It Begins!

South Africa
1-27-09 to 2-01-09
So my journey to South Africa begins and I am feeling good about it. I really didn’t have any worries other than I wouldn’t be getting there fast enough. The traveling was good. Our first flight to Amsterdam took about 9 hours. On the way though, I met some great people who have given me some helpful advice on traveling. However, I got no sleep. I think I was just too excited. The second flight was a bit tougher on the body. The ten and a half hour flight seemed to never really end, but this time I got thirty minutes of sleep. When we got into Johannesburg, it was 10 o’clock and because of the construction for the updates need for the world cup in 2010 the entire airport had closed down. So our group decided to crash in front of a coffee shop with all our bags and passed the night away. Though we just spent 9 hours waiting to I have still not really slept. I was starting to feel tired but as we boarded the plane to Port Elizabeth, my adrenalin must have kicked in and I was ready to go.
Touch down in PE was a little bit emotional. We were all so happy that the traveling was finished and we had gotten to our new city. We were met by our directors Gary and Vilma and they were ready with cars to take us to our flats. As we were driving I really couldn’t believe I was here. I mean the people were driving on the other side of the street and I was sitting on the other side of the car as a passenger. We pulled up to the Langerry (our new home) and drove through the gate. We were pumped. Then Gary gave us our keys and told us we had ten minutes to put our stuff down and then we were off to the grocery story.
The grocery story may have been the most overwhelming thing so far. Gary and Vilma dropped us off at the door and waited outside. We had no clue what we needed or how things functioned here. All I know though is that I got a weeks worth of groceries (really nice stuff) for 200 Rand or 20 American dollars.
We headed home to the flats and met the girls who were already here and they were definitely tired being that they had just gotten their first really night sleep that night before and hear we were and its only 9 in the morning. Then I realized I hadn’t slept since the night before I left and was starting to get a little tired. BUT, the beach was calling my name. It was 80 degrees and it was still early and I found a boogie board in the one of the rooms. For the next couple of hours, we played in the water and hung out on the beach. After that we walked along the boardwalk and found a cool outdoor restaurant and had some great seafood and cocktails. A Hake and Calamari dinner with drinks all for less than 9 American dollars, and watching the sun set over the Indian Ocean while doing it. Nothing can beat this.
Today I woke up early and made my way to a little café down the beach and had breakfast. Some of the others showed up later and we began to plan the day. Because of some serious sunburn some of our group had, they decided to go to a shopping center and look around, while a few of us went o the beach again for some more fun in the ocean.
Now we are heading out for dinner and to celebrate the last night of the famous Toby Joe’s. I am sure we will have a blast.
Peace and Love
Joe