Cool at last!

Although the nights have been cool for a couple of weeks now, the days were nice. But South Africa recently had a very cold snap (leaving 5 dead) and the wind off the snow-clad ‘Berg (mts) chilled us to the bone. Esp as our winter clothes are in the ‘things to come’! (it was –1o in Windhoek)

We went to Étienne's school last week to get his report from last term and his results from the tests (written termly).
He got 95% for his English (not hard, I guess, when it is your mother tongue) and 86% for maths. We saw his maths paper and it was 5 sides of questions - all in Afrikaans - and sums!
He is fascinated with the Solar System at the moment and regales us with facts about the planets.

Caris delights everyone in our local Spar because she pirouettes and dances her way up and down the aisles to the canned music they play. They love to touch her hair.

Mail is proving slow at the moment. We have received 3 aerogrammes from Australia – all taking about a month. We know there have been more than that sent. (If we have not thanked you for your letter, then it means it has not arrived!) Amazingly, post from the UK has taken only about 10 days.

Here is some info about the photos I have chosen this time.

Pigs, goats, cows, chickens … you name it. They scavenge all day and every day along the streets and around the houses.
The wall for sale is for anyone wanting to build a house – they only have to build 3 other walls!
The ‘skeleton’ of a new thatched roof (see below for more info).
The cold weather means EVERYONE in the family has to forage for wood.
Toys are scarce in most families. Old tyres are a favourite. The sticks are used to guide it and the trick is to run as fast as you can, propelling the tyre in front of you, without losing control!

You may have noticed that the language we are learning has lots of ‘o’ words. Well, the word for Windhoek is Ovenduka!
A Christian is Omukriste.
A church is Ongeleka.

Then there are words to be learnt that are distinctly African:
Omulova – a drifting of game into inhabited areas to seek water in times of severe drought. If such game is killed, the meat is common property.
Onguwo – a woman’s cowhide skirt, reaching her ankles.
Oshikolola – bits of stiff ‘oshifima’ (porridge) scraped off the stirrer and given to the children before the porridge is ready to be shared and eaten.
Oxula – a sacrificial offering by a sick person, in the form of a gift to a witch doctor with the object of expelling the evil spirit causing the sickness. The size of the offering (ox, goat, hen) depends on the person’s means. The sick person retains only a small portion of the meat.
Oxuulwa – (heads of) cattle plundered as spoils of war.
Onhungila – a ring formed by forked sticks stuck upright into the ground in a circle with forks uppermost. In them is rested the skeleton of a hut roof (onduda) whilst its transverse ribs are inserted (see photo). The whole is thus lifted off the ground for ease of inserting.