We were up at 4:30 am to leave at 5:30 in order to get Refilwe to school by 6:30. Her last term is beginning as of today. Njale will take us to the airport and return to work tomorrow.
We stopped at a Wimpy's for breakfast hoping to receive some more mugs like we received at another Wimpy's. No mugs today -- the promotion was over.
We asked for our breakfasts to be prepared quickly as we had an appointment and were promised to have them in 10 minutes. 30 minutes later we received our meals. Njale immediately asked for hers to be boxed as take away. Anita quickly ate about half of hers as she had not eaten before we left the house. Since I had eaten a quick peanut butter sandwich, it was easy for me to send my breakfast back because everything was cold - eggs, toast, bacon and potatoes. (Incidentally, Botswana bacon is very meaty with little fat, and is sliced thin and wide.)
Next stop at 8 am was at the university to get information on the status of the money due to Njale and the children. Our 1st meeting on the 15th promised the checks would be ready by the following Friday. Njale spoke with the office on the 2oth to answer a couple of extra questions which delayed the checks until the 29th. While we were in Kasane, Njale learned that the checks would not be ready for her to retrieve on our way home from the airport as we returned from Kasane. So she emailed the university representative with whom we had been dealing and asked for an 8 am appointment today because Anita and I needed to be at the airport by 9 am. It took a while but he agreed to the appointment.
I was prepared to be quite annoyed and tactfully persuasive. Happily it was not necessary. All I needed to say was that I couldn't understand how something that was to take 1 week was still not accomplished almost 2.5 weeks later. The gentleman left the office to check and when he returned told us that the checks would be ready in 20 more minutes. We chatted and he watched the clock. At 18 minutes, he left the office and returned in about 10 minutes with the checks. Our scheduled 30 minute meeting lasted about 50 minutes. Njale signed for three of the checks and we left. The final check is for Refilwe and since she may not receive the money until she reaches adulthood at 21, Njale will be named guardian by the courts for the money. She will have use of the money for Refilwe for school, health needs, even food. At 21 Refilwe will apparently get control of the remaining funds.
As we got ready to leave, I asked the gentleman if he would accept an email from me after I returned home. I explained that I wanted an update on the status of the final check and to be assured that Njale had been named guardian legally by that time. He promised to bring me up to date.
Our flight to Johannesburg was smooth and quick. A snack of dried beef, meat flavored chips and a KitKat bar was served. We passed through passport control easily to collect our baggage. We had decided that with the reputation for baggage pilfering and loss, this would be better than check the bags all the way to Cairo. We also paid to have the bags wrapped in plastic (shrink-wrapped) before they left Gaborone. Our passports were stamped again on the same page where the temporary visas had been placed on August 13th.
We are now in a small cafe in the international terminal where we have finished tea and toast for me, tea and muffin for Anita. Our flight can be cleared at 6:30 pm this evening and we will recheck our larger suitcases then. The transit area where we spent much of our time on our first flight though this airport was a more comfortable area with more shops and things to do. Anita is trying to sleep and not having much luck.
It's 2:30 pm so we have about 2.5 hours more before we can head to the check-in counters, go through security, and get ready for our flight to Cairo. (Incidentally, I lost my embroidery scissors in security in Gaborone. This was the 5th time they had been through security x-rays and today they were taken.)
The flight between Gaborone and Johannesburg was uneventful. I slept part way because of getting up so early. Anita tries to sleep on airplanes, and is not so lucky.
On the advice of the SAA agent in Gaborone, we checked our luggage only to Johannesburg. However, in reality and especially since we had our bags shrink wrapped, we probably would have been better off to check them through to Cairo.
We collected our bags in Johannesburg and had 9 hours to spend drinking tea at one of 2 restaurants outside security. We were not able to check our bags (still shrink wrapped in stretchy plastic) until 6:30 pm. So we took turns walking the short concourse until we could finally check in.
Then a new adventure in Tambo Airport. We were not permitted to the gate from which our plane will depart. So we moved to bench seats as close to our gate as possible and again took turns exploring a plethora of shops on the others ide of security.
Anita found a t-shirt for her niece and nephew with wonderful animals. We chatted with several folks who were traveling as a group to Lourdes, Paris, Rome and back to Cairo.
Once on the plane, it looked like we both would have empty seats next to us - especially nice since this was an all night journey due to land around 6:30 am in Cairo. However, the plane left late because of a connecting flight coming in late. A large and rather rowdy bunch of men arrived - started passing out orange juice and peanuts to all members of the group, including me because one man sat in my empty seat.
Shortly after take-off, shown live on the TV screens in the cabin, I moved to an aisle seat behind Anita. I'm glad I did this because she said my former seat mate talked, sang, prayed and mumbled to himself all night. Once again she did not sleep well, and I zonked out. (My ankles are swollen today because I did not get up and walk during the 9 hour flight.) The only time I was awake was during the 2 meals - dinner was rice with steamed veggies, and a fruit based sauce. Breakfast was two rolls and some fruit. The cabin staff had passed out stickers that alerted them if you wanted to be awake when meals were served.
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