CHRISTMAS BELOW THE EQUATOR

MERRY CHRISTMAS

It's not beginning to look like Christmas
Anywhere we go

Haven't seen many trees with lights,
 Santa or mistletoe.

But, the prettiest sight to see

Was red and green

Perfectly wrapped around

the old palm tree.

 

It's not beginning to look like Christmas

We miss sparkling lights and snow

Here it is summer....

And the perspiration does flow.

We wondered if Santa would  come on

An Elephant or Giraffe

Would he be black or white

Either could make us laugh.

It IS beginning to look like Christmas

Any where we are

Because we know Christmas is in the heart

and is attached to a His shinning star!

 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Oh, we miss you all....near and far.   As you can see from the pictures our Christmas was pretty traditional in many ways.  Christmas Eve was spent going to the Baxter's playing games and eating pizza with all the missionaries.  On Christmas Day we had a great devotional with the other missionaries.  Then partook of a very traditional Christmas Dinner.  The month of December was busy making treat boxes (lots of them) for the members of the branch and for some of the people we have met in the township.  It was not much but they do get excited. 

Christmas is very low key here compared to the states.  In our branch most people do not give gifts to each other.  The celebration consists of getting together with their families and having a braai (barbeque).  No one I know of had a tree other than the Baxters (other missionary couple).  I know some of the Afrikaners (whites) do have trees and  have a more traditional (as we see it) Christmas.   There are very few outside decorations.  The Christmas program at church was a typical meeting but with  talks and music focused on Christ.  It was the first time all month that they even sang Christmas Carols in church.  We missed the good musicians in our home ward.   The best part of Christmas for us was talking to and seeing our cute little grandchildren (and of course children).  They are growing and changing so fast. They are all busy. 

Wade, Katelyn, Tessa, Bode, and baby Whitt are still living in the Middle East in Dubai. They always have fun experiences to share with us and they seem to thrive there.

Adam, Lori, Parker, Addison, and baby Cameron are still in Sandy.  They do a good job  going down and taking care of our abode there.  Addison always has lots to tell Grandma, not many secrets there.

Rian, Jim, Carter, Morgan, and Gavin are skiing fanatics and are very good.  They love all the snow! My little lovelies are very good students (honor roll) and are swimmers, skiers, soccer players and busy.  Jim and Rian visited us in September and it was very fun.

Bob and I are busy, busy.  We do like it here and love the people we work to support.  They are amazing.  Sometimes I forget my skin is white.  The work can be hard, we have not seen the branch move along as it should, but there have been some changes.  But, I know we have made a difference in the individual lives of a number of people.  We have been so appreciative of the kind generosity of our family and ward friends in supporting our work.

 

There are miracles all around us.  Nana passed in October in her 104th year.  It was a blessing.  This year we are  also thankful of the miracle of new life in birth of Cameron and Whitt.  We know that Whitt is evidence of the kind hand of our Heavenly Father.  We will be ever thankful for the many prayers and fasting from our family and friends.  Prayers do make a difference. 

As usual our thoughts this season turn to Reid.  We miss him terribly, but the sting is easing. We know he is where he should be.  And, that brings us to our thankfulness for the redeeming sacrifice of our Savior.  He lives, as does Reid and those we love, as we will also. 

 

 Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year!!

 

 

 

 

 

A MONTH FOR THANKSGIVING AND MIRACLES

Definitely one of the big sacrifices of being on a mission is leaving your family, children and grandchildren. This Thanksgiving I was on one continent and Bob on another.  He stayed in Africa had a traditional meal with the Baxters (bless Sister Baxter's heart) and other missionaries.  The next day they were off on a five hour trip to Tzaneen for a Zone Conference.

I flew to Dubai to check out the Hunts there and especially the new little Whittman Hunt.


Since leaving on the mission we have been blessed with two new Grandsons.  We are Thankful.

Mr. Cameron Robert Hunt was born in May.  With every picture I see how much he a grown and I realize I am missing a special snuggly part of his life. 

                Cameron Robert Hunt
                       Six months old



Mr. Whittman Wade Hunt arrived November 1, 2013. 

Whittman Wade Hunt

Four weeks old

 Little Whitt entered this world under very trying circumstances.  It is hard to be far from you children and know they are suffering, There were a number of very anxious days worrying about what would happen.  I am so thankful for the many, many prayers offered in his behalf.  Many of our family and friends from around the world and from many religions prayed hard for his recovery.  A testimony that God hears all righteous prayers.  Wade and Katelyn know many folks that love and support then.  While visiting in Dubai he got a clean bill of health from the pediatric neurologist.  I do believe in Miracles and Whit is one.

The month of November has been good to us through the years; Reid was born in November, Gavin was born in November (both the 16th) and now Whitt.  We are thankful.

THE CLEANING LADY

I now have a cleaning lady.  It is presumed the mission is all sacrifice and the question is why do I need a cleaner for a two room flat?  Well, I don't need one. Meeting Martha started my need for the cleaning lady.

MEET MARTHA

                                

Martha came to church one day.  She just showed up.  She was peppy and interactive with everyone.  She told me she had moved from a town between Joburg and Nespruit.  I liked her pretty much right away.   She is in her early to mid fifties with lots of energy.  She told me she joined the church in the early 90's.   

I gave her a ride home and she had me let her off on the main road.  She explained she lived like a "squatter".  I told her it didn't matter where she lived.  That I would like to come visiting teaching to her.

The next week I drove the same ladies home.  They live in a big circle of maybe 12 to 15 miles and it takes a while.  Elder and I are teaching some temple classes.  But, that Sunday Elder Hunt came out and told me that I need to take someone to the clinic. So I drove them to the clinic, dropped them, then came back and got the ladies for the big take home trip.  I could hear the ladies chatting in the back seat.  When we get to Sister Solita's House she asked me to wait for a minutes.  She ran into the little tack shop (small neighborhood store that people run out of their garages) and came back with two bags full of groceries.  After I dropped the others off Sister Martha and I were alone in the car.  I asked if she was alright.  "Ahhh Sister Hunt life is hard."

MARTH'S STORY                            

    Martha had been married and was an active member of the church.  Both she and her husband had been to the temple and had been very active.  They were never able to have children.  He did have an decent job and she sold clothing that she would go to Durban to buy, then bring it back and sell it on the streets.  She said they had build a nice home and she loved it.   Her husband had the roving eye, or as Martha tells it he liked the young girls.  One  day he came home and kicked her out of the house. He explained that his young girl friend was moving  into her home.  He physically moved her out.  He also told her that he was divorced from her.  He went to court and divorced her without her knowing it.  He took someone to be in her place pretending to be her.  She then took him to court to divorce him.  When the judge heard the story, he reprimanded the husband then motioned that she would have 1/2  of everything they had.  The husband  then started threatening her that he would have her killed if she tried to get anything.  He would hire someone and blow her away (common here in Africa).  She was trying to hide from him.  She had grown up in KaNyamazne  and had some family here, so she ran away to here.  She had no place to live.  She noted that when she had things her family were always coming to stay with her, but when she had nothing to offer them they had little interest.  That was about 5 years ago.  She thought the only church was in Nelspruit, and there is no way she had money to attend church, then one of her sister's children told her about the church in KaNyamazne.

I asked her how she got food.  "Ahhhhh, Sister Hunt, it has been so hard."  I go around to see if I can get a piece job."  Washing window, racking a yard, etc.  And that is how I got Martha the cleaning lady.  I told her she could come one day a week.  Here in SA domestic help is not expensive Rand 100 per day  ($10). Think of it $10 a day, they show up at 7:00 am.  Work until 3 or 4.....$10 a day.  All the whites here have domestic help for 5 days a week.
So I struck a deal with her to clean for me one day a week

 

and she has been coming for the past 3 weeks.  I always try to send food home with her and pay extra to pay her way home. Most weeks Elder Hunt and I drive her one way

One of her sisters sold her a small stand (building lot) in back of a house she was selling. She paid Rand 50 for it  ($5.00 American).  She then became very ill.  She started building her own house on the stand with things that she could find that had been discarded. 

THE HOUSE THAT MARTHA BUILT

This is the house that Martha built.  I has no electricity, no water, no outhouse.

It is about  8 by 10 feet.   There are not chairs, not even one to sit down on during the day.  She cooks using a paraffin stove.

She bathes in a tub in some trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



                               SIDE VIEW

 



                  

This is a view of the inside.  For a bed she puts a blanket on the floor and sleeps there.  Since working she bought herself a used foam pad to sleep on.  The rains have been bad, so she has dug a big hole around the house and piled the dirt up the sides so the water does not get in from the ground, but the roof leaves something to be desired.   

WHEN POOR IS POOR

 I can remember telling my children when they were growing up that they could not have something because, "we are poor".  I know now that most of us have no idea what poor is.  Sister Martha is a reminder of how blessed we are.  Elder Hunt took a friend of ours from the township to her house to get some advice. He has seen plenty of hardship, but when he saw this, it he had to leave for 5 minutes or so because  he was so overcome with emotions that someone had to live in such deprivation.

I explained to "Builder Bob" we have to do something about this and he agrees.

  But, for now I know I must never forget this picture.  My cute little cleaning lady, that in all reality has nowhere to clean of her own.

 

 

 

Mission Pains

"ON THE WINGS OF ANGELS, SHE TOOK FLIGHT......"

 

 

ONE HUNDERED AND FOUR YEARS, ONE MONTH, FIVE DAYS.

What a life!

 

She was born 6 years after the Wright Brother's took their first flight....she then lived to see man go to the moon.  She was there for Charles Lindberg.   She lived through World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, and all the latest middle east conflicts.  Penicillin had not been discovered when she was born.  She lived through the stock market crash and the great depression.  She got a Master's Degree from Baylor when it was unheard of for most women to go to college.  She loved Robert and Elizabeth Browning.  She survived the Flu epidemic of 1918.  When she was born women did not have the right to vote. The Empire State building was started and completed after her birth. Princess Elizabeth became queen and Disneyland opened.  The Titanic sunk and the first silent movie happened after she was born.  Al Capone went to prison and Gandhi was assassinated, as was Martin Luther King, and John Kennedy. She witnessed the civil rights movements; the lunch counter sit-in in Greensboro NC and the march on Memphis.   She was an educated, working mom. She was witty, sharp, and at times a bit sarcastic.  She was known for astute intellect and for being a well-liked teacher.   She was fiercely defensive of her children, especially her baby Bob, who always got to win the game.  She really was a women before her time.  BUT, the thing I want my children to remember is that she was a women of God.  She was a faithful Bible reader and scholar of the scriptures.   The last time I saw her she told me she wanted to move on, but it was not her will, but the Savior's.  She had a "perfect love of Christ." 

 

Well done Wynnie, you endured to the end, you patiently waited on His will.

 

The mission experience is many things...it reaches all levels of emotion for different reasons.  The news this week of Nana's passing reinforces the importance of being close to family.  A bit melancholy.

LUCKY CHARMS

Bob and I have been to Kruger three times since moving here.  We had yet to see a lion in the wild.
Rian and Jim can to visit us an our luck changed, they were  lucky charms.  It was a fun, fast visit, but it was pretty great.  We all got car-its an TB from non-stop sitting and driving.

We went out in the bush the first day to pick them up.  Out in the middle of no where were these little dancers.  They were dancing their heart out for a few Rand.

 

 

The two men were definitely calling the shots.  I am always concerned that a child may being used unethically or abused.  It was obvious they were fairly poor, even the older men were wearing tattered clothing.   As we left they asked if I was from a church and I said yes, they wondered if I could bring back could some T-shirts to fit the children.

It is such a hard call trying to determine real need or if you are being manipulated.

They were very cute, it was hot, dry, dusty and there was nothing around where they were.  It was close to Sabi Sands a private/pricey game, safari outfit.  I assume they just come there and wait for people to give them a few rand.

 

Sunday was the township day...The minute we walked in to the branch Jim was told he would do the Priesthood lesson.   It was an event,  I bet he has never had the opportunity  to teach the gospel in those surrounding ...a dirty school, no teaching aids, but people with a great heart.  I know he had similar experience in Korea.  Bob said he did a great job.

 

Monday and Tuesday it was back to Kruger and we had a great, great experience.  We saw all the Big Five:  water buffalo, elephants, a rhino, leopard, and LIONS (4 different times)!  Rarely do you get to see the Big Five in one trip, but my "lucky charms" made it happen.  Since we have posted animals in the past here are just a few of the more interesting sightings that I had not seen before.

  

 

This was the first stop after we entered Kruger was at Crocodile Bridge.  We met this guy when we went with Christy and Bob. This is an area where people get out of their cars and look although it is against the rule,  I am sure they put this person there to protect people.  This guy has been there every  time we have gone but once.   He carries a gun and works for the park.  He offered to walk us down by the crocodiles.  So away went down into the river beds and we saw some hippos and crocs.  He was nice. and showed us a few things. One thing was the frog in the rock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is amazing that there are all these fascinating smaller things that we don't associate with the jungle and bush.  Very interesting little animals that we have never heard of before we came here.

This Hippo had been attacked by something!
Note the red hide torn open on his back. 
A tracker thought it was other hippos or a lion.


.







The crocodiles are all a bit different.  Most we have seen are long and not as massive, this guy below looks likes he could do serious damage.  We were pretty close to him.   This is when you DO NOT get out of a car.  We are told that they can be fairly fast when they go for an attack. 

This pride of Lions had attacked a Kudu.  This is a large deer type animal and they were chowing down  The Kudu's horn is sticking up.  It was fascinating.  Circling the lions eating were a large group of vultures.   The most fascinating was the fact that there were 5 or 6 big Hyenas pacing around on the outskirts of the lions.  This was the first close up of Hyenas we saw.  

This was a massive elephant.  He backed our car up to the main road, not giving us any leeway.  We saw lots of elephants, this one was particularly big.  His ear on the right had big rips probably from tearing up a tree.  Most other animals would leave this guy alone.  Elephants do lots of ecological damage in the bush.  They tromp over things and literally pull big trees out of the ground.

 This is the safari car we rode in, many of the animals we saw just driving our own car with "Safari Bob".  The first time we went on one of these rides it was a BOMB!  No animals (I mentioned this in an earlier blog), but this time it was better---It was the "lucky charms".  These little bush rides are hard....4:00 pm to 7:30 pm (gets dark and cold at 6:00 pm and 5:00 am to 8:30 am.  The 5:00 am is a killer, but we saw some neat things this time.
After checking into our little hut, we went on a safari ride.  Bob, Jim, and Rian are on the look out.  When it gets dark you use spot lights to look out through the bush.  We had some younger adults (19 ish) on this ride and they had the x-ray vision.
Below is a leopard they spotted on the side of the road.  He was hard to see because of the grass.  September is a perfect month. It is the end of winter and the grasses are down.  During the summer months, November through April the grasses are high and it would have been difficult to see many of the animals we saw.  They could be close to the road, but you can't see more than a few yards into the bush.



Leopards are harder to find.  They are very solitary so you usually only see them in isolation.  This is the second one we have seen.  Cheetahs are almost impossible to see in the bush and rarely do you see them.  Maybe we will sometime.  Hopefully, our next guests will have the opportunity to be our "lucky charms".  Who will it be,  let us know.....

 

 

We have not seen Hyenas at a reasonable distance.  This time we saw a number of them.  The tracker told us that they den up together, but they stalk pray alone.  When they find something, then they alert others and they all come. 

They usually follow the lions.  The lioness makes the kill, the pride starts eating this and then the Hyenas show up to get their share.  Both of the lion kills had a gathering of Hyenas around them.  They do not attack the lions unless they are small.  The Lioness with two young lions below took off after the one in the road.  I thought we might see some action.  The lioness was fast.  She waited patiently then sprang into action.  She missed the

Hyena, but it was fun to see it. 

 

These guys are pretty creepy,  But they probably have gotten a bum wrap because of the Lion King.

 

 

 

Second Lion was a young lioness lying beside the road about 8:00 pm.  She was alone. I missed her face when she was getting up, but butt shots can be good (can't they).  I do like this pic because she looks healthy  and muscular. They lions all looked strong.  

The Lioness below is the one that chased the hyena.  She was in the third group of lions we saw.  She was a mother with two, maybe year old cubs.  There is no way the hyenas were going to get close to the younger lions.

The same mother Lioness with one of the
smaller lions to the left.  They had just killed a wart hog ( not cute) and started eating it when the hyenas showed up.

 

We stayed in these  same little huts we stayed in with Bob and Christy.  I am sure they are up to par with the major Safaris and not up to the standards of most of us "hotel snobs" but they were interesting.  A number of wart hogs were wandering around the huts.

I finally saw the lions.   As we were leaving I made the comment that we didn't get a close up of a male lion...then just as we were driving out of the park there he was, being lazy under a tree...It was a great trip to Kruger.

 

 The next day we were off to the panorama.  I have posted picture, but we did find one new waterfall.  It is probably the best so far.

 Tarzan swing on his vines as we walk up a little jungle path!

 



 

 

 Rian and Jim at the waterfall.  It is truly beautiful with crystal clear water.

A favorite spot for me!

Hats for "God Window...hot, plus we wanted to support the local economy!

 The next morning we were up bright and early and off to Joburg.  A visit to the organic market and then to The African market.

Jim made lots of bargains....and friends.

 

  

 We put our junk in the trunk....then off to the airport...then the mystery was how to stuff the junk in the bags...it did work! 

  It was a quite road home for an hour, so thankful for the visit.  It was fun!

 

But, we refocused and starting reviewing the mission work.....it never ends, but we are thankful for this opportunity...99% of the time.

 

Beautiful South Africa in Kruger Park !

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRANEOUS or NOT MUCH ABOUT NOTHING

Extraneous (irrelevant) Observations:

EXTERIOR HOUSE COLORS

Time to Paint your house here are some stylish recommendations!

 

 

   Lavender and deep Purple
    are also in vogue!

  But, the chartreuse Green is a favorite pick!




HOW TO GET YOUR MONEY OUT OF A BAKKIE

The use of the Bakkie here is one of the modern day miracles.  It is not dissimilar to the miracle feeding the four thousand with 7 loaves of bread and a few small fishes.  With less there can be more. 
Here, the miracle is the smaller the truck, the more it holds!

 

Oh ye of little faith, pile it on, it works!

   

CEMETERIES

Albert Einstein said, "the fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears,..."  That is unless you are going to be buried here...

 

 

"All places are alike, and every earth is fit for burial" - Christopher Marlowe

Well, Mr. Marlowe  are you sure about that?

In the summer the weeds and grasses are so high you can't even see it from the roadside.



 

 

 

IT NOT ABOUT THE SIZE OF THE HOUSE...IT IS ABOUT THE SATELLITE DISH

 

                                        

 

Lots of little white dots on that thar hillside!  I envy them, when I go visit them they are watching the Nigerian Soaps and I think I could get hooked on them....but, alas Elder Hunt says missionaries don't have TVs!

 

FIRES

Some say the world will end in fire,  some say in ice...(Robert Frost)

Here is SA, it will definitely be fire.

Months and months of burning the hillsides, the road sides, the field, the bush, garbage, it goes on and on and on....I do not understand how they can burn so much and not burn up their house.  I have coughed for 3 months from breathing smoke, ash, and other debris. Asthma, inhaler.....never had such bad allergies! 

 

 

 

 With fire on my mind I am reminded of "my candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night".....so I am going to bed.  

 

 

 

Beautiful South Africa!