Monday, May 2, was a day off for Workers Day, which is celebrated May 1.  Since it was a holiday, Larry was able to rest a bit more after being so sick.  Besides resting, he was also able  to do work on the antenna upgrade from home and then in the evening, we visited with some of our ‘old’ friends in their home before they left the next morning.  A blessing to have the time to fellowship!

New building across from Mormond Electric. Mall, Offices, Parking,

Tuesday, Larry went to the transmitter site to work.   I went to town with Ingrid Clarke.  She was working in our office, so I walked from there to some shops to pick up a few things I needed.  While I was out, I decided to stop by King Pie for something to eat.  I was purchasing a pie and the young man asked me if I were Mrs. Hynd.  Mrs. Hynd has been in heaven for quite a few years, but I am probably about the age she was when this young man last saw her. I explained that I was not Mrs. Hynd and that she had been gone for quite a few years. But he still thought I looked like her.   So, as we were talking, he asked how old I was and when I told him, the girl working there, acted surprised and said that I looked 50 or even 40 (I thought that maybe they wanted me to buy more food and were giving me compliments)  and then they wanted to know if I worked out.  Ha!  Then they asked if my children were here and if my husband was here.  When I explained that all our five sons , who were all born in Swaziland, were in the United States, their response was, “Hauw, so many children!  You people only have two!”

Mormond Electric

Then they wanted to know who was taking care of us, if all our children were in America,  who was doing the cooking and washing and cleaning. When I explained that I did my own, they were quite surprised,  and didn’t look as though they believed me.  It’s not unusual to have these types of conversations with people here in Swaziland.

Wednesday, we moved to another house.   We had packed most of our things Tuesday evening and  then were up at 5:00 a.m., Wednesday morning instead of our usual 5:30 a.m. to get most of our things moved over to the other house. Larry made several trips early that morning and after he left for work, I finished up and washed the sheets and towels and did a quick cleaning of the house we were leaving.

Thursday, was another holiday, Ascension Day.  The church we are attending, combined with

Wash day

another church met together at a farm.  We had a service in the morning, which included the dedication of the farm to be used in a way pleasing to our Saviour.  After the service, the children played games, the ladies prepared the food and the men moved the tables to the shade and we were ready to eat.  After the most

Beautiful scenery

delicious meal with all kinds of food (my favorites are the curries), we had a nice walk down to the river where the young ones and the young at heart played in the water.

We headed home around 2:00.  On the way home we stopped by the Luke Commission, a mobile medical mission, and had a brief tour.

We found out on Wednesday that we were going to have a house guest for the night on Thursday. We were

Braai Food

surprised, but I just made up the spare bed and made sure there were towels and we were ready.  She was traveling with an international group of six people from our Cary,  South Carolina headquarters. I did not have to plan meals.  The Schillers put on a braai for all of us, twelve adults and five children.  It was wonderful. Besides all the meat, we had mealie pop which is a white corn mush, a spinach sauce and a tomato sauce to eat with it plus a baked bean, banana and mayonnaise dish that was quite tasty, salad and  dessert of two types of cake and custard to pour over it. I am probably forgetting something, but we did enjoy it all even after the huge picnic fare.

Friday – We enjoyed our house guest.  After breakfast we walked around the compound. enjoyed the view and the beautiful weather.  We picked a little tangerine type orange from a tree, which she enjoyed and picked up some granadilla  and took pictures.

Tree by the river at picnic

Four tables of food

When we came back to the house, she got to taste and enjoy her first granadilla and eat some fresh Swazi avocado. They were off to Malotja Game Reserve, where they will spend the night before heading back to Johannesburg.

More picnic photos  (Will post more later)

Larry’s work on antenna upgrade.

Hopefully Larry will have time to write something soon for those of you who enjoy the technical end of things.  Since Friday, April 22 was a holiday for the King’s birthday and Monday, April 25, was flag day, he has not had a lot of opportunity to investigate the expansion at the site.  Then yesterday, Wednesday, he went to the transmitter site, but became ill and ended up sleeping on a desk and going to bed as soon as he got home.  He did go out today, but he was still not 100%.  He did spend all last Friday, Saturday and Monday working on the computer preparing for the upgrade.  I do know that he is trying to plan how to implement the upgrade with the least lost air time.  When TWR is off the air, people let us know that they are missing the broadcasts.

Monday, we were home home and Larry worked on the computer planning the upgrade.  It was also the day that our computers were ‘registered’ so we had useable internet.  We also figured out the washing machine and it’s hookups and did laundry.  There is a dryer, but I haven’t figured it out yet.  The weather is nice and there are clothes lines, one in the back yard and one on the screened in verandah. So right now there is no need for a dryer.

We had gone grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon on our way home from church and on Monday, I was washing the lettuce.  That reminded me that if I want to have a lettuce salad, I have to beat the slugs and worms to it, so it is a good idea to wash it right away.  Sorry I didn’t take photos,  I fed the worms and slugs  to the chickens.

Tuesday and Wednesday, the kids came over to play.  They are on school holidays right now, so moms are happy to have them do something a little different for awhile.  One of the mom’s is quite busy doing the finances and with other office responsibilities,  so it is a help to her to have someone help with her children.

Hoopoe https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?p=hoopoe&ei=UTF-8&hspart=mozilla&hsimp=yhs-001

One morning, I looked out the window and saw an interesting bird.  At first glance, my thought was that it was a cardinal because of the red head and topknot.  Just as fast as I thought that, I realized that it could not be a cardinal. Then I saw the interesting black and white tail and it turned so I could see it’s very long beak. I was able to get a fairly good picture through the window.  It is called a Hoopoe.

Friday, I caught a ride into town with Ingrid as she had some errands to run and was stopping by the office.  I bought a few things that I forgot to pack.  I also bought some groceries that would hopefully be easier on a tummy that has not been feeling well.  I also bought a shopping bag, that turned out to be much larger than I expected.  It is elephant sized!  They packed my groceries in it and it was pretty heavy.  I was glad Ingrid was picking me up at the shop and I didn’t have to lug the bag very far.  I may decide to take a wheeled duffle bag with me when I go shopping.

Africa – Benin. Can you find Swaziland?

In the afternoon, I did one load of laundry because it was a nice day and would dry quickly.  Ifigured out the gas oven and baked a butternut squash and then did some computer work.  I am thankful for those who take the time to drop a note.  I love it!

Our very good friends the Stavropolous family, arrived Friday evening.  What a joy it is to see them and have their company.  As I have mentioned before,  Steve and Lorraine are South Africans. We have been friends for about 40 years.  What a blessing to be able to spend some time with them before they head back to Benin, where they are Iwith TWR.

Larry continues to be ill.  I will see if I can get a ride to the Pharmacy and get something for him and pick up more coke and yogurt.  He is finding it very hard to be ill.  He has so much to do, but just can’t.  Monday is another holiday.  I think they call this one Worker’s Day.  Pray that he will recover over the long weekend and be ready to work with energy next week.  Oh yes,  next Thursday is another holiday. Not sure what it is.

How many countries fit into Africa?

Africa is a huge continent.  I thought it would be interesting to see how many countries fit into Africa.  You can see the United States does not take up much space.

It is Friday night.  Larry was up for about an hour and we made a quick run to the store to get him some medicine and he got a quick hair cut. We walked in the door and he went straight to bed.  He has been up maybe 4 hours today.  Pray that rest will heal his body.

Thank you all for your prayers and your interest in us.

Friday was a holiday for the king’s birthday, so Larry was working from home going over the drawings for the antenna upgrade. He is doing the same today, Saturday. Pray for wisdom as he gives advice and makes plans for this big upgrade.

A note of interest is that TWR cut back on one of the shortwave broadcasts and recently received a letter from a missionary saying how much they missed the programs, especially ‘ Through The Bible’ and Chuck Swindoll.  They mentioned how much they have appreciated the encouragement from TWR as they minister and serve.

Friday morning, the Pfeiffer boys, David (5) and Lucus (4) came over to play. Their parents are preparing to leave for Germany for furlough.  They will be leaving on Saturday.  After they have left, we may be moving into their house.  That is not decided for sure as of now.  I will still be taking care of the chickens and fish at at the Kimbers.

Avocados

We played outside for awhile and played inside.  They each made a crown that I had picked up on clearance at JoAnn’s and brought along for them to make.  Also, they played with construction paper, coloring and cutting.  We had a good time.

We had a hard wind and dark clouds on Friday and we were without power for awhile.  It wasn’t long and the power was back on for which we were grateful.  We had dark clouds, but it seemed the rain went around us.  Larry said that there was quite a downpour at the transmitter site.

While we were outside, we found some avocados that had been blown out of the top of the tree.  Hopefully, they will ripen and we can enjoy them. They are quite big and, we know from past experience, tasty.  We also found some granadilla that were ripe and ready to eat.  I picked up quite a few and we have been enjoying granadilla juice.

The chickens have been providing us with 1-3 eggs a day, which we are enjoying.  After the snake episode, they took a break and the hens that usually have t-2 eggs had none.  They wouldn’t go back into their cage all day after the snake visited.  They do go back in now, but don’t stay.  They

Granadilla juice

roost on top of the cage and jump the fence during the day.  I finally decided to just leave the gate open so they could come and go and just shut it at night.  They keep me entertained.  When at home in Indiana, I have a little dog that follows me all over, here I have chickens that follow me when I am outside!

Some of the keys and fobs used daily.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  Not too hot and quite pleasant. Larry had not driven in Swaziland yet, but we had been loaned a mission car to drive for the weekend.  Driving in the Swazi traffic and driving on the left side of the road, is a bit of a challenge, especially in the beginning.   One good thing  is that Sunday traffic is not as heavy as it is during the week.

We planned to go to the Evangelical Bible Church, which we attended all the time we lived here in Swaziland.  I should digress a bit and tell you that living in Swaziland comes with a huge bunch of keys. Naturally,  we have a key for each door.   Each outside door also has a gate which has a padlock. Interior doors and windows are linked to the burglar alarm, so doors and windows need to be closed securely.   Interior doors also have keys. We also have a gate to our yard and then a gate from our ‘compound’ to the main road.  The gate to the main road is opened electronically with a button on the key ring.  This is not unusual to have all this security in this part of the world.  Some areas, which we would call subdivisions or perhaps gated communities, have a guard who takes your name and license number and notes who you plan to visit.  After securing all windows and doors, one must set the alarm by pressing one of the buttons on the key ring.  There is a little red light in a window of the house that shows whether or not the house is properly secured  and the alarm is set. If the light does not come on, then one has to unlock the door gate, the door,  any interior doors, check windows and once again lock everything and try again.

Sunday morning, we had secured the house and set the alarm, and started off.  We arrived at the gate and it would not open for our button, nor for the button with the car keys.  So we went back to the house and deactivated the alarm unlocked all the doors and Larry called the only neighbor who was home.  He was on his way to church, but came by and programed our button to open the gate. We finally made it to church, but we were a bit late. Later we discovered that our gate key does fit other padlocks to gates that go through a field.  We could open those two gates and get out that way if we cannot unlock the main gate.

Another thing that we need to remember and get used to again, is that the cars also have alarms.  After you are in the car and start it, there is a hidden button that needs to be pushed to deactivate the anti-thieft device. If that button is not pushed, the car stops.  There is a way to get it started again, but not something one wants to happen in the middle of a busy road.  That little hidden button is not always easy to find

We had a very nice surprise when we arrived at church.  The Council for the Evangelical Bible Churches in South Africa and Swaziland were visiting.  One of the pastors on the Council was Pastor Matham, who was the pastor of EBC (Evangelical Bible Church)  Manzini when we first arrived in Swaziland.  It was such a pleasant surprise to see him once again.  After a very enjoyable service.  One of the pastors challenged us from Exodus 14, a well known story with new insights. We were also pleasantly surprised to discover that the church was having a pot-luck after the service. We enjoyed curry dishes and other very tasty food and fantastic fellowship and renewing of friendships.  Very blessed.

After church, since we did not know if we would have a vehicle for the rest of the week, we decided to go grocery shopping.  We found nearly everything on our list to get us through the week and the prices were, for the most part, quite reasonable.

After a fairly good night’s rest, we were up at 5;30 to prepare for the day. Larry decided to go out to the site and try to evaluate things and catch up on what he needs to know about the transmitter site and the antenna expansion. Their day begins early and he needed to be ready to go by 6:50 a.m. The girl next door, Monja Schiller, who was looking after the Kimber’s chickens, was coming over early to show me what needed to be done to care for the chickens.

These chickens don’t like to stay in their pen at night. They like to roost on top of the coop.

We are staying in the Kimber’s house. Caring for the twelve chickens, four of them  roosters, is one of the things I (Virginia) have been asked to do while here in Swaziland. (Only 3 of the hens have laid eggs so far, so I am thinking it is about time for chicken and noodles. Yum!).  They also have some guppies outside in a small tank that need fed once a week and water added to their ‘pond’.

Well, this morning, Monja, showed me what to do with the chickens and we gathered an egg.  Later I heard a hen cackling and bragging about having laid an egg and I just ignored her.  A little later, I heard a lot of hollering, cackling and fluttering out in the chicken coop.  I decided to check and see if ther was a hawk or something trying to catch a hen.  I went out and saw that the noise was coming from three chickens in an inner cage.

Grandson Mark’s depiction of the snake in the hen pen. Pretty much accurate.

I went over to check and see what the commotion was and there was a SNAKE! crawling on the screen.  He  quickly slithered down and then came around the side of the cage. In the meantime the neighbors had heard the noise and came running. They were armed with long sticks metal pipes and other similar weapons. We let all the chickens out of the three cages into the yard.  We never found the snake, but a snake catch and release lady was supposed to come by and check the cage for safety and then we could try to separate the chickens and put them in their proper cages. (Snake lady never showed up).  So much for my first morning in Swaziland!  I did run in to get the camera, but the snake never showed up again.  We think it may have been a spitting cobra, but not sure.

One family, here on the ‘compound’ is on vacation.  Another is preparing for furlough and the third is home-schooling with a very ridged schedule.  So, I am pretty much left to myself at the moment although I am sure that will change soon.

Larry took two suitcases of equipment to the transmitter site today and has another suitcase of equipment for John Stavropolous and his wife, who are missionaries with New Tribes. They will be visiting in Swaziland later and will be our neighbors for a few days.  His parents, South Africans,  are also with TWR.  We have known them for many years and our children spent their Swaziland years growing up together. They have visited us several times in the U.S and John would come visit at various times while he was attending New Tribes Mission School in Michigan.  We enjoyed having him around.

I brought a suitcase of crafts I have collected  for kids to do and gifts for some of the adults.  I am looking forward to doing the crafts with the children.  I did one for myself, a fascinator head band.  It was fun and cute.  I think the girls will have fun making it.  Our suitcases will be MUCH lighter on the trip home and perhaps fewer.

Tomorrow, Friday, is a holiday here as is Monday. Friday is the king’s birthday and  Monday is flag day. When we lived here, everything closed for holidays, Saturday afternoons and Sundays, but times are changing.

It is hot here. One of the Swazis was saying that it was supposed to be getting cooler, but it’s not!! We did get the ceiling fan going in the bedroom, for which I am very thankful.