Long Time, No Blog

It has been a full two months since we last wrote!  Here are lots of pictures and a few words!

Johannesburg experienced a small earthquake on 5 August.  Apparently all the abandoned gold and platinum mines under the city occasionally collapse and we get earthquakes.  Who knew?!

The earth-shaking continued when Kate turned 10 on 9 August.  She invited friends and their families to the Bryanston bike park for riding and a braai by Dad.  Very fun!

John has taken up jiu jitsu and is really enjoying it.  Kate continues to love best playing in the park behind our house with all the people and their pets.

Our family (+ John's friend Nate) spent 9 days over the recent school break on the island of Zanzibar.  It was AMAZING!  

Stone Town, Zanzibar

 Fish Market at Night

We all enjoyed this tour guide's interpretation of Stone Town's history and amazing doors (all, that is, except Kate)

She enjoyed the spice farm tour much more.  We got to eat cinnamon, cinnamon roots, cacao beans, turmeric, ginger, nutmeg, and lots of fruits we'd never heard of.

Cloves, Zanzibar Gold

The best passion fruit smoothies ever.  EVER.  At a little hole in the wall restaurant in Stone Town.

View from our hotel, the Mashariki Palace (former home of the Sultan's Imam)

Princess Jasmine, I mean Kate, watching the Muslim girls heading to school

Nate and John looking out from their side room

From Stone Town, we travelled across the island to the Baraza Resort where we were welcomed with bungo juice

John and Nate lining up the best photo

Welcome to Paradise!

Kate slept on the "sultan's day bed" in our villa but we all loved to hang out on it

This is a local restaurant called The Rock.  You must take a boat to access it.

The owner of The Rock who promised Kate she could hold her wedding reception at his venue.   No date yet, but hold the location!

The Baraza kids club had fun activities everyday.  (The French boy on the left was fond of picking flowers for Kate.  They couldn't understand anything past "Bonjour" and "Hi!")

John and Nate snorkeled a lot

Kate loved beach combing

Just before a scuba dive

Memories:  Nate getting sea urchin needles in his knee the first time he went in the ocean (you need papaya juice and a needle to get them out).  Banana chocolate smoothies available all day long from the Baraza traveling bartender (John and Nate each had 6 one afternoon).    Kate in water (either ocean or pool) for 5 days straight.  The curry.  The sound of men being called to prayer 5 times/day in Stone Town.  The poverty.  Playing UNO in the Nairobi Airport.  Mosquito nets and Maloril.  Everyone's favorite friend:  Natasha from the UK.

Despite extreme caution in not drinking the water etc, Jeff picked up water-borne and a food-borne bacterial infections so he spent the first night back from the trip in the emergency room!

A cool experience has been helping our friend Clive prepare for a mission to Durban, SA.  He entered the Missionary Training Center last Thursday and Michele enjoyed being the one to get to process his paperwork.  Clive is the first missionary for the LDS Church from the informal settlement of Diepsloot.  He's truly a pioneer!

Clive with Nomatter, his sister

Elder Ncube and his new companion in the MTC cafeteria

Our cleaning lady Susan had her 12-year old daughter Michelle visit from Zimbabwe last week while the kids were out of school.  One day, Kate took Michelle ice skating.  She had never done that before!

Susan is amazing!  She saw a lady on the taxi studying, so she asked her how she could do that too. She found out about a local online university and signed up.  Then she bought a 2nd-hand computer so she could complete the coursework.  She is perservering despite challenges with English and the discouragement from almost everyone she knows that she is "too old" to be going to college to try to change her career from domestic work.

John assembled a desk and chair for her and helped her get the computer set up in our domestic quarters.  At just this time, GE started a free 4-week "intro to computers" course on Saturdays, so we signed up Susan.  Then she found a night typing class in her neighborhood.  (Let's be very clear:  Susan has never typed or used a computer before in her life!  She had never used a microwave, dishwasher, etc before coming to work for us).  So she just finished the fourth week of the GE class and guess what they gave every student who completed the 4 weeks?  A laptop!  Susan was overjoyed!  Here she is showing it off.  Yesterday, she wore a beautiful peach suit to work and I said "Susan, you look so professional!  Why are you so dressed up?"  And she said, "Because I want to look like a woman who owns a laptop."


Our friends the Calls invited us over for games last Friday.  How cool is this "Settlers"-themed relish spread?

We had several of the young single adults from our ward over for dessert and games the other night.  John introduced them to his famous cc cookies with ice cream and Wacky Sixes.  It was a really fun night!

Kate took her friend Jude to a place called Acrobranch over the break.  Here they are preparing to zipline.

On Monday (the last day of semester break), John and some of his church friends went to the Diepsloot Combined School to measure the feet of 125 G5-7 children who need new school shoes ($8/pair).  For his Eagle Scout project, John is raising the funds to deliver shoes to these kids in the next couple of months.  (BTW, if you want to donate, please let us know :)

Now the kids are back to school and we are getting back into a routine of trying to be in bed by 10pm and arising at 5am.  It's hard to believe this is the last term of their school year.  On Dec 5, they will have completed another year of South African school!  Time is going so fast!

Life and Death in Africa

It's winter.  And it's cold!  When the sun is coming up or going down, it's hat and gloves weather. But during the main part of the day, it's warm and glorious.  However, in the house, it's almost always cold.  Houses made of cement and tile just don't seem to ever get warm!  ...So grateful for blankets and space heaters!

Kate and Michele celebrated 4th of July with the US Embassy this year.  Kate took her school friend Jude.  Good BBQ,  a pie contest, sand volleyball, and lots of people with funny accents (ie Americans!).  It was great fun!

Remember how Jeff's Prado was rear-ended oh-so-many months ago?  Well, it was at the panelbeaters (body shop) for about 5 weeks.  On the day we were supposed to get it back, they called to say they had wrecked the front end pulling it out of the carwash.  So Jeff drove this little Polo for about the next 4 weeks.  We finally got the Prado back (minus a few valuables Jeff had left in the glove box).

And here are some photos Jeff took trying to find the LDS Church in Luanda, Angola.  The church was supposed to be "just around the corner" but unfortunately, Jeff never found it.

Not here....

or here, either!

John is getting a puppy in October!  A Labradoodle.  She was born near Syracuse, New York, and Jeff met her when he was there for business last month.  Cute, hey?  

When Jeff was in New York, we had just a FEW items sent to his hotel for him to pack home for us!  (Yes, we miss Montreal Steak Seasoning, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Crest Toothpaste, and a few other essentials).  The picture below shows the boxes prior to repacking...

...And the (heavy) duffel after...Good job packing, Sherpa!

John is recovering from some pretty serious surgery on both big toes.  No swimming, sport, or closed toe shoes for 3 more weeks.  He looks pretty sharp in his school uniform with flip flops and two huge white bandages!

Here John and Kate are enjoying his recovery time in their new onesies, made by our neighbor.

Speaking of bandages, our housekeeper Susan got her thumb slammed in a door.  I noticed it about 5 days after the event and asked her what happened!  It was incredibly swollen and the nail was entirely black.  She said it was so painful she hadn't slept all week.  We made an appointment at our doctor and I took her there immediately.  She had a very large hematoma.  The doctor said she'd love to help but she couldn't find a lighter in the office.  I offered to run to a nearby market and buy one, so she could sterilize her equipment and then get to the important business of helping Susan.  

The doctor had Susan lie on a bed, then she punctured Susan's nail and released an enormous amount of blood.  Susan was so brave!  She didn't even flinch.  I imagined her strongly and silently delivering babies and enduring her husband's death and sleeping alone in a cold shack in Diepsloot.  And I was humbled.

We are so grateful that John and Kate are making some wonderful friends at church.  Here they are with Natasha and her little sister Olivia.

John and Lethe on the way from seminary. 

Nate and John at a school service project.


Michele has also made some great friends.  Sometimes she or they even remember to take photos!
Nomthi on her birthday

Thabile

So GE has asked us to work here through most of 2015 (which we are very happy to do).  However, Jeff's work VISA expires the end of 2014.  Since March, we have been working to extend our VISAs.  For lots of reasons, the process has not been smooth.  But we are getting close to having all the paperwork ready to submit:  xrays showing no TB, medical exams, insurance forms, SA and US police clearances.  On Friday, Jeff and I spent the afternoon at the SA Police Service getting fingerprinted.  There were about 15 of us crammed into a small room and let's just say our GE process skills kicked in.  We were helping people queue and making sure they had the requisite cash, copy of passport (no copier in the building) and black pen.  We were referring them to the cashier and  helping get paper towels passed around.  No digital fingerprints here.  It's all ink.  ...TAB!

A sign that amused Michele

Women going through folders to find their police clearances.  At least they're sorted by month, but isn't there some kind of confidentiality breach here?

 Michele is now serving on the board at Kate's school and has resigned her PTA role.  Here are some photos from the library renovation she supervised over the recent school break!

And here is Kate supervising her principal's dogs over the break!

We continue to learn so much.  Kate is speaking Afrikaans.  John is speaking Zulu.  ...And the stories Jeff could tell as Chief Compliance Officer for GE Africa!!  Oh my.  What an education.

Jeff continues to work with our Church on helping people find ways to improve their lives and work situations.  Here's a picture Jeff took of his friend Jon teaching a class on creating self-employment opportunities to some members in one of our local congregations:

So that's life here!!!

...We've also learned a bit more about death.  Michele participated in an Anglican and an LDS funeral this month and grieves with two dear friends who lost their mothers.

She also helped carry out a funeral in Zimbabwe:
A Zimbabwean friend's sister died of TB/HIV in Limpopo, SA on an expired VISA.  We now understand better--

• People are likely to die in government hospitals unless they have a family member there to feed them.
• HIV is still a taboo subject.
• Deceased bodies cannot be carried across the border from SA to ZIM except on weekends.
• If someone dies in a car, a ritual involving killing a goat and cleansing the car must occur.
• You can purchase caskets in ZIM much more reasonably than in SA.
• In many cultures, the grieving family must find someone to blame.  That person may/may not be safe attending the funeral.

Our friend was the one blamed because she didn't "rip out the tubes, put her sister on a bus, and get her home to Zimbabwe."  But she did all she could to help her sister extend her life.  And then she did all she could to help her sister be buried at "home."

Life and Death.  That is the story an African woman knows better than anyone.