Hi Everyone!
It's raining again, and when I go out in the yard I feel like I'm in a rain forest! It just gets greener, and greener. And more flowers are showing up everywhere, including along the sides of the roads. It actually smells fragrant lots of places.
Before I start catching up on our activities, I thought I'd share a few of the "different" sights and sounds that we have here. Just close your eyes, and imagine you're in Durban with us. (These will be pretty random.)
Outside our house is noisy - very few cars go past, but early in the morning we start hearing birds. Hadedas, as Elder Barnes has suggested, are like a cross between a seagull and a crow. They are LOUD! And we have 2 pair that come by early every morning, and at dusk. They are the first new bird I noticed here. We also have a bird that sounds like it's whistling at a pretty girl; one that is simply a plain whistling note (the first time I heard it, I thought there was someone out in the yard); one with a 6-note call that the Zimbabweans imitated, chanting "Your FAther drinks LAger"; and several others that vary from musical to simply annoying!
We also have either a bird or an insect that sounds like a piece of equipment squeaking, one that sounds like an alarm going off, and one that sounds like a cellphone ringing. I am not kidding - I have gotten up to check all of them.
When we go outside at night, the backyard sounds like lots of crickets; the front yard sounds like lots of bullfrogs. I'm going to try to tape it, just for the record.
Twice in the last month, a few days after heavy rain, we have had a "snowstorm". At least it LOOKED like a snowstorm! We encountered this in Zimbabwe, too. It's actually hundreds of flying termites (Isoptera - yes, I looked them up). The kings and queens have 4 fragile wings that look white as they fly up at lights in the dark. If you drive through a crowd (herd? pod? gaggle?) it looks like snowflakes swirling in the air. After a short time of crashing into the lights, they fall to ground and run around like crazy, popping up from the ground a few inches, then dropping again. As they flap their wings, the wings fall off, two at a time. The ground is then covered in white - and inch-long brown crawling termites, looking for mates. Then it's covered with couples, the less said the better.
Last week, in addition to wings and termites, our driveway was also crowded with elders: Elder Braun (general secretary), Elder Woodward (financial secretary), Elder Larsen and Elder Hyatt (Assistants). They were scooping up the termites, in order to place them in frying pans, fry them, and eat them. They filled two small frying pans, and ate them all. I am advised that they tasted buttery, and did not crunch. Perhaps we need to look at a larger monthly allotment for food...
The exit sign to New Germany, and our chapel, has a big yellow stripe of paint with the words "SLEGS ONLY". What's a sleg?
At the mall, I often see a Muslim woman covered from head to toe in black, with only a slit for her eyes, talking on a cellphone. It just doesn't seem right...
The choirs (and congregations) often sing without accompaniment - and stay in tune! (Actually, many of the congregations have to sing without a piano because no one can play. Apparently, there was a couple here a few years ago serving a "musical" mission. The wife gave 5000 keyboard lessons while they were here. We could use another musical couple...?)
You can get Pringle Potato Chips in regular and sour cream, but the local crisps (chips) come in a whole variety: sweet chili pepper, salt and vinegar, peri-peri, tikka, and a lot I can't remember.
The maple syrup isn't, unless you buy a little bottle of Canadian Maple Syrup for 350 rand ($5). Actually, we do that once in awhile!
Well, that's a start. I don't want to give everything away in one update. So here's the news:
We said goodbye to the Ashtons (of Nseleni Drop-In Center/home-made dolls fame) last week. We hated to see them go. Just a note: their son-in-law is opening a Thai restaurant on Redwood Road in South Jordan (Salt Lake area) next month: we'll let you know where it is as soon as we know.
We also welcomed to terrific new couples from Utah: the Klinglers and the Hafens. The Hafens headed up to Richards Bay with the Beazers for a few weeks, then Beazers will head home and they'll have the whole district to themselves! The Klinglers are in Newcastle, but first we gave them one of our "Welcome to South Africa" specials. Picture this: the Klinglers arrived, after that horrible two day trip from Salt Lake, with long layovers and nowhere to go. The next morning, the office elders pick them up from the bed and breakfast (they've not been in South Africa roughly 24 hours) and stop at the mall for some needed items. While they are in the computer store in the lower level, they hear gunshots echoing through the mall. The store manager drops the metal grate, and herds everyone into a back, windowless storeroom.
After about 20 minutes, Elder Woodward insists they have to leave. As they take the glass elevator (lift) up, they can see police milling around a jewelry store, and yellow tape everywhere, blocking off the 2nd floor and it's entrances. Apparently, 3 robbers held up at least 1 jewelry store (some stories make it 3, but that's hard to imagine). A security guard fired off some shots, hitting one robber, and getting hit himself. The robbers got away, and that's all I know so far.
The Klinglers were quite calm about it, so I know they're the "right stuff" for this mission. We just think of these occurrences as great stories to tell when we go home (or on our blogspots). Seriously, though, we do take precautions with all our missionaries, but as we all know, stuff happens! It just helps build our faith, is all. You won't even recognize us when we get home!
This weekend was full of activities, starting with a kick-off dinner for the 35th anniversary celebration of seminary & institute in Africa on Friday. CES Africa started in Johannesburg and Durban - of course! Hunter and Morgan will be starting their first year of early morning seminary in January. THAT'S going to be fun!
Saturday was the last basketball game of the term. It was actually very good - sadly, we lost by one point to Kearsney. On the other hand, the time keeper wasn't very good, and let seconds tick by when the clock should have been stopped, so we're assuming that with the extra few seconds that were lost, we would have won. Hunter made two baskets, then the other team started "double teaming" him, which he found extremely flattering.
This weekend was also the Hillcrest Stake Conference. Steve spoke in the Priesthood meeting, I spoke in the adult session, then he spoke and I bore my testimony, in the regular session. It was a nice turnout, but because of the long distances it was pretty much only members who have cars who could come. They really need satellite broadcasts in the buildings here. This stake actually includes Swaziland (until it becomes a mission district in a few months) which is 8 hours away. And full of members without transport. And I used to complain when I had to walk a block to the stake center!
The theme was "Come Unto Christ", and President Wilford gave a great talk about "Changing Our Spots". He mentioned the old adage that leopards can't change their spots, then assured us that we are NOT leopards. He's a psychologist who works with our missionaries when needed, and a very good stake president and speaker. I'm evaluating my spots already.
We have a new branch president in the Madadeni Branch, and tried something new to identify the members there (the computer got a virus, and the records were all wiped out). All the missionaries in the Newcastle Zone teamed up with members and went door to door for two days, in the rain, visiting 250 homes. They registered 20 people for institute, 12 for seminary, and had 18 less-actives show up at Church the next Sunday, glad to be back. We call it a Blitz.
Did I tell you about the All Africa Service Day? The last saturday of October, all the branches and wards throughout Africa identified a service project in their community, and the members and missionaries put on yellow "Helping Hands" vests, and set to work. Some cleaned up litter (205 bags in Madadeni Township alone); others worked at old-age care centers; our ward cleaned, and painted, and washed windows, and hung curtains at a primary school. It involved thousands of people, and thousands of hours of work, and everybody felt great afterwards. Some of the projects even ended up in the local papers.
Which is a lead-in for something else we're doing: I fired off an email to some of my nearest and dearest already, but I wouldn't want anyone to miss out... We have a lot of youth who are trying very hard to earn money to go to the Johannesburg Temple. They have to hire a bus, and leave at 2 am, drive 6 or 8 hours, do baptisms, and then drive back, all in one day. In a totally mission only, non Church suggested project, we are encouraging cans, baskets or bottles at young adult ward activities and youth activities, with an invitation to throw in any loose change they can spare, to get our youth to the temple before the end of the year. We're calling it "Kilometers for Christmas" (and if it doesn't work, you'll next be hearing of "Miles for May Day" and "Small Change for St. Patrick's Day"!)
Anyway, if you are associated with either young adults or youth, give us a thought.
Well, that's some of what we're doing! I love to get your emails, even though I'm not great at answering. It's time-consuming having 106 kids!
Love to all of you, from all of us,
Mom/Grandma/Susan/Sue/Sister President Mann/Secret Santa...
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