Thank you to everyone for your prayers – they paid off. I have a teaching job for next year in Lake Oswego, the district I worked for before going to Zimbabwe. Hooray!!!!
We are home and safe. We arrived in Portland on June 7 to the open arms of Jeff’s mom, Pat, his sister, Heather, brother, Evan and my dad, Gordon and stepmom, Avis. We were tired and rumpled, but very glad to see everyone. We laid low, had dinner with the family, then spent the night at Pat’s before driving to the beach to spend some time with my dad.
After a relaxing week, we came back to West Linn to see our house for the first time. What a sight!!!! The wonderful people from our church and community had worked together to give our house a make-over and was it ever a surprise!!! They replaced the carpet with a gorgeous new one – much better than the old – they replaced our garage door, a faucet, 2 doors, the rotting boards on our deck, a countertop, painted everywhere including a complete makeover for the kids’ rooms – new bedding and furniture for them as well. The yard is beautiful with a new bench out in front, a new tree, everything spruced up and planted, and a sweet plaque dedicated to Jeff. There were paintings in the kids’ rooms, new (to us) telephones, coffee table, chair, desk and mask, and a brand new computer from one of Jeff’s students. A large banner greeted us with notes from people who worked on the house and wished us well and there were cards left throughout the house. We were blown away!! I don’t know how to go about thanking all the people who were involved in this amazing act of love, but we are touched to the core. Jeff would be so amazed, as we are. Thank you to all!!!
We have been unpacking from our trip and starting to get things out of storage – it’s a slow process and taking up all of our time, but we are looking forward to seeing everyone as soon as possible!
—
Hi. Mary here. This is gonna be a short entry since i am tired. I just saw a new episode of Hannah Montana (but that’s beside the point.) We got back and it was nice to see everyone and drink root beer. There is no Root beer in Zimbabwe africa. In ZIm, i told a teacher i liked root beer and she goes “DROOT BEEAR? WHAT IS DAT? IS DAT A DDRUG?” (notice how i typed everything to sound like her accent. She was Zimbabish.) Any way, yeah. It was nice to see all our friends and i LOVE my room in Westlinn! If u were a part of painting or supplying my room with furniture then THANX SOOO MUCH!!! 
That’s all i have to say. Watch icarly! Drink root beer! Play pranx on your neighbors! That is my advice.
Mary out.
Tags: #1, blog, carpet, cumpston, cumpston casa, deck, dedication, icarly, LOVE, mary, neighbors, plaque, remodel, room, root beer, Terry, theresa
Thank you to all of you who contributed to the amazing Willamette Christian Church project: Cumpston Casa, Makeover Mission. Kim Williams [of WCC] assembled the most highly skilled and loving group of people one could imagine to work all last weekend and into this week in shifts. What organization! What devotion! What hard work and what fun!
Most of all, what miraculous results. The new carpet throughout, the sturdy deck rebuild, the new doors where needed, new garage door, new drainage set-up for the studio, new flowers in the yard, beautiful new memorial garden corner with the bench, new paint, bright new room decorations for the children…..it goes on and on.
I’m writing because Louis and I have moved out and moved back to Oregon City. Louis and I loved our two years on Southslope in the Cumpston Casa. I know beyond a doubt that Louis discovered his calling to music in part because we were in the right place – Jeff’s house – where the music studio became Louis’ domaine for two years of guitar, sax, drums, and clarinette. Time to turn it back over to Mary and Bryce for whom their father’s presence will be even more real as they find their voices and a connection with him in music.
God bless you!
Rhonda
PS / I’m hoping you’ll share this update with anyone who would like to final status report. You might want to check out the May 13th West Linn Tidings for article w/photos (photos unfortunately are not reproduced online) about the project.
Hi Everyone! This will be my last blog entry before returning to the US. Since Mary has told about our trip to Antelope Park (or at least her version of it!) I won’t say much about it. Those of you who will have the fortunate (or unfortunate) experience of viewing my 1,000,000+ photos when I get home will get the full story. Let me just say that walking with the lions and following them as they hunt, is the most amazing thing and I highly recommend it to anyone who finds their way to Zimbabwe. Antelope Park is running a program to breed and return lions to their natural habitat through a 4-step program. Their numbers in Africa have reduced by 80-90% since 1975! So, not only did we have an incredible, once in a lifetime experience, but the money we spent goes toward this program. A win-win situation.
We went to Chombo for our last visit this past Sunday. It is so rewarding to see the difference in this village and its people. They are healthy and thriving. They built a beautiful chicken coop with the money we gave them. They have harvested 2 crops from the large tomato/potato/beans garden they planted by the well and are preparing to plant again. (Their old well has already run dry for the year!) They have a good-sized harvest of corn drying to make their mealie-meal and they have a pregnant cow. We left them with some money for fruit trees, some sweeties (candy,) 2 huge bags of oranges and some meat – a real treat for them. Most importantly, Cindy, Al and I gave Veronica some money which she took in to pay for the next full year’s school tuition for all the children of Chombo! Jeff would have been so happy and proud of all of us! Thank you!
We have been going to many going-away and end of the year parties! Our social calendar is beyond full. Bryce had a party yesterday that was really fun and Mary will have one next weekend – the last possible day! We are certainly going to miss our friends here.
This is our last week of school. All 3 of us are starting to realize our adventure is coming to an end and we are all mourning for what we will be leaving. This is an incredible country with amazing people! I’m thankful we took this journey. I don’t blame Zim for Jeff’s death, but I do thank God that He gave me Jeff for 16 years, that He gave me 2 wonderful children through Jeff and that Jeff had so much family time during the last year of his life. It’s hard to come home without him.
This year’s yearbook just came out and the first page is a full-page picture of Jeff! It’s beautiful! In addition, there will be a ceremony this Tuesday morning, dedicating the Performing Arts Center here to Jeff and renaming it in his honor. What a tribute to him, especially after only one year of teaching here! He made his mark wherever he went!
Another tribute to Jeff, is the wonderful surprise many of you already are in on – our house in Oregon! I was told just a short time ago that our church, along with many friends, have banded together to give our house an incredible make-over! I was aware that the kids’ rooms were being painted for us and that Lynn Pass volunteered to paint murals in each of their rooms, but now I hear that the work goes way beyond that! Leaks are being fixed, rotting boards on the deck replaced, a counter replaced, faucets and toilets tightened or replaced and maybe even a new garage door and carpeting! I am blessed every way I turn! God blessed us with the opportunity to help others while we are here and He is blessing us with your help as we return. I can’t adequately express my gratitude and awe that this is being done for us. To all of you who are involved, thank you!!!!
My last news is no news. I am still waiting on the job front. My former principal has been doing all that he can to help get me back on in Lake Oswego, but the budget shortfall to the State and the District for schools is huge! I’m not out yet, but I’m not in yet, either. Keep on praying for me . . . if not for a teaching job then for something that will allow me to make a living.
The next time you hear from me, I’ll be in Oregon. We’re looking forward to seeing you all soon!!
Love,
Terry
Tags: chombo, coming home, dedication, job, lake oswego, makeover, veronica, west linn
Hi blog readers! Blog writer here! Sorry my blog is so long, but it’s good! Hey ya know I was wondering what would happen if you put a pickle in a toaster? Will one of you try that for me? My mom won’t let me try it myself.
So anyway, in this last vacation we took, we realized how much we will miss Zimbabwe. It started on Friday, which was a half day. School got out at twelve. Why? For the teacher’s appreciation lunch. Who besides teachers would want to appreciate teachers? That’s what I want to know. None of us students appreciate our teachers. I guess it’s just something teachers do so not to bruise their self-esteem. And the worst thing about it is that we were not invited (us students) to eat lunch with them!!! They throw a party celebrating themselves, inviting nobody but themselves! Selfish. I really do love our school, though not the teachers. We have beautiful lush green grass all over campus. That’s right. No hall way. Campus. It’s awesome! We used to always eat lunch under the palm trees with the peacocks, but the peacocks keep having babies and they’re getting really obnoxious. So now we eat at the top of the big grassy hill or on the bench outside the Geography room.
After the teacher appreciation lunch, we got into two cars. Claire Ingram’s car and Amanda (Ben’s mom’s) car. In case, you are reading one of my blogs for the first time, Ben is Bryce’s best friend who is at our house every day from the time school gets out till 7. So he’s practically our brother. He even answers our gate sometimes and things like that! He’s always at our house! So we went in two cars. Me, Bryce and Ben sat in the back seat of Claire’s car with her daughter Holly in the front seat beside her. Holly is exactly one year younger than I am. We have the same birthday. So the reason we all sat in one car is because Max (Ben’s little brother) and his friend Oliver were in the other car with Amanda and my mom. And I know I am 12 and 12 year olds aren’t supposed to hate 8 year olds, but Oliver is EVIL! EVIL I TELL YOU!!!! >:( He really is. So we were sure that none of us had to sit by Oliver; all four of us kids went in a different car than the lighties. Lighties- I’m speaking British! Lighties is the Zimbabwean term for little kids. Max is okay but Oliver is an evil little kid. The whole car ride, we had a great time. Well I did any way. When we got bored, I started rhyming people’s names. I was rhyming Bryce with nice with mice with lice and I was rhyming Ben with hen and pen and then, Holly’s name I rhymed with Ollie, collie, jolly. I started laughing so hard because the activity of rhyming names was just so, so stupid. I laughed until I cried.
Then we pulled up in Antelope Park and got out of the car. (check out the pictures here) It was simply yellow grass and some straw huts. That’s what Zimbabwean hotels are like. I’m going to miss that in America where all the hotels are made of cement and bricks and have TVs in them and white walls. The ones in Zim have brown walls. But Bryce’s rich friend owns a hotel which has white walls but that’s a five star hotel and a whole different story. As I was saying, we checked in right away in reception which was simply a hut on the grassy field. The reception is a gift shop as well. We tried on all kinds of funny hats and looked at cool wooden African decorations and sculptures. The straw huts, the peacocks, the wooden sculptures- that’s when I realized it was all simply Zimbabwe. I realized I was gonna miss Zim so much. But the whole vacation was ahead of us and I had more I was going to miss. After we checked in, we went over the bridge which stood above a river and we went to the hut we’d be staying in. The river had only one crocodile in it and a few boats chained up. Our room was so nice! It had six beds and a low ceiling loft that included another four beds and even a sink and a hot water machine!!! The hot water machine was so you could make tea. There were four toilets (that’s right- a lot of toilets) down a small hall in the hut. There were even two out door showers.
Me, Holly, Ben and Bryce all slept on the loft. The adults and lighties slept on the bottom floor. Our porch had a great view of the river and horizon and plenty of animals. We even saw an otter swim by in the river!!! Watch out for the crocodile, otter! Our first night in the hotel was just settling in. We hung out, had dinner (great steak) and then we went to bed. When we were told to turn the lights off and be quiet, we got our Nintendo D.S.’s and went into a chat room where we continued to talk. Ben does not have a D.S. and Holly forgot hers, so Holly and I shared my D.S, Ben used Bryce’s, and Bryce used the laptop for some other thing. He didn’t chat with us. Oh, and speaking of Bryce, he too is writing a blog on this adventure so tell your friends to read MY BLOG! NOT HIS! I CALLED WRITING THE BLOG, SO READ MY BLOG, NOT BRYCE’S!
* * *
The next morning, we woke up, had some tea (everyone in Zimbabwe drinks lots of tea- another thing I will miss) and we went onto the porch to watch the sun rise. Mom and Claire were gone but Amanda was here and so were the rest of us kids. We woke up at 6: 30. We did not want to miss any excitement. I like how in Zimbabwe, you’re not in the middle of nowhere like everyone says you are—you’re in the middle of every where. You are with the lions, the elephants; you’re in the middle of nature. In the U.S, everyone is so caught up in their jobs and their cars and they sleep in late and have nothing. The U.S. has nothing, even though it has everything. No offense. You might have McDonalds and Starbucks, but you don’t have lions and straw huts. And just to prove my point, where were Mom and Claire gone that morning? They’d gone walking with the lions!
That morning, we just sat on the porch, lying back, watching the sun rise, listening to the lions roar. We had quite a busy schedule that day. At 9:00, elephant rides, at 1:30 we had cub viewing, and that was pretty much it. At 7:00 pm, the adults went on the lion hunting thing which lasted till 10:30.
At 9, we went and rode elephants. Best experience of my life! The elephants were so tame and amazing. My mom dropped her sweater; one of the elephants picked it up and gave it to her! Not only did we ride the elephants, the next day, we got to play soccer with them too! That’s right! Soccer with elephants. For the rest of the vacay, we were constantly petting the elephants, feeding them, riding them bare back, and being with them whenever we could. The elephants were named Cheebie, Jetcha, Tombie, and Amai. Amai was Bryce’s favorite because she was the one who picked things up with her trunk and gave them to us every five seconds! Ben received 6 presents from her, I received ten. She was so cute! The elephant Jetcha even picked me up with his trunk at one point when I was only trying to pet him. He was the male, therefore aggressive. We later, went to pet the lion cubs. They were so cute! The lion cub Collie even got stuck when climbing a tree. And after riding elephants, hanging in the gift shop, sleeping in the hut, building a fort out of stones, canoeing, playing games outside 24-7, I realized more than I’d ever realized that I was going to miss Africa so, so much. I’d known I would, but by the end of this vacation, that’s when I really thought it over. And it’s so sad, that we have to leave this place. The rest of the vacay went pretty cool. One very main event was when we went to the docks and were hanging on a boat chained up. It was tied to the bridge and we were basking in the sun on it. It continued to feel like the boat was drifting off down the stream. And we continued to feel relaxed…until we realized the rope tying the boat to the dock had actually come undone and we really WERE drifting down stream! Bryce ran down the bridge, screaming while me, Ben, and Holly tied the boat back up. It was so scary!!!! :} That night, the adults went on the Night watch where they watched lions hunt. The lions only made a single kill however- an impala. My mom walked with the lions too at 6 am. Did I mention that? She said it was really fun. She also said that the lions hunted then too but made no kills. A drunk man visiting from California was also staying at Antelope park and he was so, so drunk! He was singing and dancing and picking his nose. And at one point when I was not talking, he said “SHUT UP, COWG!” to me then he started to laugh hard. What is a COWG? There was a drunk people party the night the grown ups went on the Night watch. It was hilarious to watch them sing and dance so absently. And we woke up at Antelope park to the orange sun rise every morning, walking through the tall yellow grass, riding elephants, sleeping in a hut. In America, I’ll never get to do that again. I’ve finally realized just how much I’m going to miss Zimbabwe.
Tags: Antelope Park, elephants, lighties, lions, mary, pictures, teachers, Zim
Tags: Antelope Park, elephants, lions, pictures
We are moving forward at an incredible pace here – looking forward to returning to America while dreading leaving Africa. It really is a bittersweet time for us. I think Ben and Bryce, in particular, will have a hard time parting as they practically live together. We are hoping he and his mom (at least) will come and spend the summer of 2011 with us in Oregon. Mary also has some very close friends she will be missing – most notably Shira, Anushka and Astrid. And I can’t bear to think of the friends I’ll be leaving behind.
Living in an international environment like this is a very special experience. As most everyone is separated from their families and friends, you very quickly become each others’ families. Then there’s the Zimbabwe effect – those who are from here have had to band together over the years to help each other over some very difficult times – the war, farm takeovers, the inflation and lack of availability of food and other goods. Because of that, friendships here are strong and have withstood a lot of tragedy. Add to all that Jeff’s death, after which everyone circled us even more closely than they might have otherwise. All these factors combined have led us to make lifelong friends in a very short time. Leaving them (forever) is harder than it was to come here in the first place, knowing it was for a short time.
The hardest part about leaving is that we came here as a family – our big adventure – and the kids and I are returning without Jeff. That breaks my heart.
On the other hand, we are so looking forward to being with all of you again. We have missed your friendship and support. We have missed seeing you face to face and sharing our lives with you. We are also (of course) really looking forward to living where things work and make sense. So, as I said, it’s bittersweet.
Over these last 4 weeks, we have MANY parties to attend (tough job, but someone has to do it!) We are also going for one last trip – to a place called Antelope Park. Look it up on the web to see the wonderful things we will be doing there! www.antelopepark.co.zw We are going for 2 nights, May 14 and 15, with our good friends Amanda (Ben’s mom) and Claire (our Hwange partner.) We will also be throwing our own going away party. Then, of course, there’s school. I’m writing my report cards now and the kids are immersed in their studies. And I’m working on getting a shipper, packing, selling things (I sold my car yesterday!!) getting police and tax clearances, trying to sort out my utility bills (that’s something I won’t miss!) and still worrying about a job for next year. I think we’ll be exhausted when we step off that plane!
Anyway, that catches you up on our lives. We hope all is going well with you and look forward to finding that out for ourselves in just 4 more weeks.
Love,
Terry, Mary and Bryce
Tags: Antelope Park, friends, home, moving, packing, parties
Hi every one! Mary here again. I know I just blogged recently but the day after I posted it, I got a ton of replies asking for more. And here comes more! By the way, do not forget to buy my book. I’m trying to think of a title for it still. But it’s gonna be a good book, about all my adventures in Africa! So we went back to Bally Vaughn which is like a rescue center but you aren’t allowed to adopt anything and the animals aren’t dogs and cats. At Bally Vaughn, our friend Sarah who owns it, rescues injured or sick and helpless animals. So you get to go around a big piece of land petting injured wild animals. They have the more dangerous animals in cages, most of which you’re allowed to enter. So we went to Bally Vaughn with Bryce’s best friend Ben’s grandparents. You’ve heard about Ben, right? He and Bryce are such good friends. Ben comes over to our house like every day. He’s practically our brother. He even answers the gate some times. Ben spent the night, so he just came with us to Bally Vaughn and his mom did too. She brought Max, his little brother and her parents too. Her grandmother I liked right away! She was very friendly, pet my dog, likes Meryl Streep, and thought I was pretty. And all you have to do for me to like you is think that I ‘m pretty. When we went to Bally Vaughn with them, we were greeted right away by two baby donkeys and a zebra. So we started petting them and believe it or not, the cute horse-like animals followed us all through the entire Bally Vaughn. We took a stop at the leopard cage and got let in. They let you into pretty much all the cages of the dangerous animals except not the little kids. I mean the little kids would get eaten right away. And I don’t know if I mentioned this on one of my other blogs but the last time I went to Bally Vaughn, I was almost attacked by a lion. Totally unaware it was behind me though, I moved out of its reach just in time. When we went into the leopard cage, it didn’t do much. It was very quick to come when we called it but then it lost interest in us after it had taken a glance, and returned to the far end of its cage. We went into the lion’s cage and they posed from plenty of pictures. The lions, we were allowed and able to pet. And I stroked them a few times but I hardly dared to. After my last lion encounter, I still wasn’t over how dangerous the large cats could be. I was almost attacked by a male lion, but with no mane. So the female lion in the cage looked like that attacking lion, and the male lion didn’t but it was still a scary male lion. And I didn’t trust those. Not any more. Later on, we went into the monkey section. The fluffiest monkeys in the world are called marmosets. Everyone finds them adorable, and they are pretty cute from behind. But the tiny monkeys the size of my fist are so fluffy and friendly but they have human eyes. And it creeps me out! Marmosets might be sweet and gentle, but they do not care about where they pee. And so they clutch the bars of their cage and pee right out of it! The first one to do so hit Max’s shirt. It was so funny, I laughed my head off! Bally Vaughn might just sound like your ordinary petting zoo, but in America you can’t pet a wild lion, or a wild zebra, or have the baboon experience I am about to tell you about—but more of that later… They let us into the marmoset cage where the furry little creatures leap around. They jump all over your head and back and into your shirt. That didn’t happen to me luckily, but they got in my mom’s shirt. We saw and pet plenty of cool, cute monkeys but the baboons are the monkeys that were the funniest by a lot. They are the only animals that have a cage you are NOT allowed into. And here is why. We went to visit the baboons and we picked up a stick to give to them. They grabbed it so tightly and with such a good hold. Then we heard Sarah (the owner of Bally Vaughn) call the strong baboon Sasha. And I had met Sasha…at my last trip to Bally Vaughn; I had seen the cutest baboon named Sasha. She put out her paw for me to shake so I took it and I shook it. The baboon acted so sweet but then she abruptly moved, too sudden for me to pull back. She clutched my hand with her claws, grabbed my bracelet (not kidding here, people) and she ate it! That little monkey ate my bracelet! Then she grabbed Bryce’s head and gave him a little hair cut with her teeth. She bit his hair! And the hair cut lasted until the tour guide pulled his head away! Evil baboon, evil I tell you! So this time, Sasha struck again; well at least she tried to. The naughty monkey was being bad so Amanda (Ben’s mom) told it “NO.” That’s all, she just said “NO.” And Sasha threw-a-fit! She screamed. The monkey literally screamed. And she screamed for so long. We asked Sarah who just said “Sasha knows the word no and it’s the word she doesn’t like to be told.” It screamed for quite a while but when it stopped, it was still glaring at Amanda and reaching out to bite her. No wonder they don’t let us in the baboon cage! So now that I’ve said a bit about that, a lot of girls on the internet ages 8-15 have been saying they’re the biggest fans of Jennette McCurdy or Miranda Cosgrove or Debby Ryan. WELL THEY ARE NOT! I am the biggest fan of those three stars. They rock! So anyone who knows someone who knows someone else who thinks they’re the biggest fan of one of these three celebs, tell them they are not. If you wanna see these awesome stars listed above, check out iCarly, the Suite Life on Deck, or Drake and Josh! Okay, so that’s it from me! I’m gonna go eat a sandwich 
Later!
Tags: baboon, Ball Vaughn, Ben, lion, marmoset, mary, monkey
Easter
We had a great Easter. Once we had flown to South Africa in Jo Berg, we rented a bus of our own. It came with 3 single seats and 3 two person couches. We drove it for hours and hours that first night before arriving at our hotel. I had a good time and I think every one else did too. It’s kind of exciting driving around in a big car, starting your Easter break…and it was dark and we were driving in the crime capitol. As a lot of you know, I’m a risk taker and something as risky and scary as driving at night in the crime capitol was fun, fun, fun! As excited as we all were (the others much happier after we’d left Jo berg and were in safer places), I was the one with the most energy. Mrs. and Mr. Bush were talking, Bryce and Gabe were chatting a little bit too. But as for me, in that car ride I…wrote a book, wrote a song about the Easter bunny, recited four episodes of my favorite TV show iCarly, drew four pictures, ate a large fries and a burger, got ketchup all over my shirt, told 7 jokes, managed to talk for three hours without a break, and slept half an hour! I did all that in one car ride, about an 8 hour car ride though. But not once did I get bored. I never wanted the ride to end. There was plenty of space to spare all over. Mrs. Mr. Bush sat in the two front seats. Bryce and Gabe shared the couch right behind Mrs. and Mr. Bush, I sat on a couch behind Bryce and Gabe, mom sat on the one person chair beside me and in the back, there was still a seat and a couch to spare. We put our luggage in the back.
I should probably mention, by the way, Gabe and Mrs. and Mr. Bush are our friends we went along with.
Mrs. Bush: age- some where in her thirties or forties. Hair color: Brown Eye color: Brown Specialty: Telling interesting stories and filling the car with things to talk about and jokes
Mr. Bush: age- he won’t tell me Hair color: Brown Eye color: Brown. Specialty: Driving and joking but pretending he’s serious
Gabe (their son): age- 7 Hair color: strawberry blond Eye color: brown, I think… Specialty: entertaining Bryce
Now that you know who we went on vacay with, moving on… So when we got to the hotel, my mom woke me up. It was the last half hour of the car ride I fell asleep for. So I was awoken and trudged immediately into the room, into a bed, and fell straight back asleep. Bryce was also sleepy so he walked into the hotel room and fell asleep in the other bed. For this reason, mom didn’t have time to set up a mattress for one of us on the ground or work out who would sleep where. So she ended up trying to squish onto the end of Bryce’s bed (and Bryce is apparently a bed hog.) Poor mom. I don’t think she slept too well at the end of Bryce’s bed but I know I did. The next few days we spent at the hotel, taking hikes and eating out. Then we drove the big van out to a big house with lots of rooms for the guests. We got a room with two double beds and a single bed. Bryce slept on the single. And it had a TV (which did not work) and a mini fridge (which I wasn’t aloud to open.) At least there was a TV downstairs for all us to share. At first that was fine. Because it was pretty much just kids in the hotel. So we watched Disney channel, Nickelodeon, Cartoon network, Animal planet, Ellen De Generous, that kind of stuff. But a few nights later, a man came and watched TV all day! Finally, he moved. So we started watching a Disney show but Mrs. Bush said we had to go to bed. Mom told me, once Mrs. Bush had taken Gabe upstairs, that once Gabe was in bed, I could come back down and keep watching TV. So we waited for Gabe to go to bed but once he was, when I came back down, the man who’d watched it all day for days was watching it again! He was watching some weather show! GRRR. We got to visit the beach a lot. That was certainly fun. Oh, and we went to this place with so many alligators! It was awesome! We even got to hold a baby crocodile! AW! Did I say alligator before? Because I meant crocodile. But whatever, I mean what’s the difference any ways? Don’t answer that.
Sorry I’m not giving all that many details. Normally I am SOO talkative. I go on for hours. If you put tape on my mouth, I’d keep talking. But unfortunately today, I’m not spilling all that much because I need money. That’s right. Money. And I have written a book on our adventures in Africa. I filled up three note books with our adventures we’ve had here written out. There is a picture I’ve drawn or a photo, on every page. So if you want the exclusive look on our adventures here, buy my book! Only a dollar a copy. My closest friends and family can read it for free. I just need money. I’m a poor teenager. Okay? So I will of course keep writing blogs and telling you stuff. But please buy my book too, because it’s gonna be awesome!
So any way, back to the blog and what I was saying, Easter night, we heard a cat meowing loudly, running all over and then silence. We’d seen the cat around but we’d never heard it so loud. The sound of paws was all over but it went silent suddenly. The next few days, we didn’t hear the cat. Had the Easter bunny kidnapped him? We think the cat was chasing something…chasing the Easter bunny! But when the cat went silent for the next few days, we got suspicious the Easter bunny had kidnapped him. But we found the cat again, days after that. Huh, weird. And the Easter bunny did not hide the eggs, he left them on the staircase. I guess the cat almost caught him and he had to make an emergency break for it. So to keep it fun for the boys, we hid the eggs ourselves. Mrs. Bush picked up the basket of eggs and we scattered them upon the garden. Then we searched for the eggs we’d just hidden. And we got good, good candy!!! Yum! Easter was pretty good for us…what was your Easter like?
We had a wonderful, relaxing Easter break! We flew out after school on April 1, arriving in Johannesburg early enough to rent a van (a 10 seater! After the shock, we all felt very spoiled having all that room!) and drive to the Drakensburg Mountains, where we spent the night. We were within a few miles of Lesotho, but would have to climb some substantial mountains to actually reach the country, so we didn’t make it there. We did hike a few places on Friday, looked at some wonderful scenery, and had a close encounter with some baboons. Apparently, when you imitate their sounds, they take it as an invitation! At first it was fun seeing them approach us, but as they got closer (and bigger!) and started running, we turned tail and ran ourselves!
We spent another night, then drove on to Santa Lucia, on the eastern coast north of Durban. We stayed at a bed and breakfast, on a self-catering basis. We were there for 5 nights.
• We spent 3 days at the beach, playing in the waves. The water temperature averages 75 degrees, so it was very comfortable and a huge difference from the Oregon coast! It was very warm and we all ended up with a bit of a sunburn, even with our 85 SPF sunscreen!
• We went on a river cruise one afternoon, seeing several crocodiles and at least 60 or 70 hippos!
• We also went to a crocodile farm, where we saw many more crocs, and even got to pet a baby one. There was a very poisonous snake there – a Gabon Adder – that was in an enclosure with no top. You just leaned over the glass (about 3 feet tall) and looked at it. I found that a bit scary, as it is one of the most poisonous snakes here and there was nothing to prevent it from climbing out.
• We went on a game drive one day. Although we didn’t see any lions or leopards, we saw lots of rhinos, elephants, buffalo, giraffes, zebra, various antelope, warthogs, some tortoises (a first for us!) and wonderful birds. I will never tire of that!
• We went to a Zulu Cultural Center where we were taught some Zulu words, which none of us remember, and toured a traditional Zulu village. It was very similar to Chombo! We also got to try on some traditional Zulu clothes and watched a dance. Bryce and Gabe joined in. It was very interesting!
• Then, of course, we enjoyed eating out, shopping, and having electricity!!! We even found some South African root beer (something we all miss here!) It isn’t quite like American root beer, but very close and a nice treat!
We left the beach on Thursday and drove back to the Drakensburgs, via a BIG MALL in Durban! I really don’t miss malls much, even though I do like the convenience of being able to buy stuff. Mary was thrilled to eat at McDonald’s and I scored 2 cans of refried beans to bring back to Zim for Bryce!! (I saw them once in a store here for $5.40/can and didn’t buy them. I later changed my mind and went back, but they were long gone!)
We stayed in a house for the next 2 nights with access to a swimming pool, a trampoline, and the internet! The downside was that we had to boil the water as it came directly from a nearby dam. We went on a wonderful zip-line tour of the canopy of a forest near where we stayed. There were 12 zip-lines set up in the treetops and on cliff sides, the longest of which was 170 meters and the highest was 65 meters. It was VERY fun and the kids did great! We are all hooked on zip-lines! Sadly, the animals (with the exception of some baboons) were absent, so we didn’t see any great birds or monkeys. We bought a DVD of our adventure if anyone wants to be bored when we return!
Our last day was spent packing up, then driving back to Johannesburg to catch our flight to Harare. We arrived home with no problems Saturday night and had Sunday to recuperate. It was so relaxing and such a nice break!
We are now on to our last 8 weeks of school here. Things are getting busy between social engagements and all the things to do with moving – arranging movers, selling off items, settling bills, etc. The fact that we are leaving and that we will likely not see many of our friends here again has begun to hit each of us, making this last stretch bittersweet. Our excitement to come home outweighs our sadness about leaving, though. It will be even more exciting when I have a job in place!
We have some wonderful people from our church and community who are fixing up our house for our return and I’ve been overwhelmed with people’s offers of help. Thank you all!
We will arrive in Portland on June 7! We will stay with Jeff’s mom for a few days. The kids will be presenting a Power Point about Chombo to their old elementary school on June 9 (Mary’s 13th birthday!) as their school collected shoes for Chombo’s children last year. Then, on June 10, they want to attend Field Day at the same school. We will then go to the beach to stay with my dad for about a week, then back to West Linn to begin the rest of our lives.
If any of you would like to see some pictures from our trip, our friends, the Bushes, posted theirs on their Facebook page. These are the addresses:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200897&id=592754492&l=cdac16bb97
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200708&id=592754492&l=e0eb3c5db6
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200707&id=592754492&l=9c499be3ae
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200704&id=592754492&l=81750bba1a
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=200701&id=592754492&l=da295c1e00
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=198728&id=592754492&l=31ea3b1559
Enjoy and we’ll be seeing you all soon!!!!
Tags: beach, Durban, Easter, mall, photos, snake, South Africa, zip line
Recent Comments