It's not over till it's over

It’s our last day and there’s a lot to do. So why did we stay up till silly o’ clock drinking wine and hanging out with our New Best Friends John and Susan who have lent us their flat? There’s a bit of me that wonders if we’ll ever get home. We heard Peyman and family didn’t fly out after all this week, but have been put back to the 10^th. I’m sure that won’t happen to us. But there are still a few hoops of fire to jump through and camouflage nets to crawl under – Durban opened its’ brand new airport today and we heard that even the staff don’t know where things are! So we’ll be one of their first passengers…. if we can find the airport in the first place of course. We haven’t got lost for two days straight now but it’s not easy. Did I mention Durban is in the process of changing all its’ road names? The old names are being changed to Zulu names, which are not on the map of course. Also there’s lots of road works and diversions because they’re sprucing up ready for the world cup. Anyway the plan is that we fly to Johannesburg tomorrow at 10.30, then we wait around at that airport until our elusive night flight at 8pm. That’s an awful lot of rounds of Snap.

We had a special meal today and I gave out certificates of bravery… eg. Evie conquered her fear of jellyfish stings, and took it on the chin when she toppled over and grabbed on to a tree trunk for support, but it turned out to be a huge cactus/ tree with spines sticking out of the trunk – ouch. Finlay has become a brave bodyboarder and at one point ate a tomato. Isaac conquered his fear of talking to people who he doesn’t understand easily, and swam in some deep water. Col rescued us from a frog in the house (in a jug with a towel on top – talk about fortitude) I could go on, but you get the picture.

We have had a blast – there’s many snapshots that come to mind as I write – the lady whose house had fallen on top of her in the night; Pete at the farm in Clarens, showing us his glass blowing in the dark, and then producing a baby elephant out of the flames, perfectly formed with tiny ears rippling back as if it were walking – we were enraptured, it’s a wonder we didn’t cause him to burn himself as we were a very interactive audience; the guy who said our accents sounded like Jamie Oliver; the crocodile man who’d had the shirt ripped off him; the couple who were refugees from The Conga, who’d just lost a sister in crossfire back home; the one armed man who sold us a hat at the Lesotho border; Obeking, the little boy who showed us around Dihlebeng School and, realising he was on to a good thing missing lessons, read out every single bit of work on the walls of every classroom, “OK, so this little girl, she says she’s learning about earthquakes, see?. .… and this little boy he says he is too…”; Gavin and the Clarens crowd around a mighty BBQ, cooking steaks the size of the cushions we put on garden chairs; the potato seller who laughed his head off when the tarpaulin roof gave way and soaked me to the skin with skanky water; the waiter who couldn’t hide his terror when we reported that there was a snake under the table; Gibson, the kids’ first little friend who put his arms around their shoulders and helped them settle in; the Zulu actor saying she didn’t think her suitor was up to scratch, “I no marry you, you is ug!”; Megan and Drew’s daughters tucked up all in a row across the bed, with Evie in the middle, not believing her luck; the kids way back at Bokletsa Bana who thought our white man’s noses were so hilarious because they’re so pointy. Heh heh! People, people everywhere - we’ve loved it.

They’re not like the people at home though – nothing can compete with that kind of quality! Which reminds me – HAPPY WEDDING DAY to the Knights!! X x x x x