James Burnett, Steve Stavropoulos and Larry

The Stravropouloses picked us up this morning for the trip to Swaziland.  The first half of the trip is through open county that is similar to the terrain and vegetation of central Kansas.  We then entered more hilly country with man made forest of gum (eucalyptus) trees, used for electric, telephone and other poles, and pine trees used for lumber.  There were newly planted areas and others of various sizes up to those ready for ‘harvest’.  The hills then became more mountainous, similar to mountains in the Appalachians.

We reached the Swaziland border in about three hours.  First passing through the South Afrian border post then the Swaziland one.  Big changes have occurred here.  No papers to fill out anymore!!  Passports are scanned by a computer now resulting in much faster processing.

We made two stops on the way to where we are staying.  First at the Ngwenya Glass Factory then a side trip to a new dam on the Komati River just off the road to Piggs Peak.  It is an earthen dam which has won engineering awards for design.  The Swaziland Electricity Board has a 20 megawatt turbine in operation there.

We are staying in a one room cottage with bathroom next to the Stavropoulos’ house and will be eating meals with them.

We made it into Johannesburg about 10:00pm (about an hour delayed) last night.  Spent almost 2 hours going through immigration.  There were only 3 persons there to process over 400 passengers and we ended up near the end of the line.  It was past midnight before we got to James and Lynn Burnett’s home.  They are former colleagues from our days in Swaziland and have visited us two or three times in Elkhart.   Slept soundly from 1am til 7am we got up to start the day.  We hope recovery from jet lag will not take long.  So far, so good.

We visited the TWR Africa Regional Office this morning, met many old friends, met many that we have only read about in TWR correspondence and made many more new friends.

Steve and Lorraine Stavropoulos plan to drive up from Swaziland this evening and drive us the 250 miles back to Swaziland tomorrow.  Actually the roads are quite good, so it should take less than 5 hours.  Thanks for your continuing prayers

Today at 1:30pm we are scheduled to board the plane in South Bend on our way to Johannesburg, South Africa with plane changes in Detroit and Amsterdam.   After about 21 hours in the air and over 5 hours in airports we should be arriving in Johannesburg about 3:10pm EDT (9:10pm Joburg time).  Initial arrangements are for us to spend a day at the TWR Africa Regional Office on Friday.  That should allow us to adjust to the time change.  Steve and Lorraine Stavropoulosplan to transport us back to Swaziland with them on Saturday.

Container arrives on 18 Sep 08

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Our son Allan has set up this page so we can keep friends and family updated on our 2008 trip to Swaziland.

We lived in Swaziland from 1973 to 1989.  Since that time I (Larry) have made two trips to install transmitters at the Trans World Radio Swaziland transmitting site.  In 1992 I went alone, but in 1999 Virginia, Philip and Joshua also went.  This time Virginia and I will be going and once again the purpose of the trip is to install another transmitter.

We will try to keep you informed of what is going on, but that will depend on the availability of a computer and internet access at convenient times.

Your prayers for us will be greatly appreciated.

Larry McGuire