The Traveling Banana: Stolks

After a long trip home, with some fun times, of course, we are back home to wonderful Nampula, Mozambique! It is so good to be back home! We've all been missing everyone here a lot, so it is nice to see friends again :)

Anywho, here's some pictures from our last days in South Africa and our trip back home.

The Stolk's place. They are a VERY sweet family! And we've enjoyed getting to know them and spend time with them :) We had a lot of fun getting to stay there with them. Although we did miss Ouma and Oupa since they were down in the cape.

Welcome to our home. (I think) in Afrikaans. :)

Saturday we left the Stolks and headed to Nelspruit to spend some time with the Kerns. A missionary family up here who is down there to have a baby girl :)

Their kids are so cute :) This lil' guy is Christian... who is adorable!

A much nicer sign than "Slow Children" eh? ;)

Saturday night we spent the night with the Gardner's. Thank you SO much to them for letting us crash at their place at the last minute :) We had a wonderful and restful sleep there... and their kids are adorable!!! :D

The next day we went to Kruger... it was drizzling most of the day, so we didn't see too many animals.

Andrew drove.... :D haha... he did the steering and gas for a bit... and did very well at it!!! Damarise also drove, but I have no pictures of that.. sorry.

Getting out on a bridge that is safe to get out on;) We saw some hippos in the river. :D

We drove right behind this elephant while he crossed the road. His footprints were SO cool!

Impala... the majority in the park :)

After a night in Kruger we started on our way home. We went through the Mozambican half of Kruger :) hehe... we saw some impala really close to the South African border. And as we drove further along we saw... well we saw some brown sorta biggish animal up in the distance, but we couldn't tell what it was. It sorta, kinda looked almost like... a cow! In fact, as we drove up next to it, it was indeed a whole herd of cattle!! Haha! Well that sure is an exotic animal in Kruger ;) The further we drove the weirder stuff we saw in Kruger. We saw vendors selling stuff. (we wanted to yell out that, "This is a wild animal reserve! YOU COULD GET EATEN BY A LION!") And we saw villages, with people :) hehe... it was definitely a different Kruger than the South African side ;)

During our three days of driving we didn't do much. We talked, laughed, did school, read, watched movies, listened to music... And Andrew... well he amused us all ;)

Some of the beauty of Mozambique!

And goofy Andrew again :D

Ian! Healthy as ever!!! Thank you God!!!

Sarah :) My beautiful lil' sister!

And the middle row buddies :)

We arrived in Nampula Wednesday night. (sorry for the late update... we were without internet for a bit) And the Woodrows had us over for dinner. Thank you SO much!! Ms. Charity also came by with some delicious pumpkin bread! Mmm. Thanks!!!

And now, we are back to normal life... well... kinda.. we are unpacking from the trip, but packing up to leave for good...while finishing school. hehe, it's busy ;) But everything is good and it is definitely great to be back home!

So, it seems that I'm heading back in time. Whoops, I hope no one minds. I'm gunna update on the last few weeks a lil' backwards. Soo here's our first week or so in South Africa. :)

We pulled into Johannesburg Sunday night. Mr. DJ and Ms. Tricia Morrison drove us in :) It was a fun trip... but I'll write more about the trip in another post ;) ... Anywho, we were greeted by Mom, Dad, Ian and Uncle Don!! :D It was SO great to see Mom and Dad again. WONDERFUL to see Ian alive and well! And really cool to see Uncle Don in Africa :D (Uncle Don is Dad's older brother). Anyways, the Jouberts, Uncle John and Aunt Elaine, opened up their house for us to stay in. They had a meal ready for us and we sat around and fellowshipped together :)

Then Dad and Uncle Don left the table and came back with....

Damarise's camera!!! Oh she was thrilled *to say the least!* She was ecstatic with joy! :D It was really neat to hear how her camera made it all the way to Africa. Long story short, Dad and Mom (and some other Aunts and Uncles) had bought Damarise the camera for Christmas, graduation and her birthday, but we couldn't get it out here. When Uncle Don found out he would come out he said he would try to bring it out here, but this was Sunday night and he was leaving Monday (or something like that... not sure of the days, but he only had one day til he left) And her camera was in Arkansas, and our uncle lives in Missouri. Sooo, Mr. Ellenbarger drove her camera all the way up to Uncle Don!!! A 5 hour drive! WOAH! Just so that Damarise could get her camera! :D Aww... she is SO thankful!

Then Uncle Don gave me... a video camera! :D :D It's sooo cool! Some of the family on Dad's side bought it for me for graduation :D wow!! Thank you everyone!!!

The next morning... February 2nd, a Monday, was Uncle Don's birthday! Happy Birthday!... He cooked himself some eggs for breakfast :P

Hehehe... Dad was supposed to pretend to show Uncle Don how to cook in this picture... until Uncle Don bent down a lil.... ewww.. hahaha

Me and my lil' bro, Andrew :D

The sweetest parents ever!

IAN! Alive, well, healthy! A living testimony of the greatness of GOD!

Andd... goofy lil' Andrew!

Ohh the Jouberts had a real piano in their house! I haven't played a real piano since... before we left the States 3 years ago, so getting to play classical music on a real piano was... wonderful!! I loved the sound and flow of it :)

Andrew on the other hand loooved the Joubert's grass :) In Nampula, people only have crabgrass... so Andrew was loving the real grass... and spent a lot of time rolling in it :P

Then Dad and Andrew and I think Sarah and Ian helped clean the car inside and out :)

Ooo we also went swimming in the Joubert's pool. It was a tad bit on the cold side, but still it felt refreshing!

There I am with my new video camera! I love it!

Oh yes, I was filming Andrew's movie. Last year he told us that he needed to make a movie of himself to give to us when we go to college that way we won't forget him :) Aww... So, here I am filming Andrew doing random things and talking about himself so that we won't forget him ;)

Going down the slide in the pool :D Yeeehaw!

A cold... and cute Andrew :D

"Happy birthday tooooo YOU!"

That night the Russell's had us over to eat dinner with them. They are a really sweet couple! And were really helpful to Mom and Dad while they were down in South Africa. The Morrisons were also there, so it was nice to see them again :D

Some of the Russell's neat candles :)

Andrew, Sarah and Ian all fell asleep while we were over there. :)

The next morning Aunt Elaine took Uncle Don, Damarise and I to a class that she teaches at school. She wanted us to talk to the kids about the USA. :) It was fun! Haha... she also made Damarise and I sing a song in Portuguese... umm.. haha... but it was fun :)

Some of the CUTE kids that were there!

Dad and Uncle Don fixing our light on the car... it blew out.. or something like that. :P

Sarah :)

Ohhh yes! Aunt Elaine had some wigs from when her mom and sisters used to wear them. Haha... so we tried them on! :D We had a blast!

Ooo la la!

Haha... I don't about Andrew's hair...

hehe... So how would I look with grey hair?

Then we went over to the Joubert's daughter's house. Aunt Sharon's house. Her and her husband have two kids and a huge house :D We had a lovely time over at their place! Thank you!!

Oh she also had some cuute signs hanging up around her house :)

Wednesday! We went out to Pilanesburg for Uncle Don's birthday! :D

And we saw a cheetah! ;)

Ian! Again, well and healthy! And a bright smile to match it! Again, only the awesome healing power of God could have healed him!!

Asking Ian and Andrew what their favourite part about Pilanesburg has been so far.

Our tires :) ... or as the South Africans spell it tyres...

Hehe... I love Sarah's face in this one!

Can you see the resemblance?

Uh Oh!! ...

Aw! Some beautiful zebras!! So are the white with black stripes or black with white stripes? ;)

Giraffes! Those are my favourite animal! :D They are just so... relaxed :)

Uncle Don getting some pictures.

Hiking down (in an enclosed area) to have a picnic.

Sarah loves animals! :D

Lunch! Thank you Aunt Elaine for the delicious meal your prepared for us! :D

So the whole time we were in Pilanesburg we did not see one elephant! Which was totally unusual compared to last time we were there. But the Park Ranger said that all the elephants had fled north and there were no roads up there so we couldn't see them :( But... we did see a baby elephant carcass. Ew.

What does Sarah see??

Walking down one of the path ways.

Dad and Uncle Don trying to figure out where they should go.

Not sure what he's pointing to... but it's something that he wanted to see... or had seen :P

"Do you see what I see?"

Uncle Don out with the warthogs! AH!!! That was scary! We were trying to get out of one of the places we could go into but right outside of the gate there were warthogs surrounding our car. So Uncle Don went out, snapped a few pictures of them, and then stomped his foot and away they all ran!