Lesedi Cultural Village

About 45 minutes from our flat is a popular tourist destination, Lesedi Village, with little villages representing 5 of the tribes in South Africa. We visited today and had good weather after a week of rain. 

They began with a documentary and ended the tour with about 40 minutes of energetic dancing. In between we had a guided walk to the Pedi, Xhosa, Zulu, Basotho, and Ndebele tribes' villages. It was an interesting day spent with 5 other Area Office couples.

 Leaving Lesedi

 Basotho village from Lesotho

 Entrance to the Zulu Village

 Dancing

 Dancing

Johannesburg parks

Saturday, February 11th we didn't want a long trip out of town, but we longed to see grass and trees and not just buildings so we drove about 15 minutes to the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens. We aren't sure the reason it is called a botanical garden as only a couple of trees were identified, and there were no flowers. We still enjoyed our walk through the park as it had some steep paths, various terrain with a small waterway, a large lake that had lots of kayaks on it, several ponds and just lots of open space.

Today, February 18th we once again stayed in the city (next week we are going out of town so watch for that update!) and went to the Zoo Lake Park. It is separated from the actual zoo by a small residential area and Jan Smuts Road,  The weather didn't look favorable and we brought an umbrella, but it ended up being a very pleasant walk around the lake. There were a lot of water fowl and a few other birds. There were a surprising number of Hadeda birds which are large - they seem to be ubiquitous in gardens all over South Africa. They are rather a dull color, but have sort of a iridescent lavender on their wings in some lighting. We decided we like Zoo Lake Park best as it has more benches, more things to see and is closer by 5 or so minutes to our flat.

Hadeda Ibis

egrets in a tree

Plugs and such

Our flat has few electric outlets so we have long extension cords with a power strip on the ends. The sockets including the power strips are for large 3 prong plugs but even appliances and cell phones purchased here often have 2 prong plugs. So to charge all our devices we need several plug adapters. I took photos to try to show it. We also have no electric outlets in our bathroom, 2 in our bedroom, 2 in the living-dining room and 2 in the kitchen. It's adequate if you plan and organize your extension cords. We aren't sure which outlets we will use in winter to heat our bathroom. We will have to cover heating our flat when we come to that!   

Rhino Lion Park

February 4th we drove about an hour to the Rhino Lion Park northwest of  Johannesburg. It has a number of animals and we saw 4 lions, but no rhinos (we heard they have had problems with rhino poaching which is extremely sad). The other animals weren't as exciting as the lions as we saw them better and more frequently at Pilanesberg. it was nice to get out of the city for part of the day and see the beautiful grasslands that once exited over most of South Africa.

 Grasslands looking towards Johannesburg

 Wydah bird with its long tail when flying it looks like it has a kite trailing behind.

 Cape Ground Squirrel - lots of these cute little guys around.

 This ostrich saw us looking at her at bout 100 yards away. She came towards us at a good clip so we left. We weren't sure if she was curious or angry for having her photo taken!

Mozambique Temple Trip Visitors

We arrived at the Area Offices on January 24th with the hallway by Patron Reception so piled with bags and people we could hardly make our way into our office. The people looked tired but happy after their 40 hour trip to come to the temple. On the 26th we had the blessing of interviewing the first people to be baptized in Beira, Mozambique and then their young Stake President and his wife. They boarded the bus for the return trip shortly after we met them. What lovely people.

Military Museum of South Africa

On January 21st we  went to the Military Museum near the Zoo in Johannesburg. It covers the various wars in which South Africa was involved with emphasis on World War II, There were military uniforms, planes, tanks, etc. on display. It was interesting and educational.