Durban South Africa

Aug 18

  To back track, Our trip on the plane was about 25.5 hours in the air and 4 planes.  We were told that the furthest mission from Salt Lake is 1.5 hours further off of Durban's coast to Madagascar.  We are number two! We had 2 red eyes in a row.  We went to Dallas, then London, Joburg. then Durban. (We left on a Thursday  arrived on Saturday at about 12:30.)

   The Thompson's (mission Pres. and wife) picked us up at the very stark airport in Durban.  The first place we went was the temple site where they were just moving dirt around since April, it looks like.  But great neighbeorhood and nice hill spot.  We won't see it completed but will get to talk about it  a lot and watch it be built.  They took us to lunch and to a Durban grocery store and bought us a few snacks since it was Sunday the next day.  I remember little  since I slept -not at all on the flights.  Just dozes!  Kent slept a lot more.

 They checked us in to a beautiful little B&B in a nice secure area with it's own resident monkey that lived in the trees behind us.  (alas no pic just memory pic)



   We crashed and burned and remember nothing except that the Sorrensen's (office sister and elder) would pick us up for church at 8:30 to go to a Branch they serve  in---a 15min drive to a township. It was a small branch with about 30 people in a very poor looking high school that we met in.    Sis Sorrensen brought and did play the keyboard. That was where we first heard the S.African people sing hymns.  It brought tears to our eyes  because it was so strong and with the Spirit .  It would put a congregation of 150 to shame in the states. We also bore  our first testimony on day 2 in S Africa.   There were a lot of Firsts.  My last calling in the states, was primary pianist and I wanted to visit primary and

see what it was like.  I didn't figure it out at first (not without asking-could not understand their English), that they do classes first and then sharing time.  I found myself in a small class with older (8 or 9 yr olds) with a young woman with a rapport with her students, but  struggling with English.  She finally gave up and just started up in Zulu and the kids started to pay attention.  One gets the sense that if there wasn't an English speaker there, they would just launch into Zulu all the time.  That's everywhere.  They teach English in school but it is their secondary language  and when they read scripture I still have a hard time understanding.  Comprehension is also hard for them as you can imagine.  They stick close to their manuals and they do well with lessons and still have good discussions.  They love to memorize everything, especially scripture.  
   We had lunch with the Sorensen's and had dinner with the couples in Durban of which there were about 5 couples.  (The Stevenson's boarding was where we ate on about the 7th floor  in a nice apt building overlooking the lights of Durban.)( which is a sprawling coastal city of over 3 million.)  It felt so homey I loved it.

 

This is Sister Stevensen (we brought them a credit card from their son) and an Africahns couple that help engineer the Temple for 3 years.  

 Monday was the big wake up call!  Everything is different in this country! You name it! from the driving on the left, to temp readings,km, cm, electricity or milk, There is nothing that is not different and yet still the same.  Our clocks look the same but they say time in military time which still throws me.   We were to get our new Corolla and get driving lessons and check out the same GPS that the Taylors had.

It would get us around where we needed to be and to our new boarding in Ladysmith.  First we had to drive in the big city and be able to read this GPS.  It looks way different than our at home GPS and you input it differently.  (still haven't learned how)But the biggest problem for us wasn't even getting lost or the GPS, it was the "Walkers".  Kent calls them this because there are hundreds of them that walk even on the sides and middle of the freeways.  These are people that don't have transportation and they need a fast place to walk.  They walk everywhere and you have to just not notice them so you can drive, but it's taken us weeks to be able to do so.  They have taken up residence in our prayers 4 times a day.  They say there are more pedestrians killed here than in regular auto accidents and I believe it.
   We had to follow members of the office around to where we needed to be and ended up in a very nice chapel in Durban where we met our S and I(seminary and institute),coordinator, Bro Charles.  We were there for over 2 hours with a web meeting, instruction,and recieved materials. But  we could not understand Bro Charles' accent, and we knew we spent too much time there and would be in the dark driving to Ladysmith.  The decision was made to spend another night at the B&B and go in the morning of the 16th.   ( We almost didn't make the dinner because of mishap on exit ramp and terror in the dark going back to Jane's B&B while circling 3 times, but unable to find.)
   The office had more instruction for us anyway and we were to meet for dinner at a nice restaurant where we had a very traditional dessert with spongecake and custard called Malva.  It was good and so was the dinner.  These guys party a lot!  (The Woods and Sorensen's.)  It's interesting to note that office missionaries have a very different experience as missionaries than out in the bush missionaries(that's what they call us).

 

    Ok ! I'm sad I lost my post from 10 days ago. Lots has happened.  Hope I reconstructed it ok but may need to add -to!  This is Thursday Aug 18 and we will be meeting our Ladysmith Elders that we will be working with soon.  On Tues night was our first night in Ladysmith,  We met with the Hinds, the only other couple in our zone with about 20 elders.  They are member support and have been taking our seminary and institute classes that we will take over next Tues.  They live about 1.5hr away in New Castle and will be a life line along with the elders for a week or so.