Goodbye to Alfie

Today was a sad day because we said goodbye to Alfie. He went to Cape Town this evening for a 21st birthday party for Jason, Leigh's younger brother. It was kind of awkward timing that our trip ends two days after Alfie had to leave. It was really sad saying goodbye because we know it will be a while before we will see him again.

We spent most of today hanging out again. The past few days have been absolutely lovely - very relaxing, very peaceful. There should be some time in every vacation for stillness. It's fabulous.

Bradley turned 3 today. We gave him a toy fire truck. We'd looked for a soccer ball but couldn't find one we liked. Bradley was very excited about the fire truck, though. He even has shared it with Mia!

We drove Alfie to the airport after he left work early. We saw lots of grass fires along the way. Apparently they're really common in this part of SA in the winter. After seeing how dangerous Oklahoma grass fires are, it's a little disconcerting to me that nobody seems to be in a rush to put out the fires here. But there isn't wind and I think maybe the grass is really different. The fires don't spread quickly and just kind of put themselves out. We saw one that was within yards of a township but everybody seemed to be OK. We saw another that was sending dark pillars of smoke into the sky right behind a shopping mall. I was the only one concerned.

When we arrived at the Lanseria Airport we tried to pull up to the front so Alfie, Mia and I could get out at the front door. But the road was blocked. Police officers told us that we couldn't drive up close because Robert Mugabe - Robert Mugabe! - was at the airport. Lanseria is the really small airport in Joburg, so there was actually a chance we could have seen the notorious Zimbabwean president. We didn't. Not sure if that was good or bad.

We saw the German team bus on our way out. That brings our total to five team buses now - Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea and South Africa. Tomorrow is the US game!

We spent the night in with Carin, talking and watching soccer. I'm glad she got off work early enough for us to see her.