After unpacking an avalanche of dirty washing and what seems half the sand of Botswana, we are finally settled back into a routine after being away in Botswana for a few days’ camping in order to re-enter and seek to renew Katie’s tourist visa.
As you can see from the map, leaving the country to go anywhere but Angola is a trek. Angola would have been first prize but one needs to first be officially invited by someone inside Angola, then you need to apply to the consulate and wait (and wait) for a permit to be issued.
On our first day we drove as far as Rundu and stayed in a lodge David stays in when he is doing workshops over there. The owners are very supportive of NETS and sponsor people to do the course in return for their doing jobs around the lodge.
We enjoyed sleeping next to the river, after being so long away from the sight of water. Caris spotted a croc in the river and, to Katie’s delight as she had SO wanted to see one, a chameleon!
The next day we crossed over into Botswana and drove down to the Swamp Stop; our campsite for the next few days. It was a lovely place to stay, though very hot. We enjoyed a boat ride on the Delta. Katie and the children went twice, once with the parents of friends the children met there. They saw croc and hippo, fish eagle and kingfisher.
One day we drove to the nearby world heritage site of cave paintings, called Tsodila Hills. [See blue dot] David’s shortcut turned a 50 minute journey into a 3 hour trek along tracks deep in sand and often strewn with tree branches. There were no sign posts and, when coming to a fork, we had reply on which road seemed to be more used and seemed to be heading in the direction we presumed the elusive hills lay! Good old 4WD! We found out afterwards that this was the ‘old’ road and no longer used since the gravel graded road further to the North (the road we took home). However, we did get to see a buck, eagle and hornbills. And had an Adventure! The downside was that we arrived at the Hills near midday and it was simply too hot (particularly for the children) to walk the minimum 2 hour tour so we contented ourselves with looking at a few nearby rock paintings then heading back to camp!
Before long, we were back in the car along more (seemingly endless) dirt roads to reach the tiny border crossing near Tsumkwe. We stayed the night on the Botswana side with a lovely South African missionary family, the van Jaarsveldts, who have lived there for 6 years to share the Good News with the local San community. [See orange dot] They live in a house with no water (except hand-pumped from a bore), no electricity (except what can be got through solar power), and what used to be an 8 hour journey and is now a 4,5 hr journey along (no longer quite so) terrible dirt roads to get to a supermarket! Now THAT is suffering for the Gospel! David had met them once in Grootfontein on one of his NETS trips there. (They had come over the border to do shopping in a real supermarket!) It was a lovely time of Christian fellowship. The day had been cloudy so there was not much power in the solar batteries, but they turned on a generator in the evening and we watch ‘End of a spear’, which was extremely moving, especially in that sort of setting. I ‘showered’ in the morning under a bucket of water with a hose and nozzle that could be turned on and off. They told us about one of the San families who live 6 hours’ walk from the nearest water. To bathe the children they scoop out a little sand to make an impression then lay on an empty plastic meal sack. A cup or so of precious water is poured into the hollow. The child squats on the sacking and is wetted, then soaped down, and rinsed with that handful of water.
Then we skidded and ploughed our way along the sandy road to the Dobe border. As you can see on the photos, this remote border post is little more than a small room on both sides. This was the moment of truth … would Katie be issued with an additional 3 months? To cut a complicated story short, she was graciously granted 1 month and we are now applying for an extension for a further 2 months as she is due to fly home in December. Please continue to pray for her in this matter.
Now it is ‘business as usual’. Caris is enjoying the harp. Katie is learning about the harp even as she teaches Caris! They are assisted by fortnightly skype lessons with a harp teacher in South Africa. She has just read ‘The Ordinary Princess’ by MM Kaye. Étienne has read through 5 of my E Nesbit novels. He loves them as much as I do. The Treasure Seekers and Would-be-goods are my favourites!
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