Days 74 through 84

(Dan’s comments are italicized)

Firstly, thank you to everyone who contacted us, worried that we’ve not posted recently; it makes us feel loved.

We left Lusaka, flew back to Johannesburg, and took a bit of a time-out from travel as we needed time to think! We’ve done some really deep soul-searching and have a plan moving forward.

Basically, since Rachael died, we’ve both been adrift and trying to find purpose while dealing with guilt, self-hatred, self-recrimination, and a slew of other negative emotions. We hide it well, but the burden is heavy. Here, in Africa, we feel we’re close to finding our purpose and we both feel ‘lighter’ because of it. We’ve spoken to so many people in different countries, have accidentally networked, and feel we can make an impact on literacy here.

So, we’re hoping to become snowbirds in Tucson and base ourselves in Johannesburg to help improve literacy in southern/eastern Africa. It helps that we have friends in J’berg (who live in a safe part of town) who introduced us to S. African life, and let us play house in their home when they left for Ireland. Thank you, Pete and Marie.

That’s the plan. But there’s much to do before anything happens. Our attitude is that if things don’t work out, we just backtrack.

After making the decision, it’s back to traveling and we returned to Kruger two days ago. We’ll upload a proper post tomorrow.

We are working really hard to find purpose and direction again; southern Africa has a pulse that we both can feel, and we wish to be a part of it. I’ll also have an excuse to buy some more tools!!