Transfers -- week 81

We had a busy week in the office.  Transfer week is always wonderful and difficult.  We love to see new Elders arrive, but it is so hard to say good-bye to those who are going home after finishing their two years of service.

When the Martins were here last week they brought Sue a gift from Sister Smith in Joburg.  Elder Smith is our In-field Representative (IFR) -- that is liaison between all we do and the missionary department in Salt Lake City.  He does this for all of Africa and is amazing.  His wife made these cute "Phone Chicks" for Sue and Sister Hubrich and Sister Lines.  It's for propping up the phone while doing video chat.

Monday there was talk of more demonstrations, maybe riots, so we all stayed close to home in the morning.  But the police and army were out in full force and things remained calm.  Whew!  Elders were all able to do normal Monday grocery shopping and other P-day activities.

The Chatsworth and Queensburgh Elders had asked Sue if they could come over for a cooking lesson for their District P-day activity.  They wanted to make Mexican food and cookies.  Sue gave them a shopping list for burritos and snickerdoodles. They did a great job.  Here are Elder Otina, Elder Birkeland, Elder Odhiambo and Elder Hanson Evans.  The two African Elders are from Kenya.  Elder Odhiambo was a professional soccer player and gave it up to come on his mission!

Tuesday morning Sue and Sister Hubrich went to Makro -- local equivalent of Costco.  We bought out almost every duvet cover they had in 3/4 size.  (Bigger than twin.)  We needed four more for the Elders coming this week, but we may have 25 more coming in three weeks!!!  So it was a challenge to find 29 cover/pillowcase sets that were not pink flowers or kiddie school buses.  Each arriving Elder gets a new set and they take it with them when they are transferred.

While we were gone Santa Claus arrived -- at least that's what President Lines said about Ken's reaction to the packages.  It was the social media video production kit -- computers, camera, steadycams, tripods, and studio condenser mics.  He has had fun, and frustrations, this week getting it all set up and the pieces talking to each other.

Tuesday afternoon -- new Elders!  We had three brand new Elders arrive to start their Missionary Training Center (MTC) time with us.  

Elder Pick, Elder Kortjas and Elder Tinta

We've known about Elder Tinta for awhile.  He is from Klerksdorp, a small city in Northwest Province about two hours southwest of Johannesburg.  He was originally called to our Durban Mission, so has been on our list for awhile.  We were concerned that he would be alone doing MTC training, as that means another Elder has to be assigned as his companion and just sit around the office and watch for three weeks -- not good, but we can do it.

About four weeks ago Sue got a call from the Missionary Training Center in Johannesburg saying that the name tags for Elder Tinta were being sent to us, and also the ones for Elder Kortjas, because he was coming to do MTC with us in a few days.  What???  We had never heard of him.  And we had no one else coming to do MTC then.  He is from Durban and was called to serve in Kenya, but he did not yet have his visa, so he's coming to do MTC and serve with us until his visa comes through.  President Lines talked to the Powers-That-Be and had Elder Kortjas delayed three weeks so that he could be companions with Elder Tinta.  Another little miracle solves our problem.  The Lord provides!  We may have Elder Kortjas with us for several months, as Kenya visas often take a while.  We are assuming President will assign him far out west someplace after MTC, as his family lives right here in Central Durban.  One blessing of missionary service is time away from home to grow into an adult.

Then, just about a week ago, President Lines got a call from the Johannesburg Mission President.  They had an Elder coming to attend MTC with them, but he will be all alone.  They knew about Elder Tinta, so they asked, can Elder Pick join him?  Of course!  Elder Pick is from the Cape Town area.  He will just be with us for the three weeks and then will go to Joburg for his mission service.

We will all be so glad when the real Johannesburg MTC opens again!  The Elders have a hard time doing Zoom for six hours every day.  (10am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm -- except when it goes to 6pm)  And one of the joys of the real MTC is that they feed the Elders three great meals every day.  Sorry, at the Durban MTC, you have to cook for yourself.

Wednesday morning we made an unscheduled trip to KwaMashu -- about 20 minutes north.  Two Elders locked themselves out of their boarding (apartment), and we have the spare keys.  This is the second time in about two months, so we made them this special sign for the back side of their front door.

Ken has also been working on car registrations all week.  A bunch of them expire on 31 August.  The forms come, and there is a circle sticker that has to be cut out by hand and stuck inside the windshield on the passenger side.  They don't have month/year tags on the plates like we have in the USA.  The blue sticker is for the insurance company that does towing service, so that also goes onto the windshield.  It's who to call if you get stuck in a ditch.  It happens.

Thursday we said good-bye to three wonderful Elders.  Elder Russell was a Social Media Elder for several months, so spent a good deal of time in the office and we got to know him well as a great missionary who took the job of getting the Mission set up for Facebook and ran with it.  During all the lockdowns, that has kept the mission running.

Elder Mbaki, who is from Cape Town, did Sue's job in the office for the eight months we were back in the USA in 2020, and so we consider him a real hero.  Then he was an Assistant to President Lines for several months and lived upstairs from us.  He's another wonderful young man.  This week he headed to Cedar City, Utah, to attend Southern Utah University. 

Elder Mahe is a Tongan/American dual citizen, and that's a good thing right now.  He went home on the evacuation flight with us in March 2020 to USA, came back on his mission in December 2020 and went back to USA this week.  There are Tongan Elders serving in other areas in Africa who have been serving now for 2.5+ years because Tonga is closed to entry due to COVID.

Friday noon we had three more Elders arrive.  These are all experienced Elders who have been serving in the USA, or who had served here before.  We thought we were getting four, but one had his flight-required COVID test come back too late and he missed the flight.  We think he is coming next week???

This photo is taken in front of the office instead of at the airport.  Sue and Sifiso Madela, the Church Travel head in Johannesburg, were wrong.  We both thought a 90-minute layover in Johannesburg was plenty of time to transfer from one flight to another.  Nope.  The Elders just barely missed their flight to Durban on Thursday evening.  And it was the last flight of the day.  Not a problem -- just put them in a hotel overnight and do a Saturday morning flight.  That was the original plan from Salt Lake Church Travel.  Big problem!  Every flight on every airline all day Friday from Johannesburg to Durban was full!  We have no idea why.  There must have been something special going on around here.  When Sue tried to make a hotel reservation for Pres. & Sister Lines for Saturday night up north in Richards Bay the big hotel where they usually stay was all full.  The Hubrichs had their flat painted on Friday/Saturday so stayed in a hotel about 45 minutes south along the beach, and they said it was also crammed full.

So, three Elders were stuck in Johannesburg.  Sifiso is wonderful.  He hired a van and driver, and they drove down to Durban.  It's a bit under six-hour drive.

They left at 7am and were here in time for interviews with President Lines.  We got Elder Wardlow, Elder Peterson and Elder Bowman.  All three are from Oklahoma!  Elder Peterson served here in Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 and went home on the evacuation plane with us.  Instead of being assigned to a temporary mission in the USA he chose to be released and come back later.  Elder Wardlow and Elder Bowman have both been serving in temporary USA missions for almost a year.

Then we had pizza lunch brought in by the Hubrichs.

New Elders always like to look at the big map of the mission and speculate about where they will serve.  

We did orientation with the new Elders, and then they went to the Mission Home for the welcome dinner and to find out where they will be assigned.

We have had the craziest weather this week!  It is the middle of winter, remember.  Friday was almost 90deg F and the wind was blowing hard, hard, hard.  It felt like Santa Ana winds at home.  

Saturday very early it started to rain.  We just prayed it would stay dry for Transfers.  And it did!  Missionaries met in the parking lot of the Pinetown chapel and traded their luggage from one car to another and then headed to new homes, or back home with new a companion.  It stopped raining for just the 45 minutes when we had this all happening.  It really was a miracle.  But it was still cold!  The temperature was in the mid 40's all day!

And that didn't stop Ken and Elder Bascom from doing a little football toss.  After his mission Elder Bascom will be a receiver on the Southern Utah University football team.  

After the catch, Elder Bascom and his companion, Elder Mokhoanatsi, left to drive the "Durban Express."  That's the Transfer vehicle that goes to Bethlehem -- about four hours west.  There they meet up with the "Bloemfontein Express" which has driven east from Bloemfontein about four hours to Bethlehem.  Elders being transferred from Durban to out west exchange places in vehicles with those who have been out west and are coming east.  Everyone drives home again.  They had quite an interesting trip.  Here's a video someone posted to our neighborhood WhatsApp chat group on Friday.

Hillcrest is only about 15 miles from us, but up the hill in elevation a bit.  And the Elders driving from Bethlehem had to come through passes with lots of snow and bad fog.  We were glad they arrived home safely.

Sunday we were invited downstairs to have dinner with the Hubrichs and Elder & Sister Irving.  The Irvings are serving in all of South Africa gathering Church History.  (Hubrichs left, Irvings center.)

(Sue writes a history of the mission each month, consolidates them all, then makes an annual history to turn in.)  They also go all over southern Africa doing oral history interviews for the Church archives.  They were here doing interviews for a few days, including talking to the Hubrichs about their Church Humanitarian projects.   

After dinner we went up to our parking lot and showed them how to "douse" or water witch with straightened coat hangers to find underground pipes or other disturbances such as graves.  We learned about it years ago in Iowa.  None of them had ever done this before and were pretty amazed at how it works.

We were talking about this, because Ken got a call from Brad Klodt on Friday night with exciting news.  Brad is President of the Iowa Mormon Trails Association and worked with Ken on the monument to Mary Ann Morris Allen in the backwoods of Iowa (previously reported about).  A woman who heard about the monument dedication and who lives near the Mounts Pioneer Cemetery, where the monument is, said she thinks she knows where the actual grave is!  She is in her 80's, and when she was a child her father showed her the location of an old Mormon grave.  She's going back there with a friend and see if they can witch out the location.  Pretty fun!

Plans don't always work out.... week 80

 Monday to Friday -- quiet days in the office.  We are preparing for seven new missionaries next week, and opening new apartments in three areas in September.  Ken just kept paying bills and Sue made more 72-hour emergency kits.

Friday night we had dinner at La Rosa our favorite Mexican restaurant with the Hubrichs (right) and Elder & Sister Martin (left) visiting here from Johannesburg.  The Martins supervise all the Church Humanitarian projects in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Madagascar, and some other countries too, I think.  So they are the "bosses" for the Hubrichs.

We enjoyed nachos, enchiladas, tacos, burritos and a good visit.

Saturday didn't quite work out as planned.  A month ago we did the food/bakkie exchange with the Van Heerdens right after all the riots.  They have wanted "their" bakkie back ever since.  We have a bunch of items they need for the new flat that will open in Kestell, so we filled the bakkie and were planning on lunch together again, bringing along the Hubrichs, at the half-way point between Durban and Ladysmith.  But Van Heerdens called Friday afternoon late and said they had a sick Elder who needed some blood tests on Friday, and then visit to doctor on Saturday, so our trip was off.  (The Elder ate some bad chicken but now all is well.)

We were debating about what to do on Saturday when Hubrichs called.  They wanted to visit an open-air market near the Berea Chapel, and did we want to come along?  Of course!  It was such a lovely day.  

Lots of booths selling all kinds of items, from used DVDs to hand-knit hats and bead animals.  Sue talked to the man who made these animals about making her a nativity set.  That's the one souvenir she really wants to take home from Africa.

They had a great DJ playing music even from our 1960's era.  

One woman was collecting donations to help with her rescue animals -- but not your usual cats and dogs.  She had owls, lizards and snakes!

We got home in time for Ken to participate in the Conference honoring the 175th anniversary of the Iowa Mormon Trail held at the Community College in Council Bluffs, Iowa.  It was two days long with lots of different sessions.  There was one on Saturday morning (Iowa time, 4pm in Durban) that talked about pioneer cemeteries and showed a short video of the dedication of the Mary Ann Morris Allen marker that took place on 7 August.  They introduced Ken via Zoom, and he said a few sentences.  Some descendants of Mary Ann were actually present and participated at the dedication.  The whole program was very interesting.  A 17-minute video of the dedication can be watched here.  (There is also a link to the video on FamilySearch.)

We've mentioned they are building a new McDonalds at the entrance to our neighborhood.  It was supposed to open the end of July, but the week of riots pushed things back.  Then it was supposed to open yesterday.  Nope -- major problems.  This is what the driveway looked like as of yesterday.

That big retaining wall was built very early in the process.  The driveway goes up, and then the drive-thru window curves around the building to the right.  

Here's the Google Earth view in mid-July.

Drive up the driveway, place an order on the shady side of the building.  Pick up on the sunny side.  

Except that is the side where the driveway is sliding out.  The right side of the wall should be in line with the left side of the wall -- not sticking out six inches at the top.

We walked up to the top to see the situation there and found they are already digging out behind the wall.  We are not sure how they will fix this problem!  President Lines is a civil engineer.  We'd like to volunteer him to solve this, but we are sure they have their own crew trying to figure it out.  Needless to say, we are not expecting McDonalds to open any day soon.

Lions! -- week 79

We have had an amazing weekend. 

Starting Friday, we were asked to drive a bakkie of food from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, about one hour west.  

This was part of the very large shipment our Church donated from Johannesburg after the riots here.  Most of it had been distributed, but there was still some in Durban that needed to go west, and the Red Cross truck was broken. 

 

We brought four of the Mission's bakkies, Ford Rangers with canopies, plus seven young Elders, and two senior couples.  

We loaded all the bakkies to the tops of their covers.  That all took a couple of hours.  

The one we drove was filled about 2/3 full of long-life milk.  

We had 125 boxes and each had six 1-liter cartons.  That's about 1650 pounds of milk.  Then the rest of the truck was full of flour, rice, sugar, dish soap, and other such staples.  The other bakkies were about the same, but we had all the liquid.  We could feel it slosh when we went around corners.  It was a much easier drive home with an empty truck!

Saturday President and Sister Lines were planning on driving west to Bethlehem.  (That's South Africa, not the Holy Land.)  They wanted to look at a boarding in Kestrell, and then attend a baptism in Bethlehem on Sunday morning.  They invited us and the Hubrich's along for the ride.

Kestrell is a small town with a lovely old Afrikaaner church.  The boarding looked pretty nice, too. 

Also in Kestrell is a small animal preserve called "Little Africa."  It is one of the few places that raises cubs and keeps tame lions where you can actually go into the field where they live and pet them.  There is an electric fence that usually keeps them in, but the owner turns off the fence to let tourists like us pet the lions.  He has an amazing relationship with these magnificent animals.  He calls them and they come trotting to him.  He goes into the field and they nuzzle up to him like any tame house cat.

He turned off the electricity to the fence -- but the lions don't know that.  We just stepped through between the wires.  

Oh, and they also have pet snakes.  The orange one is a coral snake.  The brown one is a California King snake.  

We next drove to Clarens, which is a touristy shopping town at the entrance to Golden Gate Highlands National Park.  We had to visit Cheese & Chocolate, of course.  We went to the Blanket Store next door.  Sister Hubrich bought a pretty blue shawl.  Sister Lines bought a grey/red plaid scarf.  President Lines bought an elephant sculpture.  Sue didn't buy anything.  She has too much stuff already.

We stayed at the Marriott Protea -- very nice hotel. But it was cold and rainy!  There was snow on Friday on the highway pass between Durban and Bethlehem!

 

 We had dinner at Clementines.  Wonderful food!

It was shortly after 5pm, and we were all really hungry because we never really had lunch.  Clementines is a favorite place for the Lines, but the sign out front said all reservations were full for the night.  President Lines went in and talked them into giving us the table that was for a reservation at 7pm because we could be out by then.  It worked perfectly.  They usually don't start serving dinner until 6pm.

Sunday we were up for the 6:30am seating for breakfast so we could leave the hotel by 7:15 and drive the half-hour to Bethlehem from Clarens for an 8am baptism.  

Why so early?  The mother of the young woman being baptized could only come that early in the morning.  

The baptismal font in Bethlehem is outside the building.  Usually that would be fine, but today the temperature was running in the low 40'sF.  Brrr.  The Elders had to fill the font the night before, because it takes a couple of hours to do.  They had planned to add more hot water this morning, but the electricity was out at the Church!  No lights and no hot water.  We did most of the service inside with a lantern and window light.  It's a good thing baptisms happen quickly -- then run and get into dry clothes.

But it was a wonderful occasion.  She has been wanting to be baptized for awhile.  She spoke at the end and gave a heartfelt testimony of why she wanted to do this, and of her relationship to Jesus Christ and His restored church.

The meeting was over, and then the lights came on.  We could turn on the heat in the chapel, and stood around the piano and sang hymns for almost an hour while President Lines did interviews with some of the missionaries who live in Bethlehem.  

We drove through the Golden Gate Highlands National Park on our way home and stopped at the hotel there for lunch.  We still didn't see any baboons!  But it was raining a lot, so we assume they were all hiding out someplace a little warmer and drier.  The tops of the spectacular mountains were shrouded in fog, but the rock formations we could see were beautiful.  Heavenly Father really did make us a beautiful world to live in.

Pioneer Dedication -- week 78

This week brought to fruition something Ken has been thinking about for over 25 years, and working to make happen for at least two years.  It's far, far away from Durban, but it is a piece of our greater mission in life to be part of eternal families.

Mary Ann Morris Allen was the first wife of Ken's great-great grandfather, Daniel Allen (1804-1892).  They joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Ohio in June 1834, being baptized by Joel H. Johnson.  It's a long story, but they suffered through the persecution of the early Saints in Ohio, in Missouri, and in Illinois, then began their trek west, out of the USA to the Great Basin (Utah territory) in early1846.  Mary Ann gave birth to a baby boy (on Ken's birthday!) just before they left Nauvoo, Illinois.  She became ill along the Iowa trail and died about 80 miles west of Nauvoo on 10 May 1846.  She was buried in an unmarked grave without even a coffin.

Fast forward to 1994.  Ken and Sue went on a bus-trek along the Iowa Mormon trail with some of Sue's extended family.  One purpose of the trip was to dedicate a marker in a cemetery near Iowaville, where ancestors were buried -- although we don't know where the specific graves are.  Visiting Nauvoo, Ken started thinking about a marker for Mary Ann Morris Allen.

In 1996 Ken and Sue and family returned to Nauvoo and participated in the historic Nauvoo Pageant, portraying the Daniel Allen family.  (Ken made a couple of cast videos, which are posted on his website, kenallen.tv)

Fast forward to 2019.  Ken and Sue went back for another trip to Nauvoo and Iowa.  We visited with members of the Iowa Mormon Trails Association (IMTA) and found an old pioneer-era cemetery along one of the obscure traces of the trail which Daniel Allen had reported they followed. The cemetery is on the trail about 80 miles west of Nauvoo, and Daniel reported she was buried 80 miles west of Nauvoo.  Ken thought this would be the perfect spot for a memorial marker for Mary Ann Morris Allen.  Ken then worked with IMTA to have a plaque made and placed there. 

The dedication was supposed to be last summer, but to quote the IMTA President, "2020 didn't happen."  With help from IMTA and the LDS Church Public Affairs people in Iowa, the dedication of the memorial happened yesterday, Saturday, 7 August 2021.  About 50 people attended in person, with another dozen or so Zoom connections.  

There were several miracles that happened with the day.

First, the weather was perfect.  No summer rainstorms, which are common in Iowa.  

Second, the cemetery is out in the middle of nowhere, and they weren't sure if there would even be a cell connection at all.  They made arrangements to video the meeting, but were not sure it could Zoom.  There was no cell service until just before the meeting started, and then data came through and the whole thing was perfect.  Most of us watching mostly turned off our audio and video to keep the bandwidth requirements down and we could see and hear every word.

Third, Ken was sad he was not there, as a descendent, to participate in the memorial dedication.  Susan Sims was the Public Relations person working to advertise this.  She had sent information about it to all the LDS stakes in central Iowa, and even across into Illinois.

It turns out that the Stake President in Peoria, J. Scott Johnson, is a direct descendent of Joel H. Johnson, who baptized Mary Ann and Daniel Allen.  But even better, and totally unknown to Ken, his First Counselor, Rick Jeffs, is a direct descendent of Mary Ann and Daniel Allen through their daughter, Eliza!  His teen-aged son is Daniel Allen Jeffs (shown here).

The two men had known of this connection between them for some time.  When they saw the announcement come to their Stake about this memorial dedication, they knew someone had to come.  The Jeffs family drove the 3.5 hours from Peoria.  Sister Jeffs has felt a strong connection to Mary Ann Allen and had portrayed her in a presentation at a Church Girl's Camp a few years ago.  So yesterday when she showed up, Susan Sims, who was originally scheduled to read the biography of Mary Ann that Ken had written, called upon her to read it.  

Brother Jeffs gave the memorial opening prayer while the presiding Church Authority, President Brian Parks of the Des Moines Mount Pisgah Stake, gave the prayer to dedicate the monument.  It was wonderful and all quite moving.

All in all it was a great day, and a reminder of how much we owe our pioneer ancestors and how important families are.  

A couple of video recordings will be made available in the next several weeks, probably here, on Family Search and YouTube.  Check on Facebook--Iowa Mormon Trails Association.

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The rest of the week was pretty quiet.  We did have four Elders go home on Thursday, but no one new arrived, except the two who finished their MTC training with us.  The original list had 16 coming this week!  Now they are mostly bumped to 15 September.  But there are also 15 others due to arrive that day.  However, we know that many of them won't have their visas in time, so some will get bumped down the road anyway.  

We had an "arrival/departure" outing to Roco Mama's on Tuesday night.  It was the celebration of finishing the MTC for Elder Masenya and Elder Tom with President and Sister Lines.  Elders Martin, Christensen, Lutkin and Van Orden would have their "official" farewell dinner on Wednesday night at the Mission Home, but the Hubrich's invited them out for dinner and for us to come along.  Since we were all going the same place, we made it as close to a party as is allowed under COVID rules.  The restaurant is open-air, so we all about froze, but the food is great!

For dessert the Elders and President like to order "Death by Chocolate."  It's a milk shake in a mug shaped like a skull.  It has whipped cream and fudge sauce on top, and Oreos and a KitKat bar stuck into that.  Elder Tom and President Lines are trying to pretend these are terrible.  Elders Van Orden and Bascom enjoyed theirs.  

Elder Van Orden went home this week, and it was hard to see him go.  He has been the Assistant to President Lines since mid-January.  That meant he lived upstairs in our apartment building, and was in and out of our office a lot.  We got to know him well, and appreciate what a fine young man and missionary he is.  But, thanks to Zoom, we were able to hear his homecoming talk today in tiny Loa, Utah.  (That is way down south in the boonies of nowhere, not far from where Daniel Allen's family settled!  The town is eight blocks N-S and six blocks E-W)--and 8000 feet high.

Watching him in Loa felt so strange.  He was there on the screen, but we expect him to come into the office tomorrow just like he usually does.  Elder Bascom and Elder Mokhoanatsi, the new Assistants, came down to watch at the Hubrichs with us.

Ken spent a bunch of time on Saturday trying to get a Renault Duster diesel car to start.  It was washed in the upper parking lot at the office on Friday afternoon.  Evidently lights got left on, or some such.  When he went to move it to the storage parking lot downstairs it simply would not start.  We tried to jump-start it, but couldn't, so gave up and went to dinner.  

We tried a new place for dinner: O & O, for Olives and Oil.  It's an Italian restaurant on the grounds of the Westville Country Club.  Good food and good company with President and Sister Lines.

Not the best photo of any of us!

Saturday morning Ken went over and plugged the Duster into a battery charger for a couple of hours with the battery still in the car.  It still would not start.  Then he finally pulled out the battery and took it upstairs to the office.  Getting the battery out was not an easy task!  We'll see if the car will start on Monday morning.  Otherwise we'll have to buy a new battery.

Saturday afternoon, Ken got a haircut.  He needs them more often than does Sue.  Vanessa comes to the Lines back yard every month or so and cuts hair for all of us.  Better than going indoors someplace.

Sue spent Saturday being lazy at home and making cookies for a party on Sunday afternoon--see below.  It was good to have a lazy day at home. 

Sunday morning we talked with Hubrichs about going for a walk around the university that we can all see out our big windows from both home and the office.  We drove over there, but the guard said it is closed except to students and staff because of COVID.  

So instead we took the Hubrichs to the Durban Botanic Garden.  It is such a beautiful place!  

The entrance has a pond with lots of baby ducks.

We sat in the butterfly garden.

We watched the ducks in the big pond.

There were a few water lilies, but the large lotus flowers we saw when we were there six months ago were all gone.  They must be seasonal.  It's now the middle of winter.  We'll take Hubrichs back in January and see all the summer blooms.

There is a huge banyan tree. 

Ken liked the light & shadows along this path.

Ken called this The Tree of Life because it is so light.

The Sunken Garden area reminded us of the gardens at Filoli near our home in Palo Alto.

This is the "rainbow tree," a huge eucalyptus with bark that peels off and leaves various layers of color underneath.

Sunday afternoon we were going to have a little going-away party for Elizabeth and Jano.  They live just downstairs from us.  In March 2020 they had recently retired and sold their home here in preparation to move back to their native Hungary.  Jano moved to South Africa as a child with his parents.  On a trip back to Hungary many years later he met and married Elizabeth.  They worked in South Africa and raised their two sons here, but the sons have both moved back to Hungary and Germany.  

Just before--literally--they were ready to leave, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, South Africa went on total lockdown, and all flights were canceled.  They rented the small furnished flat in our building "for a month or two" until they could get home.  That was 16 months ago.  They are now vaccinated and have tickets to fly to Budapest on Wednesday this week.

Sister Hubrich thought it would be fun to have all the neighbors for a fruit/cookies/juice little party in the yard of our building on Sunday afternoon at 3 pm.  Everyone was invited.  Various people made food to contribute--that's why Sue made two kinds of cookies on Saturday. 

Then about 1:30 pm, Sue saw a cute little girl who lives on the top floor and asked if she was coming for the party.  She said, no, because she was going to see her Dad.  I talked to the mom, who said her husband had tested positive for COVID on Friday and was elsewhere in isolation.  We talked to Elizabeth and decided to cancel the party.  That's just too close to home!  The COVID rates are rising again in Durban and we don't want to tempt fate.

So then, we all ran around the building and shared the food we'd made.  At least that didn't go to waste.  (Just to Sue's waist!)  We had chicken biryani from Sylvie (curried chicken, rice, potatoes, lentils--yummy).  Elder Hubrich made a beautiful fruit plate with berries, pineapple, oranges, papaya, apples, etc.  Elizabeth gave us wonderful cheese rolls and apple cake.  Trona made chocolate muffins.  

We all agreed that when this COVID thing is finally over, we will still have a party for the building, just for fun!