Adventures in Africa

Please tune in to our DRCongo Mission Blog: Adventures in Africa. It is as follows:
http://headleefamily.net/

It's my turn....

It's my turn....

The first five people...
to leave a comment on this blog will receive something made by me.
However there are some limitations:

1. I make no guarantee that you will like what I make :)
2. What I create will be just for you
3. It will be done within a year (might take a while)
4. You have no clue what it is going to be
5. I reserve the right to do something really fun

Here the catch: if you choose to do this, you must post this on your blog and be ready to make something for five people too. This will be fun! When you receive the fabulous item I make you, you must post a picture of it on your blog.

A Visit to Zambia

So our Christmas Getaway began with a trip to Zambia. There we were able to meet with old friends and introduce our new friends, the Heaps to our favorite spot in Africa! We saw such a huge change in the development of the property. What started out as a raw piece of land now has a huge warehouse with 2 houses attached, good drinking water coming out of a hose, solar power, cultivated crops, chickens and 2 families and 21 kids! It was very impressive and we were very excited to see the progress as well as seeing all of our friends there.

For Christmas day we were entertained by the children and we gave the boys new hats and the girls new necklaces that Denise and I had made. We then traveled back to the Chikusus where we cooks a Mexican dinner of chicken enchiladas, tacos, refried beans and homemade salsa and guacamole. Edah was in heaven!

We stayed with Edah & Patrick Chikusu, friends we have stayed with many times before...





We got to visit the Tuesday Market, where the colors of Africa come alive!

On our way to work each morning we drive past this beautiful Jacaranda tree with its myriad of violet colored flowers. It has been invaded by a bougenvillia bush that is much darker purple. Together they have engulfed and almost consumed the lonely street light. It is simply an amazing sight. These purple trees are all over the city. Some 30 or 40 years ago someone imported tens of thousands of these trees and we are now the beneficiaries of their vision. The streets are lined with these beautiful, stately trees. When the wind blows the beautiful flowers shower down on the street leaving a purple blanket everywhere.

Following our recent mission presidents seminar Pam put on the famous family chicken Bar-b-que for all the attendees, including Elder and Sister Holland. It was a highlight for everyone.

We were so blessed to be taught for 3 days by Elder & Sister Holland and Elder and Sister Snow. Serving in South Africa is an amazing experience. It never ceases to amaze me that we can watch general conference live via sattelite television and that we get to watch "Music and the Spoken Word" every Sunday evening live on BYU TV. We continue to learn what is really meant when we say that we enjoy a fullness of the gospel.

Pimville Primary

Pimville Primary

Wild Things

We had a wonderful 3 days visiting Madikwe Game Reserve with 2 other couples from the Area Office.

Now this was a Bush Camp...meaning no electricity, no conveniences. We lived right in the game reserve with just a small electric wire for keeping the giraffes and elephants out.

The camp consists of an outdoor fire pit with braai grid; a “lapa”, or thatch-covered lounge area with couches, chairs, magazines; a dining hall (walls on two sides only) with attached kitchen; six living cabins; six showers with attached single loos, and that is about it. The shower/loo structure has a seven foot high wire-enclosed path (about 40 feet long – like a dog run) leading to the entrance in the event one happens to need to use the toilet at night and there are four-footed guests wandering about. Fortunately, the entrance to the wire enclosure was about 10 feet from the bottom step of our cabin. The anticipation of never knowing what would be waiting for us when we stepped out of the cabin in the night kept us vigilantly praying! The hostess, daughter of the owner, said that one time her father came out in the middle of the night and there were five lions waiting for him.

We arrived mid-day, and once we were settled in our cabins and had lunch we headed out for our first game drive. The cabins, approximately 15 feet square, with two twin beds pushed together, are built on stilts, presumable to allow the night wanderers a clear path through the camp. Two of the walls extend up to the canvass roof. The other two walls extend up only about three feet and the remainder of the wall is canvas to be opened during the day. At the top of the steps leading into the cabin is a gate to be fastened at night with the hope that any critter that wanted to get in bed or eat us would have to open before coming in. We fervently hoped that the beast would also have the courtesy to knock first.

We rode in big open land rovers with 2 experienced field guides who knew just where to go on the vast 150,000 acre reserve to find some of Africa's notorious wild animals. This reserve has 31 posh 5-star resorts and one bush camp. After 3 days of roughing it, we were still convinced that this was a great way to see the wilds of Africa. Save the resorts for the Carribean!

Once the sun went down the field guides used large spotlights to find animals. It got very cold and we were happy we layered ourselves with winter paraphenalia! We returned to a delicious hot meal cooked in potjie pots (like a cast iron Dutch oven). We talked around the campfire with the various other guests until we could stay awake no longer (about 9 pm).

We started early the next morning when it was VERY cold! After a couple of hours we got to stop for "tea", which in this case was hot chocolate. We were fortunate to find all the the "Big Five" - Lion, Rhino, Elephant, Leopard & Cape Buffalo. Our guides really did make sure we saw as many wild things as possible. Often times we could almost reach out and touch them...but not quite!

It was almost worth the trip alone to discover a way to have hot water in the bush using wood to heat it. It is modeled after an old Rhodesian water boiler, but in this case they call it a donkey boiler, because it looks like a donkey.

The water in the tank is heated with a fire below. When you want hot water you pour cold water into the funnel on the top. It goes to the bottom and displaced the hot water which comes out the spout at the top. To add to the charm we had a camp shower. We filled a special bucket in the shower stall with our warm water and then used a pulley to hoist it up high. Turn on the valve and the water comes through a showerhead at the bottom of the bucket. One bucket gave us a generous 5 minute shower! A treat in the bush! Needless to say, we chose the mid-afternoon when it was sunny and warm to enjoy our showers.


We hope to use both ideas in Zambia at the new Children's Resource Center.

So our African adventure continues with lots of interesting experiences sprinkled into our daily life of overseeing the many affairs of the Church in southern Africa. We wish you all could join us in all that we are doing... but since you are so far away, this blog will have to do!

Holiday with Birds

Today was a holiday for the birds.... we visited a bird garden and saw lots of colorful and interesting birds!