It’s our one-month travelversary!  Here are 15 random things that we’ve learned thus far after a month on the ground in Africa:

1. We probably brought too much stuff.  And, yet, I neglected to bring a single pair of shorts or a t-shirt.

2. How to drive on the left-hand side of the road.  (Otherwise known as the wrong side of the road.)

3. How to tell the difference between a white rhinoceros and a black rhinoceros.  It’s all in the shape of the mouth.

4. How to purchase and top up Vodacom credits for our phones.  In South Africa, there’s even an app that lets you manage it all via credit card.

5. How to hail a minibus taxi heading to the center of Johannesburg.  It involves using the “we’re number one” sign.

6. What to do when an elephant is obstructing your path.  (More details coming soon!)

7. Swazi merchants will happily accept South African rand bills, but are reticent to take the coins.  (Pro tip: To use your South African coins in Swaziland, find a merchant who is heading to South Africa that weekend.)

8. Woolworths Food > SPAR > Pick n Pay.  And all are better options than KFC.

9. Mozambican adhesive bandages are basically worthless.  But, if a friendly Mozambican pulls them out of her purse and offers them to you while you’re inspecting your blisters on a dusty Maputo street, you nevertheless profusely thank her.

10. You can’t turn up in Swaziland and expect to get tickets to that night’s Joss Stone concert.  But if that concert is happening at the place where you are staying, you can relax in bed while listening to it, tickets be damned.

11. There are widely varying degrees of jellyfish stings.  Some might scar.

12. You can fit way more cars on a ferry than you ever imagined.

13. The South African Spur Steak Ranches chain assigns seemingly arbitrary (and somewhat hilarious) American names to their individual locations.  See, e.g., the Detroit Spur Steak Ranch at the Riverside Mall in Nelspruit.

14. Birding can be almost as fun as big game-spotting.

15. There’s a reason you don’t see Swazi beer for export.  But where’s the Mozambican beer?