May 11, 2012

 It is now Friday. Yesterday Janet went with Sister Robinson to see the shopping areas of Port Alfred.  Downtown is really easy to get around in, very centrally located and not very large.  They have some really cute shops and seem to squeeze everything you really need in a small area.

Today President Wood, the mission president, arrived.  The Wood's, the Robinson's and us went to dinner at the Ocean Basket and had an enjoyable evening together talking about our families and learning a lot more about each other.  We are still trying to get used to all of the socializing we will be doing on mission.  Guess it is good for us!!

There is an alarm system in our temporarily boarding and yesterday while Rick was gone working at the church it went off. Promptly a security person shows up. It was hard for me to understand what he was saying, but I think he wanted me to open the door. That would have been a good idea except being the good husband that Rick is, before he left he set the alarm, locked the door and the cage over the front entry and then took what I thought was the only key. I am by myself, no keys, no phone and no idea how to shut the darn alarm off with an armed guard outside talking to me. Not only couldn’t I understand him even if I could have understood him, there was nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t open any doors, it was just plain crazy.  Anyway, somehow it all got sorted out and settled down. It turned out OK, I didn’t get hauled off to jail, but I wouldn’t describe it as real fun.

Today was our first district meeting.  We met the two elders we will be working with.  Elder Scicluna is from Perth, Australia (do love the accent) and Elder Moangare is from one of the islands in the Tarawa group in the Pacific Ocean, but I’m not sure which one.  Both are very strong missionaries.

In Port Alfred you don’t drink the water, not even in a restaurant.  The city is on a very old system and I guess it is not very healthy. Everybody tries to drink bottled water or rain water which runs off of their roofs and is collected in large concrete covered barrels.

We will be going with the Robinsons to the “township” this afternoon to meet some of the members.  The townships in South Africa are large “shanty” living communities the poorer people live in.  There are a lot of them in South Africa and most of our members live there.