Questions...

One of our wonderful missionary group leaders from our church sent me this questionnaire to fill out for her group. Some of the questions were good ones - ones I had never thought of before. So I thought I'd post it:

Favorites….

Color... Burgundy or Lilac
Food... Sweets or Italian Food
Book of the Bible... Hebrews
Verse... Psalm 145:8-9

How old were you when you were saved? 13

How long a member? 13 years

What kind of books do you like to read? Christian Womanhood or Mommyhood books.

Hobbies / Interests - a few are reading, baking, exercising, organizing, writing, playing blocks! :o)

How would you like to spend a free day, that you could do anything you wanted. I think I'd like to take my Bible and a book to Kruger Park for the day. Turn off the engine of the car and sit by a river bed and listen to the sounds of the African Bush, while reading - of course with coffee.

Please tell us about your new home....In November, we made a move to a new house. We weren't necessarily planning on moving, but the right house was dropped in our lap. My husband desperately needed an office since he works from home. In our old house, the 'desk' and Risograph was in the living room (IE: Grand Central Station) and as the kids got older and noisier :o), it was getting harder to keep the kids quiet all day. So now, we have an all-brick 4 bedroom house. One bedroom for us, one for the kids, a guest room, and then an office. It's a whole lot bigger than the other one was - and that's nice too....lots more to clean though! It has an open plan living room, dining room, and kitchen which I love.

New favorite African fruit? Litchi

New favorite African flower? What colors? Yesterday Today Tomorrow Bush...the flowers start white and change to light purple, then to dark purple and have a heavenly lilac type scent.

New favorite African store? What kind of things do they sell? Boardman's. It's a home store....sort of like Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but about a 1/4 of the size :o)

New favorite African place to eat? What type of, or description of food? Mugg & Bean - COFFEE SHOP mainly, but they do have nice meals - the closest one is an hour away....just opened up a few weeks ago....I was so excited!

New favorite African place to visit? What is to be seen or done there? Kruger Park...the size of New Jersey - great place to go on Safari!

New favorite African season of year? You will have to give us the months too. The way-too-short winter (May, June, July) because it's not 120F out!

New favorite African custom or tradition? Two things: First ~ Although at first, it was a big adjustment, we love the quiet nights in Africa. Nothing is open past 5pm. NOTHING but a convenience store. We have one restaurant and it is open later, but the mall, coffee shops and fast food are closed. It will be a ghost town by 6pm - hardly any cars in sight. We very rarely leave the house after dark. I can probably count on two hands and not need all the fingers - the times we've gone somewhere after dark in 2.5 years! Saturday & Sunday, everything closes by 2pm. Second ~ at this new house, we are at the edge of town. At night, we can see more stars than you can imagine. I love to sit out before bed and just gaze at the stars and pray or sit out with my husband.... such an awesome feeling!

You can add anything else that you would like to share with us about Africa...

Many people don't know how much of a white population (mixture of English and Afrikaans [dutch] background) there is in Africa. In town, it's probably 75% white people, of course, most of the black people live in the village. More and more though, black folks that have good jobs are moving in town too. They are glad for the opportunity. Under the previous Apartheid government, they were not allowed to live in town. Most businesses are owned by white people and operated by black people. English is the trade language, although it is a British English, so things are quite different and hard to understand. Afrikaans (dutch type language of the whites) and the local dialects are also spoken. There are 11 official languages in the country. In our province, the main African dialects are Sotho (sue-two) and Tsonga (song-a). We are currently working on both languages for conversational purposes.