Sunday, June 16th-Indian party at our flat

Sunday is National Youth day in South Africa. They have so many holidays that it is hard to keep track. It's amazing that they get any work done...Ha. We went to Chatsworth today for church. It is located in a predominately Indian area of neighborhoods, so Hindu is widely practiced in the neighborhood and you can see the gold domes of their temples as you enter the area.


As I sat in sacrament meeting, it was amazing to me that these people whose ancestors grew up as Hindu, and passed on all customs to their children and grandchildren, these people - with some women still clad in their traditional Indian garments (like in the picture to the left),were with me partaking of the sacrament and participating in Relief Society and listening to a lesson on tithing and holding priesthood in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

It was amazing that the Indian man who spoke in sacrament talked about how good fathers are made from men of faith who hold the priesthood and revere their wives and love and teach their children about Jesus Christ, that being a good father meant raising righteous children and being concerned with their welfare. By being an example to them and a light to those their communities through love and service. He spoke of his son who is on a mission to Malawi and his other son who received his Mission call to Ghana. He related stories about how although he works at night and would need to sleep during the day, he would often time forego that to be with his children when they needed him. He talked about how his own father had left he and his four siblings when he was a boy and about how he had to work doing odd jobs to support his family. He spoke of doing the wrong things when he got older, but how meeting his wife had changed him and joining the church had changed him even more and turned him into a good father by the examples of the good fathers in his ward. Other than a young man who was the youth speaker, who also spoke about dads and did a good job, this man took the whole time and I was not bored for a minute.

And, just when I thought it was an all Indian ward, I went into Relief Society and sat in between two black ladies. One had an adorable two-month old and the other was closer to my age and her name was Patricia. Isn't that great?

They served a lunch afterwards to honor the fathers with all the traditional Indian dishes. Luckily we had utensils. The Indians use their fingers to eat and there was not a napkin in sight. They served a rice mixture with meat and vegetables and a gravy to pour over the top. It was a little spicy, but pretty good. They also brought in a birthday cake for the Elder from Utah. He is 21 today. The cake was decorated with his name and everything...very sweet. Then we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. These are very thoughtful people. It was great fun.

Men gathered for alcohol on our front patio

Then we got back to our flat and the neighbor, who invited at least 60 people had the driveway completely full of cars and people in the yard of his flat. Elder Kyle let me off while he went to park downhill and as I came up the stairs to our flat, I saw a very curious thing...They had set up a bar on our patio...hmmm. I had an initial reaction to laugh hysterically, but held it in. The guys were meeting on our side of the wall...the women were gathered at his flat and a few were eating inside their flat. The men were smoking and drinking and blocking my front door. I had to wait until my husband appeared with a key to our flat, so I figured I might as well mingle. Our neighbor was there with the men, so I went to see how he was doing. He told me they had already had the prayer to honor his wife and other dead and then he had a drink or two which was part of the ceremony. He had a red dot on his forehead and a long yellow shirt on. Elder Kyle appeared finally and went over to the table to fix a glass of soda, acting like it was an everyday occurrence having a bar on our patio and Indian men standing around drinking and smoking. He is amazing...fits in no matter where we go. He is so comfortable around strangers. I wish I was more like that, although I don't think any of these people noticed.

Women gathered in our neighbor's front yard

I finally went to the kitchen to see what delicacies they were fixing and they were all pushing food on me. I told them I already ate, but they insisted on at least fixing me a wrap. The wrap consisted of their version of a tortilla with spicy potatoes inside and some spicy pineapples that were pretty hot. I took it back to the flat, placed it in a dish, washed their dish and returned it. I ate the wrap later and it was pretty good, plus I got some cooking hints from the ladies. They were all really nice.

Inside Neighbor's flat

The 'Priest' was surprisingly slovenly, had not shaved, looked like he had not bathed, was ridiculously overweight with a dirty white 'gown' on and..... They paid him for this ceremony and told me that he only does ceremonies for the dead. The ceremony consisted of a coconut being put into a fire and cooked down until ashes. I don't really understand the significance, except that A.J. (our neighbor) told me that the coconut they bought burst open last night all by itself, so his mother told him he must go get another for the ceremony today. He said that he got one and when they put it into the fire today it burst open in exactly the same spot. He asked the Priest what the significance of that was and the Priest said, "I'll have to check and get back with you."  I really wanted to tell him where his wife is and that he can be with her and his family after this life, but it was not the time for that. I hope we get a chance later.

Finally, I went back to the flat to get some rest and my shadow, Sonali appeared again. We made another card and she spent an hour at our flat, before I shooed her away. The monkeys also came to visit and the mongoose as well. It was party time at our duplex!

We skyped with Shannon and the twins and Ryan sent a beautiful fathers day email, so Elder Kyle was very happy. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful children and grandchildren. We feel very blessed to be so far away and be able to see and hear them on the computer. Isn't technology grand?