3. Landing in South Africa
We routed our trip to South Africa from Springfield, MO through Chicago to Zurich, landing finally in Johannesburg (eGoli) at Oliver Tambo International Airport. This involved two very long flights, as South Africa is about halfway around the world.
I wanted our travel to be pleasant and comfortable, so we paid for seat upgrades though within the Economy section. Sadly, our initial seat assignments were lost when the airline decided to change the type of airplane that was to make the two flights. That would have been no problem, but they did not re-assign our seats and did not tell us what had happened. When we found out, we tried to get our seats properly assigned to no avail. We probably spent 30-40 hours on the phone working on this. It was never resolved, though we continued to try until the flights.
We had to make the best of the situation with little other choice. After a short stop in Chicago, we flew to Zurich where we had a layover of almost 12 hours. We did not leave the airport. In fact, we did not leave the small terminal at which we landed and left again. If we had only known that the rest of the airport is enormous with all the facilities you could hope for. (We found this out on our return to the USA when we spent a couple of days in Zurich and exited via the main airport terminal)
We arrived in South Africa physically exhausted to say the least. It is just a very long way away no matter how a person looks at it.
A dear friend, Mike Nomtoto, met us at the airport. I have not seen him for many years, but the girls have been engaged with this dear brother in the world of social media. Mike is truly an amazing man. He does not live in the Johannesburg area, but flew up to meet us. We did not have much time due to our schedule, but he did not mind at all. He just relished the idea of spending even a few minutes with us. He took me to the car rental facility which was a 15-minute drive from the airport and we were able to enjoy good fellowship for those brief moments. He made sure we were loaded and spent time bidding farewell to each one on the trip. He is especially fond of Abigail, whose progress he has followed since her challenging birth and development. He was thrilled to meet her in person and to hold her in his arms.
I cannot say enough great things about Mike Nomtoto. The Kingdom of God should be filled with people like this dear brother. Thank you, Mike, for giving us a tremendous beginning to this journey!
We abandoned the initial plan of visiting Rustenburg, where I grew up. Instead, we traveled the short distance to Brits, where we stayed overnight at the Copperwood Hotel. We needed the rest!
