Hello!

I arrived safely in Johannesburg, South Africa at about 5pm today which is about 11am back in the states. All flights were relatively uneventful. The flight from DC to Dakar, Senegal was about 7 1/2 hours. I ended up watching movies most of the time because I wasn't tired yet, but I did get about 2 hours of uncomfortable sleep. We stopped in Dakar mainly to refuel, get more food, and to change the flight crew for about 1 1/2 hours. It was nice to stretch for awhile, but they turned on the lights with the line, "Well we think you had enough restful sleep so we're gonna turn on the lights." Meanwhile it's about midnight in the US and most of us had just fallen asleep. lol We were near the back of the plane so when some of the people got off in Dakar, we had a lot of empty seats to stretch out in. Right before we took off, they had to spray this stuff throughout the cabin and it smelled awful!!! I'm not sure if it was an insecticide or what, but no one could breathe for a few minutes.

The flight from Dakar to Johannesburg was about 8 hours and I slept for 6 which was really nice! I noticed as we were descending that a lot of the farms are set up in circles. It's really interesting. They have like 3-5 large circles split into thirds, fourths, or eighths normally for different crops I guess. Thanks for the blanket Vanessa!!! It was really nice for the plane trip!

We are staying at a Game Resort here. It's pretty hysterical. Very nice accommodations, but the geese are really loud and annoying. There are deer here too for the reserve. It's cold! Not too cold, but I'm not used to it yet! My fingers are freezing because our room hasn't completely heated yet. It's about 8pm here now and we're just eating dinner.

Tomorrow, my mom and I will be visiting one of the missionaries from our church about an hour away in Pretoria and then racing back to catch our flight to Windhoek, Namibia. I almost forgot...Michael Jackson is all over the news here too! I'll update in a few days! Bye!

Shannon