AFRICAN ADVENTURE 2018 - Prelude - 29 Days to Africa Adventure

What a holiday we have planned to the land of our birth, and I am thinking of all the changes in our lives in the ten years since we were there.

Gerald has retired, Joshua now lives in Newtown, I no longer assist at Landmark Education. Verna's husband Dave, Gerald's brother Greg, and both my Dad and Mom have passed over. Our twenty year relationship with World Youth International ended badly and sadly. We have sold our beloved Yellow Dog Farm, and two years ago moved to The River House at Shoalhaven Heads. All three of our beloved animals Geordie, Whisper and The Truly Amazing Miraculous MoMo Dog have gone to The Rainbow Bridge, Moët just three months ago. Susan and Ian stopped speaking to us in August 2010, and one of Gerald's sisters maintains a silence. We have four grand nieces and nephews we have never met. We have witnessed friends pain and anguish in relationship breakdown, miscarriage, deaths and illness. We have had our own share of illness and heartache, some serious, and some not so serious. Several loved friends have died, including darling Graeme. We have welcomed countless new babies into the world, and have made many beautiful new friends. Most of our relationships have weathered the storms, and I have had the courage to complete others that were once precious but had become painful. We have learned new skills and forgotten others. We have narrowly missed bush fires, cyclones, and storms. A month ago our property was inundated by flood, from which we are still recovering, although the mopping up is complete, there is much more to do.

I write this in bed one cold afternoon. My body has responded to the stress of the last month with a trifecta of a urinary tract infection, a chest burning constant cough, running nose and aching body, and thirteen stitches in my mouth, an after effect of a bone graft to my jaw and surgery for an implant after a year's worth of expensive dental treatment went awry.

Four weeks ago, the combination of a King Moon, a King Tide, and torrential rain caused the river to rage and roar and it rose and rose and rose, to one step below our house. The SES were sandbagging and there was so much destruction.

But now the view from my window is of boats floating gently on the silver flat surface of the Shoalhaven River and a duo of pelicans perched peacefully on our jetty.

Gerald has brought me a glass of wine. My beloved and I still look into each other's eyes with wonder that we are largely healthy, optimistic for our future, grateful to each other and for our lives - and deeply in love.

The river, like life, is one of constant change. That is comforting to remember.

I wonder what changes Africa will bring.