For the final leg of my South African journey, my buddies and I rented a car (again the world's smallest) and drove on the wrong side of the road in nightmarish traffic to visit a couple different places.
From Lesotho we took the Baz Bus again to a near by town, back in South Africa, and caught a national bus line that would take us back to Johannesburg. We had time for lunch at this little Afrikaans dinner/restaurant where I was able to have an interesting conversation about Barack Obama and the US government situation with the local folks. It was really quite a hilarious conversation - mostly because they knew more about what was going on and cared more than I did. :) They were quite emphatic about their opinions!
After we got on the bus (that finally came like 45 minutes late), we drove for several hours and made it to the bus station in Joberg around midnight. It was a little scary to be waiting for our pick-up from the hostel in a deserted bus stop - we were also praying we were at the right bus stop. Luckily, we were so we got back to our room and crashed - hard.
Our next day took us to the Community Chest (a version of United Way) just outside of Johannesberg. They were wonderful people who took us on a tour of some of their projects and their partner sites. It was amazing to see that with the equivalent of 80,000 bucks they could accomplish so much. People there (Africa) really understand how to work on a budget! We went to a school for handicapped children, a bakery and finally and AIDS orphanage.
That was so hard. The school and the orphanage. Wow. Seriously. You have no idea. The children were amazingly cute and had such sweet personalities. They loved seeing the white girls and wanted hugs and love. We gave them as much as we could in a short time. I truly wanted to bring them all back in my suitcase and might have if it was, you know, legal. Unfortunately, the South African government doesn't let you do that - and neither do loving husbands! : )
We stopped at a giant mall (larger than any in Wichita) outside of Pretoria, the capital city, to buy toys at a store called Game. We bought so so much stuff! The money we were able to bring from the gracious donations of friends and families went so so far. The kids at the disabled school were ecstatic.
We were also able to get this stuff
Gardening supplies. People grow a lot of gardens their to help them eat healthy foods. Fruits and veggies can get pretty expensive there (just like here obviously).
All the kids. Kristen (who lives there) is on the left. I am in the middle (duh).
These are the splendid women who work at the school, posing with the garden supplies. They were all so grateful. It was so so cool.
This picture I wrote thanks with the chalk, to show the kids how to use chalk (it didn't take long for them to get the hang of it). Then let them decorate it. So thanks to everyone who helped us by bringing toys or donating money! It was great to be the givers. The next several pictures are the kids enjoying the new stuff!
I just got left in the soccer dust. Yep, they were crazy good soccer players. Isn't that little guy adorable!?!
Thanks again to all of you who helped out!