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.