Last week I finally had the pleasure of meeting a fellow African blogger and long time online friend (we first started corresponding online in 2005), Jo who's blog 'Memorable Meanders' covers her current life in South Africa, aswell as her previous life as an expat in various African countries. (Here is a photo above of Jo & I together, taken just last week !)Jo & I 'clicked' immediately when we first met online, as we had so much in common - at the time Jo was living the expatriate lifestyle in remote West Africa, she was also feeding (& rescuing !) stray West African animals (Jo even had a village duck feeding programme. Yes, ducks !) so we had that in common, and she was also into a healthy diet/exercise lifestyle (I still remember her emailing me detailed instructions on how to do lunges with a pack of playing cards to make it extra hard on the thigh muscles !) Since we first made contact, we have had weekly - and often daily (sometimes multiple times a day !) - email contact, 'phonecalls when we've both been in 'civilisation' & have swapped gifts and cards over the years.
Once Jo moved back to South Africa and I was visiting the country regularly, we tried to meet up but for some reason or other we never quite managed it. Until this time ! Last week Jo had to travel to Johannesburg on business for her husband (who is currently working in the Sudan, and Jo has some interesting posts on her blog on his life there) so we finally managed to meet up at a lifestyle garden/nursery centre where we spent the better part of the day in a delightful tea garden, drinking endless pots of tea & coffee (not to mention eating some delicious cheesecake !) & catching up in person for a change !
Jo is the first online friend I have ever met 'in the flesh' (& hopefully not the last !) & she is every bit as delightful, warm and friendly in person, as she is online - it was an absolute pleasure to meet her, and we got along so well !
As an added 'bonus', I also got to meet Jo's son, daughter-in-law and their 3 children - my daughter got along so well with them, and they all had great fun playing together. My Mum was also with me, so she got to meet everyone too but unfortunately my husband was still in Tanzania at the time - and as Jo's husband was in the Sudan, we thought that was fair and that next time we'd have to meet up with our husband's, too !
Thanks, Jo, for being such a great & supportive friend for all these years, and I can't wait for the day when we can all meet up again - hopefully on East Africa soil ?!
To learn more about Jo, you can read her blog 'Memorable Meanders' over here. It's well worth a visit, and I'm sure that you'll soon be back for more !
