African Travels

Yesterday was an interesting day. We were stuck in Johannesburg after retreat for a few extra days. Despite the damage the lion did to our tire, the fan belt broke while a group was traveling in downtown Jo-burg to the Apartheid museum. We have gotten used to staying places longer than planned. It usually happens that some mechanical problem or other detains us and we keep 'hanging around'.

That said, we were on our way to pick up the car and were stopped at a stop light where we watched (in slow motion of course) a truck fly through the intersection and smash across the front of a car who had pulled out too far. Fortunately no-one was hurt and we left the scene where the one driver was hugging and consoling the second.

We managed to get the car fixed and a new tire to replace the one that the lion found so tasty and headed out of Jo-burg. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to pass by a pack of monkeys while we hurried down the N4 heading toward Nelspruit. However, they were quite near, actually on the shoulder. I was happy we did not have a chance to really examine our similarities as primates with a head on encounter. From there the trip was fairly uneventul until we reached the almost 2 hour entry into Maputo. The traffic was especially odious as we entered downtown near our house. At one point we were stalled at a light where a big screen shows films and advertisements on a smaller scale than Times Square. Aside from this entertainment we watched as someone else felt like entertaining us by running up to the car in front and yanking the cell phone from the drivers hands while she were talking. Of course, we were not so much entertained as astonished and rather shocked. Not that we were overly suprised because this sort of thing happens but it had never happened right in front of us. We promptly rolled our window up so as not to let it happen to us. We then thanked God for safely brining us home.

Thus another normal yet abnormal trip in Southern Africa.