October 20, 2012 

 Well, if we thought the last rain was big, the one today was gigantic!!  The branch was to show General Conference this Sunday and I was supposed to be going to the store this morning to purchase the food to make lunch for everyone to be served between the conference sessions and then, while Rick did some service work at a member’s home, I would bake cookies for the event.  It didn’t turn out quite that way!!  Rick had gone out to get a rain suit and drop some washing off at the missionaries flat since we still do not have water.  When he got back, he told me to get into p-day clothes and bring the camera.  We proceeded to go to the township, picked up his counselors to help and we would be going to as many members homes as we could to check on them and see if they needed trenching around their homes to help divert water.  Many did!! Some members were OK when he called them, but many were not. 

Rick also called the Elders and told them to not go into the township today and to cancel any appointments they had there.  It was so flooded with lots of fast running water running in, on and through the roads. 

 Many roads are just dirt, but even on the paved ones the sides were being washed out and the road surface breaking off and being washed away.  It was a mess.  There were many streets we couldn’t go down and the ones we did travel, it sometimes was a little iffy getting back out.  It is sometimes amazing what a little heavenly help and 2012 Chevy Sonic really can do!! The problem is how deep is the hole in the road that is covered by the water going to be?

The morning was spent in member rescue and picture taking. When that was finished, Brother Hola still needed help picking up pig food from Super Spar…I wondered how smart that would be since just about every street was flooded and getting through was, again iffy!! When Rick brought me home before his next adventure in the township, we found the road to our boarding had a big “river” running over part of it. 

Before We Drove Across

 Nobody else was crossing, and after some debate about whether we should cross it, Rick decided to give it a try. Oh my brave, but slightly common sense impaired husband. What adventures we have! We lead the way and crossed it just fine, followed by a whole string of other people. I was dropped off and Brother Hola and Rick set out to get the pig food, but this time while crossing the car died right past the half way point!!  Not good…so a silent prayer was offered and amazingly the car started and they drove off thankful, again for a 2012 Chevy Sonic and a lot of heavenly help.  The pig food was picked up and delivered to the Hola’s. On his way home he found that part of the roadway had been washed away and the police were now stopping all traffic from crossing over the area. 

 Now, understand, this is the ONLY way into our boarding and a lot of other upper-class homes are in the area.  Who knows who planned this development with only one entrance but it wasn't a good idea!  Anyway…after a fairly long time the water slowed a bit and one pickup took a run at getting across and made it. When Rick saw this, he got in line to have his try at it. I think he said he was fourth to cross over. He was able to get home even though part of the road was now missing.  It wasn’t long after that, that we found out the whole road was now washed out!!  

 When all was done, Rick was drenched…really drenched. The rain had been pouring the whole time he was outside and although the rain suit top fit, the pants did not.   Rick was soaked, so therefore, the car was soaked inside. Rick was mud from top to bottom, but at least Rick and I were on the same side of the washout.  By this time we had no phone which meant no internet, which meant no Vonage phone capability.  Rick had spoken to President Wood earlier about canceling church, which he ok’d, but President Wood wanted sacrament taken to the members as best as could be done. Our power went out for a short time, but luckily came back.  That would have been a real disaster because, being the food storage person I am, we have a freezer full of food.  No water...no landline phone...no internet...NO SHOWER but we do have power, we are dry and we are TOGETHER!!! 

October 19, 2012 

 District meeting today and the Zone Leaders are here to go on splits with our Elders.  They do this every transfer which happens every 6 weeks.  We had a good meeting. Elder Alexander, one of our Elders who is also our District Leader, gave council on being honest in all that we do.  We had all of the Elders over for lunch and got to know them better. Our other Elder assigned to Port Alfred is Elder Dale. He is a great help.  Elder Bangerter who is from Utah and somehow related to Julie B. Beck the former General Relief Society, is also serving as a Zone leader in East London, Elder Kyuvi, also a Zone leader, is from Kenya, and will be going home this next week.  He is very quiet, but as we have been told is a very good missionary. It was nice having all of them in our home.

We still have no water and do not know when it will be back on.  Evidently there is a broken pipe somewhere as a result of the last big storm. We called to see if we could find out when we might expect getting water so we could better prepare and as things go here, no one really knows anything.  One person we talked to said that it had already been fixed, but, apparently not.  This morning we took sponge baths and washed our hair by pouring water over our heads and doing the best we could using water hauled from the Elders water tank.  We saved that water to flush the toilet with.  The worst part of all of this is not being able to take a shower!!  Oh well, just part of the adventure.

October 18, 2012

 Today began as usual…we got out of bed.  That’s when it went different.  Shower time produced no shower…because there was no water.  As of 4:30 pm, there is still no water and it would have been very nice if we could have taken a shower, since we and the Elders spent the morning helping several families sweep water out of their homes and trench around them.  

 We are talking lots of water.  A lot of the township homes are built wherever, no consideration for low ground or anything that might be a problem later.  The government puts bids out and homes are built and then given to the people.  The problem is the contractors don’t care where the homes are built; they just want to build them as cheap as possible and get their money. I don’t think there are any building codes here they just do whatever they want, so a lot of people get flooded when a really big rain comes, or sometimes a not so big rain.  This one was big.  

The inside of the church wasn’t flooded, just leaking from the roof as usual but the back yard was majorly flooded, and there were a number of streets closed because of flooding.  

 One of the things that made Ricks day was finding a spear head in the ground as he was trenching around one of the homes. 

 This is one of the things he wanted to get before we left South Africa.  They have a few at a shop on the way to East London, but now has one he found himself in the ground…who knows how old it is!

October 17, 2012

 We headed to East London today for Zone Conference.  We brought with us some of the fixings for a burrito lunch.   We actually arrived before anyone else and didn’t know the gate code, so we just waited outside the gate till others arrived.  Sister Wood knows I am always looking for Karo syrup, so in her travels she had found some and purchased one for me.  How Great!!  Karo syrup is a VERY rare commodity over here.  Sister Fowers in her hurry this morning forgot the frying pan she needed for some of the lunch, so I went with her back to her boarding for this item.  On the way, as we were talking, she missed her exit and ended up in a long line back up in a construction zone.  It took about 30 minutes longer to get to their home.  I figure just another adventure.  Anyway, we got back, finished some preparations, and Rick and I were able to go to President Woods’s presentation.  As always, it was good.  This one was on honesty where he used a clip from Les Miserable to emphasize his point.  After his training, lunch was served, where we finally got a chance to try samp and beans, a traditional staple here.  If it had been spiced up a bit it would have been better but today it was fairly bland.  It rained during our journey to East London and for a while after we got there, but by the time we left zone conference for home, the weather was pretty nice. It wasn’t until we were about 20K from Port Alfred that it started to rain again and it didn’t stop all night.  Actually, it wasn’t raining it was pouring all night.

October 15, 2012

 Because of the nasty weather, we decided we would not go out tonight.  We were going to stop at a couple of members and investigators homes.  It has been another windy, rainy, blowy kind of day.  Kind of cold and we are heading into summer!! Well, we are in spring, anyway. So we stayed home, played a couple of games and then Rick decided to go through all of the pictures saved on the computer.  When he did this, guess what he found??  The pictures of us with Elder Carl B. Cook and his wife.  What a nice surprise.  I guess they were in one of Elder Sciclunas transfer picture files.  He had several for Port Alfred.  I am just happy they really do exist!!