On why I'm going to see an elephant

This next leg of my grand adventure requires some explanation, lest you think I've gone round the bend with this 'see the world' idea (I guess it might be too late to prevent you thinking that).

My younger son Tyler and his wife Lilly are in Mozambique for a year while Lilly works on her doctoral dissertation research. Let's assume for a minute that I will get good news regarding the bar exam-stay with me here, I know this is convoluted. Next, let's assume someone hires me. Most new employees don't get two or more weeks off during their first six months of employment (although one can hope, of course), so I'm assuming I will have no other window of time to visit Tyler and Lilly during their sojourn in Mozambique once I am home. Likewise, no money to do so. So here's the logic: I'm in the neighborhood, I don't know when or if I can go otherwise. So go now-splendid idea!

Alternatively, if I don't pass, or don't get hired, I'll be in another kind of pickle, won't I? And going to Mozambique to visit will be off the table in that case as well. Once again, this possibility works in favor of going.

There are a lot of assumptions involved. And you know what assumptions do. Still, to pass up the opportunity of this trip, all of its parts, seems more likely to induce regret than to grasp it might. I suppose my choice says something about myself, as choices are wont to do. It also says that I'm learning to recognize more all the time that we have only today, and what we make of it. Tomorrow is a beautiful hope, but I'm unwilling to put ALL of my eggs in tomorrow's basket.

This explains why I'm going to Mozambique.  I hope. If not, see paragraphs two through four again. But why an elephant?

Between studying for the bar and time to leave on this trip, I did not have time to get a visa for Mozambique. My first task was to obtain the Russian, Belarus and Uzbek visas, and then the China visa. By then it was too late to send my now very valuable passport off to DC for a Mozambique visa. Are you bored with this story yet?  I'm boring myself with the telling.

So I tried to walk in to the Berlin Mozambique embassy and get a visa, but I didn't have enough time in Berlin to accomplish it. Tyler and Lilly did some research and found that I could obtain one in Johannesburg, South Africa. Since almost all flights to Mozambique route through Joberg anyway, this is what is known as killing two birds with one stone. Sort of.

But I can't count on getting a visa the same day I arrive. So, what to do to kill time in South Africa? Here is where the elephant comes in. Finally. I am going on a very short safari. And of course I probably won't see an elephant. But one never knows.

All of this to say that I have a flight to South Africa this evening, which will not get there until the following day. I have a layover in Doha, Qatar. I confess that I knew nothing about Qatar, including the fact of its existence prior to this. It turns out they are hosting the 2022 World Cup. See how broadening travel can be?  It is a small, very rich country just to the east of Saudi Arabia, in the Persian Gulf.  It is an absolute monarchy and a very conservative Islamic society, but progressive moves have been seen in more recent years. Women obtained suffrage in 1999. In case you want to know more, here's the Wikipedia link: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar. I know quoting Wikipedia indicates something seriously lacking in my scholarly approach to learning about Qatar, but if all goes as planned, I will not be there long.