Vacation fun!

Sanibonani, all!

Jack and I just finished a lovely vacation with his family.

Our first stop was Cape Town, where we visited Robben Island. It's a bumpy boat ride out to where the South African government held Nelson Mandela (and many others who fought to end Apartheid) for the bulk of his 27-year prison term.

We lucked out with fabulous weather the first two days. It was too windy for shark diving, unfortunately, but we were able to take the cable car up Table Mountain. The first two photos below are views from that. It's stunning. We also saw the penguins at Boulder Beach and took a beautiful drive down the Cape. It was fabulous.

Our third day brought rain and chill, but we spent it on a winery tour with an excellent guide. That was the perfect icky-day activity (though we missed out on some of the beauty of the area).

From Cape Town, we flew back to Johannesburg and drove to Swaziland. We found time to zipline at Malolotja, where Jack and I camped a few months back. We spent only a night in the Kingdom, however, and were on the road early the next day to head for Kruger National Park. The game reserve is bigger than Swaziland (which, if you recall, is about the size of New Jersey). We stayed at a lovely place called Imbali Safari Lodge. The rooms were beautiful, and hte staff was great. The price included all meals as well as high tea and drinks and snacks on game drives. An early morning and evening game drive were included each day as well.

We saw giraffes, lions (male and female), cheetahs, an ostrich, rhinos, elephants, and all kinds of antelope-type things. Cheetahs are extremely rare; there are only 200  in the whole park. Male lions also are rare. We got very lucky and had a fantastic time.

The end of the trip included more Swaziland time. The Weinsteins met my family. My host dad remembered their name by repeating "wein plus stein" several times. He was welcoming, and he even did a fashion show in different types of traditional Swazi attire. He's quite the showman, lemme tell ya. It was great. The visit also gave the Weinsteins a chance to practice their siSwati. They also got to try chicken dust. The reviews were excellent. We hit up plenty of craft markets, as well as Swazi Candle and Ngwenya Glass.

At Jack's sister Kendra's request, here's the siSwati phrase of the day: "Umuhle namuhla," meaning "You are beautiful today." 

The new Group 11 volunteers are here! I haven't met them yet, but I will have a chance to do so at the Fourth of July party this week. You know what that means: PCVs toting tupperware will descend on the country director's house to eat ALL THE HOT DOGS AND HAMBURGERS. It will be glorious. Yea, America! Happy birthday to you.

The next move will be planning the Mama and Papa T trip, now officially slated for late August. I'm excited to show them the SWZ!

Enjoy these photos (I took none of them), and salani kahle.