During the middle of the week, my maaitjie (friend) took me up to over 6000ft above sea level in his microlight! This was thoroughly enjoyable, I only wish the weather was better, so that we could have flown longer. One gets an incredible feeling of freedom, looking down on the earth below, with nothing obstructing your view! No wonder my friend is addicted to flying!
This week, we also took Nathan to have his haircut. There is a hairdresser that specializes in cutting children's hair. This was important, as every time I attempted to cut Nathan's hair, it resulted in him screaming, and me being left with a funny hairstyle! (Don't ask!) This time, however, there was a TV with the Disney channel on for him to watch, and having an experienced stranger cut his hair also seemed to make a huge difference. Afterwards, Nathan even turned to us and told us that it wasn't that bad!! My sister's family also came to offer Nathan their moral support. One of the other reasons we came to this particular venue for the haircut, was that there are multiple things here to entertain the children! Nathan and his cousins loved playing in the playground, climbing up ladders, crawling through tunnels and sliding down the slides! Then there were the pony rides that Nathan seemed to love! He was so relaxed, I even overheard him pointing out the duck pond and all the ducks to the handler! And, of course, we have to mention the train that the three cousins (and Liesel) rode on! It was a great morning of fun for us all!!!
Friday finally snuck up on us. Robyn and Roy, treated us to a delicous, home-cooked breakfast, consisting of toast, scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese, and freshly baked scones! My mom came and joined us for this sensational morning meal! This is how all breakfasts should be! Afterwards, a friend came to say "Hi" to us, before we were due to leave. AT 1:45pm, we were all ready to go, and my sister had borrowed a kombi (mini-bus) so that all our luggage could fit, as well as Nathan's cousins, who wanted to wish him farewell at the airport. With everyone buckled in, and the luggage secure, Roy drove the kombi up to the top of the road..... and this is where it died! There seemed to be something wrong with it, as it had no power to climb the first hill, and everything went downhill from there (literally and figuratively). Eventually we unpacked the kombi and crammed all our luggage into their much smaller Honda! But everything just fitted, and now there was no longer any room for anyone else. So we had a hurried round of goodbyes, before Roy chauffeured us to the airport! Things were pretty smooth at the airport, and we were soon in the Airbus, heading to Dakar for the refueling! The Dakar stop took an hour longer than expected, which meant we landed in Washington DC later than scheduled. We had to catch a connecting flight to Cleveland which was scheduled for 1.5 hours after we landed, so at this point there was no need to panic. As we deplaned, our bus didn't want to move, and seemed to have a technical problem. After about 30 minutes of communciaction between the driver and the powers that be, the bus seemed to start working again. Now there was a little reason to panic. The bus then dropped us off at the immigration and as we got there, we saw a line of about 150 people ahead of us. Now there was a lot of reason to panic. Fortunately, being a Permanent Resident, we could stand in the US Citizens line, which was moving 10x faster than the Visitors line! We got through immigration with 25 minutes to spare, but now we had to collect our luggage, pass through customs, re-check in our luggage and pass through yet another security check! By the time we had done all that we had 10 minutes left to find our gate, which was at a different concourse!! After running through Washington-Dulles International Airport, with 3 bags of hand luggage slung over our shoulders, and me pushing Nathan in his stroller, as if I were competing in the 100m sprint, we got to our gate just they announced that the flight to Cleveland is now boarding!
After 23 hours in transit, we arrived home yesterday(at the big, big house as Nathan calls it)! It was so good to collapse on our own bed for the first time in a very long time! Everyone was understandably exhausted, and sooner or later surrendered to an afternoon nap! That evening, we treated ourselves to Liesel's favorite food, Mexican take-out!
Today, we attended Church and loved seeing our friends again, and listening to the word from our pastor. Unfortunately, we are still not 100% recovered from the trip, and decided to stay at home and have an earlier night, which meant we had to skip Bible Study.
It is good to be at the place you call home, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time away! But tomorrow I am back at work, so that I can earn some much needed dollars again, because THIS IS WHAT MEN DO*
* a saying that Nathan's grandfather taught him.....
PS: Nathan was a completely different child on the trip back compared to how he was on the trip to SA. Perhaps it was the medicine, but he seemed to enjoy the flight and slept for a decent chunk of the flight!
No comments:
Post a Comment