So Long, January

This was a lazy weekend for us - I didn't work at all, so we actually got to spend some time together around the house hanging out on Saturday, and went to church, the gym and dinner on Sunday. We also got to try our hands at a few new recipes and do some much-needed relaxing.

Somehow, this must be exactly how I spent my time exactly a year ago, becuase my journal jumps from Jan. 26 to Jan. 31. Perfect! I guess the end of January is just consistently a time when I burn out :)

Jan. 31, 2011
Today is/was D-Day for going back to Godeka. We spent yesterday getting everything here cleaned and packed up and celebrated our last day with a bottle of wine and 2 Steve Martin movies. I woke up early this morning with every intention of taking 1 last bath before running to the store for apples/pears and was mentally gearing myself up for the dreaded bakkie ride.

BUT as I laid in bed and thought about how we were going to try to figure out our airline ticket information over the phone from a place with no electricity, I began to get a little worried. We have had enough problems with the phone here in Tabankulu and we found out from Turkish Airlines yesterday that any changes to the reservation have to be done through the travel agent who booked them…which means we need to get in touch with someone from Burtigny.

So we are staying and going back into Kokstad tomorrow to use the internet and try to get all of this sorted out so we can get back to America one of these days.
I’m kind of glad for another day with electricity and running water, but I don’t feel like I am having the impact here that we do in Godeka and I miss the kids and our garden so I’m ready to go back up – especially now that everything is packed. Another day in Kokstad will be good though – David can get a Heavenly Bar and we can try to make this trip as productive as the one on Friday, when we got David’s Polio vaccine (done and faxed to his dad), a bunch of groceries at Pick N’ Pay, Doxycycline, a newsletter mailed and ate a half a pint of ice cream and a quarter of a (huge) watermelon.
On a random note, yesterday when we were walking down the street, someone told us “thank you for being here.” We don’t do anything here except buy groceries and sit at the library but it’s a good reminder that we live in a fishbowl and people here are judging us as much as we are judging them. TIA.