Usually the week after Transfers we sit back and have a calm, quiet, almost-lazy week. Not this time!
Monday we were cleaning up from Friday and Saturday. While we were driving home from Bethlehem, President & Sister Lines and the Assistants cleaned out all our paraphenalia from the Pinetown chapel and dumped it into the office. Things had to be put away and Sue had to go through all the orientation folders. Ken was paying bills -- as always.
Tuesday morning we did more orientation -- this time for Elder Black. He's the one who didn't arrive until Saturday morning. He was sent immediately out to his area to serve, but President did assign him to someplace in Durban so he could easily come to the office and do all the paperwork, driving test, etc. The fun thing about Elder Black is that he is from Pleasant Grove, Utah, and was friends with our grandson, Spencer Mills, who is currently serving a mission in St. Louis, Missouri. We took this photo and sent it immediately to Elder Mills.
Tuesday afternoon Sue was supposed to go out to Hillcrest Hospital to do the pre-admissions stuff for Ken's hernia surgery, but that all got sidetracked. A triple of Elders way out west in Thaba Nchu (ta ban' chu) was in a car accident. They ran a non-existent stop sign and t-boned a woman. They are all new in that area and had not yet learned that the town just writes STOP on the street. Stop signs get knocked over all the time and the town was tired of replacing them. The Elders were telling her it was her fault, and she called her husband who came and took their car keys away! It wasn't a bad accident -- cars still drivable, no one hurt. But we had to call the fleet manager in Johannesburg. He drove down there the next morning and smoothed over everything and the Church is paying to fix the woman's car.
Wednesday morning we were out the door at 5:30am to get to hospital admissions by 6:00. Sue got off at the wrong offramp from the freeway, and then went the wrong way when she got back on. We were only about 10 minutes late. Then there were problems with the pre-admission stuff that should have been done the day before. Hillcrest is a beautiful modern hospital about 25 km west of where we live. We have Aetna medical insurance through the Church, but almost no one in South Africa will accept it. So we pay with mission credit card and Sue has to do the paperwork each month to get all the medical bills reimbursed. But we forgot that we have a $2,000/day limit on our card. Hospital bill was more than that. We put 1/2 on the mission card and 1/2 on our personal card. That's going to be a reimbursement mess that isn't even started yet!
Ken was due for his hernia surgery at 7:30, but missed that, and went in finally at 8:30.
Sue went to the hospital restaurant for eggs benedict. He was back in his room before about 10:00. It all went just fine.
Laparoscopic surgery is amazing. Just two small band-aids on his stomach, and all is well. Then it was just wait time. He had to keep down liquids and urinate before he could go home. That all took awhile. The doctor finally showed up after 4:30 and discharged him.
Funny thing of the day. Before the surgery the nurse (a "Sister" in South African) was asking Sue all the standard questions -- any allergies, what drugs does he take, height and weight. I said 5 foot 9 and 170. She looked at me wide-eyed. 170?? Oops -- that's pounds. Everyone here measures in kilograms. I guessed about 75. He's actually closer to 77kg, but 75 is close enough.
Ken stayed home and convalesced on Thursday and Friday. Sue went to the office, and it was just busy! No idea why. She went to the post office on Thursday -- had to double park, dashed in to get whatever was in PO box. Back at the office realized there were two packages to pick up. One for an Elder in Bloemfontein. Good timing. President is going there on Saturday. Sue will get it from the PO on Friday. Oops! Friday is a national holiday -- Heritage Day.
So, back to the post office. Sue noticed the women tellers were all dressed in beaded and/or African dress. And a woman in line had on a wonderful fancy sari. Of course! For Heritage Day!
Friday Sue went to the office -- just for a couple of hours as it was a holiday after all. Ha! She had three projects to finish -- baptism form entry for the week, submit Aetna claims for August, write mission History for August. Baptisms are supposed to get done on Wednesday each week. The other two are done monthly -- theoretically before the 10th. She left the office at 4:30 with the baptisms done and Aetna claims started. Those got finished at home on Saturday. History is barely started....
But we did celebrate Heritage Day on Friday night. We were invited for dinner at the Hubrichs downstairs. We usually go out on Friday night, and often together. But Ken wasn't really feeling up to that, so Hubrichs invited us just to their flat. They made tacos and we brought root beer. Those are definitely our heritage! And Elder Hubrich wore his new African shirt.
Friday was a holiday, but the workmen were out putting up the traffic signals in our neighborhood. They are called traffic robots in South Africa. We've talked before about the long-long time it has taken to finish this intersection. It's been all done with stop signs everywhere for a couple of months. We actually like that. It's such a crazy intersection that everyone knows they have to slow down and take it carefully and watch out for others. We don't think we are going to like it when they turn the robots on. There will be four lights between the office and our flat -- in less than 1 km. We think it will just slow down the commute. And McDonalds isn't open yet, but there have been regular non-construction employees seen in the neighborhood. It could happen any day soon.
When Sue woke up on Saturday morning there was a message on her phone from 6:20am.
Hey Sister Allen, looks like we need a new mattress and a plumber. At about 4am we woke up to half inch of water in parts of the boarding. A hose between the wall and the sink burst. We got the leak stopped and the standing water cleaned up. The mattress we had on the floor got soaked and we don't have water to our bathroom sink. Sorry for the trouble.
Saturday for P-day outing Ken didn't feel like walking around, but Sue and Hubrichs went to "The Mushroom Farm." It's an area with 15 or 20 small shops and a couple of restaurants that is just across the highway from the Hillcrest hospital. One of the restaurants is a bakery with terrific kinds of breads. We had lunch and wandered the shops.
Then we went up the road to an amazing place full of metal sculptures and stone carvings. Lazarus is the owner. He does the metal work and his father does the stone carving.
This is a made-from-junk Harley Davidson replica. President Lines is a huge motorcycle buff. We think he should take this home with him.
Sue would prefer a life-size T-rex in her garden.
Or maybe a Cinderella coach?
Sue came home and finished on the above-mentioned medical reimbursement work. Progress!
We have two big bushes like this in the yard of our building. They have the most amazing smell. Walking through the parking lot the smell is so strong. You don't even have to walk up to the bush. And the flowers are either white or purple -- all mixed together.
Walking down the street, the jacaranda trees are blooming. This is strange, because at home they bloom in July. That should be January here. 
And there are more beautiful azaleas. This bush had the densest flowers ever seen. 
But the best was dessert -- root beer floats! It was a new thing for our African Elders.
Way to go..I had hernia surgery. Never felt any pain lifting anything that might have caused it. How about you Ken
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