8. Arrivals

After twelve months of planning and ten hours of flying we landed at OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg at 9.40am local time Saturday morning just over a week ago. The goodbyes were tough, and many tears were shed. As well as the burden of saying goodbye we had four large and heavy pieces of hand luggage, four heavy and full laptop bags and two small children to manhandle onto a plane. None of this was made any easier by Daniel asking hundreds of questions about how planes fly, how do jet engines work, why do planes sometimes land on water…I love the fact that he’s inquisitive, but seriously...sometimes you just need to get on the plane and not have to explain four times why daddy's bag of computer bits had to be unpacked so the man could check for bombs.

The flight itself was remarkably easy (especially as Reuben only wanted attention from Daddy), but getting through Passport control at the other end was a different story. Shattered after very little sleep we had a long walk to passport control (with no trolley for our 120 kilos of ‘hand’ luggage), and then in the queue through security both boys decided to be sick. Reuben was in a carrier on Jason’s back and wasn’t too bad (umm, bad for whom? – ed.), but Daniel looked like a ghost and decided enough was enough and laid down on the floor in a wretched fashion. We had no spare arms to pick him up and nobody took pity on us; they just got cross and told us to stop holding up the queue.

By hook or by crook we got through, collected our hold luggage and went through customs with ease to be greeted with a warm and welcome smile by the wonderful Garton and Abrahmse families. Such a relief! Daniel was sick in the car again on the way to J-Life, but by that stage he had a bit more sympathy from us, and at least he stopped asking questions for a few minutes.

The J-Life main centre sits on a farm about an hour and a half’s drive from the airport. To say that it is beautiful is an understatement, and we've had a couple of hikes through the mountains around the J-Life centre. We're looking forward to exploring more in the coming weeks, and there's a lot to explore: the farm is huge, a few km across in both directions at least. There are rumours of a leopard in the hills, and there are certainly porcupines and lots of buck and birds of prey.

We have our own little three bedroom pad which is the ground floor of a quad of converted grain silos. It’s small, simple, clean and comfortable; we are all very happy with it and the boys have taken to it well. 

Two days in, Reuben decided to dump the cot and go into a bed, which was not exactly how we would have worked the timing but he’s doing fine. The boys love being together in the same room at night, and it has left the spare room free as a playroom for them.

We’ve had the first week to settle in and get accustomed to the new surroundings. Daniel and Reuben have started school; Daniel is loving it, Reuben is taking a little more time, and we spent a great day with Clive and Clare Garton at their house in Jo-burg. We’ve checked out the local supermarket and hung out with the wonderful Abrahmses – John, Lorna, Jordan and Nathan; swimming in the pool, playing football, generally feeling welcome and loved. We’ve had a couple of BBQs (although here they call it a Braii), been for the aforementioned hikes through the mountains, got to know the other staff a little more, and found our bearings. Work started in earnest today and we are looking forward to really getting stuck in.

We haven’t had time to stop and miss the UK yet - the weather and people have put a hold on that for now because it’s still a little like being on holiday. There have however been real tinges of sadness especially when Daniel opened his birthday cards from people in the UK, and when Reuben asks often for their friend (and our God daughter) Annabel. Each time Reuben asks for her, Daniel says “I’m sorry Reuben Annabel’s not here but we’ll see her at Christmas”. Now we at last have a decent internet connection and phone we can start contacting people properly: we've really missed speaking to people this last week.

In the time we've been here we have had Daniel and my (Claire) birthdays – they were both suitably spoilt by the J-Life team but my extra ‘present’ was to be thrown into the pool by John A and a few others after dinner – apparently a ritual on the camp, just a shame we will be in Zambia by the time it comes to Jason's birthday.

All in all it has been a great start. We are definitely in ‘honeymoon’ phase but we think we are going to love being here.