Goodbye Swaziland, Hello World! (Sodwana Bay)

Hey hey!
Just wanted to do a quick update for everyone!
Well #LongWayHome has officially begun! The last week or so has just been extremely long be exhausting. Saying goodbyes to anyone and everyone, packing my hut and preparing to leave my life. I spent a few days in town, finishing paperwork and such before my ring out on Wednesday. It was really nice, everyone said such nice things about me, I was really touched! ;)
Yesterday, I said goodbye to Ruby, Lewis, and Kerry in Mankayane and headed south. After a sketchy trip through the Sicunusa boarder of Swaziland, I got to Piet Retief, South Africa by 930am. I hope straight on another khumbi to Pongola and left relatively quickly (in my book anyway). An hour and a half and a few road blocks later we arrived in Pongola, jumped on a khumbi to Jozini. Again, pretty quickly we left and just a half hour later i was up in the Siteki of KZN, looking over the pongola national park and the low veld desert. Unfortunately, this khumbi did not leave so soon. After assuring Anna Mae I would indeed make it to Sodwana Bay that day, when I rolled into Jozini just before 2pm, the khumbi to the next town, Mbazwana, had virtually no one in it. Finally around 4pm we left, and took every back road possible to get there. But finally, just before 5pm, my khumbi arrived at the Mankayane of KZN, meaning no KFC and barely a grocery store, to find AM waiting for me, saving a spot on yet another khumbi toward Sodwana Bay.
As the sun was setting, we set off for the first of many towns/backpackers we had no clue about. After a little mishap and false alarm, and only thanks to a few friendly South Africans, we made it to the park gate around 6 where we were told "this is as far as your money gets you." um thanks. The backpackers was only a km down the road but it was dirt and confusing and dark so we spent the airtime to call for a ride. We finally got checked in well after 6, just in time for a meeting with our dive instructor at 7, of which we knew nothing about. Good thing we got there on time.
We're currently at Coral Divers in Sodwana Bay and are extremely thrilled with it all. They offer every course of diving class you could think of, the cheapest we've found - maybe in the world - with friendly knowledgeable staff, a bar and a full menu as well as self catering kitchen. Not bad.
Today was day 1 of our diving course. We spent a few hours in the morning watching dvds and taking quizzes on 3/5ths of our modules. We then spent over 2 hours in a pool learning the basics of scuba diving. Tomorrow is the last 2/5ths of our classroom lessons and another few hours in the pool. Sunday and Monday on the other hand will be two ocean "open water" dives each day before we will be certified! So exciting! I honestly never really thought I would do this, learning to scuba dive, but it's been really fun so far, way different than anything i've ever done before. I'm thrilled I decided to! And i'm thrilled this trip we've spent two years planning has finally started! Watch out Africa, the Swazi G8 RPCVs are coming!