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. 

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo

            On Sunday Oct 12, we flew to Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (a French speaking country).  At the moment there isn't a senior couple serving there. It is very difficult to find senior couples who are willing to serve in Africa.
In Kinshasa, there is a Church Service Center.  It is similar to an Area Office except on a much smaller scale.  There are only about 10 church employees there.  The wives of two church employees there in Kinshasa had asked if they could help with the projects.  Manon Delisle and Nilza Grana had spent time with the previous couples and so they knew quite a bit about the projects.  They are teaching French in one of the schools, as part of a Humanitarian project created by Elder & Sister Van Wagoner before they left for home.  Walt and I went there to meet them and do some training.  The office had arranged with a company, Jeffrey Travel, to pick us up at the airport.  I am so grateful that we don’t have to arrange our own transportation.

HOLD ON!  Many of the taxis had guys holding on to the sides or standing on the back bumpers

 The drive from the airport to our hotel was incredible.  It was Sunday afternoon and the traffic was very light and it only took us about 30 minutes but still, we couldn’t believe how many people we saw on the sides of the road.  There were many, many booths set up under umbrellas.  As we would drive past side streets and alleys, there were umbrellas down them also as far as you could see.  We asked the driver how many people lived in Kinshasa and he said 12 million, which is twice as many as live in Johannesburg.

                        This main highway from the airport to downtown Kinshasa is about the only                                         nice road in the whole city.

 Phillip told us that we would see LOTS of people and he was right.  The office arranged for us to stay at the Memling Hotel and it was very nice.

GET OUT OF MY WAY!!

 We saw hundreds of these hand-drawn carts built on an automobile axle and wheels.

 Nilza and Manon picked us up at 5 o’clock at the hotel and drove us to Manon’s apartment for dinner.  We were surprised to see they both had children with them. Manon and John are from Quebec, Canada, and Nilza and Eduardo are from Portugal and Spain.  John Delisle is in the Physical facilities department and Eduardo Grana is in the finance department.  They said they would be through with their Kinshasa assignments in June and then would be sent somewhere else for their next rotation.  I can’t imagine living someplace for three years and then moving again.  I thought it would be hard on their kids but they seemed to love it there.  The Delisle’s had one daughter with them and the Grana’s had two daughters (they were all about 13 or 14 and seemed to have a lot of fun together).   The Delisle's also have a married daughter in Canada.  We had a very nice dinner and it was fun to visit with them.

            The driving there is crazy but I don’t think it was as bad as some of the other countries we have been to.  The intersections were congested but there seemed to be more order to them.

IN SOUTH AFRICA THE TRAFFIC LIGHTS ARE CALLED IN ROBOTS.
IN KINSHASA THEY ARE ROBOTS!

THERE ARE ABOUT 4 OF THESE GUYS IN KINSHASA.  THEY ROTATE WITH THE TRAFFIC AND THEIR HANDS AND CHESTS SHOW GREEN OR RED LIGHTS.

  I was impressed at how well Manon and Nilza drove.   I was talking to Thabo (in our office) and he asked how our trip was.  He said that the road from the airport to downtown was much worse a few years ago.  Instead of a four lane road, it was only one lane each way.  He said it used to take almost three hours to drive into town and one time it was four hours.

LITTLE SHOPS OR STALLS FROM ONE END TO THE OTHER

THE TAXIS WERE VERY OLD AND INCREDIBLY BEAT UP

WHEN YOU GET OFF THE MAIN HIGHWAY, THE ROADS WERE MOSTLY DIRT WITH A LOT OF POTHOLES

They picked us up at 9 o'clock and drove us to their office, which is in the Service Center, and so we were able to meet some of the employees.   Nilza had previously worked for the church and knew a lot of the financial part.  I was also surprised that they knew so much about the projects.

They had visited some of the water projects and knew quite a bit about them.  So, part of the time, they were teaching us. We took them out for lunch and it was nice to have a break.  We finished around 5 o’clock and went back to our hotel.  We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and were about the only ones there.


            The next morning we went to visit one of the water projects that had been done by the Van Wagoner's.  We picked up Eddy, one of the site monitors that works with the missionaries there.  He knew where we needed to go and so he was our guide.

"HONEY, WOULD YOU PICK UP SOME WOOD ON YOUR WAY HOME?"

THE LITTLE STREAM BELOW WAS LITTERED WITH GARBAGE

STAY CLOSE TO THE SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN!

 Nilza said she had been there before and didn’t think it was a hard walk.  We drove up in to this little village and parked the truck.

"I HOPE THIS DOESN'T FALL OFF!"

HAS EVERYONE GOT THEIR WATER?

EXCUSE ME, MAY I PASS?

SO MANY WOMEN WITH SUCH BIG BUNDLES ON THEIR HEADS

 The first thing we did was walk down some steep steps.  Part of the steps were made with tires.  After we got down the steps, we walked along a narrow path for almost a mile.  It was on the side of the mountain, above the village and it was hot and humid.

THIS CUTIE WANTED TO POSE

MOST PEOPLE LOVED GETTING THEIR PICTURES TAKEN

YOU HAVE TO PAY A LITTLE MONEY IN ORDER TO ATTEND SCHOOL

SOME OF THE VERY FEW CHILDREN WHO ARE ABLE TO GO TO SCHOOL

 From the beginning of our trek, we had children following us.  We stopped several times and took pictures.  Everyone was excited to see themselves in the camera.

PLEASE TAKE MY PICTURE  Probably 90% of these kids did not go to school

EVERYONE WAS EXCITED EXCEPT THIS LITTLE GUY

THE MAN IN THE BACKGROUND IS BUSY SEWING.  HE WAS VERY PROUD OF HIS SHOP.

MANON, NILZA AND EDDY

  There was a little girl that followed us the whole time.  I stuck my hand out to her so I could hold her hand and she turned and ran.  Before long she was behind us again. After we showed her a picture of herself, she was happy. By the time we got to the well, there were about 20 little kids.

   

There are 35,000 people in this valley which is only about 10 miles from the center of the city.  These wells provide the only clean water in the valley.  Prior to these wells being drilled, the people had to hike back out of the valley to collect and carry back water.

THIS IS THE LITTLE GIRL THAT WAS SCARED AND RAN AWAY

                                   We also walked to two other wells and tried out the pumps. 

MANON AT THE PUMP.    THE VILLAGES CHARGE A SMALL FEE FOR WATER WHICH GOES TOWARDS A MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR FUND.

THIS WELL WAS BEING PROTECTED BY A GOAT PATROL

            After visiting the wells we went back to their office and spent the rest of the day training.  We also looked through their files and their computers.  We had dinner again at the hotel and the shuttle picked us up the next morning.  When we got to the airport, the driver took us in to the office of Jeffrey Travel.  A man came up to us and wanted our passports, tickets and the money for the airport charges.  We were both a bit surprised because we didn’t know this was going to happen.  It was kind of scary to hand over those things.  We then followed the guy to the ticket counter and he took our money.  He walked over to another window and paid the airport taxes.  In the end it was nice they did that for us because we wouldn’t have known what to do but it would have been much better if we had known from the beginning.    We had a good flight home and it was nice to be in our own flat again.

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