Wednesday 6 July – My first meeting of the day was not until ll a.m so we were able to catch up on sleep deprivation and jet lag. The two-hour meeting was held at the TWR Eswatini office at Singing Pines – only a couple hundred feet from where we are staying. Stephen Murray met with Steve Stavropoulos (Station Director), Tobi Pfeiffer (Chief Engineer) and me about some long term goals and operation strategies.

Since our last visit in 2016, more of the administrative duties are being managed at the TWR Africa Support Center in South Africa. As a result of the reduction in Eswatini staff, TWR decided to remodel one of the smaller buildings at Singing Pines and rent out space in the larger 3-story building in downtown Manzini that TWR built in 1992. Part of the space in this larger building is used by Voice of the Church [https://vocfm.org] which broadcasts over a network of seven FM stations that TWR started 27 years ago. A couple years later the network was handed over to local Christian leaders to manage. It is now self-sustaining. Other Christian missions and ministries are also using the downtown building.

We had supper with Tobi and Britta Pfeiffer and their three sons, David, Lucas and Samuel.

Thursday 7 July – I left at 6:50am with the day shift and headed to the transmitter site, taking the parts that we had carried in our luggage. A short time of devotion and prayer is held each weekday at 7:30am before starting to work. I spent most of the day familiarizing myself with the changes since we were here 6 years ago.

Tobi asked for Larry’s advice about repairing a damaged guy anchor. An unattended tractor had rolled into it. Fortunately the guy anchor and guy wire (supporting a tower and antenna) held with the most damage to the hood of the tractor. The anchor consists of a large 4′ X 3′ X 2′ high block of concrete about six feet under ground level with a rod coming up through the ground. That rod is encased in about 8” diameter of concrete to keep it from rusting. That encasement concrete had broken and the rod was bent. Larry suggested removing all that concrete down to the anchor block to assess the damage and determine how to proceed.

The day shift ends at 4:30pm and we are back at our homes about 5:10pm. This trip is much faster than ever, since a four lane highway has been built from Manzini to the ‘new’ airport. Over half our week day drive is on this freeway with a speed limit of 120km/h (75mph). Most drivers, including us, keep it under 60mph. This improvement has all happened since we were here 6 years ago. Now there is a freeway all the way from the South Africa border post (Ngwane) to the airport, except for a short stretch being worked on through the town of Manzini.

Friday 8 July – I worked with one of the transmitter technicians to show him how to install one of three fiberglass insulators that we made in Elkhart in May.

Saturday 9 July – Steve and Lorraine Stavropoulos took us to Hlane Game Reserve for the day. We had a great time and saw hippo, impala, nyala, warthogs, about 10 rhino, a few giraffe and one elephant well hidden in the bush.