Strange sights and happenings

There is always something interesting to see when you are driving down the road. Here are a few of the weird things we've seen.


This may not seem that strange to anyone else, but this struck us as kind of funny. This is a men working sign--which shows that the men working along the side of the road are usually using a shovel or pick. You don't see much heavy equipment although we did see some men shoveling dirt into the big bucket of the front-end loader so it could move the dirt away.
We love this slow down sign - we see it every morning as we are moving down the freeway at about 5 kph. You can see the traffic all backed up in the merging lane. That is Table Mountain in the background with a lovely table cloth (that's what everyone says here when the clouds are on top). There's a phone by the SOS sign---those show up about every 10 or 15 kilometers although they don't need them much now because everyone has a cell phone.

This was definetly the funniest of all--we saw these men riding to work in the back of this truck and we felt so sorry for them. Not much of a transport to work. Elder Herbert said--Take a picture of those men in the truck. So I did----but when they saw me taking a picture of them, the man with the light colored hat took out his cell phone and took a picture of us!! We realized we look pretty strange to them too! Then we all laughed at each other and waved!!!

Kids and foods and fun.

These girls were dancing to their mother's drum beat and sister was playing a rattle type instrument made of a plastic bottle and rocks (I think). They were making a little money from people who passed by. I did take a little video, but it isn't very good. We've seen a few people doing this dancing in all the little market places.


This is at Green Market Square which is a kind of flea market where the native people sell their wares. This tiny little one was under the tables when we went by the first time, but later we saw her "working" out in the walkway. She was too little to really be doing anything, but she was pretending to straighten the blankets. Her hair is in the cutest little kind of "knots" all over her head.



When I picked up a little drum and started playing it, she came right over and wanted to take it away from me. I think she wanted to show me how to do it. We played with it for a minute and then she decided that was too boring and found something else to do.

This man was at Green Market Square too. He was balancing this huge thing on his head ---it was made of fruit and toys and things. I don't know if he was selling things. He was just kind of like a clown dancing around with the kids and getting his picture taken.

Lots of people have asked how the food is here, so I thought I would show a couple of pictures we've taken. This is called "Bobotie" - it is kind of an upside down shepherd's pie. It was kind of like a rice on the bottom and then spicy curry meatloaf stuff in the middle, and then lots of cheese on the top. Elder Herbert was the only one willing to try something "scary" and it turned out pretty good. This was a pretty nice restaurant at Cape Point.

This is the salad they served with the Bobotie - pretty good, huh with those huge chunks of feta!
The salads here are usually the best - I had one made with avocado and shrimp and tomato and a little bit of lettuce. MMMMMMMMMMMMMM good. They do set a nice table and give wonderful service--even though they are always disappointed we only drink water.

The Baboons

I'm trying to say - THIS MEANS YOU, ELDER HERBERT!!! PUT THAT SANDWICH AWAY!

Signs are posted all over saying things like this.

You have to look closely, but he is running down the hill. There were actually two or three of them, but I only managed one in each picture. They move very quickly. The park brochure said that they go to the beach and feed on the little crustaceans there--which is not a normal thing for them to do.

After running down the hill, he calmly crossed the road heading toward the ocean. The tour bus occupants came to a stop and waited and watched him.

This little guy was sitting beside the road far down the road from the others. Here we saw signs saying, "Baboons are dangerous animals. Do not feed them!" He was definitely waiting for a hand-out. You'll have to double-click and check out his facial expression. The ocean is probably 200 yards away behind the bushes.

The Whale

It was very hard to get a good picture of the whale. We watched him for about 15 minutes trying to catch a good pose!! Our friends had binoculars and we were watching with those part of the time and not snapping pictures. We were probably about 1000 feet above him, but it gave us such a good view of him. He was rolling and diving and just having a wonderful time. Anyway, that's what it looked like to us. We think he was small, but he could be bigger than he seems here.

More About the Cape of Good Hope

You'll have to go to my one of my earlier posts to hear and see the point where the lighthouse is.





This is the only picture we took of the lighthouse. It is on a very high cliff overlooking both oceans. The left is the Indian Ocean and to the right is the Atlantic. It was built in the early 1800s.

On top they have a signpost with directions and kilometers to various places in the world. Elder Harms took the picture and he cut off the other places, but New York is showing---12, 541 km which is only about 7,525 miles. I can't exactly swim it! It also had Rio de Janiero, Calcutta, and Tokyo---we'll go again and get a better picture.
It's less than and hour's drive from our flat.

This shows the path we came up to the lighthouse and some of the lookout points along the way. We rode a tram up about 1000 feet (vertically) and then had to walk the rest of the way up about 500 ft. (also vertical) It was breathtaking. Double-click this picture and it will give you an idea.

Trip to the Cape of Good Hope

Here I am in the Victoria Wharf Mall. I just wanted you to see what nice stores they have. This store sells African specialty items. Yup, you guessed it - too expensive for Grampa!!

We took off on a fun trip to see the Cape Point. This is us driving---no I'm just kidding. This is a pretty good example of the morning traffic on our way to the office. As we drove to the Cape on our p-day, it was a pretty nice drive through several little resort towns.

We stopped in Fish Hoek to see the penguins and got a few pictures of them. We found that some of the signs about the animals were about as interesting as the animals!

Hope you can read the sign - it says "Please check under your car for sleeping penguins."

Near the penguins were a few little open tables like a flea market where we actually bought some trinkets! The people are so cute and you just want to help them out. Yes, family this is where we got some of your Christmas!!

We then drove on down the Cape to the Cape Point National Park. After entering, we stopped at a little museum about whales and all the animals on the cape. There we saw this ostrich roaming around behind the building.

This is the Cape Point - there is a lighthouse on a high cliff just behind this that we took the picture from. I'll put a pic of the lighthouse on the next post.

Our first visit to an African home.

As a teacher, this kind of rubbed me the wrong way---I wonder if the kids in South Africa ever learn to spell!! Actually that is how they spell school in Africaans. I still wonder.

I have decided to do a little more writing and fewer pictures on my blog for a while and see how we like it!! I felt like I couldn't blog unless I had time to put in some pictures---which I don't always have time to do. This way my blog will seem more like a letter to each person who visits my blog and I won't feel the need to email quite as often.
Today we went to visit a wonderful sister in our ward, Nozuku Qwabe, who has just been called as the Young Women's President in the Langa Branch. We call her Sister Nozuku. She is beautiful and tall with her hair pulled back in a ponytail kind of thing that is a mass of tiny, shiny, black ringlets about three or four inches long. She had worked all day at her job in a jewelry store on the Victoria & Alfred Wharf which is a huge tourist shopping mall in Cape Town. She was tired, but in very good spirits.
We got there at 6:00 pm and she had made a pot of nogloshu (there is a click where the gl is) which is beans and corn mostly with curry spices and some chicken for us to eat. The missionaries were going to visit her and they took us along. They were teaching her a lesson about temple marriage and thought we would be a good visual aid, I think! Plus, neither of them has ever been married, so that makes it hard to teach from experience. She was surprised to see us, but was very excited that we had come.
Her home is in a large apartment building on the second floor. It is part of a complex of about 8 buildings inside a gated community. They have guards at the gates because it is on the edge of one of the townships where the homes are built with scraps of tin and old lumber. The buildings are all white, and seem pretty nice, but there is a lot of trash around. Her home is one room about 12 feet by 14 feet. In that room she has a small sink, fridge, and kitchen area in one corner. Her stove is two burners on top of a small microwave. A small entertainment center with a small TV and DVD player was in the opposite corner with a love seat facing it. Behind the loveseat was a full size bed and then a chest of drawers on the wall the kitchen stuff was on. There was a bathroom along a hallway as you came in the door. She is probably one of the most comfortable of the members of the branch.

Her neice lives there with her and she is in high school. She didn't tell us anything about her neice, but she seemed like a fairly happy girl. She laid on the bed and didn't say anything while we talked to Nozuku. Nozuku told us she was going with the young women to youth conference this weekend and she felt overwhelmed by her church calling. They were going to a camp or something in the mountains---it was a stake activity. She has six girls who come regularly to church and she is working hard to keep them out of the lifestyle many youth are choosing at this point in their lives. I thought how much this sounded like the young women leaders in our home ward in Pocatello—even though their lives are worlds apart, they have the same concerns and love for those they are serving. Nozuku has only been a member of the church for a little over a year, so I'm sure it is very difficult not knowing that much about everything anyway. The youth that we have met are so strong in the church and bear wonderful testimonies about their conversion and how wonderful it is not to be a part of the world around them. I am so impressed with all of them. The church has a wonderful future here if they can stay as strong as they are now. As the scriptures say, we are building the foundation of a great work. We are praying for good weather for them at the camp---I can't wait to hear how it goes.
We had another baptism after church this week. It was a young woman named Boingwe (Bon gee way). She is 17 or 18 I think and is so cute with a big smile. We have talked to her every week at church and didn't realize she wasn't a member until that day! Everybody was so excited that she decided to be baptized and two of the other young women in the ward gave the talks on baptism and the Holy Ghost. The Elders were excited and tell us they won't have another baptism this next week, but probably the week after that they will.

Write and let me know if this is too long - I just wanted to tell everyone about this because everyone seemed so interested in how the people here live. Believe me, there are some very affluent neighborhoods, but usually not where the church is!! The rich don't always have time to listen to the missionaries. There are probably many members in this area who are live much better than Nozuku, but they are not in our branch. They are in our stake however and that's why the youth were going to a camp in the mountains. How wonderful for our youth.

Africa is the most exciting place - I just love it here.

Here's a sight we saw as we drove along the beach---the clouds started coming down the mountains toward the water and they moved so quickly. It was awesome! They have this road going all along the ocean for about 60 kilometers and it is just one super sight after another.

Here's a sight you've almost all seen before---grammie walking down the beach in the water! The beach was fantastic with white sand and hardly anybody there. It is a little early in the year and it wasn't very warm - really windy like that one day when we went to the beach in Oregon and everyone sat in the car!! I picked up about 10 sea shells in less than 5 minutes - they were everywhere! Elder Herbert made me wear a skirt!!!---but maybe it was good, my pants would have been all wet. The sand is very soft - not scratchy and you can't brush it off. But I don't care.

This shows all the little penguins on the rocks by the beach a little drive away. There seemed to be hundreds of them. They were so cute waddling around. We saw one little lonely one hiding under some bushes.

Here is the bravest little penguin who came right up to us. I am so mad at myself for not trying to touch him. All the Elders asked me if I did and I had to say no :(. . . . . but next time I will! I'll probably lose a finger or something.

A few snapshots around the area.

We ordered prime rib at the restuaurant on the beach overlooking the water. After about a half hour, they brought two little hibachis out to our table with the meat almost done. We could start on the outside while it still cooked. It had this yummy green lettuce on top.

TThe little ball with the orange curlies on top is our salad. We ordered one salad and one order of fries. It is made by laying very thin strips of cucumber cut the long way into a circle. The the lettuce, tomatoes, cheese etc is placed in the center and the strips are pulled up around it. The curly stuff on top is carrots. It was so delicious! We also had small baked sweet potatoes with this meal. It cost 110 rand which is pretty expensive here. But with the exchange rate, it came to about $16 each.

This is the beach in Hermanus - the whales were out there---they kept poking their heads and tails up, but it was so hard to be ready with the camera. They tell us in the winter they lay on top of the water and you can see them out there playing for hours. Now it is spring and they aren't so playful, or many of them have left.

Straight over by the mountains there is a little strip of sandy beach where we went too.

This little city nestled in the mountains kind of

reminded us of Pocatello. We are amazed at the
diverity of the land here. There are lots of tall
mountains as well as rolling hills. We saw lots of grapes growing

Today we went to Hermanus, which is a city on the coast where lots of whale-watching goes on. We have basically missed the season because it ends the first of October, but we went anyway. We did see some whales - but only their tails:( - the people there said they roll and jump for hours and you can see them really well in July and August especially. Next year- we're there!




Here's a pic of one of the tails we saw as it goes back in the water - impossible to photograph! Yes, it is really there, if you enlarge the picture and zoom in, you can see the last of his tail as it goes in the water. Well, I can see it!! It is about a third of the way from the top a little to the right of center--it is black - not the white cap. Good luck!







We drove down the road a little and saw these little guys wandering the beach. I think they were looking for a handout, but I didn't offer anything.





This little guy came very close too, and you see the beginning of the hundreds that are on the rocks below - I'm sure there were 200 or so there. And people said there were more aroound the corner further down the beach. I put a picture of the rocks with them all on it on another post. They are so funny - but a little smelly! Whew!

We also had a baboon run across the road right in front of our car as we were driving to the beach. The drive was about 140 Kilometers and we were about 3/4 of the way when we saw him. We were going over a maountain pass.

The penguins were actually in a protected area, and as we were leaving there we saw signs saying it is against the law to feed the baboons. But we didn't see any more of them. I didn't get a picture - it just happened too fast, but we'll be ready next time!!


This is a tree we saw when we traveled to another rural area. Actually we saw several in that city. It is so beautiful. Double click on it so it will fill your screen and maybe zoom in to see the blossoms. they look like big, fat caterpillars. No, I don't think they will grow in Idaho. By the way - calla lilies grow well here and we see them lots. We saw some at the beach today - I think they must be like tulips and bloom in the spring. People here are not that impressed with them.

Well, that's all for now - I'll add more later
Love to all - Sister Herbert

The African Flat

In Africa we call this a boarding or a flat. Our flat is on the second floor between the trees. Elder Herbert is standing on our little deck. This is the courtyard of our boarding. You can't see it in the pictures but it is surrounded by a 6-ft fence with points on the top. It's on the outside of the buildings. There are locks on the stairway doors and we have a barred gate over our front door that locks and our front door locks. Three different keys to get in our door. And that's not counting the padlock on the garage!

Elder Herbert is now sitting in the living room - we put the table in here, so we can eat in a cuter room. I am taking the picture from the door to the deck. You can see a little of the mirror in our entry hallway.

This is our cute little kitchen that is easy to work in and easy to clean. I made 7 loaves of banana bread for zone conference in this little kitchen and it went pretty well. We didn't get a pic of our cute little fridge. It is shorter than I am and we really have to be careful not to buy too much or we can't get it all in. You can barely see the toaster by the plugs - the microwave and fridge are over there too. We really do have a great little life here!

This is looking down on the food court at Century City - a huge mall in Cape Town.

Now we are down in the food court eating our pizza (what a treat!)They had a fashion show going behind that large thing in the middle, the background music was classical rock. The fashions were kind of from the 50's - nothing extreme. We saw many people from all ethnic backgrounds and no tatoos, piercings, weird hairdos---it was very interesting. We didn't feel unsafe except that we couldn't find our way out when we were ready to go home and had to ask a security person where our exit door was. We weren't far from it, but we were going the wrong direction!

Our neighbor Vanessa takes care of two flower beds in the quad of our apt bldg. She gave us a "bird of paradise" flower to have in our flat. We love it, but we think there are bugs in it because we keep finding little black bugs on the floor in our kitchen. I don't know how long it will last.

This is a picture of some of the worst poverty here in the city. This is on the edge of where our branch is. Possibly some of the people in our branch live here. We had a presentation for the 5th Sunday yesterday on the perpetual education fund encouraging them to get education. They were very interested, but they said the process of getting approved takes 6-8 weeks and it is hard for them. We have one couple assigned to travel the mission and sign people up---that is their whole mission.

Driving in Africa - taking your life in your hands

This is Elder Herbert on his first drive on the left hand side. Notice the fence in the back - that surrounds our apartment building - where our flat is. We have a little remote to open the gate so we can leave. Straight across the street is the Howard Centre which is a little shopping center with a bank, post office, grocery store, pharmacy (the chemist) and Woolworths - kind of a department store.

And here he is after we made it to the office!! What a feat! He is a master of concentration and driving dexterity!! I am so proud of him. He really is a good driver - the traffic is unbelievable. People constantly cut in front of you - they just put on the blinker and turn in. How do you like our cute little car? I am having a hard time getting used to sitting in the driver's seat and not driving. We both walk to the wrong side when we go to get in!

This is how our car fits in our garage - not a lot of storage space in there, but we are grateful to even have a car and a garage. Yes, we made it home after our jaunt to the office. It was on Saturday, our P day, that's why no suit and tie. We now realize that we should wear P day clothers only at home and dress up if we are leaving our apartment.