Thursday-Friday, May 9th &10th- meeting at Lotus, drive to swaziland

Thursday, we had a meeting with LotusFM (Indian Radio) to discuss the wheelchair giveaway. Sipho and Clive joined us (from the Durban Public Affairs Council). Lisa from the station was so excited to give away these wheelchairs. She had read the applications and was touched by the sad stories the contestants wrote in their application. The people were poor with hardships aplenty. We were so happy that the church could provide them not only with a wheelchair, but with one that is fitted to their bodies and made especially for them. Great stuff. We talked about how we wanted to do the giveaway (In the radio station parking lot) and how the winners would be contacted and we agreed to contact the guy who makes the wheelchairs and then get back together in about three weeks to firm up the details of the live broadcast. Then, Lisa said she knew where our chapel in Chatsworth is (our all Indian ward and community). She said she was going to go there on Mother's Day. This was a surprise, because she is not a member. Then her assistant said, "Let me know where the ward in Phoenix is...maybe I will go there." This is also an all Indian ward and community. This happens to us all the time...through our public affairs efforts, people are getting a favorable opinion of the church and often want to know more and maybe even attend.

Friday, we left at 9 am to start on our 7-hour journey to Swaziland. It is its own country, so we cross from South Africa to Swaziland and have to show passports, etc. The drive was amazing. We saw the most beautiful countryside. We passed through rolling green hills, tall forests, mountains, lakes, deserts and the most interesting trees and plants of jungle like areas sandwiched in between very tall paper trees. Paper Trees grow very fast and are planted in rows. They are very tall and spindly looking, but grow tall anyway. It was like we were traveling to different Arizona cities. Some parts looked like Sedona with red rocks, some like Flagstaff with tall trees lining the highway, some like Phoenix with mountains and desert. We passed a mountain lake that reminded us of Roosevelt Lake in Arizona. But the best part was the African part that we’ve not seen before…the trees with flat tops that I like so much and the very green rolling hills with flowers and interesting vegetation.

We kept seeing signs that said watch out for big six game and then gave drawings of the six animals, but we were always going too fast to make them all out. We had to stop three times because of steers crossing the road, so we joked about them being the sixth member of the big six game on the sign. We think we saw an impala crossing the road, but it was going so fast that we didn’t get a very good look at it, just knew that it was very large, deer like animal. We passed signs for several game parks, but we didn’t have time to drive through them.

We arrived at the border about 3:30 and had a good experience checking out of South Africa, but when we drove to the Swaziland side, it was like we arrived in a third world country and the woman who checked out passports was grumpy to say the least. For the first 40 minutes of driving in Swaziland, the landscape looked pretty desert-like and not very well kept along the roadsides, but as we got closer in, the roads got better and it was actually quite pretty. We did lose cell phone reception as soon as we crossed the border and it was disconcerting to know we could not call anyone if we needed help.  Swaziland had different cell phone usage than South Africa, so our phones would not work here.

We arrived at our hotel about 4:45 and WOW. The place is in a botanical garden and is amazing. We were blown away by how beautiful the grounds and the rooms were. Garden of Eden would be a good comparison. We met Murdocks for dinner. They came from Johannesburg. The only problem was that it was raining, but the hotel provided two umbrellas in our room and though it was quite a walk to where you eat, we got to see the beautiful gardens, pools and waterfalls (More photos to follow). Dinner was great in front of their fireplace. Swaziland is a very poor country, so this place which is in the middle of nowhere is a nice surprise. We were greeted by African people at the desk and in the restaurants, but it is hard to tell who owns this Garden of Eden. There are acres of beautiful gardens and it is all eco-friendly. There is one area where they have partly finished improvements and will make the grounds even more spectacular in a few months. The rates are less than $100 per night for all this beauty...amazing and cheaper than hotels in town.