Workers' Day Weekend Safaris and Cultural Enlightenment

Martha consults with a Zulu Chief at Nyama Choma in the Lesedi Cultural Village on Worker's Day

This weekend was another 3-day holiday weekend, as South Africa's Workers' Day (Labor Day), traditionally on May Day (May 1st) fell on a Sunday and was celebrated on Monday, May 2nd. We attended the Saturday matinee of the BYU Young Ambassadors' Heartsong concert at Wits University (10 minutes away). Then we made the 2 1/2 hour road trip to Pilanesberg National Park where we spent two nights and two days at the Ivory Tree Game Lodge and went on three safaris in the national park. On the way home, we stopped at the Lesedi Cultural Village in the Cradle of Humankind and enjoyed a fabulous drumming and dancing cultural performance and toured their Sotho, Zulu, Xhosa, Pedi and Ndebele villages, a fun and educational experience to say the least.

 

Bob with his former missionaries, Cieron Faerch (left) and

Sipho Mothiba and his fiancée Gugu (right) at Wits Theatre

The BYU Ambassadors' Heartsongs: Melodies of Love was an amazing performance received by a unanimous standing ovation. The warm-up act was by the South African SABC choir, who sand both classical opera and traditional African numbers in brightly colored African costumes. Then the 20 Young Ambassadors came on with a colorful, fast-paced hour of outstanding song and dance numbers about love for a sold hour without a break. Very talented and very professional! We went with Sipho Mothiba and his (now official) fiancée Gugu Letsoalo, after a brunch at Mike's Kitchen. What a fantastic show!! We met another of our Cape Town missionaries, Cieron Fearch, there after the show. 

South Africa's SABC Choir

BYU Young Ambassadors





The restaurant deck at the Lodge



The Ivory Tree Lodge pool

The Ivory Tree Lodge is a beautiful facility, and our hut was spacious, nicely appointed, and very African, as you can see from the following photos:

The Lounge at the Ivory Tree Lodge

Our African hut at the Ivory Tree Lodge, #15

The Ivory Tree Lodge Lounge and Fireplace

Our outdoor shower in our hut

Our bedroom in our hut

The back of one of the two large fireplaces

The Reception Lobby at the Ivory Tree Lodge


















We arrived at the Lodge too late for the first evening game drive, but made it for dinner. We did a 6:00-9:00 safari each morning plus a 4:00-7:00 evening safari the second night. We are confident we saw every road in the national park. Both mornings were very cold, and we were very surprised how few animals we saw, other than the antelope, wildebeests and zebra that were everywhere we looked the third hour of both drives. But our very uneventful first morning drive ended with a close encounter with the park's oldest elephant, a 55-year old 6-ton bull that stood in the road and dared us to try and pass. This giant elephant, named Amarula, is best known for a photo that went viral on the Internet where his front feet are on the roof of a VW Golf in the park. So our guide, Tracy, wasn't about to try and pass.

We waited from 8:45 until almost 9:30 while the elephant slept standing up and snored, hardly moving a muscle, and the cars backed up in a real traffic jam in both directions. Finally, after watching several vehicles turn around, Tracy turned ours around and took us back to the Lodge the long way, taking an hour rather than 15 minutes, so we didn't get back until 10:30 for breakfast.

We also saw five rhinos late in the drive including a mother and calf.

Between drives, we drove to nearby Sun City to see the amazing sights there around the opulent and exotic Palace of the Lost City Hotel, the Sun City Hotel, Casino & Convention Center and the Valley of the Waves water park. What a place! Very unique for Africa! Here are some photos of the resort:

The Palace of the Lost City Hotel in Sun City



It looks like someone from Disney put together this amazing resort



Sun City's central plaza with its monkey fountain at the entrance to the water park



Valley of the Waves water park at Sun City



Across the wave pool are water slides, including one that drops straight down

Close up of the Temple of Courage water slide that appeared to be about a 75 degree drop

We made it back to the Ivory Tree Lodge in plenty of time for High Tea and the evening drive, which was less than exciting until just before dusk, on our drive back to the Lodge when four huge lions, three lionesses followed by a male lion, walked right toward us on the road, crossed in front of our vehicle, and split up, about 50 meters apart, and surrounded a herd of impalas on their hunting expedition. It quickly got dark, too dark to get good photos, and was time to return home before they made any move toward their prey, but it was truly amazing to watch the pride set up for the hunt, seemingly oblivious to our presence. Tracy put a red filter on the spotlight as we watched the pride.

As it is getting dark, the male lion joins his lionesses in the impala hunt

The next morning drive began with our finding three different lions, a young male and two young females resting in the grass next to the road. Lions sleep close to 20 hours a day and do all their hunting after dark during nighttime hours.

The whole experience at Pilanesberg National Park, the Ivory Tree Lodge and Sun City was phenomenal, but the holiday weekend wasn't over yet. We stopped on the way home at the Lesedi Cultural Village near Hartbeespoort Dam and enjoyed a very special and educational cultural experience, including a drumming and dancing program, a real African buffet dinner feast and a guided tour through six different villages representing six different authentic and alluring South African native cultures--Zulu, Sotho, Xhosa, Nguna, Pedi, and Ndebele much like the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii shows villages from the different Polynesian cultures. Each village had its own version of round thatched roof huts with walls and floors of mud coated with cow dung, according to that tribe's culture, and we learned and used phrases in each language to communicate in the villages. Lesedi means "Light" in the Sotho language, and this was undoubtedly an enlightening experience!

The Lesedi performers do the Lesotho dance, one of five different cultures portrayed in song and dance to African drums

The Niama Choma Dining Room where we had an African feast

We were entertained with marimba music

The main courses of the buffet included beef, chicken and fish, but also
kudu, impala, ostrich and crocodile meats with rice, pap, veggies and
South African dessert delicacies like milk tart and koeksisters

The menu wall for "The Great African Feast" surrounds an elephant skull and tusks - our favorite menu
 description is the one on the bottom left: Maduma Ezinqeni - Beans That Thunder the Buttocks

A guard stands watch over the entrance to the Zulu village waiting for us
to use the key greeting phrase that would allow us to enter the village

In the Zulu village

Our guide's daughter found him in the
Basotho village and dons a Lesotho hat

Visit to the Basotho village to visit
the people of Lesotho

A few of the huts in the Xhosa village

Huts in the Nguna Village

Huts in the Pedi village



Visiting the Ndebele village



Ndbele women work on crafts

Martha waits outside the Ndbele shebeen

The exit gate from the Lesedi Cultural Village experience wishes us well in Ndbele and English as we head home

Our Release Date Announced and National Freedom Day



The Johannesburg skyline at sunset - one of the sights we will miss as we return home in July

We now know when we will be returning home, as we have spoken with our successors, Steve and Julie Broadbent from Ogden, and we have determined they will arrive on the 20th of July and we will return home two days later, on the 22nd of July. That means we will be home in Utah for Pioneer Day, the 24th of July, in less than 90 days. We simply cannot believe how fast time has flown and that it was 15 months ago that we started our mission. We are going to miss so much about Africa, but we are excited at the thought of being home with our children and grandchildren.


In the meat locker at one of our favorite Johannesburg restaurants, The
Local Grill, with our friend from Cape Town, Kari Kruger. At the Local
Grill you select cuts of beef that are either grain fed (more tender) or free
range (more tasty) steaks that are all aged either wet or dry on the bone.

Today, 27 April, is a South African national holiday, Freedom Day, commemorating the first post-apartheid elections held on this day in 1994, the first election when all South Africans could vote. In a country that is 80% black, the majority black population was denied the vote until that day, when Nelson Mandela was elected President and the African National Congress came into power, and they have been in power ever since. We chose to celebrate the holiday by going to the National Apartheid Museum in Gold Reef City to commemorate 22 years of democracy and freedom in South Africa!



The National Apartheid Museum at Gold Reef  City
which opened in 2001 vividly illustrates the rise and
fall of apartheid in South Africa, 1948-1994

 



The seven pillars of the free and democratic South African

constitution tower over the museum: democracy, equality,
reconciliation, diversity, responsibility, respect and freedom

Nelson Mandela casts his ballot on 27 April, 1994



Tribute to Nelson Mandela

At the Apartheid Museum on Freedom Day

Gold Reef City is also the home to the original Johannesburg gold mine, which we also visited in the past month. When gold was discovered, the city of Johannesburg went from a population of 3,000 to  a population of over 100,000 in less than 10 years. The town was originally named Gauteng, which means gold in the Sotho language, but was later changed to Johannesburg, named after the two Johanns that established the gold mine and the city, Johann Friedrich Bernhard and Christiaan Johannes Joubert. After the first all-race elections in 1994, Gauteng became the name of the province (state) that includes Johannesburg. Before that the province had the Afrikaans name Transvaal.

 

Visiting the underground gold mine at Gold Reef City

In our hard hats with miner's torches

 

 



Tribute by a Famous Zulu Prince

Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, left, before turning the soil in the groundbreaking ceremony, pauses to
share his tender thoughts and feelings about the Church, as a non-member, with Elder Carl B. Cook,
Africa SE Area President and with the approximately 1,500 attendees gathered for the occasion

We thought you would all enjoy reading the remarks shared by a very prominent South African politician and son of a Zulu king at the Durban Temple groundbreaking event. Dr. mangosuthu Buthelezi is 88-years old and is a Zulu tribal leader who founded the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in 1975 and served as Chief Minister of the KwaZulu bantustan (under apartheid) until 1994, when he was appointed Minister of Home Affairs of South Africa by President Nelson Mandela, where he served on the President's cabinet from 1994 to 2004.


Throughout much of the apartheid area, Dr. Buthelezi was considered one of the foremost black leaders. He played a key role in creating a framework for a negotiated solution to South Africa's racial conflict, signing the landmark Mahlabatini Declaration of Faith in 1974 with Harry Schwarz. During the CODESA negotiations of the early 1990s, he represented the IFP. Following the introduction of the universal franchise in the 1994 general election, Prince Buthelezi led the IFP to join the government of national unity, led by Nelson Mandela. He continues to serve as both leader of the IFP and a member of South Africa's Parliament, retaining his seat in the 2014 general election.


In 1964, he played King Cetshwayo kaMpande (his own maternal great-grandfather) in the film Zulu.Read what he said on Saturday:

Groundbreaking of the Durban South Africa Temple

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Remarks by

Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP

President of South Africa’s Inkatha Freedom Party

IQembu leNkatha Yenkukuleko

 

Durban, 9 April 2016

________________________________________________________

 

I extend my gratitude to the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for inviting me to witness this afternoon’s groundbreaking ceremony.

 

You are indeed breaking new ground, for this will be the second temple built in South Africa, following the first in Johannesburg, which was the first on the African continent. We therefore have reason to mark this significant moment as we celebrate the beginning of construction.

 

I look forward to seeing this temple, for I know that throughout the world the temples of the latter-day saints are magnificently designed and beautifully constructed. Visually, they convey the idea that this is a sacred place.

 

The presence of this temple will prompt those outside the church to ask questions about faith – what they believe. For those inside the church, it will provide a place where marriages and families can be sealed, baptisms conducted, and knowledge expanded. It will be a reminder to all to be mindful of the kind of life we are leading.

 

I appreciate the emphasis on marriage and family throughout the doctrine of the latter-day saints. I married my wife, Princess Irene, in July 1952, and we have remained committed to one another for almost 64 years. The Lord blessed our marriage with eight children, and I am a proud grandfather to many children. I know what it is to be family-focused.

 

I also know what it means to lose family members, for my wife and I have buried five of our children who preceded us into eternity. We take great solace in believing that this separation is temporary, and we look forward to being reunited with our children in the presence of the Lord.

 

This life, undoubtedly, is a testing experience. When I consider the hardship, trials and battles I have endured throughout more than sixty years in leadership and public life, I find it difficult to agree with the hedonists that the primary purpose of life is pleasure. I have had many moments of joy, and I consider myself happy. But I know that my happiness is a gift from God, for only He could bring me through the life I have lived with a smile on my face!

 

Nevertheless, I would do it again. It was all well worth it. This, I think, is a sentiment that all believers have the satisfaction of expressing, for we live not according to our own dictates, but according to the leading of the Lord. This has allowed me to have no regrets, for, faced with difficult choices, I have simply done what moral conscience dictated.

 

I know that this too is a central tenet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: to live a morally upright, ethical life, faithful to one’s spouse and family. It is admirable that so many young members of this church are called into full-time mission work and spend a considerable amount of time as missionaries at a young age.

 

There are so many temptations for your youth to follow, and they are so quickly led astray into greed, substance abuse, criminal behavior, and damaging relationships. By focusing young people on mission work first, before they embark on their own careers, they are being taught the principle of seeking first the Kingdom of God. In this way they will be better equipped to face temptations and turn away.

 

We need to give our youth an alternative to despair and destruction. These are very difficult times in South Africa, in which widespread unemployment, poverty and hardship are taking a toll on human dignity. Young people are looking forward to something they can believe in, for someone to follow. They want to believe that they can create change with their own actions.

 

That is the promise of democracy: that every individual has a voice and every voice has significance. Throughout this weekend, I am going from community to community encouraging people to register to vote in the coming Local Government Elections. This is about protecting democracy and seeing its promises fulfilled.

 

In this final Voter Registration Weekend, the Electoral Commission has set up stations across South Africa to enable you to register, to check whether you are on the voters’ roll, to see where you will vote on election day, and to record any change of address.

 

As patriots who believe in doing the right thing for our families and our country, we who are present at this groundbreaking must surely involve ourselves in securing good governance. I have never considered my Christianity separate from my work in politics. I am a Christian who believes in serving my country. As I walk this road, it is good to spend time with fellow believers and to share celebrations like this.

I wish you well as you build the Durban Temple, in the hope that the principles of moral living, commitment and family values will deepen in South Africa.

 

Breaking Ground for a New Temple in South Africa

A view of part of the crowd gathered at the Durban Temple site for the groundbreaking and dedication of the land on Saturday, 9 April. On the left is the VIP tent where dignitaries and Church leaders sat in the shade. The center tent is where the podium was, and the Area Presidency and program participants, speakers and prayers. On the right is the choir's tent,  and behind it the technology tent where the ceremony was telecast live around the world over the Internet.

 

View of green rolling hills from the Durban Temple Site looking north toward the airport at the N2 Freeway

On the 9th of April, ground was broken to begin construction on the site for Durban South Africa Temple and the ground was dedicated by Africa Southeast Area President, Elder Carl B. Cook. We were blessed that Elder Cook invited us to attend, and we drove over that morning, about a 5-hour drive, with the Area Executive Secretary, Elder Chuck Walton and Sister Liz Walton. As we waited for the crowd to arrive (somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 saints from the temple district and invited dignitaries and guests), we shaded ourselves from the hot sun with parasols. It was a beautiful, sunny day with temperatures in the mid-80's F. 

 

Elder Cook speaks about the temple before

pronouncing the dedicatory prayer on the land,

stating, "Today the ceremonial shovels will turn 

the soil, and the construction of the temple will 

begin. We can likewise begin building. We can

build our personal lives in preparation for the

temple. Today we can increase our faith, we can

increase our obedience to God and serve him

more fully."





The choir sings at the Groundbreaking

The Area Presidency and VIPs gather to turn the soil after the dedicatory prayer



Prince Buthelezi, son of a Zulu king and prominent politician in the Kwa Zulu

Natal Province of South Africa reads a beautiful message to the Area Presidency

and dignitaries before breaking the ground to signify the start of construction.

Turning the soil are, left to right, Ms. Frances Chisholm, US Consul General; Zulu Prince Dr. Mangosuthu Buthelezi, son of a Zulu king and a South African politician; Elder Carl Cook, Africa Southeast Area President; and Sister Lynette Cook

 

The Durban and Durban Hillcrest Stake Presidents and their wives and families take a turn with the ceremonial shovels

We even got a chance to do some shovel work at the Groundbreaking with help to show us where to dig

Standing at the future site of the Durban Temple on Umhlanga Ridge

It was a quick trip to Durban and back, but we loved every minute of it, even though we and the Waltons were out late the night before at a fabulous Josh Groban concert at the Coca Cola dome with 20,000 enthusiastic fans who were treated to an amazing concert. He included a talented South African soprano and a wonderful native youth choir, with colorful costumes and choreography, on the program.




After the dedication, we ate dinner at the Cape Town Fish Market in the Gateway Mall, next to our hotel on Umhlanga Ridge. 


           

We attended Church Sunday at the Berea Ward on our way out of town, where two of Bob's missionaries were attending, along with many visitors, including Elder Khumbelani Mdletshe of the Seventy, who presided and spoke in sacrament meeting.

Bob and two of his SACTM missionaries, Werner Heydenrych

and Paul Kriel at the Berea Ward in Durban on Sunday

As the temple nears completion, in 2018, open house dates will be announced. Today there are more than 61,000 Latter-day Saints in South Africa. The first temple in the country was completed in 1985 in Johannesburg.

The Church currently has 150 operating temples, with another 27 announced or under construction. The Church has three operating temples in Africa (Aba, Nigeria; Accra, Ghana; and Johannesburg), one under construction (Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo) and three more announced (Abidjan, Ivory Coast; Durban, South Africa; and Harare, Zimbabwe).