Joburg Journey: Tim and Syd Visit Us in Africa

Our son Tim and his wife, Sydney visited us in South Africa this past week. The pictures will illustrate the great time we had together. We visited a cultural village (Lesedi); laughed at all "the little pick pockets" at the monkey sanctuary; sampled game meats at a famous restaurant aptly named Carnivores; spent three wonderful days at the Madikwe Bush Lodge; went on four game drives where we saw many African animals; went to the Johannesburg Temple (unfortunately it was closed for a public holiday that we weren't aware of); and had a hot air balloon flight. On Sunday we attended church at one of the little branches that we work with that meets in a "container chapel" and then before Tim & Sydney flew away, they enjoyed a real South African braai with the VanTonder family that we rent from. The activities were all great, but the best part of the week was having family here and being able to introduce them to some of the people and places in our mission where we have spent the past fourteen months.

Lesedi Village where we learn a little about the five most prominent South African tribes and see performances of their traditional dances.

Monkey sanctuary where some of the residents will check out pockets and unzip purses. Frank's handkerchief is now somewhere in the monkey sanctuary.

This one lounged on his head for a while and checked his hair carefully for any tasty bugs.

Carnivores where they sampled lots of wild meats including kudu and crocodile.

The temple was closed, but we got to walk around the grounds.

Cool "Balloon Safari"

The Bush Lodge and game drive.

Syd was pretty much this excited the whole time, especially when any baby animals were involved. She was more fun to watch that the animals!

There was an amazing water hole and hike on the property where we could see the animals coming for water. (baby wart hogs)

It's a dry year so the animals were continually coming because they knew they could find water there.

Little baby got tired of trying to use his trunk like the big guys, and just decided to suck the water up into his mouth instead.

Lazy cheetah

White rhino--they are all gray, the term "white" came from "wide." They are "wide mouth" rhinos as opposed to the more pointed mouth in the "black" rhino.

There are always lots of zebra and impala, but they are still beautiful.

This was the old patriarch lion--you can see that he is a little scared and tattered, but still the king.

One of our favorite animals was this little chameleon that we all held for a minute.

Beautiful kudu--the guide said the curving horns become a liability when they are being chased by lions because they get caught in the bush.

She lion looking for breakfast. She was big and powerful; I wouldn't have wanted to be strolling past.

giraffe trying hard not to be lion's breakfast--they drink very briefly in between checking the landscape because they are so vulnerable in that spread leg position.