Fifa Fever

The World Cup starts in a few days, and signs are everywhere around the country, like in George where we were for two weeks.

George is particularly host to Japan.

For Josh's birthday, we had a special lunch at McDonald's where they had a Count Down showing 20 more days, 14 hours, 49 minutes and 29 seconds until the World Cup Soccer championships begin.

Paul & Evangel made it on a long hike with Benjamin to Pepsi Cola Falls. Tim, Josh, and I almost made it, but we wimped out because of blisters.

Josh's legs and an elephant's leg--whose is prettier? For his birthday we went to George museum.

I am so not a pottery/china expert, but I've learned to spot the Willow Pattern in china here. In the pictures, you can see the story of a princess who tried to run away with a commoner, since her father wouldn't let them get married. They were captured and then turned into birds and flew away. It's not strictly a true story, but see the 2 birds near the top of the plate?

And my favorite moment in the museum. I tinkered with a music box, and that antique blasted out music as though it were attached to big speakers! Evangel dropped to the floor to hide. It was kind of fun to be the embarrassing one for a change.

gorgeous George gorge

There's a treasure of beauty at the end of this rainbow.

Monkeys continue to intrigue us...

even their cute little footprints on the volleyball sand.

Volleyball: our new family sport! We drilled and played and felt very sporty. I hope we do more in the future.

See the whale!

We moved to George on Saturday where we are staying with a dynamic widow lady named Leonore Bushakowitz and her son Benjamin. They took us on a hike into the scenery yesterday. Today, blogging is about the only thing I can do without having knees or thighs scream at me.

Evangel looks fresh at the beginning of the hike. She was even pinker when we were done.

We hiked to the end of the earth, the beginning of the sea.

We'd better skip the next few pictures. It was steep.

Evangel brought her book. She's a Sherlock Holmes addict.

We climbed down to this isolated beach, where we explored caves, dipped our feet in cool water, and lounged for awhile before heading back. Josh signed his name, so you can tell I snapped this on the way back.

Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well! Ps. 139:14b

Daniel Boone & his faithful steed Berwick

I'm in love with this picture. Danielito looks so serious, so aware of his important mission in life, and Berwick is in a noble pose. Our two babies have come a long way in less then 2 years.

How did James and Gloria get them to be still?!? Did Daniel get dumped 3 seconds after the picture?

The Willows

While Paul is preaching in Port Elizabeth, he stashes the family at the Willows. We've stayed here enough times over the years that it has lots of memories. Here's our "rondavel" where we're staying this time. Thatched roofs again! I thought this sign was funny. The Eastern Cape has been having dry times, so water use is restricted, but it just looks funny with the whole Indian Ocean there in back of the sign. It's been raining today, so I think the water shortage must be over soon.

This time, Timmy has been doing a pop-up book of London. We have a new respect for pop-up books after all the time and effort that went into this one.

A special Willows tradition is bran muffins in the tea cups. Paul, Evangel and Tim are vying for the affections of this last muffin.

A new thing that might become a tradition is Hermit Crab Races. We drew a circle and put the crabs in the center. First one out of the circle wins! I think this was one of the fast guys, but I'm not sure. Maybe next time we can put little numbers on their shells.

Daily monkey visits are a Willows highlight. How many do you see in the photo? there are 4, see the baby? That's me, teasing them with a banana. It's not a good idea to feed them, but it's fun. They lose their fear of people, and they don't just beg, they DEMAND a banana. They also riffle through the trash, and make a dreadful mess.

Craddock-just a glimpse

Craddock is where we landed between "jobs". Paul had to preach in Hofmeyr, a little town which reportedly doesn't even have a restaurant, so we found a place to stay in nearby Craddock.

Who needs a sign saying "Keep off the grass"? Not Africans! Someone just put huge thorns on
their lawn to get that subtle message across.

True I wanted a picture of Tim straining over his school work, but also I just loved the colors and pattern in this quilt.

Craddock is known for this street, where all the houses are authentic Victorian. I'd like to tell you all about it, but I can't remember the name of the street, or the years, but I do remember that it's a rare thing to have all the houses still there from Victorian times.

Notice the Karoo sky in the background. I read somewhere, while we were in Craddock, that the Karoo is the most people-friendly desert in the world. It's not nearly as dry as the Sahara, for sure, and a lot of people do live and even farm in the Karoo.

In Craddock, we went to a little museum about a 19th century authoress named Olive Schreiner. She was a "free-thinker" which includes being an aetheist. Evangel was slightly intrigued by her, wondering, as we all did, what went wrong. Her parents were missionaries with the London Missionary Society. She had rather a sad story, in spite of her fame and fortune.

At the museum, the guy in charge told us that if we visited the local cemetary, we could see a grave for Harry Potter. We haven't read the book, or seen the movie, but I thought a picture of a Harry Potter grave would be fun, for my blog. Unfortunately, I didn't decide that until the man was long gone, so I couldn't ask where the cemetary was, or where in the cemetary the grave was.

We found the cemetary, no problem, but it was a big, big place. We were out for a family walk anyway, so we spent a long time hunting Harry Potter. Next time, we ask for directions. We never did find him, but we did find many of interest including the poor guy below.