Its good to be back.....

Well full marks to Virgin Atlantic who went out of their way to help me yesterday. With a broken foot in an oversized boot it could have been difficult but they were brilliant. We checked in and despite Christian’s luggage, containing many tools, being overweight they off set it against my 2 which were both slightly under. We had a lovely dinner and then Christian pushed me to the gate in a borrowed wheel chair. Ok so he dumped me a couple of times while he a) thought he lost his phone and b) went to the loo and on one occasion i had to pretend to be an art installation while duty free customers filed around me but it was all good fun. We had brilliant seats, front row behind premium economy with masses of leg room. A comfortable but often turbulent flight got us in to Joburg early and then a wheelchair was waiting at the door to whisk us past all the security queues at passport control, we picked up our luggage and then out through arrivals. The person in front and the person behnd were pulled out by customs but it was like we were invisible ....just as well considering all the tools in Christian’s case.  

We hired a Rav4 car which is ok but not very powerful and left the airport at 10 to drive south nearly 350 miles. I had left my map at home but we managed to buy one and we had the sat nav anyway. Christian drove first because by his own admission he is not a very good navigator and we successfully navigated and drove round the joburg M25 equivalent which is always slightly crazy, passed Soweto and on to the N1. Once on the N1 it is just a straight road with not a lot happening.   It is spring here so the beautiful purple flowering Jacaranda trees are out, lots of the cows have calves running around them in the fields and we spotted some Ostriches too. 

It was an easy journey until we hit about 10 miles of roadworks. They are building a new road on a stretch of minor road so we were diverted ‘off road’. It was challenging and quite funny especially when we saw no overtaking signs (there was only room for 1 car)  , 40 km an hour speed limit signs ( i was doing 20 km an hour and that was pushing it), we could not see anythng because of the dust being kicked up by other vehicles and then we saw a road sweeper truck sweeping the dirt track....

We sang along to a variety of music to pass the time and laughed at the sheer joy of being in South Africa, a country i love and a place where Christian, on this his second visit said..’it feels like home.’

We made it to the border ar 3.30 ahead of the Friday rush and managed to cross relatively easily commenting that if you don't know what to do, there is nothing to tell you. It involves parking and getting out to get your passport stamped, driving over the bridge and then repeating steps 1to 3 again.

It was hot, it barely dropped below 30 degrees today and despite us having such a lovely UK summer there is something special about Africa heat. We popped to the shopping mall to pick up some drinks and navigated our way through the factory area of Thetsane where the street sellers were either just setting up or just packing up from the Friday evening rish (we were not sure) and drove to the oasis of Beautiful Gate where we were warmly greeted   by friends old and new. It felt good to be back. Andrew my friend from Belgium had cooked a lovely dinner for us and, after afmiring the beautiful sunset, we eventually sat down round the table, us 3 English and 3 Australians who are also volunteering here. It served to remind us that Beautiful Gate is indeed an international community. 

I am back in my old room, the one i shared with Nell last year. Its odd sleeping in a room on my own but i am very tired and as soon as i finish this i will be closing my eyes. It has been a long day but it has gone well and we have a couple of days to acclimatise and relax before we start work next week. There are 2 new babies in my house apparently and Christian has a lit of bathroom fixtures to install....i think he may be here a long time.

Thank you all for your prayers and good wishes for this trip, we have certainly felt very protected today.

Jenny