Cape Town, South Africa is delightful.  I highly recommend you add it to your travel list.

 

Cape Town is night & day different than Kinshasa.  The roads are not only good, they are highways.  Stores are plentiful and prices are more than reasonable.  Compared to Kinshasa, prices are cheap, even with the VAT.

For example, dinner for 4 at a Vineyard restaurant: 3 shared appetizers, 1 shared dessert, 4 gourmet entrees and 2 bottles of wine = US$130.  In Kinshasa, an equivalent meal would have been more than US$250 or even US$300.  In South Africa, one may only pay in Rand; in DRC US$ are accepted currency. You can drink the tap water & not get sick!

 

Bill says he learned a lot at the meetings with the other U.S. Ambassadors & the USAID Directors of Sub-Saharan African countries.  I learned a lot from, and made new friends with, 4 other "ambassatrices":  Carolyn - Malawi, Connie - Swaziland, Grace (my old friend) - Angola, and Shirley (a 3x Ambassatrice) - Zimbabwe. I knew Grace from our Ambassadorial Seminar and I met Connie during Bill's Senate confirmation hearing; Maurice, Connie's husband, was on the same confirmation panel as Bill.  Sharing experiences with these wonderful women was truly the most valuable part of the trip.  I received confirmation, guidance & encouragement and hope I gave the same in return.

 

We also were able to see our old friends Terry & Jane.  They moved to Cape Town area about 20 years ago.  Bill & I had not seen Terry for at least 15 years.  We met their son Adam for the first time -- he's 17!  Terry, Jane, Adam & their 2 German Shepherds and 1 Ridgeback (lovely dogs all!) live just outside of Stellenbosch (about 45 minutes from Cape Town) in the midst of South African wine country.  Their farm (flowers) is beautiful.  Their home is cozy and their "guest cottage" is wonderful.  The views from their home & the cottage are fantastic.  I have pictures but found out my "free" blog space is almost used up.  I will figure out how to get more OR I will move all the photos to files in the Flickr account (link in favorite links).  I'll let you know in an upcoming post. 

 

The most wonderful thing about dear friends such as Terry, Jane & now Adam is that, in spite of not seeing each other in 15 years & corresponding only sporadically, we were able to pick up where we left off.  The feelings are warm, the caring genuine.  It was a wonderful visit.  We hope to take another break (or "others") in Cape Town or the Stellenbosch area.  Thank you Terry, Jane & Adam.  By the way, Adam is an accomplished musician -- he entertained us delightfully!  Thank you, Adam!

 

It is 6 hours flying time between Kinshasa & Cape Town. But because there are only 4 flights a week between Johannesburg & Kinshasa, the return trip requires an overnight in Johannesburg.  We chose to stay in the Airport Intercontinental Hotel for convenience and comfort.  The air fare is not cheap either, it was more than $800 for my ticket (Bill's travel was official).  So although it's not easy nor is it cheap to link between Kinshasa & Cape Town, I still recommend you consider it.  Cape Town is busily preparing to host the World Cup in 2010.  However, I have just learned that our tour in Kinshasa will conclude in late summer 2010 (probably August/September).  So if your plan is to tie the two venues, please contact us before purchasing tickets to confirm that we will still be in Kinshasa.  A visit to Kinshasa would still be intriguing but not as comfortable if you don't stay in the Ambassador's residence!