Christmas, Monkeys, Lions & Elephants! Week 46

 We did some Christmas preparations this week, of course.  We enjoyed the holiday, got things done in the Mission Office, and had some adventures.

We had invited Elders who also live in our building to pot-luck Christmas Eve dinner, so Sue decided it was finally time to spruce up the front entrance.  

When previous senior missionaries lived here there were wonderful potted plants outside our door, but with young Elders living here for eight months, they didn't think to water them.  Some were dead, others pretty bedraggled.  Sue started watering the living ones and they are coming back.  She also went to this wonderful Tropical Nursery and bought some plants to fill the empty pots. 

 It's the most amazing place!  There are paths that wander up a hillside with any kind of plant imaginable.  She bought a six-pack of six herbs and planted them in two pots.  

She bought nasturiums for a hanging pot gadget so they can grow down like the ones we love from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  

Sue also asked for a "bag of potting soil, or mix."  When they started to load up her cart with SIX bags of potting soil she realized there had been a mistake, and got an instant refund on five of the bags.  The cashier also asked Sue if she would like a Christmas tree?  This was on 23 December, and so Sue said no -- we had one.  But then the woman said, "But they are free!"  Sue is never one to turn down anything free, and told them to put one in the car.  It is a live tree and growing in a pot and about five feet tall!  At home Sue couldn't lift it out of the car at all -- too heavy.  When the young Elders walked by on the way to their apartment downstairs, Sue asked them to please pull the tree out of the car, and they could have it.  That made them excited.  Elder Russell carried it down to their apartment.  They even found a string of lights for it!  Next week we'll take it over to the Mission Home and plant it in their yard.  

Biggest accomplishment in the office this week for Sue was getting all the electric and water purchases straight.  For most of the mission apartments the utilities are paid directly either to the landlord or to the local utility company -- just like at home.  But we have at least eight where the electricity and/or water are on a meter that has to be 'fed' when it gets low.  This is done by going to a store -- like the grocery store or household goods store -- and buying some power or water by giving the clerk the meter number.  We usually buy 1,000 Rand at a time (ca. $65) and it lasts a month or so. We get a receipt with the meter number and a 20-digit PIN.  Put the PIN into the meter to refill the system.  We learned about this system when we were here in March.  We have a small pink box with an envelope for each apartment that needs this.  

The idea is to keep one purchase ahead.  The missionaries inevitably call late at night, after they get home, to say their power is gone.  It's easy to give them an already-purchased PIN.  Then next time we go to the store we can buy a replacement and have it on hand when needed again in the future.  However, during the lock-down and our absence the whole system fell apart.  The Assistants to the President took over buying power and water, but they didn't know about buying one ahead, and we never thought to tell them.  Sue made new envelopes and figured out who needed power or water soon and who needed the extra one ahead.  And she put it on a G-sheet that she can see from her phone.  

Those late-night phone calls are now easy.  Send a text to the Elders with the new PIN, erase it from the G-sheet, and make a note to buy more for that apartment. Whew!

Ken's big accomplishment in the office this week was getting all the bills paid.  Things were way behind.  And besides that, the accountants in Johannesburg and Salt Lake want all the 2020 bills paid before the end of the year, right?  And with the holidays that meant requests for payments really needed to go out by 23 December.  Usually rents are sent out on 25th of each month, but he had to get all those done early this month. He felt like Jacob Marley's ghost!  It's summer vacation, besides being Christmas.  School is out and everyone is traveling.  Many, many offices are closed from 23 Dec to 4 January. 

One of our granddaughters asked about different Christmas traditions in South Africa.  It's summer, so the big traditions are to do Braai (BBQ) and go to the beach!  This year, theoretically, most beaches are closed 21 December to 4 January due to COVID, but unfortunately people are not complying.  Back in April/May the police were arresting people who went out, but they aren't doing that anymore and the COVID rates are rising.  But nothing like at home.  California is over 2.1 million cases for its 40 million people.  South Africa is just under 1 million cases for its 60 million people.  

We enjoyed our Christmas dinner with the Elders, and a quiet Christmas morning.  

Our big gift was the "home gym," that is, one exercise ball, an exercise band, two 4 kg (8.8 lb) weights and a jump rope.  We can't go to the gym here, and we are doing too much sitting at computers.  The goal is to do either thirty minutes of exercises, or a good long walk every day.  Walking is strenuous, because anywhere we go is uphill in both directions.

We also got matching socks in South African colors.  We liked the package that said "Together we can de-feet anything."

Christmas morning was quiet, but the afternoon gave us a little excitement.  It was such a nice day, about 73F, that we turned off the noisy A/C and opened the doors and windows.  Ken was sitting at the desk.  Sue was on the couch reading.  

All of a sudden there was a funny noise by the door.  A monkey came in through the bars on the outer door and stole the plastic bag of left-over Christmas dinner rolls that were sitting on the counter!!  

It happened so fast we couldn't believe it.  Ken got out the camera and took some photos of the monkeys eating our rolls up in the parking lot and on the hillside.  (Notice the baby hanging on Mom's tummy.)  They are sneaky little critters!  

When Sue wanted a photo of the front door to put here in the blog she opened the door and a monkey was sitting right outside waiting to come in again. She put another baggie of English muffins in the spot where the original rolls were.  Ken later found the first empty plastic bag out in the yard.

 

Saturday night Sue was cooking dinner and looked outside -- not a monkey in sight, so she opened the door again for air.  A few minutes later a monkey dashed in again, but didn't get anything this time.  He was headed for Sue's Christmas bag of peanut M&Ms.  He had another biscuit in his hand, but it wasn't from our house.  (We found out where else he's been sneaking into:  the Elders in the apartment below us!)  He sat right outside our door and watched us chastise him for coming into our kitchen!

Christmas evening we enjoyed talking to kids and grandkids all over.  They were having good Christmases, too.  We are so grateful for the Internet and instant face-to-face communication!  We got to see Nia's new pet mouse and Myra's new pet fish.  The Schmalbecks and Allens got to tell us thanks for the ping-pong tables we sent.  (Isn't on-line ordering wonderful?)  And we got to tell them thanks for the goodies they ordered for us from Take-a-Lot (South African equivalent of Amazon.)

President & Sister Lines invited us to go out to Natal Lion Park with them on Saturday afternoon.  During the lock-down it was one of the few places open, because you ride around and never get out of your own car.  The Lines had taken all the missionaries there -- in small groups.  On the way there we passed some Zebras just hanging by the side of the road.  

At the park you drive around inside the lion pen.  They come right up to the car and stare!  Windows have to stay shut!  

You can see the cubs up in this tree.  Simba and Nala?

We then drove to another part of the park and had an up-close with Emma the Elephant.  Ken put together a great video of our first animal outing.  

It was a beautiful day, and the Lines kept commenting about how green and lush everything was.  Last time they were here was last June -- middle of winter when everything was dry.  

These cactus trees are huge!

We are so grateful to be here in this beautiful country, but it is hard to still be isolated.  We don't go to church or anyplace with crowds of people. We are looking forward to the time when we will be able to attend church and share our mission time with the people of South Africa.  In the meantime we are grateful we can still attend our home congregation in Palo Alto via Zoom. 

Especially this time of year we most appreciate our Savior Jesus Christ -- His birth, His life, and His sacrifice for us that we may all have eternal life.  We have enjoyed listening to Christmas Crèche concerts from prior years, and the special Christmas devotional for missionaries by Apostle Neil Andersen and his wife.  Their message reminds us why we are really here -- to share the true story of Jesus Christ and the restoration of His Church in modern times.  

Zoning In -- Week 45

 

We had Zone Conferences this week.  This is the opportunity every six weeks to get together with all those serving in our area. With the Mission so small, we are down to just two zones.  One is Durban Zone that runs north/south along the coast.  The other is Hillcrest Zone that runs east/west inland along the main travel route.  We are in Hillcrest Zone, so we spent Saturday with the 17 Elders who serve in this area and also President and Sister Lines.  The two Zone Leaders lead the meeting for teaching and training.  These are such wonderful young men!  Notice we are all sitting in pairs, and only on every-other pew.  It's hard to keep them all social distanced.

This was our Christmas Zone Conference.  President Lines gave a wonderful presentation about Christmas Gifts from the Savior.  We hope you will see this and recognize what the true Spirit of Christmas is.  

After four hours of meetings we had lunch, and Sister Lines had a Christmas treat for each Elder--a giant candy bar and a home-made gingerbread boy. 

We had the premier performance of the 2020 South Africa Durban Mission video.  Ken put it together from lots of photos others gave to him, and a few he took. 

And we played a gift exchange game.  Everyone put a wrapped gift into the middle of the circle (yeah, the social distancing didn't happen.)  One person opens a gift.  The next person can open another one, or take a gift that is already opened by someone else.  In that case, the person without a gift gets to choose another one, or take from someone else.  This goes on until everyone has a gift. 

One that is taken can only move three times.  After that whoever has it gets to keep it.  The most popular items were a package of Oreos and these amazing sunglasses.

There always has to be the formal portrait of the group.  President Lines and Ken were busy doing the photography.  (Somewhere is a photo from the timed camera with both of them included.) 

And when Zone Conference is over we give the building a good cleaning so it is ready for Church on Sunday.  Church meetings are starting to happen here, but with smaller groups, of course.

We had Zone Conference at the Pinetown Chapel, about 10 km west of where we live.  It's on the top of a hill and has a wonderful view.  This area is all green and full of very steep hills.

There is some kind of big building project that is going to happen next door to us.  All week from 7 am to 5 pm a bulldozer has been carving out a flat place from the steep hillside.  It will be interesting to see what that area looks like in a year when we go home.

Every home or apartment has its quirks, and ours here is no exception.  Our geyzer (pronounced geezer) hangs above the bathroom sink.  That's a hot water heater in USA English.  You can see there is an interesting mess of pipes coming out of it.  

We were interested to see this laminated instruction sheet on the shelf next to the bathtub/shower.  And we are so glad to have it!  Because of the way the pipes work, there is always an air pocket in the hot water line to the shower.  We are glad we know how to clear it.

Those not interested in techie stuff can skip this part:  Thursday afternoon we lost our Internet connection in the office.  We could "see" the network printer and our local server, but nothing outside the building.  Sue called Church Tech Support in Johannesburg.  He looked at the network (remotely) and said we had an IP address into the office, but there was none on Sue's computer.  He sent over a local contractor, Len, who helps with this.  He thought he had us up and running, but it would stay up and then go away five minutes later.  Then it seemed to be stable, so we all went home for the night.  Friday morning we came in to no Internet.  Ouch!

The big problem is for Elder Thwani.  He is in the office each day from 10 am to 5 pm for his Missionary Training Center classes.  In the days before COVID, MTC was done live in Johannesburg for three weeks.  Now the African Elders come here and do it online in the office.  (In the USA most missionaries do it from home before they go to their missions because they have home Internet access.  Less common in South Africa.)  We set up Elder Thwani to do his MTC on Ken's iPhone and called Len again.  He spent all day trying to figure this out.  He replaced a 24-port switch and had to bypass the firewall because he didn't have the correct switch configuration settings from Church Tech in Salt Lake.  Ken liked that--it meant YouTube wasn't blocked.  :o)  But Len will come back on Monday with the settings.

We have a suspicion of what caused the problem.  The office has a dual power system.  One side goes through a UPS--uninterruptible power supply.  It runs the computers and monitors when the power is out.  We've talked before about Load Shedding--the planned power outages in two-hour blocks.  The office cleaning lady had come on Thursday and plugged the vacuum cleaner into the power strip in the conference room that has a small switch and two computers plugged into it.  It seems that the small  switch is now bad and was causing lots of grief.  And one of the computers also appears to have a bad network card.  So next week when she comes to clean we will identify where she can plug in the vacuum and where not!

It's hard to believe Christmas will be here in just a few days!  Especially when it is 90 degrees and 85% humidity.  Christmas in the middle of summer just feels a little odd.  In South Africa they call this the Festive Season.  It is a time to be festive and happy and share in the joy of life.

However, no matter the time of year or the weather, this is the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  He came to give each of us the greatest gift of all--Eternal Life. 

We do hope you each have a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  

Settling In, again -- Week 44

We are back at work in the office doing what we were called to do.  We wrote a blog post last February called "Settling In."  Now we are doing the same thing all over again. 

Monday was our day off to cope with jet lag, go grocery shopping, etc.  We did some rearranging in the apartment, too.  Sue changed some of the kitchen cabinet contents around for what she thinks is more convenient.  We bought light bulbs for the bedroom nightstand lamps, and a plastic three-drawer small cabinet for under the bathroom sink.  And we started to get used to driving again on the "wrong" side of the street.  It's interesting that STOP signs here are a "suggestion."  While we were gone a little progress was made on the freeway interchange construction near our home.  However what they did do was remove all the electric traffic lights and put in portable STOP signs instead.  It's about three blocks of free-for-all.  But they had to do that, because it is going to be a four-lane road.  Before they get there it is two lane road, but sometimes on one side of the center divide and sometimes on the other side.  Each time we drive to the office and home again it seems like the traffic patterns are different.

Tuesday we met in the office with our wonderful Elders Mananga and Mbaki who were supporting the mission in the office for eight months while we were away.  We figured out where things were--on the desks, in the drawers, and on the computers.  We each set up our desks with two monitors.  We are used to working that way.  

President and Sister Lines took us all out to lunch on Tuesday to celebrate our return and to say Thank You to the Office Elders for their good work for the long months in the office.  We went to RocoMamas.  It's a favorite of the Elders (those with hollow legs) because they have huge speciality hamburgers and ribs and chips (french fries) and beautiful big milkshakes.  They each had a paper menu to check off all the things they wanted to eat--some hard decisions.

Ken also set up two monitors at home.  Sue has her laptop at one end of the desk.  Ken has one big monitor in front of him and another to the left on the kitchen counter.  He's working hard on the Christmas slide show for the mission, so needs lots of screen space.  The monitor in the middle has two HDMI outs, so Sue has a cable and can use it, too, if she needs another monitor.

Now that we are back, there are lots of details to worry about.  Each apartment ("boarding" in South African English) has a water filter with three stages of filters that are changed 6, 3 or 1 times each year.  Elders also have special water bottles with a built-in filter for when they are out of the boarding.  Sue sent this photo to all the Elders and asked them to count how many of each kind they have.  Two of the twelve companionships responded so far.  It will take a few phone calls this week to figure this out.  

Tuesday night Sue got ready for bed about 9:30 and was reading.  Ken came in 30+ minutes later and said we had no running water.  Not a big deal; welcome to Africa.  However, by the time we got up on Wednesday morning we still had no running water.  We do  have lots of large bottles of water in the flat, so we used that to drink for breakfast, brush our teeth, wash our faces, etc.  And we headed out to the office, unshowered, however.  We were invited to President and Sister Lines home for dinner.  Sue told them at the office that if we didn't have water by the time we got home from work, we'd bring our supplies and have a shower at their house as well as dinner.  But we didn't need to do that.  We had water again when we came home.  

Then a few days ago we noticed signs like this around the area.  No water overnight again this week on Tuesday/Wednesday.  We hope they really have it back on by 4 a.m. as promised.  There is also a similar sign near the Mission Office that says no water 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday.  We are glad we have spare water bottles there, too.

We went out for a walk in the neighborhood, and the monkeys are definitely still around in droves!

On Saturday we had Christmas early!  We went to the Durban airport, with Sue driving the full-sized nine-passenger van, the two Assistants to the President driving another van, and President Lines driving a pick-up truck.  

Nine of the Elders who were evacuated out in March were able to come back.  It was a terrific day--just so much joy all around.  

We were waiting inside the airport just where everyone comes out from baggage claim.  The Lines told us that this was the first time they had been inside the airport to wait for missionaries in eight months!  Last Sunday when we arrived they were all waiting outside.  The airport terminal just opened for non-passengers on Saturday morning.  As we watched the Elders coming out the door the security guard had a good time hamming it up for the camera.

First stop on the way back to the Mission Home was at the Durban Temple.  It is totally closed because of COVID restrictions, but the security guard there let us into the grounds to take a photo.  The Temple had been open for living ordinances starting in September but last week one of the maintenance staff came down with COVID, so the Temple is now totally closed for two weeks, and everyone who was working there is in quarantine.

We took all the Elders to the Mission Home in nearby Westville for lunch.  Sister Lines had ordered lunch wraps to be delivered at 11:30.  We arrived at 12:30 and there was no food. While the Elders waited patiently President Lines had them each speak for a minute or two about where they had been and what they had been doing for the last eight months. They had all been serving someplace else in their home countries--in California, Oregon, Colorado, South Carolina, Ohio and Leeds, England.  When they went home in March they were with their families for a month or two or three, then re-assigned to another mission for five, six or seven months.  Now they are back and so glad to be here.  President Lines was also able to give them some counsel and information about how the mission has been doing.  Even with so few missionaries (we were down to 24) and the inability to visit people in their homes, the work of teaching people and bringing them to Jesus Christ goes forward.  So many are being taught remotely with the help of local members.  Baptisms are happening.  The Lord's Work does not stop!

President & Sister Lines' joyful work this week, with the Assistants, was to decide where all the missionaries would be living and working.  This is the Transfer Board.  It's a big white board in President Lines' office.  Each missionary has a blue card with his photo, start and end dates, and where he has served and what leadership positions he has held.  These card get moved around the different geographic areas until all the pieces of the puzzle fit together properly.  There is also an electronic version in our mission database that ties each missionary to his apartment, phone, car, etc.  President was especially glad that most of the returning Elders can drive!  It's been hard with only about five drivers in the whole mission and the Elders not allowed to take public transportation.  That did help enforce the lockdown, however.  Elder Mananga and Elder Mbaki have been transferred out of the office and are gladly out doing regular missionary work.  We will miss them!

Today we have watched the Christmas Devotional by the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  If you haven't seen it, please watch.  It's a wonderful way to remember the true meaning of this Season.  The Tabernacle Choir is there, too, as recorded in past seasons.  President Russell Nelson is the most amazing 96 year-old!  He is a prophet of the Lord, and knows more than the rest of us of the reality of Jesus Christ as our Savior and the importance of His birth.

We are back in Durban!! Weeks 21-43

 We were home for a lot longer than anticipated.  As explained in the previous blog post, way back in June, we continued to serve the mission from home.  Ken kept up his gardening and video-conversion projects.  Sue helped Ravenswood School District Technology Department as Distance Learning continued for all students through the Fall semester.

We also managed one beautiful day at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz in the Fall.

We were told in early November that we could return soon to Durban.  Finally!  We decided we wanted to go to Henderson, Nevada, for Thanksgiving to see our son Reed and his family.  

Well, really to see the grandchildren, especially little Callie.  She was born the day after we arrived back in the USA on March 26, but because of COVID, our planned trips in April, July, and October all got canceled.  There were lots of advisories not to travel for Thanksgiving, but we decided to be really careful and go anyway.  

Their family isolated for two weeks before we came, and we did the same.  We drove the nine hours to get there, as that is safer than flying.  We took all our own food and used disinfectant wipes on the gas pump handles and restroom doors when we had to stop along the way.  We had a great time with all the kids, and Callie even learned to crawl while we were there.  

We gave our lovely baby grand piano to Reed and Jen in 2019, and they are enjoying it.  We had fun singing Christmas Carols together, and listening to Reed on violin and Jen on piano.  The piano has a good home where it is well used.

We drove home all day Monday after Thanksgiving, and bright-and-early Tuesday we were at the Kaiser Medical Center near the San Jose airport to get our COVID test.  We needed it to be done less than 72 hours before departing for South Africa, but Kaiser needs 48 hours to process, and then we had to get a printed copy signed by the doctor.  Ken's test results came through at 5 pm on Wednesday, but Sue's still hadn't come by the time we went to bed.  This was a little worrisome, as we had each caught simple head colds in Henderson.  However, when we woke up Thursday morning Sue's negative test results were in.  We ran several last-minute errands on Thursday morning, and one was to pick up the signed COVID results from Kaiser in Mountain View.  Whew!  We could really leave on Friday, and they would let us in to South Africa.

It's been interesting to watch the pandemic path in the USA and in South Africa (RSA).  RSA had consistent and strict guidelines from the very beginning.  It was illegal to even go to the office or other non-essential services until early September.  Their lockdown and mask-wearing were strong, and it has paid off.  They got through their winter months (June, July, August) with relatively low infection rates and no overcrowded hospitals.  Now that things are open again the rate is going up a bit.  Today it is at 6.3/100,000 people.  In contrast, our county in California is at 35/100,000.  And it is one of the lowest places in the state and country.  So we have no worries about being in South Africa during the COVID pandemic.

We left home at 3 a.m. on Friday, 4 December.  Many, many thanks to Spencer Hansen for driving us to the San Francisco airport at that crazy hour!  At least we didn't have to worry about traffic.  Spencer and his family are moving into our house while we are gone.  They moved onto our block in Palo Alto and into our Palo Alto Foothills Ward congregation last March just after we left.  Since we came home we've become friends with Spencer, his wife Angie, and their thee children, ages 12, 10 & 3.  We know they will take good care of things.  

We originally had a fairly easy itinerary:  SFO to Heathrow to Johannesburg to Durban.  But, as has happened so many times in the last eight months, the flights got canceled.  New plan:  SFO to Atlanta to Amsterdam to Johannesburg, stay overnight, then to Durban on Sunday morning.  

We had the early flight to Atlanta, then a red-eye to Amsterdam.  Luckily that flight was not very full.  We each had a four-seat center section of seats to ourselves, so could stretch out and sleep.  That helped the 8 hours in the air pass more quickly.

This was a longer trip, but going through Amsterdam meant we planned to have ebelskeevers for breakfast after the long red-eye flight.  But no such luck.  Due to COVID restrictions, the restaurant in the middle of Schipol Airport is totally closed.  In Dutch they are called "poffertjes."  For those not familiar, they are like a pancake, but spherical and a little smaller than a tennis ball.  We eat them with butter and syrup.  It takes a special pan.  My Danish-heritage grandmother always made them, and my Mom and I did also.  But they are hard to make for a crowd.  My pans only make seven at a time, and I have two pans.  This restaurant has a special long, narrow pan that makes 50 at a time!  That's what I need when the whole family is together and wants Ebelskeevers!

We were surprised at how full the plane was from Amsterdam to Johannesburg.  That flight was all day long and into the night.  We had originally requested aisle seats on two different rows.  We figured we'd get a three-seat section to ourselves that way.  No such luck.  We each had another couple seated next to us in the center and window seats, so we couldn't even trade with someone to sit together.  It is the start of summer tourist season in South Africa, and people are flocking in to escape both the cold winter and higher COVID rates in Europe.  Everyone had to show negative COVID test to get on the plane, so we are hoping they don't bring higher rates of infection with them.

It was 1:30 a.m. in California when we arrived in Durban airport (11:30 a.m. local time), and then we had to drive 30+ minutes to our apartment.  That's almost 48 hours traveling.  We loved our greeting party!  It was outside because no one is allowed in the terminal building except those with tickets.  That solves the problem of all the hugging around the exit from baggage claim.  

We did have a wonderful group waiting for us outside the terminal, however.  It was our great Office Elders who have supported our work while we've been away, and also President and Sister Lines.  We are so glad to be back with all of them!

Sister Lines had worked to get our apartment in shape -- a few groceries to tide us over until we can shop on Monday.  And most importantly, we have a lovely Christmas Tree!

Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  He is the reason we are here in Durban -- to share his message of love and hope and peace and forgiveness with the people of South Africa.