Welcome to the Kingdom of Swaziland

Phillip asked us to take Reed and Larene Mellor (from Lehi) to Swaziland on November 17.  The Mellors are what is known as "Short Term Specialists," part-time missionaries who go to a country for a few days or few weeks to help implement the Humanitarian large-scale or "Major Initiatives." The Mellors are water specialists and they had been visiting Rwanda in preparation for a large water and latrine project at a huge refugee camp there.

Dinner at Summerfield Inn

While in Africa, Phillip wanted them to see and review a water project that was done in Swaziland
during 2014 and 2015.


Swaziland is a very small country which is still today ruled over by a king, King Mswati III,  who owns all the lands in the country.  Individuals cannot own land but can "lease."
Swaziland is located on the extreme eastern border of South Africa and in fact, most of Swaziland is completely surrounded by the country of South Africa.
Swaziland also has the highest HIV infection rate in the world, with 26% of adults being infected.   The World Health Organization estimates that 64% of all deaths in the country are caused by HIV/Aids.

It's about a 5 hour drive from Johannesburg to Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland.  We arrived after dark and found our hotel (resort) called Summerfield Botanical Gardens.

Summerfield

                  The hotel was gorgeous and each couple had their own little thatched-roof villa

                           The restaurant was also beautiful in a large thatched-roof building.

Bar and Upper Lounges

The food was wonderful also

The grounds were even prettier than the rooms with lots of beautiful and unusual types of plants and flowers and peacocks running around and up in the trees.

A Peacock in a Pear Tree 

Too bad it was so expensive (?).  The rooms, along with breakfast and dinner, per couple, came to about $140 a day.

                                     We'd certainly go back there again if we got the chance.

No, they're not real

The water project done there was different from most projects that we do.  It was administered and managed by a Non-Government Organization (NGO) called Gone Rural BoMake (sounds like Bo-Mocky).  Gone Rural was organized to help empower the women of Swaziland, teach them skills, give them an income and generally improve their lives.

The women are organized into different groups, all of which learn skills such as weaving, dying, sewing, etc.  They cut dry grasses, bring them to the compound, dye and weave them.  On a certain day of the week, a group brings their wares, to be checked and graded, then the women are paid for their work.  It's nice, because they have a ready market for the things they make.

Dyeing the grass

Today the color was blue

A room full of colorful grass

Ladies coming to make and sell their wares

The goods are in turn, sold to wholesalers and retailer all around the world (for example Home Goods in the US).

Just some of the many things they sell

    The water projects were done in villages that had a high concentration of the BoMake women.

A very modest home

A room used for cooking their meals

 Before a village could qualify for a water well (borehole), each family in the village had to build their own pit latrine.  These are very simple buildings with basically just a pit, concrete slab, a seat, walls and ceiling.  When the pit is full (after about 5 years) they just dis-assemble the block building, dig a new pit and re-build.

A latrine built by the family

This particular water project consisted of 3 boreholes, each with a concrete apron, and a fence to keep animals (cows and goats) away from the water source.

A water pump

Reed Mellor visiting with members of the village

Because the houses of the villages were so spread out, families living further than 500 meters (about                                      1/4 mile) from the wells were also given a "Hippo Roller."

This lady was very grateful for her Hippo-Roller

She wanted to show us where they put the water

 A Hippo Roller is basically a large (about 25 gallon plastic drum onto which a person snaps on a handle and then the water (about 200 lbs.) is just pushed or pulled to the person's home.  They are a pretty slick little item and had held up very well after about 6 months of use.

THE JACARANDAS

Ever since we arrived in Johannesburg, we heard how lucky we were because we were going to be                                                          here the second week of October.

                    This is when the Jacaranda trees are in bloom and everything turns purple.

They were in bloom when Mike and his family were here and so they were able to enjoy it with us.

  JUST A FEW OF THE JACARANDAS THAT SURROUND THE JOHANNESBURG TEMPLE

 

 MIKE, TAMI AND ALEX AT THE TEMPLE

THE VIEW OF JOHANNESBURG FROM OUR OFFICE WINDOW

 DRIVING THROUGH THE NEIGHBORHOOD BY OUR HOME

Everywhere we drove, we were surrounded by the Jacarandas and we're happy we were here to enjoy them.

MORE SPECIAL VISITORS FROM HOME

Michael, Tami, Tanner and Alex came to visit us for a week and we had a wonderful time.  We were so excited to see them.  They had a 12 hour layover in Paris before they flew here and they had a wonderful time there also.  They took the 'Red Bus Tour' of Paris and were able to see lots of the sights.  They even had time to go to the Louvre and see Mona Lisa and some of her other famous friends.

ALEX RAN AHEAD OF EVERYONE ELSE

They arrived in the morning of Friday the 16th.  It takes almost an hour for the passengers to get through customs and immigration after the plane lands.  We sit and watch everyone that comes through the door so we won't miss them.
We had planned to take them to lunch but they were too tired. We brought them to our flat and they all took a nap.

 We left around 5 0'clock and  took them to Mandela Square.  Alex wanted to look at the shoes in the Nike store but soon saw that they were very expensive.  We had a dinner reservation at Pigalle for 7 o’clock.

'NOW WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?"

Tanner wanted to try oysters and so he ordered a starter of 6. He said he had never had them before but he was brave and tried two.  I think on the second one, he had to gag it down.  He said they were very salty.  We tried to get Alex to try them but he could never get it in his mouth.

                                     Alex loves lobster and so he ordered that for his dinner.

"ARE WE SUPPOSED TO EAT THAT NOW?"

                             Tanner had steak and Michael and Tami ordered the ‘Chateaubriand’.
                                       Everyone liked their dinner and we had a good time.

                            First thing Saturday morning we went to 'Neighbor Goods Market'.
                        We ate crepes and waffles for our breakfast and we enjoyed everything.

                                          After breakfast we drove to 'Lesedi Village".
                  It's a fun way to learn about the history of Africa and the different tribes.

       As soon as it was over, we rushed to the Elephant Sanctuary.  We had a reservation for 2 o’clock        and arrived just a few minutes late.  We caught up with the group and didn’t miss much.

"YOU WANT ME TO PUT THEM WHERE?"

"WHAT A BIG NOSE YOU HAVE!"

              The tour guide, Simba, remembered us from when we were there with Maddie and Chad.

                        Tanner got kissed by the elephant and it was a good one – slimy and dirty.

                                       They all rode on the elephants and had a good time.

"LOOK AT ME!"

"SMILE"

"AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THE SPLITS?"

'WHO'S TAKING WHO FOR A WALK?"

            A few weeks ago while Mike was coaching Sophie's and Payton's soccer game, he overheard some grandparents saying they had come all the way from Africa to see their 2 granddaughters play.  Mike soon found out that it was Elder Stanley B. Ellis and his wife, Kay.  Elder Ellis is the first counselor in the Africa Southeast Area presidency.  Elder & Sister Ellis were home that week for General Conference.  They visited with Mike and the girls and Sister Ellis sent us this photo of them with Mike and Payton.  .
When Mike and his family were here, the Ellis' invited all 7 of us over to their home for dinner that Saturday evening.

Photo thanks to Sister Ellis

 We had stopped for some souvenir shopping that is close to the sanctuary and then hurried to their home, which is next to the office.  We hurried and used the restroom at the office, and then walked over to the "White House." (the white house is what we call the large old home that is on the same grounds with the Johannesburg Temple and the Area Office.  It has been divided into 4 large apartments where the 3 members of the Area Presidency live, plus 1 extra apartment) We all felt embarrassed that we weren’t cleaned up.  Sister Ellis fixed meatloaf, mashed potatoes, carrots and salad.  We had ice cream and cookies for dessert.  The Ellis’ always make you feel so comfortable when you’re in their home and we had a fun time.

        On Sunday we all went to church and  I think it was fun for them to see church meetings here.

                We had a little lunch when we got back home and then left for the Apartheid Museum.

We arrived there around 3 o’clock and stayed until 5, when it closed.  That was plenty of time for Tanner and Alex. For dinner we had barbecued hamburgers, chips and creamed corn.  We had all bought tarts at the market on Saturday, so we had those for dessert.

           Monday morning is the devotional at the office. We attended that with them and then introduced them to Phillip, Kenneth and a few others that we work with. We then did the Red Bus Tour.  It's a fun way to see some of Johannesburg and learn some history.


 When we got through we took them to ‘Mugg and Bean’ for lunch at Killarney Mall.  We drove out to Cambanos Souvenir so they could do some more shopping.  We spent quite a bit of time there and the boys had a good time.  Michael and Tami got some things for Sophie, Payton and Charlie.  Afterwards we went to ‘Spetada’ for dinner at Rosebank Mall.

            Tuesday morning we left the flat at 6 o’clock for our trip to Medikwe. We stopped for breakfast at McDonalds and had a relaxing time getting to the park.  We were supposed to be at the gate at 12:30 and we were right on time.  After we went through the first gate, we saw 64 different animals before we ever got to our Bush Camp.  Tanner decided to keep track of how many we saw, which turned out to be real fun.

                                   We met Johnny our guide, and he drove us in to the camp.

SO, ARE THESE THINGS LION PROOF?

                After lunch, we went on our first drive.  We were excited for them to see everything.

TAMI SAID SHE REALLY WANTED TO SEE A GIRAFFE

AN AFRICAN MORNING

  We saw a lot of animals and some things that were new to us.  Johnny drove us to two different trees and showed us where a leopard had carried an impala clear to the top branches.

THE LEOPARD

                He said the leopards carry their kill up in the trees so it will be safe from other animals. It would be awesome to actually see a leopard climb a tree with something in its mouth. Those were very tall trees!

 We saw a lion several times in different places that was just resting and sleeping.  Johnny said that he was traveling with two other lions and would call out to them every so often.  We were patient and waited and he finally started roaring.

A LAZY CHEETAH

 Michael got it on video which will be fun to show people.  The only animals we didn’t see were the Cape Buffalo, hyenas and wild dogs.  We stopped at a couple of watering holes and saw a lot of elephants, zebra, impala, rhinos, kudu, baboons and giraffes getting a drink.

THE WATERING HOLE

                                        I think they had a fun time staying at the bush camp.

THE MAJESTIC MALE KUDU  

                           
We left the park Thursday noon and drove back to Joburg.  Tanner added up his numbers of the animals he saw and he came up with 870. When Matthew comes in December we're going to challenge him to top those numbers.

THIS WAS THE ONLY CAPE BUFFALO WE SAW.
BECAUSE IT WAS SO DRY THEY WENT UP INTO THE MOUNTAINS.

THANK YOU TO MIKE FOR TAKING THESE WONDERFUL PICTURES

ABOUT 50 BABOONS CAME TO THIS WATERING HOLE

            After driving back to Joburg, we stopped at McDonald's for lunch and then walked next door to the Chamdor Fabric Center.  It has a lot of fabric and Tami was excited to go there.  She was able to find some material and buttons to take home.  Afterwards we drove to Killarney Mall and had dinner at Del Forno’s.

                For their last day we arranged to go on a tour of SOWETO with Agnes from Felleng Tours.  SOWETO stands for South West Township and is a predominantly black (99%) township of 3 1/2 million people.  It is a remnant of the Apartheid era.  Some sections of that city are pretty nice, but Kliptown is an area of Shanty Houses where many families share an outhouse and even more share a water tap.  
               Mo is one of the founders of the Kliptown Youth Program, an after-school center which helps 400+ kids with some extra food and tutoring to help them get through school.  Mo took us on a walking tour through some of Kliptown.  He lives in one of the shanty's about a block from the youth center.

THE HOME OF MO

MO SHOWING US WHERE HE LIVES

SOME OF THE 460 CHILDREN AT THE KLIPTOWN PROGRAM

                            I think it was good for us all to see how people live in the shanty towns.                                                                    

A SECTION OF KLIPTOWN

                 We went to lunch and then came back to our flat so they could pack their suitcases.

ONE LAST POSE BEFORE THEY LEFT

                                       It is hard to say good-bye and some tears were shed.                                                                              We are so grateful they came all this way to see us.