Up in the skies, again, between Joberg and Egypt

Up in the skies, again, between Joberg and Egypt

Jamie again...

We all left tonight for far away lands. Talitha and Onikah go to Los Angeles. Eli, Crys and Kevin will go to SFO by Monday afternoon; Kate and Leslie are going to go to SFO by way of New York...and Dante and I? Well, we are headed to Cairo, Egypt, then Frankfurt Germany, then Washington DC then SFO.

Due to problems beyond our control, the business class seats that we bought were not available on two or three of our four flights and so all the miles and taxes I spent to buy a little comfort are lost. Sigh. After such a magnificent trip, it seems foolish to sweat the small stuff, so I am working on it.

Dante and I are trying to make the best of the situation. We are talking about how we are going to get to see the pyramids when we fly over Egypt, and how we will explore the airport in Germany and look for some good chocolate. And how we will just make the best of the 34 hours in flight and try not to trip.

I can hardly believe the trip is over. But I also can hardly believe the trip actually happened. There were 9 of us. Count em, NINE! We fundraised for the youth and we created an action packed trip that included giving and receiving presentations, touring a Soweto township and Youth Center, going to three museums (and for some they also went to a fourth)...experiencing two cities (Joberg and Cape Town), meeting all kinds of people, sharing amazing meals and of course, let's not forget, Kruger National Park! Where we saw so many animals that it was incredible.

I am truly relieved that everyone liked the Kruger experience because I for one really pushed for us to be able to go specifically to Kruger. It was 3-5 hours from Johannseberg, it cost a fair amount of money, and I pushed for it because they have elephants and giraffes!!! There were closer game parks to Joberg, but none that had the Big 5 of Africa: Elephants, lions, rhino, buffalo, leopard. . I wanted to see them all and short of a leopard or a cheetah, we saw it all! including some animals that i didn't even know existed, like the kudu.

Today we broke up into two groups and some went to the Cradle of Humanity Museum and learned all about the early homonids and took a cavern tour with evidence of the origins of human life, etc. Talitha, Onikah and I spent the day in an African Crafts Fair...where they wheeled and dealed some extraordinary things and I bought a few more things to bring home AND got my palm read by a very nice man named Clive. Dante met up with some family and new friends and met us later at the airport.

The strain of travel started to get to me tonight as I had to, for a series of reasons, circle through the damn airport three times before dropping off the rental car. I needed to buy another bag for my new purchases and I needed time to do that. We kept getting in the wrong elevator and our phones were not always connecting, so we were a little in the dark...ultimately, of course, it all worked out, just like Kate always says.

Most of our team has decided to abandon their malaria pills as they heard that there is not much risk of malaria in Africa. I on the other hand, will take mine as directed, as the last thing i need is to come down w a virus.