Hi everyone! I know that you are excited for me to come home, but we have had a slight change of plans. 😦  We said goodbye to Phumla -not without millions of tears- and we left to take our flight from Durban to Johannesburg. Everything went smoothly except that we had a little trouble with Daddy’s microscope, but that finally worked out. We flew to Johannesburg with approx. 5 hours to spare. We got everything worked out and hung around until when our plane was supposed to leave (11:30 PM). We waited in the terminal until it was time to board. KLM called everyone to come and board, but nothing happened. We waited in the line for approx. 20 minutes. Finally a KLM person came on the speaker and said: “Please take a seat. We are having difficulties with a security issue. Please wait for a half an hour.” We waited for approx. 45 minutes until another KLM woman came on the speaker. She admitted that they were having difficulties with the cargo door. She said it would take about 45-1 hour for the mechanics to fix the problem. “We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.” She said. “Our mechanics are working on the problem.” We waited for forever. Finally, the KLM woman came on again. She told us KLMhad called the company that made the plane. At 3 AM she announced that the flight was cancelled, we would have to go to a hotel, and that we had to get all our bags. A groan escaped from everyone’s throat (everyone exept from the sleeping children). We didn’t go to bed until approx. 4:30 AM. The thing is, our flight to Amsterdam isn’t until 9:30 tonight so I will get home a day late. Tell Ms. Susan Anna and Annie that I won’t go to to the intensive on Wednesday, but on Thursday.

See you soon,

Rachel

The dots are where we traveled, the butterflies are places we stopped.

Hi y’all!

I haven’t written in a while, so I hope this post makes up for it! We went on a 4×4 Botswana/Namibia/Zimbabwe tour for ten days. As you see in the map above, we saw the Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, and Chobe! The map isn’t exactly right (we didn’t travel through the Kalahari Desert), but it’s close enough! We spent 10 days with Jaque from 4×4 Adventure tours. Our first day was meant to be spent on Kubu Island, but it was flooded out! Old-timers said that this has never happened before! We could not go to Kubu Island because people who tried to go got stuck! (Including the last tour group!) We slept in the middle of nowhere without toilets.

This was our camp near Kubu Island

This was what the salt pans looked like. It was supposed to be desert! As far as we went in, the water was always about up to our ankles!

It was strange to have our desert trip postponed because the desert was flooded out!

The second day we moved on to Drifter’s Camp, Near Maun. We went on a sunset cruise because we could not see Kubu Island. The sunsets were beautiful!

This was just one of the beautiful sunsets we saw on this trip!We slept in tents all the 10 days we were on the tour.On day three we went to Sepopa Swamp Stop. Right before we went on The Okavango Delta Scenic Flight. I was terrified. My dad thought he saw a rhino so the pilot turned the plane. But he didn't just turn it, he banked it (he tuned sideways). What was so annoying was it was elephant, not rhino! But it was still very cool! Then we went on a cruise. It was very nice!We stayed at Swamp Stop for 2 days.On day five we went to Ngepi Camp in Namibia. We went on Mokoro Rides and went on a village walk. I loved Ngepi! There were elephants and hippos across the river. It was very nice!We stayed there for three days. The toilets were very nice there! The Throne sign

The door for The Throne

The Throne

The view from 'The Throne'

The bath- Rebekah and Ruthie bathed there!

The view from the bath.

The Royal Flush Sign

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The Royal Flush Door

The Royal Flush

The view from The Royal Flush

The Sign for the shower

The Adventure Outdoor Shower

The bathroom by the Reception

The bathroom by the Reception

The Toilet of Eden sign

The Toilet of Eden

The sink at The Toilet of Eden

Then we went Toro Safari Lodge. We went to Victoria Falls and then went on a boat cruise on the Chobe River. We saw lots of animals.

I can’t wait to see all of you in 5 days!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I haven’t written anything in a while! The last thing I wrote was that we were going to see the 2nd highest waterfall in the world. Well we didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, we gave it a hard try! After 8 hours of hiking in slippery mud and thunderstorms, I don’t think you can blame us for being tired! We were told the trail was definitely possible for a 4 year old. No way Jose! Here is the link to Mommy’s blog. She can explain better than I can and there are pictures! HERE! From my point of view it was just a waste of 8 hours of valuable time! Yes, it was beautiful, but we hiked, and hiked, and hiked! When we got home  we collapsed on the couch, made a fire, had dinner, and had hot chocolate. Oh, were we tired!

This weekend we went to the Indian Ocean and went to a science museum Daddy taught at. The owner was Mr. Fish. He has 2 daughter of the ages of 10 and 12. The ten-year-old is named Tammy and the twelve-year-old is named Jessica. I enjoyed them a lot! We camped with an Afrikaans family the Lagranges at the beach. We had a great time in the great outdoors! Wild zebra came right up to the camp and gave us a true spectacle as they galloped around the camp!

We seem to be meeting nice girls my age just as we plan to go. Today I  met Jordyn Quarandillo. She is an American from Indiana. Her family has adopted a young Indian boy named Raja and they are letting a young black boy also stay with them. They have 4 biological children, so they have quite a houseful!

I hope to write again soon!

We are at Royal Natal Park.  I will post some pictures ase we see them. We will probably see the 2nd highest waterfall in the world!

Miss you,

Rachel

P.S. Thanks for all the comments!

We spent some of our Easter holiday in St. Lucia (which I have linked below), Shakaland, and Swaziland.

In St. Lucia there was beautiful beaches, snorkeling, and many other exiting things (including hippos and crocs!)

Huge croc. Our guide said they can get up to 5 meters long!

There were many more (including Moms with babies!)

As I was innocently swimming in St. Lucia’s Cape Vidal (free of crocs and hippos), I was attacked by a Bluebottle!

Yuck! Yowch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The process goes as follows:

1. Get stung by bluebottle
2. Feel very bad pain and see little blue spots all over arm
3. Even after blue spots have been wiped off, the spot starts bubbling up (picture)
4. The lymph nodes under the armpit of the hurt arm starts aching as body tries to prevent poison from entering the bloodstream
5. You have to wait until the pain goes away

Some of the remedies people suggested:

1. Vinegar
2. Meat tenderizer
3. Brandy
4. Anti-sting spray
5. Zulu plant (not sure of name)
6. Anti-histamine

In Wikipedia it says: ‘The Portuguese Man O’ War is infamous for “swarming” in groups of thousands and for a very painful, powerful sting.’

These are Bluebottles in the picture. Portuguese Man o’ Wars are very closely related (maybe even the same).

Bluebottles are related to Portuguese Man o' Wars

This is a Portuguese Man o' War. Can you tell the difference?

Phumla and her pet budgie, Joy

Phumla is my new friend. She lives in a small room on the side of our house. She owns Joy. We like playing with Joy and Phumla a lot. Phumla is a very good trampoline jumper and taught me how to do a handstand on the trampoline.

Miss you,

Rachel

This is my buddy (He’s only 2!)

Rebekah’s friend from Bonginkosi

Ruthie seems to have found a buddy, too!

I have been to Bonginkosi now and I fell in love with Thando as soon as I saw him. He wouldn’t stop hugging me and pulling me places. He was trying to help Mommy open the gate and was trying to carry boxes to the car that was taking stuff to the new school.

In the new building there are murals. They are beautiful! Here are pictures of some of them:

This is in one of the rooms.

Jonah in the whale

This tree is made out of all the handprints of the children in Bonginkosi.

This is the modern day David and Goliath. Cool eh?

This is in the bathroom.

These murals are very cool, eh? This building is made almost all out of American  missionary money. Thank you American people who have helped!

Rachel Grace Augustine

Thank you Grammy, Bapa, Grandma, and Grandpa for the money for the camras and safaris! I have posted a page (animals we have seen on our safaris) that shows some of the animals we have seen, a picture (if we have one) and a description. I will add more animals every few days.

Luke, I will email the surprise to you today. (Or soon). Sorry about Duke. Villinova is a very good team.

Will see you in a few months,

Rachel

Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me!

Happy birthday to M-E!

Happy birthday to me!

Heard that plenty of times? Go to my dad’s blog-(www.fiveaugustines.wordpress.com)- and I will ask him to put up the video of  the song my friends from school sang to me.

People who came:

• Alex
• Tyler
• Emily
• Megan
• Ellen
• Inga
• Rebecca

Stuff we did:

1. Swam in the pool with the lights on (at night{there is a pic on the section called pictures})
2. Had ice cream sundaes with lots and lots of sweets on top
3. Watched  the Princess bride (YEAH!)
4. Talked until 1:40 ish

All and all a good party

Write soon,

Rachel Augustine

Hi all.

I write this post on a sad note.

Two VERY BIG prayer requests.

1. We need a place to live in approx. 4 weeks.
   
2. My 3rd cousin, Davanna, was in a very serious car accident. She is not paralyzed, but she can’t even say small words yet. (She can only grunt). Her specialists have been trying to get her to stand on a board she is strapped to, but her blood pressure is going to high. It could be FATAL if her blood pressure gets to high. Please try to open the link, and if you need to sign up for membership, DO IT! It is is a AMAZING story! Please pray hard for her.
   

LINK: Welcome to Davanna

Thanks for your prayers,

Rachel G. Augustine