3-2-1 Go!

What a few crazy, packed couple of weeks of October.  From the first day of October life has been pushing me with experiences of African proportions.  The first weekend was filled with 120 elementary aged youth at a Christian camp just outside of Windhoek.  My friend Jessica has an internship with an organization called Scripture Union, which goes into schools to lead assemblies, help teachers start after school groups, and leads camps in order to spread Christianity.  Jess asked if I would help out at the camp, so of course I said “Yes, please!”  I’ve been a counselor before, but this was a whole other level of  craziness.  Children kept showing up to the camp, which meant that many children had to share beds for the weekend, which they did happily.  We staff were in charge of the entire camp: curriculum, games, worship, cabins, and kitchen.  I was ready for some good sleep after that weekend!

 

Sleep came on the van ride up to the North the day after camp.  We, as a CGE group, all took two weeks together  to learn about the rural areas in northern Namibia.  The first week we each stayed with individual homestay families.  This time around my mom’s name was Sarafina.  In Oshiwambo the word for mother is “Meme,” which you use for all women older than you.  Father is “Tate.”  My “tate” was in Swakopmound, but I did get to talk with him on the cell phone!  My brother Kristof is 14, and my sisters Kandali, Paloma, and Ndeshi are 4,4, and 3.  I learned a lot about hard work and simple joys from my family, who had no lived on a farm, raising chickens, goats, cattle, and mahangou-a type of grain.  We also had donkeys, dogs, and puppies.  There was no electricity or running water, and they cook all of their meals on the open fire.  This was a fun, stretching week for me!  The hut in this picture is one of many in their home enclosure, and is what I slept in all week.

From our homestays we continued our adventures, first camping next to a Himba village and then going to Etosha National Park.  The Hima people have maintained many of their traditions, but our speaker for the week believed that withing 30 years these traditions would disappear.  The men are herders, and dress with a small clothe around their waist.  It is a patriarchal society, where men are the leaders, set the norms for the society, and can have more than one wife.  The women also wear small clothe around their waists, and are bare chested.  In order to keep their skin soft from sun exposure, they cover themselves with a red okra rub.  They also put red clay in their hair.  At night the children would come around our campfire to sit, laugh, and eat.  It was fun interacting with them.  It was a struggle for me to find a balance between respecting and enjoying their traditions while also valuing things like women’s rights and freedoms.  This tension is good for me to wrestle with.

When we left the Himba village we went to Etosha National Park, where we saw lots and lots of animals!  It was exciting to see giraffes, rhinos, zebras, springbok, lions…We all kept singing Lion King songs. Haha! 

 One downer of the trip was that a lot of the students got pretty sick.  The sickness traveled around the group, with some still recovering.  Overall, the entire trip was incredible, with lots of trying moments, pushing each of us to think in different ways, try new things, and discover more about African peoples, as well as discover more about ourselves.  I pray discoveries and blessings for each of you today!