Category Archives: Mission – South Africa

14 June 2010

14 June 2010 – Monday

Some P-day! Mary called to tell me that she was not getting out of the hospital today so I made a long list of things to do. Some could be taken care of by telephone but there was still a lot that could not. I bought and took a food order to Enseleni. While I was there I dropped off a note from the Hafens at the Seokas and stopped by mama Zulu’s to give her the material for three more curtains for the windows in the library. She was happy to have something to do for the church.

I stopped by the hospital to see Mary and deliver some things she asked me to bring. She is feeling fine but is not looking forward to the surgery to put in a new drain so she can use the portable pump. After lunch and a nap, I went back to see her and she was again asleep. I told her that she should be well rested by the time she gets out.

About the time I was getting ready to leave her they came in and said they were taking her to the operating theatre. So I waited until they were wheeling her out and said I would see her at 7:00 during visiting hours. I ran some more errands – there seems to be a never ending supply – I decided to go back to the hospital and wait for her to come out of surgery.

I had a nice long wait but the smile on her face when she saw that I was there was well worth it. I did not stay long after that because there were too many nurses trying to check her out and get her plugged in. Later I did call to see how she was feeling and to wish her good night.

Cindy called from Disneyworld to check on her mother and we had a nice talk. I also got to talk to Krista who seemed to be having a great time. They will be heading home tomorrow.

I spent part of the evening cleaning up the living room – it really needed it because my bachelor life style is not very neat. I still need to attack the kitchen and the bedroom but that will have to wait until tomorrow.



13 June 2010

13 June 2010 – Sunday

I arrived at Engwelezane and there was no one else at the library. The elders arrived next and for a while we thought we would not be able to get into the building because the lock seemed frozen but elder Kaseke finally got it to open. The elders started setting up but had to leave to walk one of their investigators to church. So until about 10 to 9 when others started arriving I was the only one in the library.

By the time the meeting started there was about 15-20 people in the audience and there were only about 40 there for the meeting. This is about 25 less than normal. I guess they heard how bad my talk was going to be and decided it was better to just stay home.

Sister Myani gave an excellent talk and I would have been happy to let it rest there but since there was 30 minutes left in the meeting I had to give my talk. It was very disjointed and I never felt comfortable for more then a couple of minutes. Of course after the meeting people said they thought it was an excellent talk but the spirit did not seem to be with me. I am pretty sure I was not edified by the talk but I was by preparing it.

After Engwelezane I went to Enseleni where I found not only elder Dimene and elder Webster but also the assistants and of all people elder Nkosi. I knew the assistants were probably going to be there because President Mann called me about a problem that he sent them here to look into. He and sister Mann were in Bloemfontein for a district conference so he could not take care of it personally. It turned out that elder Nkosi just could not take the cold in Lesotho – it drops below freezing at night – and so is going to be moved to a warmer climate.

I was also surprised when president Vilane came walking in. He said he walked very slowly and he seemed to be feeling OK but I asked him to please be careful about doing too much too soon. If it had not been for the 6 missionaries attending, there would not have been 20 members by the time the sacrament was passed. They did make it to over 40 by the time the meeting was over.

I talked to president Moloi about this – he was there as the district speaker – and he said he thought it was because it was the holidays and many young people went back to their homesteads. Hopefully that was the case. Later I talked to president Vezi and he said they had about 50 at PD. I told him that was great. We talked about getting more chairs, another sacrament tray and some more hymn books. Those are nice problems to have.

The rest of the day was spent at home or visiting Mary. I did do some cleaning around the house. We certainly have accumulated a lot of stuff in just over a year. I am sure the South African economy is going to suffer when we leave.

Mary was fine except she of course would love to be out of the hospital. She has found that she does have to take it easy – her body is not feeling as well as her mind is. She asked for her cross-stitching supplies and I reminder her she has now been working on the one piece for over 2 years. I gave it to her for Christmas 2007! Obviously cross-stitching is not her favorite pastime.

We visited Arthur Wilson and he is doing much better. He will probably get out tomorrow. The Baldwins visited him later and then went to see Mary. They brought the Career Workshop certificates that we have been trying to get for about 6 weeks. Sister Manamela will be very happy.

I must confess that at times I think about going home and what we will do when we get there. I think I have done this more since Mary has been in the hospital and I have had too much time by myself. There is just so much I can accomplish by myself – Mary is the real talent. I understand that may be more of an excuse than a reason but it seems to be mainly true. Hopefully when she gets home we can wrap up as much as we can before we leave this wonderful land.



12 June 2010

12 June 2010 – Saturday

Up and out of the house early so I could pick up the Nyawos and YaYa Mathe to take them to have their patriarchal blessings. While they were with patriarch Jabba, I basically sat in the parking lot of the mall in Ballito and worked on my talk for tomorrow and read the newspaper. I was surprised how quickly the three hours passed. I did take a walk around the whole mall – it is a strip mall so I was outside in the nice warm sun most of the time – and saw some the stores we did not have time to visit before. In most malls in South Africa you see 90% black faces and 10% others as customers. In Ballito it is about reverse of that.

By the time we got back about all I could do was catch some lunch and then go to see Mary. I had called her during the morning and knew that she felt fine but it was good to see her as well. I took her some chicken McNuggets, Crystal-lite, Bugles and of course the newspapers so she could have her precious puzzles. She was happy to have it all.

After the visit I came home and took a nap. I got a call from president Baldwin about some things that needed to be done. He is still very sick – in fact he sounded worse today than he did on Friday. He said that Arthur Wilson was back in the hospital with complications from his hernia operation.

I visit Mary and we went to visit Arthur. When we arrived at his room he was getting a blessing from Calwyn and president VanThiel. He really was not well and we found that they were going to move him to high care so that they could monitor him better.

My evening was spent mainly working on my talk which is just not coming together at all. I have lots of ideas and thoughts but I can not figure out how to make them flow. I also want the talk to help the branch and especially any investigators. It is strange to not have things working this late in the day.



11 June 2010

11 June 2010 – Friday

Just before I woke up I had a dream that I had woke up and could not get any of the lights to come on and I was stuck in the dark. In the dream I realized I was dreaming and actually woke up. I can not decide if I woke up earlier and then went back to sleep, had the dream and then woke up, or did I just have the dream and woke up.  It was a strange way to start the day.

Unfortunately I was not dreaming about the phone being dead so I will go in early to MTN and have them try to fix it or get a new one. Seems like a waste with only one month to go but Mary needs her to call me and I certainly need one so I can call others. To add to an interesting morning, the internet is down and it is too early to call Telkom to find out if it is a system problem or just us. I do hope the car starts today.

Called Telkom and after talking to three very nice people, I found that they had a problem in the area. As I was talking to the second agent, I heard what seemed like a party going on in the back so I asked him what was all the noise about. His answer was – it is the World Cup – which goes to show how crazy the next month is going to be around here.

I went to the mall and found that my phone was dead so I bought a new phone and put in my old SIM card. Of course I lost most of my contacts because I did not save them to the SIM card a couple of weeks ago when the spirit told me to. Which shows you should follow the spirit even when it has to do with something as mundane as saving phone contacts.

As I was getting into my car to leave, a couple of young ladies came out wrapped in what looked like a big South African flag. It turned out to be a lightweight blanket of the flag and it only cost R30 at PEP. So I went in and bought 3 to take home as gifts. I may have to go back and get a half dozen or so more before we go.

I spent most of the rest of the day at our boarding working on getting things in order so that the new couple can find things that they need and getting rid of old records, etc. I have accumulated a large amount of old seminary, SS, YW, and YM manuals that I am going to take to RB for them to either add to their supply or give them away.



An Awesome Game Drive

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First of all you find all kinds of animals when you go to a game park in South Africa. For instance sometimes you find a whole group of elders ( A group of elders are called a Zone) resting in a tree. Elder Musisi wanted to make sure I did not miss his smiling face while Elder Reeves was jumping with joy or maybe he was doing some strange mating ritual.

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We saw a rhino drinking, a giraffe drinking, and an elephant that just finished drinking and was hurrying into the brush to ….

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We saw two Cape buffalo enjoying a relaxing mud bath. A herd of Cape buffalo at the river. And a group of zebras that were no where near any water but seemed to be happy being dry.

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We had a wonderful time watching elephants at a mud hole – they seem to be able to crowd a lot of really big bodies into a fairly small mud hole. If you look closely at the middle picture you will notice that a couple of the elephants have their legs up like they are either going to take a bow or do a dance step. The last picture is either of a pair of bookends or two elephants who are about to have a duel…

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They came in families – mothers with young ones and really young ones. As a guess the smallest one is probably 3 or 4 months old

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A couple of the elephants got rather annoyed at us because we were kind of in their space. The big boy on the left flared his ears and tried to stare us down. I had the car in reverse and ready to leave if he started our way. The middle one is a mother who was watching over her youngster. We were careful to not get between a mother and child. The last one is just crossing the road behind us after throwing dust over its body.

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So Mary is mentioning that we have not seen any giraffes when we come over a rise and see this walking down the middle of the road towards us. Then we see them everywhere. Most of them are having dinner at the local trees. Some stop and look at us wondering why we do not let them eat in peace.

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They are big, graceful animals and they grow darker as they get older.

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We could not believe what that bird was doing! Bugs are one thing but really there must be something better to eat then…

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In answer to my complaint that we had not seen any rhinos this group of 6 wandered out of the brush. The setting sun turned this one almost golden tan. The birds do not clean off the rhinos. They follow the rhinos and eat the bugs that jump out of the way when the rhinos browse.

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These big boys – or girls for all I know – came within 20 feet of the car. That is probably closer than it is wise to get to something that could probably go through the car without even slowing down. They certainly weigh more. Notice the really long horn on the one. A poacher would love to get a hold of that and since these were within a half mile of the fence to the park, it may just happen. They are losing 6 – 8 a year to poachers.



10 June 2010

 10 June 2010 – Thursday

The day has started out great. The rain has gone and left behind cool weather which is always good. By 7:00 I was at the Nissan dealer and by 8:00 they had replaced the boot latch and I was on my way to the hospital.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that Mary was feeling great. She slept well and is not in any pain from the operation but where they put in a valve so they could give her antibiotics it did hurt. The doctor was in and said that everything went well. He took out the mesh and did not replace it because the stomach wall had been solid. He said she would be out by the 17th for sure so maybe we can go to Durban after all. It was wonderful to see her bright and cheerful after a major operation and that will make my day better. I left because they were taking her down for another x-ray.

I went to the store and got things to take to PD Youth today. I had promised them a treat and since we will only be there one or two more times, Mary did not think I should postpone it until she is well. She also talked me into teaching English.

Just as I got home and was putting things away, sister Mann called to see how Mary was doing and was glad to know that she was doing fine. They are trying to live in the middle of a complete re-modeling of the mission home which includes tearing out the kitchen, all the flooring, and the whole insides being painted. They are certainly not having what would be called a quiet end to their mission. She did have good news that the elder who was having problems seems to at least be getting over the physical illness.

After lunch I headed for Port Durnford and came across the Empangeni district heading out. They had been at the Nzama’s finishing up painting their roof. It was good to see them all together building brotherhood while giving service.

I arrived at the Chirwas about a half hour early. I was very tired so I told sister Chirwa I was going to try to take a short nap and asked her wake me in 30 minutes. I fell right asleep and felt much better when they tapped on my window to tell me it was time to go.

English class went fine but I am sure I was not as effective as Mary. Thandi and sister Chirwa have quite good English, gogo Nzama understands and communicates pretty good, and gogo Malondo probably understands 30% of what is going on but is trying hard to learn.

Since they knew there was something special for Youth there was a good turnout. The only one who was missing was Fufu. Most of them can make a good stab at reciting the theme for the year and a couple of them have it down cold. Hopefully in the next 3 weeks they all will know it and what it means. They of course loved the ham sandwiches, chips, drinks and oranges. I am going to miss them and hope that they will be able to hold everything together until the next couple comes.

I had one of those South African moments when I backed out through our gate this evening to go to the hospital. I was not paying a lot of attention to what was going on around me because I was not going out into the street until the gate closed. All of a sudden I saw movement out the side of my eye and when I looked to see what it was, I was staring into the face of a very large bull. He and another 3 or 4 of his friends were grazing on the outside lawn in the dark. I guess that is why the grass out there has not needed cutting for a few weeks…it has become the local dining place for the neighborhood herd. I tried to take pictures but it too dark for anything really to turn out. I am going to be a little more careful when I back out in the future.

After that excitement,  I went to see Mary and took her some strawberries, chocolate covered licorice, and a bottle of Crystal-lite. She looked really good and said she had a good day. Not much in the way of pain or discomfort. However she is hooked up to a couple of machines that she must drag around if she wants to walk so she decided to take it easy today and only walked when necessary. If she continues to feel this good we should be able to do most of what we have planned before we go home.

When I got home I found that my cell phone had died and nothing I did brought it back. I will have to take it in to MTN tomorrow and if they can not fix it buy a new, inexpensive one and put in the old SIM card. At least I will have the same number even if I have lost some of other peoples.



09 June 2010

09 June 2010 – Wednesday

It started raining at about 4:30 and continued almost all day. I told Mary it was because the earth was sad that she had to go into the hospital again.

We went to DDM at Empangeni and got to share a number of ideas with the elders. They really do not have very many investigators who are progressing very well. All the companionships have a pretty good teaching pool but few of them are coming to church and some seem to bunking them on a regular basis.

With the coming of the World Cup the elders need to think of ways to use the games in a positive way. They have been told to make sure they are securely in a member’s house or their boarding if there is a Bafana Bafana game being played. They came up with a number of ideas and hopefully they will be able to take advantage of so many babas being home and watching the games for the next month.

After DDM we went to the hospital and got Mary checked in. While she waited for a bed to be made ready, I had a quick lunch and then drove up to Enseleni to take a picture of the dress they bought for Mbali. It is very beautiful but unfortunately I left my camera at our boarding. Hopefully I can get back and take a picture tomorrow. My head must have really been screwed on wrong because I also forgot to give mama Zulu the material I bought yesterday for her to hem so they can be used for drapes on Sunday.

Mary called to say they found her a bed and so I went up to see her. She was lying on the bed fully dressed and I said that it did not look like she was going to be operated on any time soon. I left at 4:00 and told her to call when she found out when they were going to operate. I was greatly surprised when just after 5:00 she said they were getting her ready to go to operating theatre. So I once again hurried down to the hospital and sure enough was on her way there.

Everything went quickly. She only had to wait about 30-40 minutes before they wheeled her in to the operating room and about an hour to 90 minutes after that she was being wheeled back to her room. She of course did not feel very good and she complained that just two hours before she felt great. I was encouraged that they did not take her to ICU but put her back in a regular room. If everything goes right she should be out in 5 to 6 days – the doctor wants to keep her on antibiotics for that long. I stayed until she was pretty much settled in.

I forgot to mention that the Engwelezane elders helped me administer to her before the DDM. She was happy that I did not tell her that she had to endure. I did bless her that she would trust the Lord.

I have to say that it is very uncomfortable to be home alone. It is too quiet and rather lonely. I had to start playing music to kind of fill up the void. It just does not feel right to have my eternal companion in the hospital and me at home.



08 June 2010

08 June 2010 – Tuesday

I am glad we had the opportunity of spending yesterday at the game park because it may be the last sightseeing we do during the rest of our mission.

I had to get the car washed because it was just too dirty to be seen in. There was red dirt everywhere – inside and out. They did a really good job getting it clean.

When I got home Mary said that she had an appointment with the doctor to see about her leaking incision at 12:30. Before that we went to see Queen Seoka and found out about the funeral on Saturday and to give her some donations that came from former couples who had served in Richards Bay to help with the funeral expense. After that there was a quick stop at mama Zulus to drop off the address of the ward her son should go to in Joburg. Our final stop in Enseleni was at the Vilanes.

I had a very nice talk with president Vilane and got him in contact with president Vezi so he could ask him to please help with the funeral because president Vilane is not well enough to do it. We talked about what the branch could do to support the family and the funeral. He also told me some of concerns he has and I reminded him that he was chosen to lead the branch and therefore he had the authority to what he felt was necessary. He is a great man and will someday be one of the strongest leaders in the area. Richards Bay has some fine branch presidents and if they can get and train some counselors the basis for a strong stake will be forged.

We then drove to Port Durnford so we could drop some things off at the Chriwas. Paul is clearing off a large plot of ground for a garden. They have not had one for at least a year and they really need it so they can have fresh vegetables for their family. We also dropped off Sandile’s mission paperwork and told him we would take him to apply for his passport in the next week. I called president Nyawo to see if we could do it in Esikhawini and later he called back to say that it could only be done in RB or Empangeni.

We then drove back to RB and Mary’s appointment. Doctor Kelling had her get an x-ray to see the condition of the area around the mesh. While she was doing that – they said it would be over an hour before they could get to her – I took care of some of the items on our list of things to do. I got material for more drapes at Enseleni, picked up the sign for Engwelezane, and goodies for the DDM at Empangeni tomorrow. About that time Mary called to say that she was back at the doctors and a little later that unfortunately she had to go back in for another operation tomorrow. It seems that there is a fluid build up around the mesh and he must clean that up. However he said that he was not concerned and she should only be in for about five days. Of course she will then have to take it easy so I am pretty sure that we will not be going to Durban on Thursday unless the Lord quickly heals her.

She is of course not happy about this but I must say that she is taking it probably better than I am. At least she knows what to expect tomorrow – that is a lot of waiting, the operation and then some recovery. It also means I will be waiting a long time.



07 June 2010

07 June 2010 – Monday

We went with the Zone to Umfolozi and spent about 4 hours touring the park. We were only inside the park 2 K or less when we came upon a group of 6 lions lying in the grass about 200 yards from the edge of the road. Unfortunately they were pretty much hidden by the grass and trees but some of them got up and walked around so the elders did get to see them clearly. It was the first game drive for elder Webster and imagine his camera was really clicking. Later we saw a group of five lions resting on the bank of the river and although they were quite a distance away they could be more clearly seen through our binoculars.

We managed to find a large herd of Cape buffalo, 3 rhinos – one of them quite close and drinking from the river, and one lone elephant. Of course there was the usual zebras, nyalas, wildebeests, and wart hogs. We only saw one giraffe but it was also drinking and that is always an interesting site. Since the elders wanted to get back to do their shopping and e-mail we had a quick lunch and said goodbye to them.

We then went on to the Hluhluwe. We were not having much luck in finding any animals – not even zebras or nyalas. We did have one elephant come out of the bush just as we were passing and storm across the road behind us. But that was it until we got to the part of the loop where we had found the large herd of elephants when the Mickelsens were with us.

We found a family of five rolling in the mud and then throwing dirt over their back. They were just finishing up when another group came in and this continued until we actually got tired of seeing them roll in the mud and decided to go further down the road. We did manage to see a small herd of wildebeest that we scared off the road as we came up but nothing else until we got back to the elephant hole where new ones had moved in. We watched a little while longer and then left them to enjoy the mud. We did get lots of pictures.

On another loop we found two cape buffalo having a great time in a large mud hole. The female even got up and showed off for us. As we continued down the loop Mary mentioned that we had seen only the one giraffe and she really would like to see more. Five minutes later we came across a herd of them spread out on either side as well as on the road and so we watched until we were again tired of seeing them.

We continued the loop and had to pass once more where we found the giraffes and they not only had not moved, but more had come. One of the big males took up a position blocking about half the road and since we had heard that their kick could easily break out a window or seriously dent the car we decided to wait until he moved. But he was not about to move and it was only when I started honking the horn that he moved enough to let us get safely by. It is not often in a lifetime that you get trapped by a stubborn giraffe. We then went to a lookout where we could see another large herd of giraffes mixed with zebras. Mary certainly could not complain about  not  seeing many giraffes.

As we headed for the Memorial Gate to come home, I said that we had a great day but we had not really got anywhere near a rhino. We had seen two at a long distance and one other one lying down under a tree but none standing where we could get a good look. Less then a minute later as we were driving along I noticed a rhino coming out from behind a bush and then noticed that there were a couple more already out. We stopped the car and a total of 6 rhinos came out to munch on the grass. They kept moving closer and closer to the road until one was about  20-30 feet away at the most. We got lots of great pictures but I carefully kept the car running and in gear just in case one of them decided we were upsetting their meal time.

As we left the rhinos I said I wondered if we started complaining about not seeing any leopards that a group of them would come walking out of the brush and pass by the car. Unfortunately what worked for giraffes, rhinos and elephants did not work for leopards. But we still had a wonderful P-day at the game park.

The drive home was not fun at all. The N2 was very busy, there was construction, and lots of slow trucks and high-beam lights. It seemed like it was a lot longer than a one hour drive from the gate. I was more than ready to pull into our garage and turn off the car after being in it for almost 12 hours.



06 June 2010

06 June 2010 – Sunday

It was one of those Sundays that makes a couple feel needed but also shows how the branches may have come to depend too much on us for some things.

We picked up the Esikhawini elders and took them to the chapel. We then picked up the Nyawos and brother Nkosi for PEC. However we could not stay for it because we had to run home and get the baptismal programs for Esikhawini that we managed to leave on the counter. We will have to make some arrangements for getting them done when we leave.

We went to Esikhawini’s sacrament and enjoyed the testimonies of the members. I tried to write down the main thoughts of each testimony. I find it helps me to listen and feel the testimonies. There were a number of investigators at the meeting and the elders were very pleased.

As we were getting in our car we found that I left the phone there and a number of calls had come in from the Enseleni elders. I called them and found that they did not have any sacrament cups. Usually we keep sacrament cups in the boot – something I had learned from brother B – but I took the box out because the latch was broken. I thought that would not be a big problem because I could just borrow some from Esikhawini until they could get an order in. Unfortunately Esikhawini  had used their last cups for today’s sacrament. It was a blessing for them that I checked or they would have been without any next week and we would not be there to help them. But this meant we had to go back to our boarding once again and pick up some sacrament cups and take them to Enseleni.

When we got there, the elders said that president Vilane wanted to come to church so we went and picked up him and his family. I asked if he was sure he felt up to going and he insisted he was. I told him if he got sick because of going that sister B would thump us both on the head.

I had forgotten that president Baldwin was coming to Enseleni to interview a brother to be branch clerk. He presided and brother Chiliza conducted. Brother Chiliza continues to get better at conducting and in a couple of more months he should be able to do it with little or no help.

After sacrament president Baldwin had his interview and afterward we talked for a while about the call and about his plans for when we leave. He is going to have the members of the District Council watch over the branches more closely and that will be a wonderful step in making the District self-sufficient.

I almost forgot that president Vezi had sent us an SMS saying that he needed tithing envelopes and that is one thing I could not help him with. President Baldwin is going to have the district order extra sacrament cups, tithing envelopes and other supplies that the branches might need that they can not safely store so they are available as needed.