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October 30th, 2013

10/30/2013

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Please enjoy these great videos of special conventions that were held in Israel & Ireland last year (2012) ... How amazing it would have been to go to Israel.
http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/conventions/video-special-convention-israel/

http://www.jw.org/en/jehovahs-witnesses/conventions/video-special-convention-ireland/

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Interesting news article from the BBC

10/30/2013

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** Does Race Matter in South Africa? **
South African analyst Justice Malala looks at the state of race relations 18 years after the end of apartheid.

< http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/world-africa-19402353 >

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A Presentation of Two Special Conventions

10/27/2013

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Saturday, October 26, 2013: After MANY hours of preparation, Rhonda, Mike & I hosted a special presentation of both Rhonda's trip to the Yokohama, Japan, Special Convention and our trip to the Pretoria, South Africa, Special Convention. We presented slideshows & videos of our trips, an interview, and highlights of a DVD that was given to visiting delegates by the South Africa branch.
As you can see, Rhonda wore a kimono that a Japanese sister gave to the Reno sisters. Thanks to Julie & YouTube, Rhonda got into the kimono & Julie tied a perfect bow in the back.
We enjoyed associating afterwards and telling more stories. And we enjoyed sharing goodies from South Africa and Japan.
Thank you to our friends & family who came and spent the afternoon with us. A BIG THANK YOU to the friends who traveled from Fernley, Silver Springs and Gabbs! It meant so much to us to have you there. Especially the sisters from Fernley who cancelled a get-together to join us. 
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You Are Invited

10/15/2013

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You are invited to a presentation about this summer's special conventions in South Africa and Japan. It will be held Saturday, October 26, 2013, at 2:00 p.m. at our Kingdom Hall, 1055 McLean Rd, Fallon, NV. 

For those who will not be able to attend we will post pictures and comments on our blog after the program.
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Another news article about South Africa with photos

10/15/2013

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2013/may/03/izikhothane-south-africa-pictures-petterson
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Mike's Photos

9/15/2013

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Finally downloaded Mike's photos. I enjoy seeing his point of view. Here are a few - please enjoy.

It sometimes feels like our trip was just a dream now that we are home & back to the routine. But we feel that we have been changed and see our world in a different way.

What a blessing this trip was. We have so many amazing memories and met so many wonderful people we will never forget.

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Interesting news articles

9/5/2013

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We've been keeping track of some South Africa news and found these two interesting. The country faces many huge issues ...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/03/white-south-africans-move-black-township

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/13/south-africa-race-transformation
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EPIC Trip Home

8/28/2013

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1. Tuesday, Aug. 27 @11 a.m. We transfer from our hotel to the Cape Town airport. Very efficient staff at Cape Town airport. 2 hr. flight to Johannesburg.
2. Long wait at Jo-burg for the 9 p.m. non-stop flight to New York. Met a brother who was has been volunteering for the past three weeks helping visiting delegates at the airport - very sweet. All the volunteers have done such wonderful jobs - they took such good care of us and were so loving and patient!
Then we eat - shop - walk - walk some more - wait forever for our gate assignment to be posted - go through security - find the office to get sales tax refund - walk some more. Finally go to our gate and get a surprise. Due to the travel warnings from the US State Dept (which we had totally forgotten about), we all had to be patted down before we could get into the waiting area to board our flight plus a passport check and carry-on search - all this AFTER already going through security. All this time in S. Africa & I didn't have to take off my shoes at a security check point or get a pat down like a criminal. Apparently this was being required for all international flights going to the U.S. The TSA is like VISA - everywhere you want to be.
3. Fly 16 hours over the Atlantic (see my earlier post from Aug. 13th "BIG Travel Day" about the flight to Africa & repeat here except we are traveling the other way.). I don't want to talk about it again. Ever. Seriously.
4. Get to JFK on Wednesday at 6 a.m. (EST). Get through massive lines in passport control and security. Claim bags (now required - they won't check through for an international  to domestic flight). Recheck bags for domestic flight. Thankful for very helpful Delta airline employee. Find our gate. Get food. This takes 3 1/2 hours at a slow pace because I don't have enough energy for my usual New York walk. And we still have 3 hrs to kill. Why??? Because we got a good deal & an upgrade on the later flight and several months ago that seemed important. It doesn't seem so important now. So here we sit & walk & sit. Thank goodness for wifi. [Note: prices in the airport shops in S. Africa are much less expensive than in NYC!! Good grief!]
5.  We eventually fly to Salt Lake & then on to Reno & finally the hour drive home. (Thank you, Billy, for picking us up at 11 p.m. (PST). It was so nice to see a friendly face!!) Two full travel days including many hours in airports. We gained 9 hours due to the time changes but used them all up waiting in airports. I really dislike airports! True Fact. But we can usually find a quiet corner all to ourselves with wifi, stretch out a bit, and stay amused by people watching.
6. Would we do this again if given the chance? Yes!! We're just crazy like that.

[No pictures posted of the travel days. For very good reason.  :-p ]
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Our Reflections of South Africa

8/27/2013

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We have found South Africa a very diverse and interesting country. We really didn't know what to expect and we didn't come with any preconceived ideas. We really don't hear that much in the U.S. news media about Africa unless it is a major event. Things here are very complex and we really can't understand everything in just two weeks. But we did talk to a lot of locals and tried to get their perspective.The following are our impressions...

SIMILARITIES: Many things here are very similar to home. You see many of the same brands esp. automobiles. The food & clothing styles are similar. Of course there are McDonalds everywhere but we saw twice as many KFCs. Most everyone speaks English and traffic signs, etc, are all in English making it a comparatively easy country to navigate.

APARTHEID: South Africa is known for their past history of apartheid. But people generally don't want to talk about the "A" word. It is understandably a sensitive topic and still in recent memory. Most wish to leave it in the past but it definitely affects the present. It was an oppressive time - blacks did not have a choice of where they could live - even whole cities like Pretoria were "white only". Workers could come into the city to work and they could live outside the city in government provided apartments or shanty towns but they were not allowed to bring their families for ten years. Blacks, "colored" (people of mixed heritage), & Indians needed papers like passports to go into white areas. Inequality was the way of life. 

This applied to all aspects of life. It was against the law for whites and blacks to meet together at all. So by law, our congregations & Branch office had to be racially separate or our brothers would face imprisonment or worse. But our spiritual brothers found clever ways around this. For example, if there was to be a wedding, the black brothers & sisters would come dressed in black & white so they looked like wait staff. The neighbors would not report this to the authorities because it looked like something they were used to - blacks serving whites at a wedding. White South Africans we talked to are not proud of the past and are hopeful for a better future.
 
CURRENT PROBLEMS: But one set of problems and injustices have been traded for another set of problems. Whites and blacks we talked to are unhappy with the economy and most unhappy are with their government. Unemployment is very high 30-40% - some areas up to 50%-60%. Thus homelessness & crime are very high. There is no welfare system. There is a well-documented corruption in the government. A lot of people have moved to South Africa from surrounding countries hoping for work or to escape civil war or poverty in their country but this adds to the homelessness & crime. 

CRIME: Johannesburg & Pretoria are the first cities we've ever visited where we were advised not to go out during the day unless we were in a large group or with locals and never go out at night. Only take taxis that were called for us by the hotel so as not to be robbed or kidnapped by a fake cabbie. Every home & business (both in nice neighborhoods & poor neighborhoods) is surrounded by high walls or fences topped with spikes, barbed wire, razor wire and/or electric wire at the top. Homes display signs showing they are protected by armed response units. 

We did notice that we saw very little graffiti. Jo'Burg & Pretoria had a lot of litter but Cape Town was relatively clean. The highways, airports and other infrastructure in the cities are very modern. Less so in the rural areas but that is similar to the U.S.

CAPE TOWN: Cape Town was a beautiful city. The homes were not fortified like in JoBurg & Pretoria. We did walk around the city center and the waterfront by ourselves during the day & felt relatively safe.

TOWNSHIPS: Many black South Africans live in "Townships" or shanty-towns. Rows upon rows of shacks are built of scrap tin or wood with tin roofs, dirt floors, no running water and no electricity. The P.C. words to call these are "temporary housing" or "informal housing" or just "townships". The Soweto township near Johannesburg has over 2 million people and one in Cape Town has 1.5 million people living within and there are many townships around the large cities. The government is trying to build permanent housing (small cinder block houses) and move township people into them but it is a slow process and people who apply wait years or are rejected. 

EMPLOYMENT: The government does hire laborers for all kinds of tasks - in some areas instead of parking meters you pay a parking attendant or instead of using equipment to dig a trench, laborers are used. We found attendants in most public restrooms (in airports, state parks, etc) which does mean the bathrooms are kept very clean. This does give some work to some people but they don't get paid much - avg. wage is $7-$8 per DAY. 

CLASS DISPARITIES: We did notice very clearly the large disparity between the classes - the "haves" & the "have nots". At the airports, most travelers are white and workers are black. At restaurants, most patrons are white and most workers are black. But at the mall, you see all races. Blacks have most of the hard labor & menial jobs. 


Generally whites have a higher standard of living. But everyone was affected by the recession and a white brother we talked to has been unemployed since 2009 except for odd jobs. Plus it is hard to get a job if you are white due to policy changes/laws kind of like affirmative action in the US but to a greater extreme.


Over 40% of the population live in extreme poverty living on an average of $2 per day. 

DIVERSITY: There are 11 official languages in South Africa: 9 tribal languages, Afrikaans (spoken by descendants of the white Dutch settlers who arrrived in the 1600s), and English - which is the universal language. Most signs are in English and most everyone we met spoke English with  cool accents sounding a little British or Australian or Jamacian. But they said they like our American accents - who knew we could sound cool?

A large community of Indians (dot not feather) live in South Africa. Workers came from India generations ago and their descendants live here. Thus we ate lots delicious Indian food. Curry - mmmmm!

There is a fairly large Muslim community here too. Back in the 1700s & 1800s when there was slavery a lot of slaves were brought from Mayalsia and Indonesia. After receiving their freedom, many settled in the colorful BoKaap area in Cape Town.

Many immigrants are moving to South Africa from surrounding African countries due to civil war, famine, & poverty. Thus there are people who speak Portuguese, French and native languages. (The European languages are due to the surrounding countries being under colonial rule for centuries.)

Despite all the challenges, our dear spiritual brothers and sisters of all races are doing an amazing job of taking care of all different language groups, immigrants, refugees from disaster areas, and building much needed Halls in their varied ministry. It's been a real eye opener for us - so very different from home.

SOUTH AFRICANS: Generally speaking we have found South Africans (of all backgrounds) to be warm, kind and very polite. Mike actually looks like a white South African - the first day we were here the driver started speaking Afrikaans to him until Mike gave him a confused look and then he switched to English. I don't think people knew where to place me as far as ethnicity. But those who found out I am half Native American were thrilled to find that out - I am a minor celebrity here now. :-)

The country is beautiful and we have enjoyed our visit here very much. We enjoyed getting to know many local people of many different backgrounds especially our spiritual brothers and sisters who were so loving, caring and giving. We would love to come back someday and do some of the many things we wanted to do but ran out of time. And to visit again with the many friends we have made along the way.
It has been an absolutely amazing experience!
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To the End of the Earth (Almost)

8/24/2013

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We arrived in Cape Town and were pleasantly surprised. It is called the Europe of South Africa & it definitely has a very European feel. The architecture is a mixture of Dutch and Victorian in the old parts of town and very modern in the city business center. It is on the Atlantic coast and the city reminded us of San Francisco or Vancouver, B.C., especially along the waterfront. It is a working port but the waterfront is also a shopping and dining destination with lots of restaurants with great seafood. We had a great view of the bay and every morning as we left the hotel we were greeted by the beautiful Table Mountain.

Everything is green and lush. There is a lot of agriculture in the outlying areas and a lot of wineries. There are quaint villages with cute shops where we all did our part to support the South African economy. We enjoyed a cellar tour and wine tasting at the 2nd oldest winery in South Africa which started making wine in 1672. They definitely know their wines. 

We also went to Cape Point which is at the bottom of the African continent. So now we have gone to the end of the earth. Well, almost. There is this other continent called Antarctica a bit farther south but we've decided to save that for another time. =)

Cape Town and the surrounding areas are beautiful and we've been told in a month when spring arrives it will be even more beautiful here. There is so much history and many museums and outlying areas we would like to visit some day.
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    South Africa

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    Kirkmans Camp Safari
    Cape Town
    Cape of Good Hope
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    Ginny & Mike

    Bestest travel buddies - EVER! 
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