'Signs' of the times!

Well, Katie is safely back in Australia, for which we thank God. And she got through customs with all her souvenirs intact! And, whilst in Windhoek with the Gillhams before she flew, she got to fulfil a deep desire which was a to hold a real hamster! (For those of you who don’t live in Aus, they are illegal as pets there.)

So, our family is down by one. But we have Aune home for the holidays, so that is good. She finished her first year at Windhoek College of Education with 7Bs (her major subjects) and 3 Cs (her minor subjects).

We are delighted to see how much she has grown up since she started college – more confident in herself and encouraged to have spent time with other Christians, including at a Campus Crusade for Christ leadership camp last month. She has been a great help in the home already, not least because she was able to look after the children whilst I attended a Level 2 sign language workshop. She also went with David last weekend to a workshop, to interpret for him as church is in her home area and they speak her home language; Kwambi.

To keep her English skills up during the holidays, I have set her the task of writing a paragraph or two for me each day. This is what she wrote about their planned workshop:

On the 13th December Dad and I visited Onaanda church just 35 km from Oshakati.
We were prepared and were looking forward to seeing NETS students. When we got to the church we found many people sitting outside because it was full due to the wedding ceremonies that were taking place. We waited 3 hours for the church service to get finished.
While we were waiting a lady called Linda spoke to Dad saying she wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit whenever she reads her Bible. She received Jesus that day.
We did not have classes in the end because many students had to attend wedding ceremonies.
Aune

An Oshiwambo wedding lasts 2 days. First, there is the ceremony at church. Then everyone retires to the bride’s house for a cow to be slaughtered and a wedding feast. On the second day they all go to the groom’s house and repeat the previous day’s festivities – with another slaughtered cow!

Two of the photos posted are David with NETS students (and one of the new coordinators-to-be – in the white cardigan!).

One is of a sunflower we grew in our garden. It took LOTS of watering as the rains have yet to come and the heat is pushing up the mercury!!!

Two photos are of David playing the piano at the Afrikaans church the Sunday before last, because they had no pianist. That was the day Caris and Étienne did their little duet with two carols. You can see pix of them on their own blog.

The other photos are from the last day at the sign language workshop. The ‘big thing’ was to have photos taken with the Herero lady (with the amazing cow-horn hat) and the ‘shilumbu’ (white person!). As you can see on one photo, they found my hair fascinating.

I generally got called ‘Shilumbu’ by the people. Once I said to someone, ‘Should I call you Mulaule (Black person)?’ She said, No. She had a real name. So do I, I told her. She seemed quite surprised but then was glad to know it.

At one meal they saw me eating mahangu pap (stiff millet porridge). Shilumbus don’t eat mahangu, I was told, because they say it smells! They were delighted to see me eating it quite happily. I thought ‘you are what you eat’ in that one can be a witness – or not - simply by eating porridge!

Interestingly, the deaf teachers and pupils learn to write in English as all the deaf resources are in English and people who come to assist are from overseas and can’t speak Oshiwambo. But material from overseas includes words unknown to people here. For instance, we were discussing animals representing different characteristics. We had fun with mule (stubborn), beaver (hard working) fox (smart), koala (cute), and sloth (lazy). They had no idea what these animals are so I drew sort of attempts on the blackboard and, the next day, I took in pictures for them to see. Also, I had to explain that ‘unwant’ was NOT the opposite of ‘want’!

However, they have words in Oshiwambo we do not have. On Monday, as it was my birthday, the Namibian thing is to take sweets to give to others. So I took sweets for the others in my class. The next day I saw an Oshiwambo word in a Christian song that I did not know. I was told, “It means to ‘sing with thanksgiving’, like we did for you for bringing us sweets.”

This song came up in the first place because one woman mentioned to me that they were not learning Bible words. I said I had some I could teach her. It led to a group of them putting this particular song into sign and singing/signing it. I was very blessed. In fact, I had a great week – even though my head is so full now.