Wed. Dec.16th
If you have a nervous stomach, proceed with caution.
In less than 1% of the 22,000 acres here at Mabula, we saw:
Baby crickets clinging to a blade of grass for safety.
A Millipede.
Termite hills.
A Glassy Starling.
Black Shouldered Kites.
A tree that combusts within itself, and smells like butter when it blooms.
Bats.
Warthogs.
Kudu (sp).
An Earthwolf (rare to see).
A Jackal family.
Millions of stars (it was supposed to be a 2.5 hr safari. We started around 5pm and got back about 8:45).
A baby Python.
A Hippo family.
Lions.

Our guide, Rudi, loves his job. Depending on your point of view, this can be a good thing, or it can be a bad thing. Here is the part where the nervous stomachs might want to go watch “Everybody Loves Raymond.” ;-D

Dusk, and the guide gets word on his radio that the lioness has been spotted. We go. We sit and are amazed at about 100 ft. away. She starts calling her cubs with a low, short, bark?? I can’t describe it well right now. One of her cubs came…looked at us, came closer, until his mom told him to come back. So he did, but only after turning around and looking at her for a while to see how serious she was. She was serious. Another Landrover comes and wants to take their turn…remember in Madagascar II, with the tourists…it’s like that. Anyway, we back out and have snacks. African snacks that are delicious. At dusk, in a Landrover Defender. Perfection. ;-). The other group comes back, and we resume.

Now, the mom is with her cubs, laying down. TWO male lions, brothers, come and join the group. Rudi says “This is rare!” The dominant male takes his position beside the lioness, and the brother stays back a distance. She gets up and says hi to him, the little brother. This makes big brother mad, so he gets up and chases little brother away. Well…. SHE chases the dominant one away, (I didn’t know it could work like this with lions…), and Rudi gets us closer (gulp…“he knows what he’s doing. He knows what he’s doing….Dear Jehovah….”). He turns us around until the lioness is on the left side of the Landrover, and the Lion is on the right. We are 6-8 (? - the pics make them look further) feet away from them. Rudi says “No sudden moves”. I can’t breathe.

They stare each other down, until it’s clear she says “…and stay out!” and leaves. But we aren’t watching her leave…we are watching HIM stay! He’s huge and beautiful and scary. I don’t even know what to feel at this point b/c it is too astounding. You’ll see pics tonight hopefully, but when you get the whole story when we get home, you’ll be able to tell when Rudi said “no sudden moves”, b/c I’m not even going to PUSH the button on my camera…and the lion has moved from my left to my right (so you can picture he has moved slightly from just in front of me to more of my right side….does that make sense? He was on the right side of the Landrover, but on the…k, you get it.) We stay and stay (our guide was not afraid to let us see all that we could)….he looks at us, and then looks at his family. When he starts to walk towards his family, then my brain says “take a picture!” He lays down, and I get some good shots of a dominant male lion 12 ft away from me, accepting the fact he’s in the doghouse for the night (lol), under the constellations Orion and The Summer Triangle, among others.

Then we go eat.

On the way back to the lodge, we encounter some of the things I listed before. Something dumb happened after my Hippo shots (daytime). My telephoto decided to have an emotional breakdown, so I don’t know what’s gonna happen with that. I’m glad I brought other lenses, but I really wanted that one to work. In the end, it would have been too close anyway for the lion shots…I would have been switching out lenses at crucial moments…one of them would have fallen out of the Landrover…and so on…

This was the first day of safari. You can call in the people watching tv now. ;-D Tomorrow I’ll be continuing my quest for my elephants. In my Landrover Defender and with my leftover lenses.

BTW, Cody got to hold the spotlight for the guide. And I’ll save the story of the baby Python for later. You can look at the pictures. All is controlled (as long as you don’t stick your legs out) and the guides really do know what they are doing, and if it makes you feel better, they have guns in the vehicles.…did that help?? Everything is safe and great, for real. Remember Madagascar II? It’s way better than that.

All love all the time! More soon!

Thurs. the 17th??
Second day of safari. Just putting this in now in case internet is not available in conjunction with our schedule. We went out at 5:30 am and saw my elephants!!! They were beautiful!!!! It’s true they look different in the wild than in captivity….when they are where they belong their eyes shine, and they have a smile! So beautiful. It seemed like the guides worked together on their radios to find them. Our guide seemed to work especially hard to give us many opportunities to see all that we could. The suspense of catching sight of them kept building with each new set of fresh tracks and uprooted trees they had pulled and pushed down. When we did see them, they were on the path/road., grouped together. One of the mom elephants blocked her calf….and after awhile the whole herd went on up the path. The one blocking her calf stayed until she felt we weren’t going to follow her. Ever feel calm and excited at the same time?? That’s how it was. Loved it. So many details and other things to include, but I might have to wait until I get home. Let’s see if I can get some pictures up (working offline right now…)

k...the layout of the pics isn't exactly how i wanted, but anyway: The 2nd pic is for my Mom and Dad (b/c of the snake…a baby python. He actually was dealing with a call at that moment; the others wanted him to pull a cobra off of a maingate back by the lodge), and the 1st one is for Dave and Mary. (Don’t worry Mary, Rudi is THE Guide Instructor, so we were safe….) Hope you love the pics of the lions and elephants! There is so much more to share. We’ve enjoyed all of this SOOOO MUCH! Hope you have too. It’s truly been a gift from Jehovah. When you get to go to an International Convention, expect to gets lots and lots of ‘perfect presents’ from Him!
Also, "Hi" to all of our new friends we've made on the trip! Safe travels to fellow "conventioneers" and lots of thanks to all the kind and knowledgeable staff people we've met as well. If we get a chance to get on the internet tonight, we will. Til then, can’t wait to talk to you when home! Totsiens! (sp) Love to all!
p.s. Here is another wonderful thing that I just had to add:
All their lives, elephants never stop growing.

The sun came out, there was a constant, gentle breeze, and the temperature was perfect. It was nice to see the green hills of the African countryside and get some fresh air...Tala Game Reserve. They have one of the Big Five; the rhino. But they also have these other famous beauties...

Can't wait to tell you all about it! Inspiring and humbling...Tomorrow we head to Mabula, where we'll see even more of Jehovah's artwork! (not sure what the cabins are for in the background in the rhino pic, if you were wondering...)
We have other pictures of ostrich, wildebeast, warthog, hippo...but they are on the 20D, and our wake up call is at 3:45 a.m.
A little more from the Indian Market....

...a micro Walmart...

Anything look familiar?

Well, that's all for tonight. Going to try and sleep. More tomorrow as long as i have internet access...check out www.mabula.com and see where we go next...lotsa love...

Here are some highlights from Durban. Above is a fish. lol. I forgot to get what type. But he was a nice, hospitable fish, as you can see.
While on the bus, the tour guide told us that the plants behind the lady were called "elephant toothpicks". Then we noticed what the lady was carrying, and realized she was a Witness too, doing street witnessing.
I have a new appreciation for our street names - even the ones with more than just one. (This wasn't even one of the hard names....just snapped it before I forgot.)
An amazing, tree...it looks like it should be in the "Jungle Book". The parks here are beautiful, filled with trees of all kinds, funny ducks, exotic flowers, ...monkeys! Lori has a story that she can tell you later.
Orchids.
At the Victoria Street Market buying gifts. Also known as the Indian Market. Everything tourists could want was inside. On the sidewalk, vegetables and fruit. The guide said that it's rude to pick up and examine produce, and then ask the price. You buy whatever you touch. We had to stay inside here, because outside was considered too dangerous for us.

This was a spice shop. Beautiful and smelled delicious. They let us take a pinch of whatever spice we asked about (different than outside). A pinch packed with taste! The man with the hat on, far right, was the one helping us. He asked where we were from, and after we told him, he asked us if we were far from Marion! (Hi Ferguson's!) Lol! He was so excited! He asked if there was still a James Dean Museum, then his friends came up, (the man by the red bowl, and the man behind Cody) and asked if we had seen "Giant". They wanted to talk about it, but we had to get back to the bus. It was great though. If anyone wants to order some spices, we have this shop's email!! The man with the hat proudly showed us a package getting ready to be sent to Minnesota and said "we send anywhere!" Kewl, huh?

I think this says "welcome". ;-/

This is scary. Won't include all the details right now, but to be quick about it: evidence of how superstitious customs and beliefs are heavy in many lives here still. One of South Africa's biggest challenges is AIDS, and the challenges that come up within that specific problem are surprising, (also won't go into detail here). They have ways of dealing, but some of those ways aren't anything a human could think up on their own unless they were superstitious. Ugh. The guide told us some of the things involved in what was sold here, and I'll wait til we get home to talk about it. Anyway, just a reminder of how the "truth sets us free" from burdensome and troubling superstitions and the practices that go with them.

"...maybe she's born with it...."

Another spice shop. Tonight for dinner I had Maputo Peri Peri Chicken (and called Carolina to tell her about it ;-D ). There was also brought to the table a Cou Cou Platter....a variety of African starters...prawns, chic pea salad, samoosa (the waitress described this as "something nice" when we asked her what it was, and yes, it was), a sauce that sat beneath such words as "sweet", "kinda like yogurt", "it's probably just yogurt", "but i taste horseradish..." and "put it on the fish". lol.

Only four more days, and then home. Actually, Monday home for sure (might take it slow driving back). Til then, just a few more nights of posting you the colorful "flavors" of Africa. I'd rather spell it "colourful flavours". O well...Night all! ;-)

I was thinking today, that when you go to an International Convention, it's like stepping into one of our yearbooks. You feel like you're meeting some of the ones we read about. We all get that we have a united worldwide brotherhood, but sitting in a plastic seat in sun and in rain, in another country, next to people from all over the world, and the reason they are so happy is because they are experiencing something from Jehovah like you are....i see it from a bigger

perspective....it's hard to describe right now, just know that it's big. It breaks all the molds...you see what Jehovah is talking about when He says to pray for our bros' and sis'. It's getting late so let me just go through these pics....to the left is my view of the drama. We sat in the sections where many Zulu and Indian
(Durban has a huge Indian pop.) sat. It was great. More pics of the drama when we get home.

div>

This is Shakar. He spoke English better than we do, and is in the process

of learning Hindi, which, he says, is "very, very hard". We gave him candy.

This is a THREE year old, who spoke Zulu, and English. He's 3. And he didn't speak like a baby, he was polite, used inflection...the four of us looked at eachother and then...gave him candy.

I wish I knew what this sign says. Something loving for sure.

While Br. Morris was concluding the last talk, it started to rain, and the wind really picked up fast. It was almost intense. We were already sitting up high, some people moved to higher and dryer places, but we stayed put and let the ones fleeing the pelting drops come up with us or higher. Brother Morris kept speaking, getting pounded by the rain and wind. The chairs on the stage fell over, the "keep on the watch" signs fell over, and still he kept his spot. I didn't see any of his papers fly away even in all of that. He concluded with thoughts about how soon the Great Tribulation will begin, and also some comforting thoughts from Isaiah about Jehovah waiting to show us favor....then we started singing.

We've all heard some way or another African singing, right? We sang in English of course, voices cracking, off key, in the midst of naturally talented musicians harmonizing in Zulu and other languages. All the while sharing and huddling under wimpy umbrellas. It was perfect.

Hope you all got encouragement from the convention! At the top is a pic of a Zulu (i think) songbook, and a classicly rugged, beautiful Landrover. Waiting for the bus, I got bit by a fireant (no reactions yet, no worries). Let the safareeees...begin! :-D

Hi everyone! The pics tonight tell their own stories...

We were reminded earlier in the week that this trip isn't a vacation, but that we should view it as an assignment of being encouraging. That was very effective, and it seems all 38,903 are taking it very seriously! We were, today, 8,324 from Cape Town, 12,112 from Durban, and 18,467 from Pretoria. Somewhere in there Swaziland also joined in by phone.

Everyday they do brief reports from other lands. I thought it was interesting that France, being a land known for loving romance, related a story of a sister who was at a regatta. She noticed a sad looking lady on a bench and started talking to her, found out that she had just left her husband that morning. The sister told her about the scripture that says 'do not let the sun set with you in a provoked state', and later that evening, she saw the lady back with her husband!

44% of Korea's publisher's are Regular Pioneers, and 500 of our brothers there are in prison for not serving in the military....One of Zambia's foreign language fields is Chinese...

...see the baby in the blanket??

This next thing is really nice, and if anyone can show this to Grandm Elsie, that would be great:

Grandma Elsie, even though you're in TX now with Aunt Kathy, you'll still find this encouraging. One of the speakers related an experience about Mabel, one of the annointed. She said "I've been through a lot of trials, but none as severe as this nursing home." Then the brother said "Don't think being in a nursing home isn't a test...Don't forget our precious ones in the nursing homes!!" Very powerful for all of us.

Jesus used illustrations people could relate to by talking about things from the area they lived in...today they talked about elephants!!! When a lion hunts, most animals run away (right??), elephants though, sound a warning and then form a circle around their babies. Guess who is who in this illustration. That's right, we're the babies..Jehovah is the elephant.

This next part is so needed...it's based on Proverbs 24:16, where it says the righteous one gets back up after making mistakes. The speaker said "Ever try? Ever fail? Try again. Fail again. Fail better." I'm going to right that on my forehead....

So that's today....o, i almost forgot...when lunch was over, the sound for the music went out for our afternoon song, so you can imagine the sound of everyone singing a capella. Nice. Tomorrow is going to be a big day here....everyone have a great meeting/Sunday...and think of us as we conclude the convention!

This is the ABSA stadium. Behind it you can sort of see part of the new stadium they are building, which is one of the locations where the World Cup will be played in 2010.

Today, Friday, was mild in the morning, but turned to rain in the afternoon. It didn't spoil the mood though... we had heard that many brothers give away their ties, so Cody spotted this brother from Durban and gave him his. It was a really good moment. If you ever go, be prepared with lots of little gifts. We didn't bring enough so we've been saving some of our lunch and hotel candies to give out. Can't wait to show you the little things the Japanese gave us...so perfectly cute the things they made! Anyway, the generosity displayed is neverending. We learned that the local brothers and sisters coming here walk a mile or so to park so our buses have an area to load and unload. And brothers and sisters in Zimbabwe walk 2-4 DAYS to get to their conventions! That's appreciation! We were tied in to Pretoria and Cape Town today, making the attendance 32,946 total! Sitting in the rain.

New friends from Durban:
Karin,Amelia, and Justin.

Hi guys! (i gave them the blog address)

France and Mexico...

This is for Gail!

Today's theme scripture was Matthew 24:44 where it says "prove yourselves ready". Then they brought out Jehovah's loving kindness is with us everyday, and He is the only One who acts for the one who keeps in expectation of Him. I really love that.

Also brought out that Jehovah and Jesus expect us to be discerning. They know we can be, has given everyone the tools to be. Just kind of a nice note brought out in one of the talks. O, and when they played some of the new songs to sample, all the birds chimed in too. It was funny...got pretty loud!

Something else...the way they say "yes" here is so cute. They say "eeeess" very quietly and from the back of the throat. Practice it out loud. Also, they love KFC! They're all over down here. Cody noticed they say "mind the step" instead of "watch your step", and "tire" is "tyre".

Well, all for now. I'll try to post more tomorrow, unless i need to reserve net minutes. That might happen. Til then, "we are fam - ah - ly"!! ;-) p.s. this is Friday's....i posted Thurs just a lil bit ago...below...

Ever hear the saying "you think you know but you have no idea"?? That's how you feel after your first International Convention! You hear about how great they are from others who have been, and you KNOW it'd be great, but, for real....if you've never been to one, try to your next chance. So this was yesterday: As we're strolling to our seats, taking in all the different countries represented and saying hello to everybody and hugging and exchanging gifts (it really is like that nonstop), we caught this brother and sister from Japan while we could (everybody wants thier pics taken with the Japanese!) and FINALLY got our turn! Except for Cody, but you'll see him soon with brothers from France and Mexico.

I love this next part (don't look at me b/c I have been only getting maybe 3 hrs of sleep a night). Her name is, and this is the only way I can describe it: click your tongue and then say "nee-uh, but say "nee-uh" really fast.
An example of what makes Africa so amazing.

...somebody tell Niki Melching
some old friends of hers are here! ;-)

Everywhere you turned there was a moment to be captured, like this one:

.. .and then we just HAD to get OUR pic taken!
Look how pretty the Ghana girl is! (I think that's where she is from!) After the session, we continued making friends left and right. Lori noticed some Durban brothers and sisters doing sign language, so she joined in. The conversation ended this way:
A few minutes later I noticed this little gem. She is from Malawi. We had a connection, so I gave her some monkey stickers.

Then, guess who we saw Jasmin. Actually they were the first ones we saw (Caleb and Laura-Jasmin's cousins for those who are unfamiliar). I guess I hugged Laura first yesterday, then Click-neeya. (sp!!! so sorry!) In this group: front left are Jeff and Lori, back left Laura and Caleb, front right Lisa and Piere.
So that was Thursday, the first day of the convention. There are some exciting things to share about today's session as far as some of the talks go, maybe after dinner I'll get some more in...depends on the laundry (the work is worth the 2 small bags!) Durban is loud tonight...a few minutes ago someone was singing "La Bamba" in the street below. Now, someone is singing "We Are Family". Love that. Keep warm... More soon.