I'm back! It was one of those traveling days where you're tired, things are fuzzy, and you know you're suffering from withdrawal... coffee consumption and movie watching has come to a swift halt. Keri and I had a great vacation up north and once I get all the photos in order you better believe I'm going to post some... probably several. We got back to White River this past weekend and I spent a few days just hanging out on Keri's couch watching more than my share of TV show and movie DVD's someone connected to her organization let her borrow. This morning it was hard to face the fact that I was heading back to site... multiple taxi rides sounded exhausting and leaving meant actually admitting that the holiday was over. I love that I've gotten to see so many things and have managed to see so much of Southern Africa, but always living in transition, things always changing, living out of a bag, always moving and staying in different places is starting to really take its toll on me. After getting a ride and skipping over having to take one of my many taxis, the traveling of the day went pretty smoothly. I took a taxi from Hazyview (Mpumalanga)to Bushbuckridge (Mpumalanga) and then one from Bush to Acornhoek (A-cun-hook). When I was dropped off at the Bush taxi rank I got a taxi that took just minutes to fill. I got to Acornhoek by noon (I left Keri's at 8:30) and waited there for an hour... the taxi to Hoedspruit/The Oaks needed to fill. After an hour of waiting we were on our way... and I was home, in my room, by 2:15. As soon as I stepped off the taxi and got my change from the driver, I heard "Mmapula!" and was excited and relieved to see Phenyo walking to the bakery to buy some airtime and bread. She helped me haul one of my 3 bags home and hung out for a little while before I went to tell my family across the road I was home. Once I was back in the village, I was fine... it's so good to see everyone.
A few highlights:
My first taxi was so old and rickety, I'm surprised we made it from Hazy to Bush.
*we went about 60km the whole time
*it started to rain pretty hard and the wipers were as slow as molasses
*at one point, the driver got out to put some oil under the hood and didn't put the emergency brake on... we rolled backwards for a little ways until the middle front seat passenger leaned over to jerk it up.
*our soundtrack was a mix of Celine Dion, R. Kelly, DJ's from South Africa, and Milli Vanilli
*I sat next to two young girls who were traveling by themselves and everyone was looking out for them
My last taxi was a special ride that included:
*Culture Spears ( a traditional singing group from Botswana) on the stereo
*I had the front passenger seat and there was a guy sitting on a cooler in between the driver and myself. When we passed the traffic police it was his job to hold my seatbelt so it would look like it was buckled.
*Our front seats were reclined so much I was practically in the lap of the woman behind me
*The woman behind me had a gorgeous smile and was holding two live chickens
*about 10 minutes into our ride we got a flat, that was changed in a record 5 minutes, we then drove 65km per hour because we were driving on the spare
*All the people we dropped off were heading back to the farms they work on after Easter break
A few weeks ago I was in a taxi driving through the middle of Metz when "Holiday" by Madonna came on the CD the driver was listening to. I got so excited and said, "Hey! This is Madonna!!" and he turned around with his passenger friend and smiled... "Yes it is! Do you know her?! You have heard her music?" Um, yeah mister, I only grew up listening to her and can't help dancing every time I hear her on the radio. "Of course! She's my homegirl!"
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