Things Africa...

The weather in Johannesburg is absolutey great. It is now Summer, and because we are at about 6000 ft above sea level, we have mainly dry and 80 degrees everyday. However, this is Summer, and this is also the time of year for this area to gather its rainfall, for once April arrives, it will stop raining, and no rain will fall for six months. The GauTeng Province (Johannesburg and Pretoria) is famous worldwide for their vivid and dramatic thunderstorms. These are not regular thunderstorms. These are meteorological wonders! Two factors come into play in this part of Africa. One is the effect in the upper atmosphere where the hot, hot winds coming down out of the Kalahari Desert mixing it up with the moist air aloft from the Atlantic and Indian Oceans which surround South Africa, and the other factor is that the earth is loaded with minerals here. Gold, Silver, Copper, Platinum and Iron are what this area consists of under its outerskin, and as a result the lightning strikes are incredible. The charges from the earth to the heavens are really something to witness. The thunder does not just clap or rumble a bit like it does back in PA, but instead is an enormous roar that crescendos to 3 times the volume I have ever heard and will last for minutes with out stopping. It will rain inches at a time and then the storm will be gone in 30 minutes. I do hope we can get to see one of these whoppers when we are out of the city, so I can capture this incredible display of nature on 'film'.

Here is a storm that charged in the other day. It went from beautiful to scary in less than 20 minutes and just exploded with fury...

...and then was gone, but not before flooding out most major streets and intersections, causing power outages that knock out the robots (stop-lights) and scaring men, women, children and pets. No one here complains though, because they know that they will need the water next winter when it does not rain at all.

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When it comes to recycling, no one can compete with the Africans. They use every part of every living thing. They make art out of every available piece of wood, they make clothing out of plants and skins. They make jewelry out of teeth, bones, skeletons, toys and purses are made out of recycled cans, nick-naks out of discarded wire and telephone line that Telcom has junked, decorations out of horns, antlers, leaves and eggs. They really waste nothing. Wood is most prevalent for carving and making things for the home, but anything else that can be used...is.

We yankees could really learn a lot from these people's ingenuity and creativity.

Here are a very few examples:

This is a necklace that Reenie bought at the market,



...upon closer inspection you will see that it is an entire skeleton of a snake that has been strung on a string. Every vertabrae connected together as it was on the snake. Simply amazing and quite a conversation piece at the office.



The carvers in Zimbabwe are masterful. Here is a mother elephant with her newborn, carved completely out of one piece of ironwood. The tusks are carved out of cow bone. The piece is 13" high, 17" long and the detail is superb. (click to enlarge and view the detail) It took the carver (artist) about two weeks to do, he got about $25, for his work, then someone brought it down to ZA, sold it to the folks at the African Market who sold it to me for $65. If a carver in the US did this, the piece would easily sell for $1000.



Not a great photo, but here are a pair of earings made out of coconut shell and silver wire. All hand made of course. They sold for $2



The background, houses, and all detail in this art are made from the leaves of the banana tree.




These decorative balls are each about the size of a major league baseball. They are formed by Kenyans, who heat the horns from animals such as the Springbuck, Blesbuck or Gemsbok and reshape them into these balls, which they then carve with a detail knife.



These baskets come in all sizes from about 4" to 24" in diameter. They are woven using discarded telephone line. They have become so popular that Telcom (the ZA phone company) now sells the wire in large spools to the women who make these baskets.

An example of African scrimshaw, using the jawbone of a wildebeest.

It is marvelous to see the skill and determination of these people to use anything they can find to create a way to express their art and support themselves. It is a shame however, that their talents will not bring more revenue than the current pricing, but I guess it just is what it is.

"A vision without a task is but a dream,

A task without a vision is drudgery,

A vision and a task is the hope of the world"

English proverb

Stay well...

First Border Crossing

As we drove the 400km North to Botswana and crossed the border, several things became apparent to us right away. First, we noticed that there were animals everywhere. I wish that I would have been able to photograph some, but I was too busy driving around them and trying my best not to create any fresh roadkill, and Reenie was too busy telling me to stop!-slow down!-watch out! Other than the Baboons, these are not exotic animals generally. They are Brahma bulls, horses, donkeys, and large herds of goats and cows. They were just everywhere. Another stark contrast to South Africa was the total absence of street hawkers and beggers in the towns and cities. They are on every corner in ZA, but not to be found at all in Botswana. The towns and city we visited were very poor, but also were very clean.

The temperature was another big difference. Once we left the high elevation (almost 6,000ft) of Johannesburg and drove North but down in elevation, the temperature rose significantly. Gaberone and Lobatsi are on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. It is very dry and very hot..Phoenix kind of hot...like putting your head in an oven type of hot.

White Egrets enjoying the bugs in the trees...

Games of chance are not unique to the US of A. There are many Casinos in ZA and this is the one in Botswana. What are we doing at this one?...well, this is where we are recommended to stay when we travel to other countries. We avoid the Casinos themselves of course, but the hotels on the grounds of the Casinos are considered the safest places to stay, with lots of security, clean rooms and good prices. Our room here cost 377 Pula/ night, which is less than $50, and the room was clean, very small, but it had AC! Whew!!

Here is the Lobatsi Branch building. The church bought property here that was a residential home, where they could use the existing house for Primary, other classrooms and offices and it had a kitchen and a bathroom, and then they brought in a portable building for having Sacrament Mtg.


Here are the members going to their classes in the house after Sacrament meeting. Thank goodness for the two big trees on the property that really helped to shield out the sun.

These are the first two students to have the opportunity to receive PEF loans for schooling in the Lobatsi, Botswana area. It was our visit there last week that launched the program in this area and as you can see, they are really happy. Cedric, who just returned from a mission in Kenya, will study construction and Lucy is going to become a nurse's assistant (like an LPN in America, I believe). They are looking forward to beginning school in March.



As I mentioned, this area is on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, so water is a premium. There are no lakes or ponds in the area, and the few creeks that exist dry up except for a short rainy season each year. Here you see a large agricultural water barrel that will catch water from any available rainstorms and store it for when they have baptisms...which are held.....(see below)


Here! This is another rain barrel, but this one has had the top removed to be used as their font. They bring two desks from inside the building, climb onto one while placing the other into the font, then hand the desk that is in the font, to someone outside the font while they perform the baptism, then someone hands them the desk back into the font and they climb out from the desk in the font onto the desk that is outside the font! Seeing this really made me feel like quite an ingrate when I remember how we used to complain about the temperature in our building being a bit too hot or too cold back in the US. It was 41 C degrees here on Sunday(about 103F) and the buildings are not cooled at all. These folks were happy to walk to church in their only set of church clothes and then sing the hymns accapella.

'After church' with the two Elders who serve this area. One from Zambia and the other from ZA.

...the future...

Incidentally, we are told that many of the clothes that are given to DI or Good Will in the US, end up coming to countries in Africa and other similar developing nations, so I have a hunch that this is where many of these children here get their clothing. These two just loved having their pictures taken and wanted to see the pics again and again, and I of course, complied. More on Botswana after our next trip there.



Below are some more of the South African nature shots that were not included in the prior post. Hope you enjoy.

Mom and the kids

Stay out of this grassland!

Reenie's favorite

African White Stork, standing about 5' tall.

Family of Blue Wildebeests

"I don't get it! I have wings...I should be able to fly!"

Angry dog!

...just because you can't see me, doesn't mean I'm not here...

...oh I know you're there! (male Blesbuck)

"I am only one,

But still I am one.

I cannot do everthing,

But still I can do something;

And because I cannot do everything

I will not refuse to do the something

that I can do."

Edward E. Hale (1822-1909)

Stay well

The Reason We Are Here

Even though the weather is about perfect, the flat is cute, the nature incredible, and the office is modern and comfortable... the real reason that we left employment, sold our home and said goodbye to our family for a while, was to come to Africa to assist the young people here. Through the marvelous program of the Perpetual Education Fund, we are able to administer low-low interest loans to ambitious, needy, mostly black, young adults... and the program is bearing wonderful results. The PEF has been available for 4 years in South Africa, and below you will meet some of the recipients and graduates. Our role here is to expand the program here in ZA (currently 837 students) and to help establish PEF in other countries in the southern half of the continent of Africa.

Come meet these great kids!

This is Reenie at her desk with her 'computer trainer' Thabo Motaung, who helps in the office part time and is going to school on a PEF loan to become Microsoft cetified and achieve a certificate in IT.





This is my trusted counterpart in the office, also named Thabo (which means joy in Zulu) last name Lebathoa. He grew up in Johannesburg during apartheid but was originally from Botswana. He is 33, has degrees in law and business and is full time with us in the office to administer much of the day to day detail of the finance end of things. Jim is grateful for his knowledge of the country, the schools and the banks.




This is Caliphonia Jefange Mnisi. She works in our travel office at the Area office making the arrangements for our travel in and out of South Africa (ZA). She is a PEF graduate from Bedfordview who is now married and expecting her second baby. Her husband is on the PEF program and they hope to buy a house closer to Jo-burg someday. She takes two buses and a taxi every morning, requiring 60 minutes to get to the office. She is always there by 7:30 am. The same routine follows at the end of her day.





Currently in the second year of a three year marketing program, Xolani Lubisi is recently engaged to be married and serving part time in the office. He is from Cape Town, which you can often tell by his first name beginning with an X. The language is Xosa, which you may recall is the native language of Nelson Mandella. Xolani's name is pronounced by clicking the tongue inside the cheek while saying -olani. Quite something to try and get used to. Great guy with a great smile.





Here is Didier, pointing to his home city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He came to ZA on a temporary visa to begin a PEF program in survey engineering. He has completed the first year of three. The program is very similar to a civil engineering degree. We hope to open the PEF program by June in the DRC, so that many of these folks can stay at home and study in Kinshasa. The holdup has been the banking end. You just would not believe the state of banking in some of these developing nations and people do not generally use banks because they do not have checking, savings and VISA/MC's. We are attempting to find banks that are affiliated with England, Begium or France. They at least have some reserves and some stability. Big challenges when trying to provide big opportunities.




Here are three lovely ladies! From the left is Kagiso Segkatlo who is taking communications courses hoping to get into a TV job, then is Khanysila Sibanyango, a recent book-keeping /accounting graduate who has now gotten a job with a large insurance company. She was making R500/month before her schooling (about $50) and now she earns approx R3000/month (about $300). This is very good earnings for a young person here in ZA. It is part of the PEF program to assist in getting 'better work' following the education. We are mostly successful with this (about 92%) but unemployment is high here, inflation is running at 14%, and I'm sure you in the US are all aware of the global economic situation. You all know the other "girl".




Here is our 'helper" in the office, Thabo, with his wife Ntuthu (pronounced nTootoo) and their 20 month old Thabile. Thabo's family came to SA from the Kingdom of Lesotho and he served a mission for the church in Durban, and his wife is from Cape Town and served a mission in Kenya. As mentioned, Thabo is a PEF student and comes 45 minutes by bus each day to the office and school. They live in Protea Glen, which is one of the many sections of Soweto. Their home is VERY humble by any standards, but they are determined to improve their lot. He is in the Elder's Quorum Presidency and she is the YW President in the Protea Glen Ward. We attended there last Sunday and it was really hot and very, very friendly.




If any of you have studied economics, you may be familiar with the term 'hyper-inflation'. It's what Germany felt in the 20's and 30's, and it is what Zimbabwe is undergoing right now. Here is a photo of someone purchasing three eggs at a price of one hundred billion Zimbabwe dollars. The inflation factor is currently at 250% per month. The money is basically worthless but the government keeps printing higher denominations so it's a joke. However, the people are in a jam because they are paid in this worthless currency and it buys little. They mostly trade and barter now. Sadly, we have had to suspend PEF there because the instructors in the schools have stopped coming to classes, the schools have vitually shut down and the students are trying to repay the loans in their nations currency, only to have worthless dollars to use. What was a $5 payment six months ago, now requires hundreds of millions and to us the exchange amounts to about 30 cents. As a result of this situation in Zimbabwe, there is quite an influx of their people into ZA. We have several in PEF already.





Reenie with Zinhle Masilela, who is a graduate of PEF and is now working in the office in the finance department.




Here is Tafadzwa Tanjani (TJ), with his wife, Brenda. He is from Zimbabwe studying marketing and she is from Cape Town and works as a procurment clerk. Really fun and active young couple.




The students will often come into our office, even once they have gotten their loans approved and are studying, just to check on things or to bring us in their grades. Here is one of our stop in students, Tetslive Lobuongelo (far right). He is very bright and studying engineering at UNISA (University of South Africa). He lives in a tiny flat in Pretoria (soon to be renamed Tswane) with his brother and two other students from their home country of DRC. They all came from a village there that had no electricity, they all served FTM's in the DRC and are now getting educated through PEF in ZA, and all hope to return to help build up the home country and the church there.




This is Vuyokazi Kisten (Marsha). She is our receptionist at the Area Offices. She is really a sweet girl who grew up in Kwa-Zulu Natal, an area which is all Zulu people next to Swaziland. She is married to an "Asian", which over here is anyone with roots from India. Her husband is half East Indian and half Zulu. She is an absolute joy to be around and does an amazing job of keeping guests, appointments and phone calls directed for all 75 people who work in the Africa Southeast Area Office complex.


This is only the beginning. So far, in our first month, we have assisted is processing PEF applications for 31 students with many, many more to come. Reenie and I are headed off to Botswana tomorrow. We hope you will stay tuned to our blog and please leave comments. We love hearing from you however lengthy or brief.


Happy New Year to all we know and miss.

Merry Christmas from Africa

Even though there are no Christmas trees here in SA, and this is officially the first day of Summer here, (81 degrees) we want to let you know that we are observing the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all the same. Since we needed to get into the season just a bit, we went to an African market last week and bought a hand carved ebony nativity from a carver who was from Zimbabwe. If you are not aware of the sadness in Zimbabwe, you must read up. Anyway, this pretty nativity serves our little flat very well. Throw in a little garland and we are ready for the season. Really and truly, we want you all to know that with or without the usual traditions and trappings of the season, Christ is in our heart and his message truly was the inspiration for our coming to Africa to assist in this great work. (more on the work in our next posting...)

Merry Christmas to you all!

This is an incedible land. For the next few moments we would like to share with you an experience we had yesterday at the Rhino and Lion Nature Reserve located on 1400 acres within the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site. It is a wonderful way to see nature up close, but in its own habitat. The new Olympus camera with the 18X optical zoom lens helped considerably. You drive slowly through the reserve, but DO NOT get out of your car. I repeat, you DO NOT get out of the car. You are permitted to open the windows of your vehicle 33%, but do so at your own risk. Folks have had tires chewed, bumpers knocked off by Rhino's and last year a Japanese tourist got out of his car for that "perfect shot" and was killed AND eaten by a pride of lions. We played by the rules and had a fantastic day. Please remember that if you want to see enlarged versions of any of the photos, just double click the picture and 'voila!'...big!

Genesis: Chaper One

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth...and God said let the earth bring forth the grasses...and God said let the earth bring forth the living creatures...and God made the beasts of the earth...and every living thing...and God saw that it was good..."

A mother Warthog and her four babies...remember that Spring has just ended and the animal kingdom is alive with offspring! Even the ugliest of animals has cute babies.

A handsome male Sable Antelope keeping a wary eye out. He stood up and was about six feet to his ears, but added another 24" with his horns.

This endangered species is called the Wild Dog. There are only about 4000 left in the world. These three are feasting on the carcass of what probably was a Springbuck. Their sound was nothing like the bark of a dog however, but more of a high pitched squeel and they had very much of the 'pack mentality'.

This is a female Cape Buffalo that was not happy with us as we were being observed as a threat to her young. We were convinced by her size and eyebrows, and we quickly drove on.

Here is a family of Gemsbock catching the cool shade of the Kraal Spike Thorn tree. They are strikingly beautiful and their horns grow up to 4 feet on both the male and female. I have bought 'biltong' at the market, which is like jerky from this animal, and it is very good.

Not much description needed here. A female Ostrich that has laid 15-20 eggs somewhere nearby, each weighing 3lbs and she can really run. You can't help but laugh when you see them take off running.

There are three prides of White Lions on the reserve. They are a very scarce type of lion, although not albino. They are the result of a recessive gene and have blue eyes. They are really a beautiful animal. Here they are tearing into an aged Rhino on the grassy plains of the Krugersdorp area in the Gauteng province of South Africa.

One of my favorite shots of the day. This is a female Cheetah, also quite endangered, and she is catching some shade during the mid day sun.

...and this is one of the juvenile males that is not putting out the welcome mat for us!

This is a shot of a female White Rhinoceros on the move. They have two prominant horns on their face and can weigh up to 2300kg (for you Americans, that's about 6000 lbs). They are very territorial and are not to be treated as big, fat and slow!

This, of course, is a pair of beautiful Hartmann Zebras. Comouflage is not their strength. They are concerned as well, as there were several of their young nearby, but even though they all have stripes, no two are ever exactly the same, so Mom can easily tell her own from the rest. (they could anyway)

This is also one of my favorites. In six hours of shooting 165 photos it's hard to pick one favorite picture since the animals were so plentiful and so very photogenic, however this magestic male Brown Lion was a real 'poser'. He got up from his laying down position, stood as though he were really "the king", gave me a wonderful 5 second side shot, and then he stared us down (see picture below) as if to say..... 'get going!'

"Don't make me chew up your Firestone's!"

Clearly one of the high-lites for Reenie was to go to the baby animal creche and for a small fee, she got to play with the 1-3 month old baby lions and black leopards. Here is Reenie rubbing the nose of this 3 month old female brown lion and she got it so relaxed, I believe it went to sleep. They are already enjoying a diet of red meat, so there is a trained volunteer nearby, should these furry little fuzzballs decide that an afternoon snack of your finger would be tasty.

Here is the happy Reenie with the two identical twin sisters.

Merry Christmas Reenie...

We'll gradually post more of the pictures we took at the game park, but for now we'll just say

Merry Christmas to all. We love you and miss you.