Feb Update

As I write, I have a number of children in the garden (hardly surprising!). Some are building sandcastles in the wet sand after a recent downpour, some are drawing, and others are enjoying the tadpoles (in our home-made ‘taddy pond’) the boys caught and are watching, each day, legs appearing. I remember, when I was young (I must have a good memory!) catching tadpoles and putting them in the fish pond of an unsuspecting aunt. The resulting frogs proved fairly amenable to frog races. Such activities are better than sitting in front of a screen, don’t you think!?
David left today for Rundu. He will be gone about 4 days. Next week, the children start drama lessons at Étienne’s old school. The lessons will be in Afrikaans so we will see how they go, especially Caris. I think it will be good for them (and me!) to have a break from ‘Teacher Mum’. In our history lessons, we are up to the Mongols. Did you know, they attached a sort of fluted thing to their arrows so that the arrows made a whistling noise in flight and could thus be traced and fetched if they missed their mark?
We have a couple of people staying at the moment. One is our German friend from last year who left in December for Germany but has returned for a few weeks; not long enough to rent a house. Another is a young Namibian woman called Aune. She is 21 and a fine young Christian. I invited her to come and visit on Saturday … and she turned up with her bags, ready to stay! Well, what can you do? As David is now away, we have converted his office into a room for her for a few days. Actually, she is a blessing because, when David is away, I have to travel everywhere by taxi with BOTH children as there is no one at home. Now, for instance, I can take Étienne to karate tomorrow evening and Tuesday and leave Caris with Aune.
Aune is officially an orphan. She was enrolled in a hospitality course last year, paid by a relative of her deceased father. But they have decided she needs to get a job now so she has had to quit the course – very disappointing as she so wanted to work in the travel/tourism business. Enrolments at UNAM (uni of Namibia) have already closed this year for teaching or nursing etc so now she is trying to get a job through the newspaper. She has asked us to help her with an application to be a fitter and turner. She did not know what one was and we have encouraged her to tick more appropriate learning opportunities presented in the advertisement (though they are mainly for men – plumber, carpenter, mechanic, etc). Please pray we can help her find something more suitable to her gifts and interests.
It may be hard for you to believe but what I am about t say it true. I was showing Aune the Jesus Film in Oshiwambo. She asked me how they managed to video Jesus and everyone in those days. She is not the first person to believe that the Passion and this Jesus Film are the actual people and that it is filmed on location WHEN IT HAPPENED! Then the question comes up about the beating Jesus takes before crucixion and the actual nailing. They want to know why an ‘actor’ would be prepared to be beaten up and nailed to a cross. So then I need to try and explain about artistic makeup and special effects. I got out my computer and showed Aune her face, using the built-in camera and its various distort options. She was utterly amazed and spent about 20 minutes making her face contort!
Then comes the question of how they can get European people to speak Oshiwambo in the film. Dubbing is also a hard concept to explain.
One of David’s ‘boys’ turned up at the weekend. He asked if he could wash our car and, instead of payment, could we buy him some school supplies such as an exercise book and pen. We equipped him with a bag of basic materials. We do take having enough money to buy such ‘luxuries’ for granted, don’t we.
We went to church TOGETHER this morning – rather a rare occurrence. We were glad, on our return, to find the electricity and water had been switched back on (cut off throughout Ongwediva) so we could get David’s shirts ironed before he left. One interesting this about church here that I may not have mentioned, is that when one arrives, one is generally expected to go around everyone in the church and shake their hand and greet them. This can take some time in a largish church and is not done in the very big churches (which tend to be very western in their presentation), but it gives people the chance to meet and be met by brothers and sisters in the Lord.
I have been doing some research on David’s family tree. One delightful discovery is that David is related to some dear friends of mine (the husband sharing an actual ancestor and the wife related by marriage about 3 generations ago)!
In geography. We are learning all the countries of Asia. The children already have Europe, Scandinavia, former USSR and Africa by heart. It has become a popular family game for someone to think of a country and the rest of us to guess which one by determining whether it is landlocked, north or south of the Equator, etc. (A good game for looooong journeys!) My own geography is being improved! Home schooling is certainly proving a positive learning environment, where such learning is ‘fun’!
I will also post a pic of my pepperdew plants – the only thing from our original veggie patch that I have been able to keep alive in this sandy soil. Even though I am allergic to the fruit, the colours are very cheerful in this brown, sandy landscape.
A chap came today to rake our sand/garden (that is what people do here). I happened to see him out of the window look at something on the ground, gingerly pick it up and then drop it with a fright. I was intrigued and went to see what this object was. It turned out to be a pine cone we had brought back from South Africa. He had never seen one and I had to try and explain, in Oshiwambo, what it was!
Someone has suggested I do a series of pix and snippets about our daily life and community. I think it is a good idea. Do YOU have anything particular in mind that YOU would like me to tell you about?