A BIRTHDAY WITH THE WILD THINGS!

Our Elders are all being transferred this next week and they really wanted to see Kruger Game Park before leaving this area.  So several weeks ago we planned a trip to Kruger  on their "P" day.   At the time I didn't realize it was my birthday, but it was neat.  I think I qualify to celebrate with the wild things. I am sure Bob will not want to be categorized with the Wild Things, he is far too nice.
We got up early to leave at 8:00 am and we did not get home until 8:30 pm.  It was a long day.  We love the Elders here.  The KaNyamaze Elders are Elder Parrish from Idaho and Elder Handirade from Zimabwae.  The Nelspruit Elders are Elder Center from Nevada and Elder Macdebe from Zimbabwe.

The Kanyamaze Elders; Elder Handirade, Elder Parrish

The animals were spectacular and many of them are enormous.  It was hard to comprehend driving down the dirt road and next to you is an elephant or giraffe.  It was interesting. 

I had many misconceptions of where the jungle animals would be.  Bob's impression was more accurate.  The animals mostly live in the bush.  It is  dry, bushy, and grassy area.  The park  itself is massive and we covered a small portion of it in 8 hours.

On the drive to the park we past miles and miles of banana trees.

Here are some pictures to help remember this little adventure.

On the way we drove past miles and miles of banana trees.  In the trees you would see white or blue bags hanging from the trees.  When the bananas come on they cover they them with bags.

In Kruger you are not allowed to get out of the automobile.  Periodically you will come across a place that is fenced.  Inside this compound you can find food, drink, and restrooms.  There are also accommodation (places to stay for the professional safaris).  The trucks are typical of most safari vehicles.

This elephant was upset.  His ears were flapping very fast.  The driver of the Mercedes was backing up slowly to avoid getting him more agitated.  We can up behind him in our car.  After a few minutes he turned and went into the bush.  He was enormous.  The largest elephant I have ever seen.   A week after we were there an elephant attacked a car with two Chinese national tourists.  It was 6:30 in the morning.  It flipped the car over and one person had to be air lifted to a hospital.

The crocodiles are nothing to mess with.  They are big!

Baboons Everywhere!

Wildeabeast

Rhinos are becoming very endangered.  Every day there are articles in the news papers about Rhino poaching.  They dehorn them and then use the horns for some potion in the orient.  They get a lot of money for the poachers so it has been hard to deal with them.  There are heafty fines and jail time for poaching and it is a big national news item here.

Warthog...really interesting animal.

South African Fish Eagle

The giraffes are beautiful.  The patterns and coloring vary.  Some of the markings are very intense.

 



This picture was taken as we were leaving the park.  The sunsets here are spectacular.  I have never seen anything like them.  

We feel very blessed to be in this beautiful and intriguing land.  It is very foreign from what we are use to. 

In addition to the beauty of the landscape is the beauty of the African people.  They are warm, appreciative, and generally a very happy people. We love them already.



THE BRANCH

TALK ABOUT ANTS IN YOUR PANTS!!

There was a first for me yesterday at church , so it has motivated  me to share about our branch.  As I have indicated we work with a branch in a township about 30+ miles away.  It has been the best part of the mission.  I love the people there.  They remind me of  people that have ultimate faith and they love the church.  This is such a great example.  There is a problem also, when they get baptized they often do not follow through with the priesthood and other ordinances.  We are working on that.

The branch meets in a school.  There is a law that schools have to let churches use their building on the week-ends.  So that has been an event.  Right before we arrived the principal locked them out of the school for a number of weeks.  An area facilities person came and met with him then he unlocked it.  But, it has been limited use.  Most classes have been meeting outside etc.  But,  Elder Hunt has been working hard to gain a trust with principal and it has been working (they are tight).  Bob shares his goodies with him and his sandwiches and he is  cordial to Bob.  He is an interesting personality. A very in charge kinda a guy and most others are hesitant around him. Meeting in the school is part of story about the experience at church yesterday.

Below is a typical class room.  They are fairly sterile school classroom with very limited supplies, a few work books.  Not much motivation for learning.  This is where we have our sacrament meeting, Gospel Doctrine, and Relief Society.  

The classrooms have these desks that two students sit at.  Most of the chairs have cracked seats and after sitting on them for a while you eventually get a pinched butt.   Most of the classes for church have been being held outside  any where they can find shade.  The primary and the relief society have been using the only two available rooms.   In meetings Bob has had with the principal he has agreed to now let us use  6 or 7 classrooms.  This will be a big change.  There are no church teaching materials.  I am trying to put a little mobile library together.  I bought some pictures at the distribution center and some CD, scriptures, etc.  Every thing used for church comes out of our boot(trunk) or the Elder's Bakki (truck).  It is literally a church supported by wheels. 




 

NOW TO THE ANTS IN MY PANTS!

We got to church Sunday morning at about 8:15 and there were about 500 people there sitting in the court yard on chairs.  I am thinking this church is really growing!  But, the principal was having a school meeting with the parents. He said they would be done at about 9 or 9:15.  At 10:15 everyone starts having a church class anywhere they can find. The primary went to the front yard of someone across the street, the gospel doctrine went up on the hill and sat on the ground, then the RS stayed there after the gospel doctrine, the priesthood went to the corn patch, young men and women's went somewhere out in the trees.  I was amazed at the resilience of the teachers, they knew that if they didn't get going there would be no church. 

But,  there are ants all over the place here, African man eating ants (not really) so after sitting on the ground for a while I had ants in my hair, ants on my arms and legs, ants in my underwear, ants all over the place. 

 

Relief Society on the ant hill.  Ichy, Ichy!

 





A Primary class in the neighbors yard!!!

The church has some land in KaNyamaze and they are trying to work things out to put up something.  Pleeeease say your prayers that something will work out so there can be a church building here.

 

MEMBERS OF THE BRANCH

 

The members of are very strong and have interesting stories.  The vary greatly in means and what they have.  I am going to show  a few pictures then add something on the caption. Throughout the blog I will mention members at various times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The cute Elders  that work with our branch.  They are very hard workers and have been really fun.  Elder Parrish is from Idaho (Napa) and Elder Handirade from Zimbabwe.  One day he will be an awesome leader in Africa.  There is really no family support and he has sustained himself in this missionary work.  He was transferred yesterday and we will miss him a lot.

 

Sister Nobela is a great lady.  One of the few endowed members here.  She never had any children, but has reared a grundle of them and still is taking in infants and taking care of them.  Many of them are the children of relatives.  Her husband (a non member) passed away in June, 2012.  She  wears dark clothing for a year.  She does not speak in public etc.   But, she is a very neat lady and has a strong testimony.

 



 

 Bob with Brother Banda.  He is building the house behind them.  It is large and one I showed in the prior post on where people stay.  Bro. Banda owns a few taxi's and I assume he does well.  Taxi's are a big business here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Family! This is an awesome dad.  The boy in the green shirt and girl in orange top are members.  Dad comes every week.  They walk 7 to 10 miles one way because they do not have the money for a taxi.  The mom and youngest girl stay at home because the little girl can't walk that far and if they do have taxi money, there is not enough for all of them to come.  The parents cannot be baptized because they are unmarried.  He still needs to pay the Lebola.

Sister Grace is a personal favorite.  She is older 75 ish and she has lots to say.  I just don't get it all.  She walks along way to church and some Sunday's it is too much for her.  But, she is a character and fun.  I did a favor for her and she kept saying, "I knowd you are smart"   funny!

 

 

 

Bro and Sister Mobika live in a tiny one room apartment.  No bathroom facilities.  They have to walk outside and down the way to a toilet.  They sell goods and it is piled high in their apartment. They are from Zimbabwe and came here to work because there  was no work for them.  He is a counselor in the branch.  He is a very humble man.  Everything they make goes back Zimbabwe to support their children.  All of the people from Zimbabwe leave their children back there because they feel the South African Schools are inferior.  I understand that is true.

 

 

 

 

 

We are making great memories and most of them have to do with the people we work with.  We are learning lots!

We keep praying that the doors will be opened  and that a church can be built here for these folks.

 

A final note:



I love this camera!!!

WHERE PEOPLE STAY

Many of you have inquired as to where people live and where I live.  It is interesting here.  If you ask a person where they live or where their home is, they look at you like you are from another planet and most have no idea what you are talking about.  It is "where do you stay"; if people rent or own you refer to "where do you stay".   I am going to show you some place where people stay.

I am going to start with the townships.  The home there vary as you will see from the pictures.  Most townships seem to be similar.  Some interesting information is that many do not have running water.  All washing is done in 3 big tubs.  One with soapy water, one clean for rinsing, and one with lots of downy.   And, those ladies really know how to wring out those clothes.  The whites are unreal.  No yellow or grayish. 

Most take baths in these big long oblong plastic tubs (I would be in deep do-do) I could not every get my chubbiness down in one of these things. Many homes do not have running water, then others do.




I did finally find a place to get my hair cut...





And you should see the hair!


  Below are homes  where the poorest stay

Along the roadside you will see these little make shift home made out of cardboard, pieces of tin, plastic or any thing they  can find.  They grow gardens, hang out their clothes etc.  I am told that workers live here and it could be, there usually is a sawmill  or roadwork etc close.  But, they have nothing and I mean nothing. Cute children can be seen playing outside.

Here is an example of homes you find in the township all townships are similar.  They are massive in size. The homes range in size from very humble to large nice homes. Despite the size some homes have beautiful little yards and some have no maintained yard. 


A number of people live in these little shacks.  Sometimes they will have started a block home near, They will start a home and it take years because they build as they have money.

There are many of these.  No water, but it does have electricity because I have seen a light on in the night,  It could be a lantern  You will find these scattered on the hills and through out the township

The average home:

There are many of these smaller homes that were built by the government.  They are 20x15, Two bedrooms and a long room that is a kitchen and sitting area. 


There are many homes that are a bit larger that people build.  Many homes are half started and are built as they get money.  So it is  little by little.

And then some people are building large homes.  These are fairly modern.  Overall the all construction is "iffy".  Cinder Block type house then they mud over it. Looks something like stucco, not as refined.  Some people choose brick.

The blocks and bricks are for sell all over the township, they are hand made


The roads in the township are horrendous!.  We need a jeep or something!

 



Where We "Stay"
Bob and I live in Nelspruit.  It is a very beautiful little city. It is modern.  The stores are great.  There are two malls.  They are a little smaller than the mega malls at home, but they have nice stores and everything you would need and want.  They also have China City (deals of the Centrury) and lots of in between stores.  The down town area is okay, but there are a few streets that are "no nos"  I did drive through them accidently, it was interesting, as I mentioned before they do hair braiding on the street, using the same comb over and over, they do nails etc.
Grocery stores re nice.   You can get anything you want or need here. The medical is very uncomplicated.  It you have an ill go talk to the pharmacist at a Chem store (drug store) and he will tell you what to go ask the pharmacy tech for and they give it to you.  Typical thing you go to the doctor for in the US do no require doc prescriptions here. Getting rid of the government red tape could save a lot of medical costs in the US.
Traffic is interesting and there all these people that sell things, beg, etc in the middle of the street.  I am always afraid I am going to hit someone.  



Nelspruit Cityscape from a freeway driving into Nelspruit.   It is  sub tropical climate and very nice.  It can warm and humid in the summer.  It is fall now and it has been WONDERFUL!!

 

We have a nice flat in Nelspruit (really I think we should live in the township) but this is nice. It is in a gated community of about 150 Units.  Lots of cute kiddies playing around. 

It is two bedroom, two bathrooms, Kitchen and living open space.  When we got here it had a brown sofa, red chair and interesting table with no matching chairs (that is the style you know) in the living room,   one bedroom had two twin bed, and a master bedroom with bright red drapes, a queen bed, two night stands, and a desk.   That was it.  We have changed it some.  Here are some pictures

Living room and patio
Everything is secured by bars and the windows are open most of the time

Kitchen



The Bathrooms

Master Bath

 



Guest Bath

  

BEDROOMS

 

Guest Bedroom

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are very comfy here....I do miss my house, especially when I am cooking like crazy,  We love this experience.....I just didn't realize that the work would be so hard.....When will I ever retire???