Before we took off from Kotoka, and after I wrote yesterday’s post, we saw the nicest sunset of the past five months. The Alto Tower is visible in the photo below, which I took through the airplane window.
Nearly all of today was spent traveling, with a stop in the desert city of Dubai. Our Emirates Airlines pilot informed us that today’s high temperature was predicted to be 44 °C (111 °F). So glad we didn’t stay around to experience it!
Our trips through security and immigration in both Dubai and Cape Town went perfectly and quickly today, a welcome change from yesterday. One interesting fact: South Africa is very serious about child trafficking. Kids arriving in South Africa must be accompanied by their parents and must present a valid birth certificate. Fortunately, I discovered this requirement prior to our departure from the U.S., and we were prepared. This is clearly not an idle requirement; the Cape Town immigration agent carefully checked and re-checked both passports and birth certificates.
Cornelius, a theology student at the University of Stellenbosch, came to pick us from Cape Town International airport. We saw a beautiful sunset over Table Mountain as we drove to Stellenbosch, which we reached in an hour. Our new flat is spacious. After five months in a four-room flat with Catherine’s and Mark’s beds in the same room, our new place feels like a castle. There are two bathrooms, Mark and Catherine have their own bedrooms, and we have closet space galore!
For dinner, we walked to the Pick-n-Pay shop at the petrol station across from Oom Samie se Winkel for take out. Mark went to bed immediately and Catherine was asleep by 8:30.
I set up the Skyrove internet at the flat, without which I could not post these entries. It is expensive: $300/50 GB. In the U.S., we pay about $70/month for unlimited. In Ghana, we paid $79/50 GB. I’ll search for a better way tomorrow.
ZA, here we come!
—Matt
