Sunset Manor

So let me say first off, that my expectations were exceeded by what sunset manor had to offer. I don't know so much if it's the quality of the hotel, the rooms, etc, but moreso the atmosphere that the hotel itself promotes. There is a great amount of community space including two pools and atleast four bbq patios around the property. We hung out by one tonight for several hours and had a pretty darn good time. But before that, we had to go and get the alcohol. As any reading this know, I don't drink, but I certainly couldn't pass up a chance to head into the downtown area to find the illicit drinking establishments selling beer when they really shouldn't be. There's a picture somewhere of me guarding the car, I'll see if I can dig that up.

We have a guy here named Sartorio, who basically is at our beckon call for anything we need. We want a ride to the grocery store, we call him, we want to go on a beer run when all the stores are closed, we call Satorio. He'll also be instrumental in arranging much of the side trips since he works for an agency that is contracted by the CDC to support our group.

We ate again tonight at News Cafe, which while sitting there, could have been located just as easily in a California Suburb. It's definitely very easy to forget at times that we're in South Africa. Tomorrow is the first day of work, but it doesn't start until around 11am. The partners are coming to the lodge to meet with John, our CDC contact (great guy btw), to discuss the projects and the scopes of work. They'll then be presenting an overview of each of the projects to the entire team, after which we'll head into the office for an afternoon of work. We're also expecting to get a little more freedom tomorrow with the rental of three cars.

Tomorrow I'll try and post some more pictures of the hotel during the day time and also of my room so you can get a feel for it. The latest developments are that the water in the room has been shut off for some reason...yes, just checked, still off, so we'll try and get that fixed tomorrow. Plan for the morning is Yoga at 8am, led by Guru Anil, now known as the "Little General" nicknamed by Mary in the car this morning after she made the comment, "I hope we're going to stop soon" (en route during a 4 hour car ride). He turns to her and says, "What do you need to stop for?" Good guy though. He'll lead us in Yoga at 8am, then I think Ethan and I are jumping in the pool, assuming greater than 50 degree temperatures, and then it'll be a nice breakfast and a mellow morning. On to the pics! (which are in reverse order since I forgot to upload them the right way.)

A view of the back of the hotel, or part of the hotel, there's probably four or five buildings, from one of the many patios. The balconies that you can see in the background are people's rooms (my room also has it's own private balcony with a nice view of the city in the distance.)

There is also a stray dog who we've named Manchito, which is translated into spanish as, "a bastardized version of a male spot". We also tend to call him burrito, churro, and any other spanish food words on the top of our head. And yes, he really is a stray dog that just hangs around the lodge without a name. I feed him. The guy in the picture is my pseudo suite mate and office partner Chris.

One of the two pools with a nighttime view of the city of Nelspruit in the distance.

A different patio area more up near the main lodge area. We had cake and tea here for us after we got back from the restaurant. It looks very dark in the picture but it's only about six o clock. Because we are so far south and it's winter, the sun sets before 6pm.

The big group of us as we arrived at the hotel with all of our luggage.