Negotiations with Traditional Authorities

Site of meeting of the Queen's Council, Modjadji, in Limpopo Province.

Negotiating team prepares humanitarian projects presentation to Queen's Council.


One of the Queen's emissaries enjoys warm lunch of mealie pap, cooked pumpkin, gravy with mystery meat, under shade tree in
95 degree weather. Iced sodas are always in good taste.


Roadside market crew stands by to sell freshly picked mangoes.

Limpopo Province

Back to the farm for the first two women, employed as tomato workers at South Africa's largest tomato farm,
ZZ2 [pronounced zed-zed-two] in northeastern Limpopo Province.

This enormous baobab tree is 6,000 years, measures 45 meters at its base, and houses a cave-like hollow in its heart.

The heavy lifting is done by women, this one on her way home from "town."

Christmas Safari

Joburg closes down mid-December to the beginning of new year, giving us opportunity to explore favorite places. Ten missionaries visited Mosetlha Bush Camp to view spectacular landscape and animals. When a feisty female elephant began to charge front of vehicle, our guide Johnny reversed at lightning speed = reason to carry weapon.

Sunday at Hospital View in Tembisa

Sunday


We spend Sundays at Hospital View Ward in Tembisa Township. Here you see my motivated, diligent piano students learning to play hymns with both hands. Back row: Lesego, I, Palesa [one year old baby nests in towel draped around her torso]. Front row: Lettie [kindly holding Happy's newborn], Dixie [graduating high school with plans to study electrical engineering at university], and Happy, who usually has an ear to ear smile, but is serious about "Come, Come, Ye Saints."

These precious children comprise the Primary, where I accompany Christmas songs on electric keyboard.

John advises Elder Kelly [Australia] and Elder Rijken [Holland] before they visit investigators in Hospital View.

Happy day. It's baptism of dressed in white new member on 1 November. Sadly, her baby [wrapped in pink blanket] passed away one week later.

Bloom Where You're Planted

Waiting for the TELKOM technician, who promised to appear four days ago, we may have solved problem with 60 year old wiring in flat ourselves. All these gadgets for internet and Vonage!

No fertilizer? Farmer John experiments with expired orange juice on tomatoes in patio planter boxes outside our office. The city is becoming a forest of purple jacaranda trees. Here, they pronounce it
"JACK-A-RANDA"...jarring to Spanish speakers.

Women in Africa

African women do the work, like every other place in the world.
I never met a carbohydrate I didn't like!

Drakensberg Boys Choir

Four hours east of us, in the Drakensberg Mountains, we attended the Boys Choir concert, featuring sacred, classical, popular and ethnic tunes. The boys range in age from 10-16. The young man in second photo approached us, "I'm from Durban, the only Mormon in the school." Last photo shows boys in formal attire.