Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Happy Birthday Doc!

Happy 57 th birthday to the Doctor!
Who would have thought that you'd be in Africa for your birthday? Oh maybe just about everyone that knows you and your lust for adventure.
It was a great day for the Doctor! He got two of the best presents he could think of.
Kris ( our oldest son) and mandolin player in the Bluegrass Band -- Fed Ex'd ( I'm sure at great expense) the recently released copy of Bluegrass Renaissance by the Red Mountain Bluegrass Band. For those of you that don't know, that was the band the doctor and his family played in before our departure to Africa.
Gavin our 4 year old grandson called -- Really Long Distant--to Grandpa and sang Happy Birthday to him over the phone. He also told him that he would get the shiniest coin out of his piggy bank and sent it to him for his birthday!
We sure love those Grand kids they just melt our hearts!

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Interesting Names

Since being here in South Africa we have met a lot of wonderful people. The interesting thing is their names. The Malagasy ( those people from Madagascar) have the longest last names. Many have at least 28 letters in their last name. This is why you call them by their first names. ( Elder Sam or Sister Joan) The Elders and Sisters from Madagascar have to have a smaller font used on their name tags and in most cases Elder or Sister is the first line and their last name takes up the second line!
Here in South Africa they have very interesting first names--Here is my top ten unusual name we have run into---
Precious
Beauty
Zebulon
Ajax
Petunia
Queen
Princess
Prince--I guess Michael Jackson has used this one!
Gift
Blessing--this is a returned missionary who is the Young Men's Pres. in our Branch and is learning to play piano.
The next time we meet an Elder or Sister from Madagascar I am going to take a picture of their name tags!