The Clean Shop takes Dr Susanna to the airport in Johannesburg. SJ Dodgson. MJoTA 2013. v7n2 p0711.
Going to the airport used to be fun. When I left Australia to fly to the United States to work as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, my brothers, my parents, my colleagues all showed up to say goodbye. That is what we did, because it was fun and it was easy, and we got to watch the planes take off and land.
Now going to the airport usually means getting up in the middle of the night to catch buses and trains and stand in line for hours and then fall asleep from exhaustion on the plane, if the persons in the adjoining seats sit quietly and do not want to talk about the horrors of plane travel.
However, my flights to and from South Africa were delightful. I spent the night before in my son's apartment across the Hudson River from Manhattan, and then he drove me to the airport. So that was easy. I was collected in South Africa by gospel singer Madeleine Mbiya and some other cheerful sons of Congo. Madeleine made sure my feet did not touch the ground the 2 weeks I was in Johannesburg. She was with me when we visited the Congolese 20, and she made sure that Trevor Mulaudzi was well taken care of when he came to visit me a few days before I left.
Trevor decided I needed a proper send-off that included being collected with Madeleine, and with Lizette, who has undergraduate and graduate degrees in international politics and law. He came with his long-time associate, menstrual health teacher Linah. So those are the 3 young ladies you see in the photos.
My farewell included a stop at the SABCfm radio studios, for an interview about the plight of the Congolese 20. Then we zoomed into the airport, and I flew away. What a send-off! What a team.
