No Day is the Same!

Sunday,  Sept 25th had us speaking and singing in Dundee Branch .  Kent and I then had a fun lunch with Pres. and Sister Deklirk. The Deklirks are about 50 and are both native to Africa.  He is an Africaan from Durban and she was born and raised in Rhodesia (as an English citizen) which is now Zimbabwe.  She went to Primary as a child in a real nice LDS chapel in Rhodesia.  She knows exactly where the new temple will built--(right by that chapel.)  They love our students  like we do and they give everything they have to this Branch.  Their 2 sons are married and 1 daughter is engaged.  They live on a huge farm in the middle of nowhere with probably 150 or more acres.  They travel 2 hours one way on Sunday and don't seem to want to change  this calling.  When these African kids want to go on missions, he puts them to work on the farm to help them earn money for missions -so he is basically funding some of them.  This couple  is inspiring and  so down to earth. They know what they are facing with these kids.  The branch has a lot of youth but not many adults.  The Go Gos (grandmas) are raising the teens and younger grandchildren in lots of the branches.  Some parents are dead, but some are off to the big city to a job.  They may come home at least a couple of times of year.
   I taught Scripture Power to the Primary and Kent went into Young Women's and wanted  to see his girls in action and on video.  It was a full fun day starting with our drive at 7:30 and home by 3:30.
  Monday was haircut day for Kent and I, with Jenny my new hair girl.  I found her by asking a random Africaans Lady who was shopping at the grocery store,where she got her hair cut.  It turns out that anyone who cuts white peoples' hair mostly does it at home or in this case a  little shed off the house outfitted to cut hair.  She's great because she is English and I can understand her and she can understand me.  The bad news -- I put Jenny's address in our GPS and must have pushed the wrong button and lost all of our settings in our GPS.  At least 20 of them that other couples had collected over the years.  I'm just sick.
   We shopped in South Africa's "Costco"-TFS, on Tues - minus the snacks.

You have to pay in cash unless you have a wholesalers # however, but that was ok.  It was cheaper than g-stores and had things like an electric tea kettle and tablecloths.  Papergoods are very expensive and not plentiful.  Not a lot of fresh food, but some.  They have full size fork lift that can kill a person if not watching!They even have petrol!
   Tues was Dundee classes and assessments for Kent and our kids seem sad that we are ending their year.

   Sister Shabalala came to clean house for the last time on Thursday and then we all went shopping with the money she kind-of earned.  She just had a few things to get, but we were clueless as to where to go.  Some bigger things like sheets and shoes were ok but the corker was she said she needed a camera and that it was on the list.  We found 4 cameras in all of Ladysmith and they were costing in the $150 American money range.  It was a no -go since we hadn't even paid that much for our old camera. Pretty much I just felt like we were unprepared for the shopping spree since we didn't have a clue as to what was too expensive or where to shop.  Since kids don't have much they will jump at anything you suggest.  I was always making suggestions.  With my next sister missionary, I will know a little more.   We have at least 2 sisters  with paperwork done and ready.
   Mhelengi got his wisdom teeth out in the surgeons office on Wednesday.

Chipmonk!

The Dr. was a nice Africaans guy that we will probably see again since the Joburg office is cracking down on the shoddy paperwork that the Zulu clinics send us.  It took so long and we had the rug doctor at our house cleaning  carpets. We had to pay both in cash and they both finished at the same time so we were scrambling.

   We went to Suren's home for dinner minus the missionaries.  Mhelengi is not eating and Elder Smith is his Senior companion for 6 week till transfers.  I will resubmit Mhelengi's dental paperwork after the dentist signs and he will get his call.   Suren fixed Kent curried chicken gizzards and so won his heart.(doesn't take much apparently)  They bonded for life!

   Our last day teaching was Friday.   We listened to  Sister Oscarson's talk from Women's Conference. and Elder Uchtdorf's talk .  We had a short lesson- with all the boys with me and girls with Kent . This was  our last day before their holiday and our vacation till mid January.

   When Kent and I sang in church we told the girls that we would teach them a bit of how to sing  in parts.  They naturally sing parts and I thought they would catch on fast.  I pulled them in after snack and started with an easy hymn--pretty soon Kent was in there with the 5 boys teaching them where to look for their parts.  It turned out that the boys caught on faster than the girls and they have 2 boys that play the piano by ear.   It was really fun and the 12 kids sounded great.  They'll sing at their seminary sacrament meeting in a month so we will be out to practice, I hope.
  Saturday was our first 2 hour Temple prep class out in Ezakheni and we met Sister Shabalala's mom.  It went well .  We had to shop for our Mexican feed for the Elders before transfers.  Elders would be transfering starting on Monday and it snuck up on us so we were doing it on Sunday.  It was a lot of work for Sunday( --mental note).  Suren came and we got to watch all of Saturday morning session of conference after our dinner (at 6:15 on Sunday night) and play "Don't Eat Pete" .  Great fun!

 Pinto beans were no-where so we made made our own refried beans!  They were OK! But it was the hardest thing, and we had to make a few batches.   We made enchiladas from a kit and they were a bit dry.  Should have bought that tomato paste in a bag(packet)!  There's no tomato sauce because tomato sauce already captured the name for ketchup!