We know, we know. It’s been a while….Well, Julie’s been gone. Which means upon her return the food cabinets and refrigerator were empty –minus peanut butter and mac & cheese, the shower needed to be cleaned -badly, paperwork had to be caught up on….and the blog needed some attention.
It might be hard to grasp the fact that Matt found little time to do a blogpost while Julie was gone, as we all know it is his favorite activity, but he must have had his hands full with all the extra work (ha!), his birth father visiting and of course, coping with his wife being half-a-world away…or something.
Anyway, a synopsis:
-Julie and another PCV friend, Tina flew out of Jamaica, en route to Johannesburg, South Africa March 30.
-They met up with Julie’s friend from Alaska, Linnaea in Johannesburg. Linnaea’s currently living in Lusaka, Zambia on a medical scholarship.
-J, T, and L rented a car for the first week and traveled through South Africa and Mozambique.
-The second week J, T, and L flew to Lusaka and spent a week hanging out in Zambia’a capital city, followed by taking a trip down to Victoria Falls for the weekend.
-The final week J & T parted ways with L, and traveled back down through Botswana en route to Johannesburg for their flight back to Jamaica, partaking in such things as a safari, a mokoro (traditional dug-out canoe) trip, and dining with Botswana PCVs along the way.
-J and T flew out of Johannesburg on Thursday April 21 and were back alongside their wonderfully supportive husbands Friday, April 22.
-Here are some pictures of their adventure:
How about "Jamaican Jottings from Julie and Matt"?
ReplyDeleteDad Blog: Matt deserves major applause as an attentive tour guide, first in AK, now in JA. What an intensive and extensive set of diverse experiences, from electricity ‘tiefing’ at the Petersen Ctr, thru Tony & Dowdy’s Eco Lodge, local eating and shopping, handwashing clothes (even Julie’s “delicates”), pick-axing and sand-barrowing and picnic lunching with youth ‘round the Kindah tree, a meandering hike past tended plots to meditate within the Peace Cave and imagine the once-bustling Old Town (a row of young “pines” along a broad grassy boulevard), the sound of the Kenyan square drum, the carving of cow horns to sound the alarm, careening in taxis town to town over narrow rutted winding mountain roads (“No charter, mon, route price fo da boda we, me lib here”), a wayward pineapple, slashing cocoa pods, coconuts, respectful JC attending to and addressing Teacher/Colonel/Rev’d Cauley updating their history and disbursing his treasured books, a promising youth tackling a job interview in Mo’bay’s infamous Int’l Zone, houses that are beautiful below but never finished above, clean-smelling uniformed students, internet café with responsible Towns folk keeping order and bookkeeping, coat curry, a market people’s hearty breakfast, the best paved roads from the cruise ships to the airplanes, big tour busses lucky to make Appleton’s rum tasting, their donated blue trash barrels that Matt got authorities to empty weekly, tethered goats, cows and bulls, wandering hens and roosters, Dana from elsewhere and her pimp. Camping on the grass at Half Moon, sipping beer to music along the sand,. The PCV and local triathlon teams at Treasure Beach with Matt cycling 5th fastest of 50 entrants and shaving a minute off the bike time of the PC team who were “All Male First”. And not a single picture taken!
ReplyDelete