10 August 2009 – Monday

When I woke up, all I really wanted to do all day was sit at home and relax. But instead we fixed some lunch, grabbed all our gear and headed off to the game park for a day in the country. The Mfalozi/Hluhlwe game park is located just over an hour from our boarding. This makes it a tempting destination for p-days. Mary would go ever week but I am only willing to go about once or twice a cycle.

 

This is the entrance to the park. The notice suggests you do not get out of your car so you will not be eaten or stepped on by the wild animals that roam the open plains and forests. We decided the extra animal – usually there are only five – might be wild dogs but we are not sure

It was a perfect day for going to the park. It is winter so the grass is as thin and low as it gets so the animals are easier to find. The temperatures were moderate and there was often a breeze. It was a holiday so people tended not to get up early to go to the park so we had almost no traffic getting to or in the park.

First there was just a tan lump in the grass. Then it seemed to grow. And then it got ears.

Then it had eyes. Which looked right at me to see if I might make a tasty lunch. But it decided I was too old and tough and looked elsewhere.

 If you heard it roar just 40 or so feet from you with only some grass between, you would know why it was called the King of Beasts.

Today we finally saw some lions. We had seen one lone female at another park, but she was walking along a road next to a fence and could have been in a zoo. These were out in the middle of a huge grassland/jungle park and there was nothing between us and them but some grass and air. We found the male when we saw a number of vehicles parked along the side of the road with everyone pointing their cameras at a bush. We wondered what everyone was so excited about and then we saw this yellow mass which was of course the lion.

We spent 10-15 minutes taking pictures and I got some good ones. I especially like the one where he is looking right at the camera. After a while we worked our way through the increasing stack of cars and went on our way. As we were driving along, I heard a bark and immediately knew it was another lion. I knew the sound because I had seen a program about lions on TV and the sound is very unique. As I looked around for the source, I saw this large female striding across a hill on the other side of a small valley. I never got a picture because she was moving fast and the branches and leaves kept getting in the way. We finally lost sight of her as she moved into the dense foliage.

 

 

 

 

Why did the giraffe cross the road – to eat the bush on the other side.

We got home about 4:30 to find Elders Richey, Mbithi, Musemare, and Mokopotsa waiting. Last night they had mentioned that they could not e-mail today because it was a holiday and the place that lets them use their computers and internet would be closed. I told the Zone leaders that they could come and use our computers for an hour. Everyone except for elder Mokopotsa read and answered their mail and were out again by 6:00.

While they were here and elder Musemare was waiting for the other two to finish so he could get on, we asked him to help us hang the roadshow backdrops in the garage so I could take good pictures of them. I wanted them for my journal but also I will have a couple of larger prints made for Sazi and Bungumusa so they can show others their handy work. Mary and I needed help because we were not tall enough to hang the top panel. Each backdrop was over 8 feet high and about 25 feet long.

The rest of the night was spent on the computer – mainly editing all the pictures I took today – and reading before going to bed rather early. I should mention that Mary baked a cake to take to Durban tomorrow so the elders can have dessert with their pizza.

It had been a beautiful and adventurous day in South Africa

09 August 2009 – Sunday

 

We usually need to leave at 7:15 to make Esikhawini’s PEC meeting but because we were picking up the Esikhawini elders we left at 6:30. Elders Mokopotsa and Musemare were almost ready when we got to their boarding and so we got away on time. We really did not need to hurry because when we picked up president Nyawo he had no idea about what a PEC meeting was so we did not have one. I did open everything up and help get things ready before we had to leave for Port Durnford.

 

Since it was the 2^nd Sunday there were District speakers in each of the ward. Calwyn Baldwin was speaking at Esikhawini and they brought Arthur Wilson so we could take him to Port Durnford to speak. The Baldwins also brought their new baby, and Mary got a chance to hold him.

 

Three of the Port Durnford youth dressed for church. They are a great group of young people and of course love to have their pictures taken.

Brother Wilson had never been to Port Durnford chapel and when we arrived at the yard he asked where it was. We explained it was out in the back. It was a typical Sunday with almost no one being on time but once sacrament meeting got started it was fine. But after Sacrament we found that there was no Primary or YW teachers so I got things organized by asking Mary to teach Primary and Sister Chirwa to teach YW.

I then asked Siya to help with Primary because the children do not speak much English and of course Mary does not speak any Zulu. This turned out to work well as she taught them ‘Familys can be together forever, the story of Lehi and his family and then had them draw their family. This is all done under the tree in the front yard. I sat with the priesthood near the house and we had a lesson on Testimony. The YW sat under another tree and seemed to have a good lesson. I have learned you just do what you can do and things tend to work out. After the meeting we took President Machaka out to visit sister Nzama who is still not feeling very well.

We then drove back to Esikhawini where the meetings were almost over. I was talking to president Nyawo when there was some excitement in the chapel. It turned out that one of the sisters had an epileptic seizer. After a blessing and some time, she recovered enough that she could be taken home. Someone said that she had a history of epilepsy and may not have been taking her medicine.

While Mary taught her only piano student that was left after the excitement, I started teaching president Nyawo about his calling. Since I had not really come prepared to do this, all I did was give him some manuals and asked him to read them. I told him next week we would have a quiz on what he read. He is going to be a good PH leader and a great help to the presidency. Mary was still teaching her lesson when I ran him home. By the time I got back she was finished so I closed up the chapel and locked the gates and headed home. It seems we often are the first ones there and the last ones to leave each Sunday.

 

Part of the afternoon was spent taking a nap and then it was time to get everything together for the elders coming over. We prepared meat loaf, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, fruit and green salads, and garlic bread. For desserts we had the fixings for banana splits but most of them just ate lots of ice cream.

The elders seem to really enjoy eating and talking together. Elders Torgerson and Muthoka were the first to arrive and so they got to eat as much as they wanted. Elders Mbithi and Babayeeo came and then went over to the B’s for some reason so they were the last to eat and while there was plenty of food it was not very fresh.

After eating, talking, gathering and sending in the statistics for the week, it was well after 9:00 before they left. I am afraid some of them did not get into their boardings by 9:30. We of course had a lot of clean-up to do. But we did not have to worry about leftovers – all of the elders were more than happy to take something home with them – including the leftover ice cream.

By the time all was done, we were very much ready for bed. It was a good Sabbath in Richards Bay.

08 August 2009 – Saturday

Most of the day was spent attending the funeral of the young sister who was killed on Tuesday. We had discovered that she was killed when a truck lost its brakes and plowed into her taxi and another car. She was the only one killed but 14 others were seriously injured.

I had to get to the car wash very early because our car was coated with mud from our visit to the mud puddle area yesterday. I thought if I got there by 7 when it opened I would be first in line. Wrong! I was the 5^th in line. Others had the same idea.

We had told Fufu, a young woman in the Port Durnford branch who had gone to school with Nomfundo, that we would pick her up and take her to Richards Bay for the funeral. So we ran out to PD and got her and then headed back to the chapel to see if we could help in any way to get things ready. When we got there we found everything was under control. However Mary was asked to play the prelude and other music. She ended up playing for about 90 minutes before everyone arrived.

At 11:00 when it was to start there was only a couple of dozen people in the chapel but the family and those who traveled with them started to arrive and in a few minutes the chapel and half of the cultural hall was filled. Family, friends, neighbors, and even a bus from her school arrived.

The funeral was originally planned for 4 hours but president Van Thiel told the family it had to be no longer than 2 hours.  This was the first Zulu funeral we have attended and it was interesting to see it unfold. President Nyawo of Esikhawini conducted with President Vezi of the District Presidency presided. The first part was family and friends giving talks and singing. What I found interesting was the principal of her school was one of the speakers. Of course everything except the hymns was done in Zulu and I could not understand a word. But while of the speakers was talking, my spirit was touched and I felt that what was being said was special.

After the family part, we had a short LDS section where sister Khamalo spoke about how Nomfundo joined the church and her desire to go on a mission. Then President VanThiel spoke on the plan of salvation and I thought it was a wonderful and easy to follow talk that was teaching without preaching. Mary was also impressed.

After the service we took a load of young women to the cemetery. The service there was very short. The casket was then lowered into the grave and a layer of short logs were placed over it, then a couple of straw mats were put on top of those. Male members of the family each placed a shovel full of soil in the hole and the women threw in a small handful. Then anyone who wanted to could help in refilling the grave.

I did not participate but a number of the elders and members did. As it was being filled people would start a song in Zulu and others would join in. Fufu started a number of them and most people seemed to know the words so I supposed that they were traditional hymns that all sang in church.

When the grave was filled, the people quickly left. We were going to take the Esikhawini elders to their area but a number of the people from Port Durnford needed rides. So we found rides with members for the elders and took Sister Chirwa, Fufu and President Machaka to their homes.

The only other thing that we did before going to our boarding is to stop to pick up the bread I had ordered for tomorrow. Mary spent the evening making meatloaf and preparing other things for the dinner.

07 August 2009 – Friday

Rain in the morning which meant we were not going to the game park as planned. It seems that every time we plan to go away for a day the rain starts. So instead of enjoying a day off, we enjoyed a morning off and then headed out to Esikhawini to give the Zone leaders some money and other things that they needed for their Cosi Bay visit.

 

When I get out my camera, the kid comes out in all the elders. They want to be in the picture and they want to have fun. 5 minutes later they can be bearing a wonderful testimony or talking about the joy of finding a new family to teach.

When we got there, elder Mokopotsa was busy fixing their bikes. I kidded him that he should start a bike repair service up on the corner where there is an auto repair service that operates on a large grassy area. This would keep the overhead down to almost nothing. Two of the great sisters of the branch were there working on their gardens. We love sister Mathe and sister Khumalo – they are great examples to the young women of the branch.

We then headed out to Port Durnford to visit gogo Nzama and see how she is. When we got there we found that she had gone to the doctor’s to see if she could get some relief. This of course meant more of their meager funds had to go for transportation and doctor’s fees. With little if any cash reserve they will have a hard time with bills and food this coming month. After visiting with Thandi Nzama for a short time, we dropped off the chicken soup Mary had made and headed back to our boarding.

 

On our way home we passed the Malondo home and saw that they were laying the blocks for the new round house they are building. We stopped to see how it was done and found Siya and Landani had stayed home from school to help. It seems that those two like to find reasons not to go to school. I suggest to them that this is a bad idea and that their main home to breaking the circle of poverty they are in is for them to get a good education. About 100 yards away from where they are building this house, the neighbors are building a square one using traditional wattle, stone and mud. Except for the tin roof that will go on, there is no material costs at all.

 

We decided today was the day we would check out that sea of mud we did not go through a few days ago. To get there we had to go through some smaller muddy areas. The idea is to get up some speed and hope you make it to the other side without getting stuck. Since there were a good set of tracks from prior vehicles we felt fairly safe in giving it a try and we made it through two of them without any problems. But when we got to the big one we took one look and said ‘no way.’ So we just took pictures and splashed back to the main road. Of course the car was pretty well covered with mud, but I needed to get it washed anyway.

On our way home to our boarding, we stopped at the mall and bought most of the food we will need for feeding the missionaries on Sunday. I am rather glad we do not feed them every week because that could become expensive.

When we got home we unloaded the car and pretty much called it a day.

Some random pictures: Mary really dislikes moths and this one was about 6 or 7 inches across. She did not care if it was beautiful she just wanted it gone. I love to take pictures of children. No matter where they are, how humble the surroundings, they are almost always clean, dressed in clean clothes and obviously loved by their parents or grandparents. The last picture was taken by sister Mickelsen of a loaded cane truck. I have been trying to capture a good photo of one of these for a couple of weeks but without success. Her picture is perfect. Thanks Sister Mickelsen!