This past Thursday, December 16th, was a national holiday here in South Africa.... The Day of Reconciliation.  To give a little overview, here's a quote from Wikipedia: 

The Day of Reconciliation is a public holiday in South Africa held annually on 16 December. The holiday came into effect in 1994 after the end of apartheid, with the intention of fostering reconciliation and national unity.  Apartheid  was a system of legal racial segregation enforced by the National Party government in South Africa between 1948 and 1994, under which the rights of the majority 'non-white' inhabitants of South Africa were curtailed and minority rule by white people was maintained.   Before 1994, 16 December was commemorated as the Day of the Vow[1], also known as Day of the Covenant or Dingaan Day. The Day of the Vow was a religious holiday commemorating the Boer victory over the Zulus at the Battle of Blood River in 1838.  The Battle of Blood River, so called due to the color of water in the Ncome River turning red from blood,  was fought  between 470 Voortrekkers led by Andries Pretorius, and an estimated 10,000–15,000 Zulu attackers on the bank of the Ncome River, led by Zulu chief Dingane ka Senzangakhona on 16 December 1838, in what is today KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

To celebrate the day, we went to the Apartide Museum with the Neilsons, another missionary couple from California.  We spent over four hours with a wonderful personal guide who gave us a detailed history of South Africa, with an emphasis on the racial conflicts that were a part of the country from the very beginning.  See the two pictures in a post I did earlier today. The one picture below was taken outside the museum showing a walkway with a series of mirrors with images of both black and white South Africa citizens superimposed showing them walking them together.  The rock wall along the one side of the walk is made up of small rocks representing all those (almost all black) who died working in the gold mines.  Johannesburg began as a gold mining camp, and the mining continued right up to recent years.  You can see the mine tailings everywhere you drive.  The city is located in the Province on Guateng (pronounced "How'- teng").  Gauteng means "Place of Gold".

The other picture below is of Leonard Tehbe and his family.  We met with Leonard last weekend while we were in Botswana.  He is the Church's Director of Public Affairs for Botswana, and he workes at the US Embassy in the country's capitol, Gabarone.  He is working with us a several projects in Botswana.  In the picture, note the chart behind him.  It shows his Ward's effort to help establish a separate Stake in Botswana.  Right now, they are part of a South Africa Stake. For my friends who are not members of the LDS faith, a Stake is a unit in our Church that is over several congrations, perhaps like a Diocises in the Catholic Church.  Wards and Branches are single congrations falling under a Stake.  One interesting note on Leonard....... he says he has had several opportunities to travel on Air Force One.

A little trivia .......  here they refer to a traffic light as a "Robot".