We are traveling to Johannesburg to have lunch with Jenn’s friend, and we are rushing to get there. We arrive in Joberg and Jenn calls to find out where to go, and we take a wrong turn, which means we’re going through Joberg, instead of around it. I finally find where we are on the map, but we still don’t know where we’re supposed to meet. Looking at where we are, I hope we don’t have to stop. We keep going and Jenn says, “I think we turn here.” We turn, but we’re not where we need to be. But as Jenn describes the area, her friend says, “Yes, you go three blocks, turn left and I’ll meet you at the gas station in 1 minute.” We do, she comes and we head out to eat lunch at a place called Carnivores.

We walk in and they have the menu posted. It has 19 different kinds of meat. What did you expect at Carnivores? All the meat is cooked over an open fire. They bring you a salad, and then they start off with the meats. They keep bringing you meat until you surrender (tell them to stop by lowering the flag on your table). Chicken liver was first, then chicken breast, chicken wings, lamb, warthog, wildebeest, ostrich, hartebeest, emus, blest buck, alligator, and I’m forgetting some. Oh yes, they also had beef. The oddest was the alligator. I said that all I got was fat. Then I was told that was how alligator was, mostly fat. It wasn’t bad, but not what I would ever order as my meal.

It was an experience. We got there later for the noon meal, and we were basically alone in the restaurant. Like they promised, the meat kept coming until we lowered the flag.
Then we went to the airport, and because we couldn’t check in online, we had to spend about 20 minutes checking in. Don’t know what the problem was. Jenn walks us as far as she could, and then we say goodbye. We go through security and Andy’s backpack sets off the machine. They look though most of it and ask if there are any aerosol cans in it. I assure them there isn’t. It goes through again, they show me the picture. I open the backpack and pull out Andy’s shaving kit. This is the one I found in the bathroom as I was looking for the phone. Instead of putting it in his suitcase, he put it in his backpack. He had a new can of shaving cream in it. Don’t really know why he brought it; he didn’t shave the entire time we were there. But we found the problem and I handed it to the security guy. We repacked the backpack and off we went. Had a good trip to Paris, and then waited for 3 hours for our connecting flight. We had a good trip to Seattle. I knew where my phone was, and we called Pam and told her we had landed. We made it through customs – no, I didn’t tell them about the ants we brought back; I didn’t know we had them. We got our suitcases and made it to the curb as Pam pulled up.

It is nice to be home. We miss Jennifer. But now we know some of what she experiences, we know a little about her living conditions. We have seen the passion in her as she shares Jesus with South Africans and with the staff at Thrive. It was a great time for all of us.