Hawaiian Night at Dukes Court

Monday was great fun due to the tremendous efforts of Elder & Sister Basso's Hawaiian hearts.  The beautiful and delicious food included Elder B's famous Hawaiian fried rice.  Sister B thought of everything it seems.  She put together a slide show with photos contributed by all of us missionaries and gave us a dvd of it.  Somehow Sister Basso found out that Chris plays the Ukulele and that I have some hula experience so guess what...yep, you guessed it.  We put on a program.  For a few weeks now, sisters have come over to our flat to learn how to dance "Blue Hawaii".  Here is a photo of a practice:


Preparing for Hawaiian Night at Dukes Court

I'm hoping to find someone who got a photo of our group performing.  (Mine didn't turn out)  These darling children learned "Little Grass Shack" so enthusiastically and you should have heard them sing "Humuhumunukunukuapua'a"! They sure did a great job & everyone loved them!


Little Dancer Awards! :)

Sister Basso wanted me to do a solo so with Mahina's permission, I chose a dance called "Ka'Pilina" that she, my wonderful teacher in Sequim, choreographed so beautifully.  Chris sang and accompanied all songs with his ukulele.

Here is a link to Ka'Pilina:  

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVNppRGxNOw&feature=youtu.be

I'm hoping to get a copy of the other dances soon and will add a link to it.

African Head Wraps

Last week we ladies met in the afternoon with Toba.  What a cute lady.  She came into the room singing and carrying a basket on her head filled with cloth to teach us how to wear the African head wrap.  One by one she wrapped our heads, each one slightly different from the other.

I'm afraid we all looked a little silly.  Or a lot silly.  We white folk just don't look the same in a head wrap (dukie) as our beautiful black sisters. Toba taught us how to tie a baby (she used a pink teddy bear) onto our back and other cultural things like how they have special songs for so many different life events or even activities including washing! They sing so beautifully.  I can't quite put my finger on it but the harmony is just so different than our ears are used to hearing.  We all had so much fun trying to be African for an hour, then we unwrapped our heads and went back to work.

Toba (orange head wrap) and missionary sisters.

Paper Keyboards

Did I happen to mention that I am the ward organist? .................(those dots are just me pausing for the laughter to die down.)  It's true.  I'm all they've got.  I am also teaching piano lessons!  I have four students and it is a joy to see their eyes light up at the thought of learning to play the piano.  I've been making paper keyboards for them to practice on during the week.  I cut the black keys out of cardboard to make them be raised up and then I put a line of glue in between the white keys so there would be something to "feel".  It's amazing but they really do practice on them. :)

Here's my paper keyboard

MTC Open-house

Saturday we went to Roodepoort to tour the Missionary Training Center (MTC) for their open house.

 The local missionaries from the Johannesburg Mission conducted the tour. Elder Hunter from Salt Lake City was our tour guide.  We met MTC President & Sister Reber and then toured the facility. There's a nice room set up like a living room where they record the missionaries teaching and then they can watch themselves to look for ways to improve.  

On the walls of the MTC, they have some wonderful pictures of African saints, missionaries teaching the gospel, pictures of the mission presidents, and pictures of Christ.  One picture that we thought was unique, was this picture showing the missions in the Africa Southeast Area – this entire area is the area where we serve.  (Click on it to enlarge)

Click Photos to enlarge

 The facility has 38 beds and each missionary stays about 12 days at the MTC.

Debbie with President & Sister Reber

Outside there are some great exercise areas for the missionaries; a soccer field, basketball court, a nice sand volleyball court, and some outdoor barbecues.  

Next to the MTC is the Roodepoort Ward chapel and an an institute building.  It's cool that they have a missionary couple called to facilitate the BYU-Idaho Pathways program which they said is working well.

The church tour was very nice in that they had nice displays in each of the rooms (like the chapel, cultural hall,  RS, Youth, Primary and Nursery etc) describing what they do there and what they teach.  They talked about Family History, Temple marriage, Single Adults & Young Single Adults, employment etc.  Very well done. :)

Our African Safari!

One of the “must do”s in Africa is to go on a safari!  During the winter months, the foliage is minimal, there is no rain so animals congregate at the water holes so it is perfect for viewing the animals.

Because things were slow at the office this week and the Eppel's (the most wonderful & delightful couple we work with) were going to visit their family this week, we decided to take the opportunity to travel to Madikwe Game Reserve near Gaborone Botswana.

On Monday, July 15, we drove 4 ½ hours to Impodimo Lodge inside the reserve and checked into our bungalow.

Dry season so no mosquitoes but netting is pretty!

View from back deck of our room!

                                                                                                                                                                  Here is a zebra who came to the hole right outside our room!   We saw kudu, impala, warthogs, zebra & elephants come to this watering hole.  The elephants came frequently, first to drink, chasing away anything else, then after they had their fill they would leave and other animals would move.  Didn't take long though, before the elephants would return & again chase away the other animals. This time they came to cool off.  

They splashed around, kicking the water with their feet and spraying themselves with their trunks.  Besides the trumpeting, they have a roar sound not unlike a lion or a crocodile.  (at least to my untrained ear).  Here's the best thing ever....several elephants came over to the swimming pool and drank out of it.  There was a baby elephant who wasn't quite tall enough to easily reach into the pool from where he was standing.  All I could see was his little trunk come up over the lip of the pool and into the water to suck up some water, and then the trunk would retract to squirt the water into his mouth.  It was really cute.  Before they finished, I think the water level in the pool had dropped a couple of inches.  This photo is from another guest since our camera was not at the pool.

While we are at work, we don’t get much sun so we decided to go to the pool and layout for an hour before the evening game drive.  Imagine our surprise when I way was blocked by this elephant who was busy eating the trees near the lodge boma.  

The tracker, Sam [because we couldn’t pronounce his real name], sits in the front seat of the Land Rover and watches for game as well as studies the tracks to see what animals are in the area. He was amazing at pointing out animals long before anyone could see them.  Ruan was the driver, Park Ranger & guide.  He would take us off the road, into the bush to get close to the animals. 

On our first game drive, we saw so many elephants.  One mama didn't really want us around and gave us warning by trumpeting and mock charging!  At least Ruan said it was a mock charge.  They warn you by beginning the charge and then they stop & pause to see if you will leave....and by the way, we did!  They are so huge and a bit scary when you can tell they are annoyed at you.  Ruan, our driver, is excellent at reading animals.  He can tell when to back off and when to stay. 

Here is a short clip of that elephant:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws-vC4ysAyQ

Ruan had a rifle just in case and I'm very thankful he didn't need to use it.  Here is a picture of baby that was so cute.  He was doing what his parents had taught him and “charged” our Rover!  He trumpeted and began the charge about 3 times then turned and ran to mama to tell her it wasn't working.  

If we showed you a picture of every animal picture we took, we’d be uploading over 300 pictures and about 25 videos.  So, we have selected a few to display here.  But we can enumerate many:

 Of the deer type animals:  Zebras,

 kudus with long curly horns (large antelope), klipspringers (wee little pigmy antelope), impala (deer-like animals)  Of the cats:  Cheetahs and lions.  We got so close to the lions!  There was a mama resting while her little cubs frolicked and rolled around playing with each other.  One mama stood up and stretched against the tree then started licking her cubs clean.  They cried out with complaints. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h_ZbucgfO0

If you follow the link you can hear the cubs objections. :)

One lion sighting was just after a kill:

  (He was eating a baboon)  Another time we saw a lion eating an impala.   Nature is so very cruel.  Isn't the circle of life a mean thing... so many animals have to kill something to eat. Other animals we spotted were warthogs, baboons, hyena, rhino, wildebeests or gnu, mongoose, lots of birds, including the yellow billed hornbill (like Zazu), & giraffes.

Impodimo lodge has no fences so after dark we were not allowed outside without Ruan and his flashlight & rifle accompanying us.  Our two nights and 4 game drives were a great introduction to Africa.  We thoroughly enjoyed our first African safari 

Andrea is a New Missionary!

Aaron & Andrea at the MTC dropoff

Andrea entered the MTC yesterday!  Tom & Sharilyn and the kids took care of her this past month and saw her off.  Emily & Aaron greeted her at the plane in SLC and Aaron took her to the MTC.  Jen & Vic & Andrew sent their love across the miles as did I.  Em & Amy have done much for her as well.  I just feel so overcome with gratitude for my very dear family.  I love them all so much.  In the world to come, time and distance will no longer be a barrier to loved ones.  That is a very joyful thought.  I love you all so very much!

Maropeng Museum & Cave

Yesterday we ventured outside the city for the first time.  It was fun to “get away”.  We went to an area called “The Cradle of Humankind”.  It is a World Heritage Site.  This is about an hour northwest of Johannesburg.  We first toured the Sterkfontein Caves. 

This is one of the most significant and famous archaeological sites in the world.  The limestone caves here have produced hundreds of hominid fossils.  These are considered to be ancestors to the Homo sapiens.  The most famous fossils found here are Little Foot – a complete skeleton of a hominid that once walked upright – stood about 4 feet high.

Another famous fossil was the skull of Mrs. Ples – which may have really been a man – the skull contained 32 teeth – significant in terms of evolution.  The cave tour showed us where these fossils had been excavated from the flowstone and cave rubble.  The tour was not for old people.  Stooping, scooting, ducking, waddling, climbing, in poor light and unstable footing with 180 feet of vertical were the actions of the day.

Debbie had a vegetarian burger for lunch.  It was nothing like the garden burgers in the US.  It was mostly potato and corn.  I drank a “Stoney” – ginger beer which is non-alcoholic of course.

Next we visited the museum at Maropeng. 

This complex looks like a grassy mound, but is really a building covered with dirt.  There is an impressive museum that describes the “Cradle of Humankind” area and talks about our evolution as a people. 
There is also a raft ride that is a part of the exhibit that takes you “through” the ice age and history of the earth’s evolution.  But I think Splash Mountain is better.