Since Larry has been doing most of the blogging, I decided that perhaps it is time to give you an idea of what I have been doing.

As I think we have mentioned before, the house we are staying in has 4 bedrooms, none of them tiny, an extra room for an office (the people in this house use it for a playroom), a fairly large area for the

living room and dining area, also a good sized entry area and a bigger kitchen than I have used in quite awhile. The living, dining, entry area and kitchen are all open and the division between the kitchen and the others is a free standing brick fireplace and a bar cupboard in the kitchen. The ceiling in this area looks like knotty pine,

but it could be something else. It is a peaked ceiling, and very pretty. We also have a very large laundry

room with a front-loading, German washing machine. I am grateful for the great instructions that were written out by hand!! There is also a scullery sink, and a half bath in the laundry room. The room is large enough for an ironing board and even a table if one wanted a table for folding clothes. There are two full baths in the main house area. There is also a one car garage and a lovely screened in porch on the back of the house.

One of the previous families who lived here, created some beautiful flower gardens and built a bird aviary, however there are no birds in it and it doesn’t look like there ever were. As you know from previous posts, we also have bananas, granadilla or passion fruit, nartjies or orange mandarins and lemons growing in the yard. We are enjoying them! A neighbor gave us a tree tomato fruit to try. I cut it in half and sprinkled it with a little sugar. Yummy! I think we had some tree tomato in Quito, Ecuador as juice. I really like that.

I must also mention that a hill was cut down to make a flat spot for this house. This means that every time I want to visit a neighbor, hang out the laundry, pick fruit, water plants or most things outside, I climb that hill, which is a bit steep. Indiana is not hilly, so the calves of my legs were a bit sore that first week!

Our day usually begins around 5:30 in the morning, before sun up, so we enjoy the beautiful red sunrise every morning. Unfortunately, it is usually to cool to enjoy it and the bird songs by eating breakfast out on the screened porch.

We need to turn the hot water heater on in the mornings for about a half an hour, as electricity is very expensive here and keeping the heater off is a good way to keep costs down. While the water heats, we usually eat breakfast, which is much like home except for the type of juices we enjoy. By the time breakfast is done, the water is hot for showers and we turn off the heater (it is called a geyser here, with a long e and silent y). Larry leaves for the site at 7:00 and I leave at 7:00 one or two mornings a week to go to the office in town and work on inventory of the hostessing equipment. Two mornings a week, I am involved with some of the TWR ladies and others in prayer meetings at 8:00.  The days I am in the office, I enjoy having devotions with our local staff and whoever is in town that day rather than the site.

Most afternoons I am free to do shopping, cooking, and whatever else is necessary. Shopping is much easier to do than it used to be here in Swaziland. It is possible to buy everything at a supermarket. I have been to three large (large compared to the past) supermarkets. Two of them have paid parking and the third (the more expensive, newer one) has free parking. Back when, we had to visit the meat market, the fruit market and then a small supermarket. One also had to be very careful to check for bugs in the dry food that was purchased, which doesn’t seem to be as much of a problem as in the past. We usually got bread at another stop and if any of the places did not have what you wanted, you were most likely out of luck. It is still possible to shop at many different places, but not necessary as it once was. It is so nice to drive to a grocery, buy what is needed and not have to fight the car traffic or human traffic to another shop.

Some days, I am asked to watch the children of the other missionary families. They are sweet children and happy to give out hugs and are FULL of energy! I am glad that I can help out in this way sometimes and make life a little easier for the young moms. We have also had people over for meals, a new mission family and visitors from South Africa. It is more of a challenge with other people’s things, lack of equipment like mixers or similar items. I use a whisk and it works quite well and burns a few calories…maybe. Also, not having a stock of food items to draw from and the fact that I don’t drive here so I can’t run to the store, makes it more of a challenge.

This morning before 8:00, I went out and trimmed a bush that had grown tall enough to set off the motion detector when there was a breeze.  It was buzzing on and off all night. I sure hope the one I cut was the one giving trouble.

I usually have one day a week when I am home all day. That is the day I catch up on laundry, if I have not been able to squeeze it in on another day. Doing the laundry is pretty normal. The machine is different as it heats up the water if it is not hot enough. It also has a digital timer read out, so it is easy to tell how long the load of laundry will take. It is small, so I do more loads than I would do at home. Ialso have to climb that mountain (hill actually) to hang out the clothes. We usually have beautiful sunny, dry days with a nice breeze to dry the clothes, so it is a joy to do and to smell the fresh outdoor smell when they are brought in.

After I have done the necessary things for the day, I do have my Kindle to read and I brought along quilt pieces to keep me busy. I have not had much time to work on the quilt, but I do get quite a bit of reading done, waiting for the computer to load. But if the computer is too slow, I wash dishes or sweep the floor instead of reading.  Some days, I take my quilting to another missionaries home and work on it while they work on a project.  If they need help, then I am there to try and be helpful.

One day last week Lorraine and I took a day off from doing the inventory. We and another friend decided to go to Guava Gallery for lunch. Guava Gallery is an outdoor restaurant with a shade roof that also has an art gallery, Consulate for Finland and you can buy silver jewelry. It is run by a Finnish man and his wife and he is a silver smith who is teaching Swazis how to use silver to make beautiful jewelry using local products and their talents. They also have a few other types of art there for sale and all made locally. I enjoyed an Appletiser with my lunch that day. An Appletiser does not have an equal in the U.S.

Sundays, we attend the same church we attended when we lived here.  The pastor is doing a study in Revelation.  I can’t remember when I last heard a study on that book!  Maybe when my father-in-law was pastor at the church I attended growing up?  I know he really liked that book and enjoyed it.  It showed in his teaching of it.   Pray that we can be an encouragement to the local church here.  There are many areas where an extra pair of hands would really be appreciated.  They have a very active AWANA group and ladies and mens groups.  Pray for these outreaches.

In the evenings after supper, we often play Rummikub, catch up on email, and Larry studies for the class he is teaching.  Usually the sun is down before he returns from work and  goes down as the same red ball of fire as it is when it comes up in the morning.

Great is Thy faithfulness!