Trip to Motupa

 Poorest area in our Mission;  drove to the end of a "trail" arriving at this steep hill, at this point we had to get out and walk (obviously), to arrive at a members home.  Her name was Julia she needed a temple recommend.  We passed a few "homes" I use it lightly.  Everything in Africa is made of cement or brick; the houses and fences; many of the driveways and roads are done with pavers.

 This is the out house, it appeared to be for all around the area.

 This is Poncho, he is the nephew of Julia, and she is raising him along with a 30+ year old son that is totally disabled physically and mentally. Her husband left her when she would not get rid of this son after he was born.  If I felt I wasn't intruding I would have taken a picture of their house, and you have to use that term lightly also.  Two rooms with no electricity, and no running water.  They haul in the water once a week.  They have nothing, but they are happy.

 We made friends quickly when we showed Poncho how to use an IPad, he took the following pictures.

 

 Elder Hawkins

Poncho's His Grandmother

 Poncho's Uncle

 This is a picture of the Sheshego Branch in Polokane, very similar to the Mamelodi Branch in Pretoria, the one that we will be attending while here in Africa

As we left that Branch, this cart was going down the street being pulled by three donkeys.

Trip to Polokane

 This is a picture of the Elder's from Polokane, if you enlarge you can see the baptismal font out the back doors of the chapel

 This is the "Supa Ouik Tyre Express" tried to put it into the GPS and was unsuccessful, because I didn't spell it right.  Leaving Polokane we ended up with a nail in our tire, luckily this was only about 2 miles away.  Pulled into a gas station and they told us there was (what we thought was) a Super Quick Tire Store down the road, hard to understand their English so we went a bit further and found another gas station, they showed us that the tire store was in the same shopping complex.  We got the tire fixed, and added two new tires on the front.

 Pictures of our travels to Tzaneen, it was beautiful

 If you enlarge you can see how they plant the trees in rows, you never see dead wood laying around, they clean it out and plant all new.

 These are banana fields, they will cover the banana bunches with blue bags to keep the insects and birds off.

 These bushes are all over, they are beautiful

Anthony if you enlarge this picture, you will see it is just for you, this was on the side of the church in Polokane, which is an area filled with German influence.

This picture is for the boys

Look at these trees, they have a lot of these, can't get a picture of the Jackaranda trees, they will start to bloom in September, so will wait and send one then.

This was kind of an odd something, it has the base of a palm tree, but just a little yellow stump on top

You find a lot of these thatched roofs all over.

Another driving picture

I forgot to put this picture in, this is going down the freeway (they call the Highways); take a look at this loaded vehicle.  You see this a lot too.

Driving in Africa

 This picture if you enlarge you can see two guys going to work sitting in the back of a truck holding the ladder on.  You see this all the time you can have up to 15 people in the back of a truck, even on the freeway's.

 This is what they use for their taxi's - they have no driving rules, they stop and start wherever they want, they let people off in the middle of the street.  They will pull right out in front of you, and they are always loaded, with hundreds of them on the roads.

This is a picture of several men on their way to work as I said above.

Pictures of our first flat

 This is a picture of the back, notice the bars on the door they lock, this is the usual scene

 This is the back yard, if you are able to enlarge the picture you will see the fence behind the wooden fence has barbed wire.

 Here you an see the guard tower in the background

 Here is a picture of the front door, again the locking bar door

 This is the car we were currently using had to give it up for a time to the Elders whose car went in for a major overhaul, we are using a van at this time.  The ground floor flat is ours, you can only see the one window.

 As we came into the apartment complex this was the round-about that we went around to get to our flat.  You will notice the guard gate in the background you can't get in or out without swiping your tag (security).

This is the public area, it has a pool, as most complexes do, this one has several Brie's (charcoal or wood BBQ's).  This man was cooking his Sunday dinner.

You see strange things here. This man is sewing on the side of the street with a hand machine.

Street Hockers walking down the middle of two lanes of traffic at congested intersections.

Standing in the Mall

Chapel at the Mamelodi branch and below is the parking out front

Below is the wall of the school where the Mamelodi Branch is held

Our first Sunday in the Mamelodi Branch

 

 

Standing in front of the new Mission Office



Street names were US states all around this area

Pictures from Elonda B&B.   We were there for the first 6 nights in Africa, the breakfasts were delicious.

Plane in SLC before we boarded to Atlanta