Animal Adventures

Life has been very very busy for us since arriving back in Johannesburg in August after a wonderful July vacation. We have traveled a great deal and taught and trained and visited and we’ve had seminars and conferences and retreats and of course we have done a great deal of entertaining. We have the couple missionaries for dinner as they come and go and visitors from Salt Lake or whomever. We love what we do and we have had some incredible experiences, but with great anticipation we decided to take a few days off (actually it was a Christmas present to each other) to go on a game drive which is one of our very favorite things to do here in Africa .
Early morning last week we left with Dr. Thomas (area physician) and his wife and President Bowden (Johannesburg Mission President) and his wife for the Mala Mala Game Reserve in Sabi Sands. It is about a 5 hour drive but one with incredible sights to see on the way.
It is quite an exciting thing to see a beautiful leopard lounging on a termite mound scanning the area for breakfast. We watched her leap off this 8 foot mound to stroll through the bush. We followed her until she found a beautiful mopani tree to climb. She gracefully leaped several feet and then climbed a few branches to plop down with legs straddling the thick branch. She was there for a long nap. We watched her with open awe; she is one of the most beautiful animals in the bush and one who doesn’t often show herself, so this was an incredible treat. We saw the big five which are elephant, cape buffalo, lion, rhino and leopard. We saw many other specimens of nature which fascinate us. The rhino was wallowing in mud, which is something we have never seen before. He would root around and then plop down in the mud and roll back and forth. He would snort and blow and he was just having a great time. We were only about 10 feet away from him so we had the smells, the snorts and grunts and the whole wonderful view. After about 15 minutes, he jumped up and rambled off at quite a quick pace. They are surprisingly fast for such a huge animal. We were glad his vision was poor as he isn’t an animal to trifle with. We, of course saw hundreds of agile impalas running and leaping and playing. There were dozens of new babies in every herd and they are adorable, especially in such large numbers. The second day it drizzled and rained all day, but we are avid viewers and we weren’t slowed down by inclement weather. We had gone to the safari with sunglasses, hats sunscreens, cropped pants and short sleeved tee shirts only to find ourselves in the rain and very chilly in the middle of the summer, but the guides gave us raingear and out we went to find those beautiful creatures that God created. The rivers and streams were deep but we plowed through at least 20 that day with water spraying us, hanging on for dear life and laughing as we went. We mowed down trees following the animals and searched diligently to see what we could find. We saw another leopard the second day. This was a cub waiting in the bush while momma caught an impala and pulled it high up a tree. It was an amazing sight to see how high that leopard can carry his kill to protect it from other animals. We saw two impala hanging in the trees that day. The elephants are wonderful to watch as they eat and eat and push trees over and as they scratch their rear ends on a tree. We could watch them for hours. We saw several giraffes gracefully walking and striding on their way from treetop to treetop. They are majestic as they walk and they are also very curious as they careen their necks to look at us. Watching a giraffe splay his legs so he can get low enough to get a drink is a sight to behold. We like to analyze the stripes on a zebra. Sometimes they are black with white stripes and sometimes the opposite. These beautiful creatures were mostly brown, black and white. Did you know that a mother zebra will only let her new baby look at her for the first three weeks of it’s life so it will learn to identify his mother by the stripe pattern? Every pattern on each zebra is different, just fingerprints are never alike. They run together and also are fun to watch. We love their crew cuts. We were close to 5 at one lodge (Blyde River Canyon Lodge for those who know), in fact so close that we could have touched them. We are bush savy enough to know that isn’t safe. The lions we saw were up on rocks sleeping which they do 18 hours a day. They are magnificent creatures. They looked so innocent way up above us on those huge boulders. The rocks were probably 30-40 feet high. We were right below them and could see them breathing and twitching and brushing off the flies. There have been many times on other drives that we have been 2 feet away from them in our open landrover. It is an exciting adventure to be on. The kudus were beautiful and quite plentiful in comparison in this park. We saw several huge magnificent males with their curled horns. Some of those horns were 4 feet long with beautiful curves and twists. They are a little skittish so you have to slowly drive upon them. We saw waterbucks wandering around and baboons frolicking on the roads and in trees. The herd of cape buffalo we saw was about 450 in number and we know they are kind of cows, but they too are fun to see. The males have huge helmut like crowns on their heads which they butt each other with. We saw several doing that, but mostly they just chewed their cuds with slow precision. We were 2-3 feet from them as we sat for minutes watching them. They too are amazing and actually very dangerous if they get riled. The hippos stayed in the water which is natural in the daytime. We only saw one crocodile this time and even they have a certain kind of beauty. The brown spotted hyenas were visible too this time. We saw one chasing playfully some impalas. It was funny as he rarely attacks. He simply lets other animals kill and then they scavenge.
On some rocks we saw up close and personal a family of klipspringers. They are a tiny antelope with padded hoofs that enable them to jump from rock to rock. Amazing!!
The birds in Africa are both beautiful and ugly, but we love them all. The different kinds of frogs are numerous and even though we only saw one, we heard the most beautiful chorus of them singing and chirping and calling their mates. After dark our guide turned off his engine so we could hear the cacophony of sounds. Believe it or not it sounded like a beautiful symphony.
The sights and sounds of Africa are glorious. Heavenly Father has created a multitude of creatures that we love to watch. We came home exhausted but renewed and feeling very blessed that we have the unique opportunity to see all of these wonderful creations. Africa is a land of great diversity in landscape, animals, people, sounds, and sights and truly we find every day a great adventure of some kind. My heart simply fills with joy as I think of all the wonderful experiences we continue to have. It is impossible to write about most experiences, but as we carry these things in our hearts we marvel …..at everything.

Mission Tour in Zimbabwe

We just returned from a Mission Tour in Zimbabwe and we are even more grateful for our lovely home in Johannesburg and our abundance of food, water and all the necessities of life. We were gone for several days and this trip entailed much driving from city to city to meet with the various zones. We flew to Harare, drove to Mutare, Bulawayo, and Gueru which took many hours. We were in an eleven or twelve passenger van carrying the mission president and his wife, the two assistants and the two of us. We carried IN the van 5 huge plastic containers that carried gasoline. Every time we went over a bump or around a big curve we could hear the sloshing. The assistants would fill the tank when needed as there wasn't any gas in the service stations. They have coupons for gas that could be filled in Harare. We also carried about 8-10 empty gasoline containers to give to the missionaries with cars so they could have emergency gas. It was quite a sight to see more people walking on the streets than ever before. Gas is scarce, expensive and therefore the combis (taxis) were also scarce and expensive. There were many, many places on the highways where 50 to one hundred people were sitting on the ground waiting for transportation. They all had bags, and suitcases and children and many possessions hoping to go someplace....where, I don't know. The grocery shelves are almost completely empty. Many of the missionaries, president and wife and couples have not had chicken or beef for weeks. Bread and milk, eggs, cheese, etc is just not available. Their rice supplies are very low and they seem to be living on macaroni with some sauce they make and the missionaries are using LOTS ot ketchup. Some areas have peanut butter and those cute missionaries put it on pasta with honey if they can't get bread. They are NOT complaining. They are working hard doing missionary work and aren't bothered or worried about what they don't have. They make the most of what they do have. The mission president is watching his flock very carefully. As we speak a van full of rice, toilet paper, oil and many other things are being driven from Zambia (which is in their mission) to all the missionaries. All of them have a emergency supply of food that they are not allowed to touch unless given direction by the MP. They have plenty of water and they have charcoal to cook on because the electricity goes off all the time. I must say that we came away inspired by the way these missionaries are just rolling with life. They are, I think the happiest missionaries I have ever seen. They love what they are doing, they are working hard, and they are succeeding in all areas. Baptism rate is high. You should hear them sing. We had a special musical number in every zone that would bring tears to our eyes. We laughed with them also and just had an inspiring tour.
One zone had arranged for 2 women to cook and serve the lunch, but they left Zimbabwe on the spur of the moment, so the missionaries cooked the meal. It was soooo cute. One companionship cooked beets and sliced them very thin and pickled them. Another companionship made a "HUGE" sheet cake without some major ingredients. I can't remember what it was, but it was delicious. Another com. made a huge potato salad. I think they had enough to fill a half bushel basket. It was delicious.....and they said their arms about fell off from peeling the potatoes. Another companionship had a pasta dish with chicken in it. They had bought a live chicken....killed it....plucked it....cooked it.... shredded it and made a great pasta dish....mostly pasta, but it was good too. It was the sweetest meal we had because it was made with loving hands......inexperienced hands, but hands that were willing. It was very touching. You should have seen how the food was piled on the elder's plates. In every zone, they plates were 4-6 inches high. The LOVED the food and really appreciated it. Do we appreciate enough what we have? They were just full of smiles and laughter during lunch and it was a joy to see.
It was a blessing to be with all of the elders and the outstanding mission president and his wife and to bask in their joy of serving. We are blessed to be in this land. It is a privilege.

Hospital Experience in Soweto

Today was another remarkable and memorable day in South Africa . I went on an errand of “good works” with 4 other friends, one senior missionary, one African director of an orphanage, one South African who volunteers many hours to charity and one 23 year old African who works two weeks a month at Oprah’s school. We went the largest hospital in the world which is located in Soweto . The name of it is Baragwanath Hospital and it occupies 173 acres with 3200 beds. Our purpose was to deliver 50 hats made by a young woman in the Alamo II Ward in California and fifty homemade baby blankets made by her mother. We also had 80 newborn kits that we picked up at the church warehouse to deliver to these new mothers.
As long as I live I will never forget the visuals I saw that day with babies everywhere and mothers half dressed everywhere and truly almost total silence. We only heard at the most 3 babies cry.
We drove about 20 minutes from where I live to this HUGE hospital. We were directed to pull into the emergency vehicle lane where we would unload our treasures onto several small trolleys. We had two cars and an ambulance could not have gone where it needed to go if one had appeared but because we came bearing gifts that seemed to have priority. There were 5 of us who would give these things out and there were five workers from the hospital who would guard what we had so that things would not disappear as we were busy handing clothing, hats and blankets out. The five workers were all in uniforms and the hospital itself was very clean. As we walked through the door, the first thing we saw was between 40 and 50 women sitting in chairs that were lined up like you would see in a church meeting. All of these women were in labor and were waiting to see the doctor to see if they could be admitted. As we started to pass our gifts to them, they broke into huge smiles inspite of their pain and were thrilled and they waved and smiled and said thank you over and over again. An amazing sight.!!!
As we walked down the halls, the director of the maternity wards told us that 70 babies had been delivered in the past 18 hours. They have 151 beds and all were full. The women are allowed to stay 6 hours after birth if there weren’t any complications. If they had a cesarean section, then they could stay longer, and if there were any problems with their health or the baby’s health then they could stay overnight. Many AIDS babies are delivered there, many were premature and they have many deaths of these babies everyday. We met 3 women who had lost their babies, but were in the regular maternity wards with all the mothers and their babies. Two of them simply had tears running down their faces, but they didn’t make a sound. My heart ached to see them looking at the other mothers with their babies and their arms were empty.
We went into about ½ of the maternity wards. I will never forget what I saw. There are not enough hospital gowns for the mothers, so at least half and probably more of the women were wrapped in bed sheets. Some of the sheets were around their shoulders, but many were like a strapless dress, twisted and tucked. Many had blood on their sheets or their gowns. Many had their breast exposed….they were just in all stages of undress. We even saw one woman totally naked sitting on a small stool. Some were walking very slowly because they had just given birth. Some still didn’t know whether they had a boy or a girl because they hadn’t seen their baby yet. We saw 2 sets of triplets and 2 sets of twins. We found out that everyday they find babies outside of the hospital who have been abandoned. They are on the steps, in the bushes or by the dumpster.
The babies were everywhere sort of lined up in their portable plastic bins. In each bin was a paper 8 ½ X 11 with the name of the mother and all of her information. There were so many bins of babies that we wondered if they mixed up babies everyday. There were no name tags on the babies or the mothers. There was a room for premature babies; there was a room for babies with jaundice; there were isolation rooms with babies in these bins; there was a room for sick babies which I assumed were babies that were HIV positive. I’ve never seen so many black babies in my life and they were all beautiful. They just didn’t cry which was amazing to me. The babies were in some blankets that belonged to the hospital, and some were in old twin size blankets from home, I guess. We were told that some babies go home in newspaper or plastic because they have nothing.
We gave our meager gifts, and we didn’t make a dent. Tomorrow 70 more babies will be born. It was thrilling to see the joy as we gave out what we did. It was hard to know that many of those babies will die from AIDS or malnutrition or dehydration. It was understandable to see some mothers try to come back for more, saying they didn’t get anything. It was heart warming to know that about 80 babies would have 2 things to take home, but it was heartbreaking knowing that the hole is so large and the needs so great that we can’t make a dent. I think that Mother Teresa’s philosophy is the best to think about which is that if we can help one person at a time, we can make a difference. The Savior has taught us also to reach out to the one. We reached out to many today, because a sweet young woman from California cared enough to do something, and the wonderful RS sisters put those newborn kits together someplace in an Enrichment meeting. I don’t think any of the givers really had any idea what this gift would mean to these mothers and babies. We were the heroes as we gave out these gifts, but it is the ones at home who really should be here to deliver these lovely things and to see the joy and the appreciation. I am blessed to have been there to be part of this. I want to do more. I want to solve the problems, but I know that won’t be possible. …..so we do what we can and pray that our minutes of service are enough to bring joy to a few souls.

Hospital Photos

Babies being Treated for Jaundice

Photos from Soweto Hospital

Twins
Mothers in Afterbirth attire
There are babies in there

DR Congo

Going to the DR Congo is hard. We were in a small town for a District Conference. That town is Kolwezi and it is not a direct flight. It took all day to get home today and we are tired, but happy. The hotel or what was called a hotel was the only room in town. We took our own sheets and pillow cases. There was one towel and we flushed the toilet with buckets of water. The roads in the town are all of red dirt and since it was the rainy season, there were craters in the streets full of water. We had to walk a block to the hotel cause the car couldn't get through the craters of water. We ate dehydrated food which the mission president and his wife brought because restaurants were out of the question. It was from REI so it wasn't too bad and when you are hungry, it is good. We took the tube of peanut butter that Todd and John picked out at Pic N' Pay when they were here. They gave it to Dad as a joke, but we threw it in at the last minute with crackers and were thrilled to have it. There were very few cars in the city. The gas stations were far and few between and they were not buildings, but were yellow cans full of gas and when we wanted gas, we pulled up to the corner and somebody would come with a funnel and the yellow can to give us gas. The flights in and out were crazy....barely making connections, being bribed, accosted and trying very hard to understand French or Swahili. Inspite of the hard living for a few days, it was a glorious experience. The members there were so anxious to have us come. There are 435 members there and 3 55 came to the conference. My auxiliary training went very well because they wanted to learn. They asked wonderful questions. They flew in an interpreter from Lumambashi (sp) and he was fabulous. It makes such a difference to have someone good. He was soooo great. He did all the translating for me and for Dad during the conference sessions. The clothes of the Congolese are soooo beautiful....their smiles were incredible and the singing is out of this world. I think this is the country where the singing is the very best....it is always loud, but the harmony and the voices are so beautiful. I loved the children. They are beautiful and sit so quietly. We were one hour early for the Sunday morning meeting and it was already half full and the children sat for 3 hours without a toy or a bit of food or anything. I did notice that some played with their fingers and some crossed their eyes at each other, but it was sooo quiet I couldn't believe it. This was a hall that echoed and their wasn't any PA system. When you have interpreters, only he has to speak loudly!!! It was a hard trip and we are exhausted but it was worth it. We got home at 5 and had 30 people for dinner at 6:00. I had set all the tables and done all the flowers on Thursday and all the food was brought by the couples> It was a going away party for the Jex's and the Smiths. Can't believe it is time for them to go.....especially John and Marlene. We will miss them sooooo much.

Christian Mulomba

Christian Mulombo is a tall, handsome young man who lives in the Johannesburg , South Africa Ward. He loves his family, school, the church, sports and all the good things that young men his age enjoy. He has a keen sense of humor and has a shy infectious smile that endears people to him and always is surrounded by many friends who admire and respect him. His two little sisters adore him and someday his brand new baby brother will feel the same.
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Ironing, doing the dishes, helping around the house, and taking care of his dog is a daily occurrence in his life which in the past few months has been especially important. A tragedy occurred in the Mulombo family when Christian’s aunt was killed in an automobile accident leaving five children ages 5 to 14. These children are in Christian’s home now and this has increased the family from six to eleven people and of course a lot more responsibility has been put on his shoulders, which he carries well.
Christian has stood in his ward and expressed a sweet testimony about what a privilege it is to pass the sacrament and he indeed performs that sacred ordinance in a very quiet, dignified way.

Christian has his priorities and goals all in proper order. All he wanted for Christmas a year ago was a suitcase. This was to be his “missionary suitcase.” He will not turn 19 and be eligible for a mission for four more years, yet he is preparing constantly for his mission. That suitcase is right by his bed. He sees it daily and perhaps every time he looks at that suitcase he is reminded what he must do to keep himself worthy to serve our Heavenly Father. He is reminded to keep his standards high by staying morally clean, reading and studying the scriptures, attending his church meetings and even by earning money to go. This suitcase for four more years will be a wonderful, constant reminder to help Christian focus on this honorable goal. He will be more than ready to serve Heavenly Father when the time comes for him to go on his mission.