Johannesburg, South Africa

Well

Matt and I have been told time and time again that if we come to South Africa then skip Joburg and go straight to Cape Town because Joburg is horrible and Capetown is wonderful. While I can't speak for Cape Town , never having been there, I can say that those people have obviously never met Jenny and Les Fox. The kindest people on the planet!! They are the couple we told you that we met at Elephant sands and offered us accommodation in Joburg for the duration of our stay and offered to take us to the airport come time.

Normally I would feel too "Gleng-jai" or.. shy/guilty/considerate to call up a stranger to pick me up and have me stay with them for free, but their offer was so kind and honest and whole-hearted that we actually did feel entirely comfortable to call them. We were about 20 minutes away and called them, and they came and met us where we were getting dropped off! They even beat us there to wait. <3

It was a sad departure with the rest of our group, who we've inevitably grown quite close with. sharing tents, and being together 24/7 for week after week kindof forces you into close friendships- in a positive way of course. I will never forget our groupmates and I Really hope we all meet up again someday. They are always welcome to stay with me, and they have made it clear that we are welcome to stay with them in their home countries! Yay! Ruth (one of the lovely ladies from England) and I are going to do a candy exchange , where I ship her all the Canadian treats and candies and she ships me all the English ones! YIPPIE! that will be fun mail to recieve! hahahaha

Okay so anyways, we hugged everyone, kisses on the cheek, double, triple, quadruple checked the trucks and tents for our belongings and hopped in a vehicle with our new South African friends. They took us to the most amazing museum, Apartheid museum and we learned an absurd amount about South African history. There is an incredible focus on racial division here, quite interesting. There is a melting pot of races living here in South Africa, but it is not amalgamated like Canada, they remain divided by race. They have a long ways to go.

Johannesburg is potentially the scariest place I have ever been, with the possible exception of Jakarta, Indonesia (where reffa and I camped out scared in our hotel for days only leaving for the zoo and airport. hahaha). There is so much murder, theft, car hi-jacking (insane amounts of it, they never ever idle their car until they are in their electric gate fenced in driveways. Luckily, Matt and I are staying in a gorgeous house , with gorgeous people and they are even allowing their driver Bradly to take us anywhere and everywhere we want to go. We are truly spoiled. Therefore, our experience here in Joburg is actually quite positive!!

We might even go to an amusement park, if the rain stays away for longer than an hour. we have just rapidly entered rainy season. it had hardly been rainy at all and now it is rainy all the time, and COLD. it's only 18 degrees today and I am FREEZING. I'm not sure how I will handle Canada again..... yikes! although bragging to our international friends about skiing and snow has made me long for the slopes.

Only 4 short days away from flying home. I may blog once more before then, but may not ! it depends if we do any interesting things and whether or not I can reach internet .

I love you all..

thinking about Magz like crazy.. OMG is there a baby yet!?!?!!? somebody email me, PLEASE!

xoxoxoxoxoxox