The Lees in South Africa 2016-2017: February 2017

It is hard to believe that we are past our one year mark! What a fast year it has been.

The temple has been closed for the past two weeks and we finally got to fly to Lesotho to do some training.

I apologize that my pictures are out-of-order this month. But, hopefully, you will get the flavor of the country of Lesotho (pronounced le-su-tu).

The Basothos speak Sasotho in Lesotho!

Our training covered two days - Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. We were hosted by the senior couple serving in Lesotho, the Chandlers. They were training their replacements, the Dransfields. The Chandlers leave March 1st to go back home. So, this was a very busy time for them as they said their goodbyes, trained their replacements and took time out to host us. After our training on Saturday, we had plans to go to lunch at the mall. We had only been gone 5 minutes when the Chandlers got a telephone call telling them that one of the young sisters that we had just been speaking with had been hit by a drunk driver right across the lane from the Chapel. She was on the sidewalk when she was hit. The branch president took her to the nearest public hospital so we dropped our plans and drove to the hospital to help out. When we got there we found that she was still in the waiting room and had not been looked at. She wasn't bleeding so, therefore, was not a priority. She was in a lot of pain and I was worried she might go into shock. Sister Chandler got a wheelchair and said that we were going to take her to the private hospital. So, we drove across town and got her settled into that hospital where she was immediately placed in an exam room. Elder Chandler took us back to our hotel after that. The next morning when he picked us up for church, there was this young sister. Fortunately, nothing had been broken, but her foot had been dislocated. She was very sore and had her foot wrapped but was able to walk on it. She was one very lucky young lady. We were so pleased that she was okay and wasn't hurt any worse than that. Since she lives alone, she was staying a couple of nights with the Chandlers.

Our training was well attended and went very well. We had all but one of the family history consultants there plus the district family history director. We had the district president and two branch presidents and other leaders attending also. Probably around 15 or so each day.

Elder Chandler and me before we started training on Friday.

Elder and Sister Dransfield visiting with one of the members

President and Sister Makura (branch president from Leribe, Lesotho. Sister Makura is the Primary president in Leribe).

Sister Puseletso Rasephei and Sister Lucy Motsopa (Sister Rasephei is a branch consultant and Sister Motsopa is the district family history director)

After training on Saturday, I worked with one of the young consultants to get her registered on Family Search.

Here is where the pictures get a wee bit out of order.......

After we trained in Lesotho, we flew home and did laundry and packed up to travel north to the Limpopo Province for a few days. We ended our trip with a day in Kruger National Game Reserve.

The following nine pictures are from our drive through Kruger.

Baby Zebra

This is the largest giraffe we have ever seen.

Yellow Billed Hornbill

African Harrier Hawk

Southern Carmine Bee Eater

Hippos at Crocodile River

Meanwhile, back in Lesotho.....a drive in the mountains in the rain. Lesotho is high elevation and the people traditionally wear blankets of mohair in place of coats. They also wear distinctive hats of straw.

Rondells in the mountains - people raise gardens and raise sheep, goats and cattle.

More farms.

Typical mode of transport

Going up the mountain

More homes - this is an absolutely gorgeous area!

No electricity, no running water, no inside plumbing....

Hard life especially in the winter.

A view down on a small village.

Our pictures do not even begin to do justice to the beauty found here.

Herd of cattle being moved to a different pasture.

Man wearing a blanket and carrying a bag of greens.

High mountain flowers. These were right next to a small waterfall.

A view of a small village.

Lesotho was getting a lot of rain and the ground was getting saturated. They need the rain - they have been in a drought for several years now.

Man walking with his donkey and sheep. He is wearing his blanket with his straw hat.

Can't remember the name of this little town - but this is the main street. The tin sheds were their stores.

More rondells in the mountains.

Back in South Africa a very sad sight and very sobering.....

The Witkruismonument outside Polokwane, a series of crosses erected in memory of murdered South African farmers.

Farmers are being murdered and their farms taken by blacks.

Sight of the workshop where local women and men send their embroidered pieces to be lined and made into placemats, pillow covers, runners, etc.

Kaross gives the cloth and yarn to local women and men and then they embroider the pieces. It takes 6 weeks or more to do about six items. Absolutely beautiful work and the income gives the local people a way out of poverty.

Termite hill - natures work of art!

Helmeted guinea fowl with chicks

View from our balcony in Tzaneen in the Limpopo Province

This was our last day in the area and we finally got to see some of our view. The rain had stopped and the sun was coming up.

Again, pictures do not do the landscape justice.

South Africa has two monkeys - the Samangoe and the Vervet. These are pictures of the Samangoe monkey. Very elusive and lives in the high elevations in densely forested areas. We were lucky enough to see some of these on the property of our hotel.

Continuing down the road we drove through the Blyde River Valley - again, our pictures don't even come close to the breathtaking beauty we were seeing.

The mountain in the background is called the "Three Rondells" because they look like the rondells people live in.

It is a LONG way down!

I am with a "Lee" so, of course, we take pictures of Lizards, Bugs, etc. Actually this guys was really pretty.

Another view of the river and the "Three Rondells"

AND, another one!

This is called the Berlin Falls. Lots of rain makes for some very nice waterfalls.

Back to Kruger.....

Seeing Hyenas was a first for us! There were three in this spot eating on some kind of carcass.

Cape Buffalo

Dead tree = vultures!

A really BIG wart hog!

Yellow Billed Hornbill, again!

European Roller

Blue Wildebeest

This is a Ground Hornbill - really big and really not so pretty.

Impala posing!

Big bull elephant

And the same fellow!

Baboons

This is a Vervet monkey - the "other" monkey in South Africa.

Another Hornbill

This is the rest of the Zebra family crossing the road.

AND back to Lesotho.....

This was the workshop of some weavers not far from Maseru where we stayed in Lesotho.

These ladies do their weaving by hand. She is weaving the "First Vision"!

The spinning wheel for making all of their yarn from mohair.

This was such a fun building - it was built out of beer and soda cans. As you can see, all neatly arranged with labels out and color coordinated. The outside was painted red!

The Chandlers had asked the ladies if they could weave something from a photograph. They said yes and ended up with many, many orders for the tapestry of the "First Vision".