We've beaten the Monkeys! -- week 87

The best news of this week is that we finally went to the big hardware store, bought some window screen fabric and put it across our security door.  Every house and apartment here has security bars on the doors.  

The spaces between bars may keep out people robbers but there is plenty of room for monkey robbers to come in whenever they want.  Now that it is summer, we can have the doors and windows open a lot more since we have covered the door with screening.  Hooray!

Elder Alotsa went home to Brazzaville, Congo this week.  He is one of the heroic souls who stayed here all during the pandemic.  Several times he had a ticket to go home when all non-South Africans were evacuated.  But then the border would be closed and the flights canceled.  He has now finished his two years of service and is headed back home at last.

We are getting about 13 new Elders on 29 October--we hope!  It was supposed to be 18, but we know five are not coming, mostly because their visas have not come through yet.  One is from New Zealand, but he is staying there to serve until the country will let foreigners in again.  They need more missionaries there!

So, in preparation, Sue decided to see how many sheets she needed to buy.  The beds in the mission are all 3/4 size--a wider twin.  We give each Elder a bottom fitted sheet, a duvet cover and a pillow case when they arrive.  They take with them each time they move around the mission--usually every six months or so.  Each bed has a pillow and duvet and mattress cover that stays put.  This is a good system, in theory.  But people leave their sheets behind, or they like the pillow and take it with them, or they don't understand the system and take everything.  Or in summer it gets hot and they stuff the duvet up in the top of a cupboard someplace and then they move.  The next winter we hear from Elders that they are cold and need a duvet.  Or they go home and don't take their sheets,but leave them stuffed in the cupboard.

As we do apartment inspections we've started pulling stuff out of the up-high cabinets and have found lots of treasures!  We bring the sheets and clothes home and wash them.  Old and beat-up items go on the curb on trash day.  Most of that gets picked up by people looking for goodies.  Good missionary clothes go into Sister Lines' collection at the Mission Home for Elders who might need help with their wardrobe.  Sue collects the good sheets, etc.  There were piles in the office and she started to sort.  She made 15 good piles of sheet, duvet cover and pillow case.  No need to buy any more for the next transfer.

And there was a pile of good sheets--but only twin sizes.  These were given to the Hubrichs to deliver to the orphanages and care homes that Church Humanitarian Service helps.

Tuesday and Friday we spent running all around Durban doing apartment inspections.  It's fun to go out and see all the Elders.  Some are better at cleaning than others, of course, but they are all great young men.  We mostly forgot to take pictures, but here are the Elders in Molweni:  Elder Hall, Elder Tom and Elder Watkins.

As we were leaving Hillcrest, Ken said, "This is our third car of the day!"  We had driven our usual Toyota Urban Cruiser to the office, but then taken the six-passenger Suzuki to swap cars for the Hillcrest Elders, and then we drove their former Toyota Corolla out to Mpumalanga for that inspection and then back to the office.  Hillcrest and Molweni each have three Elders right now, so with a six-passenger car they can take all six of them together when they need to.

Friday night, we and the Hubrichs ate at the local Chinese restaurant in Westville Village Mall.  The staff recognized us for our badges and welcomed us with open arms.  It had been a long time since Senior Missionaries had eaten there, but they remembered.

We didn't have much exciting on P-day this week.  Ken continued to rest from his surgery and Sue worked on a database project for Ravenswood Schools where she used to work in California.  They needed some extra help getting all the student and staff names and other information into the Library check-out system.  It's a little klutzy, so it was a good project for a Saturday afternoon.

The Hubrichs left early Saturday to go up north to do apartment inspections and attend church in Port Durnford.  We attended Church in the Molweni Branch, and they came back on Sunday afternoon. We all went for a walk together around our neighborhood.  Sister Hubrich really liked the color of this plant--very gray-green.  We also picked up two bags full of trash as we walked.  South Africa needs a bottle-deposit law. 

Oh, and load shedding is back--twice a day for two hours.  Fortunately most events are in the middle of the night when lights are out anyway.