Bittersweet -- Week 100!

We are still here, and glad it is so.  Our original release date was tomorrow, 11 January.  The Taylors were scheduled to arrive on 15 January.  Not a good plan, especially with Transfers happening 19-21 January.  So we have another three weeks and are cherishing that time.

The beginning of the week was cleaning and moving -- after full days in the office.  Monday evening we finished cleaning our new boarding.  Tuesday evening we moved.  We are now all settled into our new boarding.  Wednesday evening we went to the Durban Temple.  We were ready for a little peace and spiritual time.  It is such a wonderful place.  We feel blessed to be so close to a Temple here.

Thursday evening it was time to clean the old boarding so it would be ready for the Taylors.  We had lots of wonderful help.

Andre Slabbert painted the bathroom in the old boarding.  There had been repairs made that cut the plaster walls, and they had never been painted, so it needed it badly.

Sister Hubrich washed the winows in the living room ("lounge" in South African lingo).  They have needed it badly since we first moved in.  But it's a little scary to wash the outside while hanging out three stories up!  It is such a pretty forest view.

Ken washed the bedroom windows--with some help from Sue.  His balance is a little off these days, so hanging out windows is not a good idea.

He also washed all the closet woodwork in the bedroom.  It looks so much better!  When you live someplace it is easy to ignore the dirty spots you see every day.

Sister Hubrich and Vanessa Slabbert worked hard on the kitchen with Sue, too.  Everything out of cupboards and drawers for a good clean.  Andre also had paint cans all over the counter.

In the new boarding we didn't have a dining table, so Ken gave up his "desk" for us to eat on and moved his computer to this little table.  It's enough space for the next 2.5 weeks.

And we had our first monkey invasion in the new apartment.  Sue thought she had looked to see that the windows were closed, but missed one.  The Assistants noticed the three monkeys and found our keys with Andre and shooed them out--but not before taking some photos.  They didn't get much good to eat because the food was put away.  Mostly they pulled everything out of the trash because there were banana peels in the bottom.

Friday night we went out with the Hubrichs to celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary.  (It was actually on Wednesday.)  The restaurant we went to was on Florida Street--a fun touristy area of Durban with lots of restaurants.  It was a Mozambique food place in an old colonial mansion. 

Good food and amazing architecture.  We sat outside and enjoyed the warm Durban evening.

Saturday we went shopping with the Hubrichs.  We had received word that the bead nativity set that Sue had ordered was ready, so we went down to the Musgrave Saturday market in Berea Park to pick it up.  Hubrichs had ordered one, too.  

Charles makes so many wonderful bead characters.  We told him what we wanted and he made them for us in just a couple of weeks.

It looks good on our kitchen counter, too.

Ken and Elder Hubrich also bought matching wedding rings.  Ken has been wearing a plastic one for several years.  He lost three previous gold ones and another cheap metal one.  Elder Hubrich left his good gold one home in the USA.  These are Hermatite -- an iron oxide stone.  Ken's is fine, but Elder Hubrich's cracked and broke today already.  They cost 100 Rand each--about $7.

Sue has also wanted some African placemats and table runner, but the main place they are sold is on Victoria Street.  That's a building full of African art and artifacts for tourists.  With the COVID spike, it just hasn't felt safe to go there.  But Sister Hubrich had been to this huge amazing fabric store called "Craft Concepts."  She said they had some there. Sue knew the store, so we all went there, and Sue ended up buying the African animal print panels and will make her own placemats and table runner after we get home.  There are twelve different scenes.

Next stop was up to The Patio Guru in Hillcrest.  This is the place that has the amazing metal sculptures.  We've talked all along about buying one to take home.  It was time to really do it.  Lazarus makes these amazing huge animals.

And he transports them for sale all over the world.

However we looked more seriously at the smaller ones.  We did love the family of warthogs.

And ended up buying this cute hadiha (hah-dee-dah) ibis.

Lazarus also has serpentine stone carvings.  We liked the small "pools" that have a hippo head just out of the water.  But Ken had the brilliant suggestion that we already have a fountain pool in our yard.  Let's just buy a hippo to go in it.  So we did.  The hippo looks pretty cute on our kitchen counter in the meantime.

Sunday morning we were up and gone early--but not as early as Elder & Sister Taylor.  Their plane left Johannesburg at 6am, arriving in Durban at 7:15.  We were there with President and Sister Lines to greet them.

We stopped at the Temple for photos, too.  Then we went to the Mission Home for breakfast.

After that it was time to welcome them to West Victoria--our beloved block of  condo flats.  The Hubrichs made a welcome sign at the entrance walkway.  The Hubrichs were not around because they usually go to Church in Port Durnford--about 2 hours north.  

We let the Taylors do a little unpacking and resting and then took them with us to Church in Molweni Branch where we have attended, when we weren't on lockdown.  

This evening we had dinner at the Hubrichs with the Taylors and President & Sister Lines.  They are all such fun people.  It was a good chance to all get to know each other.  The Taylors are "car people" too, so we shared stories of all our old cars.  They also served a previous mission as the Office Couple in New Zealand and most recently as trainers for senior couples all over the world.  The Hubrichs served previously in Freiburg, Germany.  We had previously served in Hamburg, Germany and St. Petersburg, Russia.  We talked a lot about how things are done in different missions and mutual friends.  It was a wonderful evening.  We thought Elder Hubrich took photos, but they are not on the camera.  Oops...

Tomorrow we really go to work getting the Taylors all oriented to how things run in Durban.  And we are sure they will have many good suggestions from their experience to make things run even better.