We spent an evening at a local farm house that some friends of ours were house sitting. We had a cook out (braai) and the kids played with the animals.
In mid November, just before the rats arrived, Jenny flew to Texas, along with several other management folks from here for a management conference at the Mercy Ships International Operations Center (IOC) near Tyler. Lots of good things happened during the conference and it was a great opportunity for staff at the IOC and crew on the ship to meet and foster relationships. She was there for a couple of weeks and had the opportunity to work in a two day layover in North Carolina on the way back. It was really great because she was able to spend most of Thanksgiving day with her family there before crossing the great pond again for Appelsbosch. In the midst of all of this, too, Jenny found out that she will be promoted to Operating Room Manager for our time in Sierra Leone. I'm confident she can do it, but we know it will be hard on her (and our family because most all of her energy will be poured into the O.R.).Just before Christmas, we took a road trip up north. We crossed the border and spent a night in beehive huts at Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary in Swaziland. 
We saw animals and had breakfast at the Hippo Haunt restaurant. The breakfast was incredible and the location fantastic. We watched a bright red male weaver bird wooing his mate,
saw a two foot long lizard, watched other birds and turtles and catfish all while we had breakfast there. No hippos, but that was okay; it was still a very memorable breakfast! We visited the Ngwenya Glass company and, contemplated how much we had enjoyed our 24 hours in Swaziland and continued on across the border to the north and back into South Africa. We spent three days in Kruger National Park and saw all of the big 5 except lions - elephants, water buffalo, hippos, and even a leopard. The leopard was particularly wonderful because they are more rare to see and I had been praying pretty hard that we would cross paths with one. 
One appeared in the road and we got to watch probably for a full minute as the leopard made its way up a river bed to the right of our car. We also saw a small creature that had quickly risen to the top of the kids' (and therefore our own) must see list - a dung beetle rolling a ball of dung across the road. 
We saw spotted hyenas with young which really pleased Bethany - the hyena is her favorite African animal. 
We stayed in rondavels (round houses with thatched rooves) at Kruger and ate dinner one night at the old rail station at Skukuza rest camp that is now a restaurant. We went on a sunset game drive and almost got charged by an enormous male elephant in musth! The driver knew what to do and after the elephant retreated I looked back at Bethany who had been thoroughly terrified by the event. All of the color had drained from her face. She wasn't the only one, though, that was nervous about the encounter. After that Bethany was adamant about staying a comfortable distance from the elephants. We encountered another huge male in musth walking down the middle of the road stopping all the traffic in both directions. We really wanted to pass, but simply were not interested in challenging the elephant for the right to use the road. No one else on the road was either. 
The elephant kept pushing us back until we came up with a plan. We backed up a quarter mile or so to the turn off to a watering hole beside the road figuring the elephant might be thirsty and stop off for a drink. We positioned our car for a quick escape in case he didn't turn in and waited. Soon he came lumbering (do-de-do) down the road and turned in to the watering hole. Success! Then we went down the road we wanted to and that was a good thing because it was further down that same road where the leopard had appeared. We had great adventures during our three days at Kruger. I never thought we would ever have the opportunity to go on a real African safari together as as a family. That was a great blessing!
We saw animals and had breakfast at the Hippo Haunt restaurant. The breakfast was incredible and the location fantastic. We watched a bright red male weaver bird wooing his mate, saw a two foot long lizard, watched other birds and turtles and catfish all while we had breakfast there. No hippos, but that was okay; it was still a very memorable breakfast! We visited the Ngwenya Glass company and, contemplated how much we had enjoyed our 24 hours in Swaziland and continued on across the border to the north and back into South Africa. We spent three days in Kruger National Park and saw all of the big 5 except lions - elephants, water buffalo, hippos, and even a leopard. The leopard was particularly wonderful because they are more rare to see and I had been praying pretty hard that we would cross paths with one. One appeared in the road and we got to watch probably for a full minute as the leopard made its way up a river bed to the right of our car. We also saw a small creature that had quickly risen to the top of the kids' (and therefore our own) must see list - a dung beetle rolling a ball of dung across the road. We saw spotted hyenas with young which really pleased Bethany - the hyena is her favorite African animal. We stayed in rondavels (round houses with thatched rooves) at Kruger and ate dinner one night at the old rail station at Skukuza rest camp that is now a restaurant. We went on a sunset game drive and almost got charged by an enormous male elephant in musth! The driver knew what to do and after the elephant retreated I looked back at Bethany who had been thoroughly terrified by the event. All of the color had drained from her face. She wasn't the only one, though, that was nervous about the encounter. After that Bethany was adamant about staying a comfortable distance from the elephants. We encountered another huge male in musth walking down the middle of the road stopping all the traffic in both directions. We really wanted to pass, but simply were not interested in challenging the elephant for the right to use the road. No one else on the road was either. The elephant kept pushing us back until we came up with a plan. We backed up a quarter mile or so to the turn off to a watering hole beside the road figuring the elephant might be thirsty and stop off for a drink. We positioned our car for a quick escape in case he didn't turn in and waited. Soon he came lumbering (do-de-do) down the road and turned in to the watering hole. Success! Then we went down the road we wanted to and that was a good thing because it was further down that same road where the leopard had appeared. We had great adventures during our three days at Kruger. I never thought we would ever have the opportunity to go on a real African safari together as as a family. That was a great blessing! After Kruger we traveled a little ways to the west and stayed at a self-catering cottage near MacMac falls. We loved that because all five of us could stay in one cottage. We went grocery shopping and had a fantastic braai (we grilled out). We had steak with mushrooms and grilled zucchini. It rained and we had trouble getting the fire going, but Joey and I kept blowing the coals (in the rain) and soon we had a wonderful fire! Jenny and I don't remember when we've had a better steak! We lit the oil lamps that evening and listened to Christmas music on Jenny's laptop and watched old Christmas television specials that we had on DVD. It was really nice family time and it felt a lot like Christmas even though we were a long way from home, it was the middle of summer, and the kids had playing in the camp pool on their minds. There were mosquitoes in the air, and giraffes on the curtains. A bit different from the usual for us, but Christmas time nonetheless. We even fixed our own English breakfasts two mornings in a row (eggs, sausage, toast, grilled tomato half, baked beans, and mushrooms - only we forgot the mushrooms)! Even though the cabin was rustic, our time there was a definite highlight. 
We spent a day traveling up to the Blyde River Canyon area. We visited the Pinnacle (a cool rock formation) where David found a toad in the bushes.
We visited God's Window (a lovely view from the escarpment), Wonderview (another nice overlook), Burke's Luck Potholes (interesting rock cavities made by the river and waterfalls), The Three Rondavels (a beautiful view of the Canyon area with three rock formations that look like the typical round houses of the area), 
and Lisbon Falls. Nearly every spot had its own government toll and its own craft market stalls so everyone was taking the opportunity to make some money from the tourists. It was a long day, but we took in some amazing scenery! We were sad to leave the area less than 48 hours after we arrived, but we had to. We traveled to the Royal Country Inn in Dundee and slept in the nicest bed we had since we left our home in North Carolina. The following day we visited the historic battlefields of Isandlwana 
and Rorke's Drift 
and learned about those fateful days in January 1879 when the Zulu warriors wiped out a regiment (some 1,300 plus British soldiers) at Isandlwana. The following night, a small contingency of of 100 or so British soldiers held off the Zulu advance (about 4,000 strong) at the small outpost of Rorke's Drift a few kilometers away. Amazing history! The 1964 film "Zulu" with Michael Caine hardly does it justice in my opinion. Joey really enjoyed the battlefields. He's been really into military stuff these days. We had traveled for a week dodging hundreds of potholes over 2200 miles of South African and Swazi roadways and counting our blessings every step of the way. We had a great time getting away and being a family.
We spent a day traveling up to the Blyde River Canyon area. We visited the Pinnacle (a cool rock formation) where David found a toad in the bushes. We visited God's Window (a lovely view from the escarpment), Wonderview (another nice overlook), Burke's Luck Potholes (interesting rock cavities made by the river and waterfalls), The Three Rondavels (a beautiful view of the Canyon area with three rock formations that look like the typical round houses of the area), and Lisbon Falls. Nearly every spot had its own government toll and its own craft market stalls so everyone was taking the opportunity to make some money from the tourists. It was a long day, but we took in some amazing scenery! We were sad to leave the area less than 48 hours after we arrived, but we had to. We traveled to the Royal Country Inn in Dundee and slept in the nicest bed we had since we left our home in North Carolina. The following day we visited the historic battlefields of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift and learned about those fateful days in January 1879 when the Zulu warriors wiped out a regiment (some 1,300 plus British soldiers) at Isandlwana. The following night, a small contingency of of 100 or so British soldiers held off the Zulu advance (about 4,000 strong) at the small outpost of Rorke's Drift a few kilometers away. Amazing history! The 1964 film "Zulu" with Michael Caine hardly does it justice in my opinion. Joey really enjoyed the battlefields. He's been really into military stuff these days. We had traveled for a week dodging hundreds of potholes over 2200 miles of South African and Swazi roadways and counting our blessings every step of the way. We had a great time getting away and being a family. We arrived back at Appelsbosch on the evening of the 23rd of December and the next two days were a blur. The 24th was a frantic mix of preparation for Christmas, distributing small gifts to fellow crew members, doing laundry, unpacking, etc. I spent time backing up photos from our time away and Jenny wrapped until late. Christmas day I would have liked to rest, but everyone was going to the ship in Durban for Christmas dinner, so we all boarded the shuttle vans for the ship. The boys and I went later in our rental car so we could take some stuff back to the ship in anticipation of moving back in January. At the ship we had a nice dinner and opened Christmas crackers (cardboard things that pop when you open them that have a prize and a plastic or paper crown inside). 
On the 26th we went to Lion Park near Pietermaritzburg. We got really close to a rhino and a couple of small elephants! The car windows got slimed and we got to smell elephant breath!
We also got close to some lions in the lion enclosure that you drive into, but thankfully not close enough to lose a car bumper, which had happened to someone when our friends had gone to Lion Park. 
After visiting the lions we dipped candles at a candle shop in a nice town called Nottingham Road north of Pietermaritzburg. 
Then we headed out for 6 days in the northern Drakensberg mountains. We stayed at a place called the Tower of Pizza that originally was a tower, I think a silo, converted into a pizzeria and is now a much bigger restaurant and B&B. Our friend Miriam joined us for those six days. It was fun having her along. The three girls stayed in one rondavel and the boys and I stayed in another. We ate pizza almost every day, much to the boys' delight!! Imagine, a little slice of Italy in the South Africa mountains! Joey, Miriam, and I went on some really nice hikes. The best one was the Sentinel Peak hike, a hike up to the top of the escarpment, around Sentinel peak, 
up some really scary chain ladders, 
across the plateau and to the edge of the sheer drop at the top of the "Amphitheater" where Thukela Falls (the second or forth highest falls in the world depending on which criteria you use) plunges into the gorge below. 
Good grief what an incredible view - one of the best I have ever seen!! The three of us really enjoyed that hike despite the fact that we were past the point of exhaustion by the time we got home. It was a long hike and we had driven more than three hours round trip to the trail head. It began to storm violently up there as we were driving home, so we were really thankful that we were down and had had such nice weather for our hike. We felt bad for the guys we had seen preparing to overnight up there earlier in the day. The following day we all went on a short hike (which was all Joey, Miriam, and I could muster) to some San Bushman paintings and to the cascades in the Royal Natal National Park. The paintings were worn but interesting. The cascades were really nice; nice and cold too! 
We had a blast there swimming and splashing and exploring. The next day we all hiked up the gorge to see Thukela Falls and the Amphitheater from below - not as impressive as from above, but still pretty cool. At the end of the day, despite my fatigue, I took David and Bethany fishing at the pond a few hundred yards above our lodging and we were able to catch a bass and almost caught a second one. The kids loved that and Bethany talked to and petted the fish most of the way down the hill. As the kids were to sad to eat the fish themselves, we gave it to one of the Zulu guys who worked in the kitchen and he was absolutely thrilled. He cooked and ate it almost immediately and thanked us over and over! Fishing was a definite highlight for Bethany and David. None of us wanted to leave when it was time to come back to Appelsbosch on New Years Day! Before the drive home on New Years Day we went to Falcon Ridge so Miriam could see the first class bird of prey show they have there. We really enjoyed seeing it a second time. 
Then we went to the Didima Rock Art Center and learned more about the Bushman painting in the Drakensberg. David and Bethany were most impressed by the life size statues of Eland antelope that they have there. They loved pretending they were real and clowning around on them. 
We were really sad when our time away was over, but we had had such a grand opportunity to spend time exploring northeastern South Africa that we couldn't be too sad.
We also got close to some lions in the lion enclosure that you drive into, but thankfully not close enough to lose a car bumper, which had happened to someone when our friends had gone to Lion Park. After visiting the lions we dipped candles at a candle shop in a nice town called Nottingham Road north of Pietermaritzburg. Then we headed out for 6 days in the northern Drakensberg mountains. We stayed at a place called the Tower of Pizza that originally was a tower, I think a silo, converted into a pizzeria and is now a much bigger restaurant and B&B. Our friend Miriam joined us for those six days. It was fun having her along. The three girls stayed in one rondavel and the boys and I stayed in another. We ate pizza almost every day, much to the boys' delight!! Imagine, a little slice of Italy in the South Africa mountains! Joey, Miriam, and I went on some really nice hikes. The best one was the Sentinel Peak hike, a hike up to the top of the escarpment, around Sentinel peak, up some really scary chain ladders, across the plateau and to the edge of the sheer drop at the top of the "Amphitheater" where Thukela Falls (the second or forth highest falls in the world depending on which criteria you use) plunges into the gorge below. Good grief what an incredible view - one of the best I have ever seen!! The three of us really enjoyed that hike despite the fact that we were past the point of exhaustion by the time we got home. It was a long hike and we had driven more than three hours round trip to the trail head. It began to storm violently up there as we were driving home, so we were really thankful that we were down and had had such nice weather for our hike. We felt bad for the guys we had seen preparing to overnight up there earlier in the day. The following day we all went on a short hike (which was all Joey, Miriam, and I could muster) to some San Bushman paintings and to the cascades in the Royal Natal National Park. The paintings were worn but interesting. The cascades were really nice; nice and cold too! We had a blast there swimming and splashing and exploring. The next day we all hiked up the gorge to see Thukela Falls and the Amphitheater from below - not as impressive as from above, but still pretty cool. At the end of the day, despite my fatigue, I took David and Bethany fishing at the pond a few hundred yards above our lodging and we were able to catch a bass and almost caught a second one. The kids loved that and Bethany talked to and petted the fish most of the way down the hill. As the kids were to sad to eat the fish themselves, we gave it to one of the Zulu guys who worked in the kitchen and he was absolutely thrilled. He cooked and ate it almost immediately and thanked us over and over! Fishing was a definite highlight for Bethany and David. None of us wanted to leave when it was time to come back to Appelsbosch on New Years Day! Before the drive home on New Years Day we went to Falcon Ridge so Miriam could see the first class bird of prey show they have there. We really enjoyed seeing it a second time. Then we went to the Didima Rock Art Center and learned more about the Bushman painting in the Drakensberg. David and Bethany were most impressed by the life size statues of Eland antelope that they have there. They loved pretending they were real and clowning around on them. We were really sad when our time away was over, but we had had such a grand opportunity to spend time exploring northeastern South Africa that we couldn't be too sad.To be honest, I was a little nervous about taking a big road trip in South Africa and through Swaziland with my family. I was also a little anxious about the fact that here in Southern Africa you have to prepay for lodging or at least pay a hefty non-refundable deposit. So I prayed hard that no one would get sick and that we would be able to use the lodging we had payed for on the days we had booked it. You know, God is good all the time and all the time God is good. Even when things don't work out the way you plan, He is still good. But it just so happens that he blessed us with good health and safely brought us through our whole time away with no hiccups. We even had great weather when we wanted it for our hikes. We saw a leopard and they don't have leopards at Lion Park. And I'm thankful too for the dung beetles we saw! It would not have been the end of the world if none of this stuff had worked out, but I would have been sad to have lost the opportunity and the money. The longer I follow Christ the more I am totally convinced that God is interested in the little things that concern us as well as the big stuff. I think He just wants us to look to Him - to look to Him in everything, little stuff included. He is waiting to bless us if we just look to Him and acknowlege that He is the source of all that is good.
We've had some trials and tough times in South Africa in the last 5 months, but we've had some pretty amazing times too. If you level it all out the balance is pretty positive.
John
I was later named "The Great White Rat Hunter" by a colleague of ours after he had seen the photo. Later the same night, another rat found a trap and took the bait. I had buried three rats by morning. After that, there were one or two rat sightings and one or two other folks setting traps. I haven't heard of any more sightings of rats in the building in a couple of months. Perhaps they decided that the hope of finding food in our building was not worth the risk and have moved on.
There was also at least one small suitcase packed, perhaps shared, between the two stuffed animals and they were off on vacation just before Christmas with the Rolland family to points North of here. Well Theo, unknown to us, apparently fell out of the car at a petrol station in Swaziland. By the time we realized he was missing that night, we were far away and Theo was clearly on his own. There was much sadness at his loss, yet we hope he has fared well in his new country. Since then, a small rhino (pictured below) has taken up residence in Theo's old place. 
Such is life, I suppose; things change. I can't help wondering if Theo's disappearance had something to do with the way I had treated his rodent kind. Anyway, the rats are gone, three into eternity, some unknown number to greener pastures near Appelsbosch, and one wandering around Swaziland perhaps in the care of another loving child. Farewell beloved Theo. 
The hole in the side of the ship is closed now, the new generators have been moved into position and are now in the process of being installed along with the new air conditioning units. (Below are photos of the hole in the ship and a new generator in the warehouse before installation.)
It was amazing to see how they moved the four huge 30-ton generators into place with jacks, blocks, rollers, wenches and lots of manpower - it was kind of like watching well orchestrated performance complete with conductor. It is amazing all of the stuff going on in such a relatively small space. Sparks fly down in the engine room from the acetylene torches and welders weld all over, even under the floor so you have to watch where you step. I got to talk to a fellow who was inspecting welds with dye penetrant and magnetic particle methods of non-destructive inspection (NDI) similar to the work I did on helicopters in the military. That was fun for me since I understood the processes well. Most of the work has been happening while the ship is in dry dock. 
It is really cool to see the ship from the bottom of the dry dock. There is a huge hull down there about 18 feet high that usually only the divers get to see. 
Everyone is encouraged that things are moving along pretty much on schedule at the moment.
School is going well for the children. This year volunteers are teaching "life skills" classes for the students. I am teaching a photography class for the next few weeks and I have six junior high and high school students in my class. Others are teaching cooking, gardening, and being a good neighbor (community service). Last month the kids were offered their choice of cheer leading, which Bethany very much enjoyed, outdoor survival skills - Joey's pick, auto mechanics, and dress making.
Bethany had a lot of fun mopping with a local girl her age named Namagugu, Zulu for "precious". 
Joey helped in the galley that day to prepare for a braai (South African barbecue) that we were doing here in conjunction with a church some crew had been attending in Ballito. To braai is a very popular past time among the white South Africans at least. Hardly a gathering goes by without a Braai, even in rainy weather. Joey and I went to Durban to Northside Church 
to large moths, 
to snails, very odd caterpillars that carry their homes around with them, 
and even a small snake. 
I spend some time documenting the collection in photos. The boys are loving being boys and exploring I just hope they don't find any puff adders or black mambas! The Academy had a big camp out this past weekend in the soccer field here. We had a big fire with songs and s'mores. What a nice opportunity to be outdoors! I finally got a few good photos of the Jacaranda trees that bloom here in the spring. What lovely color!
It's nice to be in a place where we can experience Spring again! It's a little weird that its Fall back home, but still very, very nice.
Joey got to spend some time with his old Boy Scout troop and he and I went to the National Jamboree in Virginia with the troop. David spent a lot of time driving the golf car around his grandparent's yard. Among other things Jenny spent a week in Atlanta for Mercy Ships attending a hospital standards and policies seminar. I spent time staining the storage building that we have our household goods stored in among other things on my long list of things to do. We home schooled our kids for the month of August as school at Mercy Ships Academy started at the beginning of August. We also had a lot of speaking engagements and fundraising meetings during August. It was such a difficult month that Jenny and I have decided to avoid homeschooling completely in the future if at all possible. We would like to leave that to those who have the talents and passion required to teach children well. We don't seem to possess them. We were very glad, though, at the end of our visit home that we had decided to make the trip, despite the great cost and the time away from our jobs on the ship. We returned to Africa at the end of August and met the ship in Durban, South Africa. The Africa Mercy will be in Durban in shipyard until late January having generators and air conditioning units, among other things, replaced. (The ship at the moment is in dry dock and the work is moving forward full force. There presently is a scurry of activity on the ship. It is quite something to witness. I have some photos of the work being done, but I will have to wait to post them to my blog until I have delivered them to Mercy Ships.) We arrived at the ship on September 2nd, moving day! All of the families and non-technical (non-deck and engineering) long-term crew were moving off the ship to live at Appelsbosch College between Wartburg and Tongaat in KwaZulu Natal province, 90 minutes drive northwest of Durban. So we moved with them immediately upon arrival at the ship. Thankfully we had had a day and a couple of nights to rest in a hotel in Durban before meeting the ship. It was still quite stressful packing our cabin in a couple of hours and preparing for the move as soon as we arrived. We had missed all the pre-move briefings that the other crew had gotten during the sail from Togo. All of our personal things that we would need and all of the departmental equipment and supplies, computers, etc., etc. that we would need to live and do all the administrative tasks slated for this time at Appelsbosch were loaded onto trucks and we piled into ship vehicles and buses and convoyed out to Appelsbosch, through the hills and past round Zulu houses. 
We arrived on moving day at Appelsbosch in a cold drizzle and unloaded and unloaded! We all slept well that night! We have been living at Appelsbosch (our home away from our ship home, away from our home in North Carolina) now for nearly a month. Our family lives in the 4-story building below.
There have been many challenges here as the college has been little used over the past four years and many of the systems here have needed work. The staff helping us here are doing a great job. We have people working security for us and running a small tuck shop for us and working to keep the water running despite the current shortage. We rarely have both hot and cold water and sometimes none at all, but there is hope that that will improve with increased rainfall. It has been unusually dry this month. We had lots of trouble with internet access initially and phones didn't come for about 3 weeks, but things are running pretty well at the moment. We have a gym at Appelsbosch with badminton, a trampoline (albeit a bit hazardous), pool tables, and basketball goals. The kids also have lots of trees to climb in and plenty of space to run and scooter and play. I think it has been a little of a transition for the ship kids who haven't had such space and freedom for so long. We have already had two broken arms; one from a skateboarding accident and the other from falling out of a tree. The latter was a bit scary as there was a significant concussion as well. The kids have found lots of little brown chameleons to play with and cool bugs like praying mantises. Bethany named the mantises inhabiting our dorm "Manny" and "Paul". We are sometimes awakened very early in the morning by the very loud cattle just outside our dorm. I often laugh at how vocal they can be. The walls of our dorm rooms are a bit bland in institutional grey, but we have managed to make things pretty homey. The mattresses are not high quality so Jenny and I each have our own crater to sleep in (you can probably see that in the photo below), but it really isn't too uncomfortable.
Bethany had a birthday party about 3 weeks ago and the girls had a big time. 
They bobbed for apples, drew angels and added the wings blindfolded, 
played musical chairs and ate cupcakes. 
Jenny has been busy working on policy and procedure writing for the hospital. I worked in the galley mostly cutting up vegetables and meats (and sometimes my fingers!) for the first few weeks we were here, but I'm pretty heavily engaged with doing photography for the P.R. department now. I've been to the ship several times to take pictures and to Pietermaritzburg to cover one of Mercy Ships' programs there, a mental health training class attended by pastors and church leaders from all over the KwaZulu-Natal province. They were learning about working with children on the day I visited.
We also had a wedding here a couple of weeks ago. Two of our fellow Mercy Ships crew members decided to get married here, so everyone pitched in and we had a wedding. He is from northern England and she is a fellow North Carolinian. It was a beautiful day and a lovely wedding. I photographed the event, but had a corrupted flash card and lost all the photos (a photographer's nightmare!). Fortunately, after downloading some recovery software, I was able to recover all the photos! Thank the Lord for that!
Our family has also been privileged to see lots of other beautiful things like the Southern Cross in the night sky and the Drakensberg Mountains. We had a long weekend this past weekend so we visited the Champagne Valley in the Central Drakensberg (home of the Drakensberg Boys Choir). It was very nice to get away and just be a family for a few days. We stayed in farm cottage owned by a very nice couple with a son-in-law from Dallas. There were lots of nice birds on the farm, including fluffy chickens and even a weaver bird or two.
We saw birds of prey at Falcon Ridge, 
learned about honey bees and ate honey cheesecake at a place called Scrumpy Jack, went zip lining on a small zip line course (David loved that!) 
and went on a one hour horse ride. None of the kids had ever ridden horses before. Bethany has since decided that she wants to work at some horse stables and own her own horse (oh boy, here we go!) 
We also did some riding around to look at the scenery (the adults enjoyed that, but the kids grumbled about being in the car.)
We had a lovely family weekend in the "Berg", but traveling around carries a little stress with it in that security is a definite concern here. We don't travel at night if it can be avoided. Against the backdrop of apartheid and with the recent increase in racial tensions, we feel a bit vulnerable here. Whites are in the minority here making up only a little over 10% of the population as I understand it, and the indigenous people (Zulu primarily) here seem much cooler toward us and less willing to enter into conversation than what we generally experienced in West Africa. I'm a bit uneasy about that, but mostly just saddened by it. Considering the racial climate, it is easier to understand how people like Gandhi and Nelson Mandela might have been shaped by their experiences here. It is nice to be able to easily communicate though, but there are so many cultural issues that we don't yet understand. South Africa is a real mind bender of a place! I am finding it continually difficult to wrap my head around the economic disparity that I see here. It is not uncommon to drive into a city and see very nice houses right next door to corrugated tin and mud shacks with no water or electricity. Often its that juxtaposition that is overwhelming to me. Poverty is so prevalent in West Africa and you see economic disparity there, but it just doesn't seem as deep, maybe, or as widespread. I hope to become more educated about all of this as our time here wears on.
