Kate and Andy Arrive in Pretoria

Andy and Kate arrived in Johannesburg on separate flights on January 7th, after over 24 hours of travel for Kate and over 17 hours for Andy. Darren and Karen Peterson joined Kate on Fulbright's flight, leaving from New Jersey and meeting up with Kate in Atlanta. Kate spent 5 hours in the Atlanta airport (look below if you have received something unusual in the mail with an Atlanta postmark), making last minute phone calls.

We were met at the Johannesburg Airport by Lucy and Deter Hoffman, whom Kate had met in Washington, D.C. in August. Deter valiantly loaded our over-weight luggage for the drive to Pretoria, South Africa's capital. Lucy had kindly booked us into the gorgeous Rozenhof Guest House, where we are basking in luxury before heading out to our small towns.

Monday was spent meeting with a secruity representative at the U.S. Embassy, who gave us tips on how to avoid becoming victims of crime during our stay. We then had lunch with a Fulbright teacher who had just returned from teaching in Pennsylvania and dealt with cell phones and our needs for fancy coffee. Mary Ellen Koenig, who has been very kindly keeping our car safe, transferred the keys and was an excellent sport while Kate drove our manual car for the first time on the left side of the road. It took a few minutes (and we got passed alot), but I think that I have the hang of it.

Tonight Kate will be driving to Mary Ellen's house for dinner and then tomorrow we will be heading to our new home in Tweeling. It's about 2 1/2 hours south of Pretoria on a good road and Darren and Karen will be following us and then proceeding on to Clocolan, another hour south.

Alphios tells me that the internet doesn't work in Tweeling when it's cloudy or raining, so the next post will likely be a few weeks from now. We are very well taken care of and have been told that Alphios' wife Gugu has done a good bit of grocery shopping for us. Our stay in Pretoria has been lovely and we are looking forward to heading out to the place that we will be spending most of our time this year.