One of the highlights of the month was the Tembisa Ward’s
Christmas party. It was announced that
it would run from noon on Saturday to 6:00 pm.
This seemed very long to us, but they never planned on starting at noon,
but at 1:00 pm. Africans are noted for
being late, and they know it as well as we do; so they set the early time. We got there about 1:45 pm and it had just
started. It was a nice party with lots
of primary age children from who knows where.
There definitely aren’t that many at church. It was good as member-kids brought their
friends and all had a good time. Tom was
asked to be Father Christmas (Santa). He
found a Santa suit that somebody in the Area Office had. It went well as the kids seemed happy to see
Father Christmas and many followed him around.
On the lawn outside the children lined up to receive a small gift from
Father Christmas. One little girl gave
him a kiss, as you see in the photo.
The other interesting thing about that party was the food
they served. Several women spent the
afternoon in the kitchen preparing the food for nearly a hundred people. A few of the men cooked the meat on the brai
(grill) outdoors by the parking area.
They served a salad that resembled cole slaw, beans with chilies and
pap. Pap is a staple food of the
natives. It looks much like mashed
potatoes but is heavier and made of maize or corn meal. It doesn’t have much of a taste, but it is
filling. They piled the pap on the
children’s plates and gave them a small serving of beans and a small piece of
meat. We wondered if the children would
eat it all. But they brought back empty
plates and were looking for more. No
utensils were served. Everyone,
including us, ate with our fingers. Also
there were no tables with chairs for everyone.
They don’t have the facilities for that.
The children all went to a couple of small classrooms and sat on the
floor. The adults ate out on the lawn or
standing up. They brought us two big
plates with salad, beans, a good portion of sausage and chicken and steak and
pap. We said we would just share one and
thanked them.
We made a trip to Luanda, Angola to
train an assistant auditor and the district presidency. It was about a 3.5 hour flight and over 1500
miles. Everything is very expensive in
Angola; a car wash is the equivalent of $50.
President and Sister Thompson fed us and let us stay at their place for
the night. We offered to take them to
dinner, but they said the traffic was so bad that they drove as little as
possible and they weren’t very impressed with the restaurants they had tried in
their neighborhood. The traffic was the
most memorable thing about Luanda. For
one thing one drives on the right side of the road there. The roads themselves are in pretty good
condition, except the major roads are at the most 3 lanes wide going one
direction and four or five lines of traffic try to squeeze in. It reminded me a little of Los Angeles
freeways, only the traffic was only inching along and cars kept barging into
our lane, motorcycles kept darting in and around, and pedestrians crossed
wherever they felt they had a chance.
Elder Eppel, who has seen a lot of Africa, says that it is the worst
traffic in Africa including Kinshasa in the Congo. To make matters worse it is impossible to make
a left hand turn off of these main roads because they have built concrete barriers
down the meridian. About every 5
kilometers they have built in places to make U turns. So to make a left someone has to drive to a
U-turn and go back the direction they came from until they come to the corner
where they wanted to turn and then make a right-turn. It makes for added mileage and traffic.
There are many modern buildings in
downtown and many under construction.
But Luanda like so many other places in Africa is a city of
contrasts. The people on the street
appear poor. And there are slums and
shanties on the outskirts of the city.
There are the little stalls along the roads (no sidewalks to speak of)
where people try to sell food, clothing, trinkets, souvenirs, tires, etc.
Several times while we were at the Thompsons the power went out and their
backup generator came on. I was glad to
return to South Africa.
The Buhamahlo orphanage in Tembisa
is one several of the missionaries here have tried to help. We went with some missionary couple to
provide the orphanage a Christmas party.
The Tshbalala family (Dominic is an employee in the Area Office) did a
Nativity and we sang Christmas carols, ate lunch and gave some gifts to the
kids. It was a fun morning and we think
the kids enjoyed it. One of the
missionary couples had rallied their family and they bought Mama an industrial
type sewing machine that she loved. In
the accompanying photo Mama is wearing a duck (headdress) and flowered
top. The Tshabalala family is in costume, the rest are the orphans and help.
On December 17th, a national holiday, the temple
missionaries and area office missionaries rode a steam locomotive train from
Johannesburg to Magliesberg which is a couple of hours west and north of where
we live. We parked the car at the
bus/train station in downtown Joburg.
Even though it was about 8 in the morning the place was filled with
people – all going somewhere with kids and baggage in tow. Our group filled one whole box car. It was a fun ride and we got to see places we
haven’t seen before such as Krugersdorp.
Most townships have shantie villages on the outskirts. The photo is one near Krugersdorp. It is hard to imagine how people live in such
places. Magliesberg was our destination
and we ate lunch there at a nice hotel and spent some time investigating the
small shops in the town. Since it was a
public holiday (Day of Reconciliation) most of the shops were closed.
Happy New Year. Time
is going by so quickly. Another week,
another month, even another year just went by.
It is a reminder to me of how precious time is and how I must make the
most of it. As we never know how much
more time we may have.
Christmas was wonderful in that we got to talk and Skype
with our children and most of our grandchildren. We spent Christmas Eve with a few other
missionaries relating our testimonies of Christ. On Christmas we shared a meal with the other missionary couples and spent the day relaxing.
Hippo on his back
The 26th of December is another national holiday in
South Africa – Day of Goodwill. We
invited the Kraczeks, a new missionary couple, to go with us to Pilanesberg which is a big game park
about two hours north of here. We arose
early and left here about 4 am. We had
been told that it is good to arrive about sunup in order to see more animals. It is one of those places where you drive
your car around the park and keep your eyes peeled to see what you can. We saw a rhino. hippos, and some giraffes in
the distance and kudus (large African antelope), impalas (small antelopes),
warthogs, wildebeest, and a large millipede up close. We also saw many colorful birds. There were a couple of places where we could
get out of the car and walk in a protected area to observe the animals more
closely. These are called “hides”. I think Americans would refer to them as
“blinds”. In one of these blinds we saw
a kingfisher (bird) with a small fish in its beak whacking the fish and
smashing it against the tree limb. I
supposed it didn’t care for a live meal. It was there we also came across a
small crocodile. Sister Kraczek really
wanted to see an elephant so she could report to her grandson that “yes, they
had seen an elephant”. The park reported
having 200 elephants, but they were hiding from us that day. The Howes, another senior missionary couple,
also were in the park that morning and they did see one on the same road we had
been on. How can you miss an
elephant? The Howes explained that even
though they are big, they blend in with the environment. The Howes also saw some fun hippo activity in
a hide. I will share a photo they
took as well as a couple we took. To see more of
this happy hippo go to my facebook page.
Photos of hippo by Sis and Elder Howes.
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