Africa: Week 1

A five hour drive to Dallas, a 9.5 hour flight to London, a 6 hour layover in London, an 11.5 hour flight to Johannesburg, a 3 hour wait at the airport, and a 4.5 hour drive to Nelspruit, with a 2 year old and a 3 year old and WE MADE IT!! The boys did amazingly well (thank you for your prayers!) and we've all had a great time so far. These first few days in South Africa have been a nice way to rest from traveling before we head to Mozambique on Friday. We enjoyed two wonderful days of Safari with people from our team that will also be heading to Mozambique. In our car alone, we made friends with people from Switzerland, England, France, the U.S. and Mexico. The woman who owns the bed and breakfast we are staying at also served as our safari guide. We saw elephants, rhinos, giraffes, hippos, lions, zebras, cheetahs, monkeys, etc. It was fabulous! It just wouldn't be right to come all of the way to Africa and not go on a safari. We love hearing all of the different accents and the boys are enjoying attention from the friendly people as well. Today, we visited an Iris preschool, sewing school, a church being built, and a children's center with a baby house. The kids loved touching Max's face and blonde hair and I got to sit down and read some books with several of the kids. Levi enjoyed playing the African drum with some of the boys and found a broom and started sweeping. He told Zach that it was "too dirty." It was great to learn more about what Iris is doing here in S. Africa. We have a five hour flight to Mozambique the day after tomorrow, and that will be completely different (a much poorer nation.) We are thankful for the time we've had in S. Africa and excited to get to the place we'll be staying for a while. Thank you for your prayers for our health and safety. Please keep them coming.

All our love from Africa,

Kate