OUT OF AFRICA: The Gleaves are in Africa

It is always wonderful to see our family come through these doors at OR Tambo International Airport.

Our living room was full of air mattresses, there were seven of us trying to have showers and we ran out of milk, but our flat was full of love and we loved every minute of it.

We took them to ‘Neighbor Goods Market’ for breakfast Saturday, then got in the van and drove to Bela Bela, two hours to the north. We went there to see and ride on the elephants at "Adventures with Elephants."

STILL SEVERELY JET-LAGGED

Megan made a good pillow for Mallory and Matthew. Oh wait! Maybe that's Mallory. Natalie didn't find such a nice pillow.

What a cute baby

OFF WE GO1

Kevin had a hard time when he got on top of the elephant. He said he pulled his groin muscle and was yelling at the guide that he was going to jump off. It is a long stretch for the guys.

On Sunday a group of the girls in the ward stayed after and visited with Megan and Mallory. We think maybe they would have rather talked to Matthew.

We left home at 3 o’clock and went to the Apartheid Museum. We stayed until it closed, then stopped at the office to give them a little tour.

Monday morning Susan drove the Gleaves to the office so they could attend the weekly Devotional. We squeezed 6 into our little Toyota Corolla. Kevin and Susan in front and the other four in the back seat. Walt had taken the van to the office early that morning because Susan didn't want to drive it.

Looking out the window, we could see there were a lot of dark clouds in the sky. On the internet the forecast was for rain, but we decided to take our chances and drive to Lesedi Village.

As soon as we arrived, our guide said we had to hurry because the 'rains were coming.' He passed out umbrellas to everyone but we never had to use them.

KEVIN WITH WIFE NUMBER 2

Natalie (number 1 wife) had to give Kevin permission to take a second wife. She said 'no' but he took her anyway. I think it was because number 2 wife came with a darling little girl.

Kevin and Matthew were very brave but were looking for water to wash down the Mopane worms they ate.

"Come on girls, it tastes just like chicken." Mallory took one of the dried worms but it never made it to her mouth.

After the program, Walt drove the van up to the gate in case it started to rain. Just as everyone got in, it started to rain and it was a downpour. It even hailed some of the time. It was raining so hard, we waited in the parking lot before we left.

DANCING WITH THE "NATIVES"

Tuesday morning we had a meeting with Elder Ellis so we left the Gleaves home. When our meeting was over, we came back to the flat and had ham sandwiches they had made. We then went to ‘Constitution Hill’ and waited outside while they walked through it. We had been there before and didn’t need to pay to see it again. The main reason Susan didn’t want to go in again is because it is very depressing to learn about how they treated the prisoners, mostly the blacks.

Wednesday morning at 6:30 we left the flat and drove to Medikwe Game Preserve. We arrived at the Mosetlha Bush Camp right at 12:30. We told Matthew that he had the challenge to find as many animals as Tanner had found.

We got up at 4:30 for our morning game drive. Our guide was Jonny and we were happy to see him again.

TAKING A HOT CHOCOLATE BREAK MID MORNING

We stayed in different cabins this time. There were four of them together. We slept 2, 2, 2, and 1. We were so close we could hear Kevin snoring (or was that the lion?).

WE SAW SOME ADORABLE CUBS WITH THEIR MOM

CUTE!

UP INSIDE THE HEAD IS A LITTLE HARDER TO GET AT BUT IT SURE IS YUMMY

Earlier, the mother had killed a wildebeest. While we were watching the little family, some jackals and a hyena were trying to sneak up and help themselves to her kill. The mother lion chased them away, then laid down and helped herself to more of the head,

ONE OF THE JACKALS LOOKING FOR A TASTE OF WILDEBEEST

DADDY SLEEPING ON HIS BACK WITH LEGS WRAPPED AROUND THIS LOG

The father of the cubs was sleeping right across the road from the mother and babies. He woke up and looked right at us, as our vehicle was parked directly between him and his family. Susan was very nervous and Natalie said she had been terrified. We just put our trust in Jonny who has been guiding game drives for 16 years now. The huge lion decided to just ignore us.

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL ANIMAL

We came upon a large breeding herd of elephants. This little guy was the cutest of the bunch.

STAYING CLOSE TO MAMA

SEBASTIAN IN OUR CAMP AND RIGHT NEXT TO KEVIN & NATALIE'S CABIN

Sebastian is a huge Cape buffalo. He comes in to the camp every night to get a drink.

ZEBRAS AT THEIR "DIRT" HOLE

Evidently, Zebras sometimes need to eat dirt in order to keep a balance with their nutrients

A PILE OF POOP

Dung Beetles lay their eggs in the dung of the Cape Buffalo. Because Sebastian had been in our camp they found a nice supply right behind our cabin. They roll up a little gob of dung then start pushing it

They make a perfect round ball about the size of a golf ball, then "take" it home.

They push the ball while upside-down and with their back legs. Every so often they stop, climb up on top of their ball and get their bearings.

Ready for another adventure

WE SAW A LOT OF BABIES THIS TIME

The warthog is Walt's favorite animal

"I'M BIGGER THAN YOU"

It was very hot during the day. It had been well over 100 degrees a couple of weeks ago and for at least one day this was the hottest spot on the earth. On both of the night drives it started raining which helped to cool things down.

The giraffes always seem to know we are watching them.

This trip to Medikwe was just as amazing as the other times we've been there. Susan has always had a hard time watching nature shows when animals are hunting and killing each other. To be there and to be so close, is hard to describe. We certainly love these beautiful animals and love seeing them in their natural habitat.

When we got back on Friday, Kevin and Susan went to the grocery store to buy groceries for our visit to Mama's orphanage on Saturday. Walt went down to the movie theater to check out times for "Star Wars”. It was opening night and we were excited to see it. At home, the theaters were sold out. For the opening, there were only about 20 other people in the theater with us. Sometimes when we go to a movie, we are the only ones in the theater.

When the movie was over, Natalie couldn’t find her phone. She looked all around her seat and couldn’t see it and so she asked one of employees. She thought maybe she had left it on the counter when she bought us popcorn. They hadn’t seen it so we all went back in to the theater and looked all around the seats. We pulled them out and looked for quite a while but couldn’t find it. She gave them our cell phone number in case it turned up. We all felt so bad for Natalie because it had all of her pictures on it.

Saturday morning the Gleave’s all got up early and went to the temple. The kids did baptisms and Nat and Kevin did a session while we worked in the office to catch up. Afterwards we came back to the flat and made sandwiches for the orphanage. Just as we were getting ready to go to Mama's orphanage, Walt got a phone call from the theater and they said they had found Natalie's phone! We went right over to the mall and waited while Natalie went inside. She said that one of the cleaning girls found it under a seat. The girl was excited that she had found it and took Natalie back inside and showed her where it had fallen. Natalie was so grateful to have her phone back and later took them some cookies to show her appreciation.

We met Elder and Sister Glen and Leigh Pond at Mama's. They brought some chips and drinks. A local business has just built her a building that has a two rooms, one of them is going to be a kitchen. We had the kids sit on the floor while we passed out the sandwiches and chips.

We could tell that some of them had never had potato chips before. We finally had to tell them they couldn’t have anymore because they wouldn't stop asking for more.

THESE GIRLS LOVE TO DANCE AND THEY WERE EXCITED TO PERFORM FOR US

We also brought a soccer ball for them and Matthew played with some of the boys for quite a while.

WE CAN "RENT" THE VAN FROM THE AREA OFFICE IF IT IS AVAILABLE

YOUR HAIR IS SOOO SOFT

Megan and Mallory sat on a blanket while the kids braided their hair.

NEW SWEET FRIENDS

The Baobab tree at Mandela Square

Kevin and Natalie treated us to dinner Saturday Night and also surprised us with this yummy treat

We celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary and Walt's 69th birthday

On Sunday the bishop asked Natalie, Kevin and their kids to say a few words at the beginning of Sacrament meeting. They all said some sweet things about South Africa and our ward. Walt didn’t teach any piano after church and so we came straight home. The Gleave's requested a nap so we had a nice, quiet Sunday.

Because of holiday vacations and travel there were very few people at the Monday devotional (couples or employees), so we sang some Christmas songs and a couple of people were called on to speak for a few minutes. This is when many of the employees take their annual leave because school is out for the summer and the office was pretty empty.

After the devotional Walt stayed at the office to work while the rest of us went on a 4 hour tour of Soweto.

LEARNING ABOUT LIVING IN THE KLIPTOWN SHANTY TOWN

THE TIN SHACKS ARE HEARTBREAKING

KLIPTOWN YOUTH CENTER

These girls are playing a game similar to Jacks but they were using stones.

For our SOWETO tour this time, Angie’s husband Rudie, was our tour guide. We had never met him before and he was a lot of fun to talk to. He asked about our mission and what we do in South Africa. When he brought us back, he said they would like to take us out to dinner before we go home. They are very nice people and we're glad we got to know them.

It was after three o’clock when we got back so we decided to skip lunch and have an early dinner. We asked them where they wanted to go for their last night and they picked 'Spetada.'

On their last day with us, we took them to ‘Cambanos’ for some serious souvenir hunting. They spent two hours shopping and bought a lot of souvenirs. We also bought a couple of things plus a suitcase so Gleave's could take their souvenirs and also a lot of ours, home with them.