Neufelds in Namibia

Saying good-bye

2009-06-02T08:47:00.000-07:00

This blog entry is overdue and was written a while back but I just got the chance to post it!

The time has come and as of late we have been saying many good-byes. A few weeks ago we hosted a bbq (aka braii) at our place for about 25 of our friends and colleagues at the hospital. As most staff parties begin the atmosphere was a bit stiff but once Daryl served his amazing cooking (as always!) everyone began having a great time. We were presented with some lovely gifts and words of thanks. The pharmacy crew will be at such a disadvantage without him there, and the one Pharmacist left was quite upset to see him go.

We also hosted a good-bye meeting for our volunteers at the project. There was a dual purpose to the meeting: first to say our thanks and secondly to give them a pep talk for what the next season will look like as Nicole will be all alone in her efforts to maintain the project until August when the next group of missionaries arrive. We have certainly felt overwhelmed at times when it was just the two of us and are praying that the volunteers really step up to the plate and come along side Nicole so that she is not burdened by the work load. Just as we were able to give to each orphan a bible, Nicole and Tricia were able to buy enough for each volunteer as well and they were received with much appreciation and enthusiasm. They were the envy of their peers at church and it was exciting to see them carrying them and using them at choir conference and church.

The women volunteers were also hit with a major blessing. Throughout the last year I have been collecting clothing, shoes, products, and some random items from previous female volunteers and missionaries and ended up with a huge load. So Nicole and I sorted them and laid them all out in one of the project rooms and then had the volunteers pick a number. The numbers theychose determined the order they got to go in and the girls just kept on picking until there was not one item left. They each ended up with huge piles of goods and it was such a treat to see them wearing all of our unwanted pieces with such joy. Most of them I would think doubled their entire wardrobe from that one give away!

On our final Sunday at church we presented the congregation with 7 refurbished and fixed church benches as well as 10 brand new ones! We had commissioned one of the pastors of the church to make them and his workmanship was fantastic. The church received them with great joy and we were very glad to have been able to use some of our excess funds to bless the church in that capacity.

In our last couple of days two of the church elders came over to our house for tea and to come as representatives from the church to bid us farewell. We were very touched by some of the words that were spoken we give God the glory as it was evident that they were truly thankful for our service in the last year. We were presented with what were suppose to be ‘small’ gifts…two beautiful carved wood pieces that will help us to remember them (as if we could ever forget!). During the last few days we were also surprisingly presented gifts from individuals in the church as well, and we were quite blown away with peoples thoughtfulness and generosity.

We had a little going away party with our Afrikaans friends at a local Afrikaans restaurant. We were touched by all who came and will miss some of those friends dearly.

One of our final days in Rundu was spent taking some of our closest kids from the project (4 boys and 1 girl) out to lunch. I think the bond we made with these kids has impacted both us and them in significant ways. They were beginning to become quite sad at the thought of our going and the good-byes were some of the toughest. After our lunch we walked around the village and found many of the people that we have been working alongside and had a chance to pray for each one and say our final words of thanks. Daryl was also able to hand out some of his extra clothing and items to some of the boys and they were all super excited to have a piece to remember him by. By the end of the day we had a huge entourage walking behind us from hut to hut and many hugs and tears later we drove away.

Good-byes seem so much harder than they did a year ago leaving Canada as we are a lot more uncertain as to when, if ever, we will see these friends again. We are thankful for the few that we will be able to be in contact with through email and phone but most don’t have computers, let alone know how to use one so the goodbyes have more finality to them. Never easy.

EBC Choir Conference 2009

2009-05-15T02:50:00.000-07:00

Evangelical Bible Church Choir conference 2009. If someone came to Africa for just one week wanting a complete cultural experience and stories to tell for years, this is where you would find it. Wild! Six days of intensity, so here is an attempt at a blog entry.

Although the conference was only 6 days, the preparation began well in advance. In the midst of sheer busyness, full days, our evenings leading up to the conference where spent practicing new songs with the choir. These lasted on average 5 hours and consisted of us trying desperately to get the songs and moves into our non-Namibian heads. One of the big emphasis at practice was to perfect the “competition song“. Every year a song is written and the lyrics sent to every church in EBC and then it is up to the individual churches to come up with the tune and the choreography, and then at they compete for the title. A week before conference they decide that I should be selected to the final 16 for the competition. The whole church was overly excited about this as I would be the first “chindele” in all of EBC history to perform in the competition. Really it just meant they were sure that they were going to win because of me!

Conference: This year the conference was held in a town called Katima which is the most North East town of Namibia bordering Zambia. It is about a 6 hour drive through the Caprivi Strip, full of wild animals like Elephants, Lions, Hippos and so on (can’t believe it has become almost normal to see such amazing creatures on the side of the road). There were about a thousand people at the conference from all over Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. We all stayed right on the church property in a village close to town. There were some structures built for each group to have a changing area but sleeping (minus the few of us that brought tents) for the majority meant a blanket on the dirt ground. Toilets consisted of a little structure for people to “bathe” and to pee. Number 2 meant finding bush, but due to the recent floodings in the rainy season, bush was hard to access…

Schedule: Our first morning was a bit of a surprise as we awoke at 6 am to hear the host choir singing there hearts out in unison! Better than any alarm clock I’ve ever had, the only struggle is that no matter how good they sounded 6 o’clock always came way too quickly after singing until 2 am only few hours earlier…every day! The first session would always begin around 7 am and somehow Daryl, Nicole and myself always managed to hide in our tent until the session ended at 8! There wasn’t much sleep to be had as the speakers blasted the local language but it was better than having to face the world that early!
Breakfast was a couple pieces of bread and margarine…we had our own secret supply of apples and granola bars to help complete the meal. After breakfast it was usually our choir that “called people to the service” with singing and dancing for about 45 minutes. Next was the morning session lead by an amazing Pastor from Zambia who we grew to love and respect as the week continued. A genuine and solid believer with a heart on fire for the Lord, what a treat.
Lunch and dinner was the local porridge with some sort of meat. Our group slaughtered 2 goats during the week and that got us through most of the meals as they eat everything (some parts more edible than others)…but they proudly kept the heads on display for all to see. Under the blaring sun, you can imagine the odour at the end of the week!
Afternoons had a session and then sport. Boys played soccer as the girls cheered and played Net Ball, the first time I have played sports in a skirt (in fact it’s the first trip I have been on where I couldn’t even pack pants!). By the evening session, everyone was struggling to stay awake from sleep deprivation, until the session was over and the keyboard kicked it into gear from 9 until 2am!!!

Celebrity status: We thought it was bad in Rundu… Apparently there have not been a lot of white people attending this conference in the past so the fact that there were 3 of us was, well, exciting for them. It didn’t Nicole and I long before we began calling each other Britney and Paris. At first we were hesitating, but by the end we just had to embrace the status and have fun with it. Photos shoots with random strangers was normal after an introduction of “I need to show my mom that I was with a “chindele”!” People yelling “chindele” all day in our face is always hard to know how to react to that. The biggest source of entertainment was when it came time for Nicole and I to sing with the church. The climax was on the last night when the competition occurred (strangely it seemed no other church considered it to be as big a deal as our congregation!), and then later when for one of our last songs I lead the song on microphone in the local language. It was hit and a week later still is as anyone who sees me will break out into the song!

After the fact we feel we went through Africa boot camp. One of my lines I used a lot this past week was “I will never pretend to understand this culture!”. We laughed so much my abbs hurt, we made fools of ourselves, learned lots, strengthened relationships, had some meaningful conversations, and then at the end shed some tears as it would be the last time I would see the majority of my dear friends.

to see more pictures go to:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78600&id=518018255&l=5c6b774f58

A Slower Pace

2009-05-09T23:48:00.000-07:00

We have definitely experienced a completely different pace to different activities while here in Rundu. African cultures are generally “event orientated” versus “time orientated”, which means something begins when there are enough people to participate in the event and ends whenever it is felt that the event is completed. This has driven us to distraction many times, especially the idea of “rewarding the latecomers”: if someone shows up 2 hours after an event starts, there is usually a complete interruption including a full recap of what has happened so far, and no apology is ever proffered or expected. On the other hand, we have also enjoyed the sometimes slower pace of life, a chance to “smell some roses”.

Here is a short list of some things which go slower in Rundu:

1. An empty taxi: there is an expression “Rundu slow” which we have coined to refer to a taxi driving 10kms/hour on the main streets, looking for anyone to collect.
2. Line-ups (especially in government buildings): people are used to waiting in lines for hours or even days for such things as withdrawing money from the bank or paying a water bill. Sabrina has often been in a line at the Home Affairs Office for 4 hours, only to be told when she reaches the front of the line attempting to register an orphan that she is in the wrong line (even though the day before it was the correct line). And the process starts from scratch again.
3. Greetings: We have observed routine greetings which take a minute or so as acquaintances inquire about the previous nights sleep, the family, any news, their health, etc. Then, the person takes two or three steps and meets the next person to repeat the performance.
4. Church services: the average church service we have endured while here in Rundu/Kaisosi is around 4 hours, with our personal record being 7.5 hours (with no break).

The one thing that has seemed to go by extremely fast has been our year here: we are still in shock that we are coming to the end, it feels like we arrived only a couple months ago.

Blankets, Bibles, and a Feast

2009-05-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

Our time at the OVC Project is now officially over, but we went out with a bang. This past Friday we threw a fun going-away party (for ourselves) as the project was shutting down for the May school break and we are preparing to get on the plane to leave Namibia.

In the beginning our plans were modest, but as the day got closer, things got better and better. As we kept brainstorming new ways to bless the kids, more and more ideas kept coming and God made cool provisions so it all worked out.

Originally, we decided that we had to have the right food for the farewell party. We had had such a great time at the OVC Christmas party, we decided a similar menu (chicken, rice, potatoes, soft-drinks) was a must. As we found out from previous experience, this kind of spread is a once-per-year (or less) luxury, so many, many people (even if not officially invited) show up for the food.

Then, we started getting creative. Nicole and Tricia (the AIM short-termers from Kentucky) thought it would be awesome to use some of their supporter’s funds to give some sort of english book to each of the kids: books are such a rare treasure, and almost no-one in the village has even one. The next idea was “What if we could find English children’s bibles to give to each of the kids?” A couple of phone calls to a well-connected friend in Windhoek later, and we had 200 kids bibles at our disposal for a bargain of a price.

Next, we knew that as winter was coming that very few kids have sufficient bedding, let alone mattresses or bed-frames or stuff we take for granted. The idea of purchasing a blanket for each kid with money from our supporters really excited us. Sabrina went to a local department store here called PEP, chatted with the manager and explained what we were trying to do, and asked if there was any sort of deal or assistance the store could provide. She kept being given contact numbers of more and more senior managers in the PEP chain, and after dozens of phone calls and faxed letters later, we were stunned early last week to hear that PEP had decided to donate all 180 blankets, one per kid! We were amazed and excited to see how God was using local business to also show the orphans that they are valuable.

We had requested in advance “special project” money from our supporters so as to pay for the blankets: when we found out that that money was still at our disposal, we knew we could have a lot of fun. We ended up purchasing school books, crayons and pencil crayons, pens, erasers, soap, toothpaste, and toothbrushes, as well as giving the kids some sweets that had been sent from North America.

As you can imagine (or maybe you can’t), arranging all these details takes a lot of work, so we were exhaustedly excited by the time the Friday rolled around. The day went off without a hitch. After many, many speeches of thanks (speech-making here is sacrosanct) we were able to feed the OVCs first, then the rest of the crowd (300 or more), and then we were able to individually give each of the kids their gift. We were touched by the sincere expressions of gratitude, and were glad that we could do something for these amazing kids whom we have fallen in love with.

Speaking Namlish

2009-04-20T03:23:00.000-07:00

We no longer speak English, we speak Namlish!

Namibia was settled by England and Germany, so the English that is spoken has the British vocabulary. Our vocabulary has been infused with British words like rubbish, car boot, and high care ward as opposed to emergency and so on. Because Namibia was ruled by Afrikaner-speaking South Africans, and Rundu is on the border of Portuguese-speaking Angola, and there are many different tribal groups in the area, communication can be a challenge. We are consistently impressed with people we know who can understand 7 or more languages

Namibia became an English speaking country 19 years ago at independence and so there are many people that struggle to speak it as it was never part of the older generations education. The younger generation is now being taught by many teachers who don't have a strong understanding of the language so there are words and sayings that are meant to be “English” but would never be used anywhere else. We speak much more slowly now and our sentences structure has even changed.

There are a lot of verbal and non-verbal communications that are now a part of our every day life and here are just some examples.

Greetings: When shaking hands, you often clap three times first as a sign of respect. When greeting someone who is older than me or has a higher position of authority I place my left hand on my right forearm as we shake hands and women do a little curtsy dip as a sign of respect. When greeting a closer friend the hug includes kisses on both cheeks. Hand shakes are often prolonged and the conversation will continue as you hold hands. When passing someone, it is customary to greet, then say "ok" as you end the greeting, which in Rukwangali is "ewah" (eh-waaaah). “Ewah” can also be used as an acceptable greeting/acknowledgement of presence if you are passing the person more than once in the same day.

Asking questions: In the Kwangali culture, a whole conversation can be had without words. If I want something that is visible, I must only clap my hands and point at the object. The person that I am asking has a few possible ways of answering me. There is the eyebrow raise which indicates yes, the chin jut that indicated yes, or the eyes looking to the side which means no. If I can take the item, I may pick the item up and clap a thanks with a little curtsy dip or if handed the item take it with my right hand while my left hand rests on my right forearm. A perfectly acceptable way of saying no is indicated by the twisting of the hand, and generally used if the item is not there or they cannot help you.

Getting someone's attention: Here in Rundu one must be very careful about how you wave hello. The hand must be showed palm forward and shaken in a side to side manner. If you try to say hello by holding your hand still and moving your fingers up and down it means “come here”! Also it is customary to get someone's attention verbally by calling them “nane” (nah-neh - mother) or “tate” (tah-teh - father). This applies to everyone who is older than you. If they are younger than you, you can call them kado (kah-doe)(girl) or boyi (boy-ee)(boy).

I'm coming now now: When one is going somewhere and will be right back, we would say "I'll be right back". Here, you say "I'm coming ". The 'now now' means I am coming back within fifteen minutes to a half hour. 'I'm coming now' gives the person about an hours time frame, and if they simple say 'I'm coming' it means that they will come back at some point during the day!

Neh?: This is very similar to the Canadian, “eh”. It is used to qualify or verify information or to make sure that the listener understood the speaker's intention. If I am talking to someone and I want to make sure that I understood correctly then I will say "You are going to town to get some food, neh?" Then she can answer yes or no to verify that I have heard her correctly. It can also be used just to add emphasis to the end of a sentence.

Izit?: In Afrikaans, which also heavily influences Namlish, it is very common to verify a statement with 'izit?'. I think at home we would say 'is that true', 'really, I didn't know that', or 'I've never heard that before'. Daryl has adopted this well, sometimes too well! Also, “so?” (pronounced “Tsoe” but the “o” is held for about a second) is a variation on this.

Of course this is just a small sample of some of the language differences and who knows what you will hear coming from our mouths! I need to give credit to Kimmie, who wrote the outline of this entry initially to her friends and family so she did the bulk of the work!

To view some pictures of some random signs taken in Namibia click here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73441&id=518018255&l=d6afde4365

Death and Dying in Northern Namibia

2009-03-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

We have been overwhelmed with the pervasiveness of death throughout our time in Rundu. In North America, the death of someone we know is a shocking but thankfully rare occurrence: here, death confronts us unrelentingly. Almost every week, the church choir has been at some sort of memorial service or other in the community, and we have often felt the suffocation of grief that shrouds the community.

We attended a memorial service and burial for the first time last weekend: one of the cooks in the OVC program became sick suddenly and died, which came as a heavy blow to us all. When someone dies here, the proper things is to go and sit with the family at their home and grieve with them. In the time leading up to the burial, someone is always around the family, sometimes simply just sitting alongside them.

The night of the memorial service, a tent-like structure was erected in the midst of the family's yard, and many hundreds of people had crammed in. A friend of ours instructed us as to what was culturally sensitive and required of us, such as paying respects to the father and mother of the deceased. The night was filled with histories and sermons, and many many, songs. When someone dies in the community, choirs from the surrounding churches come, and so boundaries are erased in the face of grief. At many points, different mourners would break down into hysterical wailing, and there were lumps in our throats as we participated with them in their grief. While we returned home after the service, most people stayed the entire night, singing songs and waiting with the family.

The next day was a Sunday and we all reconvened at 8am for the funeral service. The choirs met the “hearse” (a pickup truck with a canopy) which had brought the body from the hospital, and the casket was carried the final 500m into the church on the shoulders of the singing choir. We were amazed at the numbers of people who had gathered for the funeral, several times the capacity of the church. Again, 8 different choirs from different churches had shown up, this time from a wider geographical area, all bringing a song or two as there contribution to the mourning. Each would wait patiently outside the church until it was their time, then would squeeze into the packed building through a side door and sing their songs, then exit to make way for the next choir. After the service, we all accompanied the casket to the local graveyard and said final farewells. We were told that many would be accompanying the family back to their home to spend more time with them sitting and grieving.

Other reminders of death happen nearly daily. When we arrive at the hospital at 8 am, we are usually met by a caravan of vehicles coming from the mortuary, with singing choirs in cars following the released body as the hearse drives slowly to wherever the final destination is.

Another haunting notifier of death heard much too frequently in the halls of the hospital is a “death wail”. This unmistakeable designation of tragedy comes from yet another mother walking/stumbling to the hospital exit from the pediatric ward, sobbing and lamenting spasmodically as she flees the news that her child has just died.

Children die in Namibia at obscene rates, from diseases that should be treatable or preventable. The statistics from 2007 showed that 24,000 children died in Namibia of malnutrition, which is especially shocking when one considers the population of Namibia is only 1.8 million. Many people still look on western medicine with suspicion, and will try all sorts of traditional medicines before coming to the hospital. The patient is usually on death's door and usually has had their conditions aggravated by traditional remedies, but if the patient dies while in the hospital, it reinforces the idea that western medicine is to blame or has failed. We have spoken with many frustrated hospital staff who wish people would seek help when it was needed, not after every other avenue was explored.

Life is hard and altogether too short here in Rundu.

A Broken Foot

2009-03-19T00:03:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago while playing soccer with the boys at OVC program, Daryl broke a bone in his foot. We were able to get an X-ray quite quickly, but there was some uncertainty with the image so we drove the next day to the capital city, Windhoek, to get a CT scan and the advice of an orthopaedic surgeon. The results were that the 1^st metatarsal was fractured in too many pieces to perform surgery, so that rest and time was the only option for treatment. We were relieved to avoid surgery.

The sight of a white guy on crutches hiking through the sand is one that elicits a lot of curiosity and attention. The first few days Daryl was wearing an Aircast, and he might as well have been from outer-space. We were able to switch to a much-lighter fibreglass cast for the next couple of weeks, and the entire cast is now covered with signatures of the kids.

O little town of Rundu

2009-03-04T00:24:00.000-08:00

Rundu is a small town on the Northern border of Namibia and sits beside the Okavango River which separates the Nambian soil from its northern neighbour Angola. We get the privilege of seeing the river daily as we drive in and out of town and it offers some of the most spectacular sunset views.

I recently heard that Rundu used to be considered one of the prettiest and most picturesque towns in ALL of South West Africa!!! This was in the days before Independence (18+ years ago) when there was a large army base and a lot of money in the town, and things certainly have changed. For many complicated reasons, this region is now one of the poorest region in Namibia and Rundu has been greatly affected. There is garbage everywhere on the side of the streets, often smoldering in big burning piles that have been pushed together in an empty lot. People urinate whenever and wherever they feel the need. Water is expensive, so the beautiful gardens have fallen into disrepair. Stray, rabid dogs roam the streets, and there seems to be a general lack of concern and civic pride, at least compared to other Namibian towns we have visited.

Rundu is developing by the day though. Even in the short time we have been here land has been developed and buildings erected (but remain empty…). There is a lot of anticipation that Rundu will become an even greater economic hub for this whole region, especially with future plans to build a bridge between here and the northern Angolan city, Calai (when, exactly, is anyone‘s guess). There are 5 main grocery stores, a few clothing shops, and a random assortment of other businesses. There are innumerable “china shops” which peddle nearly identical cheap sandals, clothes and electronics: “Made in China“. Unfortunately even with all the Chinese living in Rundu, there are no Chinese restaurants.

We have a new two-story mall, which has the talk of the town since its opening in November. Now, unlike the opening of a mall elsewhere, this “grand opening” meant that there were two stores open while the rest of the mall remained in construction. Literally you would be walking under unfinished construction with men working while getting your groceries. The main construction is more or less finished but the mall remains only partially occupied by stores, mostly stores that already existed in town that picked up and moved locations only to leave an empty building somewhere else.

There really are two main reasons to go to the mall. First to ride the escalator (when it is working). Yes, this is what Rundu folk do for fun. It is the first escalator the majority of people have ever seen and most importantly ever been on. There were a few small mishaps, a few injuries and one rumoured death (in truth someone had a heart attack in the general vicinity of the escalator, but rumours die hard around here). There is also a spot in the mall for an elevator, but there is no signs of building it so we are unsure what the likely hood is that it will ever be built.

The other attraction at the mall is the “Hungry Lion” which is the first and only fast-food restaurant here. It is a fried chicken joint similar to a KFC but ironically is often out of chicken…(if that’s what it even is!). As far as other restaurants go, there is a coffee shop in town (not at the mall) that is a nice place to grab breakfast and lunch and it is run by a friendly Afrikaans family and generally attracts the other Afrikaaners and foreign workers. All the other restaurants in town are in association with lodges, some much better than others.

The open market is where many of the locals hang out. People have all sorts of random things to sell: food like vegetable, nuts, grains, fat cakes (similar to a donut), frozen fish, and fresh meat, as well as a food court (serving pap, mutete, and oshikundu). You can also find hair salons, clothing stalls, tailors, used clothing shops, and my favourite, shitanges (which are pieces of material used for practically everything but most commonly a skirt). I have a small obsession with them!

The last day of the month, which is referred to as “Kavango Day“, is payday for those that have jobs and people come from the whole region to collect money from the bank (or get money from relatives who have jobs) and to usually spend all of their wages in one weekend. Yikes. People are everywhere and the streets are packed, line-ups unreal and usually the hospital is full on Monday morning with injuries resulting from bar fights. We try to do our shopping the day before for obvious reasons! In contrast, once the shops close at 1pm on Saturdays the town becomes ghost-like until Monday morning.

We just recently got a couple street names, with a sign even!! There are only a few paved roads in town the rest is sand, sand, sand. During the dry season the sand becomes suspended in the air turning into a hazy fog. The sun sets far above the actual horizon as it sets into the thick layer of sand. Since the rainy season we now have clear skies (when the clouds part) and breathe much cleaner air. The downside is intense that the roads are obliterated with pot holes and at dusk there are swarms of malaria-bearing mosquitoes. The rains have ushered in green everywhere, and all the neighbouring villages have plenty of corn fields just on the verge of harvesting.

As the region is a farming community, it is no surprise to find cows walking the streets (they are huge!), goats galore, donkeys (usually with their front legs tied together so they don’t wander) and chickens running madly this way and that. Being a big city girl, it cracks me up every time!! As you can see the stop sign's do not apply to cows...this picture was taken one block form our house!

For some other great shots of Rundu check out:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=64528&id=518018255&l=35cc6

Our little AIM team

2009-02-24T01:49:00.000-08:00

In the last few months we have seen a few changes to our team here in Rundu.

Early December we said goodbye to an amazing lady, Dr. Mary Bennett from England. Mary served here for a two year term as a teacher in the College of Education here in Rundu, the training center for teachers in this region. Education has become, in my opinion the number one area that needs desperate help in this country. The day after independence only 18 years ago, the President declared Namibia an English speaking country. Up to that point the schools mainly taught in the Africaans language but suddenly things changed. In the village of Kaisosi kids in grades 1-3 get one hour of English a day and then in grade 4 the classes are all taught in English. English is not spoken at home or in the communities and so this transition is tough on the students and the number of kids that pass subsequent grades decreases significantly. One of the biggest problem is that the teachers also struggle with English, and so the quality of the teaching decreases significantly. Hearing stories from Mary and some of the other teachers at the college has helped me see that English proficiency (and hence education in general) in this country has a long way to go when compared to the majority of its African neighbours. Mary was also very committed to serving the church, setting up training for Sunday school teachers, writing Bible studies and spending time with the ladies in the church doing sewing projects. A very encouraging, hard working, and inspiring woman of God. Rundu will be forever changed.

We have just said goodbye to Kimmie this past week as she headed back to America after 3 years in Rundu. Kimmie is a nurse that was working as a NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) nurse back at home and so was quickly slotted into the paediatric ward here at Rundu State Hospital, as there is no specialized ward here. Kimmie served faithfully on the ward for 2 years doing a 4 on 4 off rotation, and had many horrific stories of her time in the hospital. Her time there was no doubt very necessary as she tried to bring insight, and a strong work ethic, not to mention a passion and deep love for sick kids. After 2 years Kimmie was promoted to In-service Training Coordinator which was a nice change from the ward (although she continued to do one shift a week on the ward). But the new position came with its own set of struggles. As we have mentioned in past blog entries, the work ethic here is disparagingly low and she found that the nurses weren’t very interested in continuing education, attendance was low and not all that appreciated. By the end of 3 years, Kimmie was excited to go back home for the first time and see all her friends and family and we applaud her for her perseverance! She is missed already.

After unloading all of Kimmie’s luggage off at airport and saying our goodbyes, we turned around and packed the car full again with 2 girls, Nicole and Tricia and all their belongings and headed back on the road up to Rundu. Nicole and Tricia are close friends from Louisville, Kentucky (pronounced Louvull for all us non Americans!). To quote Daryl, “they are two angels sent to us from God”. They are both bright rays of sunshine and full of joy and laughter. What a huge blessing!

Tricia is also a NICU nurse in the States, but instead of entering the hospital scene will spend the next two months loving on the kids at our OVC project and helping me get some of the overwhelming administrative tasks organized, of which I am so thankful! She has already been keen to jump into wound care at the project and has the sweetest attitude.

Nicole has a Masters in Dispute Resolution and works with kids who have emotional disability. Can you imagine how excited we are to have her here!!! Nicole has already jumped right into our meetings with the social worker trying to bring much needed aid to our kids in abusive situations. We just found out that the social worker will be away for the next 6 weeks, so I feel that “for such a time as this” she has been sent to do a great work. Nicole has committed to a 6 month term here in Namibia but as we are leaving Rundu in 2 months (!), we are unsure as to whether she will stay here (we are praying for someone else to come and join her) or head back down to Windhoek to finish her term there.

The kids at project are over the moon excited to meet and play with these energetic and fun loving girls, they all want to be their new best friends. They are a gigantic gift.

Building a hut and so much more...

2009-02-04T06:20:00.000-08:00

Our last blog entry was in regards to one of our orphans at the project, “Jessica”. Although there were no signs of another physical beating, things continued to look dismal. Both her grandmother and her aunty kicked her off of their properties and she was literally sleeping under a tree, in rainy season.

A couple of weeks back I was sitting with Jess asking lots of questions as I usually do and found out that there was some tin roofing at her uncle’s (in a different village) that had been left by her parents for her and her brother but they could never afford the rest of the construction material to build the hut. The tin roofing is one of the bigger expenses in building a hut and is a huge start so immediately my heart said that we needed to build this hut for her, and we needed to do it ASAP.

The question was, where should we build it? With the Grandma, who treats these kids as slaves (no joke), or with her aunt who is an alcoholic and turns to violence when under the influence? With the help of our dear friend Zeka as translator we started to talk to neighbours to find out some outside perspective. Grandma said she didn’t want the hut on her property because she felt “aunty would be too upset”…don’t know if that was the whole truth. Then the aunty came in search of us.

We spent two hours sitting with aunty, Jess and her brother trying to mediate between them. Aunty began with a very defensive and angry attitude saying that these kids are practically her own as she has been responsible for them since their mother died when Jess was 5 and her brother was 10 days old. She was adamant that the hut be built on her property.

We then wanted to try to understand why she was kicking Jess off the property if she wanted her so badly. Some of the answers were: she is still wetting the bed, she is sleeping around with a married man, and she refuses to sleep next to another teenage boy. We asked Jess to leave so that we could talk to aunty alone. We explained that she is wetting the bed because of the physical abuse when she was younger and that she is not doing it intentionally, and by telling the community she is embarrassing her even more. We asked what evidence she had that Jess was sleeping with this man and she said “she heard it from someone” (Jess was beside herself with tears when this was brought up and told us that the rumours were unfounded), so we again tried to explain that shunning “her own daughter” for something that she could not prove was extremely hurtful, especially to a 13 year old girl with a history of sexual abuse. Then we tried to explain that it was understandable that Jess didn’t want to share a hut with another boy because she already feels unsafe. These are but some of the issues that came up and it is evident that there will need to be much intervention and counselling in order to restore this relationship.

The next day, Zeka and Daryl spent the afternoon purchasing materials for the house (basically wandering around the village to different spots where piles of wood and sticks were for sale, then Zeka haggling over the price with Daryl trying to stay out of the way so we didn't have to pay the "Sharumbu" (white person) price.) The next morning at 6 am, with all the material bought, we picked up our team of workers that Zeka had recruited and began building the mud hut from scratch (see pictures!).
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1325336&l=a0f75&id=518018255

We were praying for no rain and were so thankful that for two and half days, we were rain-free giving the majority of the hut time to dry. We had an incredible day being in the community and blessing Jess (and her brother who will live there with Jess when he is a bit older).

We had been feeling quite a bit of frustration and disappointment with a multitude of things regarding the project these last few weeks and what an uplifting and positive experience it was in the face of all the negativity to produce something good.

As an update, I met with the social worker yesterday (finally) and she is going to gather a team of colleagues to meet with the family next week. We are very keen to involve these folks, so that the family understands that it is not just our opinion that what they are doing is wrong. The team will also explain their actions are against the law and warn them that they have the right to remove the children if things don’t improve. We are also hoping to get some information translated regarding alcohol abuse. Please pray for us as we seek to show love and grace all the while helping to protect and counsel those that are hurting.

A story about a girl

2009-01-14T07:31:00.000-08:00

I arrived at Kaisosi village for choir practice only to run into one of our orphans who is 13 years old, lets call her Jess (a very non-Namibian name!). As is customary we greeted each other by saying that we were both doing well, all the while I was starring at some relatively fresh wounds over her face, arms, and legs. It turned out things were not going well for her at all.

Jess is a troubled teen. I think both parents have died, but it’s presumed that there was some sexual, emotional and physical abuse as a young child. Currently she lives sometimes with her Grandmother, sometimes with her drunk Aunt and sometimes under no shelter at all depending on whether she was kicked out from her “home”.

Jess was the first orphan I met upon arrival here. She speaks confidently in English, unlike most kids her age, and I warmed to her immediately. She’s bright, has a great leadership skills, is willing to help out at project when we need it and has a beautiful singing voice. She craves friendship and role models as was evident in her friendships with all the other female missionaries that have passed through. It also didn’t take long to be filled in by the others that she was constantly in and out of trouble.

This past year before her 13th birthday we had her tested for HIV…she hadn’t even had her first period yet. Thankfully she was negative. She has almost been kicked out of school on numerous occasions, but for the grace of God (and the kind Principle) is still able to attend. It seems she has many enemies…I have had to bring needle and thread to help her mend her school uniform after a bunch of older girls came to bully her because they were jealous that she was hanging out with white people. Through my biased eyes I see a tender, loving, good kid with a sharp tongue and a broken heart.

One thing I have learned here more than at home, is that “there are always two sides to a story”. I get phones calls from her relatives telling me how horrible she is and the horrible things she does, and then I hear her side of the story…In my opinion, Jess is acting like a hurting 13 year old, and her caregivers are acting just as young and immature. Their main complaint is that “she doesn’t have any respect”, honestly I don’t know that I would either.

Respect. In this culture, if you are even one year older than someone, then you have more authority and you deserve respect. It has got to be one of the most misused and misunderstood words here. I often sit with the kids trying to teach them that as much as it is important to respect their elders, respect and trust are things that are earned and treating others with love and honour will help to earn it. I think that Jess acts out in anger and frustration because she knows that those in authority over her don’t treat her with any respect either.

So why the recent scarring? She is one of the lucky few that actually gets a monthly grant from the government, an equivalent of about 25 Canadian dollars a month. Half of the money is suppose to be for the caregiver and half for the child. Well, her drunk Aunt was demanding she give her portion over, but Jess needed to buy a new school uniform. Jess was stubborn and wouldn’t give the money over so the Aunt started to beat her, but she felt like she couldn’t do a good enough job, so she got a tall 20 something year old guy to come and do the job for her. What kills me is that a whole crowd formed to watch…no one with the guts to stop it, speak out or protect her.

My heart fell when she told me her story. She said she went to the police but they told her she was too young to make a statement. I called the social worker, but she’s in South Africa for a week. As we hung out, she pointed to the guy that beat her, just close by. My heart wanted to hate him, although I knew there was no solution in that. So, I cuddled up next to her, held her close and said I was sorry all the while trying not to ball my eyes out right then and there. I wish I could rescue her, and give her a chance to see life without abuse, hatred and pain, instead all I can do is love her for the short period of time that God has placed me in her life.

Christmas at OVC

2008-12-19T06:02:00.000-08:00

Before we left for our 10 day adventure we tried to sort out some plans for the Christmas celebration at the OVC project that was scheduled for 4 days after we returned. We hoped that the committee and volunteers would take ownership for their event and plan while we were away, but weren’t surprised when we arrived and absolutely nothing had been done.

On Sunday after church, three days before the celebration, we met with a few of the committee members to plan an event for 300 people. We tried to plan a menu, a program and sort out many of the details, but this is Africa and planning is not done the same way as home. In Canada this would never fly!

Monday morning Mom and I went shopping with a couple of the cooks and filled up the back of the truck full of food. We bought huge bags of chicken, rice, potatoes, tomatoes and the lot. It’s hard to comprehend, but a meal like that is only for very special occasions in the village that we work with. Some of the kids had not had rice before and chicken was very rare. So although it was a big job, there was an element of excitement in our task.

We then spent the rest of the day frantically trying to put together gift packages for each of our 180 kids… not an easy task! We used the remainders from other give-aways, as well as some recently received packages from Canada. The gift packages all had some basic school supplies in them like paper, crayons, markers, pens and pencils and then we tried to put a few items in each bag that were age specific. Our favourites were the packages for our youngest orphans that contained lovely cuddly stuffed animals, a rare treasure for them!

The morning of the event was spent running last minute errands, checking on the hardworking cooks (of which there were about 20) while mom and Kimmie worked away on the gifts. We were truly African when we were still at home trying to organize, label and package the gifts at 3pm when the program was due to “start” at 2!

Daryl had the opportunity to share the Christmas story and it was a great success. We also sung some Christmas carols which the kids loved. The most successful part of the day for us was having the kids eat FIRST(!!!), before the elders and caregivers. This was a huge feat as it is very counter cultural and has yet to happen at any of the big celebrations at project. Everyone participated in the celebration feast in a relaxed way, all the kids lined up without pushing and shoving and chaos did not ensue.

The gift giving also went amazingly well as we called the kids one by one to receive their gifts. There were many smile s on many faces. After that we had the opportunity to honour the volunteers and cooks by giving them a small financial gift that had been donated by some of our supporters. Daryl and I also ordered custom t-shirts for all of them but unfortunately this is Africa and they weren’t done on time.

We were setting ourselves up for disaster but it was far from it. We thank God.

For more pictures:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49000&l=9e8b3&id=518018255

Dunes with mom

2008-12-17T08:01:00.000-08:00

The much anticipated visit from with my mother has been fantastic so far. After her arrival, and getting over the excitement of seeing one another, we spent a few days in Windhoek eating great food and catching up on sleep. Then the adventure really began.

We drove South West to the world famous (and Namibia’s number 1 tourist attraction) Sossousvlei in the Namib dessert, the oldest desert in the world. Our drive there was fantastic as we were surprised by the panoramas as we drove through ever-changing landscapses. Sossousvlei is known for the tall, majestic red sand dunes, which get their colour from the iron content found in the sand. We stayed overnight just outside the park gate so that we could get in at 6am when the gate opens, as the colours are more dramatic in the soft light of morning.

“Dune 45” is one dune in particular that you are allowed to climb, and so all three of us slowly made our way up taking in the breathtaking view of dune upon dune. After having lots of sandy fun on top (see pictures!) we made our way down and drove further on to make our way to “Dead Vlei” which is a pan of 900 year old fossilized trees and a beautiful sight. By the time we did all this the sun was full blast at noon and it was time to seek some shelter. What an amazing morning!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48694&l=10165&id=518018255

It took a couple of days for us to get to the Atlantic coast with more surprising landscapes along the way. The desert landscape changed dramatically to light yellow dunes and it was amazing to see them literally disappear into the sea! Mom never ceases to amaze me as she was keen to participate in Quad biking in the dunes (especially after she learned that it was not a regular bike that you have to use your “quads” for!). So we took an amazing 4 hour tour of the dunes on our Quad bikes stopping to learn about the flora and fauna, and the 10 000 year old fossilized foot prints, jewellery and pots, and human skeletons from when the bush people lived in the dunes with all the animals.

Mom was also keen to go sea kayaking in the lagoon near Walvis Bay, and we paddled along side colonies of seals and dolphins that were jumping right beside us, and thousands of flamingos. I have to say that Swakopmund also offered really nice shopping (surprisingly Daryl didn’t enjoy that part quite as much as mom and I, but made sure to sample the great coffee).
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48705&l=529d7&id=518018255

The journey continued in the North West region of Namibia to Twyfelfountein where we admired the most extensive and oldest rock art in all of Africa. Then we had the chance to visit a Cheetah Conservation Project to see those amazing animals run!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48706&l=8756a&id=518018255

Other than me successfully bursting a tire, we made it home to Rundu safely and were thrown into the midst of OVC Christmas planning…

Choir Debut

2008-11-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

Just as coming to Africa has been a long dream of mine, so has singing in an African choir. My expectation was of a beautiful choir accompanied solely with drums. Unfortunately, thanks to Western influence they have replaced their drums with a horrible synthesizer which overpowers the beautiful voices and diminishes the overall effect.

It’s hard to describe the “culture” of choir here. Church services last on average 4 hours and the far majority of that time is filled with songs sung by the choir. But there is not just one choir. There is a “youth” choir, made up of men and women of all ages, a Sunday school choir, and a women’s choir and each choir sings a handful of songs weekly. It is an honour and position of prestige to sing in one of the choirs, and they take membership quite seriously. Little did I know that joining the choir would prove to be so difficult.

The first hurdle is that the church we are working with prides themselves on memorizing all the songs and therefore there are no written words. If the songs where in a language that was recognizable for me, that would be one thing, but I struggle picking up the African dialects by ear alone. So then the next hurdle is getting someone to write them down for me, but most are unconfident in their writing skills and claim “they don’t know it well enough”. It has been months now of me attending practices and still not knowing the words well enough to sing on a Sunday, which drives the choir crazy but not enough for them to help despite my asking.

Then there is choir practice. These are every Friday and Saturday afternoon. On Saturdays, choir practice is suppose to start at 2pm, and when people don’t show up on time they are scolded publically…but no one shows up on time. Except for me, until I learned better after spending 3 ½ hours waiting by myself… Practice starts when enough people show up to form a choir and that is different all the time. So the couple times they did start before I arrived, I was chastised for being late! Can’t win.

A few weeks back the Choir Master approached me because they were going to be a “guest choir” at a different church. They agreed to work with me to put some extra effort in to help me prepare and so I, in turn, agreed to have my debut. They doubled the number of practices the week leading up to it, and I filled a voice recorder with all the songs we were to sing, forced someone to write down all the songs, and was practicing day and night to try to wrap my tongue around the language. I still don’t actually know what I was singing about but at least I could mimic the words!

The lead up to the Sunday brought a lot of commotion. There was such excitement about the prospect of being a guest choir that I felt as though I was watching little kids in a chocolate factory. This excitement was magnified because they were going to have a white person singing with them. Church members were coming to practice just to see the “chindele” sing and dance (did I mention each of their songs are choreographed with African moves, which they think is hysterically funny to watch the white girl attempt…) This one guy kept going on about how much people were going to laugh and stare and how great it was all going to be…I told him he wasn’t helping my confidence with his comments.

So we met at our church on Sunday and hopped into the back of 2 pick-up trucks in the rain to drive to the other church, singing all the way. We all lined up outside the church and came marching in with our “entrance song”, but as there were 50 of us it took two entrance songs to get us all in and organized. There was also another guest choir from a third church that had been invited, and as such the church was packed. All the receiving church’s choirs, of which there were at least 5, and then the two guest choirs were each given the number of songs they were to sing. So we all took turns singing and dancing and sweating. I definitely stuck out but did my best and had sweat running down my face like the best of them.

The service started at 9 am and by about 2pm the half hour sermon was coming to a close. We were all gearing up for the end of the service and looking forward to some fresh air when the service leader announced that each choir was to sing another 4 songs each (not including the song that it takes to get up from the benches and move to the front, and then the song to return)! Each song lasts on average 8-10 minutes and most songs are only 1 or 2 verses max with a whole lot of repetition.
So after 7 hours and 20 minutes we were finally allowed to do our exit song! It wasn’t only Daryl and me who thought this was out of control, everyone in our choir was complaining. As this is a bush church, there are no toilet facilities, no place to get a drink of water, no snacks and it was hot and muggy! We figure that we heard about 50 songs in total and over 6 hours of singing.

Daryl is sure that if I wasn’t so stubborn, I would have given up on this whole choir thing months ago. But, I am glad I finally did it and have built some good friendships in the meantime. I think I am still feeling a bit shell shocked and am not sure when my next attempt will be!

Good-bye Shelley

2008-11-17T22:52:00.000-08:00

As we celebrate the 6 month mark of us being in Namibia, we also are sad to see the end of our dear friend Shelley’s time here.

Shelley arrived in Namibia from Australia the same day as us. We did our Orientation together and have spent a considerable amount of time together here in Rundu. Shelley worked in Rundu hospital as a nurse on the paediatric ward. She worked alongside us in the OVC project three afternoons a week. We went through culture shock together, experienced similar difficulties in the hospital and at the project and encouraged each other in the face of the regular challenges of being a foreigner in a new place.

I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to watch Shelley grow in her time here. When she arrived she was a brand new nursing graduate and lacked confidence in her skills and struggled to find her feet in a very different hospital culture. She worked hard to learn some local language and managed to do assessments in Rukwangali, but most impressively she managed to maintain a good attitude in spite of the shockingly poor work environment.

As she worked on the paediatric ward, one of her biggest struggles was dealing with apathetic nurses that would sit by and watch a child die without attempting the necessary emergency steps to possibly prevent it. Over time she was able to encourage the nurses to do basic resuscitations and was an excellent example of taking action before it was too late to save a child’s life. I’m not sure I would have had the strength to see what she saw, and am thankful that God called me to rehabilitation! Shelley eventually began to enjoy work in the ward and developed fantastic relationships with the kids through games, cuddling, and compassion. The mothers also loved her company, and I have no doubt were thankful for her individualized care.

The loss of Shelley at the OVC project means much more to Daryl and I, as her help was invaluable. The younger kids in particular would come rushing to Shelley once we arrived at project wanting a hug and a hand to hold. She definitely found her niche there, constantly bandaging little wounds, holding skipping ropes, throwing a ball around, and most importantly "tickle ministry"! Her help with organizing Home Based Care and some of the administrative work for the project will also be missed.

Shelley was a great example of one of the main goals of Africa Inland Mission in Namibia: to show God’s love and compassion to orphans, vulnerable and disabled children and their caregivers by ministering to their physical, spiritual and educational needs and seeking to empower them.

We miss her already.

Rain in Rundu!

2008-11-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

We have finally experienced rain, after being in Namibia for 5 ½ months! This has been a dramatic change compared with Vancouver where rain is the norm. Our first few months we had bright blue skies everyday. Then as the ground became drier, the air and sky filled with dust. The horizon was no longer clear and the sun would disappear in the dust, rather than set. Then about a month ago we started to see beautiful fluffy white clouds, which have progressively become darker and more ominous. So what does rain mean for our lives in Rundu?

*After a short rain, you can actually smell the flowering trees, instead of dust and burnt garbage.
*Thunder storms are so loud you think your house will crumble
*Lightning shows that would rival any I grew up with in Ontario
*Laundry becomes a trickier task as we use a clothes line (this will be my nemesis I know it!)
*I had to figure out where the windshield wipers were on the car because I hadn’t used them yet.
*A break from the stifling heat! Rain is usually so welcome here because it can bring the temperature down from the 40’s to the 20’s…BIG difference.
*The pot holes on the roads get much worse.
*Bugs, bugs everywhere, of all sorts and sizes. Back onto the Malaria pills…
*Not sure yet how this will affect our OVC project. We are trying to complete the kitchen in the new building so the cooks can prepare inside. As of now, they are cooking huge pots of pap outside on firewood. We will also need to come up with some indoor games for the kids - not sure how we will keep 180 kids organized in a small building…
*Rundu has already started to look a little more green and less brown, and hopefully our water bills will be less because our gardener won’t have to use so much water!

Motivating our volunteers

2008-10-27T07:39:00.000-07:00

Since September we have had a difficult time with the volunteers out at the OVC project, with their enthusiasm and commitment decreasing significantly. In October there were days when only one volunteer would come, especially dangerous when we were on vacation and Shelley was alone with the one volunteer and close to 200 kids: chaos ensued, including fist-fights.

We called a meeting this past week and invited the OVC Committee Members and the volunteers so we could improve communication. Originally, the volunteers expressed frustration by the lack of supplies for the Home Based Care (HBC) program, which haven’t been replenished for months by the ministry of Health. Eventually the main issue appeared, that the volunteers are burnt out. Some regularly give up 3 afternoons a week, 2 for project and 1 for HBC. We have been asking the committee to search for more volunteers for months now, to no effect. We would ideally like to see the number of volunteers triple from 11 (of which usually only 3 or so show up), so that there could be a rotation schedule and we could supervise and interact with the kids better. We are also going to try a formal schedule for the volunteers: we hope it works!

In August we hosted a pizza party and showed our volunteers the first Lord Of the Rings movie to bless their hard work. It was such a hit we decided to do it again, this time hoping it would excite them to renew their commitment as a volunteer! It was a great success. We served homemade pizza and showed them the second part of the series and they enjoyed it tremendously. I don’t think I have ever watched a movie where there was so much cheering and applause! We hosts couldn’t contain our laughter as we watched them enjoy it so much.

We took a little intermission half way through and as it was Sabrina’s birthday, Kimmie and Shelley had made a cake and everyone sung happy birthday, which just began an impromptu time of singing and dancing - what fun! We also took some time to let the volunteers say their thank yous to Shelley as she prepares to leave us this week.

Hopefully we see some change in terms of the volunteers showing up on their scheduled days. Please pray we get more of them!

Our first African vacation!

2008-10-20T07:42:00.000-07:00

We met our friends from Canada (Marc and Karla Drader, who are currently living in Germany) at Livingstone Airport in Zambia on Oct 2nd. It’s an 8 hour drive from Rundu to Livingstone, so we split the trip into 2 days so that we could get to the airport in time to pick them up at 12:30. The border crossing at Zambia was quite a cultural experience, as most of the many visa and car fees were collected in broken down motor homes! We managed to get to the airport just on time, only to find out that the plane was going to be delayed (it arrived 7 hours late) and then their luggage didn’t come until the next day! What a way to start..

Our first day we went River rafting down the Zambezi river. Apparently river rafting junkies travel from all over the world to raft these rapids, especially at this time of year as the waters are very low making the rapids even more challenging. None of us had ever done it before and it was so much fun, not to mention hair raising! (The highest level of rapids is a class 6, which they don‘t allow people to actually attempt, and we travelled through a series of class 4 and 5’s. One rapid we travelled through was going to be shutting down one week after we went as it was getting too dangerous - yes, this is the one that we completely flipped in!). The afternoon was spent on the top of Victoria Falls looking down at the beautiful valley and the rapids we had rafted through that morning. The falls are very low at this time of season but it was still a majestic sight.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38326&l=f62e1&id=518018255

Our second day was spent doing a full day safari in Botswana at a Game Park called Chobe. We saw well over 250 elephants, fields full of the dangerous cape Buffalo, crocodiles, and hippos! The morning was spent on a boat along the river where we got to “swim” with the elephants crossing the river, the hippos playing hide and seek, and the crocs poking their heads up to say hi. In the afternoon we were given a private tour in a safari jeep in the bush where more wildlife made themselves known.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38874&l=80099&id=518018255

Our third day was spent doing “Gorge activities” in the morning. Unfortunately Karla came down with the travellers bug and wasn’t able to join in. The first activity was called “Absailing”, or rappelling, where you propel yourself backwards down a cliff-face, and then hike the Gorge up (about a 20 minute steep climb). The second activity was the “Flying Fox” where you are attached to a sort of zip line and you run off the cliff to zip across the Gorge. The third and definitely most challenging was the Gorge Swing. This is very close to a Bungee jump as it is a 53 meter free fall and then the “swing” catches you and you and gives you time to recover before they let the line down onto the ground. Marc and Daryl found that although they wanted to yell, they couldn’t. Not to worry, because Sabrina’s scream made up for it all!

After the Gorge activities we met up with Karla again and had lunch on a little island called Livingstone Island. This is a very popular destination as we had the opportunity to literally sit one meter away from the edge of the falls. Karla was such a trouper - not many people can literally say they threw up “over” Victoria Falls!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38883&l=b11e2&id=518018255

Much too quickly our time in Zambia was over, and we were on the road back to Rundu. Although we had already spoken a lot in the previous few days, the road trip was a great time of processing so many of the challenges that we face in our lives here. The next few days Marc and Karla were able to participate in our ministries here at the OVC project and home based care. They immediately clicked with the kids and we wish so much they could stay and help! They also got a tour of the hospital and saw our work environment.

Both Marc and Karla where overwhelmed by the heaviness and the struggles that we simply know as life here. We so appreciated having them here and listening to our every detail. Saying goodbye was extremely tough, as we knew we were returning to Rundu to deal with all the hardships here, whereas we felt a certain sense of jealousy that they just got to leave. These last few days have been really tough on us, as processing and discussing has brought to the surface several painful issues. Conversely, it also allows us to deal with situations and reminds us to pray and press into God for help and grace.

We truly had a wonderful vacation and felt a deep gratitude for good friends.

National Immunization Day

2008-09-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Once a year in Namibia it is National Immunization Day (NID) which is a series of days whereby the goal is to vaccinate every child under the age of 5 for polio. This is no easy task for a country that has one of the largest land to people ratio, and most of the country is desert. Every year it is a major government campaign and they require a great number of volunteers from the community to help. So we were ready to jump on board.

Daryl and I went to a training day to become “Quality Monitors”. This role involves monitoring the vaccination teams to make sure that they are doing everything as told (correct dosage, proper storage of meds, proper tallying, and so forth) and also going into the villages to do home visits once the vaccination teams had gone through to see if there were any children that were missed. Seem simple? Well, not in Namibia.

The first major problem was the selection of volunteers. We have heard from many foreign workers the challenge of education in Namibia and we got to see some of it first hand. Most of the volunteers looked like they were in their early 20’s but it ranged to a few who were middle aged. The training was done in English, which was helpful for us, but one of the many barriers for them. Yet the problem seemed much more complex then basic English language issues as I was astounded by the lack of comprehension for very basic instructions. After a FULL day of training (when we could learned what we needed in a short session) the volunteers where called upon to review different sections, but many would decline saying they still were not clear, even though we were going out the next day. The crazy thing is that the statistics of how many kids were vaccinated’ collected by these so called “Quality Monitors” were going to become the World Health Organization statistics!!!!!

On the actual day, it was no surprise that things were running behind, as they were struggling to find drivers to take the monitors and vaccination teams into the field. Everything was chaos but I was finally teamed up with another girl and we hopped into the back of a very beaten up truck. We were off to the boonies for the day and it was quite a lot of fun. We had to drive through extremely thick sand (it is a miracle we didn’t get stuck on numerous occasions) into areas with no real road - so to get directions we had to ask the few random walkers where to go and they would point and we would drive. The “roads” were sometimes so narrow that our car barely fit between two trees!

It was a long day of walking between huts and driving crazy roads but we worked hard to do as many home visits as we could. When we got back at 6:30pm, and we collected our data, I was told I needed to stay for the oral report, which ended up taking anther 3 hours. Every group had to discuss their statistics, in English which is already a problem for most of them. The statistics were often interesting. My group was the only one to have come across children who missed the vaccine, which seems unlikely to me that every child was vaccinated in the whole region accept for the ones we came across. Another group said they had visited 51 children and 56 were vaccinated… Even with the head nurse explaining the impossibility of these statistics in their first language they could not comprehend what was wrong. Next time I see a WHO stat, I will take it with a grain of salt.

It was a very interesting experience.

(Photo is of the caregivers and kids under 5 lining up for their oral vaccine).

Rehabilitation at Rundu State Hospital

2008-09-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Three mornings a week I work in the Orthopaedic Rehabilitation ward at the hospital. I work with 3 others, a physical therapist and an occupational therapist (both from Zimbabwe), and a ‘rehab therapist’ who is Namibian and has been there for 10 years.

When I first arrived, I was very curious to see what my life as a therapist would look like in a hospital setting. My first morning I was welcomed and right off the bat was given my first patient without even having a tour of the facilities. I had to ask where the sheets were, was there lotion available, where the assessment sheets were (there are none), along with many questions as my patient stood beside me waiting. There is only one communal treatment room with no privacy, and I have found in general that patients here have a lot less privacy needs than back at home!

The OT and PT both watched as I did my assessment and they didn’t seem to have any patients, until around 10 am when all the patients showed up at the same time. I was confused by this and quickly figured out that the therapists don’t have a schedule (one reason I heard was because they didn’t think patients would show up for them so why bother). Well, I knew that system wasn’t going to work with me so I did some trial runs with a schedule and have been booked solid for 4 months, with my patients all showing up on time! Funny that even after 4 months, I am still the only one doing it. I think a big reason is because they tell their patients to show up sometime the next week, and usually the patient doesn’t show up, which means less work for them. So they sit around a lot and get paid for it while I work (happily) non-stop for no money at all!

My Namibian co-worker has been a particularly big challenge for our rehab team. In four months, I have only seen him treat a handful of patients. The OT and PT really struggle with it because he is constantly pushing his responsibilities on to them. He is suppose to be available to us to help translate, but most of the time he is not there, and when he is he asks other patients to do it for him!! When he is called on it he gets very upset and uses his authority as the Supervisor of the ward to get out of personal responsibility. I am fortunate that I only have one Namibian in my ward, compared to Daryl and my other AIM colleagues because sadly apathy runs rampant in the local work ethic here and has a poisonous effect in the work place.

One joy I have working here compared to the private setting at home, is that I don’t have to handle any money. Patients pay their small hospital fee and if they have been referred to our ward, I can treat them for however long, and however often I want without having to feel that money is a barrier to patients receiving treatment. It makes everything a whole lot less complicated. From what I can see, patients have been very appreciative for the time that I give.

The cases that I treat are mainly patients with chronic pain that have been coming for treatments at this hospital or others for some time with no resolve. It is especially challenging because there are literally no resources available for me to look things up and cross reference. I am in the process of trying to order some text books in order to help me, but also to help stimulate and challenge my co-workers. I have done a number of training sessions with my OT and PT colleagues but it hard when there is not even a muscle chart to refer them to and to teach from. I hope to see some change in this area before we leave.

So there is a basic review of what my hospital life looks like. I have many sad and interesting stories that I will have to post some other time, so stay tuned!

This afternoon at Home Based Care

2008-09-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

Every Thursday we go into the village of Kaisosi with our volunteers and do home visits with the orphans at our project. We primarily check their health and the volunteers have a medical bag full of supplies for wound care, cough syrup, thermometers, and some other random things. Normally kids complain of headaches (the sun shines all day without a cloud in the sky and they don’t drink water - a good recipe for a headache), or they have a cough (viruses run rampant in the community due to poor hygiene and low immune systems).

But today was a unique experience.

Our time started out with a conversation with one of the volunteers who informed us of some major issues that are currently in the local church we attend. We will need to tread carefully as to not take sides and burn bridges. There is obviously a lot we don’t understand.

Soon after we ran into a situation where an Auntie was beating her 6 year old nephew with sticks. We (the volunteer, Shelley and I) ran over to step into the situation and take the boy away. The little boy, Jacob, is in a family well known to us due to the many issues that have been raised in the past. We had already removed his 12 year old sister for the same reasons of abuse. The Auntie is an alcoholic with no children of her own, and of course the beatings get more severe as the alcohol intake increases. The siblings’ parents are no longer in the picture (the father abused the girl when he was around) and so extended family now “care” for them. The community has tried to deal with the situation by talking to the Auntie and reasoning with her, but they don’t seem to understand that an alcoholic who is sober for a day will claim many things until the next bought of alcohol when the cycle starts again. So, Jacob held Shelley’s hand for the rest of our home visits until we were done (Jacob is the one on the far right).

Walking along, gathering more and more kids who all wanted to hold our hands, we came across a group of young girls who were all standing in a row with the sand all marked out in a big T in front of them. I asked if they were about to play some sort of game and the response was that they were practicing being in a beauty pageant! So I asked them for a show, pulled out my camera and we had fun “make believing”.

Carrying on we ran into a huge commotion with people running and crowd’s gathering. We found out that a man had just been caught for stealing 5 cows. In this culture, it is considered very bad and along with catching the thief comes beating him to a pulp. We still had little Jacob along with us and so weren’t interested in sticking around to have him observe another round of physical violence.

When we were wrapping up we needed to come up with some short term solutions for our little dude, who when I stopped him to look him in the eyes nearly burst into tears. We held a meeting with some of his distant relatives who agreed to temporarily house Jacob, and we have an appointment with a social worker on Monday about the situation. I haven’t seen a lot of first hand abuse. It’s not easy. We pray for wisdom in the days ahead.

My Life in a Namibian Pharmacy

2008-08-30T04:47:00.000-07:00

I am volunteering five mornings and two afternoons a week at the pharmacy in the referral hospital in Rundu. As with most health care positions in the area, the pharmacy is grossly understaffed when it comes to pharmacists. I work with one other pharmacist, Chakanyuka (pictured), who hails from Zimbabwe, and we have 5 pharmacy assistants. We are to manage the medications for a 300 bed hospital, plus all the state outpatients (usually over 300 daily), plus administer and manage all the HIV medications for the thousands of patients in the area.

There are many challenges, as you might expect, but the nature of these challenges actually surprised me. Due to the generosity of foreign donors and programs such as USAID, there are sufficient supplies of antiretroviral medications (ARV) to treat the HIV/AIDS patients in the area. I was also surprised to find the pharmacy was actually quite well stocked with most of the basic medication, as well as secondary therapies for treatment. What I hadn’t counted on was the lack of empathy and poor work ethic that pervades the staff of the pharmacy, and most of the hospital as well. Even though we are chronically understaffed, the assistants routinely disappear from the dispensary without notice or warning. Two or three hour lunches seem to be the norm, and there is this unspoken idea that I am not there to assist the staff in there work as we try to improve the poor standard of care, but rather that I am there to do their work so that they can leave to go shopping or other stuff. I have often returned to the dispensary from an errand to find the outpatient window abandoned with a huge queue unattended to, and have had no option but to try my best in broken Rukwangali/charades to assist the patients. My attempts to address these problems have proved to be unsuccessful up to this point.

There are also challenges with the medical staff and physicians, who hail from a number of countries, including the old Soviet Union and Cuba (Cuba apparently has some program whereby they exchange doctors for food, and so these Cuban doctors come for 2 year terms to Africa). While I can speak and communicate in Spanish, that doesn’t mean I understand what some of these Cubans are attempting to do, as many of their approaches to medicine are not based on evidence or good practice or rationality. Fortunately the majority of my suggestions about ways to advance patient care have been received positively, and improvement in prescribing patterns have been noticed.

There still remains a lot to do, especially when we are so occupied with the basic tasks and there isn’t enough time to address all that we should be. I realize that my training and expertise and experience will probably go underutilized due to the “tyranny of the immediate”, but that change can be introduced, even if it is done very slowly. I am continuing to build friendships with my colleagues, which enhances communication and allows me to make more of an impact. I do feel that my presence is appreciated, and there are small victories along the way.

Daryl

Pizza Party!

2008-08-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

On Saturday night we decided to honour our twelve OVC volunteers by hosting a surprise pizza party and movie night. We told everyone that there was going to be a project meeting at our house, so after choir practice we were going to drive all of them back to our place for the “meeting” then drive them all home. They entered into our house to find the furniture rearranged and a projector that we borrowed from the hospital projecting up on our wall. The kitchen was a flurry of activity as the four of us aimers had been working all day to produce homemade pizza (definitely what they call white peoples food)! The dinner was well received and we made fresh popcorn, cookies, fudge and cinnamon rolls - so desert was also a hit.

We showed them the first of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. All but one had seen a movie before but most could count on one hand the number of times. At the beginning of the movie we were concerned that they weren’t going to understand it as they were all busy chatting amongst themselves and not paying attention, but sure enough as the tension started to build they were sucked in! It was so much fun to hear them shout with excitement and in agreement during the action scenes and grow to love Frodo.

The next day at church they were all talking about the movie and were anxious to see the second part. They were all intrigued by the fact that the Orcs took the wrong Halflings, and what would be the result of evil King Sauruman. It was a great night and we were happy to bless them in a fun and unexpected way.

Leaving home.

2008-08-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

After having been in Rundu for just over 2 months, last weekend we had the opportunity to leave this small town for the first time.

Our first destination was Etosha National Game Park. It is considered one of the top safari’s in Africa. This particular safari is one in which you can drive through in your own vehicle (or go on tour groups), and there is no fence separating you from the wild animals. We had an extraordinary first of three days in Etosha, and Kimmie (one of the nurses from AIM who we travelled with) who has been a dozen times was blown away by the number of animals we saw. On the first day we saw 23 elephants, 13 lions (!!!), a black rhino, a very rare spotting of a leopard and hundreds of zebra, giraffe and antelope.

But despite the first time seeing some of these stunning animals in the wild, it was also our first time seeing so many white people congregated in one place in quite some time. Most of these were European tourists, especially from Germany, lugging around cameras that cost more than some people’s cars. It was odd to see these families in their matching safari hats and huge rugged hiking boots (very necessary when you are sitting in your car for 12 hours unable to leave) staying in fancy hotels, ready to really experience “wild Africa“. Most of the kids at the project have never even seen any of the animals that we just assume local Africans live with, and yet here we are living in both worlds.

After a spectacular few days of being glued to the camera (to see some of our photos click on this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=29884&l=40188&id=518018255), we headed off to Windhoek for a couple of days. Traveling there meant driving through a number of small towns and it was very obvious to me that “Todo, we’re not in Kansas anymore”. Rundu is a different place altogether. Rundu is the major town (actually, more of a collection of connected villages) in the poorest region of Namibia, and so in many ways it is unlike the rest of the country.

These other small towns we drove through had paved streets and sidewalks (not sand) - imagine! We even saw a little section of grass that people were lounging on. We rarely saw any mud huts on the side of the road, and instead there were lots of flashy shops and restaurants, especially in Windhoek (which you would never imagine is an African city). There are many more people, and as a result more crime - we had our car broken into with windows smashed and stuff stolen, which was a nuisance.

Language was another aspect. We have worked hard to learn some of the basic greetings in Rukwangali, the trade language spoken here - but only here. As each region and tribe speaks different languages, it was such an uncomfortable feeling to be in these other cities and having no idea how to say “please” and “thank-you” except in English, hence feeling like an insensitive foreigner.

As we were returning from Windhoek, Daryl and I noticed a strong sense that we were coming home. It’s amazing that after only 2 months we could feel an attachment to a place that we still don’t understand on so many levels. The dogs just about ploughed us over with excitement to see us again, and it was so easy to hop right back into life here. The kids at the project all missed us when we were gone, and it was really great to be back. Home, for now at least, but home none the less.

First sermon

2008-07-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

Daryl had the opportunity this past Sunday to preach the sermon. The preparation was quite different compared to the times he has preached back home. Since there are no resources here, he didn’t have weeks of reading to do on the topic even if he wanted. He also had to choose fairly basic language and themes as we have noticed the depth of the sermons to be limited. He also, of course has never preached using a translator before. Thankfully he had a really great translator, Anton, whose English is quite good and we feel reasonable confident that not too much got lost in translation.

Daryl shared on Matthew 11:28-30 which reads:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The sermon was well received, so much so that after he sat down again there was a significant period of time when the elders were speaking and motioning to Daryl and the group of us missionaries (we try to hide in the back but hiding is difficult when we stand out like sore thumbs!). Part of their response was that he would have to begin preparing his next sermon now because they want him to share again very soon. One thing that we are finding is there is some tension because the missionaries that are coming through now are no longer “church missionaries”, where they are only here to serve the church. Now we come with part/full time jobs and fit ministry into many areas of life, so there is still some expectation of our time and commitment from the elders of the church. Just one of the many things we are working through.

All in all we all felt very encouraged and it reminded us what a privilege it is to be here. The service was also only 3 hours not 5, of which Daryl’s sermon was only 30 minutes so we all had much more energy after a Sunday morning then usual!

One side note that cracks me up about church is how the secretary goes up to the front at the start of the service and says “good morning” and then lists a long string of announcements. Then toward the end of the service he comes up again and now says good afternoon (because it has been many hours) and lists the same set of announcements again! We have also heard the same announcements for weeks now, for example, I know that there is a women’s conference at the end of October that they have announced every week (twice a week) since we have been here, and we will here it every week until it happens. So funny!

Adventures with Zeka

2008-07-26T06:16:00.000-07:00

We want to introduce to you one of our friends here, Zeka Avelino.

He is 22 years old and is a first year student at NETS (Namibian Evangelical Theological School) in Windhoek, but his home is here in Rundu. We met him when we first arrived here and sensed the beginning of a good friendship from the start.

He was born in Angola, as are the majority of people we spend time with, and his childhood was spent in constant turmoil and flight due to the civil war in Angola. It is an unbelievable story and too long for me to write about but in brief, at the age of 15 he escaped to Namibia. His parents “sold” him to a man in Rundu with the agreement that if Zeka would care for his cattle, he could go to school in the mornings. Up to that point he had not begun any formal schooling, and did not know a word of English or Rukwangali (the trade language here). At the age of 16 he began school here in Namibia and finished grade 12 by the time he was 21; a truly amazing feat where very few here pass grade 10 and of those that do, a very small percent pass Grade 12 (passing here is only 30%!). He received top marks in all his classes, and was regarded by others to have a real gift from God. Zeka attributes the gift to a passion to learn and a strong work ethic (a unique quality from what we have experiences here).

Now he is studying theology to become a pastor here in Rundu. Unfortunately, pastors don’t get paid here; they have to have some other form of trade on top of their dedication to the church. So, after he is done his four years at NETS he hopes to further his education to become a teacher or a nurse.

Spending time with Zeka gives us hope for the people here, and we always come away encouraged after spending time with him. He is young, enthusiastic and has a very teachable spirit. He has such a huge passion for the people in Rundu, his family and his church. A major problem for him is that his enthusiasm is not always met with kindness from the locals here, especially the elders of his church. In a church were there is a desperate need for change, they pass him off as too young to have any valuable ideas and suggest he should leave his “Western ideas” alone.

He has spent a lot of time with past missionaries and has learnt a lot about the western perspective of the world and seems to understand some of challenges we have faced in adjusting to a different culture. It is such a blessing to have a local who we can speak freely and honestly with, to ask difficult questions and to get honest answers, and who despite his own problems would give the shirt off his back to help someone in need.

We have also had the opportunity to support him financially with some of the money given to us by our local church at home. He wanted to speak into the lives of the younger generation so he put together a weekend retreat with the youth from his church with the theme of “Choosing to Wait”. Single teenage pregnancy is a staggering problem here. Many many young girls find themselves with an unplanned child, which makes school extra difficult and so their lives continue to be a struggle: poor, uneducated, mouths to feed, and little opportunity to escape the poverty cycle, which usually continues to be repeated generation after generation.

During his month off from school we have been able to spend some good quality time with him. Daryl was able to help him prepare for his first sermon, which was well received. He invited us to his house for a traditional meal of Pap and relish and got us in on the action! (We have since that time designated Monday nights to be ‘Pap night’ since it is cheap and darn tasty!) Zeka has also taken us canoeing on the river that separates Namibia and Angola. We all got a turn a attempting to paddle the wood canoes but they are nothing like the nice aluminum ones at home that you can actually steer! We even went across to the Angolan side, and bribed the officers there so that we could walk around for a half hour! It really helped that Zeka is Angolan. Had we attempted to enter Angola by ourseleves…well, we wouldn’t have tried it on our own.

Here are some pictures of our time together:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27855&l=41448&id=518018255

Spare time

2008-07-15T01:48:00.000-07:00

I, Sabrina, work at the hospital 3 mornings a week and I am at the OVC project 3 afternoons a week, so what do I do with my all my “spare time” you ask? A big project that I have taken on here is trying to get at least some of the kids in our project (about 180) registered with the government in order that these kids’ caregivers might receive a monthly grant of 100 Namibian dollars a month (about $15 Canadian). Although past missionaries have tried to begin this enormous task, it seems that very few of them have gotten any where, and I am now beginning to understand why. Here is a glance at a typical afternoon in this endeavour.

It’s a Wednesday afternoon and I arrive at Kaisosi village (where the kids from the project live) at around 2:30 after getting back from work and grabbing a quick lunch. School gets out at about 1:00pm so when I arrive there is a bunch of teenage boys awaiting my arrival. In the car I have a number of important documents collected by past missionaries with a list of some places to start on the journey. Five boys happily jump in the back (they love car rides) and off we go back into town to our first stop, the police station.

Three of the boys have fathers who are missing, which is a very common story. We need to prove somehow (in order to apply for the grant) that these fathers are gone and were told the police could help. After explaining to a police officer why I, the white girl or “sharumbu“, was with these boys, we were told we needed to get a letter from the “Head Man” of Kaisosi village stating that in fact these boys fathers were missing before they could help. Strike one.

Next we went to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare. I needed to get some letters signed by a social worker in order for a couple of boys to get birth certificates (in order to get a grant). There was a sign posted on the board (not in English of course) saying that they were gone for the week. When I say “they”, I mean all 3 of them. That’s right, there are 3 social workers assigned to the whole North Eastern region where there are tens of thousands of orphans. Strike two.

Next stop was the Department of Home Affairs. One of the boys whose father has gone missing also has no mother because she died eight years ago but was not issued a death certificate (necessary to apply for a grant). He had been in a few weeks before with a previous AIMer to apply for his mom’s death certificate and was told it would take 2 weeks to process. After standing in line for some time the man at the desk agreed that it only takes two weeks but you can only pick them up on Thursdays, and as it was Wednesday there was nothing he could do. Strike three.

Then into another long line up to apply for birth certificates with 3 previously signed letters from the social worker. I was able to come away with 2 full birth certificates, but one of the kids only had a baptismal card and not an “abridged birth certificate”, so his application was denied. I had a long conversation with the gentlemen explaining that most of the kids only have baptismal cards and he insisted that the caregiver (usually the grandmother) must come in and explain in person why they don’t have an abridged birth certificate. (I have since this particular day found out after bringing in these kids and their grannies that the process is significantly more complicated than that). Another strike out.

So, after multiple dead-ends, we decided to find this “Head Man”, whose “office” is in his mud hut. I was sceptical of this so called head man before I got there, and my scepticism only increased the longer I was there. Since the head man wasn’t there and apparently never is, I spoke to a young girl who ended up being the “secretary”. Meanwhile we had to fend off a drunk man who was accosting me the entire time. After a very long time I convinced her that we needed letters for three of the boys with me whose fathers were missing. The first letter she wrote was for a boy with a missing father and a dead mother and although my instructions were very clear, she wrote that both parents were dead. I read the letter and said “no, the father is missing”. She replied “well he could be dead” and my response was “but we don’t know that, he could also be very much alive!”. She rewrote the letter and after paying 20 dollars a piece I had three letters. As it was getting dark and I had to drive the boys home, I called it a day.

In spite all the frustration with the oppressive bureaucracy which seems to block these orphans from getting the support they are entitled to, not all is bleak. It has been a tremendous blessing to have spent the last couple of weeks trekking in and out of town with these boys. I count it a privilege to show these kids love in a practical way and in a way that no one else does. They have shared with me their current living situations and family histories, all which are shocking compared to the norm back at home. Please pray that they would see the love of Christ through me and that through these ventures they will have hope for a bright future. The attached picture is two of our young stars at the program Kahilu and Earnest.

Canada Day!

2008-07-09T01:22:00.000-07:00

As you all know, Canada Day fell on a Tuesday which also happens to be OVC project day, so the inspiration came to have a Canada Day celebration! Thankfully our American and Australian volunteers were fully on board.

The afternoon began with face/arm painting, which was a huge hit. The kids sure showed their enthusiasm as they crowded us painters in like a mob as they don’t have a keen sense of patience and order. It was hard to stay calm while being shoved and pushed from every direction, but the kids were all smiles which is why we do it. While the girls were busy painting, Daryl was busy organizing relay races with the kids. Again, although slightly chaotic, kids of all ages were having a blast.

During the program time, Daryl and I gave some history of Canada. Namibia is a very young country with only 18 years of Independence so to hear that Canada was over 140 years old was very impressive. We then taught them the National anthem and they loved it! We gave all the volunteers some confetti so when we were done singing they threw it up in the air over their heads in celebration. We did a pop quiz toward the end of the program, and gave out some great prizes.

Now as any proud Canadian does, we brought some Canada paraphernalia such as pencils, pens, stickers with us (some were also parting gifts from friends - thank you!). As we pulled out our stuff we realized that we didn’t have enough for all 200 kids. Giving gifts at the project in the past has been a bit of a nightmare because the kids don’t have a very good concept of sharing and if you give to one and not another fights break out. BUT, a few days before we found a whole bunch of similar items like, Canada pins, stickers and pencils that had been left behind by past Canadians! So we made little gift packs for each kid that contained Canada stuff and candy to give out just before they got their meal. Days later we still found kids sporting all their Canada gear.

It was a very encouraging day for us to see the kids so happy and having such fun. It reminds us that all the hard work is worth it.

Our first Safari!

2008-06-26T01:09:00.000-07:00

We went to a game park called Mahungu about 2 1/2 hours away and left at the crack of dawn. This particular game park is a one day drive through where you take your own vehicle un-guided over designated roads that take you through a variety of terrain like dense bush and open fields (keep in mind: no fences!).

There were 6 of us in our 7 passenger 4x4 and we had a wonderful day of seeing all sorts of animals. We saw:
Impala (their version of a deer),
Kudu (curly horns and cool stripes),
Zebra (self explanatory)
Roan (a browny-red antelope),
a whole group of Baboons (the little playful ones were so cute),
Warthogs (think Lion-King),
Hippos (mostly far off in the distance but our little lunch spot was right beside water and it was evident that we were in the hippo land and we saw one poke it’s head out at us, thankfully it decided our lunch wasn‘t appetizing),
Cape Buffalo (one of “the Big Five”, we saw 3 of them behind a bush not too far from our car and let me tell you they did not look impressed with us and barely took their eyes off of us),
Wildebeast (big and grey, kinda beast like)
And elephants…here’s where the story comes in.

We had been driving all day and we were desperate to see an elephant. So we’re driving slowly along, scouring the bush when suddenly one of our group, Mackenzie, shouts “Stop the car!” There it was, our first encounter with a wild elephant. After looking at antelope all day I could not get over how incredibly massive this creature was - this must have been a bull elephant because he was huge and just off to the left of the road behind a tree. We were so excited and all wanted pictures so we crept forward until we were just on the other side of the tree from the behemoth.

We were all in awe at how beautiful he was and wished he wasn’t so hidden so we could get a better shot. Now during this, Kimmie, a nurse who has been in Namibia for a couple years, was explaining to us what cues elephants give you when they are mad. One of the first cues is that they will flap their ears at you- but as this is also the most efficient way of shooing flies, this cue is difficult to interpret. (Do you see where this is going?!) It started to flap its ears a little, but we were on the other side of the tree and therefore felt quite safe.

Then the elephant decided to try and relocate away from us, so it started to walk the opposite direction, crumpling bushes on its way. The atmosphere in the car was intense with excitement. We all wanted to follow it (Mackenzie was videotaping and we all wanted the perfect shot), so Daryl, who was driving, started backing up (Mackenzie loudly saying “Back-up“ over and over). Apparently we were approaching too fast for the elephants liking, so he turns around and stomps the ground, madly flapping his ears at us. Our lives flashed before our eyes, and Mackenzie was frantically screaming “DRIVE FORWARD” over and over. Daryl threw the car into gear and hit the gas, while I was frantically trying to close my electric window, wondering why they ever designed them to close so slowly. Seriously, I almost wet myself…but the elephant turned around again after a few steps and lumbered across the road behind us into the bush.

Although in that moment all we could think of was “Jurassic Park“, Kimmie wasn’t scared and said that the elephant would have given us more warnings before stomping our car. We’re such rookies! After the adrenaline had worn off, we couldn’t stop laughing at ourselves, and the whole thing is on video! Later at the very end of our day we came across another 6 elephants drinking at a waterhole, and being a little gun shy, gave them plenty of space. They are magnificent creatures.

You have to check out some more of our photos!:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24744&l=1b3f6&id=518018255

Our home-sweet-home

2008-06-22T04:10:00.001-07:00

We moved into our final destination and are so happy to have a place to call home. It is a one floor house with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and large yard. We live in an area called Tutungeni, which is very close to the river that separates Namibia from Angola and we get to view marvellous sunset on a regular occasion. Many of the houses still have bomb shelters in the yard, a legacy of the pre-independence skirmishes between Namibian rebels who were in Angola and would launch artillery at the South African forces stationed in Rundu.

We have adopted the house gardener, Mr. Kamocha, who is here faithfully 2 days a week. He is an elder at the church, has about 3 teeth from the looks of it, speaks very little English and walks an hour and a half to get here for 7 am despite his badly arthritic joints. From what we can gather, he has been working at this house for about 10 years.

I need to introduce you to our new house mates: Abby and Molly, two year old beautiful black Great Danes. They live outside and love to bark at anyone and everyone who walks by whether day or night…very good watch dogs. :) People are terrified of them because they are so darn big but of course they are super lovely once you get in the gate! I am having fun getting to know their personalities and learning that to teach on old dog new tricks is no easy task! The missionary family who we are house sitting for have 6 young children who are constantly in and out and playing in the yard, which would make consistency in training tricky, but they loved being stimulated all the time and I'm sure the dogs miss those kids very much. As of yet they don’t have a clue how to “sit“, “come” or even catch a ball and the couple of times I have tried to teach them, they are so distracted by each other it is pointless. I even tried locking one up in the entrance way but the other would not leave to come and play! So funny! Training aside, it is wonderful to be greeted every time I open the door even though it means getting slobber on my shirts because they are so tall.

It’s been fun to get a few items to make this place a little more “ours”, and I, Sabrina, have been busy scrubbing walls, floors and furniture to get some of the sticky finger marks off from the wonderful kids! It will take weeks before it is all scrubbed but it will get there. We feel so blessed to have such wonderful accomodations while we are here.

Opening Day at OVC

2008-06-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

One of the main areas of ministry that we are involved with in Rundu is the Kaisosi Orphans and Vulnerable Children’s project. The idea of the program sprung up from the compassionate response of the pastor of a local church in Kaisosi, a neighbourhood village next to Rundu. The pastor was moved by the great need of all the underprivileged and orphaned children in his area, and the idea of organizing an after school program for some of the kids was born. Presently there are about 170 kids that are registered in the meal program and another 30+ kids that show up for the games, songs, stories and extra leftover food. The program began about a year ago but it still is very much in its infancy.

The project has been operating outdoors, but there was a need to get a building for the OVC project to expand the programs available to the kids, such as computer classes, a class room for after school help, a library, a kitchen for the rainy season, and storage. The US embassy, together with a large number of individual Canadian donors, gave funds toward the project to help cover building expenses.

So at long last the building was up and we had a huge “Opening Ceremony” for the community to come out and see what this OVC project was all about. It took days to prepare for the party. The cooks slaughtered a cow the day before and it took them 24 hours straight of cooking…they worked all through the night over fire in the middle of their winter (gets down to about 5-10 degrees at night). But of course even after all the “planning”, this is Africa and things are just done differently here.

The program didn’t start on time, to no one’s surprise, but all the official people were there, including the mayor of Rundu, school principles, the head of the District Hospital, and even NBC (Namibian Broadcast Coporation) recorded the proceedings. Then the speeches started. Next time you are at a wedding/banquet, just be glad you’re not in Africa - there is no rush here and the microphones weren’t working so barely anyone could here what was going on.

For the most part the kids were honoured, and the kids were given a chance to play on a brand new playground. It was such a joy to see the smiles and laugher of the children on the playground equipment. Inevitably one tire swing broke after only about 3 hours, after 30-40 kids piled on to it! All the children were also given a blanket that day to help get them through the cold evenings.
Our joy was tinged with disappointment in that we wanted all the children to get served food first, which is counter to the usual situation in Naimibian culture where the important adults get fed first, and eventually the kids are remembered. In the end some of the kids had to wait up to 4 hours, while others got tired of waiting and left before getting any food. Attempting to feed over a thousand people is a huge undertaking, and with all the volunteers sleep-deprived and undermanned, chaos soon ensued. People are in such need and so desperate it is hard to ensure that things are done fairly, so people were attempting to get as much for themselves without much concern for others. Even after a positive day of media coverage and community support, our enthusiasm was tempered by the reality of how far we still need to go.

If you want to see more photos please click here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24122&l=01da6&id=518018255

First impressions

2008-06-07T02:37:00.000-07:00

The best word to describe our state of mind is overwhelmed.

There has been a real sense of urgency since getting here. The long term missionary family who have been here for nearly 3 years are leaving this coming Sunday (meaning we have only had a 11 day overlap). Rob is a doctor who has been volunteering at the Obstetrics and Gynaecology ward of the state hospital full time and has made huge headway in gaining respect and love from the community here. Not only has he managed to put his heart and soul into the hospital, he has been involved in getting the OVC project up and running. The project is still very much in its infancy stage and we have agreed to try to take on some of the responsibilities, as he and his family of 6 kids (including one darling little Namibian girl they have adopted) are going home to Canada for a year before returning for another 2 year term.

What does that mean for us? That’s a good question! We have been bombarded with many people to meet and are attempting to understand how systems here work (and don’t work), along with many other details. Our brains are full at the end of the day and in some ways we will just have to take one day at a time. We can’t be Rob or do all that he does. He has spent so much time developing relationships and trust with the community, that it would be foolish to assume we can walk into his shoes. What we do have to remember is that God has brought us here to serve the people of Rundu, and we can only do our best…we have so much to learn. It’s rather complicated to explain all the details, but we would very much appreciate your prayers as we learn how use our time in this amazing OVC project.

As far as the hospital is concerned, we have had a tour already and met some future colleagues. The hospital itself is quite big and both of us were impressed by the large size of the pharmacy and physiotherapy department. We are in the midst of deciding when we will start work and what are schedules will look like. We will keep you posted.

We are currently living with Kimmie, a fellow AIMer that has also been here for just over two years and is a nurse at the hospital: we have been grateful for her help in adjusting to everything new. We are also living with Shelly, a nurse from Australia who went through orientation with us, who will be here in Rundu for 6 months. We will be moving into Dr. Rob’s house once they leave and are very much looking forward to feeling settled.

Jumping right in

2008-06-07T02:29:00.000-07:00

Upon arrival in Rundu, we immediately headed to the Orphans and Vulnerable Children project (OVC), an after-school activity and meal program on Tuesday and Friday afternoons. The program starts at about 2pm when the kids wander over from the bushed beyond. The kids play games, sing songs and hear stories, then eat a hot meal (likely their only protein of the week) before dispersing around 5:30pm when the sun is setting. You will hear us mention much more about the project as we will both be significantly involved in it while we are here.

However, the day we arrived was extraordinary. We were blessed to participate in a huge clothing and gift give-away which had been organized by some of the other short term missionary families working at the project. There are about 200 kids in the program and each one went away with one warm sweater/top (as winter is almost here), one miscellaneous item such as a T-shirt, hat, pair of shoes, or underwear, and then a whole slew of crayons, pencils, a toothbrush and a pack of toothpaste along with other random things. What fun! The process had to be strictly controlled to eliminate chaos and ensure fairness, so we accompanied each of the kids one at a time as they made their selections. At the end all the local volunteers for the project were also given presents and you should have seen their faces!! We were inspired by the hard work and energy put in by the missionaries and volunteers here. What a great way to start.

Heading to Rundu

2008-06-03T12:38:00.000-07:00

We headed off to Rundu last Monday afternoon, 9 of us fitting into an 8 passenger “Combi” (the “record“ is 22 adults and children). The journey north usually takes 9 hours, so we went half way to a town called Grootfontein. We stayed at an awesome lodge which is home to Moufassa, a nine year old male lion who pretends to be a large house cat. He was living in the house until he was four but eventually outgrew it and now has a very large space outside all to himself, on the other side of a secure fence! Moufassa loves to be petted and growled loudly throughout the night.

The lodge also has two cheetahs: unlike Moufassa, attempting to pet the cheetahs would be a very bad idea! There were also two gargantuan Ostriches: you can see that I was a little scared on getting close - he had just spat on me! Along with the exciting big animals, there were meerkats, caracal cats, and pearl spotted owls. All in all a fun little overnight stay.

The next morning in Grootfontein was spent visiting fellow AIM missionaries working hard with dedicated locals at a soup kitchen for the local school. We also visited the biological father of Christy, who is in the custody of the Rineers, our leaders here in Namibia. They are in the process of trying to officially adopt her. It is a very long story but in short she was brought into the Rineer house at 2 years old after severe malnutrition. She is now 6 years old (and let me tell you one of the cutest kids ever!) and adoption still has not gone through. It was challenging to see what difficult surroundings her birth family lives in and how big she is in comparison to her siblings simply due to having proper nutrition and a safe place to live.

As we approached Rundu it was amazing to see the landscape change from bushes and trees to clumps of little mud huts along the highway, with the huts become more frequent as we approached our little town. Having seen so many pictures ahead of time, it was similar to some of our expectations, but lots of intrigue. In many ways we were just happy to finally get here.

If you want to see more photos, see link below:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22725&l=1b757&id=518018255

Language learning in Windhoek

2008-05-26T04:33:00.000-07:00

Our last week has been about language and how to learn a new language. We have not spent the week learning the language for the town we are going to (that will come later once we get to Rundu) but of one of the many tribal languages spoken in Windhoek called Oshiherero. This is the language of the Herero tribe that was almost annihilated by the Germans. So we would spend our afternoons in the Katatura area (the slums outside of Windhoek) hanging out with them and eating their delicious fresh beef. The picture of the woman with the head piece is the traditional dress for a Herero woman. Whereas the picture of the naked women is the traditional dress for the Himba tribe (the difference between the two picture is that I had to pay big bucks to get pictures of the Himba and it was free to get pictures of the Herero!)

One morning we went to go visit Hanna-Lee and her family (3 daughters and a granddaughter) in the slums. She and her family are HIV positive, and she is a former prostitute. She was rejected by her family but has come to understand the love and grace of God and has given up prostitution and tries to encourage other women (as well as her daughters) to also give up selling themselves to men. We had the chance to hear her amazing story and Suzanne meets with this family weekly to offer help and counsel. She lives each day not knowing how to feed her family and although she lives in desperate conditions we were touched by her peaceful heart. Her road is not easy.

If you would like to see more pictures of our time in Windhoek then just click on this link:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=22474&l=b4376&id=518018255

HIV and AIDS

2008-05-21T12:27:00.000-07:00

In our last entry we gave you a brief look into the history of Namibia and the racial tensions remaining today. Well, the biggest problem regardless of race is HIV infection.

Yesterday we had a woman come and share with us the latest statistics for Namibia in regards to this devastating disease. Namibia still remains the 2nd highest infection rate in the world although they have seen a slowing down of infection as the government is providing opportunities for people to receive free testing, treatment and counselling. The struggle is getting people to take the test, and then getting them to take the meds. There are so many social issures at hand.

First, men still carry so much power and for the most part it is acceptable for men to have many partners and or more than one wife. Women don't have enough power to demand that their partner use a condom. The areas in Namibia that have the highest percentage of HIV are those where there are army stations, truck stops and those with high volume traffic with huge amounts of prostitution.

The second major issue is the fatalistic attitude that prevails in Namibia. A lot of people believe that whether they get sick or not has nothing to do with their actions, but rather that their ancestors or someone else has willed it on them. Because people don't show any symptoms until many years later, people deny that actions from years earlier would affect them.

HIV still carries significant stigma so people just don't want to know out of fear. People are still ostracized from their friends and families. We had a woman who is HIV positive come and share her sad story with us as she struggles to mother her HIV positive son and foster child...yikes, our sense of 'trials and tribulations' is so different.

So we went to get HIV testing this morning. Mick wanted us to experience what it would be like so we could encourage others to go. It was amazing how nervous we all were about getting our results! For people that have virtually no chance of having it, it was a relief to hear we were negative. I can't even imagine how it would feel if you thought you may have been exposed.

The learning continues.

A sobering day.

2008-05-19T11:53:00.000-07:00

We started our orientation Friday, but Saturday was truly a challenging day. This is a long post but an important one.

A man named Naf gave us an incredible first-hand history lesson on Namibia in the morning. The history of Namibia is truly a sad and depressing one, filled with colonialism, genocide, racism, concentration camps and apartheid, all which still deeply scars the people’s psyche to this day. Mick had told us the day before that while he grew up in Eastern Africa and has visited and lived in many African countries, and although the infrastructure here in Namibia is so nice, he said it has been the hardest country he has ever lived in.

In brief, Germany colonialized Namibia in 1884 (then known as German South West Africa) and held control until after WWI, in 1920. During that time, the German army attempted to eradicate the largest tribe, the Herero, eventually killing 80% of them. Naf is Herero and had many relatives slaughtered during that time. After 1920, South Africa took over control, instituting white minority rule as in South Africa (SA). In 1948 the policy of Apartheid began, and as in SA, blacks in Namibia where forced to live and work in black-only areas. Through out this time, when extreme atrocities were occurring, there were underlying tribal and political groups that began to fight for freedom and independance. Finally in 1990 they were granted independence from SA and formed a democratic republic and significant changes has occurred in the lives of its residents.

Naf’s personal story was deeply moving as he honestly and candidly shared his struggle to choose forgiveness toward white people. He spent his life learning to hate whites with such intensity and by the Grace of God he is now able to talk to us and to befriend us. We fought tears as we listened to his story. That afternoon he drove us all around Windhoek to the historical places, like “Heroes Acre” where history is celebrated and the many heroes of freedom are remembered (the caption under the statue writes "Glory to the fallen Heroes and Heroine of the motherland Namibia". We shared a delicious Herero lunch and then drove through the shanty-area know as Khatatura, where the blacks were forced to live. The conditions are still severe, with 10x10 tin shacks that sleep 20 people each.

Naf’s encouragement to us: to be people who will do our best to recognize the racial issues, to love the blacks and invite them into our lives, and to help integrate the blacks and whites. Even within “Christian” circles racial issues separated where love should unite. Naf encouraged us that if we can affect 3 people during the time we are here, perhaps it will only take 5 generations instead of 20 to see change. Healing will be slow and change will take time.

Arrival

2008-05-18T07:12:00.000-07:00

We arrived in Windhoek on Thursday morning (a beautiful clear day at 25 degrees) and were met by our host and Field Director, Mick, who is married and has six children, three of their own and three beautiful adopted ones. We were very tired, but once we had showered up we were driven around to try and get cash (but none of the machines would accept our card due to a recent change with the banking system) and to buy SIM cards for our phones. We are doing orientation with two girls, Shelly (a nurse from Australia coming up to Rundu with us for 6 months) and Sara (a social worker from South Africa going to a different city for 2 months).

Here’s a crazy fact for you: Windhoek has been named the “cleanest city in Africa” for the last three years! And it really is sooo clean! The infrastructure in Namibia is very un-African, with the highways being near Autobahn-like in quality, so that driving in excess of 160 km/h is actually relatively safe.

Only four days in Africa, and we already got to pet a lion!
He was at the vet recovering from surgery, and was quite friendly until Daryl tried "speaking lion", at which point the lion became rather agitated and tried to get to Daryl through the bars.

(Watching "The Ghost and the Darkness" (about 2 man-eating lions in Africa) a few days before we arrived made us quite jumpy around this amazing creature.)

Daryl and Sabrina

Just so you’re in the know…

2008-04-30T21:51:00.000-07:00

People have been a bit confused by what our schedule looks like in the next month so here’s what's ahead:

May 2 – leave Vancouver arrive in Ottawa, where we plan to spend some time with friends and family
May 9 – drive to Toronto for more excellent time with friends and family as well as two days of orientation at Head Office.
May 13 – begin our journey to Africa. We get a full day in London so we get to hang out with my cousin and uncle! Arrive in Windhoek on May 15.
May 15 – we are in the capital Windhoek for approximately two weeks to do orientation then we leave for Rundu (apparently a 9 hour drive).

So, really we are a good month away from starting our work in Rundu. As keen as we are to begin, we are both thankful to have some time to get our hearts and minds ready for what’s ahead. In the midst of preparing physically (shots, packing, shopping and lots of hugs) it has been really hard to steal time away to really pray and let God prepare our hearts. Please continue to pray for us!

We feel loved!

2008-04-30T21:46:00.000-07:00

This past month has been all about getting ready to leave for a year which has entailed packing up our lives and saying our “see ya laters” to so many people that we love. And let me tell you, we feel loved.

We have had going away parties like crazy from different crowds, we’ve had so many meaningful hugs and words of encouragement, and we’ve had tears – not only on our part but of those we are saying good bye too. My overall impression as time draws closer to departure is that we are so incredibly blessed by the many wonderful friendships in our lives. I know there are many people who feel lonely and who are seeking genuine relationship and I have been keenly aware of that particular blessing in our lives. We are so touched. Thank you for your love.

Speaking of blessing, here’s an update on our support raising. Did anyone out there think it realistic to raise 20000$ in 3 weeks? We didn’t think so either, but what do we know? If that weren’t enough to blow our socks off, people keep giving!! There are those who have still been giving financially, and then we keep getting gifts to help us out on top of that. We have been given a laptop computer, which we needed, some of our malaria medications by a Pharmacy in Fort St. John, some mosquito nets, cash to help cover some of our many expenses, a place to store all our stuff (thanks Mom!), as well as packing, cleaning and moving help. God is in the business of blessing us!

Not there yet but well on our way!

2008-03-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

The last month has been a big blur, but in the fuzziness of it all we have been so blessed and seen God work in mighty ways!! We needed to raise 20,000$ by March 31st and hooray we are so glad to say that we have reached it already!! We don't have the specific numbers yet but I will keep you posted.

Talk about a humbling experience. It's funny how I have had different emotions in receiving donations of all different amounts. Early on in the stages of fundraising I even wanted to refuse some of the pledges because I considered it too much for that person to give. Daryl had to remind me that it's not my place to limit someone in giving and or to have any control for that matter. It was hard. It got easier. Toward the end we just had big smiles on our faces whenever we heard from someone whether the amount was "big" or "small", or whether I deemed it acceptable or not.

We have learned as well that in many ways our "mission" started a while back. The idea of missions has not been easy for all those interested in our lives and we have been aware that as we have been stretched, so others might be as well and that the process of raising funds and gathering a support team has not only helped us to grow but it has also given others a chance to think and be changed. We have heard all sorts of responses such as " I have always wanted to do something like that" to, "I could never do something like that, but good on you for going", but regardless it always causes a response. There is something deep inside us that knows we are responsible for acting with mercy and compassion but some feel at a loss as to where to start. What a privilege it is to have those people begin by supporting us!

This is just the start of a really fun ride.

Sabrina