Friday was a holiday for the king’s birthday, so Larry was working from home going over the drawings for the antenna upgrade. He is doing the same today, Saturday. Pray for wisdom as he gives advice and makes plans for this big upgrade.

A note of interest is that TWR cut back on one of the shortwave broadcasts and recently received a letter from a missionary saying how much they missed the programs, especially ‘ Through The Bible’ and Chuck Swindoll.  They mentioned how much they have appreciated the encouragement from TWR as they minister and serve.

Friday morning, the Pfeiffer boys, David (5) and Lucus (4) came over to play. Their parents are preparing to leave for Germany for furlough.  They will be leaving on Saturday.  After they have left, we may be moving into their house.  That is not decided for sure as of now.  I will still be taking care of the chickens and fish at at the Kimbers.

Avocados

We played outside for awhile and played inside.  They each made a crown that I had picked up on clearance at JoAnn’s and brought along for them to make.  Also, they played with construction paper, coloring and cutting.  We had a good time.

We had a hard wind and dark clouds on Friday and we were without power for awhile.  It wasn’t long and the power was back on for which we were grateful.  We had dark clouds, but it seemed the rain went around us.  Larry said that there was quite a downpour at the transmitter site.

While we were outside, we found some avocados that had been blown out of the top of the tree.  Hopefully, they will ripen and we can enjoy them. They are quite big and, we know from past experience, tasty.  We also found some granadilla that were ripe and ready to eat.  I picked up quite a few and we have been enjoying granadilla juice.

The chickens have been providing us with 1-3 eggs a day, which we are enjoying.  After the snake episode, they took a break and the hens that usually have t-2 eggs had none.  They wouldn’t go back into their cage all day after the snake visited.  They do go back in now, but don’t stay.  They

Granadilla juice

roost on top of the cage and jump the fence during the day.  I finally decided to just leave the gate open so they could come and go and just shut it at night.  They keep me entertained.  When at home in Indiana, I have a little dog that follows me all over, here I have chickens that follow me when I am outside!

Some of the keys and fobs used daily.

Sunday was a beautiful day.  Not too hot and quite pleasant. Larry had not driven in Swaziland yet, but we had been loaned a mission car to drive for the weekend.  Driving in the Swazi traffic and driving on the left side of the road, is a bit of a challenge, especially in the beginning.   One good thing  is that Sunday traffic is not as heavy as it is during the week.

We planned to go to the Evangelical Bible Church, which we attended all the time we lived here in Swaziland.  I should digress a bit and tell you that living in Swaziland comes with a huge bunch of keys. Naturally,  we have a key for each door.   Each outside door also has a gate which has a padlock. Interior doors and windows are linked to the burglar alarm, so doors and windows need to be closed securely.   Interior doors also have keys. We also have a gate to our yard and then a gate from our ‘compound’ to the main road.  The gate to the main road is opened electronically with a button on the key ring.  This is not unusual to have all this security in this part of the world.  Some areas, which we would call subdivisions or perhaps gated communities, have a guard who takes your name and license number and notes who you plan to visit.  After securing all windows and doors, one must set the alarm by pressing one of the buttons on the key ring.  There is a little red light in a window of the house that shows whether or not the house is properly secured  and the alarm is set. If the light does not come on, then one has to unlock the door gate, the door,  any interior doors, check windows and once again lock everything and try again.

Sunday morning, we had secured the house and set the alarm, and started off.  We arrived at the gate and it would not open for our button, nor for the button with the car keys.  So we went back to the house and deactivated the alarm unlocked all the doors and Larry called the only neighbor who was home.  He was on his way to church, but came by and programed our button to open the gate. We finally made it to church, but we were a bit late. Later we discovered that our gate key does fit other padlocks to gates that go through a field.  We could open those two gates and get out that way if we cannot unlock the main gate.

Another thing that we need to remember and get used to again, is that the cars also have alarms.  After you are in the car and start it, there is a hidden button that needs to be pushed to deactivate the anti-thieft device. If that button is not pushed, the car stops.  There is a way to get it started again, but not something one wants to happen in the middle of a busy road.  That little hidden button is not always easy to find

We had a very nice surprise when we arrived at church.  The Council for the Evangelical Bible Churches in South Africa and Swaziland were visiting.  One of the pastors on the Council was Pastor Matham, who was the pastor of EBC (Evangelical Bible Church)  Manzini when we first arrived in Swaziland.  It was such a pleasant surprise to see him once again.  After a very enjoyable service.  One of the pastors challenged us from Exodus 14, a well known story with new insights. We were also pleasantly surprised to discover that the church was having a pot-luck after the service. We enjoyed curry dishes and other very tasty food and fantastic fellowship and renewing of friendships.  Very blessed.

After church, since we did not know if we would have a vehicle for the rest of the week, we decided to go grocery shopping.  We found nearly everything on our list to get us through the week and the prices were, for the most part, quite reasonable.

After a fairly good night’s rest, we were up at 5;30 to prepare for the day. Larry decided to go out to the site and try to evaluate things and catch up on what he needs to know about the transmitter site and the antenna expansion. Their day begins early and he needed to be ready to go by 6:50 a.m. The girl next door, Monja Schiller, who was looking after the Kimber’s chickens, was coming over early to show me what needed to be done to care for the chickens.

These chickens don’t like to stay in their pen at night. They like to roost on top of the coop.

We are staying in the Kimber’s house. Caring for the twelve chickens, four of them  roosters, is one of the things I (Virginia) have been asked to do while here in Swaziland. (Only 3 of the hens have laid eggs so far, so I am thinking it is about time for chicken and noodles. Yum!).  They also have some guppies outside in a small tank that need fed once a week and water added to their ‘pond’.

Well, this morning, Monja, showed me what to do with the chickens and we gathered an egg.  Later I heard a hen cackling and bragging about having laid an egg and I just ignored her.  A little later, I heard a lot of hollering, cackling and fluttering out in the chicken coop.  I decided to check and see if ther was a hawk or something trying to catch a hen.  I went out and saw that the noise was coming from three chickens in an inner cage.

Grandson Mark’s depiction of the snake in the hen pen. Pretty much accurate.

I went over to check and see what the commotion was and there was a SNAKE! crawling on the screen.  He  quickly slithered down and then came around the side of the cage. In the meantime the neighbors had heard the noise and came running. They were armed with long sticks metal pipes and other similar weapons. We let all the chickens out of the three cages into the yard.  We never found the snake, but a snake catch and release lady was supposed to come by and check the cage for safety and then we could try to separate the chickens and put them in their proper cages. (Snake lady never showed up).  So much for my first morning in Swaziland!  I did run in to get the camera, but the snake never showed up again.  We think it may have been a spitting cobra, but not sure.

One family, here on the ‘compound’ is on vacation.  Another is preparing for furlough and the third is home-schooling with a very ridged schedule.  So, I am pretty much left to myself at the moment although I am sure that will change soon.

Larry took two suitcases of equipment to the transmitter site today and has another suitcase of equipment for John Stavropolous and his wife, who are missionaries with New Tribes. They will be visiting in Swaziland later and will be our neighbors for a few days.  His parents, South Africans,  are also with TWR.  We have known them for many years and our children spent their Swaziland years growing up together. They have visited us several times in the U.S and John would come visit at various times while he was attending New Tribes Mission School in Michigan.  We enjoyed having him around.

I brought a suitcase of crafts I have collected  for kids to do and gifts for some of the adults.  I am looking forward to doing the crafts with the children.  I did one for myself, a fascinator head band.  It was fun and cute.  I think the girls will have fun making it.  Our suitcases will be MUCH lighter on the trip home and perhaps fewer.

Tomorrow, Friday, is a holiday here as is Monday. Friday is the king’s birthday and  Monday is flag day. When we lived here, everything closed for holidays, Saturday afternoons and Sundays, but times are changing.

It is hot here. One of the Swazis was saying that it was supposed to be getting cooler, but it’s not!! We did get the ceiling fan going in the bedroom, for which I am very thankful.

Monday began bright and early for us.  Well, early anyway. We were up at 4:00 a.m Eastern Daylight Time, to prepare to head for the airport. Allan, our oldest son, was the the one who so kindly and patiently got up so early to pick us up at 5:30 to make the trip to South Bend airport to meet the shuttle bus.  We left South Bend at 6:30 EDT and headed to Chicago.

Arrived Chicago – 8:30 a.m. (9:30 EDT )
Departed Chicago – 12:45 p.m. (1:45 EDT)

They don’t serve food on internal flights, but I had packed a lunch and Allan’s family sent some yummy cookies for us to enjoy as we traveled so we did not have to purchase food.

Arrived Atlanta – 3:45 p.m. EDT

Departed Atlanta – 8:20 p.m. EDT
Arrived Johannesburg – Tuesday,  April 19, 5:30 p.m. (11:30 a.m. EDT)

Atlanta’s Hometown Airlines. This is the plane we flew from Atlanta to Johannesburg, non-stop.

Apparently, another flight had arrived near the same time as ours and the lines through customs were l-o-n-g.  We did not have to open our suitcases or answer questions or fill out forms, which was really nice.  Just show our passports and be welcomed into the country. Even without all the ‘red tape’, we spent about 1-1/2 hours going through customs because of the long lines.

We were grateful that although our trip was very long, it was uneventful. No delays, no missed flights, no unwanted excitement of any kind.

After a night’s rest at the TWR offices near Johannesburg, we were up early Wednesday morning and attended staff meeting and then left for the airport to catch a shuttle bus to Manzini, Swaziland.

The offices in Johannesburg have an attached lodge with several bedrooms for guests. It has a shared lounge area and kitchen and is a quite comfortable arrangement. Breakfast foods are provided and a few

snacks. We did sleep, but were still quite tired from the travel. It takes a few days to ‘catch up’ after a trip like that.

We caught the 9:30 a.m. ( 1:30 a.m. EDT, Wednesday) shuttle bus to Manzini, Swaziland. We traveled about 80 mph the whole way. Some roads were good, some not so good.  None were better than an ordinary 4 lane road and some were 2 lane.  The driver seemed careful and familiar with the road. He knew where the pot-holes were and slowed down or missed them.  We had a 5 minute stop at a rest area that had a ‘loo with a view’ (loo = restrooms).  The restrooms look out over a watering hole where one can see buffalo, hippos and various buck. It is a fun place to stop, but nicer if there is more time.

View from the ‘loo’ at ALZU! (View while standing in the men’s room!)

Passing through the South African border and then the Swaziland border was fairly quick and uneventful. We finally arrived in Manzini,  Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 (8:00 a.m. EDT, Wed.)

We are now unpacked and staying in the home of a missionary who is on leave for a few months. After a trip like that it was so nice to be able to exercise and relax a bit.

The TWR families prepared our evening meal for the first three days. What a blessing to become re-acquainted with them and enjoy their good food while we adjusted back to Swaziland.

The low this morning was 59F — almost cool enough to want a jacket, but I didn’t bring one with me.  After all, it is almost summer in Africa!

Today I needed to send the final copy of our McGuiReport, which we completed over the weekend, for proofreading.  Before doing so, I wanted to take a ‘recreation’ photo of Mark to include.  It has become popular these days to recreate photos taken years ago with the same persons today.  Here are the results of our efforts.

Mark at 2 years in Swaziland

Mark (almost 16) back in Swaziland

The tower in the original photo had been taken down, so we had to use another tower with a suitable tree in the background.

We checked out a base insulator of one of the two medium wave (AM) towers that showed signs of leaking oil after 30 plus years.  I did some research to locate the manufacturer, then emailed them to seek counsel about what, if anything, could, or needed, to be done be remedy the problem.

The base insulator at the bottom of one of the AM towers

Signs of oil leak from the left insulator

Answered and discussed some questions that Graham had about the HC100.  He had done some excellent reports on a couple of issues and I requested that he email them to me for forwarding to the other sites with HC100s.

We hipotted (tested with very high voltage — 20,000 volts) the VHF capacitor removed on Friday and it appeared to test good, as did the other one they had in stock.  This seems to indicate that the problem was actually a faulty arc detector on TX2, rather than the capacitor!  This leaves us a little confused because Tobi had physically seen the flash of light of an arc from the one that had been removed!

The high temperature in Manzini this afternoon was 75F.