Taking to the Sea

Hello!

One of the only consistencies so far on this trip has been the constant challenge of new thoughts, or old thoughts with new frameworks, combined with crazy schedules.  Last week was no exception, and this past week was full of fun by the Atlantic!  Last Wednesday we drove to the west coast to a town called Swakopmund.  This small town is supported mainly through the mining industry (minerals such as uranium and salt) and tourism.  We got to meet the mayor, as well as other speakers in other organizations.

On Friday we climbed “Dune 7” in the desert.  That was awesome.  It took a while to get up the dune, but once on the top of the dune we could see more and more dunes on one side and flat desert on the other side.  I can’t imagine getting lost in a desert, or riding camels over dunes J 

On Saturday, four of us decided to go sea kayaking for the morning.  This was the first time kayaking for me.  At first I was nervous about not being able to paddle, stay in my kayak….but it was great!  It took me a bit to get the hang of things, but once I got it I paddled around to different seal groups and got to watch lots of seals.  I almost touched one, I was so close!  The guide was great, and there was a French couple on the kayaking trip as well.  This was a great way to spend the morning.  On the way to the sea we also passed by salt fields.  They pump sea water into large areas and then wait 9-14 months for evaporation to go to work.  The water turns bright pink in the process due to the microorganism called rododaubson (spelling?) that lives in salt water.  This was pretty great to see!

The next 3 weeks we will be in the North and on fall break, so this will be the last blog for a while.  I hope you are all doing well.  I will hopefully have some great stories to share when I get back!

-Sarah 

Nothing is as it seems.

Hello dear friends and family,

The longer I am here, the more settled I feel.  After moving around from place to place, event to event, it has been wonderful staying in one spot in order to get my feet on the ground.  This week has been filled with lots of homework, including lots of reading and a few papers.  I thought when I left Valpo I’d have a break from reading so much for school, but alas-we must take classes that involve readings here too! 

Before the school week begins, however, I get to spend my Monday mornings hanging out with 4 and 5 year olds at a pre-school in an informal settlement.  The pre-school is called Bright Hill, and it is a Christian school set up to prepare children of this informal settlement for school, which they start when they are 7.  There are about 80 students who come to school everyday.  I help in a classroom with a teacher named Francie.  I helped three of the students try and learn their colors.  I’m not sure if they learned much, but maybe it was a stepping stone for them.  I also taught the class the Hokey Pokey.  There is nothing like giggling with a bunch of 4 year olds as you sing and dance and say “That’s what it’s all about!”  I’m looking forward to next week’s school day J

Yesterday for religion class we met a woman who is a traditional healer.  I was expecting this woman to have special remedies that she used to heal those who came to her.  As we walked into her house and started talking with her, however, it became clear that she is a Christian who is a healer who firmly believes that all power comes from the Holy Spirit.  She prays and does use medicines and wraps in these healings, but with the firm belief that it is not her but the Holy Spirit who does the healing.  I was surprised at this Christian woman with the title of “traditional healer.”  Nothing is as it seems. 

Today we went to a monument named Heroe’s Acre in honor of the people who fought for the liberation struggle in Namibia.  We all thought the monument was very well done, and appreciated this part of history being remembered.  Then we met a woman who shared her story of being persecuted by the current party of Namibia.  This party, SWAPO, led the liberation struggle of the 1960s-1989 and is the group represented in the monument.  Her story was one of deception and corruption by the party she had trusted and fought for liberation with.  She candidly revealed to us that she can not go to the Heroe’s Acre monument because it is too painful for her.  She felt the monument did not tell the whole story behind the liberation struggle.  Again, nothing is as it seems.

Tonight is a pretty relaxing night, writing to you and hanging out in the living room.  I pray that your night, or day, or whenever this blog finds you, is wonderful and full of rest as well.  To keep you updated on the weather: there were more clouds today, but the rain won’t come for a couple more months.  Hot and dry is the constant J  God’s blessing to each of you.

Learning from others' perspectives

Friends and family, let me introduce you to some additions to the family:

My mom’s name is Hileni.  She works for NBC, which is Namibia Broadcasting Company.  My brother’s eighteen and his name is Gaint (Giant), but his friends call him Stix.  And finally, my little sister’s name is Kandeshi (Kandeshee).  I am getting to know Hileni slowly, as we find things to talk about, but we can still be shy around each other as well.  Gaint has been introducing me to his friends and showing me around the neighborhood.  Kandeshi really enjoys coming into my room around 6:45 a.m. to crawl into bed next to me.  She’s too cute to get upset at!

Everyday I’m learning something new from my family, whether that is from what foods we eat to forms of respect for elders to ways of greeting each other.  We also went to church on Sunday.  My family is Lutheran, so I was interested to see how similar the service was to the Lutheran churches I know.  One thing that didn’t cross my mind was that the service might not be in English. Ha!  Needless to say, I couldn’t understand a word of the service.  But leave it up to a Lutheran church to follow a liturgy J  I understood when we said the Apostle’s Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and two of the hymns were hymns I recognized.  It was also baptism Sunday, which meant close to 30 infants were baptized!  This experience was enjoyable, even though I couldn’t understand the word part of the service.

Sunday afternoon I went swimming with my friend Liz from the program and her host family.  We were the sole white people at the pool, meaning we drew a lot of attention to ourselves.  Liz and I sat on the side of the pool.  Soon multiple guys came up to us to talk.  One man brought us into the EMT area to introduce us to his friends.  This was strange, and reminded us how separate the Windhoek area, as well as Namibia, is in terms of race relations.  We carry our white privilege with us whether we like it or not.  How do I consciously acknowledge this and work towards equality?  That’s a big question I’ll be working on for all the days I’m given.

Classes have been good.  Today’s class focused on the genocide of the Herero people under German colonization in 1904.  History is almost silent about this period of time of concentration camps and massive murder under German rule, mainly because of the Holocuast which fills our historical memory of genocide and concentration camps.

On a different, less heavy note, I saw my first cloud in the sky yesterday!  I was so excited, I almost took a picture! 

The highs and lows, joys and sadness are constantly juxtaposed next to each other, challenging each of us to make sense of history, inequality, global relationships, and our role and responsibility in all of it.  Big questions, complicated thoughts, and slow (if any) answers.  But I continue to pray that I might have the patience and courage to continue to struggle with these important issues, love in my understanding, and humility to see another’s perspective.

 I hope you are all well.  A great big hug to all of you.

Settling in

Hello dear ones! 

I hope this blog is finding you well.  I am sitting outside the house right now, which is 4:15 pm.  We are all waiting to meet our homestay families, who are picking us up in 45 minutes.  This week has been full of adjusting to life in Windhoek.  The house situation has actually been going very smoothly.  Finding alone time is a challenge, but other than that, the only mishap has been that I washed my washcloth and hung it on the line outside to dry and now I can’t find it J  That’s a mishap I can handle!

In other news, on Sunday a group of us went to church at a Methodist church, which is a 30 minute walk from our house.  The choir was practicing outside as we walked up.  We sat down inside and I noticed that it was quite a racially diverse church.  This was encouraging to me for all churches everywhere.  And then the choir came in, singing a beautiful song and swaying as the processed down the aisle.  I think when all peoples sing at the throne of God with the angels it is going to sound like this choir!  They were passionate, and their voices were beautiful.  The Women’s Fellowship led worship that Sunday.  This meant, among other things, that 5 women shared different parts of the sermon that all came together to make one large (and long!) sermon.  They were great.  All visitors had to introduce themselves during the service.  After the service a man came up to my friend Jessica and asked her if we were the new students from the States.  She said yes, and he proceeded to ask her if she was interning at a place called Scripture Union for the semester.  Yes, she answered, in fact I am.  He was one of her bosses!  He told her that she was going to be doing painting the next day.  Before I knew it, I asked this man if I could come along.  Oops!  He said sure, and the next day turned into a fun day of getting to know Scripture Union, painting, and hanging out with Jessica.  She’ll have a good time at that internship.

We had a retreat on Tuesday with all the students and most of the staff of CGE.  I really enjoyed getting to know everyone more, especially the professors and house staff.  We played games as well as shared our personal “life-maps” with each other.  This took up most of the day.  I could listen to people’s life-maps for hours!  That night we had a pizza party-a good end to a good day.

On Wednesday night a few of us went to Windhoek’s Theatre school for an event called “Spoken Word.”    This was a lot of fun.  The room was full of students/ young adults who loved poetry and art and rap and music.  The night was full of listening to poetry and songs, just enjoying young, aspiring artists share their works with us.  This was a fun way to spend the night before classes started, which brings me to today.  Today we had our first day of class from 9-1.  Bummer.  I had forgotten about the class part of this adventure….No, I’m excited about class and today went well.  I’ll have lots of things to share with you all soon J

Thank you for the comments on the blogs-I’ve been enjoying reading your thoughts as well!  I pray God fills your day with peace and love.