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!