Saying Good-bye and hello to new adventures
It has been a busy 2 weeks. We said goodbye to people and said hello to new people and then met up with old friends to see new places. What fun is that!
On the 22nd of May we had a going away party for
Dr. Isala and his wife Loraine. He had
been with us for 4 years as our doctor and Loraine had been here for almost
eight years as a nurse. They met and
married here in 2015. They left as of
May 31st to work at a private clinic in Bindura—80 kms North of
Harare. We had a wonderful lunch with
all the staff and gave them a rural life painting to remember us by in their
new home.
At the going away party we also said goodbye to Dr. Ben
Watterly who had been with us for 3 weeks from the UK and Courtney Walker, RN
who had been with us for 2 weeks from CA.
We had a great time with them and wish them well. Ben was going on for a month to New Zealand
to visit his brother and Courtney was going on to do another medical mission
trip in Ethiopia and then travel in Europe for 3 weeks before getting home.
We also welcomed a new doctor at the party—Dr. Mudzingwa and
his wife and 14-month-old daughter Abigail.
They arrived late Monday night to start as a doctor here. We had 3 doctors for a week! We are happy he is here to join us after
finishing his residency.
On the 23rd of May I left with Ben and Courtney to
take them to Harare and then went to the airport to welcome an old friend of
mine, Cathy Holdener, her husband Bart and adult daughter Jennifer. Cathy and I have been friends for 43 years
when we met when we started nursing school together at UCSF. We also had our first jobs together at Sutter
Memorial Hospital in Sacramento from 1977 until I left to come here in
1981. She still works in Postpartum at
the same hospital!They flew into Harare from Zanzibar after 3 weeks doing
safaris in Tanzania and seeing Zanzibar.
Bart had broken his arm the day before they left on their trip and decided to come and will get it fixed after he gets back. He did very well and did everything with us!
We spent the night in Harare and on Thursday the 24th we left with Major and Patience Mereki and drove to Masvingo, Zimbabwe. We saw Great Zimbabwe Ruins and stayed at a house for the night on Lake Kyle—what a beautiful view to wake up to!
After spending a few hours climbing around at Great
Zimbabwe—we drove 3 ½ hours on to spent 2 nights in Bulawayo. We spent the next day seeing Matopos Park,
where Cecil Rhodes is buried and saw some bushman paintings and went around the
game park.
On the 27th we drove to the airport in Bulawayo
and flew to Johannesburg, South Africa and then on to Cape town, South
Africa. We had a 2 hour wait in between
flights at Joerg so Michael Mereki came to the airport to surprise his
parents! Michael is in his last year of
law school near Joberg and we hadn’t seen him since February when he left to
start his final year. He graduates in
November!
We arrived in Cape town about 6:30 pm. We rented a small 7-seater car and we piled
in with all our luggage and looked like a “combi” with suitcases on top of all
of us but the driver—to the ceiling! We finally arrived at our house we rented
close to 8:30 p.m. and then walked 2 blocks away for dinner.The first day in Cape town Cathy and Jennifer went on a wine
tour of places nearby and came home with 9 bottles of wine they had bought from
5 different wineries they visited. Major
and Patience and I enjoyed shopping that day and eating some fish down at the
V&A waterfront.
Tuesday, we went on a walking tour of downtown and BoKaap—an area of brightly colored houses occupied by Malay people—95% Muslim. We had a wonderful guide and really walked and got to eat some Samosas and Koeksisters on the tour.
We then drove down to the Cape of Good Hope where the
Atlantic and Indian Oceans join. It was
a beautiful day and then we stopped to see the Penquins at Boulders Beach. How fun they were to watch and many new
babies to see!
Wednesday we did a Malay cooking class in Bo Kaap where we
learned to make Chicken curry, Samosas, Roti bread (like tortillas with basil
and garlic in them) and Koeksisters—then we got to sit down and enjoy it all
for lunch! We had great fun and Major
really got into it and promised to cook it again here at home!
We then planned to go up Table Mountain, but it was cold and
raining and trams not going so we went to V&A Waterfront to shop and had a
wonderful dinner before returning home.
Major and Patience and Jen went up on the big wheel there to
see the sights of the water front from up high.
Thursday, we had tickets to go to Robbins Island where Nelson
Mandela was imprisoned for several years.
Unfortunately, they had to cancel the tour because the boats couldn’t go
out because of choppy water. It was very
cloudy and cold and windy. So, we ended
up going to another shopping mall—Canal Walk and enjoyed some last-minute
shopping before we headed home.That night we had a wonderful dinner at NV-80 a close walk
away and enjoyed a beautiful steak dinner as our last night in Cape town.
Unfortunately, we had to say our goodbyes and we headed for
the airport at 0330 am as we had a 0615 am flight to Joberg! Holdeners stayed the day and didn’t head for
home until 23:30 p.m. Friday night!
We got to Joberg and then on to Bulawayo where we arrived at
12:15 p.m. We then drove to our house we
rented for the night. We did our whole
trip on Air BnB and loved it all and saved so much money!
Yesterday (Saturday) we headed for home. Tapson, our driver came down to meet us on
Friday and help drive back since we had 2 cars.
Nine hours later we pulled into home!
What a wonderful time we had, and it was so great spending
time with the Holdeners. We are already
planning their next trip to Africa!
Going away party--Dr and Mrs. Mudzingwa, Dr. and Mrs. Moyo, Dr. and Mrs. Isala
Major with Dr. and Mrs. Isala
Going away gift for Isala's
Ben and Courtney with nurses
Courtney with Abigail Mudzingwa
Dr. Mudzingwa and Dr. Isala
Dr. Mudzingwa family
Courtney and Ben with Major and Kathy
Cathy, Jen and Bart Holdener
Kathy and Cathy--43 years friends
Major and Patience and Kathy and Kathy, Bart and Jen
Bushman paintings on rocks in Matopos
Major and Patience in Matopos
Jen, Cathy and Bart Holdener
The group at Rhodes Grave Matopos
Walking tour of downtown Capetown
Reminder of Race classification up to 1991
Houses of Bo Kaap
Cathy on cobblestone streets of Bo Kaap
Cape of Good Hope where Atlantic meets the Indian Ocean
The Penquins
Cooking class
Eating what we made in Malay cooking class
The Capetown wheel
Shopping in Capetown
Sites of Capetown
Our last dinner in Capetown
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