Waking up to a view of soccer city from the front porch. You can see it in the distance just over the roof of this house.
Today we visited one of Gulshan's aunties for lunch. What an absolute dear. Everyone's been fasting for Ashura, including her, but they've all offered us food & drinks when we visit. Ashura is celebrated in different ways in different communities, but the common element among the people here is a fast. Now keep in mind this is not a "no-meat-on-Friday" kind of fast. Sunup to sundown, no water, food or anything else (but air) is to pass your lips. And still everyone goes about their day happily. Quite impressive, and her aunt was no exception. We shared pictures of the wedding with her and she showed us old family albums that she's kept, including a photo she sent along of Gulshan's parents' wedding day to share with them.
We managed to catch a ride down to Estcourt with a cousin's son Gulshan's never met, but was traveling with an empty car. He had an interview in Johannesburg and was heading back down to his home in Durban. He's just two years younger than me, even though technically speaking Gulshan would count as an auntie. He's very well traveled also, so the five-hour ride down the N3 went by quickly with all our panchaath(chitter-chatter). We talked about various places we've each been and how things are different there - visa troubles, health care, and racism. He'll be in Durban for most of our stay here, so he offered to meet up and go out and do some things with us in Durban. He's a wealth of information on where to go and what to see while we're here. He encouraged us to drive the Garden Route to Cape Town when we go to meet Andy and Morgan when they arrive. I hope we'll have a chance to spend some more time with him; he's a solid guy.
At around 7:30, he dropped us off in Estcourt to a warm welcome from Gulshan's parents. We sat and talked for a little while, but slept early. We're still a bit jet-lagged, but Gulshan's got the worst of it. I've been able to sleep fairly easily but she didn't even get any rest on the plane.
This family is so large, and so welcoming. We just met one cousin and already he's offering a ride in his sister's plane. What a wonderful thing, people just stopping in and having lunch on their way through, and being welcomed, even coerced into accepting the hospitality. That's something we don't have as much with everyone as spread out as they are. It's nice.
This is the Central Business District of Johannesburg, on our way out of town:
Here's some of the gorgeous landscape we drove through on the trip down, in the Free State province.
We stopped at a roadside rest in Harrismith, where we got some biltong for the road, and this exceptional sandwich:
Well worth it, trust me. They also have some animals and a small playground outside as well.
Some more scenery at a place called Van Reenen's Pass:
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