I have been requested to be First Counsellor to the Branch President at the Port Durnford branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
This is a really challengeing calling and I am really enjoying being Counsellor on the Presidency. I know that taditionally Port Durnford is a black branch, but that does not really matter. I love the members there and feel that they respond with love!
It is an interesting experiment. The chapel is a really large wooden shed and this is being improved the whole time. The Physical Facilities authority has installed electric connction and is busy with paving outside the chapel door.
Our nearest branch (Esikhawini) is a short trip down a really badly erroded dirt track and they have a prefabricated chapel, imported from the USA. We were originally assigned one of these and it arrived in Cape Town. There was a delay in acquiring the land we have the chapel on, and the Area Office reassigned "our" portable chapel elsewhere. This actually turned out to be no problem as Physical Facilities relocated the chapel we were using, added to the size and we have a fairly decent structure.
I used some bricks left over from the installation, to pave a small area outside the door, so no dirt was tracked in! Our Helping Hands project was where the members replaced the door (+ frame) and 2 complete windows in the home of a destitute family. Taking the one window out, the wall colapsed. I collected all the surplus bricks on the Church lot and with a bit of effort, 15 adults rebuilt the wall and replaced the door and windows.
The whole effort - whilst not nearly professional - added significantly to the quality of life for this family. It amazed me the speed that the "Homes for Humanity" projects in the USA are completed, but even so, they are built at a comparative snails pace! Sure we did not achieve a high quality finish, but it was at least as good as it was before - and it had stood for a while!
Next door to the chapel, in a week, someone has built a tiny 1 roomed shack. This was done in a week. Sure it is not fancy, but is far better than the shacks that are regularly burnt down in Soweto township fires! It is patently obvious that need is not as imperative as housing!
What kind of stuns me is that the house of concrete blocks on the same plot, that was started after I was assigned to Port Durnford, has electric lights, and the Church was advised that it would take anything from 4 to 6 months for our electricity to be connected. We have paid so how come the delay? For sure if we dont pay the bills 2 weeks after they arrive, Eskom will discontinue the power supply! Why do we have to wait 6 months and they will not wait longer than 2 weeks? That kind of reeks of double standards.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Developments
I was recently struck by how modern photos make it into print! When I was given my first camera (12th birthday) it was a Kodak Instamatic. Our family was not cash flush although my parents were able to provide the best of what we needed! We did not suffer not having the latest of toys, but were able to really enjoy the privilege of unrestricted life!
We saved up our pocket money and traded the canoe that we were given as a combined christmas present, for our first sailing dingy - a tiny red wooden boat with a sail size smaller than the nearest popular option, the Optimist.
We owned Mike (short for Microscopic!) for a few years until we upgraded it to a Goblin dinghy - we were looking for a Dabchick, kind of a large windsurfer, with a Mainsail, a Jib and sometimes a spinnaker. That was before Windsurfers were popular.
When we left Zimbabwe, we came to Zululand and here we bought 2 Windsurfers. We occasionally went (2 brothers and I) up to Midmar Dam (outside of Howick) in my Mini with 2 windsurfers strapped to the roof!
Nowadays, all you need do is click the shutter and the photo can be viewed on a screen as a digital photo. Then you can do a multitude of things:-
You can download them to the computer then:-
Burn them to disc
Poblish them to the Net
Print them off
Delete them if you change your mind - or can even delete them before you download them.
Gone are the days when you have to wait for months until the film is full and can be developed. The computer age is really an instant gratification thing! Modern kids have gotten into the habit of instant gratification.
So - age creeps up on you - not so very long ago, when I was in the Pay Corps at the death of Rhodesia, there were only around 3 computers in the entire country - 1 for the army, that was on the 10th and 11th floors of the Earl Grey building downtown. I was a full corporal and even with dizzying rank, I was not considered to have enough rank to even look at it! Now I have 3 laptops, in my small home!
I dont often feel older than 21, but there are days when I feel every inch my age! Having a leg that is not fully recovered yet, does not help much! Until I am assured that the bone that was broken when they fused my heel, has completely regrown, will I stop using my moon boot if I need to be out and about for a while. I am more confident walking, and can manage to get around without my one crutch. I CAN move around without my precious moon boot, but find that after 4 months, if I dont support my heel, I get really tired, and my heel tends to swell - no biggie since I CAN cope.
We saved up our pocket money and traded the canoe that we were given as a combined christmas present, for our first sailing dingy - a tiny red wooden boat with a sail size smaller than the nearest popular option, the Optimist.
We owned Mike (short for Microscopic!) for a few years until we upgraded it to a Goblin dinghy - we were looking for a Dabchick, kind of a large windsurfer, with a Mainsail, a Jib and sometimes a spinnaker. That was before Windsurfers were popular.
When we left Zimbabwe, we came to Zululand and here we bought 2 Windsurfers. We occasionally went (2 brothers and I) up to Midmar Dam (outside of Howick) in my Mini with 2 windsurfers strapped to the roof!
Nowadays, all you need do is click the shutter and the photo can be viewed on a screen as a digital photo. Then you can do a multitude of things:-
You can download them to the computer then:-
Burn them to disc
Poblish them to the Net
Print them off
Delete them if you change your mind - or can even delete them before you download them.
Gone are the days when you have to wait for months until the film is full and can be developed. The computer age is really an instant gratification thing! Modern kids have gotten into the habit of instant gratification.
So - age creeps up on you - not so very long ago, when I was in the Pay Corps at the death of Rhodesia, there were only around 3 computers in the entire country - 1 for the army, that was on the 10th and 11th floors of the Earl Grey building downtown. I was a full corporal and even with dizzying rank, I was not considered to have enough rank to even look at it! Now I have 3 laptops, in my small home!
I dont often feel older than 21, but there are days when I feel every inch my age! Having a leg that is not fully recovered yet, does not help much! Until I am assured that the bone that was broken when they fused my heel, has completely regrown, will I stop using my moon boot if I need to be out and about for a while. I am more confident walking, and can manage to get around without my one crutch. I CAN move around without my precious moon boot, but find that after 4 months, if I dont support my heel, I get really tired, and my heel tends to swell - no biggie since I CAN cope.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Expectations
It is hard enough to live life, without always trying to live up to expectations:-
I expect that I will be able to progress from my moon boot back to my Nike Trainers. I recently went from 2 crutches to one crutch and I can cope with my moon boot and 1 crutch! I have the ability to walk without my moon boot, but this is only in my house and I dare not go outside.
I have a spoilt daughter who expects me to maintain the car that she drives.
I have an ex wife who expects that I maintain the car registered in my name, even though I dont drive it!
She - and my daughter - dont expect to survive without access to others wealth!
On the Branch Presidency, I know that I am extremely blessed - I have cars registered in my name that I am unable to have the room in my garden to house them all! I have enough to feed myself in a manner that frankly embarrasses me when I can see that there are others who live in circumstances that I would not put up with. Does that make me a snob? Maybe, but I am grateful that I have enough to live extremely comfortably on.
I expect that I will be able to progress from my moon boot back to my Nike Trainers. I recently went from 2 crutches to one crutch and I can cope with my moon boot and 1 crutch! I have the ability to walk without my moon boot, but this is only in my house and I dare not go outside.
I have a spoilt daughter who expects me to maintain the car that she drives.
I have an ex wife who expects that I maintain the car registered in my name, even though I dont drive it!
She - and my daughter - dont expect to survive without access to others wealth!
On the Branch Presidency, I know that I am extremely blessed - I have cars registered in my name that I am unable to have the room in my garden to house them all! I have enough to feed myself in a manner that frankly embarrasses me when I can see that there are others who live in circumstances that I would not put up with. Does that make me a snob? Maybe, but I am grateful that I have enough to live extremely comfortably on.
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