It was the worst of times; it was the best of times

Our fun-filled weekend away in Pittsburgh, got off to a very shaky start on Friday morning, when Liesel's dad phoned her and told her that her mom had had a suspected heart attack and was rushed to hospital. This was huge shock for all of us and had left us, especially Liesel, very upset. Also, the distance between the USA and Botswana, also did not help the situation, and updates were few and far between. On Saturday, the decision was made to airlift her mom to a hospital in South Africa, as there are no cardiologists in Botswana. The good news so far, is that an angiogram was performed today, and there was no sign of any blockages or damage to the heart. However, she is still extremely tired and has hardly any strength. Those who know Liesel's mom, knows that she is a very strong woman, and there is a serious underlying problem if she tires so easily! Please pray that the doctors will pinpoint the cause of the problem and that she recovers quickly.

Liesel and Nathan are also going to try and get to South Africa this week (God-willing) so that Liesel can help out around the house, and relieve some of the pressures that her dad would have to face. Also, a few good doses of Nathan will do Gabi the world of good! The problem is that we bought the air-tickets at a discounted rate a number of months ago, so there are fees incurred for changing from the original itinerary. The other problem is that we had the actual tickets mailed to us, and before the travel agency can assist us, we need to return the tickets to them, so that they can re-issue new ones (and calculate the penalties.) So we shipped the tickets using overnight mail to the agency in New York on Saturday morning, but due to the weekend and that Monday is a public holiday here, they will only receive the tickets on Tuesday. Please pray that we will be able to sort out their air-tickets, as quickly and as cheaply as possible!

After mailing the tickets to NY, we were in the car with our (Not so) trustworthy navigator directing us South East to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania! we arrived at the hotel at midday, and Liesel finally met her friend from High School, who she has not seen for 13 years! After introducing all new family members to the other one, we headed to the Duquesne Incline!

This is a trolley that starts down by the river and goes up Mt Washington. At the top you get a spectacular view of the city of Pittsburgh, and you see where the three rivers meet that run like a moat around the city! Next stop (after a few wrong turn given by the ambiguous navigator) was the Pittsburgh Children's museum. This place was fantastic, and Nathan loved every minute of the 3 hours we spent there. Nathan took a particular liking to the water room, where children can play with plastic tubing and various connectors to make their own plumbing contraptions. Of course it took about 15 minutes to convince him to put on one of the raincoats that they supplied. Of course this was 15 minutes too late as his pants and feet we already soaked! Luckily we (Liesel) always carry a spare set of clothes for Nathan! Afterwards, we headed out to dinner and then came back to the hotel and put the kids to bed. Liesel and I then went to her friend's room and we chatted until close to 11pm before retiring for the night!

On Sunday, after a delicious breakfast buffet, we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium. Our previous zoo experience in Cleveland, wasn't a pleasant one, but this one was actually a much better experience. It must have been a combination of the company we had, and that Nathan is older and is far more fascinated by animals than before. He was so excited, running ahead of us and shouting "O wow! Look, a zebra!", and "Look, there's an elephant!". We then went into an indoor tropical forest to look at monkey's and Nath shout's out in glee "Mama, look, a wah-wah (ceiling fan!)". That to him is far more exciting than a bunch of smelly primates dangling from the vines!
The zoo also caters for the children and has an entire section especially for them. The section has some farm animals for them to pet, slides and tunnels to crawl through, enclosures with deer and kangaroo that they are allowed to walk through and a variety of other things for them.


After an exhaustive morning of running behind Nathan, we said our goodbyes and headed our separate ways back home. Nathan has been asleep now for 2 hours, and I feel that it's my turn next!!!