Life in the slow lane

Two of the pix below are self-explanatory. The other three have a bit of a story behind them.

The water lily is a very beautiful by-product of many of the oshanas (water catchment areas when it rains enough to flood). Because of the harsh landscape and the sandy soil and the fact that everyone’s energy goes into growing crops to survive, flowers are not something one sees here except in some cultivated gardens. So the pink and lilac lilies are a lovely sight.

The tree photo has some (barely discernable) flags at the tops. These are in the SWAPO colours (South West People’s Organisation, the ruling political party; blue, red and green). When there are no floods, this tree marks the SWAPO meeting place for the region.

The one offering ‘ental room’s’ has nothing to do with Easter! In Oshiwambo, L and R seem very interchangeable. Roadside businesses offer ‘Blicks’ and ‘Building Brocks’. We were trying to explain to Amalia what ‘rice’ was. She finally realised what we meant and said, ‘But we call it ‘lice’!’. So then we explained what an English speaker would understand if he was offered ‘lice’ to eat. Ah, the joys of language J