Land of sand

Greetings from a hot and humid land of sand! It is, on average, 35 degrees in the daytime and 25 at night. Humidity is 70% as there are lots of storms about. A boy was struck by lightning and KILLED in his hut this week.
I have covered the kitchen windows with tin foil to try and reflect much of the sun that streams in all day. Now the kitchen stays at about 31 degrees, 24 hrs a day (and hotter if the oven is on!).
Ondangwa, about 30 mins south of us, has a small airport and thus has daily weather reports for the area on-line. If you want to see how we are faring, go to:
www.wunderground.com/auto/virtuallythere_jan3/
global/stations/68006.html
(I had to split the address to get it to fit onto this posting but you will need to copy and past BOTH lines as ONE address).
There is a link to find the weather virtually anywhere!
Yesterday the children and I did a 300 km round trip when we dropped David off at Odibo, the old Anglican mission station (whose seminary was bombed during the war for independence). There is a hospital there and they have just built a school. Anyway, it is in the heart of Kwanyama country, and the capital of the people (I think I may have said before that Oshakati was the capital but I would have been incorrect. Oshakati is a sort of border town between three people groups and loosely means ‘in the middle’.) David has gone there for a week to be thoroughly immersed in the language and culture of the Kwanyama people. It is right on the border of Angola (literally) and I think most people will speak Portuguese rather than English as a second language. David is doing this to help him reach his goal of being able to preach in Oshikwanyama by the end of the year. The two difficulties here in Ongwediva are a. most people speak good or passable English and like to practice it and b. not that many people we speak to are native Kwanyama speakers.
It will be hot for him there, with no electricity for a fan or a fridge for cold water. He is reading a biography of Nakambale at the moment (see previous posting) and we realise how ‘easy’ we have it these days (cars, postal service, electricity, running water, medical supplies, etc). Nakambale was hit in the face with a heavy stick that broke his jaw and gashed him from eye to mouth. The nearest medical help was 2,000 away (by ox wagon to the coast and then a boat trip). On the trip his wife nearly died from repeated malaria attacks. Anyway, both survived. And I am sure David will, too!
As for language, I will post an excerpt from the newspaper in the Nama/Damara language. It is a difficult language with lots of clicks. We are glad we are learning Oshikwanyama!