The 18-hour flight on South African Airlines was delightful. Announcements were made in English, Afrikaans, and French. Between on-demand movies, sleeping, and Will Shortz (Café Crosswords and Sunday Sudoku), the time flew. One day faded into the next and we simply savored the wine and meals (spicy beef stew and polenta, real mashed potatoes and scrambled eggs, fresh Portuguese-style rolls). A quick stop in Dakar, Senegal to change crews and we saw our first African sunrise.
It was only the company that was less than ideal - we found ourselves surrounded by elderly Canadians struggling loudly and longly to pronounce words like "rand" and "Cape Town" (pronounced "rand" and "Cape Town", respectively). The woman next to me was fascinated by my Sudoku skills, so much so that I had to put it away. Suffice to say that we were relieved to get to Joburg Airport and wait in line with about a thousand people and no air conditioning at Immigration. It was there we discovered the Canadians were on an excursion run by a man named Bob, whose luggage was all labeled, inscrutably, "Bob's Cruises." We befriended a couple in line behind us, Afrikaner ex-pats who had left during apartheid and were returning to Cape Town for the first time since its end. They had similar views on airline cruises sponsored by Bob or anyone else. The man turned out to be a physician who trained at the same Johannesburg hospitals we will be at, and their children live in Manhattan. They gave us some pointers and wished us luck.
We were greeted outside with a laminated name sign held up by Corine, the director of Sparrow. She is a small older woman in a faded black Harley t-shirt with a giant gold cross hanging from her neck. Her shirt said, "Let It Ride," and on the way home in the Sparrow Ministries dusty white VW bus, she told us all about Joburg, Sparrow, and herself. We couldn't understand a word she said, between her accent and low voice, the wind from the windows, and the fact that both of us were sound asleep within 5 minutes. It was a long but pleasant journey and we arrived safely with everything we brought. We were greeted at the Sparrow guest dome by Caroline, a middle-aged nurse volunteer from Ohio, who had dinner and wine all set up for us. She settled us in and we basically slept for the next 24 hours....
A welcome sign from Naniki greeted us in our bedroom.
It was only the company that was less than ideal - we found ourselves surrounded by elderly Canadians struggling loudly and longly to pronounce words like "rand" and "Cape Town" (pronounced "rand" and "Cape Town", respectively). The woman next to me was fascinated by my Sudoku skills, so much so that I had to put it away. Suffice to say that we were relieved to get to Joburg Airport and wait in line with about a thousand people and no air conditioning at Immigration. It was there we discovered the Canadians were on an excursion run by a man named Bob, whose luggage was all labeled, inscrutably, "Bob's Cruises." We befriended a couple in line behind us, Afrikaner ex-pats who had left during apartheid and were returning to Cape Town for the first time since its end. They had similar views on airline cruises sponsored by Bob or anyone else. The man turned out to be a physician who trained at the same Johannesburg hospitals we will be at, and their children live in Manhattan. They gave us some pointers and wished us luck.
We were greeted outside with a laminated name sign held up by Corine, the director of Sparrow. She is a small older woman in a faded black Harley t-shirt with a giant gold cross hanging from her neck. Her shirt said, "Let It Ride," and on the way home in the Sparrow Ministries dusty white VW bus, she told us all about Joburg, Sparrow, and herself. We couldn't understand a word she said, between her accent and low voice, the wind from the windows, and the fact that both of us were sound asleep within 5 minutes. It was a long but pleasant journey and we arrived safely with everything we brought. We were greeted at the Sparrow guest dome by Caroline, a middle-aged nurse volunteer from Ohio, who had dinner and wine all set up for us. She settled us in and we basically slept for the next 24 hours....
A welcome sign from Naniki greeted us in our bedroom.
4 comments:
Jess, first-rate travel writing. Keep it up and keep safe. Dad
Jess, first-rate travel writing. Keep it up and keep safe. Dad.
Wow what an exciting adventure! Can't wait to hear all about it when you get home. Until then good luck in your travels.
Jessica
This has been a wonderful read-I especially want to hear more about the forbidden "Women's Health" discussion series for the teenage girls -good grief!
Be Safe and we will see you soon.
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