Something other than animals

So I thought I would give you a break from animal pictures.  I have waited to show you our Kingdom Hall because I wanted to take some good pictures of it.  It's an unusual hall, and unique around here.  It's an A-Frame building.  

View from the front.

View from the Parking lot to the entrance.

The A-Frame carport doesn't afford much coverage from the weather so you have to stand right in the center of it to not get rained on.  We have a slate roof.  

Imagine installing that!

The landscaping is quite nice, and we have some beautiful flowers.

The white ones are unusual to see.

Here is a view of the inside.  The platform is almost a tiny bit like a pulpit.  Matt says it's kinda funny standing up there and looking out from a little alcove.

Thought you'd like to see a picture of our first meeting.  I waited til now to post it because I wanted to show you more of the hall and it took me 2.5 months to take those pictures.  That is just how I roll.

Matt gave his first public talk here in December.  He gave the "How Real is God to You?" outline.  Notice the South African rand he is using.  Nelson Mandela is on our money here.

He did a good job!

Well, that is our hall,  if any of you come visit you will know what to expect.  However, you will have to come here yourself to feel how warm & friendly our congregation is. (After all those animal pictures I expect you have all been making diligent searches for tickets online. ;)

Lost and Found

.......and picking up from where we left off.

So I hope you all enjoyed those cute little lions.  We sure did.  It was a fantastic day for sure.  We borrowed a car, courtesy of some generous friends here and we went off on our adventure, departing at the unheard of hour of 6am.  We had scheduled another activity at the park, called Walk with the Lions.  We were pretty excited about it and needed to be there by 8 am.  Unfortunately we got a teeeeeeeensy bit lost.  We ended up going to Pretoria instead.  I don't know if I can really explain without a map so...

Sometimes when you are in a foreign country and haven't driven on the other side of the road except once and haven't been to the place you are trying to get to and don't have a smartphone yet and don't have a GPS either people get lost.  Anyways, we all poured over the maps that the owner of the car had prudently left in the center console. (Except my Matt, who as the driver sensibly kept his eyes on the road and kept driving us to get us out of a seemingly not great part of town, while the other Matt, Margaret and I put our heads together).  And we did make it. Phew.  And on the plus side, I've learned I'm not interested in that part of Pretoria for my future touring plans.  

So grateful to see the signs, and the gate to our destination:

We did miss out on the Walk with the Lions.  Matt and I had definite plans of going again but we were sad that our friends missed it.  

However, the day was still a huge success.  First of all we had a nice rest under some trees with some iced tea.  Then we got ready for the main event.  

Ukutula is a place where you can stay over, play with lions, walk with lions and learn about the research they do with the lions.  Now, don't get the wrong idea about research.  They have the rare white lions there, and are learning about the gene that makes the white lions.  White lions are not albino, but just white.  Baby tawny lions have spots when they are born, baby white lions do not, which make them more vulnerable in the wild.  Ukutula also does research about feline aids and TB in cats.  Many of the lions in Kruger Park are actually sick, and they are trying to figure out if there is any way to help lions in the wild to be healthier.  They have many volunteers that help with the lions here too.  While we were there they had 3 different sizes of lion cubs we could interact with.  The babies, which you have seen...awww..I'll just put a couple more on.  They are about 4 weeks:

So sweet.

 A couple cubs were practicing their escape artist skills:

Made it over the fence!

      The staff said that they only climb out when they see their brothers and sisters outside the pen. When they are together then they don't try to escape.

Then we went to see "the devils."  They are named that because of their tendency to make mischief.  (After they grow past that phase they go to the pen where they keep lions to walk with.)

Look at those paws.  This guy left Matthew (not my Matt, but our friend Matt) with a "Souvenir."

They can also be sweet.

The last set of cubs we got to visit were the medium ones.  Big enough for more play but little enough not to draw blood. :D  Check out the cuteness!

That cub is seriously smiling at Margaret.

That is one of my absolute favorite pictures of the day.  There was a cub there named Ella, she is a white lion. She wasn't born there at Ukutula but she is staying there for now.  She was unsteady on her feet during our visit and not very used to people, but she let us hold her a little:

Playing with lions makes me happy!

Well that was all for the cubs.  We had some more nice experiences that day, I'll share more later since this post is long enough!

(Sorry it's been so long between posts, it's just so busy here and this post took time because I wanted to sort though my pictures and share some of the best shots with you all.)

We Took Our First Vacation Day

Ok guys, I know I've made you wait a long time for the next post, so I thought, lets make it a good one.  I won't need to employ too much witty commentary because the pictures are truly worth a thousand words.   I may just sprinkle a few words here and there.....

Last weekend we enjoyed a visit from our dear friends we met on our first project in Moldova.  If you followed my blog from then you will remember that when Matthew and Margaret came to the project there, the brothers thought they were Matt's parents because they had the same name.  We have called them our construction parents ever since.  We visited them earlier this year, on our way home from Nigeria and  had a fantabulous time.  When we said goodbye at the train station we had no idea that we would see them again this same year.  However, it turned out that they got to pass through S.A. branch en route home from an assignment of their own.  So we were #reunitedagain as they say on Instagram.  We decided that the best thing to do was take our first day off as construction servants and go see.......(drumroll)........

Ha!  Gotcha.  We did see these during the day and enjoyed them too, but that was while we were waiting for this......(drumroll, for reals this time)......

Oh but wait, it gets better!!!

Seeeeriously gets even better:

Already has well developed claws, check those bad boys out.

The only thing as good as seeing your man holding a baby lion is getting to hold one yourself:

I shall call you squishy and you shall be my squishy. - Dory

Well I don't want to overwhelm you with too many pictures in one post, but I will post another one soon, with more lions.

To be continued.........

I Spoke too Soon

So, remember last time when I was bragging about my spotless lack of snake spotting?  Yeah.  That's all gone now.  Friday, Matt and I were walking along, TOTALLY  minding our own business and we heard a sudden rustling in the leaves near the path. Startled, Matt hastily moved us forward and we glanced back to see what it was.  Much to my chagrin we saw a snake hastily slithering up a tree about 8-10 feet off the path.  We could see it clearly but as we are not herpetologists we couldn't positively identify it.  It was solid dark brown it looked to us with a light underside.  I wanted to take a picture, but instead we prudently moved on.  I'm still wishing I had a picture though, because now we can't show people and make an identification for sure. We had an idea what we thought it might be, but we are told by many there are no snakes of the variety we suspected around here.  We have also heard that someone did recently spot a snake of that kind, so who knows. So, Mr. E, still no pythons or anacondas, but we did see a mystery snake. I hope I don't see another one.

In other news, Matt found his name on a bottle of South African Coca-Cola:

I challenge you all to find a Coca Cola can with Lazuli on it.

Also, last week the final slab was poured on Res10, so when we came back from morning worship Monday we saw this out of our window:

Another concrete truck at the ready.

It rained almost all day, but the work got done.  I got to help with a couple of the tests we do for the concrete strength.  It was a fun and muddy work day.  Also cold.  I know you are all back home, enjoying, or enduring record snow and low temperatures.  However, it did get quite cold here this week.  For where we are.

Thursday we had another first.  Matt drove.  On the wrong side of the car, and on the wrong side of the road.

The car he drove?

Davy's BMW

Matt's first time to drive a BMW.  It was a smooth ride too, despite a few novice mistakes.  Such as, Matt tried to get in on the wrong side.  He claims he was "checking it out" for me.  Ha!  Then, we couldn't find reverse.  (Yes, WE.  I was helping.)   However, he prevailed and crept out onto the road.  All seemed well, except, my seat suddenly plummeted backwards as we accelerated.  Much to the surprise, and discomfort of the sister sitting directly behind me.  Thankfully, it wasn't a long distance, and Matt handled the car like a professional.  Not a professional race car driver folks.  Remember, I was in the car, so it was more like professional Grandpa.  Nice and sloooow. The car was probably disappointed.  

We had borrowed the car so that I and the other sister could go learn to make Tiramisu from our Italian sister, Sylvia.  (I would just like to point out that this is a prime example of the kind of great guy Matt is, he doesn't even like coffee so Tiramisu isn't high on his list of desserts he wants me to get lessons in.  But he still arranged to get a car so he could drive us there.)  Accompanied by some opera music, and despite an incident with the Mascarpone cheese, the dessert was a success,  I would like to point out that my contribution was taking pictures and taking notes.

Sylvia

Amazing!

A Post for Mr. E

The other weekend we visited on the phone with our buddies around the corner where we lived.  I was questioned by Mr. E as to if we had spotted any pythons.  When I said no, he asked "any anacondas?"  Again I had to give a negative reply. Disappointed he firmly instructed me "I think you need to go hiking in Africa and see some anacondas and pythons!"  I promised that if I did spot any of those snakes I would take a picture for him.  I won't pretend that I'm not just fine with the fact that in our area pythons and anacondas are not seen.  And the snakes that do live around here, I really am not interested in seeing.  My record of no snake spotting while on assignment is, well, spotless. (Except at zoos. I've seen pythons and anacondas at zoos. And other varieties.) Which is fine, because the snakes where we go have nasty reputations.  However, just a few days after our conversation, a little snake was spotted by the construction offices by Matt.  He didn't get a picture, but a few days after that, the cheeky little guy was seen hanging around near the conference room.  A sister who loves animals recognized it as a Night Adder. Remembering our promise to take a picture if we saw a snake Matt was able to get this documentation for Mr. E.

After his photo shoot, the sister relocated him to a safe place.

So there you go bud, this post was just for you.  We miss you and your brother, and your mom and dad.  Hope to talk to you again soon and see what you thought of the snake.  I know it's no anaconda or python but it might be the only picture of a snake we get here.  ( I really hope it is.)

The Project

No doubt many of you are wondering just what is going on over here? Lazuli is without a doubt the writer in the family but I am so excited about the project I want to share so here goes. There are many different projects happening around here at the moment, but here are three big ones. First a new shipping warehouse with audio/video building. Second a new residence building. Third a remodel and small addition to the printery to allow for the installation of a second printing press.

Here is a picture of the branch as seen from Google Earth. The biggest roof at the bottom right hand side is the printery. Between the left side edge and the swimming pool about center you see a dark grey square which is the new residence building. At top of the picture there are lots of little white rectangles, those are the modular housing they have set up and just below that is the big red rectangle of dirt that is the new shipping warehouse and audio video building. 

This is what the residence building looks like at the moment.

Here is what the new shipping warehouse/audio video building looks like at the moment. Right now it looks like a bunch of dirt but they have started pouring some footings.

This picture is off to the side but the equipment in it gives it more perspective...

The building itself is 16,000 sq meters and the audio video wing is 3000 sq meters, if you are trying to put that into square feet like I was let me help, its about 204,514 sq feet or, really really big. An American football field is 57,600 sq ft. The new shipping warehouse has to be built so that shipping can move out of the printery and it can be remodeled in time so that when the new press arrives there is a place to put it. The next year will be busy...

What are we working on? Well I (Matt) am assisting another brother to look after the residence building. The majority of the work being done here is by contractors so I am a small part of the day to day interaction. Lazuli has been helping with quality control on concrete. She helps collect fresh concrete from the delivery trucks, log samples and eventually break the samples to see how strong the concrete is. When they don't need her there she helps out in the office.

Well that's the project, hope I didn't bore you to much, I will turn things back over to Lazuli  for the next post....

Orientation Group

On the last Friday of the month, if I remember right, the new volunteers come to Bethel in South Africa.  Our arrival coincided with this time, and so our orientation was a full new Bethelite orientation. We had a week of learning about our new home and work place.  That means you go and meet all the departments, and learn about what they can do for you and what you can do for them as you get established and start your life here.  We were the only ones not from South Africa in our group.  All of the group were so friendly and kind.  Unfortunately, the names were hard for me so I'm still trying to get a handle that.  My name is hard for them too, but they picked it up quicker than I did for them.  I'm also going to use the jet lag excuse.  (How many days/weeks/months is that valid I wonder?)

Meet our group of fellow newcomers:

 Yes, I'm wearing Matt's suit jacket.  It was a lot cooler than it looked that day when I chose my outfit.  I'm getting nervous about "winter." Maybe I should have brought my heavy wool coat.... At least winter doesn't come here til next summer. Summer for all of you north of the equator that is.  It's so confusing. People ask me questions and I'm all "that was this spring".. but it's spring here now..so then I explain.

We had housekeeping training with our housekeeper. For the first time Matt and I got to work together with the housekeeper that our room is assigned to.  I think this is a great idea.  After all, we will be working together to keep our room clean, and it does give you a sense of responsibility when you know your housekeeper personally and know she is such a wonderful sister. Makes you want to leave your room neat as a pin so she will not have more work than she should.  So far, we've done pretty good.  I have to give Matt his due also, he does as much or more sometimes than me on this, those of you who know him well know that he's a great guy like that!

During our first week we also moved to our current assigned room, rearranged and decorated it.

On Friday we had construction orientation and found out what our assignments are.  I'm not going to reveal that in this post though.  Although some of you already know.  Matt has written his first post in years and took the pictures for it and everything, so he gets to tell you that himself.

On that Saturday we were invited to an evening gathering by Darragh's mama. Remember Darragh? The hand reared monkey at Nigeria Bethel?  Anyways, the sister who raised him is here and it's really cool to meet people who have been places you have been, even if it wasn't at the same time.  We had a terrific time eating pizza and playing a quiz game.  And laughing.  Lots of laughing.

Next time the post will be from Matt so stay tuned, :)