Going Home

Finally, after months of travel, this week on Monday we got to head home.

Departing Kruger International Airport (KIA), South Africa.

On our way home, we fly right over Skukuza Rest Camp in Kruger Park (below) en route to Vilanculos, Mozambique where we clear customs.

The view of the Mozambique coast at Vilanculos is always breathtakingly beautiful with its bright sand, clear blue water and low tides.


This airport is quite small with only 2 immigration and 2 customs officers. So if too many people arrive at the same time, things get pretty hectic. Murphy’s law was in full effect on Monday, I guess, because three commercial flights arrived at the same time we did. It took several hours to get our passports stamped, customs/aircraft documents cleared, the plane refueled and back in the air for the last 1 hr. 40 min. flight to Chimoio.

Oh yeah. I had this open when we were at 9,000 ft (where the air is "thin") then sealed it to land.

Talk about flat!

When I see stuff like this, I have to marvel that our bodies handle pressure changes as well as they do. I'm sure thankful I don't look this flat once we land!

And that made me think about the whole pressure thing. There’s a lot to be said about our resilience when faced with pressures of different kinds, and most often, it's only once we're through it that we realize we "made" it and didn't end up too flat for all of it. We truly are wonderfully made!

It was smooth sailing on the home stretch so Dwight had a chance skim the news headlines (remember, we’re flying—not driving)...

while I got stuck into my next lesson in statistics.


And now, even with all the chaos of just having arrived home, unpacking our suitcases, unpacking and reorganizing stuff we left stored away,

...organizing goods left by others (medicine, used clothes, etc.--and oh, look what we have here on my bulletin board--better keep my eyes open for surprises :P),

and even with me being sick for a day in between…It’s still good to be home!

And now that I'm home, I have a “to do” list that’s about a foot long which includes final prep on my Preventive Health Manual for the intensive seminar next week, visiting: orphan homes, the school, the local hospital director, (a bunch of other stuff,) and taking photos of all the recent developments here. I’ll do my best to post them by next week.

But that’s next week. Right now, it’s Saturday. And since I’m still officially recovering from the flu (or (relapsing) malaria…one really never knows for sure which is which here but that's a whole other blog entry), I’m going to grab a 2nd cup of coffee, put my feet up and relax.

OR, maybe I'll sort through those cases of donated medicine on the veranda that I can barely wait to get my hands on!

Oh, and Mushu says "hi".