Our New Home-Africa

Reenie on the grounds of the Johannesburg Temple. Our office is on the same compound and we are literally a 5 minute walk from our office to being in the temple. It is a beautiful building which meets the needs of members from Somalia/Kenya all the way down to Jo-burg/CapeTown.

This is our gold/green Nissan Tiida. It gets about 50 miles/gallon and petrol costs us about $3.50/gallon. Notice the steering wheel on the right side. We are doing very well with driving on the left. Only a few 'close calls'. The church intentionally buys ugly cars so they will be less attractive to the carjackers. We keep nothing in the front or back seats and everthing in the 'boot' (trunk) because if you are seen to have something of value you are put at risk of a 'smash and grab'. We are following the rules!

This is a shot of the outside of our flat. We are the bottom unit with the double doors and the patio looking out on a beautiful English garden. It is small but quite comfortable. The flats are within a walled compound and a security guard is there to open the gate 24/7. Very safe.

Here is a view from our patio looking out at the courtyard. Beautiful looking and smelling, as well as a home to at least 13 varieties of birds (so far), including the African Yellow Weaver. (more on them later). The birds start singing at 4:30-4:45 AM.

This is a view looking from the kitchen out the patio doors. Our desk to the left where we will be 'Skyping' with family and friends now that we have a good internet connection in the flat.

Our little kitchen- which contains the fridge, sink, washing machine, dryer, range, stove and microwave. No wasted space for sure, but Reenie has made it home and she has cooked up some great food already. Food shopping is quite different here. People shop frequently due to the size of the fridge, regular power outages and limited space for storing much. The fresh fruits and veggies are very nice. Eating out is also very affordable with a nice dinner for 2 costing only about $10-12 with the current rate of exchange.

One more view of the gardens. We have lemon trees with fruit for the picking along with herbs of every sort and several varieties of roses and other native plants.

The work in the office goes better everyday as we learn our duties and the processes that are required. It is really quite involved as we deal with so many different countries and many languages. Three of our countries speak French, two speak Portuguese, eight speak English and all of the students have VERY strong accents, since they speak a tribal tongue at home. Any one of 210 tribal tongues! The young people are excited about the opportunities we can afford them. They are a very bright lot of folks. I am really impressed! They must be worthy, ambitious and needy, and there are a lot who will qualify.

We will be going to the country of Botswana next week to help get the PEF established there. After the first of the year, which amazingly is only three weeks away, we will travel to the Kingdoms of Lethoto and Swaziland and then in February we have a trip planned to Windhoek, Namibia. We hope to get the program available in Zambia and the DRC by June. The rest of the time we will spend in South Africa where the PEF program is going strong.

We are grateful for your thoughts, prayers and all who helped make Reenie's birthday a special one. With all of the turmoil in the world, we are very happy to be here doing what we are doing.

All the best...

Mission Training Complete!

(Saying goodbye to Jim's parents for a while.)

The last two weeks have been a most wonderful experience for us. Although we had to say goodbye to Pennsylvania family,(Brittney's family and Brian's family), including Jim's parents, we flew from PA on Nov 10th, then landed in Salt Lake City, drove to Boise, ID that same day, visited Brigham and Brielle's family on Tues. and Wed and by Wed PM were back in SLC preparing for our training.

(World Class Training Facility.)

We have had great training, and what has made it so is the unbelievable spirit that these people have about the gospel, about life and about helping their fellow man change their lives for the good. We truly felt as though we were in the city of Enoch while at the Missionary Training Center, since everyone seemed of one heart in their purpose, and that purpose was to bring souls to Christ. Whether by Proselyting, Humanitarian or Educational efforts...all were focused on making life better for those on this planet and it felt good, really good.

(The "here's where I'm going" board.)

There are 57 languages being taught here, the most of any educational facility in the world and of our group of "Senior Missionaries" we had folks going to Ireland, Whales, Tonga, Hawaii, Africa, Brazil, Cambodia, Finland, New Zealand, Australia and Mongolia.

(Jim and Reenie with Joseph and Alysin Boone.)

Our good friends Joseph and Alysin Boone, who we knew from their days at Dover Air Force Base, are in charge of this facility of 2,300 missionaries. Since Jim used to do a lot of music with Alysin in the old days, she asked if he would sing at the Sunday night fireside for an audience of a mere 2300. I agreed and rehearsed briefly with two outstanding young missionaries, Elder Scott Jackson (piano-going to Mexico) and Sister Michele Johnson (Cello-going to Belgium), both great musicians. Through this beautiful song, we were able to bring a great feeling to the meeting and many made known their appreciation afterwards. Here is a video link of the performance if you wish to view it: "Come, Thou Fount"

We are having Thanksgiving dinner with Brinns family today and will be joined again by Brielle's group for a day of visiting tomorrow, before we leave on Saturday morning. It is still a bit surreal to think that when we land on Monday morning we will be in a new home for 18 months and that home will be Africa.

Also a footnote...we were briefed by the church security people (one former foreign diplomat and one FBI) and they told us to avoid political discussions of any sort while in Africa, whether in a restaurant, on the phone or in emails. They advised us to just assume someone is listening or intercepting, whether it was the case or not, so we will be avoiding asking or expressing info of a political nature while we are away. Surely we will have much to catch up on when we return.

We love you all and will miss you during our brief sojourn, but we know more than ever that we will be very productive in helping those in the Africa Southeast area.

Redgate Cabin

Those of you reading this, who know us well, will know that we just love it at our cabin. It has been a great place for us to work off life's stress', to have large family get-togethers and a wonderful place to wrap yourself up in nature. We had the chance to go to the cabin with my brother Rich and his wife Annette for one last trip before our mission to Africa, and it was bitter sweet for sure. We had a great time as Mother Nature cooperated quite nicely and we also had the chance to share many laughs and memories. We accomplished the exterior and interior winterizing process, since Brittney's husband Dan won't be back from Iraq until January, and the duty would have fallen to him. We know that family and friends will enjoy "Redgate" while we're gone, and that makes us very happy! We just ask that as those big 4 pound bass keep getting bigger, that you please leave a few for us to catch in the Fall of 2010.

The famous "Redgate"

"Chippy"

Nature's morning lace

The fence from the 'December to remember'

the boathouse... which is so much more

The placid side of Redgate pond

The long and winding road

Great place, fond memories and much to look forward to.

Decompression...

Knowing that we were going to be retiring and packing and selling and relocating all before 10/3, we decided a while back to plan a trip to the Outer Banks of NC, right after all the chaos, so we could 'decompress' a little from the intensity of it all.

We were fortunate to stay at a place right on the ocean and as you can see we had the beach to ourselves. We did buy a new camera to take with us on our mission to Africa, so this trip gave us a great opportunity to get used to it and see what it can do. The camera is great, (Olympus SP-56OUZ) even in the hands of amateurs, and with the success we have had here, we are really looking forward to using it with the wildlife in Africa. We had several very intimate encounters with the birds on the banks and they were most considerate subjects.



A very curious male 'laughing gull' that felt right at home in front of the camera. Double clicking the photos will open them to screen size. Give it a go... and view the amazing detail afforded by modern technology.

We went to a movie one evening and had popcorn left over, so since there were no other folks on the beach to complain, we decided to feed the leftover popcorn to the birds. Here is a shot of one picking the pc out of the air with incredible agility!

A mainstay of the Outer Banks beaches are the ghost crabs. They come out at night and cover the beach to scavenge whatever the tide delivers them and they keep the beach remarkably clean. Our kids used to love running the beach late at night with a flashlight, and seeing hundreds of them scampering at the tide line.This is a shot in total darkness of a 5" male ghost crab using the pop-up flash.



This is the bird that effortlessly sailed in to get some of the popcorn that Reenie was generously providing and as he flew over her head he pooped right on her back...a big liquid wet white poop about 4" long on the top she had hoped to wear to dinner. Ahhh...to be among nature

One of the great advantages of being here at this time of year is the solitude. We brought along missionary prep material, CES prep material and Perpetual Education Fund reading as well as the 23 page handbook for missionary couples serving in the Africa Southeast Area. We have enjoyed hours of uninterrupted study and will be the better for it. This was a much needed and very much enjoyed holiday from all schedules and routines.

The next beach that we walk on to admire the surf and sand will probably be the Indian Ocean.

415 Hillside Drive

Tonight is our last night in the place we have called home for over 12 years, longer than we have lived anywhere else. This Friday we will sell the house where we have had so many good times, birthdays, Sunday family dinners, my parents 60th wedding reception, family Christmas' and so much more. This has been a nice house and a great home. I leave the 275 foot rock wall that I built by hand, with some reluctance, knowing that no matter where we live after Africa, I will NEVER be able to build such a structure again! It is hard to leave, but we were blessed to sell it in one day with such a troubled housing market, and get a very fair price. The movers have come and gone and the house is empty. Things are becoming very real now. It has been a time filled with emotions, but we know that we are on the right course and that we will soon be helping others who would never ever dream of owning such a home. We have really been fortunate to have been given so much and we have the memories to take with us.

...and so it ends!

This has been an amazing week for these two future missionaries. It started out with us flying to Elkhart, IN, where the Sr Management gave a first class send-off for Jim and his 27 years of service to the Steinway Corp/Conn-Selmer Division. Yes, it really happened...after 35 years in the music business, Jim retired! The restaurant was the beautiful Villa Maria and a great feast was had. Many glowing words were spoken and gifts bestowed. It was a classy, emotional and proud moment and I'm sure glad I had my lady there to help me share in the festivities. She was the anchor that enabled me the success that I enjoyed.

The Preparation Continues

Reenie and I continue to prepare for our mission to Africa. I am on the road every day for the next three weeks training the three individuals that will take my place at work and looking forward to the October 3 retirement date, and Reenie continues the arduous task of evaluating what of our 36 years of 'stuff' we keep and what we part ways with before our settlement date of October 3. We are making great progress, but there still seems to be much remaining to do.

We were pleased to get our FBI background checks back from the Dept of Justice, and find that we are both squeeky clean....whew! Now we should be good to go for a visa to enter South Africa for 18-24 months.

We have also found out a few more interesting things regarding our new home in Johannesburg. We will have a small plain Nissan car (to avoid attracting any carjacking attention), we have to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road, we have to tip the fuel attendant when they fill the car with that $6.99/gallon petrol, and when buying gas, we must give the attendant our odometer reading, hmmm?, we need individual visas for entry into Lesutho, Nimibia, Mozambique, DRCongo, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda and Madagascar, but the LDS church travel department in SA does all processing for us. Currency exchange is also necessary in 9 of these 11 countries. The current state of the dollar is good yielding 8 Rand to the dollar. A hot summer day in February in Johannesburg is 27C (80F) and a cold winter day in July is 3C (37F) and yes everything is measured in metric.

Yes, lots to learn and prepare for, as the process continues.