en route

it was a dark and story night - very literally - when I flew into Joburg last night. there was chain lightning everywhere as we were landing. my palms were pretty sweaty by the time we were on the ground. travelling went pretty smooth getting there. the layovers were a bit tedeous, and some kid spilled club soda all over my stuff, but other than that it wasn't too bad. once I got to South Africa was when the fun began. (mom and dad, I'm sorry if what you ready next will scare you....)

My hotel "in the airport" turned out to NOT be in the airport. I got off the plane, stood in a line that too forever for them to put a stamp on my passport, and then set off looking for my luggage and the hotel. my bag came after a while (where I then hid the canadian flag tag I had on it, so I wouldn't get any more harrased than I already was). I wandered a bit, following the crowd, and some signs that talked about a hotel. I wandered some more, got some south african rand out of the machine, when a man came up to me, and asked to see the papers I was holding (hotel info). he read it, and said he had no idea where that hotel was. ".... um........ ..... really?" so then I found another guy who looked semi-offocial, and he was like "oh yeah, go outside turn left and walk to a shuttle" so I hesisitated, then stepped outside the door, and saw a long road and lots of people, and did I mention it was dark and stormy? haha. so I went back in (praying the entire time), and talked to an information guy who was like "oh! come with me, I'll take you!" so I decided to trust him. I'm usually pretty good at getting good or bad vibes off of people in regards to whether they want to kidnap me or not, and this guy seemed pretty safe. on the long walk there we talked about his friends who go to canada to box. so finally I made it to where the shuttle was supposed to come pick me up, and to save a lot of details and internet time - it did, I checked in, showered, went to sleep, checked out, and got a crazy fast cab to the bus station because I thought I was going to miss my bus.

so at the bus station, after running around a bit I got my ticket, realized that I and two others were the only white people there, and waited for my bus (which came an hour late). while waiting, the other two played rock, paper, scissors to see who would come over and ask me where I was going (the ultimate goal - to see if I was going to iris too since I stuck out like a sore thumb). SO, there I met tolstein and carly, and we traveled the whole way here to Maputo together. it was SOO great to have them with me at the border, because I would have been so confused and had a break down I think. haha. so we got to maputo, and all ended up coming here to wonderful beautiful "Oasis" where we will be for 2 nights. we're going to an englishservice here tomorrow morning, and then they (and hopefully me) will be flying out monday morning. pray there is room left on the plane for me!! otherwise I'm here till wednesday.

ok. I should get going. thanks again for keeping me in your prayers. they are what's gotten me this far. goodnight!


jen