After a three day trip through the rolling hills of the Garden Route and Eastern Cape, we have finally made it to our destination.The convoy of rented bakkie + trailer and our CitiGolf, all packed to the brim must certainly have been a sight to behold!
Happily when you tell a mattress shop that you're travelling to the Eastern Cape, they have exactly the type of mattress wrapping bags that you need!
Jo's parents have come up with us, partly to drive the bakkie and partly to help with all the lifting, sorting and carrying, since Adam can't lift much following his recent back operation. The trip, of course, had it's fair share of minor upsets (flat tyres, left-behind licences and so on).
Unfortunately (though unsuprisingly) our new home is far from ready. So unpacking plans have been put on hold, except for the immediate necessities (like coffee and the internet!).For now the four weary travellers have found temporary respite in the home of some of our new colleagues, who are currently on holiday.
The house we are currently staying in is directly opposite the hospital and the Axium office. This morning we took a 1 km stroll down the road, over the hill and through a muddy valley to the building site of our (soon?!) to be home stay.
Our builder has high hopes that the roof will be completed in the next day or two, but it will be at least a week before we can move in. Our house is the partially roofed one. You can see the host family's farm/garden in the foreground. The cylindrical building (with no roof right now) is our future toilet.
We had a chance to meet Mama and Tata of the homestead. They were thrilled to meet Jo's mom in particular! It will be a long time before we can really connect as our few words of slow Xhosa can still only get us so far. Adam is doing really well holding mini conversations with lots of passers-by though!
We will send more photos of the house and homestead as we continue to visit. In the meantime, pray that it only rains at night so that the building can progress smoothly. We will also need to find another temporary place to stay when our current hosts return from holiday - accomodation is at a premium here.
While we wait we are relaxing, meeting people* and enjoying the beautiful surroundings.
* Case in point: the publication of this blog post was delayed by several hours due to the arrival of a family coming to welcome us. They gave us a brief tour of the hospital, coffee (!) and, through conversation, another lens through which we can view our new context.
Until next time!
Jo and Adam