On the road again!

It’s been quite a few months since I’ve posted here. Since I left the Philippines at the end of May I’ve been in the USA and Canada visiting friends and family.

Now, I’m finally in the skies again. :) I came to South Africa last week and I’ll be here a total of 9 days. Then I’m off to Kenya for six weeks.

My time in South Africa so far has mostly just been visiting with friends I have made here over the years. Starting tomorrow I’ll also be joining in on some more “official” visits. We’ll be visiting at a hospital, a clinic, and detention centre, among other things. 

As always, I love to see my kids wherever I go! Here are a special couple of kids I first meet three years ago. They are getting so big now and I’m so proud of how well they are doing in school. I sat and had lunch with Otsile (the boy on my right) who is six years old and we chatted the whole time in English. Last year he only knew a few words but this year we could easily chat for hours!

Here are more of my kids with what else but some paper frogs. ;)

Several days back I was visiting my friend in a shack village called Ikageng. While I was there dark clouds suddenly covered the sky and it began to rain. We ducked into her shack and lit a candle so that we could see. Soon the storm was truly raging outside and the rain on the tin roof was deafening! I sat there at the table watching the kids bouncing around the room and listening as my friend and her family shouted to one another, competing with the storm. Our shadows flickered across the tin wall, occasionally lit brighter by the lightning strikes outside. It was somehow peaceful to sit there as half-participant and half-observer of that moment in their lives. I thought about standing up to take a picture, but somehow it seemed like the magic of the moment would have been broken so I sat and listened as the rain pounded down and the Setwana language swirled around me and our shadows flickered together on the wall. Experiencing small moments like these are one reason I travel.