We had a good trip, but it was very long… We left our house at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday and arrived in Johannesburg at 9:15 p.m. on Thursday (3:15pm Indiana Time) We spent the night with our friends the Burnetts in a little apartment connected to their home. The next morning after breakfast we drove to the African Regional Offices in Johannesburg and had meetings. We left there around 1:30 in the afternoon to drive to Swaziland. It was interesting to just get into a strange car, drive on the wrong side of the road on unfamiliar roads, but we made it! We stopped at a place called Alzu for a break. We bought an iced mocha and the people who waited on us were a bit surprised that we wanted something icy. After all it is winter and cold, around 65 to 70 degrees!
I forgot to mention that the car, besides having everything turned around on the ‘wrong side’, has an anti-hijack button (that is so the car will be more difficult to steal). It is a hidden button that has to be pushed after the car is going, or the car will just stop running after about a minute whenever the car is started or a door has been opened. The hard part is finding the hidden button and then remembering to push it. Fortunately, it gives a warning before it shuts down the car! Because everything is turned around, Larry was turning on the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal all the time. Then I was supposed to navigate and was totally confused which was left and right!! But we made it!
Back to our stop at Alzu. We saw some Cape Buffalo, zebra, and rhino, ostrich and eland. It was a fun stop, but a very busy one. School holidays in various places this time of year.
Well, we didn’t get lost, didn’t drive on the wrong side of the road, didn’t break the 75mph speed limit (the speed even on 2 lane roads. Actually went quite a bit slower), or have any unplanned or unwanted incidents. However, when we arrived at the boarder between South Africa and Swaziland, it was busy!!! We had a long queue (line) at the South African border, but elbowed our way through to a shorter line and got through in good time. Then there was the Swazi border!! Parking was hard to find, but we waited for someone to back out and got a spot! The queue there was out the door and down the road about 100 ft. Then it wound around inside, but it was much better organized than the South African side. When we left, we had to wait for a break in the waiting vehicles behind us. So after about an hour at the borders we were on our way! It was dark by the time we got through so traveled the rest of the way in the dark. We were actually about 2 hours later than planned and were glad to eat and find a bed to sleep on.
Saturday, we slept until about 9:00am, but we did wake up around 3:00am and couldn’t sleep for awhile, so really didn’t sleep that well. We went to town with Steve and Lorraine Stavropoulos and did a little sight seeing and shopping. We saw the new mall in Manzini and bought fish and chips for lunch there. They were the good greasy fish and chips we remembered. We even got a grape pop/soda to drink.
These are the keys needed just to move about the house. The larger remote has four buttons — to open the vehicle gate by the road, to open and close the garage door, to set the alarm, and a panic button. The latter works, but we’re not telling how we know!
In the afternoon we rested and tried to find places for our things. The house we are staying in has 4 bedrooms and a study, a beautiful fireplace, a laundry room, two complete bathrooms, nice kitchen, dining area, and living room. Also a screened in porch and a garage with an automatic door opener. It takes a device to turn off the alarm and 2 keys to get in the house. If we are driving, we have to push the button to open the big gate as well. Then there is the gate that has to be opened to go down the hall.. At first, I thought I might not go anywhere and hope that no one came to visit, because I might not be able to get out or in, but I think I am getting the hang of it now. Would have loved to have such a big house when we had 5 kids!
Today, Sunday, we went to the church we used to attend when we lived here. It was so nice to see old friends. The memories made me a little teary eyed. Such a warm welcome. We also met the new missionaries who arrived just this week and who Larry will be training. It was nice to see them there. We had a wonderful time singing. No congregation can harmonize and sing like those in Africa. Could actually hear the voices lifted in praise and hear the harmony!! Beautiful!
After church we had lunch with the Stavropouloses and sat and talked about old times and present. Was very enjoyable. Now that we have our computers hooked up and running, we can answer some emails.
We still get very tired at odd times, but today was better. The main problem this time was that the telephone that Larry has was programmed to receive messages of things happening in the office and site and it went of two times last night and it woke us up. We will turn it off tonight.
Tomorrow Larry goes to the site. I am not sure what I will be doing, but I know that when the new couple moves in, I will probably help them. Right now with the low staff, things are a bit slow, but know that God will provide plenty of opportunity for me to keep busy, help and encourage. He always opens doors if we keep our eyes on Him.