Transitions -- week 103

This week we started the transition to having the Taylors really run the office.  Now we say, "What can we do to help you today?"  We should have been gone last week, so they are now the bosses.  And they are doing great!  They understand all the computer systems and are figuring out the quirks of the South Africa Durban way of doing things.  

And we are starting to transition back to being in California.  Sue has been asked to help with a bond-issue campaign for the Ravenswood School District, where she worked for 25 years.  She has done this before, and of the current School Board Members only one was on the Board five years ago.  She had a Zoom call on Monday night with new Board Member Jenny Bloom.  But, the Internet in our current apartment is slow, so when we need more bandwidth, we go sit on the stairs outside the Hubrich's flat.  (You can see the front of Taylor's truck up above Sue's head--and she is sitting on the stairs between the 2nd and 3rd floors.  Our building is really down in a gully.)

Wynn and Bette Hubrich have become amazing friends.  They like to bring little gifts.  They buy yummy Mozambique pineapples from a road-side stand when they drive north and bring back extras to share.

They made a beautiful book of photos from our trip to Nambiti Game Preserve, and brought Ken a Zulu warrior headdress.

Because we had spent all day Saturday driving Elders all over the Mission for Transfers, President Lines told all the Senior Couples to take a P-day another day during the week. And did we ever!  Hubrichs and Taylors joined us for the whole day.  President and Sister Lines came for the morning shopping and then went off to do other things. 

First stop: Umgeni Street in downtown Durban.  Lots of sidewalk stalls selling all kinds of African souvenirs. 

Sue and Sister Lines loved all the African print fabrics.

We watched women weaving straw mats.  They use rocks for the bobbins to hold the threads. 

And then when President Lines wanted a photo of himself with them, they decided he needed to learn how to do it himself.

Second stop: Victoria Street Market.  This is an indoor building with lots and lots and lots of small shops selling everything, including African souvenirs.  

We bought some small gifts for children and grandchildren and some things for ourselves.  Sue bought a new purse.  [The old one was bought in St. Petersburg 3.5 years ago and looked it....]

Ken and Elder Hubrich bought another set of matching wedding rings -- since the one Elder Hubrich had from a month ago had shattered the day after he got it.  We'll see if these last any longer.

The shop where Sue bought the purse was also a spice shop, and it smelled so good in there!  Lots of kinds of curry.

Third stop:  Oyster Box Hotel in Umhlanga for lunch.  We had never been there, but it is a favorite of the Hubrichs.  

We sat outside on the veranda.

The view out over the Indian Ocean was so pretty.

It looks like we are not the only ones with a monkey problem.  Read the note at the bottom of the menu.

And on the wall by the tables.  Hubrichs said when they were there before a monkey came in, ran across a table upsetting glasses, grabbed a roll, and was gone before anyone could hardly notice!

Fourth stop:  Umdloti Beach, north up the coast from Umhlanga.  Hubrichs are always looking for good beaches, and this is one they wanted to try.  It was lovely, with waves and tidepools

and beach bums

and sand crabs that blend right into the rocks

and bathing beauties

and not-so-beauties.

Fifth Stop:  We went to visit President Futter.  He is First Counselor in the Durban Temple Presidency, but he had a heart attack and bypass surgery in December just before Christmas.  He has been doing well but is feeling confined to home and was glad for visitors.  Since we were all pretty wet and sandy, we sat out on his veranda and had a lovely visit.  We were inspired as he shared some very personal spiritual experiences. 

Thursday we worked in the office and had birthday party for Andre Slabbert.  Sister Lines made one of her fabulous cakes!

And we sent Elder Pettijohn on his way home--finally!  He was supposed to go a week earlier, but tested positive for COVID, so he had to postpone.  He tested positive again this week but had had a positive test from 13 January.  That meant he was over the disease.  Evidently after having it you can test positive for months!  He needed a letter from a doctor saying he was recovered and a copy of the two-week-old positive test.  He made his flights and is now home in Hilo, Hawaii.  Elder Pettijohn was one of the Social Media Elders for awhile, so he had worked in the office, and we got to know him well.

Friday morning we went to the Durban Temple for the last time.  It is a beautiful small Temple.  It will always hold a special place in our hearts.  We had begun our mission with its dedication.  We end our mission with a final session of spiritual enrichment.

Friday night Elder and Sister Lyon were in Durban from Ladysmith.  Their congregation was coming for Saturday Temple visit.  They came a little early to join us all for a senior couples date night.  They are doing well but miss the association with other senior couples that we have here in Durban.

We went to the Cape House Cafe near the Lines' home.  We usually like to sit outside there, but it was pouring buckets of rain, so we were happy to be inside.

Saturday morning we were up and off early to help with a service project that the Hubrichs were part of.  City Hill Church is in Hillcrest, about 30 minutes west of us.  They had boxes and boxes and boxes of donations of clothing, sundries and toys from various places that they were "selling" to anyone who wanted.  

Friday Hubrichs and some of the young Elders helped to sort all the items into piles:  clothing (mens, womens, childrens), kitchen supplies, school supplies, baby supplies, shoes, toys, hardware, etc. 

Saturday morning we had another crew to help with the distribution.

 

Ken monitored the school supplies tables.

 

Sue worked at the bath/cosmetics tables.  

We filled a small plastic shopping bag full of items, and people could get one bag full for 5 rand (about 35 cents).  

They could get a maximum of 10 bags, and they had 10 minutes to do it all.  For clothing they could fill a slightly larger bag with whatever they wanted for 10 rand.  Fifteen people were let into the room at one time.  

This went on all day.  We left at 11:30 for another appointment but heard they managed to get rid of all the stuff.  It was pretty amazing.  

Some people were there at 6am, and the event did not even open the doors until 9am.

We had to leave because we had an appointment for lunch with the Chipara Family in Molweni.  They are a wonderful family with four daughters, ages 9 to 19.  They are refugees of many years from Zimbabwe.  The girls were all born in South Africa, but like most countries (not the USA) the children are the nationality of the parents, no matter if they were born in South Africa.  They bought a lot on a hillside in Molweni several years ago and have slowly built their own home.  They have a gorgeous view out over the Valley of 1000 Hills area.  Monica said that on clear days they can see the ships out on the ocean!  They live about 45 minutes northwest of us, and we are at least 20 minutes from the ocean. But when we looked at Google Earth, they are only 14 miles as the crow flies from the coast.  

It looks very strange by US standards, but it is clean and comfortable.  The lounge (living room), dining room and kitchen is one big room with kitchen at one end and 50" TV at the other.  But the building is made of corrugated tin and they have no running water.  Their dishwashing basin is outdoors surrounded by buckets of captured rainwater. 

We had a wonderful lunch made by Marian (the daughter at the far end of the table) and her mother, Monica.  The young Elders Hall and Hulley were also invited so they could bring us up there.  The Chipara's dirt road is not on Google Maps.

They have another building down the hill a bit that is concrete block, made by Brother Chipara.  It is two good-sized bedrooms.  Their property is all planted with fruits and vegetables.  They gave us some newly ripe corn. 

Nine-year-old Amy drew this lovely picture for us while we were eating.  It now has a place of honor on our refrigerator.

On Sunday our beloved Molweni Branch congregation was back at "their" school.  

We were there with them the last time they met in Molweni area on 16 March 2020.  Then there were almost no live church meetings for almost a year, and when they did come back they could not rent rooms at the school because of COVID restrictions.  They have been meeting in Hillcrest--10 miles away.  There are only 4 or 5 families with cars, so most of them just stopped coming.  Now they are excited to be within walking distance of many church members again.  The Church has bought land to build them their own building, and we are all hoping and praying that will happen soon.

After Church we stopped to take a photo of all the adults who were in adult Sunday School.

We took our farewell photo with Elder Hall (left) and Hulley (right).  Elder Hulley is from Johannesburg area and did his Missionary Training three weeks in our office, so we have gotten to know him well.  He is a wonderful young man who will be a strength to the Church in South Africa his whole life.

One advantage of moving church back to Molweni is that they can meet in the morning, instead of in the afternoon as they had to do when sharing a building with Hillcrest Ward.  What to do with our free afternoon?  We went on a hike with the Taylors to nearby Palmiet.  It is a large nature reserve here in Westville, just behind the mall where we go for dry cleaners.  It is down in the gorge and you feel like you are off in the African jungle.  

We had to cross the river here on the rocks and all managed to get our feet very wet.

We hiked up to a small waterfall and then back.  It was a wonderful Sunday afternoon activity.  We loved being out in this beautiful world God created for us. 

We are going to miss South Africa!

Next Sunday we may be able to write our last blog from California, if we have Internet.  It's hard to believe it's over.  As Elder Taylor says, "Don't be sad that it's over; be glad for the experience."

Getting Lost and Transfers -- week 102

We have had another wonderful week!

First, our big news is that we are staying a week longer.  Original plan was to fly home to USA on 27-28 January.  We could go to Utah first, to see family and friends there, then drive down to Henderson and Las Vegas to see family there, then drive home.  We either needed to buy a new car, or pick up our old one.  But the two granddaughters who have the old one are very attached, needless to say.  It's a 2013 Ford C-Max Hybrid, pushing 100,000 miles, so we are ready for a new car anyway.  But we keep hearing about the car shortage in USA.  [No such problem in South Africa.  Why???]

With COVID so bad in the USA we don't really want to go home at all!  This week's COVID rate in South Africa is about 6 cases/100,000 people.  Utah is 337/100,000.  California is 284 cases/100,000.  

Also, our flights were Johannesburg to Atlanta and Atlanta to Salt Lake City.  We were worried about that second flight, because no one has to be COVID tested to fly domestically.  We didn't want to catch something on the flight and then spend the next week visiting family and friends, in and out of lots of homes and restaurants.  We could be our own super-spreader event.  Instead we asked Church Travel if we could move our flights.  Our house renters are moving out on 1 Feb, so we need to wait until after that to come home.  New plan:  We will leave on 4 February and fly Johannesburg to London, then London to San Francisco.  All are international flights so require all passengers to be COVID tested.  It's no guarantee, but it improves the odds.  We will go straight home and isolate for a week or so to make sure we didn't catch anything in the airport.  Since we are not going very far from home, we'll just drive Sue's 1956 Thunderbird until we can buy a "real" car.

Monday was more office work.  The Taylors really are wonderful.  We are not at all worried about leaving the mission in their capable hands.  They also gave us some cookies that they grew to love in New Zealand, and are also sold in South Africa.  The fun part is that the missionaries in New Zealand also "slam."  This was a missionary tradition in Russia, too.  They take a little bite out of the top and bottom of the cookie, and then put one end in their mouth and the other end into a cup of liquid (milk, juice, herb tea) and try to suck the liquid through the cookie.  When the cookie gets soggy you gulp the whole thing into your mouth before it falls apart on the table.  Hard to describe.  Messy to do.  Missionaries love it!

Elder & Sister Hubrich invited us off on an adventure with them on Tuesday.  They needed to visit a school an hour+ southwest of here, where the Church has funded some major repairs and renovations.  The Hubrichs are Humanitarian/Welfare missionaries, so they do these kinds of projects all over.

BUT, there are two routes to get to this school.  We started on the "pretty" route, but the road was closed.  No problem.  Google Maps happily rerouted us.  After about an hour driving over and around a river in the bottom of a valley, we gave up and backtracked and never did get to the school at all!  Maybe we'll try another day this week or next.

We are not sure how this road even got on to Google Maps.  We had to stop and wait for cows to move two or three times.

Sister  Hubrich stood up to get out of the bakkie to take a photo of us crossing this "bridge" over the river.  Her glasses were in her lap.  Oops.  Now her glasses are in the river?  No!  They had landed on a ledge.  She held Elder Hubrich by the belt as he leaned over and retrieved them.  Well done!

We crossed the river about six times in and six times coming back out.  All the bridges were just concrete paths.  Most of them were under three or four inches (8-10cm) of water.  There has been a lot of rain and serious flooding in eastern South Africa the last two weeks.

We did not make it to the school, but we did stop by to visit Pastor Victor.  He runs a drug-rehab facility and a church, just on his own.  He has about 50 people living on his property.  He feeds them and puts them to work and helps them get off the drugs.  

Walking into his small chapel, we could feel the good spirit that is there.  He is a gift from God.

Friday we went to the airport--twice.  The main group of Elders arrived in Durban at 8am.  But Elder Sellers had missed the flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg, so spent the night flying from Atlanta to London to Johannesburg.  That meant he came in on a later flight to Durban.  We took all the new missionaries--just five others--and did all the photo-ops on the second airport run.

We always spend time waiting at the airport, because the Mission runs on PLT.  That is President Lines Time, where everything starts 10 to 30 minutes earlier than planned.

We still had Elder Bascom with us (second from right above).  It was his last day as an Assistant before he goes to spend his last three months as a missionary in Lesotho!  

We took this farewell photo in the office.

We also stopped by the Durban Temple for photos, of course.

And we took the opportunity to have our Farewell photo with the Lines at the Temple.  The building and the people have been such a big part of our mission lives.  We will miss both.

We did all their orientations on Friday afternoon, and then sent them to the Mission Home for dinner and overnight in the Bunkhouse.

Saturday was Transfer Day.  People drive all over the place picking up and delivering Elders.  Hubrichs and Taylors were schedule to drive a van and a bakkie with six Elders and their luggage to Bethlehem--four hours west--leaving Pinetown chapel at 6:30am.  We were scheduled to deliver just one Elder to Ladysmith, leaving Pinetown at 8am.  About 6:15 our phone rang.  "Where is breakfast food?"  Oops!  Sue had forgotten that she had said, when she and Sister Taylor bought the food for incoming Elders for Frida,y they would also buy food for transferring Elders on Saturday.  No 24/7 stores around here.  Sue went to McDonald's drive-thru and ordered 12 breakfast meals to go.  Everyone was sitting in the cars ready to go out the driveway when she arrived about 6:50.

While at McDonald's she also ordered 24 more meals to be picked up about 7:30 for those coming to the 8:00 transfer time.  She was back to pick those up at 7:35 and nothing was ready!  The shift changed at 7:00, and the word about the order got garbled.  The early shift person asked Sue to call a few minutes before arriving so they could have it all boxed up.  The later shift thought Sue was going to call and confirm the order before they made it.  Sue tried to call before coming, but the line was busy...   Mis-communications all around.  But they made the order, and we were out of Pinetown by 8:30.  

Still not smooth sailing.  Big 5km long almost dead-stop traffic jam between Pinetown and Pietermaritzburg. It turned a normal 45 minute drive into a 1.5 hour drive.  And then another, shorter jam further on.  We rolled into Ladysmith at 11:45--over an hour late.

But the trip was worth it.  It was a glorious day.  Blue skies, fluffy clouds, green mountains and fields.  The before-mentioned floods meant there was even more water spilling out of reservoirs.

We went to the home of Elder and Sister Lyon and they fed us a great lunch.  It was good to get out of the bakkie and stretch.  We were so busy eating good food that Ken forgot to take photos.  But someone "stole" his camera and took a picture of him.  He isn't in very many pictures.

Did we mention we were driving the Hubrich's bakkie?  They took the Mission van to Bethlehem.  We no longer have our little Toyota Urban Cruiser.  With the increase of missionaries, it was needed up in Richards Bay.  The only spare car in the mission now is the big H-1 nine-passenger van. 

Sunday we both spoke in Church at Molweni Branch.  It was supposed to be our last Sunday there.  The Branch put on a lovely farewell feast for us! 

Here are all the little kids lined up in the kitchen eating their treats.  Sue wishes she had the photo of them all carrying their chairs down the hall to set this up.  They are wonderful children. 

And we had to have one last photo of Sister Vuzane and her daughter, Emma.  Emma was a brand-new baby when we first went to church in Molweni.  Now she will be two in a couple of weeks.

The adults sat in the Relief Society room and enjoyed eating and visiting.

We took a photo of the whole branch in the garden of the Hillcrest Stake Center.  It's an historic time.  This was their last Sunday meeting there.  Starting next Sunday they FINALLY!! get to go back to meeting in Molweni area where they all live.  COVID shut down all church meetings for months starting mid-March 2020.  When they were finally able to come back to church they had to use the Stake Center, about 15km (10+mi) away, instead of the rented rooms in a school in Molweni.  Many people have not been able to attend because they don't have cars.  Public transport is expensive and runs infrequently on Sundays.

We left that party in time to get to another farewell party.  This was a good-bye to us and a welcome to Taylors and others who have recently moved into the block of flats.  There are 16 flats, and we had a good turn-out for the party, with lots of good food.  Koko the jazz man, who lives in #14 just above us, played his alto sax for all of us.  Sylvie, who lives in #6 below us, made a big pot of breyanie.  That's a favorite South African Indian dish--rice, curry, chicken, lentils, yummy!  Everyone else brought snacks, salads, etc.  We brought Sue's homemade English toffee.  She had a pound of pecans she needed to use up.  Sue's fun dress was a Christmas present from Jeanne, our office and house cleaner.

When we were in Lesotho, Ken met the man there who sews made-to-order suits.  He ordered one with a cheetah-print lining, just for fun.

We have nice guards who watch over our neighborhood.  Sister Taylor got a photo of herself with two of them.  The one in the middle is a woman, Boniswa.  We have at least one other woman guard, too. 

Next week is already upon us!