Championship and traditional dancing

Greetings from a very hot Owamboland! The day temps are moving into the mid-30s.
We have been pretty busy recently.
Étienne has just participated in a national karate championship (held in Ongwediva). He is delighted to have won a bronze medal. The children have all had extra training for it so it has meant lots of trips to his place of training.
At the trade fair Étienne heard a boy speaking German so he chatted back in his limited Deutsch. One thing led to another and I met the father (Namibian, mother – German) who told me of dance classes in Oshakati run by a Zulu lady (South Africa). So now, 2x a week for 3 hours at a time (!!) Caris has begun to learn traditional dancing. She has only been 2x so far but, to our amusement, whereas she used to give us these elegant little ballet/Riverdance-style dances she composed, she has already incorporated a few of her newly-acquired dance movements! The other girls are all Namibian and I think it will be a few weeks before Caris loses the Western style of dance and can move her body with the music in the way the others do. But she loves it. It makes life busy for mum as dancing finishes at 5 on 2 of Étienne’s karate days and his karate starts at 5 so there is some to-ing and fro-ing each week.
Last weekend David did a workshop in Ondangwa on Saturday. He let me have the car for the karate tournament and so he took a taxi down. Then he had to wait until his lift came by (90 minutes late!) to take him to the workshop.
On Sunday morning (2.30 am our time) we had a (planned) call from one of our Link churches and David (who got up) enjoyed chatting to the congregation.
He left at 7.30 am to preach at a church in the Bush (in Oshiwambo). I met up with a team from the Y (Youth work) in Cape Town who arrived last night and will spend 5 days here with the aim of establishing a self-running Christian youth ministry on the UNAM campus in Oshakati. Beth, the children and I went to a 3 hour church service with them.
On Monday the drama classes started, in preparation for the Christmas Nativity play in November. 30 came. I have found a fellow who is willing to train a little choir, as well, so it should be fun. Do pray that this would result in a good Gospel opportunity to the community.
David went to the local prison again on Tuesday for a workshop. They enjoy them so much that the superintendent calls HIM to arrange for him to come!
I am having fun at the moment discovering more about David’s ancestors. We have traced one back through the 1820 Albany Settlers (to South Africa) to UK (born about 1750). We have also recently discovered that all the Greeffs in SA are descended from one Matthijs Greeff who came from Germany. Matthijs and his wife, Susanna Claasen, baptised their first five children before 1695. I am now trying to fill in the missing chunk from him up to David’s great-grandfather, Andreas Greeff, who was born about 1850. It SO fascinating!
Beth enjoyed her time overnighting in a Himba village last weekend. It was a real culture curve for her. We would also like to do it but may wait a year or two for the children to be a bit older and more appreciative. The photos below weret taken by her and Jo, a German who went along with Beth before flying back to Europe.
Not to be outdone by my daughter, Caris’ dance teacher has persuaded me to join her dance group for mature ladies! I went for the first time last night. There are two young girls (Japanese and Norwegian) and an English woman in her 60s. It is a good form of exercise and it is also really wonderful to get away from the house and home (I think this was my first time to go somwhere by myself that was not work related since we have ben here!)