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Monday, February 3

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 This was our last day in Johannesburg before we left for our "holiday". We had a meeting with Marble Classic and they sent a driver for us. We met with the design team and looked over all the stone for the temple. It is an amazing process. They have beautiful slabs of granite and marble all over their warehouse.  Loved this quote on the shirts of the employees... From living earth to living room!   Here is the layout! The architect team walked around and looked for imperfections. I was a little bugged with some of the things they pointed out. It's a natural material, there will be imperfections! It was fascinating to me that they were able to keep the veins as they cut and placed the stones. These are the cutouts that created the pattern around the windows. I was able to take one! This is the corner stones that the architects want to be one solid piece of stone. Marble Classis had it 2 pieces with a seam you can't even see!  They say in transportation over 3 countri...
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Sunday, February 2

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 We decided we needed to get out of the hotel so we went to the Johannesburg Zoo. The Uber picked us up and I'm so glad we didn't rent a car. We didn't have the best service so we would have been lost and then they drive on the opposite side of the street so that would have been confusing! It was a fun day to just be out, walking and doing something! Cory and I kept commenting how nice it was to be walking!   For lunch we got chicken strips and fried cheese sticks. Everything in South Africa comes with sweet chili sauce! The zoo wasn't that busy. I sat by the tiger window and waited for him to swim up to me. After about 5 minutes he jumped in and swam over! Here is a view of Johannesburg on our drive back to the hotel! Pool is right outside the hotel restaurant so after dinner we went and sat by the pool and enjoyed the cool breeze!
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Friday, January 31 - Saturday February 1

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 We woke up and had all sorts of mixed feelings. When I say we woke up, neither of of us slept well.  The first thing we needed to do was go to the bank to get all of our money out. Going to the bank here is no easy task. Boni, our driver, came to pick us up and we tried to do the ATM. Cory was able to take our 300 dollars in cash, all 20's!! He tried again and it ate his card.  We had to wait in the line, which is outside the bank. They only let a few in at a time. We waited about 30 minutes and then it was finally our turn.  They don't have slips there, you have to write all your information on a piece of paper each time. Cory was first and then I went. Boni helped translate for us! We were able to get all of our money out of the bank there, $1800. We were worried they wouldn't let us take it all but they did! We tried not to keep any money in the Congo, but to have a work VISA we had to have bank accounts with money going in, so we did the least amount possible! A...
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Thursday, January 30

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 Thursday, January 30, Morne had me work from home. He didn't want us leaving the compound. I spent the morning doing my normal work and then at 2:45 in the afternoon, Sisca came knocking on my door telling me there was an emergency meeting called at 3:00 and Morne wanted all of us on the phone for it.  We met in Leonie's house and called in.  Morne started out by telling us that the M23 Rwandan rebels, who had already taken over Goma in the North, had started moving south and were planning on taking over Bukavu.  They announced their intentions to continue moving south taking over Mbuji-Mayi, Kananga, Lubumbashi, and then make their was to Kinshasa. The US Embassy had already been attacked and set fire to.  There was discussion about what we should do and the home office was involved too.  It was decided that all the women and children should leave. We didn't know for how long, but because the airport is also the military base, they wanted us to leave whil...
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Wednesday, January 29

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 Wednesday, January 29 was different. Morne didn't want anyone leaving the compound. We pulled the van in front of the gate for an added layer of security. Spent the morning cleaning the house, doing laundry & visiting with Leonie.  We went to a braai at Morne & Sisca's and snuck peeks of the cute puppies!
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