Bright lights, big city
25OCT2004 :: 10:09pm :: Okahandja, Namibia :: Bedroom
Today started early, as we got up at 6am to head into Windhoek, the capital city of 150,000, which is about 45 minutes away. We wanted to go into town to open a bank account for managing and accessing our money more easily. Jos's youngest daughter, Ann-Meri, needed a ride into town to take an exam for school at 8am. So we drove her to Windhoek, had breakfast while she was taking her test, and then she showed us around town. Here in Namibia, the driver sits in the right side of the car, and they drive on the left side of the road. We used Jos's car, which is a stick-shift Toyota Carolla, like I drive in the states; it has nearly 400,000 km on it. I guess this isn't unusual here where the temperature never gets much less that 45 degrees, but they do have some kind of nasty unpaved roads with some brutal washboard. Anyway, it takes a while to get used to driving on left, and shifting with your left hand. Also, the turn signal is on the right hand side, so several times I turned on the windshield wipers going into a turn. There isn't any power steering either, so i got a pretty good workout getting into a couple of parking spots. So we headed into town, and had breakfast at a coffee shop in a shopping mall in downtown Windhoek. It was quite good (I had french toast, Kate had pecan pancakes), but the fact we were most struck by was that we could really be sitting at any coffee shop or mall in America, as we were surrounded by white people drinking coffee and they had American pop hits playing on the radio (they even played some Switchfoot). After that we ran down to the internet cafe and uploaded some pictures we had taken of our suite here, and wrote an email update to everyone. Ann-Meri had found us by that time, so we walked up to the bank. Since we don't have our work permits finalized yet, we couldn't open the account that we wanted, so we left the bank. We then drove up to the the US Embassy in Namibia and registered ourselves as Americans living in Namibia. Apparently the embassy here has thanksgiving dinners and 4th of July parties that they extend an open invitation to any Americans living in the country (your tax dollars hard at work!), so we'll see what happens with that. Other than being very friendly, the embassy wasn't of much help as far as information and resources goes. Next we wanted to buy a fan for our room, as it starting to get really hot here. We went to big K-mart like department store (it even smelled like a K-mart) and picked up a fan and some other essentials (toilet paper, tissues, etc.) By that time we felt as if we were imposing a little too much on Ann-Meri's tour guiding and we headed back to Okahandja. Only one time while I was driving in the city did I try to turn left into the right hand lanes, and was promplty corrected by the shouts of my car-mates. Upon returning to Okahandja, we had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunch with cheesy goldfish; sadly, we are nearly out of goldfish and will have to find a relacement (on a side note, we found Doritos in the grocery store, but they are all weird flavors - like Chili Pepper). Next we got to work, Kate helping Jos in the office, and myself doing some more painting. When we were done around 6pm or so, we were asked by Jennifer and Suzzane (two full-time volunteers here) to take them out to "the container" to pick up some things. "The container" is a big steel container that is typically carried on a big freighter ship. This one had been filled with clothes and other donated items by a church in Germany and sent here to CHI. Since they already/still have one sitting here at the center, this one is being kept out at the farm of a friend of Jos. So we loaded up in the van/truck that they have here and drove out to the farm (about 5 mins away) to get a few things out of the container to furnish the rooms they are building here, and (while we were there) grab some clothes to distribute to kids who come to the center for kids' clubs. It was interesting to see a Namibian farm, and we saw an incredible sunset. when we got back, I played around with Nika and Mikayla (Hein and Nadine's kids) while dinner was being prepared. Then we ate an excellent meal of breaded steak cutlets, rice, potato salad, and a suprisingly good cucumber jello salad. We helped dry the dishes and retired to our room.
Today started early, as we got up at 6am to head into Windhoek, the capital city of 150,000, which is about 45 minutes away. We wanted to go into town to open a bank account for managing and accessing our money more easily. Jos's youngest daughter, Ann-Meri, needed a ride into town to take an exam for school at 8am. So we drove her to Windhoek, had breakfast while she was taking her test, and then she showed us around town. Here in Namibia, the driver sits in the right side of the car, and they drive on the left side of the road. We used Jos's car, which is a stick-shift Toyota Carolla, like I drive in the states; it has nearly 400,000 km on it. I guess this isn't unusual here where the temperature never gets much less that 45 degrees, but they do have some kind of nasty unpaved roads with some brutal washboard. Anyway, it takes a while to get used to driving on left, and shifting with your left hand. Also, the turn signal is on the right hand side, so several times I turned on the windshield wipers going into a turn. There isn't any power steering either, so i got a pretty good workout getting into a couple of parking spots. So we headed into town, and had breakfast at a coffee shop in a shopping mall in downtown Windhoek. It was quite good (I had french toast, Kate had pecan pancakes), but the fact we were most struck by was that we could really be sitting at any coffee shop or mall in America, as we were surrounded by white people drinking coffee and they had American pop hits playing on the radio (they even played some Switchfoot). After that we ran down to the internet cafe and uploaded some pictures we had taken of our suite here, and wrote an email update to everyone. Ann-Meri had found us by that time, so we walked up to the bank. Since we don't have our work permits finalized yet, we couldn't open the account that we wanted, so we left the bank. We then drove up to the the US Embassy in Namibia and registered ourselves as Americans living in Namibia. Apparently the embassy here has thanksgiving dinners and 4th of July parties that they extend an open invitation to any Americans living in the country (your tax dollars hard at work!), so we'll see what happens with that. Other than being very friendly, the embassy wasn't of much help as far as information and resources goes. Next we wanted to buy a fan for our room, as it starting to get really hot here. We went to big K-mart like department store (it even smelled like a K-mart) and picked up a fan and some other essentials (toilet paper, tissues, etc.) By that time we felt as if we were imposing a little too much on Ann-Meri's tour guiding and we headed back to Okahandja. Only one time while I was driving in the city did I try to turn left into the right hand lanes, and was promplty corrected by the shouts of my car-mates. Upon returning to Okahandja, we had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich lunch with cheesy goldfish; sadly, we are nearly out of goldfish and will have to find a relacement (on a side note, we found Doritos in the grocery store, but they are all weird flavors - like Chili Pepper). Next we got to work, Kate helping Jos in the office, and myself doing some more painting. When we were done around 6pm or so, we were asked by Jennifer and Suzzane (two full-time volunteers here) to take them out to "the container" to pick up some things. "The container" is a big steel container that is typically carried on a big freighter ship. This one had been filled with clothes and other donated items by a church in Germany and sent here to CHI. Since they already/still have one sitting here at the center, this one is being kept out at the farm of a friend of Jos. So we loaded up in the van/truck that they have here and drove out to the farm (about 5 mins away) to get a few things out of the container to furnish the rooms they are building here, and (while we were there) grab some clothes to distribute to kids who come to the center for kids' clubs. It was interesting to see a Namibian farm, and we saw an incredible sunset. when we got back, I played around with Nika and Mikayla (Hein and Nadine's kids) while dinner was being prepared. Then we ate an excellent meal of breaded steak cutlets, rice, potato salad, and a suprisingly good cucumber jello salad. We helped dry the dishes and retired to our room.
1 Comments:
I've been reading the entries!! So exciting to hear what the Lord is permitting you to experience! I echo the encouragement from Jos to stay pliable. Isaiah 26:3 was spoken by a pastor today at staff prayer; it's a verse from my past that has held lots of wonderful weight. I'll keep you guys in prayer for wisdom with the decisions/future.
Blessings and love!
Goslin.
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