After a grueling 38 hour trip, we’re home — god that was long! We started at 5:30 Saturday afternoon, going to Tambo airport in Jo’burg — the Amazing Duo of Marita and Noekie took us, and thank god Marita insisted that I use a wheelchair. We went out to dinner on Friday night, and there was some outdoor event near our restaurant and Laird and I danced and I don’t know what I did but it was HIDEOUSLY PAINFUL!! Holy shit, it hurt! I think somehow I must have pinched the sciatic nerve — and I mean pinched! I could hardly walk, certainly not on my right leg, every movement of it a white hot stab of pain – and of course, we were on the second floor of the restaurant so by the end, having to walk down those stairs was a real adventure. We got home, Marita gave me some Magnesium Inflama Spray (which I recommend highly), which Laird sprayed on from my waist to my ankle; I slapped a lidocaine patch on, took two pain pills and a muscle relaxer and laid on an ice pack. Amazingly, in the morning the pain was mostly gone, but, alas, came back in the afternoon just as we were going to the airport. Let me tell you, wheelchair is THE way to go on international travel — you go to the head of the line for security, immigration and customs, boarding, the whole shebang — and your traveling companion gets to cut in line, too, if he (or she) can keep up with the transporters. Suggestion: you might want to keep your eyes closed when being wheeled around by the transporters — they make NY taxi drivers look like Morgan Freeman in Driving Miss Daisy. I did have to walk down the long, long ramp to get to the boarding area for Eithad in Jo’burg because another transporter “borrowed” my wheelchair when I went to the bathroom — that was pretty damn hard and painful — but other than that, there was a wheelchair waiting to pick me up at every stop.
Before leaving for the airport, Marita cooked up the Last Supper (actually dinner, meaning mid-day meal), a braai, for us and Noekie and Mattie. We had boerwors, salad, mealie pap with tomato gravy (or what I think of as that — maybe it was Monkey Gland sauce. Marita?) and I’m sure more things that I have forgotten to mention — oh, like fresh made bread, the largest loaf I’ve ever seen. After what I’ve told you, I’m sure you already know it was divine. If you don’t — it was.
It was so sad to leave them. And South Africa, which we love, and knowing that it won’t be the same because Marita has sold her house and will be moving to Bulwer to be with her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter, the famous Empress Zoe who some of you have heard us talk about. Her new mission in life, besides being with Zoe every day, is to clean up Bulwer — or to make the people who live there clean it up. A huge mission and task it will be, too. After that, she will move on to finding ways for the Blacks there, particularly the women, to make money, probably through a crafts co-op. She has every intention to accomplish a Grand Makeover for Bulwer and since she is a force of nature when she has a task ahead of her, we expect big things for that little town.
Noekie is also hoping to sell her house there so she can move to Danabaai — although she will probably have to rent or buy a smaller place in Pretoria while continuing to work there –though she is hoping for a transfer to George or Capetown, which will make everything much easier — her husband and son/wife live in Danabaai now and it’s past time that she gets to live closer to them. She is an economist, works for South Africa revenue service, a natl govt agency. Plus, she wants to buy a flower farm, which I think I wrote that we had seen — just the outside of. To that she wants to add a tea garden and several other things, too. I’m ready to go live in Danabaai and help there or in the hardware store. Even if only for a few months a year, it would be so wonderful to live by the ocean. I’m also considering medical vacationing, since I know I’m going to have to have a couple of dental implants sometime soon. I’d think of going to a pain doc there, but really, 38 hours on a plane after a pain treatment — how long do we think that might last?
Anyway, Pretoria will never be the same without Marita and Noekie — but I still want to take you there, Sandy! And anyone else who would like us to take them, of course.) We went to the Pretoria botanical garden one day the last week and it was lovely and, just for you, a succulent garden. Much of the place is left “wild” but with good paths throughout. Though there was a lot we didn’t see of the place. Flowering aloes are so beautiful, Sandy — and they are all over the western cape, too. You’ll be mad for the fenbos, I know it. We’re still trying to figure out how to upload photos — I don’t know how the knowledge left both of our brains at roughly the same time. Weird. But since we put some photos on here, obviously we knew how to do it at some time. On the one hand, I could kick myself for not booking a stopover in Abu Dhabi — don’t know when we’d ever get back there; on the other hand, when we were going down the gangway to leave, the temp gauge said it was already 82 F at 7:00 in the morning. Not my kind of place. The downside of wheelchair service at the airport — Laird would probably say his salvation — is that I didn’t get to go shopping in the airport stores. However, the airport is lovely, new and extremely clean and, best of all, is set up for pre-clearance of US customs! Any of you who travel internationally know what a godsend it is to be able to check your bags at your first check-in and have them delivered to your last destination without having to take them off the carousel at the first US entry, go through immigration and customs, and get them on the appropriate new carousel before going to your gate. I could not believe how much stress that relieved! Made NY a breeze. So that’s one very good thing about Abu Dhabi. We did have to go through FOUR security checkpoints, though. Not that I cared, though, because we got to cut in line. I did lose my hair goo and nail scissors that had not bothered anyone else’s security in ABQ, LA, Istanbul, Ekaterinburg and Joberg (2x). When we got home, the house was spotless — I mean like-it-has-never-been-before spotless. Our friend Dona brought her house cleaner over and they went though the house like a team of 10. You can imagine how wonderful that felt at midnight after 38 hours of travel! And not only that, she’d made a frittata (it was delicious, Dona), a tuna fish casserole (that most American dish after two months of sometimes exotic meals, and one of my childhood favorites, so looking forward to dinner); sandwich meat and cheeses, all in a spotlessly clean fridge, of course, good breads. Oh, and flowers, too! Sunflowers up top, roses on my bedside table. What a gift all this was! Laird just counted up (you know his interest in statistics, guys!) and on this trip we slept in 11 different beds (well, he’s counting our beds twice, for beginning and ending; I think that’s fair). He did not count airplanes, since I might have slept all of 30 minutes on the NY-ABQ leg — Laird does much better with sleeping on planes than I do, but it’s not really sleeping even for him. When I saw those first-class and business-class flat-bed seats in the Etihad planes and I was so jealous I thought I’d have a fit right there. I don’t guess I’ll ever get to have the experience of traveling thusly — way too bad. OK, enough. All you Santa Fe people are going to have to listen to all this in person anyway so I should stop, leave some tidbit to tell new. We are sadly happy to be home — and by tomorrow, we should be in one piece again. Returningly yours, jm
lairdandjonelle 
Hi Guys,
I hope my mom has arrived safely in Santa Fe. Won’t you please ask her to let us know she is there and safe?
Cheers,
Adriaan
Yes, your mom is here and has just written you an email this morning. Sorry for the delay, but she is well and having a great time! I’ll get her to write a longer one — she can dictate to me and I’ll type with all my fingers. We can’t tell you how thrilled we are to have her here — it’s like Christmas, birthday (when we were youngsters) and Thanksgiving all rolled into one!
Hi Guys,
I hope you have my mom with you at the moment. Won’t you please ask her to let us know she is there and OK?
Cheers,
Adriaan Prinsloo
Welcome home, Darlin’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a great trip..and I enjoyed every word…every bite, every sip and every sight and insight! Thank you!!!!
I will visit you in S.A. anytime !!! Love you bothxxxxxxJudyth
Thanks, Judyth! Did I tell you the students and teachers loved your poetry? They did! In my introduction of you I said you were the most amazing poet I know — so very true!