Monday - Wednesday, June 17 - 19 looking for venue DGH concert

Monday we went out to look at another venue for the concert. We saw it online and it looked really nice and it was located in Phoenix (South Africa), which is an Indian community that seems to be a bit poorer than Chatsworth. We still hadn't heard back from the the director of the youth centre and so we were getting worried that it was not going to happen and we would be stuck without a venue again, so we made an appointment to look at the place, which is owned by a Bible Church of some sort. The man that met us there was very nice and the hall itself was clean, freshly painted with a stage and plenty of places for electrical hookup. The bathrooms were clean, the grounds were clean and it seats 500 people. The building itself was perfect; however, it was a bit hard to find, because it was tucked into a narrow street at the end next to an Indian temple, with a daycare center across the street. When you drive up, all you see is the temple, but when you drive through the gate, there is parking down below and it would work. It only cost R2,000 to rent it all day, which is about $200. We were excited to have another option, in case the Youth Centre did not work. The building is a lot better than the youth center as far as the shape it is in, but the Youth Centre is definitely in a better location.

When we returned from our journey to Phoenix, we had a little dinner and then went over to the Starks for our senior couple family home evening. The Starks decided that we would do a little game where she would read a well-known quote from General Conference and we would guess the person who said it...sticking strictly to the 12 apostles and first presidency, but it could be from any conference...so it was hard! She paired the women against the men, which was fun. What she didn't tell us was that Elder Stark could answer all the questions. He has an amazing memory, so a major disadvantage for the girls, but we did pretty well and ended up in a tie. These little get-togethers seem to be a time for talking about the things we have experienced on our missions. This time we got into a discussion with Elder Stark about Mandela and the Afrikaners. Elder Stark is of German ancestry and grew up in South Africa. At age 14, they moved to the US. He has been back to visit several times before during and after Apartheid. He can see the view of both sides, so we kind of got into a gentle argument. Ha. I had just finished reading Mandela's book and Mandela's story was a bit different than the one Elder Stark was telling. It was an interesting discussion.

Tuesday we found out that we got the Youth Centre location, although the director just wrote it in his diary. We haven't signed anything, nor have we met with him. Hopefully it will all work out. We spent the day looking for sound people and lighting people and people who rent chairs, etc. There is a lot of work to do to get that venue ready for the concert. I contacted Enrico from Storm promotions, as he has been trying to help us find a place and he does lighting and sound. We agreed to meet him next Monday to see what is required at the Youth Centre. We got in touch with the Director and he will meet us there as well. His main concern is us making this a religious event. He does not want that. We basically got the place because of our relationship with Lotus FM and the wheelchair giveaway and our PA person, who is Indian, and assured him that the concert is not religious. It has been a long ride, hopefully it will smooth out in the next couple of months.

Wednesday we went to the store to pick up paper plates and napkins for the wheelchair event on Thursday, plus did our weekly grocery shopping. When we got home, I looked up Chatsworth on the internet, so I could perhaps find some paint companies that would donate paint, so we could do a helping hand project and paint the youth centre. What I found was an article about Lotus FM and their statement that they were doing a cleanup at the Youth Centre on Mandela day, July 18. Of course, we had no idea that was going on. Lisa Chetty from LotusFM never said a word about it, even when we told her that we were considering the youth centre for our concert. She just said that it was in bad shape and we might want to try somewhere else. Maybe she is not a part of it, but it seemed odd to me. I shot off an email to the station manager, who we met and seems to love the church. I told him that if he could get the paint and brushes donated, we could find the manpower to paint it. I haven't heard back yet, but it seems that we will at least have it looking better by the concert, whether it's us or someone else who does it.

Wednesday evening, I still had not hear from Lisa Chetty about the order of speakers in the program, so I decided to just do a program anyway and spent the next two hours creating a program with nice quotes on it and a photo of the wheelchair, etc. I also sent reminders to the speakers and asked them to keep it short. Got to bed late, but satisfied with the results.