Family visit!

I had a two week break between semesters so my family came to visit me in Mozambique! I took a chapa down to Maputo the night before their arrival because their plane was arriving at 11, and there was a very slim chance that I could get from my site to the airport in time the next morning. I got up in the morning and tried to kill some time by walking to a little cafe and getting myself a coffee and a croissant. I then took a chapa to the airport and waited oh-so patiently. I have never been so anxious waiting for someone in the airport before! They don't really update the monitors so I didn't even know if their plane had landed and I couldn't even call them since it would be an international call! Finally they emerged through the door with a cart full of suitcases and it was so nice to see their smiling faces again. We quickly exited and hopped into a van to take us to the hotel. Once we got to the hotel we sat outside and had some beers in the sun while we caught up on life. It had been so long since I had seen them that I kept touching their arms periodically to make sure that it was all real.
We spent a couple of relaxing days in Maputo and saw some of my favorite city spots. We visited the open air fish market down the road from the hotel. When you arrive you have people coming up to you to basically take you in as their "customer". A nice woman named Emilia approached me so I chose her as our cook and waitress for the day.You then enter the market and pick out what seafood you want for your meal. They put it in bags right there and give it to you. We got steamers, prawns, and fish. Then you make your way into an open air seating section surrounded by little enclosed rooms where the cooking takes place. Emilia then took our food out back and cooked it while we sat and sipped on our drinks. I had been there before with volunteers and it's a nice place to spend the afternoon, not to mention that the seafood is delicious! We also visited a craft market where I showed them all of the local wooden crafts, jewelry, and other crafts. We spent a lot of time looking around and then worked on haggling down the prices so that my Mom and sister could go home with some nice gifts and souvenirs!
After our days in Maputo we rented a car and zipped up to my site, Chongoene. My Dad did the driving (it's on the left side of the road here) and did a wonderful job driving. We did get stopped by a police officer on our way out of Maputo for a minor confusion in the turning lanes but I apologized profusely in my best Portuguese and she let us go. On the way up to Chongoene we stopped to buy some passion fruit and tangerines, which are so tasty here and the family loved. We also bought some food for the week in Xai-Xai and bought chairs for my house! I only had one chair before this week because that's all that was there when I arrived and I never had an easy way to transport them there from the city before.
The two days we spent in Chongoene were nice and relaxing. We drank coffee on the porch, had a tour of a town, and they spent a good amount of time getting to know my boyfriend, Francelino and his family (more on that in the post below). They got a good taste of life in my town and I think they liked being finally able to see my house and where I had been living for the last 10 months.
After we left Chongoene, we went to Xai-Xai beach which is about a 40 min drive away. We rented a little beach house on stilts and had some more relaxing games full of book reading, card games, walks on the beach, and yummy seafood. It is "winter" here so the weather was around 60-70 degrees, the wind was blowing, and the water was rough so none of us went swimming, although my mother did get drenched once when knocked over by an unexpected wave. (Sorry Mom, I had to mention it). The sun was out the whole week though and all in all, we had beautiful weather.
On Saturday we left the beach and headed back to Maputo. We spent another night in a hotel there and the next morning got in a van to take us to South Africa! The trip took a total of about 5 hours and crossing the border was quick and easy. We got to our hotel in Hazyview called Hippo Hollow. It was a cute little place and we settled in after an early dinner. We had to eat early dinners most nights because you are not supposed to walk around the area at night because hippos roam around and they're super dangerous, seriously. We were picked up bright and early the next morning by our safari guide, Elvis. Elvis drove us about 25 minutes to one of the gates of Kruger National Park where we entered to start searching for animals! We had our eyes peeled from the start (despite the FREEZING weather) and about 5 minutes in I spotted a giraffe with just its neck sticking out from the grass. It was so unreal and exciting! Over the next few days we saw lots of giraffes, zebras, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, birds, buffalo, warthogs and lots of other cool animals. We also got two awesome close-ups of groups of lions which is harder to see and caught a leopard crossing the road too. On the third day we opted out of the safari since we had seen just about everything and we went water rafting instead. During the summer the rapids there are a class 5 since it's the rainy season. We hit it at a low point and as a result got stuck on lots of rocks, but it was still a fun activity to end a great vacation. While we were in South Africa I also got a haircut (first in a year!...gross..I know) and two pairs of jeans (also first new clothes in a year). Exciting stuff. After Kruger we went down to Johannesburg for a day and then I flew back to Maputo and the family went back to the States. It was sad to say goodbye again but we had a great 2 week vaca and I think everyone was ready to head home at the end of it.
Any other friends and family members are welcome to visit while I am here!!!
And I will be home to visit at Christmas so, USA, see you in 4 months...