Swaziland

Our friends, the Lomardis, served a previous mission in Swaziland.  So they took a 

group of us for a visit.  Beautiful country, and very hilly like San Diego.

The cultural village was a great place to start. We loved their expertise in 

using the natural products around them.

They could make water tight, warm huts just out of grasses and vines.

Our guide talked about village life and how they laid out their village for protection.  The young beautiful girls were the first hut to be encountered by their enemies.  The hope was that the girls beauty would distract them from advancing further into thevillage.

A beautiful choir sang to us in their native tongue.  They were so talented

Many people have developed skills to make a living.  This man is good at carving things.

You can imagine our surprise to find a huge, modern American consulate in Swaziland.

This is a typical house seen in the rural areas.

Wherever the Lombardis go they take along a huge bag of suckers.  When they see kids at the side of the road they always stop to hand them out.  They make these little ones so happy.

The Area Office has big vans that we can use for trips away from the ofice.  That is how we traveled to Swaziland with the Grafs (he is in legal and she works on the local Liahona magazine) and the Broadbents (he is the infield representative and she works in public affairs).

Things get pretty stressful and busy in the office, especially for Chuck.  So it is nice to take a few days to unwind and catch our breath.

Military Museum and our last Sunday together

Since Dan is an army guy, Chuck wanted to show him the military museum just down the street from our flat.

There are a lot of manly machines there.

On Sunday we took them to the Cosmo City Branch.  Kelly, who is primary president, had her primary kids color some pictures and write some notes.  She shared these with the kids in this branch.  There wasn't much time or organization to have them draw and write notes back,

but Kelly ended up playing the piano for primary and I ended up being chorister.  Good thing we've had some experience before.

Boy are we going to miss these kids when they leave.  Callie even asked what we were going to do without them.

Glad they all came for a visit.  See you at Christmas time.

Mormon Helping Hands

It was Mormon Helping Hands day in South Africa so we went back to the Kensington and Johannesburg 2 Ward to help with the clean up project around their building.  There was so much trash and dirt and mud.  The girls were great trash finders and met with their friends Rory Leona again to clean the fence and the church sign.  It was a fun morning!

Zipline Adventure

Gotta try something a little daring.

Tessa and Callie were so brave and so good and enjoyed this afternoon so much!

We conquered the ravine!

Pilanesburg Game Reserve - Morning drive

The next day we were surprised when a few zebras showed up at the water hole. We were very lucky to see them up close like this.

The morning drive is always much colder that the evening drive, so we really bundled up.

Our guide got a call that there was a group of lions to see so we tried to rush to the spot, but this family of elephants had a different idea.  This matriarch would not let us pass.  Our guide would drive close to pass and she would warn us away.  In the end she ended up charging us with her head and trunk swaying back and forth, her ears splayed wide open and bellowing at us.  We never did get to see the lions, but we had the most awesome encounter with about 20 elephants.

You just can't believe the scenery is real. It is so beautiful and so Africa!

Little did we realize when we booked the family suite for these cuties that it would include a pool, a backyard, a living room and a fireplace. It couldn't have been any better!

Pilanesburg Game Park - Game drive #1

We arrived at the Ivory Tree Game Lodge and were minding our own business eating our lunch around the pool, when you can imagine our surprise when a herd of 25 wild elephants showed up at the water hole at the edge of the property.  It was surreal.

The girls just watched these animals fight and bellow and drink all they could before moving on.  There were several small babies in the group.

On our first game drive we saw all of the Big 5 - lion, rhino, Cape buffalo, leopard, and elephant.  This zebra was cool to see too.

Tessa had her own camera and took a close up of the wildebeest.

We saw a whole family of rhino's out for an evening stroll.

Half way through the 3 hour ride, we stopped for some drinks and cookies before starting up again to see more of the wild animals.

The Elephant Sanctuary and Bush Babies Monkey Park

Tessa was a natural on the huge elephant.

Callie was not afraid at all and loved her ride.

Kelly is just a natural animal lover and loved petting the not-so-smooth elephant trunk.

Only 3 were brave enough to get an elephant kiss.  Kelly was first and got the sloppiest kiss of all.  She even had to clean her teeth off.

Dan made sure that he wasn't getting any elephant snot in his mouth.

And Chuck was used to the kisses since this was his 3rd time.

Don't let this cute little monkey fool you.  His previous owners had trained him as a pick pocket.  He came over to Chuck so sweet and friendly and while he climbed up his leg, his tail was stealing Chuck's wallet right out of his back pocket.

Fortunately our monkey guide saw what was happening and grabbed the tail of the monkey before he could escape with all of Chuck's money and credit cards.  The monkey screamed plenty loud because he didn't get to keep his loot, and his fellow monkey buddies came over with their teeth bared to protect their friend.