After leaving Washington, DC, last Tuesday, I managed a 12-hour layover in London, raced into the city and saw my brother and sister-in-law, a high school friend, and a couple of friends from travels in Vietnam and Brazil, then hightailed it back out to Heathrow Airport to catch my second overnight flight to Johannesburg. From Johannesburg I had one final wisp of a flight--45 minutes in a tiny plane--to reach Matsapha International Airport, which has only one gate and ten flights per day. A coworker came to pick me up from the airport and drove me from the town of Manzini to the capital, Mbabane, (pronounced "Buh-baah-neh") and to our office for a bit (pretty standard but with a great view of rocky green hills surrounding the city. Then my manager whisked me off on a mini-driving tour of Mbabane surroundings and I saw my one potential apartment, by which (going in with some useful "lo" expectations of course) I was very happily surprised.
I have rarely been so decisive, but I think it also helped that I was eager to stop lugging my enormous, heavy suitcase around as soon as possible. But I really love the place: a very clean, bright one bedroom attached to the back of the large house of a local judge, on a property that includes geese, ducks, chickens (delicious organic eggs), a stream and a small swimming pool. Not bad. It is cold here (I mean it, I didn't fully believe my coworkers either, but Africa does get cold), and the heating has not wowed me, but I have 4 TV channels (often playing American movies) and delightful internet that's allowing me to post this, so I'm a happy girl. I'll leave the rest up to the pictures:
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