Happenings of the Week 5 - 11 January

Several days this week, our PEF work never required us to leave our boarding. The temperatures have been on the very warm side again, but having the air conditioner in our bedroom has made life bearable. When it became uncomfortably warm in the office, we moved ourselves, the paperwork and computer into the bedroom and set up shop.

Monday - In the process for the PEF loans, the Area Office has to put their stamp of approval on each loan. By mid-morning, our five PEF loans had been approved and sent on their way to Salt Lake City for PEF Committee approval on Wednesday, the 9th. Monday is preparation day for the missionaries in our mission, so we joined the Umlazi Zone (16 young elders + 2 other missionary couples) at the Gateway Mall IMAX to see Madagascar 2. As we waited to go into the theater, we noticed the Zone Leader for our group was giving a 1st discussion to the girl dispensing the tickets. Can't let any of those opportunities go by! Sandy was a little nervous about the IMAX screen and moving objects making her motion sick, but there were only a few screens with the herds of animals moving, so she just shut her eyes! Think we might buy this movie to further document our Africa stay plus it was fun and enjoyable to watch. Sometime soon, we hope to be able to see herds of the same animals from the movie for real in a game park. Our tickets for the IMAX were $3.50 a piece, what a deal. Our junior elders had to be back to teaching by 6, but we stayed on in the mall and had dinner with the Johnson's and Markum's at The Royal Palm-spent $10 including tip for our meal.

Tuesday – In addition to working in the office, we did our grocery shopping, plus located a new store we had been advised would be able to supply us with chocolate chips. The store is called Bake-A-Ton and is comparable to small version of Smart and Final. There is only one in Durban. As you enter the store on the wall behind the check-out, were close to 50 cake pans with a sign above them reading “tins for hire”. What a great idea-our grandchildren would be in seventh heaven to have all these choices of characters or shapes to use for their birthday cakes. It was so exciting to add to my trolley (shopping cart), chocolate chips which we will make into cookies when the weather cools down, muffin cases to be used again when it is cooler. Love the names of things here. We are finding that the cost of chicken and beef is rather pricey, but everything else is most reasonable. The strange thing is that it would be cheaper for us to dine out, since a piece of meat or 4 small chicken breasts cost more than a single meal in a restaurant. Loving the many veggies that are so reasonably priced. Any store that sells produce along with other food stuff, has a weigh station table. You put your fruit or vegetables that aren't pre-priced in their separate plastic bags, stand in a line to have a young man weigh your bags and put a price sticker on it. The check out lines seem to move much smoother with this help. The checker sits on a rolling chair and scans the items and pushes them down to a bagger. Also, found a salon to get Sandy's hair cut and when asked about making an appointment, the woman told Sandy “lets make a plan.” No such term as appointment we guess, because this has been used other times in our conversations when the word appointment would have fit.

Thursday - Checked the internet (PEF Website) as soon as we woke up because it was early evening in SLC. To our delight, the six student loans were approved. Calls were made to all the students, with the exception of one who is in Johannesburg, telling the great news and all seemed very pleased. The realization that there are monkeys around came true today. As we were in the office working , Arlo looked out the window to see a monkey walking on the telephone wires. Then came another, then came five babies, followed by another big one, possibly the mom or dad, watching to see that the family got safely across. The babies were fun to watch as they struggled to keep their footing, slipping, but quickly catching the wire again. Weren't fast enough with the camera to get shots of the entire group, so the single monkey will have to do. Now we will worry more about open windows, because even with the burglar bars we are sure the monkeys, at least the babies, could weasel their way through the bars! Our tropical paradise around and behind the house, has become very overgrown and needed to be mowed and trimmed. Not having the necessary tools to do the job ourselves, the landlord sent over his hired man, Wiseman, to do our yard work. His wages (about $6.50 per day) will be added to our rent. Later in the afternoon, we went on a short exploring drive down to the beach. So many tourists that it was hard to find our way around down closer to the water and sand, so just turned around and came back. By the time we reached our boarding again, we hadn't even been gone an hour, our nerves were running near the edge from being on new roads, fast cars, and people everywhere, especially on the sides of the road (freeway). People walking seem to feel that they own the road and cars need to get out of their way.

Saturday and Sunday we signed loan papers with four students, and will finish up the remainder next week. Saturday, we stopped by Pavilion Mall to do a little shopping and had lunch at Sam Brown's, a restaurant located in one of the several food courts in the mall. There are little take-away (fast food) places in addition to full size restaurants in these food courts. After being seated and placing our order, a man came over to our table and asked if everything was fine. This seems to be the practice at most restaurants we have been to. After he asked and we responded all was well, he commented on what Arlo was doing. In the Zulu culture, if a person is resting their chin in the palm of their hand, it means there is sorrow going on, and he was concerned for us. We had a wonderful conversation with him about the Soccer World Cup coming to South Africa in 2010, how long we were visiting SA, and our missionary service. Tried to explain that we were here to help students obtain loans to enable them to attend school. After hearing this, he inquired whether or not a person had to be a member of the church in order to apply for the loan. He pointed to our missionary badges and said he knew members from that church. A question we had for him concerned a table with hot plates holding bowls of different foods. We were told that this was the “Kitchen Table” or in our terms a buffet. Interesting aspect was, a scale was also on the table and after a person had filled their plate, it was weighed and charged by the weight.

Our week has been fantastic with the loans being approved and tomorrow most of the paperwork will be in the mail to Johannesburg, then the monies can be disbursed to the different schools. These students are so appreciative of this blessing-you see it in their eyes and faces. Much learning on our part has taken place and we know that we have been blessed in the process. Keep us in your prayers and you are always in ours. Our love to you all.

Elder (Arlo, Dad, Papa) and Sister (Sandy, Mom, Grandma) Mickelsen