Jacob and I headed back to Northern Kentucky to see my dad for a week and half.. It was a very good trip, which saw my dad get progressively better and better with each passing day. He is currently in a rehab hospital and seems to be doing well.
jacob and i enjoyed our visits with him, enjoyed seeing a few friends, and mostly hanging out with family. We ate at all of our favorite establishments and took in some b-ball and football while we were home... I don't think Jacob wanted to get back on the plane, he was feeling pretty comfortable in the u.s.a.
I can't say that I experienced culture shock on our return to Nky, but I did feel strange being back home. the first thing I saw upon our landing was a McDonald's... gross. Then a Cinnabon, a rally's, a starbucks, a TGI Friday's , another McDonalds, a Sbarro and a whole slew of other famous eating establishments, all lined up waiting for us as we walked around the airport.
But seeing my dad was the highlight of the trip... he was very happy to see Jacob and we spent alot of time at the hospital visiting.. We had no trouble getting back home, despite waiting 3 hours on the runway in atlanta for a de-icing procedure.. that was painful, right before a 20 hour flight.
We were late into Jo'burg, so we missed our connecting flight, and had to stay the night in "Gangsta's Paradise", as it is so affectionately called by the locals. That was an experience I'll never forget.. The guest home we stayed in was great.. Home cooked meal, nice room, cable TV.. But when they picked us up from the airport, they told us we had a 8 minute drive to the home, which it was....But about halfway there, the gentleman driving pulled over on the highway, and waited. I asked what we were doing, he said.. " we are waiting for my coworker to pick you up and take you the rest of the way." I was a little scared, thinking we had been tricked, but sure enough, his friend picked us up and took us the rest of way( 4 minutes) to the home. When I got into his car, i asked him why he had to come and get us.. He told me that many, many robbers follow people from the airport to the hotel, guest house, etc. and rob them.. So this way, changing cars, was a way to shake them off of our tracks... I guess the fact that we pulled over, got out of a car, gathered all of our luggage out of a trunk and transferred to another car on a major interstate, they would have never seen that.... So, that was fun.. But when we arrived at the house, we were greeted by armed guards... Beer please!!!
On a side note....
I think the one thing that i realized time and time again while I was at home, was how lucky we are in the U.S. If my father were here, there's no question he would have never made it this far...One of Michelle's co-workers who is from Botswana commented on how fortunate we are to have Oxygen tanks to support patients, to have re-hab hospitals, to have all the comforts of modern medicine. There is none of that here...
Our security guard, who we've come to really love and admire, lost his 4 year old daughter while we were gone. Makes me realize how lucky Michelle and I are and how strange it sometimes feels to travel through this country with 5 healthy children, knowing that many of the men and women we encounter have already lost a child, a sibling or a parent. Or , in many cases, all of these mentioned.
I realize the blog hasn't been kept up with over the past few weeks, simply because I was back in the states.. But I wanted to post a video from our most recent trip to Serowe.. this in the hopes that someone (Cathy) will take her laptop up to a certain rehab hospital and show a certain someone some images of his other grandchildren that couldn't make the trip to see him....Hope you enjoy the video... Plus there's rhino too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63tEYqiXeVA
All for now.
