Today we did not leave for the transmitter site until 11am as a tour was being conducted for Bas Emons, a TWR supporter, and his family from the Netherlands. Because there are four remote controlled gates on the road to the site and they did not have a cell phone that worked in Eswatini, the only alternative was to escort their vehicle through the gates. [If they would have had a working cell phone, they could have contacted anyone with an approved cell phone and given the number of the gate that they had reached, then that person (with the approved cell phone) could have remotely opened each gate by calling the cell phone number assigned to that gate.]

The tour lasted over two hours. Bas has been involved in radio in Holland since he was 11 years old with a small station at home until today owning three large FM stations. It is my understanding that two of the stations broadcast Christian content. He met and married a young lady that had grown up in Swaziland. Her Dutch father surnamed Root was an architect in Swaziland and married a Swazi lady that ran the A-1 shop during the time we lived here. Her family moved to Holland in 1989 where she later met Bas. It is my understand that her parents later moved back to Swaziland. She and Bas come back every year to visit them in Siteki.

After the tour we again escorted them back through the gates and returned to Singing Pines. I worked from home this morning and afternoon answering followup questions about the medium wave AM transmission line design mentioned in previous blogs.

Remembered to capture a photo of this evening’s sunset.