As some of you may or may not be aware, Christy and I are currently on our way up to Zimbabwe for work. After successfully completing the project I had been working on for the past year in the Kwa-Zulu Natal Province in South Africa (Umzimkhulu), there were few opportunities available for work in the area. So, as a stop-gap measure, the director’s of Africa AHEAD suggested that we head up to Zim so that I could work with our sister organization there, who is just beginning a new project funded by Oxfam. I will try and provide more information about that at a later date.
Anyway, after spending days packing our house in Ixopo and storing some things with friends and neighbors, we got on the road to Durban to spend the night with friends before heading up to Jo’Burg and then to Zim. Well, if that was not stressful enough, South Africa would not let us leave without one final parting shot. Sunday morning, around 4 am, a group of late night revelers returned to the backpackers where we were staying and forgot to lock the door to the lodge. Apparently someone followed them back to the lodge that morning and broke into the lodge. He got into the room where we were staying and stole Christy’s purse (with wallet and passport), my wallet and both of our cell phones. When he picked up Christy’s toiletry bag, thinking it was a purse, both of us woke up to see him leaving our room. I gave chase, but never saw the guy again. So, we spent the morning talking to the police, canceling all of our debit cards and credit cards and just generally stressing out about how to deal with a move to another country. Adding insult to injury, we both lost our drivers licenses as well, so now we are driving with a police affidavit indicating our licenses were stolen.
Now we are in Jo’Burg picking up the pieces of our lives and hoping we can leave the country later next week after all our local cards are replaced and Christy’s new passport is provided. Life goes on, but not in the manner we had envisioned. I guess South Africa just did not want us to leave quite yet.
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