Our Fearless Leaders

These are the three Seminary and Institute Coordinators who gave us our initial orientation as far as S&I goes. I would include their names, but you wouldn't be able to say them or even read them--they put consonants together that our American tongues can't handle. Each of these men is in charge of one of the area of Africa near Johannesburg—one Johannesburg itself, one of the Durban area and one of Botswana and Namibia. There are coordinators in other areas and one that is the Country Coordinator who overseas all of those. These three are amazing men—they know their work inside and out, they are humbly spiritual and they are intelligent. Somehow, there is more than intelligence to them though--something about their calm, thoughtful, African way makes them wise. Each is a successful South African. One has a PhD in Education, one is a lawyer and the other was a businessman. At the same time, each has a tribal affiliation as well. One speaks Zulu, another Swati and I never learned the third. The country director who is not shown is from Zimbabwe. In a very respectful way, I would think that if we were in Africa one hundred years ago, these are the kind of men that would be tribal chiefs. I can just picture them in their tribal robes, sitting before their congregations imparting wisdom. Now they are in suits and ties but still imparting wisdom. It will be a pleasure to work with them.

The Practical Stuff

For three days, we have been learning the really practical stuff about our assignment. We’ve learned about our cars—how to use the gas card, how to get it serviced, what to do if you’re in an accident or get a speeding ticket. We’ve learned how much we have for a budget for instructional supplies, etc. and how to keep track of that. We’ve learned what our phones will and won’t do (mostly won’t do J) and we’ve learned how we will connect to the Internet service which we hope happens very soon. We’ve learned that we will be assigned to the Johannesburg stake, which has eight wards and/or branches, so there are quite a number of both seminary and institute classes. Unlike the United States, where institute programs are connected to universities, that program along with the one for high school age students (seminaries) are the responsibility of the local units. From the number of classes we saw listed, it seems that each wards may have multiple seminary classes-- distances are far and school starts very early so some are Saturday programs with students doing individual work each day. What we understand we will be doing is conducting in-service training for the teachers each month, visiting their classes frequently, supporting and assist teachers if needed, gathering records of attendance and completion of work and inputting that information into the church system so students can receive credit toward their seminary or institute completion. It is likely that we will also teach some of the classes ourselves, which should be fun. Those are just the base duties; couples who have been here longer tell us that other duties will probably be added along the way.

Technology Withdrawal

On our first night here, we realized that the power adaptors we brought with us didn’t work so I didn’t have a hair dryer or a curling iron for a couple of days--so much for first impressions J Both our computers and our phones were dead and we couldn’t recharge them. We found that the Garmin we brought with us wouldn’t work in South Africa so we had to buy a new one (in order to drive in Johannesburg and hope to reach your destination, you really need one.) When we finally got the adaptors and plugged in our phones, we found that our phones were just as dead when charged as not charged. We knew our phone service wouldn’t work, but there was also no texting, Instagram, Hangouts or anything like unto it. We discovered our flat doesn’t have Internet and won’t have because the cable service isn’t very reliable so we couldn’t email our family. To complicate the communications dilemma, we hadn’t had driving instruction so we weren’t able to go searching for a temporary phone. A couple of our worried kids finally called the mission office to make sure we had arrived.

We won’t always be disconnected-- we should soon be issued a very old school cell phone for our work here, but it won’t text or call to the US. We will also be given a little MiFi device, which should connect us to the Internet. It seems the S&I secretary isn’t in quite as big a hurry to get those things transferred to us as we are to receive them though J

On our way to the airport in Salt Lake, we happened to ride with a man who was from South Africa. His advice to us was to prepare to slow down. African time is not US time he cautioned. Well, here is some practice for us so we will be patient. It is a hard adjustment, though, to be without technology when we have been used to accessing it so freely and so frequently. I think I will appreciate it more from now on!

First Sunday in Johannesburg

Church services on Sunday were enlightening. We arrived late because we couldn’t find the chapel—another senior missionary couple was driving us since we haven’t had any “driving lessons” yet (left side remember) and they hadn’t been to that chapel either. We were very, very impressed with the speakers in sacrament meeting (since it was fast Sunday, a number of people get up to speak.) The many young people who came up to share thoughts were especially so. The Sunday school and Relief Society lessons were equally excellent, not only the teachers themselves, but also the comments from those being taught. My daughter Rachel and Las Vegas friends will understand when I say it was like having a whole ward of Lynette Sorenson’s (Lynette is my very intelligent South African friend who is so knowledgeable of the scriptures and, of course, sounds just like these guys J Some of the members here come from families that have been in the church since it was established in Johannesburg in the late 1800’s but many, many more are first or second generation members because the church is growing so rapidly here and in all of Africa.

The meetinghouse is a beautiful brick building with lots of wood in the interior. The grounds are also beautiful with lots of subtropical foliage surrounding it. Like the neighborhoods, security is tight at the chapel. A tall secure fence surrounds in and each incoming car is allowed through a rolling security fence only by punching in a code. Sunday afternoon was spent organizing a little and just relaxing, trying to convince our bodies that the light outside meant that one o’ clock was not bedtime J

Home For Now

We landed in South Africa and a very nice senior missionary couple met us at the airport with a big sign that said DAVIE. Since we were the only ones with names tags and a suit on, we weren’t hard to spot and since they were the ones with name tags and a suit on, they weren’t hard to spot either J They drove us to the place we will be calling home for the next eighteen months. It’s a very nice little one bedroom cottage or flat as they call it, behind a larger home belonging to one of the members of the church here. The family recently bought the property. They have completely remodeled our small unit and are working on their big house. Some other nice missionaries that we haven’t met yet have already decorated the flat to look cute and comfortable. There were even fresh flowers and a few groceries to get us by for a few days. The house is in a nice area and looks very secure. In fact, everything around here looks extremely secure. This property and many others have not only high fences, but a band of electrical fencing toping that to make it even higher. Fifteen foot electrical fencing is apparently not enough because our house and the main house have metal grating over each of the windows and doors. Such extreme caution is probably an aftermath of the political unrest that the country has suffered in the past. At least we feel very secure while we’re home and we’re being aware and careful when we are out and about.