July 7, 2007

Today we spent the day enjoying ourselves, or really enjoying Africa. Titus, pastor at Charity and Faith, is very proud of his country and wants to show off some of the wonders. It is beautiful and breathtaking. The safari pictures are amazing!! To see these creatures so close makes you realize how small you are in the world, but at the same time, helping you appreciate how each creature is special, including piddly, old us, Americans.

All of our pictures are at:

http://photos.gomamelodi.com/
We posted under Go Group the Great 58.

We also haggled at the market for treasures and trinkets to bring home. It is nice to know that math is used in the real world and comes in handy for quick exchange rate calculations.

We are staying at the Hotel Manhattan in Pretoria (the capital of South Africa). It is nice (similar to a Red Roof) and small, but we have beds, heat (sometimes), showers, and toliets, better than the extensions (numbered sections of the shantytowns).

July 5, 2007

The flight was unbelievably long, but we had the excitement of so many things to look forward to propelling us. We left our house at 7 am for a 10:45 flight to Atlanta. Then got on a 4 pm flight to South Africa. We arrived in Jo-berg at 4 pm the next day on July 6th. It was joyous (i'll probably use this word 1000 times). From the passport check, we could hear whistling, horns, and cheers. Our hosts and Charity & Faith partners, met us at the airport with a crowd for a celebrity. That immediately pumped us up, no matter how long we were stuck in one seat!!! There was cheering & dancing at the airport, with our orange shirt mass wave of folks taking over the space!! We went to our hotels, ate and crashed, although we were ready to immediately work.