Gratitude

In Pietermaritzburg the Mediclinic is ironically in Payn Street and the KFC is in Burger Street.  So when I saw this packet handed out from the Pharmacy in Kumasi, I was amused. 

 I also find the street addresses comical. We were once told that in Ghana when one asks for directions to a certain place one often gets advised to "turn left at the lady selling shoes under the mango tree".

Another quaint habit is that when people arrive at our house they start saying "knocking knocking" before even arriving at the door but don't actually get to knock!

Our little Bantama is growing.  Before the company got here, very few Bantamanians had worked for a boss or got paid to do a job. Many are now getting a salary and some have opened new local businesses.  I bought some material in the new recently opened container.

Faustina (whose wedding I attended last year) and Tina the seamstress, made a sample dress for me before I handed over the newly bought material.  With a few tweaks and adjustments it fitted fairly well.

                                      This is the little shop where my dresses were made.

I washed the three new pieces. I asked the seamstress to make 3 dresses exactly the same as the black and white one.

This gentleman pleaded with me to take a photo of him with his manual wheel chair.  An innovative idea for these flat roads.

The staff were invited one Sunday to Per and Anna's house for drinks and to play boules.

Anna, Per, Porks, Anura and Arno inspecting the ground.

 I didn't realise that I was so tall! And so slim!

 Porks, Fernando, Per, Aruna, Arno, Anna and Jose relaxing after the fun afternoon.

On the way back to South Africa in November I found an architect for you if you need one Kell and Sloth.

We had to sleep one night in Accra as the flight I caught home left early in the morning. The black and white dress that Tina had made for me.

One of the completed Ghanaian dresses

Another one. I hadn't requested the frills but then one takes what one gets when in another country and it makes it more Ghanaian anyway.

I was surprised to see that the bus I travelled on from the terminal to the plane had an Afrikaans name.

 On the flight from Johannesburg to Durban I was seated next to Spud's father!


 Again I was spoiled with beautiful flowers from my Kelly!

Kelly, Roger and a few friends went up Sani Pass and came across this written on a board. Funny! I wonder which Obrunni had visited our beautiful Drakensburg?

This glow worm was in the garden at home one evening. This was taken at night with a flash and I couldn't focus, therefore the blurridity!

 And without the flash...amazingly bright!

Then this little tortoise was rescued scuttling on the tar near my home. Andrew suggested I call it Sheldon!  I let it go in our garden and I have not seen it again. They don't call South Africa the Mecca of wildlife for nothing!


I was blessed to have my special friend Haylee from Richmond, Underberg, Cape Town, Washington D.C. and now St. Andrews in Canada, spend nearly a week with me. What a privilege. It was such a wonderful, laughter and fun filled time with my greatly loved and missed friend. We spent one afternoon at a wine farm and bought a few bottles of the local beverage to share at home.


 Our other special friends Lyn and Brian and their family who are facing big challenges at the moment, continue to be positive, inspirational and huge warriors!

I decided that a green Christmas tree with snow is not what I want anymore as it does not fit in with the hot Summers in South Africa. So.....my new green summer South African Christmas Tree.

 Christmas morning at the Mann's.

 My little girls opened their presents at our house before we opened ours.

MY best gifts ever! 

Porks and I bought a few gifts for a few of our Ghanaian helpers and acquaintances. Rogers, who is the cook at the office, loved his new individualised chef's hat. 

 

My new favourite inspirational quote. May I never be complacent and always grateful.

Praying for you my special friend Lyn,

Pure South African joy!

I arrived back in South Africa in July to these beautiful flowers bought for me by my darling daughter. Proteas that reminded me of her wedding and gorgeous yellow roses for my close friendship with Kelly.

I was privileged to be invited to the Wild Coast with Roger, Kelly and their friends for a weekend.

Then in August both my men arrived and off they went with Roger. Hunting. Again.

After some sad times when our best man Ronald passed away and some happy times spent with special family and friends, all too soon Porks had to leave to go back to Ghana and Andrew back to Cape Town.

My two little girls and I were lucky enough to be invited to spend a weekend at Verkykerskop, near Harrismith with our other family, Bev and Pippa Nicholson and their lovely daughter, Emma. Brandy and Mabel also came and the four dogs had a canine of a time.

Kelly and I took advantage of being by ourselves for one of the weekends and booked many shows at the Hilton Festival. This was the queue at 8.30am.

We watched some very funny and some poignant shows but also came across this stall selling Ghanaian handbags and accessories.

A Ghanaian, Abass Ma-Azu hails from Prang. It is about an hours' drive from our Bantama!

Do you recognise the material I bought to make place mats?

In September, Andrew flew back to Kwa-Zulu Natal to be with us. Kelly had bought an underwater camera for her Seychelles honeymoon and we played with it on our beach weekend away at Melville with some of our special friends.

The fishermen. Spot the whale on the horizon above Roger's back.

My darling Andrew caught a fish which Roger cooked for supper for us all.

My girls had never seen the sea before and had such fun on a virtually people-free beach.

Tiki and a newly shorn Scruffy who Roger now calls Smooth!

My very special Kell.

Kelly, Andrew and I travelled on the 2nd October to Kruger Park Lodge in Hazyview, sadly without our Porkles. It is a lovely clean and well maintained self-catering time share very close to Phabeni gate.

After a few months of catching up with my special friends, the three of us went to the Kruger National Park for 10 days but took a day off to eat pancakes at the famous "Harries" in Graskop...

...and to visit Bourke's Luck Potholes which my children thought were the Borgslagte Potholes due to my bad pronunciation. 

A view of the Blyde River Canyon with the Three Rondavels.

Inside Echo Caves.

Every day was in the high 30's and we played with the camera again in Kruger Park Lodge's clean swimming pool.  It was nearly as hot as Ghana but a dry heat so we didn't perspire as much.

Fun in the sun and cool water with my children!

We three had an amazing time together and every day we laughed until we cried. ( Theresa crowd! ) Family joke!

Eggs and bacon breakfast at Tshokwane.

Chicken wraps at Afsaal.

We had also booked three nights inside the Kruger at Lower Sabie camp.

Toasties for supper outside Kelly's and my bungalow.

It was very dry in the Kruger and the waterholes and dams were not very deep.  This hippopotamus kept turning over onto his back to cool off as it was not deep enough to wallow. I have never seen this behaviour before.

The Big Five! So called because they are the five most dangerous hunted animals in Africa

Rhinoceros.

Lion. Obvs.

Elephant.

Buffalo.

We went on a Sunset Drive and were lucky enough to see the Big Five, including Black Rhino.

Travelling along in the open vehicle we passed a little duiker trying to cross the road and the driver slowed down.  Andrew shone the torch on it and as it stumbled off the road a leopard pounced and suffocated it. Andrew caught all the action in the torchlight while Kelly was in the seat facing the leopard. What timing and what an experience! Fortunately for me there was no time to have too much empathy for the little duiker as the kill was unexpected and happened so quickly.

Our sunset drive finds.

 We were sharp enough to spot a few unusual buffalogs, some rhinobushes and some eleboulders too! And you won't believe it but the same cheetah that I spotted on the left driving down from Satara in 2009 is STILL sitting in the same place! Unfrikkinbelievable, people!

Besides identifying 89 birds and ticking them off on Kelly's Robert's Bird Book app., we also saw many of the little things that make Kruger so special!

A rare sighting of a pack of Wild Dog.

A determined and untiring little Dung Beetle

A slow and steady leopard-shell tortoise.

This chap looked as if he had had a moerse party the night before.  He was passed out in the shade under the tree did not even flinch as we drove past.

Our last supper in the Kruger at Andrew's Lower Sabie tented camp.

Sunrise on the day we left.

We arrived back home on Sunday evening, packed on Monday and took the dejected girls to Roger's and Kelly's house on Monday evening...

...where we stayed for a delicious supper.

The next day, the 13th October Andrew flew back to Cape Town and I flew back to Ghana.  I feel so blessed and my heart is full of gratitude and love having spent this amazing quality time with my two very precious children.  What a privilege!

I arrived back in Bantama to an empty house as Porks was still at work but this welcoming letter was on my bed! It made it all worthwhile.

After a short stay in Ghana, I fly back home on the 13th November. The same day that I flew to Ghana for the first time three years ago in 2012.