Last Few Days in SA

  Well, I’m completely behind in my blogging as the last leg of our journey was a total whirlwind. To be complete though, I still want to document our time in South Africa and the journey home. We stayed in an amazing guest house there called De Kuilen Country House. The owners were a lovely elderly couple who were so welcoming to their home. The highlight for Isaac was their lovely, old black lab, Bella, and their very friendly and in my opinion, brave cat, Henry. Henry was very happy to lie within arm’s reach of Isaac and even tolerated a couple of tail pulls. As I said, he was either very brave or just plain stupid. Either way, Isaac loved him. Isaac and my dad enjoyed many shoulder walks around the garden inspecting and in some cases, pruning the various trees. There were lots of birds to look at. They had a large number of Hadeda Ibises on the property. These birds make an incredibly loud call which could be heard at all times of the day especially at 5:30am when the sun was coming up. Nothing like a loud cawing to rouse you from your dreams. Either that or a crying baby – not sure which I prefer. To quote one internet article: “Pest, charming oddity or just background noise, the Hadeda ibis is a feathered phenomenon in suburban South Africa. Sometimes it swipes dog food meant for pets, splatters parked cars and driveways with droppings and yanks residents from sleep with jarring squawks at first light.” So, I’m not the only one who has a less than happy opinion of the ibis.
 

De Kuilen Country House

Isaac and Henry. Notice his hand very close to the cat's tail. So tempting.

Papa and Isaac rough-housing.

Isaac enjoyed playing on the grass and trying to eat it.

  With how things had gone thus far in our adoption (slowly and frustratingly), I was fully expecting us to be in South Africa for about two weeks as the general time frame was 7-10 days. I had been in regular contact with a lovely woman at the Canadian High Commission in Pretoria and had already been sending her the adoption documents as I received them. It was so nice to be able to correspond with an actual person and have questions answered right away (not the typical 30 days for a response). Despite this contact, I still expected that things would move slowly. So imagine my surprise when Isaac’s visa was processed in one day!!! We had our medical done in Johannesburg on the Monday, met with Dianne at the High Commission on Tuesday, and then received word that the visa was ready on Wednesday. It was amazing to end on such a positive note. I had to laugh a bit after receiving a very nice email from Dianne praising me on being so proactive with getting the documents to her. To quote her: “Thank you for your efforts to meet our requirements as quickly as possible. It really makes life easier for everyone involved.” I found it incredibly validating that at least to the Canadians my personality is welcome, but to the Zambian social workers, despite my efforts to be as patient and polite as possible, I was viewed as anxious and demanding. But enough of that, as I said, we ended on a positive note. :)
  We didn’t have much time for sightseeing as my dad, Isaac, and I were only in South Africa for a week, but we did make it to the Johannesburg Zoo. Although it doesn’t compare to seeing the animals in the wild, I was impressed with the beauty of the zoo and space of the enclosures. There were so many different species of animals. I was happy to see two rhinos. We hadn’t been able to see any in Zambia as they have been poached to almost extinction there. With rehabilitation efforts, there are now 30 rhinos in the wild under heavy guard in the North Luangwa Park. Anyways, we were all excited to see these majestic creatures at the zoo, especially since my dad had been referring to himself as the “big rhino” and Isaac as the “little rhino”. They had been playing a game where they would “charge” (crawl) across the floor at each other and butt heads. It was so funny to watch. 

With my little rhino and the big rhinos.

At Nelson Mandela Square.