Our 1st trip to South Africa

For many years I've dreamed about going to South Africa. On Saturday, August 24th, my dream became a reality. Those of you who know me, know that I spent many summers at Camp Seafarer. Fortunately, camp does a great job of recruiting international staff. It was at Seafarer that I met several South Africans and began dreaming about visiting their country.

Soon after arriving here, I was able to find contact information for one of my South African camp friends, Michelle Van der Walt. She was kind enough to invite us to visit and stay with her family. So on Labor Day Weekend (Ian's office observes both American and Botswana Holidays:-)) we crossed the border into South Africa and made our way to Krugersdorp (town bordering Johannesburg).

Fortunately there is only one main road, so it would have been difficult to get lost. We stopped in a village soon after the border to feed Finn, get soeme Rand (South African Currency) and eat lunch. It didn't take long to realize a major difference in this country: there are a lot more white people. Funniest thing about this is that everyone just assumed we were South African. How do I know? Because in both the supermarket and Whimpy's, we were spoken to in Africans. I was actually feeling really good about this...it's sometimes nice not to stick out as a foreigner!

We arrived late afternoon to Michelle's house. Her family and friends gave us a warm welcome. We spent the rest of the day just talking and enjoying the company....and a delicious braai (South African Barbeque).

Michelle and her parents were wonderful hosts! Sunday Michelle took us to the Nelson Mandela Apartheid Museum....absolutely incredible!! We could have spent the entire day there. In the afternoon we headed out to the Rhino and Lion Park. Unfortunately there were fires spreading throughout the park so we could not enter. However, just across the road they have plenty of animals to enjoy so we were extremely happy:-) We saw white lions, lion cubs, zebra, tigers, and a hippo in the water. Finn really enjoyed the animals.

It was a quick trip and we certainly look forward to returning!