We went to the Military Museum of South Africa which I would not recommend. The buildings were super creepy and dark. The only good part would be when we found two tanks and an airplane that you could go in. The boys played in the tanks for about 30 minutes then we had to go. I would give this place a two star review because they organized the museum not by war or year but by type of machinery. There were also a lot of mannequins that were insanely creepy. I would not recommend it unless you are into reading about the mechanics of destructive machines.
Today was the first morning I woke up in Africa. I mainly slept well but I woke up quite a few times, and it was freezing. We ate a breakfast of vegetables and mushrooms, which was very delicious, made by Angelique, the housekeeper, and cook of the hostel. We left for church. Before church, we went to a coffeehouse called the Home of the Bean. I had the best hot chocolate ever in my whole life. After the coffee shop, we went to the church. Cornerstone church, and me and Bardez went down to Sunday school. I did not love Sunday school because there was always really loud music blasting, which made it hard to hear anyone talking. I and Bardez were asked to help cut paper for an activity everybody would do later. After cutting the paper, we did some singing and dancing. The singing was in a different language than English. After the singing, one of the adults talked. While we were talking, I noticed a little girl watching Bardez and me. When it was time for the craft, a girl named Gracie came over to me, grabbed my hand, and led me to one of the tables to do the ship with Bardez and me.
We had brunch at the Four Seasons Hotel. The food was good, but we practically fell asleep at the table. After lunch, we went back to the Hostel and went to bed.
Today is August 4 and today we’re leaving for Africa! We did not have to wake up early but we woke up around 7:00. Mom told us to get a swimsuit on and race over to the pool. We did that and I was a little shy of swimming because I did not want to get wet right before going on a plane, but I ended up having an amazing swim. I did not have any breakfast so I waited till lunch. The time at the pool went a little too quickly, and I had to go home and shower and get the swimsuits quickly in the dryer so we wouldn’t have a wet swimsuit on the plane ride.
Off to the Airport
Getting out the door went too fast and most of us forgot at least one thing. It took a little while to get through the ticketing line because there were a lot of people traveling on August 4th to many different places. After we got checked in we went through security and we went to the Delta Sky Club and I had vegetables and chicken for dinner with hot chocolate. I got to watch some AFV before the start of our flight. When mom told me it was time to go get on the plane I got up and we waited in line and they boarded us. Us kids were all in one row.
A Flight to Nowhere
Now we were all watching shows or listening to music and they had fully boarded the plane. We waited about 10 minutes and 20 minutes then the pilot said that in New York there was a bit of a problem. New York and Paris were our layovers. Paris was a 10 hour layover and I think New York was only one or two hours. In New York they said that there was a storm so they were not letting anyone fly in or out of New York. They said that this was going to go on for about two hours so naturally, instead of having to sit in a stuffy plane, they let us go back into the terminal and do as we pleased. We went inside and waited for one hour, two hours, three hours, four hours, and five hours. I ate a lot of chicken and vegetables and drank a lot of water. While we were waiting mom and dad were talking about flights and finally they canceled our flights to Paris and worked on rebooking us on new flights to Johannesburg. We went to get our bags but we had to wait a little while in the bag terminal for them.
Take 2: Swim, Airport, Fly!
The next day we also went to the pool and we had pizza for breakfast lunch or brunch. It was Domino’s cheese, so good. Again the pool time ended much too quickly and we went home to dry swimsuits and I showered and then we went to the airport again. Everything was running perfectly and we got on a flight to Atlanta, Georgia. When we boarded the plane I was like wow this is a really big plane for a flight to Georgia, it’s only 1 hour! It was still a pretty big plane for such a short flight. The flight did not pass quickly sadly but we eventually got to Atlanta and when we did we went to the Sky Club. We did not have much time. At the Club they had a really good food: beef and rice with butter and vegetables and gluten-free brownies in packages! I got some steak and rice and then I put some rice in a coffee cup with a lid and a couple of packets of butter and ate it on the plane. We each had a brownie and then may have taken a few for the ride.
A Surprise Upgrade
At the gate we found out three of us had received a complimentary upgrade to the business class – full lay down to seats! Dinner was mediocre but we were on a plane and the food wasn’t going to be a home-cooked meal. I did not sleep well. I woke up many times to drink water and put my eye mask on. I did not eat the breakfast that they served because it did not look appetizing. When we got off the plane it was around 5:00pm in Johannesburg, South Africa. The flight was 15 and a half hours long! We went through customs, got our bags, and got a taxi.
