13 May 2010 – Thursday

It was a nice busy Thursday for us. The morning was spent running around getting some errands run, dropping by RB DDM for a short time. While we were there we found out that they are replacing all the drop ceilings in the offices and rooms with solid ones. Not sure why but perhaps it is for security?

Finally got the two nativity sets that we have been promised for months from the Zim artists. Elder Crowther and Sister Mann will be happy to finally see them. The Wilsons will have to wait until we get home for their animal dice and Mary will probably never see her green stone nativity set.

We went visited President Vilane and found that he was still not well. We are very worried about him and his problems. They say that the X-rays do not show any blockage but there seems to be something more there besides simple constipation.

The Blackburns came down from Swaziland on their way to the meeting tomorrow in Durban. We met them at McDonalds and after a quick lunch we dropped their car off at our house and headed off to Port Durnford for our regular Thursday activities. Since we already had a car load I had to act like a shuttle to get everyone one to English class but it worked.

While Mary and Sister Blackburn taught English, I took Elder Blackburn and we visited some families in the area. I wanted to show him the trail we have to take to Sister Chirwa’s home and was really surprised to see that they had bulldozed a nice new wide trail all the past their house and actually right in front of their property. It takes some of the adventure out of visiting this great family.

The Blackburns will have some adventures like this in their work in Swaziland. Getting to the Shongwe house is never going to be made easy and some of the other ‘roads’ are really just two tracks through the grass. But they have a bakkie to drive and we of course do it in a much too low car.

After English we had youth and Siya brought a couple of his friends who seem to fit right in. After the meeting – lesson, games, treats – they told Siya that they wanted to come to church on Sunday. It will be interesting to see if they actually make it.

After Youth we drove to the water-front where we had dinner at our favorite Thai restaurant. The Blackburns have been to Thailand and they liked the spicy food. I was happy to hear them say they enjoyed their meal. They are much more adventurous eaters than we are. It was fun to sit and talk over dinner – we learned about how they met, their family and much more. They have been in the mission for a whole 8 days…what a wonderful adventure they are in for. However they are just now starting to get use to the time change which means they are not waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning.

By the time we got home we were all tired. So after they had a chance to catch up on their e-mail – they do not have the internet where they are staying in Swaziland – we sat around and talked for a short time before heading off to bed.

It was a good day in Richards Bay