may have to go without electricity at home for a bit just as a little lesson for the kids.  Speaking of the kids, I was looking at pictures on the camera of them while at one of the airports today.  I miss them.  I can't wait to see them and I wish I knew how they were doing.  Anyway, I best sleep.  I'm glad to not have to go on another airplane again for a while... well until Sunday......