Africa - 14 years later

... and it goes via Istanbul with Turkish Airlines to Cape Town.

I have - hopefully - planned and prepared everything for my stopover with Grandma Maria in Mozambique:

• Ingest malaria tablets (thanks to Ms. Wehde! And no thanks to the thieves of the tablets in the envelope)
• Money exchanged
• Purchased presents for grandma
• Thank you - bought salami and chocolate for Orlando, who is taking me to grandma's
• Mosquito net and spray provided

At the airport we check in and are asked to get out of the queue again because we have not filled out the entry declaration for Cape Town. As I catch up, I have a lot of questions, but I hope; that entry will work. I find it very strange that Karo didn't have to give an explanation.

With a little delay and a kosher meal for mother, we arrive on October 17th. around 1 p.m. in Cape Town.

And it's super warm, almost 30°, the sun is shining. I'm still dressed too warmly.

I'm happy to see Karo and also that Barbara arrived two hours later, on time, fresh from the USA.

Our driver is a pretty grumpy guy, but he warms up pretty quickly, still has a slightly grumpy touch, but he's a soulful human being. We're thinking back and forth about how to get into our residential building, we don't have the necessary contact details, but at some point we can get in touch with the housekeeper Dee

welcomes us and shows us around the apartment. Barb admits to me later that she has absolute difficulty understanding South African English, but I think she'll get used to it.

We go shopping first, mother is resting, so Barb and I go to Spar alone and buy something for breakfast. We find a great taco bar nearby and settle down for the evening with wine, great fish tacos, vegan tacos, and an incredibly good quinoa salad. The service is warm and the Uber driver brings us later.

4:50 a.m., the alarm goes off, I have almost 40 minutes before my driver arrives. Full of enthusiasm, I get up to see... that I can't see anything. There is no electricity ( https://www.stern.de/amp/genuss/essen/suedafrikas-stromkritik--warum-viele-restaurants-close-muessen-33093136.html )

Welcome to South Africa, a beautiful first morning. So I resign myself to my fate, that I can get ready for my trip to Mozambique completely in the dark, when at some point the power suddenly turns on. I'm relieved and hurry up before we lose power again. According to the calendar, loadshedding isn't scheduled until 8 p.m., so it was a power outage that wasn't planned.

Speaking of planning, the two mothers are starting to plan their first German-American day in South Africa, here in Cape Town.

Before I go, I'll give you a few words of advice: don't let boys talk to you, always close the window, and definitely don't walk on the streets after dark. We are so locked in that it takes me several attempts to get out of our apartment with all of its security doors.

Mozambique... I'm coming.