Nambiti Again?

 

We saw these teenagers in October and they have grown!

So our Elders on P Day wanted to go to Nambiti and we had to go and help with transport.  Durbin said ok as long as they were not over their "kms".    One of the Elders arranged everything and we had to go at 4pm which we thought would be hot.  It was cloudy and cool all day and the most perfect weather.  I even needed my jacket before dark.  We left at 3 and got home at 8:30.  I had been cooking a pot of ham and beans all day and it was the perfect dinner for all.  (I do feel that I cook a lot!)

  A couple eventful moments on the drive were seeing water buffalo in a herd.  We had not seen any buffalo on our previous drive.  They don't like people and can be very dangerous.    We saw them at the beginning of the drive and when we were leaving in the dark the whole herd shows up along the road.  Our driver has a spotlight with a red filter.  Our memory will forever be waterbuffalo heads 2 feet from us with red eyes.  Not one off us could take a picture and chance a flash, but they checked us out as much as we checked them out.

  The reason we were so late was because of the lions.  We were leaving the park when we got notice on radio of the lions in a certain area.  We approached slowly to an area where people were watching with binocs and so we did too. All of sudden from behind the truck walked the 2 teenage male lions
who were also watching us and watching their parents frolic. Both laid down as if going to sleep on the road, blocking it.    We snapped lots of pics and then out walked a female and another big male.  They stayed a minute and then walked on.   Many minutes went by and one of the teens gets up and walks to our truck and lays down right under our bumper.  We weren't going anywhere.  When eventially the bumper guy walks back to the road our driver slowly backs up and carefully heads through the bush and over the rocks to go home.

They look cold because Nambeti was cold.  It had rained most of the weekend and it was good for soup that night

.  We were there at least an extra 45 minutes at the standoff.  It was so dark when we got home.  Stories to tell!
 
 

Christmas Begins

This guy hitched a ride on our windshield for 15 miles until we got home.  We don't have hummingbirds here because the bugs are bigger.  (my theory)

 Got home from Richards Bay at about 3pm on Monday and went grocery shopping and went to eat dinner so we could start our fast for the 40 day fast experience.  It was our turn to fast for the Ezakheni branch--everyone is taking a turn, each for one day.
   Missionary prep was Tues and it always takes about 31/2 hours from leaving to coming home.  We have a short-cut and it takes about 20 minutes each way.  We never start on time.  We ended the fast at 6:30 with the Browns dropping by.  They wanted to go to dinner, but we were so sick of eating out that we stayed at home and just had taco salad.  Good thing because it thundered and rained with hail and wouldn't let up.  They still had an hour to go home, so we sent them home quickly.  Storms can be very violent.  They said that they had hail, lots of wind and lots of slanting rain as they drove home.
   The reason that the Browns had made this little trip was kind of sad.  We had 2 missionaries go home for different reasons from different parts of the mission.  They made a few trips to pick up and take companions and had to take an Elder to Durban and another to an airport.  We are never envious of a Mission President's job.   The Browns were recently just put in the mission presidency and have stepped up their travel a lot.  They still  have from 8-10 missionaries and help the District president a lot.

   Used my new Belgian chocolate chips and they were great.  Since I had cookies we decided we would go see Melenghi and our Elder Swane at the bus stop in the middle of town.  They are off to Durban to fly to the Joburg MTC.
   We are fixing cookies for the Branch Christmas party at 2 on Saturday.  They had not had one for 3 years.  Wow!   What a spread.  They wanted me to bring a salad and "sweets".  I made a big fruit salad with all the different melons and grapes and tropical stuff I could find.  I put it on the serving table and it kept disappearing.  I started talking to the ladies in the kitchen and apparently a fruit salad even without dressing is considered dessert and they were waiting to serve it later.   Fruit salad--- joke on me.  I pulled it from the desserts and we ate it for dinner.

  The Braai (BBQ}was amazing.  They always do charcoal and 4 kinds of meat.  There must have been a lb. per person and that's counting  the babies-- 50 or 60 lbs at least.  Kent brought Mr Krueger's Christmas for entertainment but it wasn't long enough.  They wished for a full length feature because there was no other entertainment.  We got out of there at about 6 PM and all seemed pleased.  We didn't see a decoration or sing a Christmas song but then maybe they forgot!  We'll remind them next Christmas!


  Sunday I had a Christmas talk to give after being asked on Friday night with a text at 9 pm.  That seems the norm for our Branch Pres.  (Kent and I sang Silent Night with the guitar because it was in my talk.)  They have a hard time getting speakers so they wait till last minute and then really have a hard time.  We took Nelson home to a township that is about 20 km out of Ladysmith.  He is such a smart electronic guy and the church gave him a bunch of old DVD players that were broken and he has already fixed most of them and is going to resell them.  He doesn't have a job, but his wife does .  He can fix plumbing or anything.

We ate outside until it rained!  There really is no place to have a party in this building.

Indian Ocean

 

   Monday the 28th our Temple prep class in our home.  This was the last one and the last time I would input family history with at least 3 of the people present.  I think I could be a pro genealogy person as long as there were no records or sources to input.  These are 10 to 12 year younger people than myself and all four of them have lost multiple brothers and sisters already.  They try to remember their dates but we have made multiple changes already because the computer catches many of the mistakes.  The Zulu people live a hard life and die very young on average.  We heard this week that Ladysmith has the most people with active Aids cases in all of South Africa, which may account for some of those deaths.  I also have to research polygamy here.  It is not illegal and even SA's current President has 5 wives.     

   We had a different 4 kids for Mission Prep in Ezekeni this Tues. but on Thursday we saw the kids that are really going on missions or at least in different stages of paperwork.  We outfitted Bobsa with our used hand-me-down shirts,ties, pants and even 1 pair of shoes.  He was thrilled.  His Mom is not a member and really needs the help.  He leaves for Ghana 3 days after Christmas.

Kent wrote the following ...

Sand Art in Durban

African Food (Not a  fan)Kent didn't like Ostrich

3 of these girls spoke in District mt.  Articulate!

   A most enjoyable and profitable weekend! We drove to Durban, spent some time with the office couples, including dinner at an African restaurant on the beach, witnesses some great sand art, and spent the night in a bed and breakfast inn.   (We took a  GPS trip to a special bake shop called "Bake-a-ton" in Durban, Chris was dying for real chocolate chips and brown sugar for the holidays.  We'll go every time!)

In the morning we drove to Richards Bay. We were there because they were having a district conference with an area authority. I attended the priesthood leadership meeting, then we both attended the evening conference session which actually started at 4pm. They don’t have late meetings in South Africa because of the danger of being out after dark. We took a trip to their mall in Richards bay to find something for dinner.  It was exciting to see a movie theatre and such a huge mall even if all the stores were closed.  All over South Africa stores close at around 2 or 3 on Saturdays, with a few restaurants left open.  It is a drag.  1 or 2 grocery stores stay open till night, but you just better plan on doing your shopping on some other day.

It was announced that the area authority would not attend because he missed his plane in the Congo and there were apparently no other flights available that would allow him to make it, so we had no District Presidency changes.  Pres. DePlooy met with us and heard our spiel about S and I.

The general session on Sunday was quite well attended for South Africa---and they were able to fill up the speaker schedule without a problem. In fact, we asked to be able to speak so that we could introduce the new seminary and institute curriculum for the next year. So they gave us 7 minutes and we took 15, but who’s counting.  President Thompson was the concluding speaker but didn’t have a lot of time. He always does a great job!

Taxi's are how almost all people get to District mt.

After the meeting we met our teachers and branch presidents for the first time! We had been communicating by text and email for months and now we got to meet them! We handed out materials for the next school year (starts in January), got names, updated contact information, and made some good friends!

Chris
  We visited with the Colins' after church and they graciously had us over for lunch.  They are the area MLS (member leadership)couple over about 12 Elders and practically run a Branch called Port Dunford.  (currently the Branch has no Branch President).  We were starved to just talk about our experiences and they are  especially isolated but in a nice boarding with a great mall close by.  Malls are great because they are air-conditioned with central-air and all peoples homes are not.  We have a nice 2 wall air home but, most of the population does not  have anything.

One of the biggest harbors in SA

We stayed 2 nights in Richards Bay and Monday Morning walked the Beach and took off a different really green beautiful way home.  We saw so many sugar cane fields on the way in different stages of growth.  It was a fun little trip that we should make about every 6 weeks.

The ladies in the background were killing their chickens and blessing them.  This is some Zulu ritual.

Got the toes in the water and the air and water were both warm even though it was cloudy