Merry Christmas again! Week 98

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  It was good to be with friends here, and to talk with family on video.  We love this technology.

But we need to back up a little.  

Ken made two more videos this week, despite some significant challenges.  While working on the first video three weeks ago, his 2011 Mac Mini internal power supply failed, so he took it into the local Apple repair shop.  They couldn't fix it so they pulled the SSD (drive) and shipped the box off to Johannesburg for repair.  It was to be a two-day turnaround.  Well, the computer and one other package in the custody of the courier company have disappeared on the return trip.  Probably stolen.  

The salvation is that President Lines had an old, unused Mac Pro tower available.  He has simply gifted this powerhouse to Ken.  So the shop has lent Ken a case for his SSD to use it as an external drive, and he has made all these videos on the Mac Pro.  He hardly lost a beat.  Meanwhile the shop has another Mac Mini that can replace the missing one.  All is well. 

This Wednesday evening we had a Mission-wide Zoom devotional.  It was the substitute for the Christmas Tour that did not happen.  Monday morning we were all supposed to leave for a long-anticipated three-day trip to Ladysmith, Bloemfontein and the country of Lesotho.  We were going with President and Sister Lines to have a Christmas Fest with each Zone, then come back to Durban for a similar gathering with the Durban, Hillcrest and Richards Bay Zones together on Thursday.  But COVID is having a big spike in South Africa right now.  We are almost as bad as California!  It was decided, for safety's sake, to cancel the gatherings--even though all but two of our missionaries are vaccinated.  It turned out to be a good choice.  We now have five Elders who tested  positive last week.  All are vaccinated.  All have very mild symptoms.  But we don't want to take a chance that some might get it badly.  

Ken had made this first fun video with photos and videos contributed by many of the Elders on the "new" Mac.  As part of the Zoom Conference we showed the video to the whole mission, and then President and Sister Lines told the Christmas story, and we sang lots of Christmas Carols.  It was OK--but not as good as being together.

On Monday President did drive four hours west to Bethlehem to meet others and pass off the Christmas boxes for all the Elders out west and in Lesotho.  The Office was looking like a shipping warehouse--boxes stacked everywhere.  

Thursday we were supposed to have 60 people from the three Zones all together in Durban.  We still needed to deliver gifts from families to all of them, and we also had ordered lunch for 60 people and hated to cancel the caterer on three-days' notice.  So we asked him to box everything into packages for two people and deliver to the office at 11:00 on Thursday morning.  We divided up the Zones into four groups, gathered food boxes and gift boxes for each groups and took off driving.  Elder and Sister Hubrich picked up a dozen meals early and headed north to Richards Bay.  President and Sister Lines went west again to do the west side of Durban, Pietermaritzburg, and out half-way to Ladysmith where they met Elder & Sister Lyon to pass on gifts for Newcastle Zone that had arrived since the Monday delivery.  Andre and Vanessa Slabbert, our local Service Missionaries, covered the five apartments around central Durban.  And we took food and packages to the Elders on the south side of the mission.

Because of COVID, we left items at the curb or on the driveway and waved to the Elders.

 Then we stood back while they picked up their goodies.  

These two actually both had COVID, so we stayed far away.

Elder Tom had one very, very heavy box.  Weight set we were guessing?  He's South African, so maybe he'll be able to get it home with him.  Nope--we talked to him after Christmas and it was all groceries!  His family sent all his favorite foods.

President and Sister Lines sent a Santa hat for each Elder--and us Seniors, too.  She asked them to send her a photo with their hats on.  

We had hoped to all wear them for the Zone parties!

But, since we didn't have the parties, Ken collected all the photos and on Christmas Day put them into a fun video that you can now watch here:

The Elders in Amanzimtoti, about 25km south, live just down the street from the local rugby club fields.  As we drove by, we had to smile at the very African method of keeping the grass trimmed.  Notice all the cattle all over the field!  

On Christmas Eve we had dinner with the Lines and the Hubrichs at the Mission Home--turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, veggies, salad, and brownies with whipped cream for dessert.  So yummy, but best of all was the good company.  Being far from family is hard, but good friends make it easier.  

And we admired the Lines' gift to themselves.  They've always been talking about getting a zebra skin to take home, and so they finally bought it this week. They had to get the proper certificates about how it died naturally, and it is the species with brown in the fur, too.  The all black/white ones are endangered, so their skins cannot be imported into the USA, nor sold in South Africa.

Sister Hubrich is a very clever, creative woman.  She saw someone with a T-shirt one day that said "South Africa is not for Sissies."  She liked the saying, so designed and had made these T-shirts for all of us.

The ones for the women have a woman with pot on her head and the flat-topped trees so typical of South Africa.

The ones for the men have a Zulu warrior.  

Christmas morning found us downstairs at the Hubrichs for "golden browns."  That is their family name for large pancakes--and they always sing the name: "Gooooal-den Browns!"  The Assistants came, too.  Elder Mokhoanatsi managed to eat quite a few.  We had lots of toppings--maple syrup, coconut syrup, jam, whipped cream and Nutella.

After breakfast we went Christmas caroling to the apartments in our building! 

You can tell it is the middle of summer.  Gardens are lush and green, and neighbor Sean is sitting around in his shorts.  It tends to be hot in the morning and then get cloudy and cooler in the afternoon.  But humidity is 85%-plus all the time.

Santa made it to our apartment, too.  But it was a small and mostly consumable Christmas.  However, Sue also made a video today of Ken playing with his new Christmas toy.  He got a mini-drone.  It doesn't do anything but fly around, but he can make it buzz Sue's head.  Only once did it get lost under the couch.  And he's kept it away from the ceiling fans.