our first day

We arrived at JNB about 20 min ahead of schedule. We deplaned and were through customs in about 20 min - pretty fantastic. As we exited customs, you could feel the excitement in the air. Until then, the entire airport was quiet. After customs, there were hoards of people dressed in various national colors and jerseys, complete with hats and horns. In short, it was awesome, and reminded us why we just dealt with an 8 hr flight that became a 12 hr flight, and an 11.5 hr flight. I should also mention we were greeted by Coca Cola promotion people handing out free welcome to South Africa and the World Cup cans of Coke. Yum.

We then spent the next hour trying to obtain a cell phone. I had planned on renting from MTN, however their "rental system" was down, so the guy suggested I just buy the cheapest phone for about what I would have paid to rent. Except they were out, so go upstairs to Woolworths and buy one there. 30 min later I had a phone, but the lady wasn't able to activate it, so we went back down to the MTN store because, you know, they should be able to handle that. After a little waiting, the guy got it activated in about 7 seconds, and I now own a S.African cell phone. Sweet.
While I was in the MTN store, Jen was smiling and making gestures toward the main entry area. I heard noise, but didn't know what it was. Apparently some team was about to arrive. We thought about waiting, but bailed because we still needed our car. We later learned on the radio that both Portugal (and Cristiano Ronaldo) arrived right as we left, and the Netherlands sans Robben arrived right after. Awesome.

Getting the car was uneventful, but the real fun part of the trip started when we got *in* the car. Hello bizarro world. Thank god at least the pedals were in the same order as US cars, otherwise my head would have exploded. Among the highlights (and by highlights I mean lowlights): pulling out of the spot and hearing a dinging and a flashing red !, asking about it, and having the guy laugh at me telling me it helps if I take the parking brake off; seeing our first lion - or at least our first dead lion body on the side of the road without a head; stopping about 3 feet beyond the window at our first toll booth and having the lady laugh at me (my attempt to rationalize by telling her we just arrived only made her laugh more - see a pattern - s.africans laughing at, not with, Mike). It was a pretty comical day.
But everyone here has been super nice, even when laughing at me/us/mostly me, so I can't complain. Jen and I are having a hard time understanding most of the people we've encountered in the service industries though - they're speaking English, but the accent is so unlike anything we've ever heard we have to ask them to repeat and repeat. Again, they usually just laugh. And for you parents out there, we never once felt like we were unsafe. It's sobering seeing the various shanty towns on the side of highways, as well as the number of people walking along the side of major interstates and trying hitchhike. The econonmic disparity between the haves and have nots is readily apparent. Eye opening to say the least...

In any event, we made it to our first destination, Durban, relatively unscathed. Stinky, tired and hungry, but we didn't get lost at all and made fairly good time. It was about a 5.5 hour drive from JNB, but we both feel like it was worth it to see part of the country that very well may be unlike anywhere else we're visiting. And Jen saw, from afar, Lesotho. Yay?

MO

Photos: 1. random flat-top mountain between Joburg and Durban; 2. free six pack of homebrew to whoever can guess what American song our radio translated into Um Need; 3. Lesotho (waaaaay in the distance); 4. Which way to Sam???