On our way to DDM this morning we passed this beautiful bougainvillea tree in full bloom. This is one of the things that South Africa has with Indonesia. Everywhere we go we see bougainvillea. At DDM, Elder Babeeyo on left conducted as District Leader. Elder Mbithi gave a short lesson on taking the right member with you when you teach a lesson. Before DDM I taped two of elder Musemare’s fingers together to see if this will help the one he closed in a car door 9 weeks ago heal. I also gave him some pills that were sent up by Sister Mann. If this does not work he gets to have the finger X-rayed again.

After DDM we went to the mall to get a new ice chest – our old one seems to have been donated to a caterer without our knowledge. While I ran up and got it from Games, Mary sat in the parking garage and read. We then had lunch before heading to Esikhawini and our PEC meeting with the elders and President Machaka. The elders wheeled up in their bright red car. The meeting was short but covered everything that we needed to cover.

After PEC the elders wanted to show us a new way they found to get from Esikhawini to Port Durnford that comes out almost at the chapel. The road was not bad at all – at least not by South African standards – but when we got within about 200 yards of the main Port Durnford road we came to a very nasty mud puddle – actually more like a pond – that no one wanted to try to get across. Unfortunately I did not think to take a picture but I may tomorrow from the other side.

Since we needed to turn around I drove into a near by yard where there were a number of women with children. They looked at us strangely but we quickly made friends by talking to them and giving the children some candy. One of the women said that they were really surprised to see ‘white people’ in the area. I think we will go back some day and introduce ourselves and the gospel to them. Another photo op missed.

After getting turned around and back to Esikhawini we went to the chapel to see if anything had been done with the water. Of course it had not. See yesterday for pictures – nothing has changed.

We then had the sad task of going to the home of a young – 20 years old – sister who was killed in a taxi accident last night. She was the only member of the family who was LDS but we were welcomed to the family’s home. We introduced ourselves and shared in their sorrow. There was a group of women and one man sitting around the room and we joined them. In one corner was a small setting that included some clothes, candles, a bowl and a stack of books. The top book was her Book of Mormon. The setting was important but we were not sure what the pieces represent. My guess is it things the spirit will need as it travels to the next world. But that is only a guess.

As we were sitting quietly, one of the women started singing in Zulu and most of the others joined in. The singing was both very beautiful and very sad. They sang a number of songs and the last one sounded very much like ‘God Be With You Til We Meet Again.’ When they had stopped Mary commented on how beautiful it was and I said that the last song reminded me of our hymn. When I mentioned the name, they said that is what it was. The Zulu words require small changes in tune.

When what was obviously their preacher arrived, we excused ourselves. Two of the other mourners came out with us – I think our leaving allowed them to. We will come back for the funeral which they indicated would be at the house but we will have to see.

As we were traveling back to our boarding I noticed the full moon in the darkening sky. I took a number of pictures from different places and these are just three of them. The two on the right were taken only two or three minutes apart but the light had changed dramatically in that time. The one on the left was taken near our boarding with another lens setting.

This really belongs with yesterday but I did not take it until this morning. This is the finished 1500 piece puzzle that we had to do mainly by turning the pieces over and using a pattern on the back to guide us. I know it was cheating but I doubt if we would have every finished it any other way. I am going to get more puzzles from this company but I think I will stick to the 500 or 750 piece puzzles.

This evening a neighbor who is an insurance broker came over to get the information needed to give us a quote on renter insurance while we are here. If it is cheap enough we will probably get it just in case someone breaks in and cleans us out as they recently did one our neighbors.

 I will write about these pictures when we get home from DDM

Before running errands we went to our PO box and got the bills we knew would be there. On the way home we stopped at the nursery to see if we could get Round-Up concentrate so we could kill a lot of weeds that have grown up around Esikhawini’s garden plots. They did not have anything but we did get these good pictures of a bird we had not seen before and that we can not find in our Birds of South Africa book.

We then went to mall where I made sure we were not behind on our Telkom bill so they will not disconnect us this month. I have come to know the young women who work there by their first names. They appreciate the fact that I never get upset with them when I have a problem – it is not their fault.

We then went to the municipality where Mary paid our $3 water bill while I went up to the Water and Sewer desk and told them about our problem with no water at Esikhawini. The woman called the water folks and told me that they would take care of it.

When we arrived at Esikhawini we found the service folks waiting for us. I thought for once a problem would quickly be solved. Wrong! After an hour of working on the problem they decided that the crew that repaired the system last time would have to do it again. They made a call and told us that someone would be coming. 2 1/2 hours later we gave up and headed home. Maybe tomorrow?

The picture of the lamp post is important because I finally figured out how to get my camera to go beyond the 3.2X zoom. It has been a problem for months and there are a lot of pictures of birds and animals I could not take because I could not zoom in close enough. We spend more money at Super Spar than anywhere else in Richards Bay. We not only get most of our food there, we also buy any welfare food orders at Super Spar. I have bought enough from the bakery department that the manager knows my name and the clerks all smile and wave when I go by. For all the years I have shopped at Albertsons in Provo, they still do not know me from Adam.

In the evening Elder Peterson and Elder Mukhota came by so Elder P could use our Vonage phone to find out why his credit card does not work. It took him about 20 minutes to get them to agree to lift the ban that Zions has on almost all Visa cards here in South Africa. Credit card theft is one of the major problems that we are warned against. We only use ours at the ATM and for Mary’s pharmacy purchases.