Our Safari

Jerilyn and BJ came to visit us for Christmas. We flew up to Arusha where we headed off on a 4 day safari to Lake Manyara and the Ngorongoro caldera. We saw so many animals!

At the Dar airport going to our plane.
The first animal we saw. A giraffe standing right by the road!

At dinner at the Lake Manyara Lodge

At Lake Manyara:

We saw many elephants!

A large group of baboons - we liked watching the little one ride the bigger one like a horse.

Lots of giraffes

The crater

The crater view from our hotel room balcony

In the crater:

A beautiful Cheetah that our wonderful tourguide James skillfully tracked

A pride of female lions and their cubs

Two male lions resting in the shade of the safari vehicles

A sleepy brown-backed jackal

A zebra mom and baby

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful African Christmas! Here are some pictures of our Christmas DDM meeting. The elders had a fun time playing "ho ho ho"

WE HAVE A PET!!

Our missionary friends, the Kenyons, have a little kitty who has adopted them as its supportive family. It comes to their door and meows, and it knows that they will open the door and fix a bowl of cat food for her. Well, we now have a pet too, but ours is a monkey! She is a cute little critter who is very friendly and curious. She was outside our front door and the crows were really harrassing her. They were making an awful noise. When I looked out, there was a cute little monkey in the yard. She jumped up in the tree just outside our office window. We went outside with the camera to see her better and take some photos. She was not afraid but watched us very carefully. Ken decided that we would see how she liked mangos. Guess what? She did! He set a piece up on a branch very close to us and she hurried right down and grabbed it, then ran up to the bushy part of the tree and ate it. He repeated the process, and she was there in a flash. She didn't seem to get full (or tired as our African missionary friends say). We had fun with her for at least a half hour and then we had to leave for an appointment. She was sitting on a branch and I heard a sound and looked over and she was peeing all over the driveway. Glad I wasn't underneath that! As we got in the car, she kept watching us and I had a good shot of her, so I asked Ken to wait while I got another picture. When I opened the window she came running down the branch and got so close that I was afraid that she would jump in the window on my lap. I wasn't sure what I would do with a monkey in the car, so I quickly rolled up the window and forgot about the good picture. It is fun to be living with the unusual animals that we see here. We often see a mongoose family in our yard, and about a week ago we saw a lizard in our neighbors driveway that was 3 feet long. When we drove in, it quickly disappeared across the porch up the wall and into some shrubbery. Kinda fun, just have to watch where you walk!

TERMITES...........Delicious???

A normal stop off at the church turned into a Biology lesson. When we arrived, the gardener, his boss Brother Onditi and another member of the church were busy under the tree digging up the ground. When we inquired as to what they were up to, we were told that they had just located the queen and they were just watching the termite soldiers. I didn't know that the termites had queens or soldiers. In fact, I didn't know what a termite looked like. I knew the kind of damage they can do, because the house we live in had to be fumigated when the last couple lived here because of all the termites and the damage they had done. We don't have termites now, but we still live with a lot of their damage.

The queen was as long as and as big as my little finger. She was cream colored and about 90% of her was a big abdomen. She couldn't move, so the workers had come to rescue her and had gotten the troops together and they were trying to move her to safety. It was amazing to see the number of termites that were in the colony. They weren't eating the tree roots, but the tree was just a protection for them. Is it any wonder that the buildings here are made of concrete and not wooden structures like at home?

The gardeners moved on to the next tree which they found to also be infested with termites. They found a queen in that colony too, and an equal number of termites. It was an amazing thing to watch.

The kicker was that as they were telling us about them, they said that some people eat the queens. Gaaaagggggggggg! John came to the church to meet us about some business and he told us how as kids they used to put a green stick down into a termite hill and leave it for a minute and then pull it out, and there would be termites attached to it. I asked what they would do with them and he looked at me and said "Sister Jensen we would eat them, they are very delicious!" Later that day, Sister Taylor (wife of the mission president) told us that Elder Brewer ate them when he was serving in Kitale (out in the Kenya sticks). At zone conference, he admitted that it was true and that he liked them! He also likes surfing and Bath and Body Soap!
Same guy, different days!

INTO THE WATERS OF BAPTISM!

On September 28th, 2008 there was a special baptism at the Ubungo Chapel. Our friend and garderner, Melkiory Said Mganzwa was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Elder Jensen. This was a great blessing for us to see Melkiory accept the gospel and keep his commitments, and desire to be baptized. He is such a good guy with a great interest in all aspects of the Church and a desire to keep learning. He has been the most faithful person attending our Temple Preparation Class. We call him our little "sponge"! He has since been confirmed and will soon be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood. This morning he learned how to tie a tie so that he can be prepared to fulfill his calling in the Priesthood.
He has been the gardener for 3 or 4 couples here, and has had much exposure to the Church. Our lesson learned is that you must keep asking and inviting, and when the time is right, they will accept.
He has a brother who is interested in the Church, and would like to be baptized, but he does not speak English. He must attend English classes and learn to speak so he can be taught in English, and then he also could be baptized. Perhaps Melkiory will have the opportunity to baptize his brother. That would make him very happy!

IT'S A WHOLE SET!

It is finished! Dr. Bo Werner finally got the installation completed. Elder Jensen is once again allowed to smile. He did a good job and it actually cost considerably less than it would have in the US. It was also a good chance to give out a Book of Mormon and a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. The dentist was a very interesting fellow.

Where's The Tooth?

Ken is in the midst of experiencing an African Nightmare! One thing that we hoped for when we came to Africa was that we wouldn't need to go to the Dr. or the Dentist. We have taken several elders to the Dr., and Ken was having a problem with a tooth so decided that he needed to go see the dentist. It was not a bad experience for him. The tooth was fixed, and we were only out about $60 bucks, so all was well. But..... it was only a few weeks later that we were having dinner at a fancy restaurant with two missionary couples, and I looked over at Ken and he looked like our 7 year old grandson with a big hole in the normal row of top front teeth. I asked what happened and was told that when he bit a roll the tooth broke off. YIKES!!!!

He has been lucky because he hasn't had any pain. He stewed for about a week, wondering what he should do. He called himself Snaggle Tooth, I told him he looked like a hillbilly, and I would have called him Petie if that wasn't my name. He decided to go back to the Swedish Dentist in the city. He had a root canal, which the dentist called a root filling and they took impressions. Finally after two weeks, the tooth arrived from Nairobi. It fit great at the top end, but the bottom end was way too long. The dentist couldn't figure out what had gone wrong, but he decided to see if he could shorten it so Ken could close his mouth so his back teeth would touch. He drilled until he hit the metal inside the tooth and finally decided that it wasn't going to work. He took new impressions again, and told Ken not to change his bite. Ken tried to explain to him that he only has one bite and that is the one that he used last time, this time and that he will also use it the next time it is needed. Well, we are again waiting for a new tooth from Nairobi! It doesn't bother Ken a bit, but it sure bothers me and I try to remind him to smile with his mouth shut!

African Dresses

It was a fun new experience to go shopping in Kariakoo. We went with our friendly guide, John. Kariakoo is the main african shopping place in Dar. Mzungus (white faces) are few and far between. We hadn't even considered going until John offered to take us. He said we needed the experience! It was an experience!! I wanted to take pictures, but didn't feel like I should, so I just have memories. We bought material, and then John took us to a tailor.

There we selected a dress from a picture on a poster. Then we were measured and were told the dresses would be ready to pick up in two days. I am now an American African with an African dress. In fact, I have two! It cost 10,000 shillings to have each dress made and 10,000 for the material for two dressses. So, altogether, two dresses cost 30,000 shillings or about $27.00. I wore my dress to church on Sunday and received many compliments.

It is a great skirt and top combo with zippers and completely lined. What a bargain!!!!!

An African Wedding!

In Africa, you have to do what you have to do to get the job done. Dissi and Pricilla wanted a temple wedding but in Tanzania you have to be married civilly to have the government recognize it. Then you can travel to South Africa and be married in the temple. That was their plan until Pricilla, a Ugandan, couldn't get a visa from Uganda to travel to South Africa. On Thursday, they called John (our church employee) for help. They wanted him to go to the South African High Commission and apply for a visa for her from Tanzania. John knew that she would need to be a Tanzanian to accomplish the visa in the short time allotted. He told them they would need to get married that morning so he could go apply for the visa. As soon as she is married to a Tanzanian she is recognized as Tanzanian. They came to our house and had an invitation letter written by Elder Jensen then the Branch President was made aware of the situation as well as the witnesses, and they all met at the church to preform the ceremony. With the necessary documents signed, John was off to the city to accomplish his task of getting a visa so they could make it to the temple on their scheduled flight early Tuesday morning. The thing you need to realize, is that in Africa things don't happen in just one or two days. Sometimes it takes many days and many visits. John is amazing, and he knew that he needed to give it his best shot to make it happen, and they had to be married.
The wedding couple carried out the original wedding plans at the church on Saturday afternoon, and I don't know how many of the people knew they were already married when the Branch President married them again for all of the family and guests. They had a cute bridal party and I took some pictures showing them exiting the church after the ceremony and around the church. Notice the darling children! They were so cute and well behaved. I don't really know why, but they always drive a rented car that has ribbons and roses, so I had to take a picture of that too. The Uganda ladies all came in their traditional Ugandan dresses. You won't have a hard time picking them out. (I have video of the Ugandans chanting and dancing, but it won't upload for some reason.) It was really fun to be there. The couple pictured is Tom and Mariam. They got married right after we got here, so they have been married 6 months. We didn't go because we didn't know them and we weren't invited. What we didn't know is that "ya'll come" is how you are invited and welcomed.
Tom and Mariam had a crisis making it to the temple when they got married too, but they made it, and are now happily married and leaders in their branch.
The rest of the story is that John was able to pick up the visa on Monday and the happy couple left for the temple in South Africa as scheduled on Tuesday morning. Heavenly Father wants the young people to make it to the temple, but he wants them to have to work to get there! The temple patron fund helps young people go to the temple; without help from members of the church, they could never afford to go. Check out your donation slip!

42nd Wedding Anniversary

On August 4th, we celebrated our 42nd wedding anniversary. We've put up with, loved and enjoyed each other for a good many years! We had a great anniversary at Mikumi National Park with Jamie, Joni, WendiLyn and Elder and Sister Kenyon. We spent the night in a tent in a game reserve (a luxury tent)! Who would have dreamed of spending an anniversary on safari???

Air Mail from the USA

On August 2nd we went to the airport to pick up three air mail packages from the USA.




The only problem was that they were labeled return to sender after 10 days. Jamie, Joni, and WendiLyn were our special treat. We had a great visit with them, and now that they have returned home, we hope that they have pleasant memories of their visit to Africa. We went on a short safari to Mikumi National Park, spent a night on the beach at Kigamboni, and had some authentic African experiences at John's Shamba. But I think the highlight was attending church and seeing the gospel in action in Eastern Africa. We were able to share the gospel with two new friends, and were delighted to have Neema attend church with us on Sunday and even witness a baptism. We enjoyed your visit girls, and now you can share Africa with your families.