Durban

Next stop on our route, Durban! We got to catch up and stay with our friends (house with ocean view), and meet their two kids. First day we went to the uShaka Marine world aquarium. JJ really enjoyed watching all the fish...and so did we. Here are some pictures:

After the marineworld we went to the Durban beach for some nice cocktails, which was very nice to see.

Staying with friends (with same age kids) meant that JJ got to play with some exciting new toys, we went around the block together on this bicycle.

There was also a nice day at the mall, some last minute Christmas shopping, and a fun ride with the new friend in the arcade.

The two little girls together, they were best friends most of the time, some times there was a bit of competition...

More to come.....

Swaziland

On our way to Durban we stopped for a night at Pasture Valley farm and Childrens home, which is the place of our friend / collegue Michelle and her husband Peter. They have set up a childrens home on their farm.

We took some pictures as included below, but they don't do justice to the incredible work these guys are doing, caring for over 30 orphaned children. Please take a minute to have a look at the above link to their website, or follow them on Facebook.

One of the houses of the childrens home (much better pictures on the website)

Some of the children we got to meet.

JJ 'inspecting' one of the bedrooms, and the tidying up of the closed by one of the kids.

Chrismas holiday part 1 (J1)

So we started our Christmas / holiday trip with a short 3 hour drive into South Africa, and stayed at Kunkuru private game farm for a night, with a nice small cottage to relax, and even a beauty clinic for Jill to enjoy (and make a great start of the holiday. As this place is close to Gaborone, it deserves another visit. The picture here shows our cottage:

These was a swimming pool with our cottage, made from a converted water tank at the farm.

A great way to start the holiday....

and JJ seemed to enjoy the place as well, especially the swimming pool

 Some ostrich on the road....

J1

Hairdo

Jules sat nicely for a little hair-do before we went on holidays. Some nice coils, we left them in for about a week. Lots of compliments, we'll definitely do these again.

new years eve (J1)

So I will do this a little backwards, first some pictures from our new years eve, just after we arrived from our two week trip in South Africa, then during the coming week I will post some pictures from the holiday.

New years eve was just some nice braaing and sparkling wine on our porch, while watching the fireworks in town. Our friend Alan had been looking after our house and the puppies while we were gone, and was there to celebrate new years with us.

 There were also some really nice cubans we brought back with us, to keep the new years tradition going.

The last picture has nothing to do with new years, but it is difficult to get any limes here, so we brought a few back with us from the trip (all juiced and frozen now for a few months supply....)

J1

hot (J1)

44 degrees Celcius? Nice weather for a bike ride......

J1

adoption support group (J1)

We have joined an adoption support group in Pretoria (no such thing available in Botswana), and there was a small Christmas party during December which we attended. This was JJ's first encounter with Santaclaus, she was a bit scared at first, but happy with the present of course.....Some pictures:

J1

Nursery school Christmas show (J1)

Just before the school closed for Christmas holiday, the toddlers (and teachers) did a Christmas play for all parents and other friends and family. They had been rehearsing for many weeks, and it was a really nice play with lots of Christmas songs. JJ got to be the 'inn-keeper' together with little George.

After her part as 'inn-keeper' was finished, she joined the others in the choir (middle of the picture)

As you can see in the below picture, there was a large crowd that watched the performance, who were all treated to tea and cookies, and a nice little present the kids had been making.

There was a dvd of the show made, which we get to collect soon.

J1

swimming lessons (J1)

The pre-school that JJ is going to offers lots of extra activities, such as kindermusic, monkeynastix, Setwana lessons and swimming classes. We had JJ enrolled in the swimming classes during the last period of last year, and the last swimming lesson of the year was an 'open-day' for parents to attend. Here are some pictures:

She has made fantastic progress, from being quite scared and upset about the swimming, she now loved getting into the pool. She can also 'monkey-walk' along the edge, and paddle along with floating devices. She will continue during the first period of 2012, and hopefully be able to swim at the end of the period.

J1

Rhino Sanctuary (J1)

During early November last year we had to do a bunch of site visits in the Central District. We decided to combine work and pleasure, by setting up camp at the rhino sanctuary, with easy travel distance to the sites. The park has some really nice campsites, and some great game viewing. This was one of the first times that J3 was actively watching for animals as well.....

J1

gig (J1)

Still some catch-up blogging, the last one was from early September, the below pictures are from a '2 Car Pile Up' gig in Jefferson City in October, with guest musician (J2) on banjo. It was awesome, really a shame they can not play more often.

J1

migration run (J1)

Happy new year to everyone from all of us in Botswana. We had a great trip around South Africa, and will post some pictures of that in the next week or so. But before we do that, I still have some catching up to do from 2011.

This is the first 'catch up', our running club organizes an annual 'ostrich migration', a relay run with several teams over a distance of over 100km. I was responsible for setting the toute this year, and made a run from the Botswana to South Africa border into the Limpopo province, to one of our favourite camps in the Waterberg mountains. The total distance was 165km, and we have about 50 runners. To make sure we could cover the distance, we did include some cycling legs.





 The route map

 me running the ostrich on our 19km leg of the run

 J2 taking the ostrich for a run

 a small contribution to the cycling part

and some well deserved beers after all the hard work.

The night was finished with a nice night of braaing and a few drinks at Mateke game farm, before retuning home the next day.

J1

New tyre swing at home

J1 hung up a nice new swing in the yard a few weeks ago.

wedding (J1)

This is the last of the USA pictures, there was of course a wedding, so loads of photo opportunities with family.

This was at the rehearsal dinner, with a favourite sportsteam theme.

J2 and her grandma

And someone to take picture of us, which is nice for a change.

J3 was a flower girl at the wedding, together with little K. Here is a picture of them (and the candle lighter)

A picture of the flower girls with the bride

and the happy wedding couple

I also had a function at the wedding, I was an usher together with G.

and then the party started, J3 loved hanging out with the other kids

especially on the dancefloor.......

I promise we will post some recent Botswana stuff in the coming week.

J1