Things that Go Bump in the Night

We have found that there are a lot of things that go bump in the night around here or bang or boom or screech or squawk or scratch, scratch, scuttle, scuttle. We had expected a lot of city noise in such a large city, but these are natural noises of a usually undetermined nature.  Because the house we are living is in made of concrete and has a metal roof, anything that lands on it does so audibly. The primary source of noise is the falling fruit from a huge pear tree that overhangs the roof. You’d be surprised at how loud a ripe pear can sound. There are also many birds here with beautiful and sometimes annoying calls, and they don’t seem to prefer daytime for their conversations. One night, we thought we were being invaded by a large pelican or something, with all of the scuttling and scratching overhead. It is also the rainy season right now so we have had a lot of nights of rain on the roof and frequent thunder. I was told that the thunderstorms in Johannesburg are dramatic and indeed they are. One night it sounded like two medium sized bombs had detonated directly overhead. Usually it’s not quite that loud, but the thunder here gives meaning to “rolling thunder” since it goes on and on and on. I’m not sure the reason for that; as soon I’ll try to check out why that is.

Roodepoort Botanical Garden

Yesterday afternoon we went to the gorgeous Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden in Roodeport (part of larger Johannesburg.) The park covers several acres and includes spacious lawns, gardens without number, a long mountain walk and a beautiful and dramatic waterfall. For our first African outing, we decided to take our oldest son and his family with us (actually their representatives PegBuddy family--see their tiny little family at the bottom of the sign?) It was a great day and we all loved it.

Mike and Nikki would have liked to have just relaxes and looked at all the hundreds of varieties of African plants since they both like gardening,

but Lily just wouldn't stop harassing the mosquitos. They are big here in Africa and in this picture she has just gotten on one, just ready to ride around the gardens.

Not to be outdone, Max hopped on this big scorpion and was guiding it around. He was very skillful in keeping out of reach of its stinger.

Chloe wasn't so interested in the insects, but she loved the trees--there were all kinds of interesting ones, some that we had never seen.

Zinni loved the water wherever we went, before we could catch her, she was swimming in this mossy pond. She even wanted to go play in the waterfall, but grandpa was keeping careful hold of her.

 You can't see Zinni here; she is swimming under the moss :) but notice the birds' nests. They're really interesting--the opening for the birds to enter is at the very bottom of the nest.

We all had a wonderful day, although grandpa needed a short rest afterwards. We hope to go again soon!

Learning a New Language, Answers

OK, below is the meaning of the African "English" words that I posted yesterday, but before you read them I want to point out something else. Are  those of you residing in North America aware that the earth is leaking down here? I suppose it must be something to do with gravity, but don't you think that might be a more serious problem that even global warming :)

Here are the answers:

A slipaway is a short, curved piece of road that allows you to turn left without going to the corner. If it is longer it is called a slip road.

Robot is a traffic light

Gyser (pronounced geezer) is a water heater

Petrol is gasoline (expensive here)

Mash is mashed potatoes

Baki is a small truck with a flat, open bed

Braai is a barbeque

Boot is the trunk of the car (also used in England)

Kombi is a taxi. Watch out for those; they drive like idiots!

Panel beater is an auto body repair shop

Energy is calorie count

Biltong is jerky (made from a variety of animals)

An English Speaking Mission

There are, I believe 51 official languages in South Africa, including Africans which has many speakers and tribal languages with relatively few speakers. English is the language spoken by the largest percentage of the population by just a slight margin. However, since the majority of people speak English, no matter what their first language, Johannesburg is an English speaker mission. HOWEVER, the English spoken here, just like anywhere, is an adapted so it has it’s own vocabulary which we are learning. In addition to the added words, people whose second language is English, understandably speak it with their own accent. Added to those difficulties is the fact that we have very definitely American English-tuned ears J With this combination of factors, we have to try to listen very carefully to pick up on everything that is being said. We also try to remember to speak slowly, since our English must sound very accented to them. Although I must admit that no matter how fast we speak, they are much better at picking up what we are saying than we are at picking up what they are saying. Luckily, people have been very patient with us and don’t seem to mind repeating things for us. Here are some of the new “English” words we are learning. See if you know what they are (I’ll put the answers on the next post) (this doesn't even address the hand signals they use to signal taxis going to different areas for example--we're not even going to attempt those :)

• Slipaway
• Robot
• Geyser
• Petrol
• Mash
• Baki
• Braai
• Boot
• Kombi
• Panel Beater
• Energy
• Biltong

Our Walking Path (With Friends :)

We were a little concerned, being in the heart of the city, that we might not be able to find a good place to walk in the morning. Our neighborhood is safe (as long as we stay in the neighborhood) but the sidewalk it pretty narrow and there are a lot of cars zooming by. We discovered, however, that there is a large cricket field nearby that people walk around each day in a community "Walk for Life" program. It's a pretty grassy area and we are always joined by Ibis. Remember the birds Ibis? We don't have them in the states but many of us know the name because when they make an A-Z animal book, Ibis is one of the few animals that can work for I :) Hopefully, we'll sometime get to see the other frequent choice--Impala!

I'm Glad

Even though our bags were heavier and bulkier than I would have liked, I think I’m glad I brought every single thing that was in them.

• I’m glad I brought the spices because I don’t see some of them in the stores and others are ridiculously expensive. Even if I found them, they may be different, for example the black pepper here is ground very, very fine.
• I’m glad I brought all of the clothes that I did, because I can already see that the variety will make dressing for church every day a little more doable.
• I’m glad that I brought the brown sugar and chocolate chips. You can’t get the kinds that we’re used to here, and American chocolate chip cookies will be fun to share sometime.
• I’m glad I brought all the little things—the bandaids, the paper punch, the small roll of duck tape, the ….
• I’m glad that I brought enough lotion to last at least for a while. Some of the product fragrances here leave a little to be desired.
• I’m glad I brought the PegBuddy family. It’s fun to visit all of the family groups frequently and for the same reason I’m glad I brought the calendar that Rob made and the brag book that Tim and Syd gave us. Family pictures are even more precious now.
• I’m glad I brought the two games that I almost left out several times; we have already played one and I’m sure both will be well used.
• I’m glad I brought my own curling iron and hair dryer even though we’ve had to find adaptors to use them. There are no large barrel irons that I have found and I have no idea how much this good ion dryer would cost. Technology and appliances are considerably more expensive. The $139 Kindle I got for Christmas is $249 here.
• I would be very glad that I brought my stick blender because butternut squash is sold her in bags like potatoes, but I’m afraid that I killed it by plugging it into what I thought was a converter but was only an adaptor.

I could go on, but in short, I’m glad that I brought almost every single thing I brought and because I thought very carefully about what I would need there isn’t much I regret not bringing. Johannesburg is a big city and we haven’t explored everything yet of course, but so far I would say that when people tell you that you can get anything where you are traveling, it ain’t necessarily so.

Perpetual Education Program

The Perpetual Education Fund (PEF) is a church program that has been in operation since 2001.  It is an initiative that helps youth in developing areas get an education that will enable them to rise out of the poverty. http://pef.lds.org/ If there are large numbers of young people participating in this program, Perpetual Education Missionaries are called to oversee the program. Some wards or branches also have teachers called to work with participants. If neither a PEF missionary or a teacher are available though, we will have the responsibility to work with those who are interested in accessing the funds. It isn’t just a matter or saying that they want money to attend a university or a technical school, students must complete a four-week course that prepares them to succeed. During those four weeks, they explore work possibilities and make a decision as to what they will pursue, they make a solid educational plan and then determine a financial plan including how much extra money will be needed for them to achieve their goals. Even after starting their education, there are steps that need to be completed. Eventually, when they have graduated and are working, they will begin to repay their loan so that others can access those funds to improve their lives.

Yesterday we went with our coordinator to for through one of the lessons with our first participant. It was such an amazing experience. We traveled far out of the city to a neighborhood of densely packed concrete houses, no bigger than most American’s front rooms. Even so, the young woman had made it beautiful with curtains, rugs and wall hangings. The house had no running water and she went to a common area to pour a pitcher of water, which she mixed with juice and a concentrate to offer us a drink. I certainly thought about my filtering water bottle, but we drank the refreshment offered so graciously and it was delicious. The young woman is a member of the church; in fact her husband is a counselor in one of the small branch bishoprics. She was a nurse and wanted to further her education. It was impossible to make exact parallels. Here they have a system of bars on the shoulder that signify a nurse’s training and what she is allowed to do. She had only the first, which was probably equivalent to an LPN, but she really hoped to eventually get three which would enable her to dispense medications and to supervise so I’m assuming that would be like our RN. It was so touching to hear her history. Her mother was an alcoholic so her grandparents raised her. Her grandfather became disabled when she was nine and her grandmother wasn’t able to take care of him so she became a “nurse” at nine. Now she was working to further her education so that she could bless her own family, which included a darling little six-year-old boy. I was able to tell her a little about how I had gone back to school and completed my education, which allowed us to educate our children. She had carefully and thoughtfully completed the first lesson of the workshop and had clear ideas for the second. I was really drawn to her and hope that we meet her again and others who will benefit from the PEF program.