Moments that change things.....

We all have those moments in life when things change; the day you get married or have your children or maybe the first day on a new job.  You know the days that become turning points or markers in life.  For us we talk about the year we 'almost but not quite' moved to Italy and the year we moved to Spain and the year we came back from Spain, the day George got laid off from HP....

Tomorrow just might be another of those days!

Last summer I noticed a little lump on my thyroid.  The doctor thought it warranted a 'fine needle aspiration' and biopsy so in September I had one and the results were negative.  However the doctor wanted to check me again in 6 months and this time she felt that the nodule was bigger so she scheduled another biopsy.  Unfortunately this time the results were 'suspicious' so tomorrow I'm going in for surgery to have at least half of my thyroid removed.  They will take out the right lobe and do another biopsy.  Depending on the results, they might take my whole thyroid.  I've never had surgery before so I'm scared.  I'm scared that today is my last 'cancer free' day; that from now on it will be 'after my cancer diagnosis' and that's how we'll look at time.

Now statistically things are in my favor.  Only a small percentage of thyroid nodules are cancerous and of the ones that are cancer, the huge majority are a type that require no further treatment. So I am probably going to be fine.  I guess I just always thought I'd be like my mother - healthy and active to my late 80's.  My Daddy died at age 63 of cancer.  Scary thought!

This gives a whole new perspective to my Come what may and love it theme!  Still good advice and still the way I'll try to approach things!

Lesotho

Have you ever heard of the country of Lesotho?  I hadn't until we read the itinerary for our trip and saw that we were going to visit this tiny county totally surrounded by South Africa.  Notice the high mesa behind us?  That is Lesotho. The entire country is above 3,281 feet in elevation. It is about the same size as the state of Maryland.  Back in the 1800's when King Shaka was consolidating his Zulu empire by violently conquering other tribes, several groups fled to these high mountains and were never taken over by the mighty Zulu nation. The high peaks proved a great defense!

Today the kingdom is accessible in 4X4 vehicles by way of this crazy 'road'!  The Sani Pass which is  the border between Lesotho and South Africa is at 9000 feet.  This area is known as the 'Roof of Africa'.

The view back down is pretty spectacular.

How would you like to 'do your business' in this outhouse?  Our guide said that it was a Republican outhouse....when you go in you lean right!!!!!

A group of young men were waiting to entertain us!

Their homemade instruments are pretty creative.  His guitar was some sort of metal container with strings.  Drums were 5 gallon buckets with cloth stretched tightly on top.  Their music was surprisingly good!

I had to keep telling myself that I was in Africa not Mongolia!  For young men from Lesotho living in these highlands for the summer and taking care of the flocks of sheep is a rite of passage.

Don't you love their traditional blankets and hats?

The homes were the typical African shape but made of stones and plastered on the inside because of the severe winters.

Inside one hut this enterprising young woman was selling traditional weavings and her delicious bread cooked in a dutch oven.

The population of Lesotho is around 2 million  and about half of them live below the international poverty level. This means that they live on less that $1.25 a day. I was happy to buy some of her bread and a little hat that will be cute on our Christmas tree.

George was a bit tall for the doorways!

I couldn't resist taking a picture of these dogs.  They are not lazy at all but are trained to stay awake all night to protect the sheep from jackals!  Sleeping all day is allowed and expected.

These three were friends with our driver so they stopped our jeep to tell us goodbye.  The driver asked us to send any photos we took of the people to him and he'd take them back up the mountain and distribute them.

I'll never forget our day in Lesotho!

Traditional Medicine Market

In Durban we toured the traditional medicine market. These 'doctors' are considered part of the South African medical system and a note from one of them is sufficient to excuse a person from school or work.

Looks pretty awful but some of these cures must really work!  Notice the tails....

 I'll take a nice white pill instead of a bark or root tea from some of this interesting looking stuff.

 I can't even imagine what they must do with some of these medicinal items!  And I don't think I want to know

I left the phone number just in case anyone wants to call Dr. Sibiya for this bone, skin medicine.  I wonder why the long bone is so noticeably out to the side....

 Notice the live chicken under the counter....

I wonder what wearing this stylish bead wig would cure.  I might consider wearing one of these!

Mark might wish to add this spice to my dinner the next time I come to visit!  This is from the spice market not the medicine market!

Cape Town

First stop on our South African Adventure was the very beautiful city of Cape Town.  With the ocean on one side and Table Mountain on the other, it is a very picturesque place.

I remember reading and studying about the days of apartheid in South Africa. It was quite sobering to visit Robben Island, the prison island where Nelson Mandela and many others were held as political prisoners.  Mr. Mandela was in custody a total of 27 years and 13 of those were on Robben island.  He wrote his book, Walking to Freedom in this cell and hid the manuscript in the gardens just outside.  

A cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain is a must for any visitor to Cape Town. 

We were afraid that we weren't going to be able to go up as our first attempt was thwarted by bad weather.  When it is windy the cable car just doesn't operate.  We got lucky and later in the day the winds died down and the skies were clear so we got to take the cable car up and thoroughly enjoy the magnificent view.

Of course we couldn't resist a photo of the World Cup soccer stadium! Viva España!!!!

The Best Part of our Trip

As I go through the thousands and thousand of pictures from our trip to South Africa and remember all the amazing experiences, I'm just so glad we got to share it all with such great people!

Chuck and Nancy -  our 'new friends' who also shared our adventure in Antarctica
Janice and Dave - friends from Boise who we've known for the last 24 years
John and Katherine - brother and sister in law

Traveling is most fun when shared!

If you want to have fun, go with this group!