ARRIVED

We have arrived in Johannesburg!!  And it appears there is internet connectivity in our apartment: while bytes seem to travel single file in a patient and very unhurried queue, this still exceeds expectations and should make blogging easier and any lack of notes to my mother inexcusable (Hi Mom!).  In fact, everything about this place exceeds expectations:  It's a very nice, small one-bedroom apartment above a private house in Sandton - one of the nicer neighborhoods and only 4.4km (2.7mi) away from the office.  Some quick pictures are below, but the walls are a pale pink stucco, the rooms are cozy, and in case of food poisoning (Jess reminds me) we have TWO full bathrooms.

The rest of the trip here was uneventful.  We sat on the tarmac for an extra 50min, but found ourselves in a fascinating conversation with Paul, who had spent the past 30 years building infectious disease laboratories around the world for the CDC.  He was full of stories about regulators in Canada ("they actually wanted a scientist on every shift who, if the building caught fire, would run back in to the burning building to be sure that the containment systems worked") and problems in Africa ("they want the best of the best, can't pay for it, and refuse to maintain anything thus endangering everybody" -- actually this reminded me so much of my old career I almost teared up with nostalgia).  Just after takeoff, however, we did notice that the engineer who had worked with everything from anthrax to ebola seemed to have quite the cough.  "Don't worry, it's just a dry cough.  Man, you should have seen me last week.  I was as sick as they get."  Despite the stories, we were relieved when he abandoned us for a whole row of empty seats in the back.


Landing, customs, train, car, apartment -- all the next steps went smoothly and after 30+ hours of travel the mid-day shower and nap was much appreciated.

 

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Preview of next time:  "Well, we're running the red light on the wrong side of the road, but at least our windshield is getting clean," he said soothingly while his stomach tried to jump out the window...  (dun dun DUN!)