Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Of cow pats ...
Here is a pic of the dried spinach cakes that David thought were cow pats … and was horrified when the lady ate a bit. See below for full story!!
Monday, June 26, 2006
June news
How does one start to learn a new language without the benefits of language classes?
This is the problem we are learning to solve. Of course, we do not have it as tough as the pioneers missionaries who had to sometimes even create a written language for the people they were with.
David told a lady working at Telekom that he was trying to learn the language.
She said “No problem, just get an Oshiwambo girlfriend.” Unfortunately, or fortunately, this is not an option, but one can see how practical it could be! A 24 hour a day language helper!
The first missionary to Namibia, Heinrich Schmelen, did just that. He built a little mission station when he came to Namibia c.1812.but the Nama were nomads and he kept ‘losing’ his flock when they went off to better grazing. So he married a Nama woman and became a Nomad with them for 12 years. This is truly what some people call the “incarnational model”. It is so named after the “incarnation”: Jesus, very God, becoming flesh and living amongst the people he was trying to reach, and becoming like them in every way.
So here are some ways we are tackling language learning:
1. With Amalia coming in 2-3 mornings a week. We have bought Kwanyama primary school books and translate them, but this is a bit hard in that we do not understand many constructions because we don't yet have a grammatical foundation. As Amalia did not finish high school, and the education system did not give her a good grammatical grounding, she is often not able to answer our questions.
2. We use a useful grammar book but it does not have exercises.
3. There is also an interesting book written by a Finnish missionary at the turn of the century. There is a danger that we will learn some archaic words (!) but at least he includes exercises (‘call the servants and wake the hunters’, ‘light the fire and cook the porridge’, ‘take the cattle to the herdsmen’).
4. We have a Kwanyama-English dictionary but no English-Kwanyama. So I am slowly compiling one for us as I type words into a flash card programme we downloaded off the internet. I am up to 4,300 words. It is a laborious process but I am sure other people will also benefit from it, too.
David has almost finished the Oshiwambo gospel tract he is designing. He will take it down to the market next time he goes for fine-tuning … checking with the people that the words used are current and appropriate.
5. Going out and talking to people in shops, markets etc is VERY useful, but they speak so FAST that it can be discouraging at times. Listening to the local news on the radio sounds like a 33 record on 45! But we know that, word by word, it is slowly seeping in! The fact that it is tonal, too, is hard. There are many words that are written the same but are pronounced differently and mean totally different things!
6. David goes to an Oshiwambo church on Sunday mornings (and stays on to do a TEE workshop there). He is labouring through a translation (into English) of the order of service at the moment.
The fact that there are three main languages spoken in Ongwediva alone and people tend to speak a blend, means that we learn a word for something, but then hear a totally new word but are assured ‘but it is the same’!
And sometimes we do not understand their English! I think it is a general thing with Bantu languages that they do not have the letter ‘r’. But they know English does so ‘l’ and ‘r’ is often used indiscriminately.
We were watching the Jesus movie in Kwanyama recently. (Good job we had read the book and were able to follow the gist of it!) This is the 'leech' man, we were told by Amalia! (‘An ‘i’ is pronounced ‘e’ = rich!)
When I was in Malawi they had the same problem and one chap told me he was late for work because of problems with his ‘crutch’.
Here you can eat 'lice'. I also saw the sign for (but none to be had) 'jerry beans'!
And we also have a Calis in the family now!
There are looms to lent.
People tell us we have got a phrase in Kwanyama 'collect'.
If a mistake is made; ‘solly’.
Things can be done ‘tomollow’.
(Hmm – now I am wondering how they pronounce ‘girl’!)
Sometimes, it is a simple mispronunciation. I met a woman at the market last week who said she worked in a hair saloon. I tried to explain the difference between saloon and salon.
Having said that, although we meet quite a few people who can’t speak English, everyone has at least 3 languages to their credit – puts us to shame!
David was at the market today and saw a woman selling what he thought were dried cow pats (he has seen the same thing for sale elsewhere and presumed they were for cooking fuel). The woman spoke no English and David was trying to ask her what it was. Eventually she picked up one of the bits of brown stuff and popped it into her mouth. David’s eyes nearly fell out of his head! ‘But it is dirty cow things’ he said, in broken Kwanyama. Everyone roared with laughter … it was dried spinach, a local specialty!
We live 700 km from the nearest cinema, and the few video lending shops have Chinese pirated DVDs (mainly for adults of questionable content). However, a friend in UK has sent us Home Alone 1 & 2, and another friend is sending us The Chronicles of Narnia. We invite some of the local children once a week to watch a DVD with us. WHEN our stuff arrives (!!! – note the optimism!) we will have some good Christian videos to show them. I have also sent over in our stuff two end rolls of printer paper so that will be useful. Hopefully, I can start a Saturday club for the children when the resources arrive. St Mary’s, West Armidale, gave us some LOVELY flannel graph boards and characters.
When a baby is born, the baby is given a nickname. The mother and baby do not leave the birth-room for two weeks. When the time is up there is a celebration and a naming ceremony for the baby when it gets its official name. So everyone has two names and a surname. We asked friends for Oshiwambo names.
David they called Simaneka (Ndonga) or Fimaneka (Kwanyama) which means ‘respected one’.
Me they named Magana (Maana); ‘gift’.
Étienne – very appropriately – is Kandeshi; ‘happy about that’.
Caris was given a name which is the diminutive of the girl naming us. Her name is Pandu, which means ‘thanks’ (to God). She named Caris Kapandu (‘little thanks’). Oka or ka makes something small. A bird is odila. A small bird is okadila.
Talking of names, in Oshiwambo men are addressed as Tate* (my/our father) or Meme* (my/our mother) in much the same way as we would say Mr or Mrs.
David is addressed as Tate David and I am Meme Alisan or Tate Alisan (acknowledging me being David’s wife).
*Xo is your father, xe is his/her/their father, nyoko is your mother, ina is his/her/their mother, meekulu means grandmother and is the term of respect for the elderly, meetate is grandfather.
Don’t forget, in Africa, whenever you meet someone (whether for the first time or
It is a good friend), you always greet with a handshake – usually the three-handshake.
We are quite busy at the moment. Today, David has a meeting with a guy he met that is a Rastafarian. Then after that we meet with a Jehovah’s Witness couple. We have been spending time with a Jehovah’s Witness lady, and David went along to one of their meetings, and discovered a number of other people we know there, whom we did not know belonged to that group.
Next week a CESA (Church of England In South Africa) team is coming up from SA. 27 people! More about that when they have been and gone.
The news at the moment is the government’s decision to close shebeens (informal pubs, often little more than a shack) unless they can produce building permission, liquor licence and have toilet facilities (for BOTH men and women). A majority cannot supply any and are threatened with closure and thus the loss of their livelihood. Many have gone to Windhoek and are protesting by camping outside parliament. The headlines today: ‘Parliament gets a roasting’ and ‘Having a cow’ because the shebeeners have skinned and roasted a cow outside parliament. Imagine THAT in Canberra!
The other news is the national campaign to immunise Namibians against polio which has already affected 118 people and killed 14 since the first case was reported May 10th. Until this year, Namibia has been polio-free for 10 years. We had a swag of injections before we left and are grateful for that.
I am grateful to God to be able to say that we are all well. Étienne has just written Afrikaans tests at school with his class mates so we wait to see how he did. When looking for something in our house, here are the two basic rules: If it can be read, Étienne has it. If it can be drawn on in or with, Caris has it!
This is the problem we are learning to solve. Of course, we do not have it as tough as the pioneers missionaries who had to sometimes even create a written language for the people they were with.
David told a lady working at Telekom that he was trying to learn the language.
She said “No problem, just get an Oshiwambo girlfriend.” Unfortunately, or fortunately, this is not an option, but one can see how practical it could be! A 24 hour a day language helper!
The first missionary to Namibia, Heinrich Schmelen, did just that. He built a little mission station when he came to Namibia c.1812.but the Nama were nomads and he kept ‘losing’ his flock when they went off to better grazing. So he married a Nama woman and became a Nomad with them for 12 years. This is truly what some people call the “incarnational model”. It is so named after the “incarnation”: Jesus, very God, becoming flesh and living amongst the people he was trying to reach, and becoming like them in every way.
So here are some ways we are tackling language learning:
1. With Amalia coming in 2-3 mornings a week. We have bought Kwanyama primary school books and translate them, but this is a bit hard in that we do not understand many constructions because we don't yet have a grammatical foundation. As Amalia did not finish high school, and the education system did not give her a good grammatical grounding, she is often not able to answer our questions.
2. We use a useful grammar book but it does not have exercises.
3. There is also an interesting book written by a Finnish missionary at the turn of the century. There is a danger that we will learn some archaic words (!) but at least he includes exercises (‘call the servants and wake the hunters’, ‘light the fire and cook the porridge’, ‘take the cattle to the herdsmen’).
4. We have a Kwanyama-English dictionary but no English-Kwanyama. So I am slowly compiling one for us as I type words into a flash card programme we downloaded off the internet. I am up to 4,300 words. It is a laborious process but I am sure other people will also benefit from it, too.
David has almost finished the Oshiwambo gospel tract he is designing. He will take it down to the market next time he goes for fine-tuning … checking with the people that the words used are current and appropriate.
5. Going out and talking to people in shops, markets etc is VERY useful, but they speak so FAST that it can be discouraging at times. Listening to the local news on the radio sounds like a 33 record on 45! But we know that, word by word, it is slowly seeping in! The fact that it is tonal, too, is hard. There are many words that are written the same but are pronounced differently and mean totally different things!
6. David goes to an Oshiwambo church on Sunday mornings (and stays on to do a TEE workshop there). He is labouring through a translation (into English) of the order of service at the moment.
The fact that there are three main languages spoken in Ongwediva alone and people tend to speak a blend, means that we learn a word for something, but then hear a totally new word but are assured ‘but it is the same’!
And sometimes we do not understand their English! I think it is a general thing with Bantu languages that they do not have the letter ‘r’. But they know English does so ‘l’ and ‘r’ is often used indiscriminately.
We were watching the Jesus movie in Kwanyama recently. (Good job we had read the book and were able to follow the gist of it!) This is the 'leech' man, we were told by Amalia! (‘An ‘i’ is pronounced ‘e’ = rich!)
When I was in Malawi they had the same problem and one chap told me he was late for work because of problems with his ‘crutch’.
Here you can eat 'lice'. I also saw the sign for (but none to be had) 'jerry beans'!
And we also have a Calis in the family now!
There are looms to lent.
People tell us we have got a phrase in Kwanyama 'collect'.
If a mistake is made; ‘solly’.
Things can be done ‘tomollow’.
(Hmm – now I am wondering how they pronounce ‘girl’!)
Sometimes, it is a simple mispronunciation. I met a woman at the market last week who said she worked in a hair saloon. I tried to explain the difference between saloon and salon.
Having said that, although we meet quite a few people who can’t speak English, everyone has at least 3 languages to their credit – puts us to shame!
David was at the market today and saw a woman selling what he thought were dried cow pats (he has seen the same thing for sale elsewhere and presumed they were for cooking fuel). The woman spoke no English and David was trying to ask her what it was. Eventually she picked up one of the bits of brown stuff and popped it into her mouth. David’s eyes nearly fell out of his head! ‘But it is dirty cow things’ he said, in broken Kwanyama. Everyone roared with laughter … it was dried spinach, a local specialty!
We live 700 km from the nearest cinema, and the few video lending shops have Chinese pirated DVDs (mainly for adults of questionable content). However, a friend in UK has sent us Home Alone 1 & 2, and another friend is sending us The Chronicles of Narnia. We invite some of the local children once a week to watch a DVD with us. WHEN our stuff arrives (!!! – note the optimism!) we will have some good Christian videos to show them. I have also sent over in our stuff two end rolls of printer paper so that will be useful. Hopefully, I can start a Saturday club for the children when the resources arrive. St Mary’s, West Armidale, gave us some LOVELY flannel graph boards and characters.
When a baby is born, the baby is given a nickname. The mother and baby do not leave the birth-room for two weeks. When the time is up there is a celebration and a naming ceremony for the baby when it gets its official name. So everyone has two names and a surname. We asked friends for Oshiwambo names.
David they called Simaneka (Ndonga) or Fimaneka (Kwanyama) which means ‘respected one’.
Me they named Magana (Maana); ‘gift’.
Étienne – very appropriately – is Kandeshi; ‘happy about that’.
Caris was given a name which is the diminutive of the girl naming us. Her name is Pandu, which means ‘thanks’ (to God). She named Caris Kapandu (‘little thanks’). Oka or ka makes something small. A bird is odila. A small bird is okadila.
Talking of names, in Oshiwambo men are addressed as Tate* (my/our father) or Meme* (my/our mother) in much the same way as we would say Mr or Mrs.
David is addressed as Tate David and I am Meme Alisan or Tate Alisan (acknowledging me being David’s wife).
*Xo is your father, xe is his/her/their father, nyoko is your mother, ina is his/her/their mother, meekulu means grandmother and is the term of respect for the elderly, meetate is grandfather.
Don’t forget, in Africa, whenever you meet someone (whether for the first time or
It is a good friend), you always greet with a handshake – usually the three-handshake.
We are quite busy at the moment. Today, David has a meeting with a guy he met that is a Rastafarian. Then after that we meet with a Jehovah’s Witness couple. We have been spending time with a Jehovah’s Witness lady, and David went along to one of their meetings, and discovered a number of other people we know there, whom we did not know belonged to that group.
Next week a CESA (Church of England In South Africa) team is coming up from SA. 27 people! More about that when they have been and gone.
The news at the moment is the government’s decision to close shebeens (informal pubs, often little more than a shack) unless they can produce building permission, liquor licence and have toilet facilities (for BOTH men and women). A majority cannot supply any and are threatened with closure and thus the loss of their livelihood. Many have gone to Windhoek and are protesting by camping outside parliament. The headlines today: ‘Parliament gets a roasting’ and ‘Having a cow’ because the shebeeners have skinned and roasted a cow outside parliament. Imagine THAT in Canberra!
The other news is the national campaign to immunise Namibians against polio which has already affected 118 people and killed 14 since the first case was reported May 10th. Until this year, Namibia has been polio-free for 10 years. We had a swag of injections before we left and are grateful for that.
I am grateful to God to be able to say that we are all well. Étienne has just written Afrikaans tests at school with his class mates so we wait to see how he did. When looking for something in our house, here are the two basic rules: If it can be read, Étienne has it. If it can be drawn on in or with, Caris has it!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Here you can see Caris counting the flies on the meat at the market – there is even one on her brim. Can you see it?
You can also see Caris inspecting the local biltong ‘factory’!
The woman stirring the bucket is making oshikundu, a drink made from millet.
The house is a typical okabashu – as you can see, the roof is a great place for storing things, and it also helps keep the roof on in the windy weather.
You can also see Caris inspecting the local biltong ‘factory’!
The woman stirring the bucket is making oshikundu, a drink made from millet.
The house is a typical okabashu – as you can see, the roof is a great place for storing things, and it also helps keep the roof on in the windy weather.
Monday, June 19, 2006
Friday, June 16, 2006
Out and about
‘Please, Lord. May we have some friends!’
We live in a very quiet part of Ongwediva. Most people stay in their houses. One day I saw some children playing out on the street in front of the house and I sent our two out to join in. David, coming back from a run, joined them, too. Then the children came around here to play. We invited the others in the household and are delighted to learn so many interesting things about them and their culture. They are Ndonga, not Kwanyama, but speak good Oshikwanyama and thus understand us when we (attempt to) speak and are so ready to help and encourage us.
Their questions about Australia really fascinate us: ‘Do you have chickens and goats and dogs in Australia?’ ‘Do you sell different things in your shops?’ If and when our stuff ever arrives from Australia, it will be good to show them some home movies of where we have been. I wish now we had thought to bring a DVD of Australia. People have very little idea of what life is like outside Owamboland.
The culture here is for people just rock up at someone’s house to visit – when someone comes you don't know whether they have popped in to say hello, invited themselves for a meal (or 3!) or even to come to sleep! As our culture is to wait to be invited, we have to make a determined effort to simply go and knock at someone’s door! We might become so proficient at it that you will one day find us at YOUR door!
David went down last weekend to Bishop Kalangula’s church in Ondangwa. He is in his 80s and not a well man. When he saw David arrive, he nominated him on the spot as the preacher for that day’s sermon! (It was Pentecost. Praise God that David had been doing a lot of thinking about the Holy Spirit. Many non-mainline churches here are charismatic, and there are some strange and almost heretical teachings going around.)
This weekend a group of NETS students came up for some practical ministry training. David took them to the local prison to share the Gospel with the inmates. The prisoners are so hungry for the Word that David said they would be willing have them back EVERY DAY to teach them. The students visited hospitals, churches, schools etc.
Four students stayed with us for one night. One is from Rwanda so I got to practice my French, and he enjoyed speaking it. He was in a refugee camp for about a year before being able to go to NETS. Two are from Angola and speak Portuguese as well their home language. And the other is a Namibian.
The children and I are so much looking forward to our Australian things arriving. The latest due date for the ship to dock at Walvis Bay is 1st July. Then the stuff will have to clear customs and then get up here. (I am sure it will arrive before Christmas!) When Étienne’s Lego and Bionicles finally come, and Caris’ special toys and craft stuff, they will think it is Christmas, birthday and all the public holidays all at once. So will I, for that matter! I look forward to getting my music CDs and ugg boots! (Ps 119.37)
Looking for something to learn?
Here is your Oshiwambo word for the day (NB it does not start with an ‘o’!):
Yenwamhuulu – the early morning (lit. ‘when the gnu drinks’).
I enjoy sitting and reading through the dictionary. It is such a wonderful – often poetic - language.
We have found a word that describes Étienne. (If you have read ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ you will have an inkling of what he is like!)
Omunyangusha – one who opens his mouth and smacks his lips when eating.
Looking for something to read? I have found a copy (in English) of Guy de Maupassant’s ‘Mademoiselle Fifi’ (a collection of short stories). I first met du Maupassant as a set book for French A level (La neige en deuil – ‘snow in mourning’). I think the French and Russians write with a passion particularly their own.
Looking for something to eat? How about Elephant Stew?
Elephant Stew
Ingredients
1 Elephant
10 Warthogs
100 kilogram tomatoes
half ton potatoes
2 bags onions
100 kilogram salt
1 wheelbarrow onions (heaped)
10 litre vinegar
20 litre chutney
4 Guinea fowl
a pinch of parsley
Method
Hunt the elephant, warthog and guinea fowl. Hang guinea fowl to ripen. Cut elephant into edible chunks, (will take about a month). Boil the warthog with other ingredients (except guinea fowl) till nice and juicy. Now boil elephant chunks over high flames till tender (about 4 weeks) and add everything together. Boil for another 5 to 7 days.
Produces about 3,500 helpings.
Note: If unexpected guests arrive, throw in the guinea fowl as well!
Looking for something to do? Why not send a postcard to us and/or the children here in Namibia! Or save up your pocket money and come and see for yourself what it is like in Owamboland! Or become a member of CMS and get to see the big picture of what God is doing in the world through CMS (Luke 10.2).
Looking for something to play?
Come and play ‘Settlers’ or ‘Carcassonne’ with Étienne. As there are no parks, cinemas, or other places ‘to go’ (in the Australian sense), we get to play a lot of games together. When you have played a game 40x, you know it is time for a change. So Étienne is always making up new scenarios and rules for the games. We discovered a book on chess in the small public library in Oshakati and he enjoyed playing with his Dad all the different scenarios they suggested. Another good game with chess pieces: One person has the queen and the other has a line of pawns which he has to move to the opposite side of the board to be queened, without the opposing queen taking them.
We celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary later this June. It is funny to think that we spent our 1st wedding anniversary in different countries. I was in South Africa waiting for David to come home from a George Whitefield College student trip to … Namibia!
There should be a picture posted of David and the NETS team under ‘the missionary tree’ at Onipa; so named because the early missionaries camped under there.
On a final note today, there is an outbreak of polio here in Namibia and we had a flyer in our mailbox recommending all children to go and be vaccinated. How grateful we are to the Australian system whereby our children have already had all those vaccinations.
As of 6 June 2006, “Angola has reported a total of 43 076 cases and 1642 deaths (overall case-fatality rate (CFR) 3.8%). Although current trends show a decline in most provinces, a daily incidence of around 200-280 cases is still being reported.”
We live in a very quiet part of Ongwediva. Most people stay in their houses. One day I saw some children playing out on the street in front of the house and I sent our two out to join in. David, coming back from a run, joined them, too. Then the children came around here to play. We invited the others in the household and are delighted to learn so many interesting things about them and their culture. They are Ndonga, not Kwanyama, but speak good Oshikwanyama and thus understand us when we (attempt to) speak and are so ready to help and encourage us.
Their questions about Australia really fascinate us: ‘Do you have chickens and goats and dogs in Australia?’ ‘Do you sell different things in your shops?’ If and when our stuff ever arrives from Australia, it will be good to show them some home movies of where we have been. I wish now we had thought to bring a DVD of Australia. People have very little idea of what life is like outside Owamboland.
The culture here is for people just rock up at someone’s house to visit – when someone comes you don't know whether they have popped in to say hello, invited themselves for a meal (or 3!) or even to come to sleep! As our culture is to wait to be invited, we have to make a determined effort to simply go and knock at someone’s door! We might become so proficient at it that you will one day find us at YOUR door!
David went down last weekend to Bishop Kalangula’s church in Ondangwa. He is in his 80s and not a well man. When he saw David arrive, he nominated him on the spot as the preacher for that day’s sermon! (It was Pentecost. Praise God that David had been doing a lot of thinking about the Holy Spirit. Many non-mainline churches here are charismatic, and there are some strange and almost heretical teachings going around.)
This weekend a group of NETS students came up for some practical ministry training. David took them to the local prison to share the Gospel with the inmates. The prisoners are so hungry for the Word that David said they would be willing have them back EVERY DAY to teach them. The students visited hospitals, churches, schools etc.
Four students stayed with us for one night. One is from Rwanda so I got to practice my French, and he enjoyed speaking it. He was in a refugee camp for about a year before being able to go to NETS. Two are from Angola and speak Portuguese as well their home language. And the other is a Namibian.
The children and I are so much looking forward to our Australian things arriving. The latest due date for the ship to dock at Walvis Bay is 1st July. Then the stuff will have to clear customs and then get up here. (I am sure it will arrive before Christmas!) When Étienne’s Lego and Bionicles finally come, and Caris’ special toys and craft stuff, they will think it is Christmas, birthday and all the public holidays all at once. So will I, for that matter! I look forward to getting my music CDs and ugg boots! (Ps 119.37)
Looking for something to learn?
Here is your Oshiwambo word for the day (NB it does not start with an ‘o’!):
Yenwamhuulu – the early morning (lit. ‘when the gnu drinks’).
I enjoy sitting and reading through the dictionary. It is such a wonderful – often poetic - language.
We have found a word that describes Étienne. (If you have read ‘Calvin and Hobbes’ you will have an inkling of what he is like!)
Omunyangusha – one who opens his mouth and smacks his lips when eating.
Looking for something to read? I have found a copy (in English) of Guy de Maupassant’s ‘Mademoiselle Fifi’ (a collection of short stories). I first met du Maupassant as a set book for French A level (La neige en deuil – ‘snow in mourning’). I think the French and Russians write with a passion particularly their own.
Looking for something to eat? How about Elephant Stew?
Elephant Stew
Ingredients
1 Elephant
10 Warthogs
100 kilogram tomatoes
half ton potatoes
2 bags onions
100 kilogram salt
1 wheelbarrow onions (heaped)
10 litre vinegar
20 litre chutney
4 Guinea fowl
a pinch of parsley
Method
Hunt the elephant, warthog and guinea fowl. Hang guinea fowl to ripen. Cut elephant into edible chunks, (will take about a month). Boil the warthog with other ingredients (except guinea fowl) till nice and juicy. Now boil elephant chunks over high flames till tender (about 4 weeks) and add everything together. Boil for another 5 to 7 days.
Produces about 3,500 helpings.
Note: If unexpected guests arrive, throw in the guinea fowl as well!
Looking for something to do? Why not send a postcard to us and/or the children here in Namibia! Or save up your pocket money and come and see for yourself what it is like in Owamboland! Or become a member of CMS and get to see the big picture of what God is doing in the world through CMS (Luke 10.2).
Looking for something to play?
Come and play ‘Settlers’ or ‘Carcassonne’ with Étienne. As there are no parks, cinemas, or other places ‘to go’ (in the Australian sense), we get to play a lot of games together. When you have played a game 40x, you know it is time for a change. So Étienne is always making up new scenarios and rules for the games. We discovered a book on chess in the small public library in Oshakati and he enjoyed playing with his Dad all the different scenarios they suggested. Another good game with chess pieces: One person has the queen and the other has a line of pawns which he has to move to the opposite side of the board to be queened, without the opposing queen taking them.
We celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary later this June. It is funny to think that we spent our 1st wedding anniversary in different countries. I was in South Africa waiting for David to come home from a George Whitefield College student trip to … Namibia!
There should be a picture posted of David and the NETS team under ‘the missionary tree’ at Onipa; so named because the early missionaries camped under there.
On a final note today, there is an outbreak of polio here in Namibia and we had a flyer in our mailbox recommending all children to go and be vaccinated. How grateful we are to the Australian system whereby our children have already had all those vaccinations.
As of 6 June 2006, “Angola has reported a total of 43 076 cases and 1642 deaths (overall case-fatality rate (CFR) 3.8%). Although current trends show a decline in most provinces, a daily incidence of around 200-280 cases is still being reported.”
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Monday, June 12, 2006
A drink with friends
In the pictures you can see Caris with Caroline, Étienne with Johannes and Pandu (l) with Ruth. We were invited back to their house and Pandu and Ruth gave us some oshikundu. This is a drink made from mahangu (millet) which they pound and soak, and strain and soak. If you add a fermenter at a certain point it becomes alcoholic but we had the non-alcoholic version. They have a cousin marrying soon and want us to come to the wedding so that will be an amazing experience! They showed us photos of their aunt’s funeral. So many people wanted to pay tribute to her that the service went from 6pm to 2am!
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Thursday, June 01, 2006
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