Morning sun on the bougainvillea.

It is cold!  I think that winter has arrived in Swaziland.  The concrete walls and ceramic tile floor hold the cold and feel very cold when there is no heat in the house and the sun is covered by clouds.  It is 17.8 C or 64 F. I know that is not very cold and some of you would think that is wonderful, but there is no place where it is warmer, except in bed!  The local people wear their knitted hats,  hoodies, heavy winter coats and gloves in this weather.  I put on my sweat shirt and two pairs of socks.  Larry adds a flannel shirt as a jacket on these cool days.  Usually by late morning or early afternoon it warms up enough that some layers can be shed.

The week has been pretty much the same as previous weeks.  Trips to town and visiting with people in shops, trying to be friendly to those whose only feature that can been seen are their eyes,  Bible study with some wonderful ladies and just enjoying being in Swaziland.  One shop owner, who had not seemed friendly in previous years’ visits,  started a conversation asking me where I was from.  He told me that he was going to Chicago to visit relatives.  He said that he planned to be back in Swaziland before the  U.S. elections.  He didn’t want to get caught in that!  He seemed to be of the opinion that neither candidate was a good choice.  He suggested that we might want to move back to Swaziland.  I did not disagree with any of his comments.

Larry spent the first part of the week modifying inductors (coils) that were removed from the old 1960 model AM transmitter because they were useful for upgrading the AM antenna system from 50,000 to 100,000 watt.   After the modifications were completed, these inductors were installed in the two antenna tuning huts.  Instead of using wires to make the connections, copper tubing up to 22mm (about 7/8″) in diameter has to be used to carry the required radio frequency current (up to 90 amps).

On Tuesday several used inductors, that were located earlier by James Burnett, arrived from South Africa.  Only one, of the four, was of sufficient current carrying capability to be usable for the upgrade.  After Larry did some calculations, he determined that this one inductor was actually large enough to make two more of the needed inductors for the upgrade, if the large coil was cut into two coils in exactly the right place.  This cut was done on Thursday, but now the inductor supporting frame had to be rebuilt to make two frames instead of one.  By Friday the larger of the, now two, inductors had its rebuilt frame and was installed and connected in the main tuning hut.  The second of the two inductors will require more work as most of the original support frame was used to make the frame for the first inductor.  That will be part of next week’s work!

Sunday was a great day of worship in song,  and a challenge from a visiting pastor. It was cause for lively discussion around the dinner table.  Among the many points, one that I took away was that we need to let our light shine outside the church building where the darkness is.  Also that the building is not the church, but we, the people are.   I think that is important because so many people do not seem to understand that the church is people.  I have even had Sunday School material that put the emphasis  on the building rather than the people!

Sunday we enjoyed a huge, delicious meal at the Middletons along with Pastor Deon and his wife Berenice and ‘Auntie’ Ivy. This was no ordinary meal!  We had ox tail curry, biryani, spaghetti, rice, chicken, roast potatoes, several veggies,  sliced beets, and more. It was wonderful.  Doreen sent enough home with us for several more meals.  The meal ended with 4 different desserts and then tea and coffee.  I think we finished eating around 4:00.  We had a great time!!