Shopping in Owamboland

I turned away children again today, who had come for Bible club. To write lessons, I ideally need an hour or so uninterrupted time - which I simply don’t get at the moment. My mornings are taken up with teaching the children and afternoons are spent with visitors, taking children to drama lessons and karate, admin for David, etc. I want to write the lessons so that I am, at the same time, working towards the completion of the Sunday school manual. However, I have determined to start Bible Club next week anyway, even if I just tell a story and sing some songs.
However, a blog can be put together in spare moments so I will do this.
HOMESCHOOLING
In home schooling the children have learnt the names of almost all the countries of the world. We just have Middle East and the Americas to go. It never ceases to amaze me how much they can remember and how little we utilise this ability in children. The have learnt the books of the NT and now have started the books of the OT as well as the apostles’ creed and the latest Psalm.
I want to do a project about Australia this year in preparation for coming home at the end of the year. I have a couple of books we can read but does anyone have any ideas for fun projects (with minimal resources!)?
In science we have just looked at deciduous and coniferous forests. I had never clicked that conifers were so-called because of their cones (duh!).
In history, we are up to Mohammed and Charlemagne.
Étienne has moved onto piano now and has already overtaken Caris who is not as fluent as he is at reading music (well, he has had an extra 6 months of music). She has started the typing tutor course and is enjoying it.
The man with the horse promises us there will be riding lessons once the flooding goes down – we have been waiting over a year for these ‘promised’ lessons (first, the horse died, then the instructor moved to Windhoek then the next teacher lined up also moved … ) so I am not holding my breath but do hope it eventuates as Caris LOVES riding.
DAILY THINGS
Yesterday, I visited a friend of the children, who is in hospital after an op. I was horrified at how primitive it is there. I plan to go back with my children today and hand out colouring crayons and paper as there is nothing for these children to do all day but sit and look at the ceiling or wander around outside.
A woman, whose son is at karate with Étienne, grew up in Ondangwa and thus was there when the war was on and South African troops were based there, fighting against SWAPO who hid over in Angola. She said there was a strict curfew and that going to school in Oshakati meant joining the morning armed convoy. I was once help up at gun point in Mocambique during the war years when driving through the ‘gun run’ and that was a heart-stopping moment for me. I cannot imagine living daily in a war zone. We have a house help who comes in a couple of mornings a week. She is OshiKwambi. During those years she goes beaten by the SA troops more than once for providing food to the ‘rebel’ forces, who were mainly Owambos, the people who live here in the North, against the Angolan border. Those ‘rebels’ now run Namibia. Because the OshiKwanyama people are the biggest tribe among the Owambos, they have the position of power in the country.
SHOPPING
As many of you know, Namibia is mostly desert and almost all our food stuff comes from South Africa by truck. Unfortunately, as we are at the end of the run, there is often a shortage of things. There has been no fresh milk for over a week now (but long life is in stock), and fruit and veggies (esp green) have been scarce. Thursdays is delivery day so Friday is a good shopping day for fresh produce … sometimes it is over-ripe, though, by the time it gets here. And frozen food (including ice cream) has a tendency to melt and is then refrozen (not very encouraging when it comes to chicken!). Windhoek has a butchery for red meat and a dairy for milk, cheese and yoghurt. Oftentimes there is only processed cheese available, though. However, one can never say we do not have what we NEED. Bread is baked on the premises of a number of places, as commercially-produced bread would be stale by the time it got here.
There are decent supermarkets though the stuff stocked is mainly for the local palate; tripe, lung, tongue and trotters are the standard offering at one of the 2 local supermarkets. We have Spar and Shoprite (like Bi-Lo) nearby. There is a Game (like K-Mart but without the vast selection of K-Mart), there is no newsagents but some magazines and newspapers can be bought at the Spar. There are furniture shops and clothing stores. The quality of stuff tends to be quite poor generally as it is made in China and cheap, which makes it attractive. But one can buy better quality stuff in a few places. We have what are called China shops. They are run by Chinese (many of whom speak only Chinese!) and they sell loads of cheap stuff, rather like a $2 shop. They are very popular.
In Ongwediva we also have a little post office (but no mail box!), a telcom shop, a hairdresser (the only one in Owamboland where European hair can be cut nicely!) and a bank. Newly-opened is a private hospital – the only one north of Windhoek – and an optometrist. So we are not too badly off at all.
Guavas and marula fruit are two of the few locally grown fruit. The marula nuts are cracked for their oil (for cooking) and the fruit is fermented into a popular (very intoxicating) drink (not my cup or tea – or wine, should I say!). It has LONG been the custom here, in the season for this drink, for men not to be allowed to carry knives as fights break out so easily.
Markets will sell you cooked or raw cow or goat meat, dried spinach, dried beans, millet flour, oshikundu (a drink made from millet which has a communal cup – you pays and you drinks and you leaves the cup! – this drink can also be fermented into an alcoholic one, but the ‘soft’ version is nutritious though a bit too crunchy for me. David likes it.)
It is a bother when one buys chocolate and finds it dry and crumbly from age, or a pizza that has processed cheese tinned mushrooms. But we are here by choice and know we can look forward to a decent pizza in Aus. We are out of our comfort zone in many ways but one discovers new ways to measure a comfort zone.
- When there are water and power cuts, I remind myself that at least we have running water and electricity most of the time – a privilege.
- When the shop shelves are empty of certain products, I remember that many people would not have the money to buy it, even if it was there.
- When I miss having people of my own culture and language to talk to, I thank God for email and books (in my mother tongue).
- When I have sat through yet another almost meatless sermon, I am grateful for good sermons on CD and the knowledge that we have many excellent preachers in Aus.
- When I struggle to write Bible studies and Bible sessions for children, I am amazed at the vast resources available to every Australian – with the added bonus that it is in our mother tongue. (There are zero Bible study resources available in any of the languages of Namibia except for English and Afrikaans, nor Bibles in many of them.)

So, let me not count our difficulties but rather our privileges, which add up to a huge blessing!