in Namibia

Hey there!

So my first post in Namibia! I am in Windhoek, the capital city. It has been a cool experience here so far, if I had to describe the drive in a few words I will say rock, dirt, rock, rock, sand, mountain, rock, mountain, dirt, rock. And that was for two days haha. Nine people, much luggage, endless supplies of snacks, ice tea and water, and lots of sleepiness, one maroon kombi. Three hours waiting to get let into Namibia from South Africa (I was so excited to cross country borders by land, definitely took the excitement out of it) and lots more rocky mountains. Closer to Windhoek we saw springbok and eland (both of which I have eaten) and almost ran over a bunch of baboons crossing the road, but other than that I will have to wait til Etosha National Park, which we will be going to tomorrow.

When I first saw Windhoek, I thought that the multicoloured houses were so cute. And after a few days I thought that this place was just like any other cities, with their nice houses and shopping centres. But after visiting the Beautiful Gates orphanage/daycare centre and this local food centre/makeshift orphanage that was run by one 59-year-old woman out of her own house I realised that there is much poverty here, that the eye cannot easily see. When Beautiful Gates first opened, they surveyed people in the three streets either side of the orphanage and found 109 AIDS orphans in those nine or so streets alone. They have the facilities to look after sixty children, twenty new each year, although they get hundreds of applications. The place is run by both local volunteers and YWAM.

The other place we went to affected me the most, however. This one woman, Pauline, noticed that children would wander the streets picking raw meat that they found in the dirt because they didn't have enough to eat. A lot of the time these children would have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and it is not uncommon to see one grandmother looking after eight grandchildren off her own meagre pension. So she feeds any children that come to her off the streets out of her own house. If a child becomes an orphan or has an alcoholic father who cannot look after them, she will take care of them until she can find a relative or until the situation has gotten better. She also teaches them worship songs, etc (they know "Our God is so Big"! but they call it "Our God is so Great".) We led a kids program all afternoon, it was so much fun. The space was SO tiny and it was so funny singing "Father Abraham" and watching everyone wave their arms and jump around in a circle, bumping into one another. It was pandemonium! Lots more stories that I will love to share in person.

We are leaving for the border area tomorrow, a rural, poor area bordering Angola. We are driving there via Etosha National Park I am so very excited!

Over and out,
Joc