Happens of the Week 23 Feb - 1 Mar 2009

This has been a week of pretty much office work and a few trips into the city, some for work and one for an outing with 3 other senior couples. Saturday morning, we met at the mission office and made our way downtown to Essenwood Park, for an adventure in outdoor shopping-really a glorified flea market.

Wednesday afternoon, checking in on the Career Workshop with our new PEF student (deaf), we were pleasantly surprised to find two additional PEF applicants, making two deaf students we will be working with. Constantly we are lead down the proper road to further the work along and we are so grateful for the guidance. The young man in the black shirt hears and was interpreting for the other two. Their teacher is a truly wonderful woman, giving so much time and energy to make this work out for these guys. The guy (our original deaf student) on the right taught the teacher how to sign when they lived in the same ward. His eyes just lit up when we walked into the room and he wanted to tell us some things, so we started to use the whiteboard to communicate. Love the big smiles, but it takes effort on the picture taker's part to make a smile happen. They are anxious to have a picture taken, but just don't really want to smile! The kids always want to see what they look like in the camera. We take individual pictures of each person so we can keep them all straight.

Another one of our students wants to study medicine and he is living on the campus of the Universityof KwaZulu-Natal (this is the province Durban is in). Needing to pick up his loan application worksheet from him, due to lack of transport, we were able to drive up to the school. Looked like many US schools, students walking to and from classes-the big difference we noticed was the lack of cars.

The South Africa Durban Mission home. The entire yard has plants and trees everywhere, even some lawn. The President just loves all the foliage and commented, isn't it wonderful that all this just grows by itself! A lovely home, in a well-to-do area of Durban, where everything is gated and the gates and fencing are all spiked on the top. In addition, there are uniformed (wear maroon berets) guards who walk about the neighborhood. They wave and smile at all the missionaries as we drive into the area. The windows in the foreground are the bedrooms, of which there are four and two bathrooms. The other half of the house has a huge living room or as it is really called-the testimony room, dining room, enormous kitchen and a family room. The family room opens out to the pool area.

The South Africa Durban Mission Office. At the rear of the mission home, this was a granny (in-law quarters) flat before being converted into the office. Our president's office is the window on the second floor, along with a conference room, and AP's office. The mission van is a Mercedes Vito and has the church logo on the sides and rear. President Mann says the lettering is the best investment he has made, because the words Jesus Christ seem to open some doors as they travel about. This is the vehicle that the President and AP's use when touring the mission to do zone conferences and interviews, and allows them space to take turns stretching out and snoozing! To the left of the office is the swimming pool which is used by the Mann's two sons and their friends. Also have been told that monkeys like to visit the hut or covered area (thatched roof-far left) periodically. Notice the brick driveway-we see very few cement drives, either dirt or the brick. Many have intricate patterns, as you can see in the picture.

It is so amazing that these plants are all plants that we have had in our garden room (Ridgecrest) and they required a great deal of love and attention. This little group is just outside the gate leading into the front of the mission home. These here just grow and are watered by our frequent rainstorms. This week has been another one of extreme heat, but twice the skies have opened up and just dumped for several hours, bringing the temps down.

Just this week, we realized that we have another fruit tree in our yard. Arlo was out sweeping the veranda and came face to face with the banana tree and these bunches of bananas. We are going to give the bunch another week or so and then pick a few, since we are not experts on banana growth, and see what happens! There are several trees on one side of our house and only two have bananas so far. Our lime tree is producing quite a few limes and so we have decided to try making our own limeade. There are many street vendors around and bunches of bananas are always part of their wares, along with individual bags of chips, apples and a variety of sweets. Here in our area, there are three schools, and between 2-3 in the afternoon, we can see waves of students coming down the streets to get to the areas of public transport pickup. They stop at the vendors for their after-school snack!

This is an African Ibis or better known to us as a “Hadedah”. We heard them before ever seeing one in the real. The noise they make is between a ca-ca and a ha ha, plus it is so loud. As they fly, the wings appear to span between five and six feet. This guy or gal had flown into our yard, along with a friend, to escape the rain and uses that long beak to burrow into the ground for worms or who knows what else. Couldn't capture fast enough his appearance when he landed and shook off the rain-became a huge fuzzy thing and then just as quickly the feathers settled back down.
Hope you all have a good week-we will because there are four loans waiting to be approved in Salt Lake!

Love,

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