AFRICA WEEK #1

It's now 6:55 Saturday evening, local time.  It was just exactly 1 week ago at 6:55 that our plane landed in Johannesburg.  We were met at the airport by Elder and Sister Kinghorn, from Sacramento.  They are our host couple for the first couple of weeks to help us find our way around and get settled in, etc.  They are also the couple we will be working with very closely in the Area office.  As we are beginning to understand, the four of us are the ones who work with the 13 Humanitarian couples in the various countries in Africa to oversee their projects and make sure all the financial aspects are taken care of properly.
     This week, has really been an interesting week.  The Kinghorns and Elder and Sister Lee (they're the couple we're going to replace), put together and presented the training conference for Monday through Friday.  It was every bit as intensive and well prepared as either week 1 or week 2 at the MTC.  The out of country couples flew in and stayed at the Courtyard Hotel here in town.  Breakfast and lunch were provided every day by the hotel as well as snacks and drinks at 10 am and 2 pm.  Each couple was given 2 prepaid Visa cards with enough on them to spend $15 each for every evening meal.  Here in Johannesburg, $15 is enough for a pretty nice meal. Susan and I went to the Fish Monger 2 evenings.  That's a restaurant comparable to Market Street at home.  One evening we spent $46 and the next time we spent $43.  Then last night the whole group ate at Spetada Restaurant.  That was a really nice place too.  We were joined at that meal by two members of the
Africa Southeast Area Presidency.  That tab was picked up by the Area office.  I don't know how much the entire conference cost to put on with air fares, hotels and meals, but I'm sure that we'll find out next week because we're the ones (along with the Lee's) who'll have to reconcile all the charges and balance the budget.

This is the conference room at the Marriott Courtyard hotel here in Johannesburg.  We spent Monday through Thursday in this room from 8:30 till 4:30 (with an hour lunch break).  We learned about choosing projects to do, paying translators in the several countries where the couples don't speak the language, making sure translators are set up as independent contractors, finding partners to work with, getting bids (3) for every aspect of the project, interviewing and deciding on contractors to use, when it's permissible to make pre-payments (it's usually not allowed), entering vendors in CFIS (Church Financial Information System), negotiating and signing contracts, filling out and sending in payment requests, setting up the 5% retention clause, finding site monitors who will go out to the projects on a weekly or monthly basis after the project is finished to see if it is still working correctly, and determining when a project can actually be closed.
On Friday, we met from 8:30 till 2 pm at the Area office and then attended the temple together.  President Cook, our Area President also spoke to us.  President Cook and President Ellis, also attended the temple session with us.

This morning, we went with 3 other couples in one of the Area vans to the Hartbeespoort Dam.  It's about 60 miles from here. We then got on a little tram and went to the top of a little mountain nearby.

On the left are Brent and Charlene Lee from Idaho, second from right are Larry and Debbie McMurdie from Green Bay Wisconsin (at least somebody's team is still in the playoffs).  On the right are Bruce and Melinda Kinghorn from Sacramento. 

Neither the tram, reservoir, nor dam were very interesting, but the real reason we went was so the ladies could go shopping.  There is an area nearby called Chameleon Village where you can buy just absolutely any African item you could imagine.  There are dozens of shops, vendor stalls and restaurants, plus a building that must be 30-40,000 square feet with literally hundreds of 10' X 10' booths with every hand-made item you can think of.

 

 

This is one of about 8 entrance aisle ways to the craft building.  Each aisle goes back a couple of hundred feet.

We got back to Johannesburg at 4 pm, so McMurdies could catch their flight back to Zimbabwe where they are serving.  This was the hottest day we've had since we got here.  The forecast last night said it was supposed to get up to 86.