Gosh, it’s fun hearing from residents in The Villages in Florida who’d like to get together during the three months we’ll be there. Also, we are hearing from family members and friends who live within a few hours’ drive of The Villages who also may come to visit, staying with us for a few days. This foray into a massive retirement community might be more fun than expected.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us now or in the near future if you live in or near The Villages and would like to get together. We are excited to meet new people and build a busy social life while we’re there. In the first few days after our arrival, we’ll submit our passport applications, but once that is done, we’ll look forward to socializing.

This morning, we’re returning to Doc Theo to get my prescription to be filled for one year. The pharmacist, Eugene, the pharmacy owner, has agreed to fill them for such an extended period because once we leave Florida, we will mostly be in remote areas/countries where getting them may be difficult.

Sure, we’ll be back in the US in September for three weeks, but we don’t want to have to pay exorbitant prices for a doctor to prescribe them who most likely wouldn’t do so for extended periods anyway. None of my prescriptions are scheduled narcotics. In the US, getting refills isn’t that easy, and the prices would be four times more than here in South Africa. The handwriting is on the wall.

Besides, Doc Theo is my doctor and the only doctor I’d want to contact if something that wasn’t life-threatening came up.  He’s stated emphatically that I contact him on his private WhatsApp number if I need him. How many doctors do this? It gives me great peace of mind, feeling as if he’s traveling along with us. I will miss him.

Some countries won’t accept prescriptions from foreign doctors. Ecuador, where we’ll spend quite a bit of time beginning in late September or early October, doesn’t require prescriptions for non-narcotic medications, but we’ve found these pharmacies often don’t carry the meds I take.

Of course, I will bring my meds and a copy of the prescriptions in my carry-on bag. After losing our luggage so many times in the past few years, there’s no way we’ll take a chance putting anything so important in checked baggage.

After Doc Theo, we’ll head to the pharmacy to get everything filled. They may not have everything on hand but can order and receive them in a few days. We are returning to Komatipoort on April 25 for our teeth cleaning appointments and can pick them up at that time if necessary.

After that, a quick stop at the Spar Market for a few odds and ends we need to get us through the next two weeks until we depart on April 29, such as eggs and salad ingredients. We still have plenty of meat in the freezer and don’t need to purchase meat or chicken.

Our farewell party is a week from today, and with a great response to our invitations, we’re looking forward to a fun event to wrap up our time with many friends who are still here in Marloth Park. Many have left to return to their home base and embark on other worldwide travels, some of whom will return while we’re away for those long 14 months.

Tonight, we’re off to Jabula for dinner as we begin to wind down our social life in Marloth Park. It’s been such fun, and we thank our wonderful friends for making every day so special.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, April 14, 2022:

Due to a weak signal on the ship, there wasn’t a post one year ago on this date.

The work to install the new inverter system has been a five-day process, with most of the work conducted over the past three days. Fortunately, we were out of the worker’s way on Monday when we went to Kruger National Park and again yesterday when we drove to Nelspruit to drop off our documents at the immigration office.

The house has been an upside-down mess, but with Zef here this morning, cleaning around the chaos to somewhat return to normal. Slowly, everything will be back in order. Danie spent time with us explaining the nuances of the new system, which will prevent us from noticing load shedding except for a few things:

• If we are running the aircon, we won’t be able to use power grabbers like the oven, the teapot, the toaster, the hair dryer, and the microwave. But, the only time we run the other appliances is during the day, when we don’t run the aircon, other than on a few occasions when we go in the bedroom to cool off for a few minutes when it’s above 42C, 104F. But, if we were in the bedroom to cool off, we wouldn’t use other appliances.
• The two refrigerators, chest freezer,  lights, WiFi, and recharging of our equipment will always be available to us, regardless of load shedding. Mainly, for us, load shedding caused concern over food spoilage. Now we can grocery shop for two weeks and never worry we’ll lose food.
• When there is an area-wide power outage, we will lose power after a day or two if we don’t use the aircon, which drains the most energy from the system. This only happens once or twice a year. In four months, we’ll leave for over a year and return to this same house in 2024.
• We will still have water. We’ll have plenty of water using the pump for our JoJo tank, which is located outside. This makes a huge difference when the reservoir runs dry due to load shedding.

  

Now, the system is running smoothly, minus a few necessary tweaks over the next few weeks, and we will no longer experience any nuances whatsoever. We are content with this and appreciate the time and expense on Louise and Danie’s part. It’s a costly task. An, it’s set up for the eventual addition of solar panels, another considerable cost.

Last night, when we had no WiFi all evening, we wondered if it resulted from the work being done. Later, we discovered the outage was a fiber problem with the grid, and the entire area was out of WiFi all evening. But we didn’t want to bother Danie to come back once again.

With no possibility of streaming, we ended up watching a bad Steven Seagal movie on the hard drive, most of which I slept through.

I mentioned yesterday’s post about a challenge we encountered at the immigration office. After the law firm sent us a detailed list of the documents we’d need to bring, in a specific order, to our appointment, we discovered they wanted two more documents, our flight out of South Africa by June 8, the day our visas expire and copies of the last three bank statements. The reason we didn’t have these documents on hand is that the law firm never explained we’d need to bring them.

When we heard we’d need these documents, which I had on my phone, we headed downstairs to a packed Internet Cafe to make copies. The tiny space wasn’t airconditioned and was packed body to body with about five old computers for users who wanted something printed.

Of course, I didn’t feel comfortable printing our bank statements, but we had no choice. We brought all the documents back upstairs to the immigration office and only had a short wait to submit the final documents.  After we were done, I watched the experienced owner/manager of the tiny shop delete them, one by one, from the computer. I didn’t feel 100% sure they were gone, but we had no choice. It had to be done.

Last night, we received confirmation that our documents had been submitted. In the next several weeks, I’ll receive an email stating that we have to return to Nelspruit to their office to open the sealed envelopes to determine if our applications have been approved. If so, we will most likely be able to stay until June 8, 2023. If not, we’ll have to leave on March 9. We’ll play it by ear.

That’s it for today, folks. Enjoy our photos from Kruger National Park; we’ll be back tomorrow with more.

Be well.

Photo from one year ago today, February 1, 2022:

Today’s photos are mainly Lindsey’s from a visit to Kruger National Park with her mom Connie, shortly before they left here after the passing of her dad Jeff. We didn’t join them that day, feeling that time of their own in a place Jeff loved might be good for them.

Plus, they wanted to spend plenty of time shopping for gifts for friends and loved ones at the fantastic shop at the Mugg & Bean in Lower Sabie. Without us, they could take all the time they wanted and not be concerned we were waiting for them. Before Jeff passed away and on our first trip to Kruger together, Connie and Lindsey helped him pick out several golf-type shirts and tee shirts with various Kruger National Park logos.

Fortunately, they were able to return everything after Jeff passed away and use the credit to purchase the gifts as a pleasant reminder of how important this trip to Africa was for him. What a thoughtful gesture!

We’ve heard from Connie several times, and they are busy planning the two memorial events for Jeff, one in South Dakota and the other in Minnesota. As a professional chef, Connie will have her staff prepare the food for the two events while she keeps a watchful eye on the quality of the food and ingredients, leaving her free to mingle with the guests.

Although we won’t be there with her, Jeff will remain in our hearts and minds for the magical four days we were able to spend with him. We wish it could have been longer, but as it turned out, the timing worked for Connie to acquire most of the necessary documents required from South Africa and the USA. A few documents remain, which may require the assistance of an attorney.

On another note, today is another scorcher with slightly lower temperatures but higher humidity. The dew point is slightly under tropical, making it very uncomfortable and causing us to sweat. This morning, I made a favorite low-carb hamburger (mince) casserole to get us through three dinners with leftovers to freeze for another time.

Tom helped, doing all the dishes, pots, pans, and hand-grating cheese, which made it much easier for me. But, I was running around the kitchen, sweating up a storm, for almost two hours getting all the ingredients put together and into the baking pans to be cooked an hour before dinner.  I prepped Tom’s rice for later cooking, and all I have left to do is make the salad, which I will do once I upload today’s post.

I awoke this morning without a headache, making this lofty cooking task much easier. Also, today, I don’t feel the pain in my face. I’ve been trying to figure out why I had the headache yesterday but haven’t had it for the last seven days. Both nights I’d slept well, and there wasn’t anything I ate or drank that varied from the previous pain-free days and nights.

This morning, when I logged on to our site, there was a comment from one of our readers…they will be in Marloth Park next week for about a week. We hope to meet them while they are here if the timing works for all of us. It’s always such fun to meet people who’ve come here from reading our site.

So far this morning, we haven’t seen many animals in our garden, although yesterday was a busy day. It was cooler and less humid yesterday. The animals stay undercover in their favorite shady spots when the weather is uncomfortable. Norman has stopped by a few times, along with Gordy, Lollie, and a few kudus.

Birds have been plentiful, drinking and swimming in the birdbath, which keeps many of the animals well hydrated with its two levels. Even the mongooses drink from it. Tom refills it with fresh water, especially easy now that the water has been restored to Marloth Park after six days. We keep thanking Danie and Louise for providing us with the JoJo tank allowing us to have water, except during load shedding.

That’s it for today, folks. May you have a comfortable and yet purposeful day!

Photo from one year ago today, October 11, 2021: