A large herd of Cape buffalo
a closer look at the herd of Cape Buffalo
An Elephant, one of manyWe saw many, many elephant; a great herd of Cape Buffalo which Elder Blackburn said "made the trip worthwhile"; Pretty Ugly to me. Giraffe in the distance, we have seen a lot of them; a Wild Dog it was also pretty ugly; We enjoyed the beautiful mountain scenery during the drive. We had hoped to see some big cats; but the employees said they were hiding today. It really was a good relaxing day.
4 Nov 2010
We went to the immigration department to get our work permits; we stood in line about 4 hours and went to 3 different doors, such inefficiency; we did get the permits; Sister Blackburn could not get her passport stamped there was not enough pages, so now we have to go to the American Embassy and get pages added which will cost $160 American Dollars, pretty excessive charges for a few pages of photo copied paper. We feel it is amazing how much it costs to live in a 3rd world country, because they have so little, what they do have they charge a lot for. We paid someone to wash our car while it was parked in the parking lot at the embassy. Not unusual for someone to watch the cars, wash the cars and help you back out of your parking place, all for a few cents.
7 Nov 2010
Went to Church in Ezulwini, stayed for all three meetings, new converts shared their testimony and we were impressed with the strength of their conversion. We had cooked a roast for dinner and we sure did enjoy it with mashed potatoes, veg, ice cream. etc.
8 Nov 2010
Manzini Elders went to Nhlangano for a baptism interview and a situation was revealed wherein the investigator had been a polygamous wife, her husband has passed away, however she still lives next door to her sister wife. She lives in GeGe. Elder Blackburn will have to call Mission President before baptism can happen.
9 Nov 2010
Woke up to rain, rain, rain all day; heavy thunder and lightening; We just stayed home and studied.
10 Nov 2010
Still heavy storms; Elders came to our house for their District Meeting and they stay too long; they didn't want to go back out into the storms anymore than we did. They left about 2:00pm after peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and watermelon. First melon of the season and was perfect not like the first one we had bought here. We were finally informed that the natives will cook green watermelon and eat it that way.
We bought a blue pumpkin from roadside market, and Sister Blackburn was assured it was orange inside. The girl selling the produced picked one out for us, when we got home it was orange inside, got a recipe off internet - Food Network to cook it. It cooked really good and then put it in a blender and guess what? we are going to have real pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.
11 Nov 2010
Beautiful day, Elder Mbuli came and washed the car (I guess we have hired him every week). After the first request to wash our car, he just keeps coming back each week. Good thing the car needs washing all the red mud. Elder Blackburn went to the Ezulwini Elders Boarding to wait for the repair man. They are getting electric shocks when they shower. Went to the grocery store and spent R1050. our refrigerator was like Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard. We found a turkey for Thanksgiving, grown in Minnesota by Jennie O.
It cost us $35.00 American Dollars, but we figuered we would spend that much on chickens to feed the Elders. Talked with Sister Ward last night to plan the Christmas Party for the New Castle and Swaziland District, we had a three way with Sister Hudson, husband had to put their voices in too. So Elder Hudson is going to use Butternut Squash instead of Sweet Potatoes - that will be interesting. Sister Ward asked me to stop at Spars market in Bollito where we get some American products and see if I could find Libbys Pumpkin, I assured her I would bring her some pumpkin and she kept insisting it had to be "Orange" She was skeptical that I had pumpkin for pies.
12 Nov 2010
Patriarch Courtney is coming today, he will be giving Patriarchal Blessings for 3 days. Elder and Sister Cox is bringing him with them and he will stay with us. The Cox' have Seminary Graduation this weekend.
We woke up today with no water, so we got dressed and went to Mbabane to the US Embassy to pick up Sister Blackburn's Passport, she now has lots of new pages to get stamped. Our water was finally fixed at 3:30pm today. What a nuisiance this old house is. Elder Blackburn has gone to Manzini to conduct Patriarchal Blessing Interviews so the Patriarch can do his work.
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