For His Kids: A new adventure in Africa

Anthill. The ants are such tiny little black ones. These are all over the place!

We look like we feel...young and skinny.

We know we are so blessed. Sometimes I feel timid about sharing all the blessings we enjoy. Something God drilled into my head in my journey in getting to know Him and his character, is that he does bless and, if I can’t accept when He blesses, I can’t accept when hard times come, either. There is a song about this. I’ll try to remember the name.

Soon after we arrived in Namibia, my ‘planning’ and ‘possibilities’ mind took over. We needed to give the house parents a break and, while researching possibilities, I ‘met’ a travel agent here in the country who, after hearing what we are doing here, got permission to give us Namibian resident rates to take the kids to a lodge and game drive (mini safari) for Easter weekend, take 3 of the kids and a volunteer to another lodge for 2 nights and another game drive, and now Andy and I have the chance to drive off alone for a week. One of the teen boys at the children’s home was pretty put out that he couldn’t come with us. I thought it was cute … he feels like he is ours, just as we do.

We explained and laughed, with the common understanding that he HAD to try to get what he wanted. The kids are very smart and will try to manipulate us into what they want sometimes. They are great about it when we tease them. They love it when they realize that we know and they know that they GOTTA try. The kids know how to tease and laugh about themselves. It’s so endearing and makes me feel close to them. We have our share of laughs at us as volunteers too!

So yesterday we had a beautiful breakfast made for us by Anneke and Wessel in Okajandja. The dynamic, intelligent couple live in the CarePoint. Wessel has written a book I will read this week and is the new “Volunteer" Volunteer Coordinator for Christ’s Hope Namibia. He is part of another ministry in the country as well. Anneke has just taken over leadership of all CH Namibia. It is a daunting job; she is also newly pregnant with their first child.

They dropped off Jerry, the accountant, in the capital about 1 hour away and then they graciously took us to the car rental place to drop us off. We reluctantly said goodbye to Kim from Belgium. She has been here as a volunteer for 3 months, graduates with a degree in Occupational Therapy soon (having designed a game about emotions she has used as a study with 4 of the kids at the Ark), and was one of the easiest people in the world to be with. We sort of adopted her as our own. I told her that I hoped we didn’t change the flavor of her experience here too much. She assured us that all the opportunities we gave her to see more of the country and some of life away from the children’s home was a blessing. Her English is amazing and she became our translator. It is so weird that people who speak Flemmish from Belgium can pretty easily transfer their language to Afrikaans. People thought she was our daughter and would get so confused by us speaking English and her speaking Afrikaans.

We picked up our little blue VW hatchback, made sure Andy could fit and drive it comfortably, and set out for Damaraland in the Erongo region of Namibia. We got prepaid internet for the phone so we’d have some GPS or maps or something via satellite, a newer, yet crispy, map of Namibia, and set off for parts yet unseen.

This is effectively the first time we’ve been alone for about 11 weeks. I felt like a newlywed driving off into the sunset. We found out quickly that the yellow/orange line on the map means dirt road. Let’s just say Andy wasn’t ready to struggle for hours with a little car and rocks, dirt, and sand. We fishtailed pretty good sometimes. I LOVED it. We were finally outside of the paved over parts of this beautiful country of contrasts. It has just gotten better from there.

We drove quite awhile before Andy pulled over to make sure I wasn’t crazy with the directions. I made sure we had cell service because we weren’t seeing anyone but some springbok, a baby what looked like a deer with huge ears, lots of Pumbas (warthogs). It must be their time for babies cause we’ve seen lots of cute little babies and parents. We saw a flock of ostriches, 2 troupes of baboons, along with some babies hanging onto the mama’s bellies, and a beautiful thing Andy says is a cow but I don’t agree that was what it was. It had horns and beautiful markings.

We stopped to stretch and took these pics near an anthill. This one is tall but some of them look like cathedrals compared to this one. We laughed at how thin and young we looked in the shadows. It’s how we feel until we look into a normal mirror.

We drove thru a couple towns. I think I’d come to Omaruru for a weekend sometime. We saw one of the donkey driven carts that we see occasionally all over the country. Notice they have pretty good power and water coverage the places we’ve been around in the southern and now western part of the county.

We drove and drove and drove. And drove and drove and drove. We saw a turn off for Martin Luther High School … in the middle of NOWHERE! We laughed about how that would feel to a kid, like the parents really wanted to get rid of you to send you there. It is very common for children to go live in ‘hostels’ or dorms for even primary school. The farms are so spread out so going to a local school is limited; the children go home for holidays (1 month in Dec and 1 month in May) and weekends if possible. At least 1 of the kids from the Ark are in a hostel way up North. We picked him up in Okajandja the last time we were there and took him to Keetmans after a 2 night stop at the lodge. After a couple nights in Keetmans, he caught a minibus to where his extended family is another 5 - 6 hours away. We will pick him up along with 2 others in the area near the South African border, as well as take another boy to visit for an overnight, the 17^th, 18^th, or 19^th. Then we will bring them all come home to the Ark to start school about the 22^nd. The boy who lives in the hostel and goes to school way north will then make the very very long journey by train, bus, and car. He goes ‘home’ to the CHI CarePoint in Oshikuku for weekends. Danny and Frieda are the CHI Ministry Coordinators there and, if Frieda has ½ the heart of Danny, who we were able to meet, the kids are well loved up there. What a neat man!

The high school turn off reminded me of the book and movie, Holes. Seriously isolated, sandy, desolate.

We drove and drove and drove and drove some more, hoping our map were right and the occasional glimpse at Google maps to see that our blue dot of a car was still in the right place. I thought of those “I survived” shows when you think, “Why were those dummies out there without enough food and water anyways!” We did have food and water but, if our car broke down…it wouldn’t have been very good!

We saw a sign that read, “Brandberg White Lady Lodge and Camping. 2 swimming pools, restaurant, chalets, tent camping.” Whew. Confirmation that we were nearby. Wrong! 15 kilometers is a very long ways on dirt roads! When we finally saw the sign for reception, it was still quite a ways until the thatched roofs finally showed up. A few donkeys greeted us as they trotted by, free as can be. We drive up to an oasis that, again, is in the middle of nowhere! The walls are cool, all red rock and concrete. A beautiful succulent and rock garden surrounds the place and caged birds, rabbits, ducks, a dog guarding the fruit orchard, water containers, solar panels. Looked cool.

This place reminds me of the movie, “Out of Africa.” It is very luxurious for Africa’s standards, very rugged for American standards. Andy and I are in heaven. Our log and stone cabin is completely isolated with an amazing view of mountains that I can’t capture in pictures. The place is not crowded but has runners, mountain bikers, and other active people around and a large group of german tourists showed up too.

Andy and I are so happy to sit and take it all in. We are right now under our own cabana by the pool. The wind is coming up which could send us inside. It’s hot but perfect in the shade. There are birds, donkeys, lizards, and rocks all around us. A couple families camping nearby were here swimming earlier but aren’t here now. It’s quiet. Once in awhile we hear the parrot inside whistle or say goodbye. It sounds so human!

Yesterday afternoon we met the 2 Timones (meercats) who live in the garden. They run in and out of the lodge too. We had seen a few run across the roads but didn’t know they could hang out with humans.

At dinner last night Andy had Oryx steak and I had chicken schnitzel, which my kids would call chicken fried steak and would love. A woman was sitting alone so I asked her where she was from and if she’d like to join us. Now I felt like I was in the middle of The Great Gatsby, meeting interesting people on vacation. This woman is here TRACKING ELEPHANTS. This place has WILD ELEPHANTS! I saw the ‘stay at your own risk’ signs but THERE ARE WILD ELEPHANTS around here! The elephants are heading north because of the draught. We are not going north and it takes experienced trackers to find them so we won’t try but I am just tickled to hear that they exist and are really here. She showed me video on her phone of the groups they have found. They are bratty and the young bulls like to find water lines and such to pull up.

I asked her is she would tent camp like some are doing around here. She said no way. She has tent camped where the tent is mounted on the top of the vehicle, but not on the ground with the warthogs, scorpions, and the elephants that inhabit the area at different times.

She has been here 2 years in a row. She lives in Melbourne, Australia, but is from Germany and has also lived in Canada. She works for Seamans, managing power generation systems and components. She is a mechanical engineer and has very interesting insights as to how Germans, Australians, Canadians, and Americans engineer and manage components and systems. I hope to keep in touch with her and arrange for some international internships for the engineering majors at SAC. Very cool. She joined us for breakfast this morning too.

She is about 55, has no family of her own, and got involved with EHRA, Elephant Human Relations Aid. This organization volunteers to help humans and elephants get along. They build walls for farmers so the elephants can’t get to their windmills and generators and water tanks. This is grueling labor in the heat for about 10 people for a week at a time, to build 1 wall, living in tents. Then they patrol for 1 week with trackers and vets and other volunteers and document the elephants’ movements and such.

She is able to give us a glimpse into the complex problems and issues. She says that the animals are sometimes in danger. There is a cultural practice of wanting elephant meat for Christmas time. Sometimes there are unexplained shootings. I forgot to ask her about poachers but I will next time I see her. So fascinating. She is also giving us practical advice on how to best experience Australia someday.

She also reminds me of the challenges of serving others internationally. She said she probably won’t come back to this area because she sees the local populations not helping themselves. She is perturbed that “the locals don’t do so much as offer us a cup of tea when we are traveling all this way, spending all this money, doing everything for them, and they don’t chip in or do anything for themselves.”

Oh boy, is this an easy place to go. I don’t know the answers but it does make me question. What IS the local point of view of these volunteers? I am always pestering the staff and such where I go to try to understand. Fortunately, when I asked the waiter/bartender guy here where the staff lived, he was open. They live in the stick house we saw about 1 km away. Wow! It is so hard to fathom that the people we are encountering sometimes live in corrugated tin shanties, stick homes that you can see right through, cook only on a fire outside, live without running water or electricity, and spend much of their time hungry. I just can't wrap my head around it!

The biggest frustration for me is when a different cultural mores prohibit open dialogue. I want to know and some cultures just don’t feel comfortable with this white woman asking or, they don’t feel it is their place to share or, they don’t even think about it so my questions don’t make sense to them. Or, most often I suspect….it is something that I don’t know I don’t know. Hmmmmmmm. I tell myself constantly to relax and take in what I get and try not to judge or make generalizations. It is challenging and sometimes exhausting to me, but mostly rewarding.

So we are here. The food is strange and breakfast was bothered by flies and strange tasting coffee, juice, and milk. We have no electricity for our use in our ‘Little House on the Prairie’ cabin. There are a couple lights but we so wish it had a ceiling fan…we were very hot last night. The hot water was great this morning. Check out the fire they keep going to heat the hot water behind our 'chalet.'

We’ve mentioned the dogs around Keetmanshoop and Okajandja that wake us up. There are also roosters that tend to jump the gun on sunrise. This morning is was a donkey who Andy said ‘sounded like his feelings were hurt.’

The pools are always really cold here. It is hard to understand because of the desert weather and not-so-cold nights but whew…cold! And we’d love a lounge chair versus a plastic chair by the pool under our cabana.

Having said all that, we feel like the most blessed people in the universe to be in Namibia, seeing life here from so many different perspectives and missing the kids at the Ark like we miss our own. We know that life goes on for all of us…regardless of where we are, and that the Living God is in charge and responsible for the big picture. We are part of his army and, for now, he has given us a time of rest and renewal and adventure together.

What more could we ask for?