Virginia under bougainvillea at Guava Gallery

Today was a busy day.  Lorraine had a doctor’s appointment in Mbabane, so after doing three loads of laundry and hanging them out on the line, we took off up the mountain.  Her appointment was at the same clinic where Samuel and Joshua were born (our grandson Mark was also born there). It is undergoing quite a facelift.  It now has nice tile floors and tile half way up the walls.  They have a new brick paved entrance and exit and paved parking lot.  They are building on a new entrance that has a lot of nice glass windows.  It also looked very clean.

After our stop at Mbabne Clinic, we went to lunch at the Guava Gallery.  We had mushroom omlets for lunch with a salad and homemade bread.  Besides having a little eating place, Guava Gallery sells hand made jewlery.  They use silver and gold and make their own design sometimes incorperating gem stones.  So far I haven’t spent any money there!.  They also have beadwork, painting and other crafts for sale.   The  bougainvillea lined veranda where we ate has a lovely view of a mountain in Milwane Nature Park.

After we left the Guava Gallery we stopped at a Pick and Pay shopping mall.  We didn’t go into the Pick and Pay, but visited some of the small shops around it.  They were quite interesting and I bought a big bag of macadamia nuts for one dollar.  Now for the fun of cracking and eating them.

We took the “old road” back to Manzini. It was fun to see familiar land marks.  We then stopped at the bulk food store and priced some items for the two big meals we are catering next week. Next Tuesday, I think I will be going to a Bible study.  It was canceled for today.  Please pray that I will be an encouragement to those I meet and will tknow and take the opportunities given me to share Christ.

Work progressed well on the transmitter today.  Klaus finished virtually all the wiring.  Hans installed the tube, blocking capacitor, plate choke and B+ filtering components.  I spent a large portion of my day advising others in doing wiring and building the transmission line which has a rather complicated bend.  I also installed the balun capacitors (with some help lifting the assembly into position) and HV cable.  We are looking for the instructions for making the stress cone to finish the HV cable connection.

I decided to check the wiring on the SSM modules to see that the bellville washers were installed properly.  Its a good thing because, although the washers were OK, the connections we not as tight as they should have been.

Hopefully the shims under the bottom trim pieces will be done tomorrow as there was too much activity around the transmitter to get it done today.  Also, all 192 connections to the SSM modules will need to be tightened tomorrow — a big task.  Also hope to start installing the modulator doors, when the transmission line is completed.

Today I am finally beginning to feel normal again.  I had forgotten how difficult it is to fly so many hours and change so many time zones.  I have been so tired!  I haven’t awakened so many times at night since I had tiny babies around.

Lorraine is in charge of planning meals and tea for a meeting that TWR is sponsoring next Thursday and Friday.  The meetings are to help farmers to use their land in a more conservative, Godly and profitable manner.  It is a program that has worked very well in other parts of Africa.  Local farmers, missionaries and others are learning this technique in order to teach others a better way of farming.

So this morning Lorraine had organized a meeting of the TWR ladies (4 of them) to plan the teas and meals.  They are planning on around 70 people.  We’ll have a lot of potatoes to peel and onions to chop.  It was so good to see missionaries I have known for a long time and meet a new one.  After the meeting, Lorraine and I went into town and I exchanged some money.  I saw a lot of friends there, some that I had not seen in almost 20 years.  The surprising thing was that they recognized me.  I saw Nelson, Silvanos, Phumzile, Ethel, the lady at the cold storage place where we buy boxes of apples, Corrie, and Debbie.  They all remembered Allan and Joyce and asked about the others.

We also did a little shopping and I was very surprised at the many different brands that are available now.  When we first came the choices were very limited, but now the supermarket has nearly as many choices as a small one in the U.S.

The traffic is much worse and the drivers are more careless than before.  There are lots of traffic lights (only two in the whole country before) and people everywhere.  And that’s why we’re here is people.  They will hear the Gospel preached over the transmitter the men are installing.

Hans with HC100 beginning of Day 1

When I arrived at the transmitter site this morning, I was amazed at the progress already made by the TWR Swaziland staff and the Blosser crew from Sugar Grove Church.  The frames were together, the trim and some of the doors were already on.  All the transformers and inductors were installed and the wiring (all 192 connections) from the HV transformers to the 64 SSM modules was done.  The balun and VHF filter were on top of the transmitter and bolted into place.  All of the heat exchanger pieces, including the radiator, were bolted into place.  Unit 5 and the voltage regulator unit were in position and most of the wiring done.

Motor and air tubing installed

Today I installed all the motors and most of the plumbing.  Klaus did a lot of the wiring between the cabinets.  Hans and Steve installed the vacuum variable capacitors (excluding the balun ones) and the tube.  Two crew of Swazis were busy preparing transmission line ducting and installing the decorative fascia above the transmitter.

So far, only one thing needs to be redone — the bottom trims pieces were attached without their shims.

Today we attended church and Sunday School with Steve and Lorraine Stavropoulos. We quite enjoyed hearing the Swazi praise team.  They  were dressed with Swazi cloths tied around them as the Swazis used to dress.  They  sang and danced to many of the praise songs that we sing in church.

We did take some pictures and will hopefully be writing more and posting tne pictures.