July 1 to July 30

We have moved into a very nice three bedroom apartment in a five story building that has a pool and BBQ area.  

The view is not great but there is a lot of natural light which is very nice.  Who said we were going to live in a grass hut with a mud floor?

Since July 1 was Canada Day we received an invitation to the Canadian Embassy, which is close by, for a Canada Day celebration complete with poutine.  One of the embassy staff smuggled cheese curds in his suitcase!

We also had hamburgers with fellow Canadians, the Pearsons, and the Glanfields.

President and Sister Heid's three year assignment came to an end and we said good-bye to them as well 

as Stan and Nancy Pace, who were the office couple.

The missionaries gave Stan a good-bye gift of a glass of water over the head - no big deal because it is so hot that it would have been a welcome relief.

The new Mission President, Trevor Keyes and his wife Colleen arrived in time to see some sister missionaries return to their native countries

One of the first meeting the new president had was with all the mission missionary leaders.

Some missionaries wanted us to take them to the Shai Hills nature reserve for the day.   

They were kind enough to prepare some breakfast which consisted of bean paste mixed with fish and formed into a ball.  Some of the missionaries ate two of them.  Meg and I ate about one third of a ball and called it quits.

There were some ostriches and zebras in paddocks.  

Some hill climbing led to some good view points.

We took the missionaries back to their apartment

 

which was down some rough roads resulting in the mission van bottoming out a few times.

I ordered some fenders for the bikes to keep the missionaries clean when they bike through the mud after it rains.

 

We often drive past this beach scene

and still see a lot of over loaded vans on the roads.

We traded in our Nissan Navara for a new Mitsubishi truck.

A real nice departing dinner was made for a large group of departing missionaries consisting of - chicken and rice - but this chicken was real good!

  

The day after they left a new group arrived from the USA and they are now in their areas getting used to Africa and the rigors of missionary life.  I do not envy them but they do experience a lot of personal growth. 

 Some left for their areas in taxis, some in public transport vans and others in one of the mission trucks.

We took a break by enjoying some chicken fried rice.

 

Currently the missionaries do not have washing machines and have to wash their clothes by hand.

We would like to change that and have received approval to do a pilot program of installing 5 washing machines similar to the ones above in some of the apartments and see how they perform and how the missionaries treat them.

Finally, we purchased a couple of African scene paintings from a local artist.