Wild Things

After whirlwind trip through Pilanesburg, I'm in Johannesburg (also known as J'burg or Josie, so I'm told). I guess I should backtrack a bit since its been over 24 hours since my last post, and things happen in rapid time on this trip!

The Kurdish dinner was delicious. I did not get an opportunity to test out my belly dancing skills, but many of my group members did!...and there may or may not have been a Madonna dance party at the hotel after the dinner. I also made up for skipping the wine tasting with plenty of Pinotage, the local wine, at dinner.

The next morning was a 5 am wake up call to head to the airport...my roomate, Lezlie, has been using her cell phone as a back up alarm even though we get a hotel wakeup call...but its still on American time...so picture a panicked Brie waking up at 11pm American time according to the phone, and in a sleepy, still Pinotag-ed stupor, standing up and saying "Oh my God, Lez, its 7am, we missed the ride to the airport". To all the math wizzes in the group reading this, 11 + 6 (the time difference from US time) is 5am, not 7. It took her about 5 minutes to catch on as well, so I don't feel so bad. We made it downstairs and to the airport safely, and arrived in Jo'burg after lots of turbulence.

From our flight to Jo'burg, we took a 2 hour bus to Pilanesburg, where we stayed in the amazing Backabung lodge....I mean, there were baboons on our porches and zebras and elephants about 50 yards away while we ate lunch. We took an evening game drive (safari) and saw tons of animals...and for those of you who were worried, I did not try to pet them even though they looked cuddly! From the 3 hour game drive, we headed out to the Boma Braai, which was a barbeque out in the animal reserve...basically just a fence separating us from "nature". It was beautiful and very peaceful.....

This morning we went on another game drive, which was just as eventful. I think the best part was seeing 5 lions and some South African animals that our safari guide, Peter (who we all loved!) says he hasn't seen in over a year! It was so quiet and simple out there, definitely a wonderful experience.

From Pilanesburg (which we were all very sad to leave and wished we had more time!), we headed into Jo'burg...on the way, we went Curio Shopping (which is basically lots of crafts and knicknacks...don't worry, I bought lots of fun gifts!). Our tour guide described our group as being on a "feeding frenzy" because we bought so much in such a short time, and I think that was pretty accurate!

We arrived at our hotel, the Michaelangelo at about 8, and I can honestly say it is probably the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at. I think it is going to be very difficult going into Kliptown tomorrow morning knowing that we are coming back to stay here tomorrow night. The hotel is right on Nelson Mandela Square, surrounded by restaurants and shopping. My friends Lezlie, Anita, Kristen, Rodney and I had a great Thai dinner and hung out at the hotel bar (which is surrounded by a Koi fish pond!) with the rest of the group, and now it is about time for bed!

Like I said, tomorrow is Kliptown and the SKY center that I posted about earlier. I think tomorrow is the day that I am most excited for, to actually be out in a community with the people, but I also think that being with the kids will be extremely difficult for me to leave. Up until this point, I feel like I've been in a fairly privileged, tourist bubble which has been wonderful but also brings about a lot of guilt and sadness when driving past poorer areas. Tomorrow will probably be a big change.

Hope all is well at home, more from Josie later!

Love,

Brie