I'll be original & say, "Merry Christmas!"

Wow! I’ve been “off-line” for a while, haven’t I? Where does the time go? I thought that with the After School Program closed and not much else happening, then there’d be plenty of time to get caught up with stuff like blogs and paperwork…but that hasn’t been the case!!

We'd organised Home-Based Care Training for the second week of December, but unforunately at the last minute the NGO that does the training, wasn't able to do it. So that's been rescheduled to early next year (hopefully).

In the last week of November, Tangee (the EBCAIDS Committee Chairman) and I attended a short-course (three days) on Project Management. It was quite interesting and we both found it worthwhile and were glad we could attend it. (Thanks to SIM for sponsoring us.) We’re sure we’ll be able to use some of what we learnt to manage our AIDS projects.

The first weekend in December was also supposed to be the church’s AGM, so I was busy with the EBCAIDS Annual Report, which includes a PowerPoint presentation, the whole week. But the AGM ended up being postponed because six people in the church lost family members during the week and so most of the funerals were held over that weekend.

The following weekend, we celebrated the 25th anniversary of the church, with many old and ex-members visiting, as well as people from other churches. There was a lot of fellowship and a lot of meat eaten (a cow and three or four goats had been donated for the event)!

Since then I’ve been officially on leave – which has meant trying to keep the kids occupied on their holidays and the house in some semblance of order, while doing Christmas shopping and trying to keep to my routine at the gym. Yes, Rachel’s still around – we played squash on Friday and she took the honours two games to one. Mind you, that was after we’d both attended an hour-long stretching class, so be impressed! I think we’re trying to work off the Christmas kilos in advance...

So this is just a quick catch-up and to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2008. May your Christmas be blessed - we have more reason to celebrate than those who don’t know Christ!

Closing & Concerts

After School Program is over for another year. We closed on Thursday with about 30 kids in attendance. After an hour for study, they were divided into teams for an obstacle course Steven and I had set up. (It involved hopscotch, catching hackey-sacks, dribbling (the soccer variety, not saliva) and scoring a goal.) To help them recover they then got ice cream and a little goodie bag to take home.

They managed to finish their Bible verse hangings on Monday – just sticking the things together took a lot of time when there was only one tube of glue! (We couldn’t find one, and the other one ran out with the first group.) As the aim of doing the hangings was to help them remember the Bible Club lessons from the term, I hope the kids glance at them occasionally over the holidays!

It’s not over until…
So things are winding down for the year, but it’s not all over just yet. Tangee (the chairperson of the EBCAIDS Committee) and I will be attending a three-day course on Project Management at the Polytechnic next week. Hopefully we’ll pick up some information that will help with managing EBCAIDS.

After that there’s a quiet week, before Home Based Care training from 10 to 14 December. Please pray for this as the details haven’t quite been finalized yet and I’m having difficulty contacting the trainer from AIDS Care Trust (a local NGO) as she is currently out of town.

Concerts & more concerts
I had to leave the After School at the ice cream stage on Thursday, as Samara’s pre-school Christmas concert was on that evening. They did a great job of presenting a message about Jesus being the reason for Christmas, while still working in the traditional Nativity play. The youngest class (Samara’s) just had the responsibility of singing enthusiastically, which they certainly did.

And that followed the Sunday School Christmas concert last Sunday, where Samara DID say her memory verse (although a little shyly), as did Caietta – who got one of the biggest rounds of applause because, although no one could really understand what she was saying she just sounded so cute saying it!

The concert had one of the more startling birth scenes I’ve seen in a Nativity play, with ‘Joseph’ delivering the baby quite realistically! Oh well, unless the innkeeper’s wife was summoned, I guess it would have been up to Joseph, wouldn’t it?

Jimmy heads up north on Monday for work – yes, I know there weren’t supposed to be any more trips, but this is an emergency (some transformer or something blew up…). And we’re preparing for the church’s AGM next weekend. Speaking of which, I’d better get back to writing the EBCAIDS Report for the year!

Don't lose sight...

The year is (maybe not so gradually) drawing to a close. What, you might say, it’s only the middle of November! Well, school’s due to finish in 3 weeks’ time for the year and most of the school kids finish their exams at the end of next week. After that they basically hang around at school for 2 weeks, so many of them go on holidays ‘early’. (Besides which, the schools have a habit of closing a few days earlier than the official end date…)

And once it’s school holidays, Windhoek could almost close down. Families go away on holidays either to their farms, or to the coast, or down to South Africa (which evens things up a bit with all the South Africans coming up here!). Some businesses close for three or four weeks; but most (except for banks, supermarkets, etc) for at least two weeks over the Christmas-New Year period.

So our last day of After School Program will be the 22nd, next week Thursday. We’re going to have a bit of a party for the kids. In craft they’re working on some Bible verse hangings, so hopefully they’ll finish those on Monday and will be able to take them back home to remind them of some of the lessons they’ve learned in Bible Club this term.

We had a Christmas-themed Bible Club this week, with the main message being not to lose sight of Jesus at Christmas. The kids participated enthusiastically as usual (see the pictures of singing time!). And, yes, that’s Kauna showing the kids how to do the actions properly!

On the home front: remembering
Jimmy and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on Wednesday and were able to go out for a lovely meal while our good friend Vasisee babysat.

And tomorrow is the Sunday School’s Christmas program at church (it’s Saturday afternoon as I type this and the kids are at the church, practising hard for it). Then on Thursday Samara has her Pre-school Christmas concert. So we’ve got no excuse for not remembering that Christmas is just around the corner (how many days and counting?).

But let’s take the message of the Bible Club with us and not lose sight of Jesus in all the shopping and parties and concerts and ‘whatever-all-else’ (as a friend of mine would say) that this time of the year is filled with. Let’s each find something special to do this Christmas that reminds us of the real reason we’re celebrating – the birth of God’s son so that we could be reconciled to Him.

Scrabble tiles & short-termers

Thankfully Kauna didn’t suffer too badly with the chicken pox – she made it to the Program on Tuesday, although she wasn’t feeling too well, but by Wednesday she was fine and seemed back to normal by the end of the week.

Too often we think that we need expensive books or games or learning aids to help the kids, when really all that’s needed is a bit of imagination.

Scrabble tiles
Kauna proved this on Wednesday when she brought along some old Scrabble tiles (I don’t know whose set she took them from…) and let the kids play a spelling game. They were divided into a girls’ team and a boys’ team and each given tiles. Then they had to spell out the words Kauna gave them, and the first team to get it right got a point. She made it a bit more complicated by not just giving them words but telling them to spell “the opposite of tall” or “the past tense of read”. And they loved it! It sounded so exciting that the kids who were studying with me suddenly decided they’d learned all they could and begged to go and join in. The boys’ team was the clear winner, much to the chagrin of the girls.

The boys' team technique was interesting

Spelling is a big problem – and I guess we all admit that English is a tricky language that way. Some of the kids can express themselves very well and know how to do their homework, but when it comes to putting the words on paper then it’s a different story. So if anyone has other ideas for simple games, please let me know!

The girls' team - a bit confused?

Short-termers
My Wednesday morning was taken up with doing orientation on HIV/AIDS in Namibia for five new short-term missionaries with AIM (Africa Inland Mission), something I do about once every 2 to 3 months. It’s something I particularly enjoy, finding out what these (mainly) young people know about HIV and AIDS, and then helping them to understand the different situation and context there is here, compared to what they’ve known in their home countries (in this case all of them were from Canada, but this year the arrivals have also been from the U.S., the U.K., Australia and Germany).

After I do the facts and statistics then Pelgrina, a Namibian who along with her six-year-old son is living with HIV, comes and shares her story in the afternoon. It’s important that we don’t stop at the figures, but understand what HIV means for real people.

On the home front: the end is near!
…the end of the year, that is. Which means that Christmas ads are on tv, Christmas decorations are in the stores, and Samara is practising for Christmas concerts both at pre-school and at Sunday School. She’s already mastered her memory verse for the Sunday School concert (Luke 2:51), hopefully she doesn’t get stage-fright like she did last year! Before we know it, Christmas will be upon us.

Off the map

Well, I didn’t post last week as, after quite a busy week, Friday found my husband and me speeding off to his grandmother’s funeral. If you have a fairly detailed map of Namibia, and if you can find the town of Otjinene on it (about 300km north-east of Windhoek), then let your finger go a bit more easterly (towards the border with Botswana) and that’s about where we were!

The proceedings viewed from behind two ladies in traditional dress

Of course there are a lot of traditions associated with funerals and burials. The men and the women are separate for most of the proceedings, so Jimmy’s elder sister, Rukeeveni, ‘babysat’ me – mostly telling me what to do when (there are certain things that must be done by the “children of the house” (descendants) and their wives). Most of the women were in traditional Herero dress, and many people attended as Jimmy’s family is well-known in the area.

Part of the large crowd who attended

It was extremely hot and very windy (which helped with the heat, but also made things very dusty). So it wasn’t a surprise when a storm rolled in just as we were leaving to drive back to Windhoek on Saturday evening. I must say that it was a surreal experience to be driving through the African bush (very fast, so we wouldn’t get stuck – according to my husband!) on a rutted, sandy track with lightening flashing all around and from every direction! We arrived back to find that Windhoek had received some good rain, and also got showers on Sunday and Monday.

On Sunday afternoon I led a session with the church’s young ladies (ages 11 to 26) about dating and relationships. The idea was to find out their experiences and the issues they have to deal with. It was a bit alarming to see what the youngest group (aged 11 to 13) thought and knew about relationships and sex! As an indication of the lack of female empowerment, about 80% of the 25 girls and women present felt like they had suffered some form of sexual harassment. All these issues have a direct impact on the spread of HIV. But I think some valuable information came up that will help these issues to be addressed through the youth group.

Updates
After School Program was quite a challenge last week, as many of the volunteers are writing or preparing for exams; or busy with assignments and extra classes. Kauna herself finished her exams on Monday this week and so was ‘off’, studying, last week. We had to cut back a lot on the activities as we just didn’t have enough people to handle all the kids. However this week was better. We managed to buy some textbooks with money donated to the Program from the AIM team who worked with the Program for two months in the middle of the year, and so that will be providing more revision opportunities for the kids.

Pray for Kauna – she ‘sms’ed me this afternoon to say she thinks she’s caught chicken pox from her two (younger) sisters…but still had to go to the doctor to make sure.

Our interview on Katutura Community Radio went well on the 14th – we started late, but they gave us over an hour, so we were on the air from about 17:30 until 18:45. We had a good opportunity to talk about what we’re doing as a church for the community, and the challenges and needs we have. We’re happy with how it went, and Mr Kateve, the interviewer/DJ, is keen to do follow-up pieces as well.

This week I finalized funding proposals for EBCAIDS with Russell from SIM’s HOPE for AIDS program that have been approved and submitted to SIM. We need funding fairly desperately, so please pray for these proposals as they are sent to possible donors around the world. Also, on the 5th November Russell is meeting with a church in the U.S. that’s interested in partnering with us as we address HIV/AIDS issues – pray for some positive discussions.

Good Morning Katutura!

Well, Mr Kateve from the radio station came back to us, and he’ll be interviewing Kauna, me and one of the After School Program volunteers on the radio on Sunday. It’s a great opportunity to talk about what we do in the Program and how it’s helping the kids who attend. And we also have a chance to talk about what we need to run the Program – who knows who might be listening? Please pray for us, we’ll be on air from 5pm (3pm GMT) on Sunday.

We’re struggling a bit at the moment as we’ve ‘lost’ two volunteers – Tom got a full-time job and Joël found a 3 month temporary job. But that’s what happens! The volunteers are all studying or unemployed and man cannot live on volunteer work alone…

Joël getting down to the kids’ level

Along with the normal homework this week, I helped Hauta with the rugby on Tuesday. I took the girls while he had the boys. And we had fun! At first the girls were complaining, “I don’t want to play!”, “I don’t know what to do!” and so on but soon they were enthusiastically pointing out forward passes and a few of them put in some good kicks even.

This week I also had a good meeting with Jogbeth and Aline, the two ladies who are the driving force behind starting with a Home Based Care Program. From next week they will begin helping to care for patients at the hospital (under the supervision of the nurses, who are normally short-staffed). This should give opportunities to get to know the patients and follow-up those who need assistance at home once they leave hospital.

On the home front: cold fronts and cold water
We had quite unusual weather this week! Temperatures plunged down to near freezing again at night and we had a couple of really chilly days. Now we’re back to normal, over 30 degrees Celsius during the days. Apparently this happens every 20 to 30 years, but I certainly hadn’t experienced such cool weather in October before.

I’m sure you all missed the squash report last week: Rachel and I each took two games, so it was honours even. A friend pointed out to me (thanks, Gav) that antihistamines are actually used to make Speed – so that could account for Rachel’s enthusiastic playing the week before! Unfortunately she wasn’t well this week, so we didn’t play. And I’ve been avoiding showering at the gym as the whole air conditioning is being replaced and so for the last couple of weeks there’s been no hot water again. This could go on until the end of November…

Lastly, the promised photo of baby Gloria. She looks just like her mum!

AIDS is real!

Last week I was speaking to one of the teenagers from church, and she mentioned that her aunt was visiting. Her aunt lives in a rural area, on the family farm, and so I asked why she was here in Windhoek.

Looking around before she spoke, my friend said quietly, “She has AIDS. She came to see the doctor, but they said it’s too late even for any treatment. There’s nothing they can do for her.”

I was shocked. “But she seems so young – and she looks fine.”

My friend shrugged. “She’s in her 40s. She has three kids and all of them are HIV-positive.” She was quiet for a minute before she spoke again. “AIDS is everywhere in my family, but they don’t want to admit it.” She mentioned the name of her cousin, a girl who also goes to EBC. “Her mother died from AIDS and her younger brother is HIV-positive. But the family doesn’t care for him properly. They bought a plate and cup only for him – no one else is allowed to use them. They’re even scared of touching him sometimes. Someone needs to tell them that you can’t get HIV by touching!”

She looked frustrated as she continued, “My cousin and I have both tried to talk to our family – to tell them about HIV and AIDS. But they don’t want to listen.”

Participants in our Home Based Care Training last year:
Jogbeth is seated with the striped sweater, Kauna (After School Program Coordinator) is standing in the middle with the white t-shirt and I'm standing on the left.

These are the people that EBCAIDS (Evangelical Bible Church HIV/AIDS Ministry) wants to reach. These are the families that we need to help! Please pray for Jogbeth, our Home Based Care Coordinator, as she looks for opportunities to help this family. And please pray for my friend and her cousin.

Monkeying around

Kuvaza loves the After School Program. She has been coming ever since it was started in March 2004! She’s in Grade 5 and really works hard, often spending two hours on her homework. She doesn’t like maths very much, but does extra maths homework every week to try and improve her marks. Her favourite part of the Program is Bible Club on Wednesday afternoons, and she often gets points for remembering Bible verses and knowing stories from the Bible.

Kuvaza always works hard and has a smile!

This week she had to write two paragraphs on something scary that happened to her and I thought what she wrote was really cute. So I asked her permission and here it is:

Two years ago a scary incident happened to me. While I was busy bathing I heard voices and steps outside. I looked through the window but there was nothing. I finished bathing, put on my clothes and went to the kitchen to make something to eat.

When I went to the kitchen I saw some papers lying around. I took the papers to go throw away. When I went outside to the dustbin something that looked like a big monkey jumped out from behind it. I was so scared, I screamed and dropped the papers and ran. Only at last I realized that it was my Aunt’s brother wearing a monkey mask.

On the home front: more rugby blues
Well, Namibia’s World Cup campaign is over with two more losses under their belt(s). Disappointing, but the last game was played in very rainy conditions. Wacca will be home on Saturday, and it’ll be interesting to hear about his time in France.

Speaking of rain, ‘they’ are predicting a good rainy season for Southern Africa and while Jimmy was working up in Rundu (right in the north of Namibia on the Angolan border) on Wednesday, they got their first showers of the season. So may it start early and last long!

Lastly, I’m sure you’re dying to know the squash score – only won one game this week again (and that was with Rachel doped up on antihistamines – or maybe they’re performance enhancing?!).

Another week, another...

Another week, another volunteer! We’ve got someone else helping at the After School Program. Edwin is a student from the Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary (NETS), doing a year-long Certificate in Youth & Child Ministry. He heard about our Program through his friend, Carlos, a second-year Theology student also at NETS.

Edwin (see under, helping one of the Grade 1 girls) is from Opuwo in the north-east corner of Namibia. He has a real desire to tell young people about Christ and spent two years with his church, the Dutch Reformed Church, doing school outreaches in the Kunene Region. “I could see a real difference between schools as we traveled around the Region,” he said. “Where there was a positive atmosphere and learners were doing well, I could see that there were teachers who really cared for the learners. Invariably, those teachers would be Christians who really wanted to make a difference in the kids’ lives and not just help to educate them. I want to become a teacher like that!” He hopes to complete a Diploma in Theology before getting a teaching qualification and becoming a Religious Education/Life Skills teacher. For now, he’ll get some practice with us!

We’re looking into an arrangement with NETS where the students can get the practical children’s ministry experience they need as part of their courses, by helping out at the After School Program. Meanwhile, we’re very happy to have Carlos (see left, with some of the upper primary kids) and Edwin assisting when their studies allow.

The week was still a little hectic as Kauna (the Program Coordinator) had exams and so was on study leave. We sure missed her organizational skills! I was Acting Chief and I just hope she isn’t too mad at the mess she’ll find on Monday…

On the home front: don't talk about rugby
I’m looking forward to Jimmy’s last week-long trip for work for the year, which takes place next week. Not looking forward to him being gone (of course!), but the fact that it’ll be the last one for a while. So, barring any emergencies, his trips outside Windhoek for the rest of the year should only entail being away for two or three days at the most.

And I managed to win two squash games this week – Rachel better watch out! As for the rugby match against France, well let’s not talk about it. The Namibians are playing again tonight against Argentina, so we’ll see how that goes.

Lastly, while we were sitting on Tuesday evening, watching the sunset turn the clouds pink and the birds wheeling and diving in the sky, Caietta, my two-year-old, suddenly shouted at the top of her voice, “Birds! Where are you going?”

So let me leave you with that – where DO birds go?

Reflection on Philippians 2:1-11

How can I stand before You
When every knee should bow?
How dare I remain silent
While tongues confess You now?

And yet too often I stand
Proud of myself, my face
Turned to what You’ve given me,
Focused on these, not grace.

And when I need to praise You
Somehow my words won’t fall
While all too often I speak
Of how I’ve done it all.

And, seeing, does it pain You
To watch me force my way?
To put myself high up there
When that should be Your place?

My knees must bow before You,
I must be brought so low
To recognize Your glory
And it to others show.

My tongue must now confess You
My words must start to fall;
Glorify the Chosen One,
My Jesus, Lord of all.

How can I stand before You
When every knee should bow?
How dare I remain silent
While tongues confess You now?

'Rithmetic, Rugby & Radio

More maths?! I felt like I had it coming out of my ears this week. At one stage on Tuesday I was helping 5 kids at the same time – Grade 9 Life Science (Biology – diffusion), Grade 6 maths (units of distance), Grade 6 maths (long division), Grade 5 Social Studies (water pollution) and Grade 4 maths (adding and subtracting thousands). I don’t think I got confused and said anything like, “Diffusion is kilometres divided by the amount of effluent minus 2,375” – but you never know!

The reason for my multi-tasking was just one of those weeks when almost none of the normal volunteers for the After School Program were available. Ruth had extra classes all week, Cillo was out of town, Tom had an assignment to work on and Joël’s grandmother passed away and he had to help his family with the funeral preparations.

One of the volunteers who did show up was Hauta Veii, who just recently started helping with the Program. An up-and-coming rugby player, we roped him in to teach the kids some rugby skills in our Tuesday sports slot. All the boys are crazy about soccer, and the only sport the girls know is netball, so we thought it would do them good to be exposed to something else. And so far they seem to be enjoying it…well, the boys at least (see picture)! The girls are being rather girly and saying things like, “But it’s too hot!” and “Won’t I get hurt?”

Hauta also helps out on Wednesday afternoons and is very effective in keeping the kids under control – a big, front-row player, all he has to do is look at the kids and his size does the talking!

Something encouraging: I got a call from Mr Kateve at Katutura Community Radio (KCR). KCR is a small radio station that only broadcasts in the Katutura area of Windhoek (Katutura is the former black township area where our church, the Evangelical Bible Church, is located). Mr Kateve found out about the training we ran in May on Orphans and Vulnerable Children and interviewed us on air. Since then he calls regularly to find out what other community programs we’re running. This time he expressed interest in coming to see the After School Program and broadcasting something about it. Hope it happens soon!

P.S. Kuzatjike did the extra maths homework I set for him over the weekend and actually got all the multiplying and dividing of decimals sums correct (a bit too good to be true? but he said no one helped him). Didn’t do so well on changing fractions to decimals and vice versa. So we revised that, and this week he had percentages. He didn’t come to the Program on Tuesday and Wednesday as he was sick, so we had a lot of work to catch up on yesterday. He has extra reading and maths to do over the weekend. Kauna (the Program Coordinator) has started sending extra reading work home with the kids who most need it, and some of them are really doing well.

On the home front: sports, sums & sweetness
Last weekend was great for Namibia on the sports front! On Saturday we qualified for the quarter finals of the Africa Cup of Nations (the biggest continental soccer tournament) and on Sunday we really gave Ireland a tough game at the Rugby World Cup. Sure, we lost 17-32 (which should have been 17-27 as the last try shouldn’t have been awarded…) but the boys really played a good game. We especially enjoyed watching our friend Wacca (see left, his autographed players card) play – and the ref only had to talk to him once for fighting! So if you get a chance to see Namibia playing on Sunday (against France, eek), cheer on the big #4 with us.

And yesterday I was exhausted after some tough squash games. Yes, I managed to win one this week! What made it worse for my muscles was that I decided to drill the kids at the Program yesterday on their times tables – with full body actions. They tired before I did, but I was also glad to stop and sit down for a while. And that was only the 1x table. I started off with, “One times one equals two” and not one of them batted an eyelid, sigh. (I wish I could say I did it on purpose, but, hey, it had been a busy week.)

Lastly, Jimmy and I have a brand-new goddaughter, Gloria, born to our friend Abigail on 5 September. She was 2.7kg at birth and when I held her a couple of days later I couldn’t believe how tiny she is! My two were much heavier than that at birth and I thought they were small. Hope to post some pics soon!

Grade 7 Maths Problems

School started this week for the third and last term, which means that the After School Program also started. The number of kids was lower (about 30 instead of 60), but that’s normal for the first couple of weeks of term at least.
{At the After School Program a group of volunteers from our church and the community help kids who live in the area with their homework and revision, and then we have games and activities (such as sports, craft and Bible Club) for them. It runs on Mondays to Thursdays from 2pm until 5pm. Kauna, one of the young ladies from the church, directs the Program.}

I spent each day helping Kuzatjike, one of the Grade 7 boys, with his maths homework – multiplying and dividing decimals, and converting fractions to decimals and vice versa. Every day was the same: we’d sit down and I’d ask him how to start working on the problems, and he’d have absolutely no idea! Now I don’t know if that’s because he doesn’t listen in class or the teacher just doesn’t explain what to do. The class sizes are at least 40 kids and that sure doesn’t make for optimal teaching conditions. An added complication is that the schools mostly don’t allow the kids to take their textbooks home and so if they don’t know how to do the homework, there’s nothing they can refer to. It also makes it a bit difficult for us at the Program, because if they don’t have similar problems they’ve already done in their homework books, we’re not sure how the teacher wants them to do the working out and so on.

Despite not knowing what to do, Kuzatjike paid attention when I explained the working out to him and was able to do the sums with only a bit of help from me. However, a big problem is that he hardly knows his times tables and even finds dividing easier than multiplying! Weird.

Kuzatjike’s mother came on Thursday to show us his report from last term – he failed Maths, English and Social Studies and almost all his marks were worse in Term 2 than Term 1. He did okay in Science, which most kids here wrestle with, and admitted that he likes Science a lot more than Maths. His mother really wants to help him but she works as a hairdresser and sometimes doesn’t get home until 9pm.

After talking with her, I did up an extra homework sheet of maths problems, similar to the ones he’d done all week, for Kuzatjike to do over Friday and the weekend. Kauna’s idea is to start a reading program for some of the kids who are really struggling with English – something they can take home to work on in the evenings, as well as getting help at the Program. I’ll keep you posted as to how that all works!

On the Home Front: Time changes & sleepyheads
I don’t know who came up with the brilliant idea of always having winter time finish (and thus having the clocks move one hour forward) the same week that school starts for Term 3. Samara has to be at pre-school at 8am and I’ve had to wake her up at 7am when she’s still been fast asleep. I don’t know how the primary and high school kids, who have to be at school at 7am, are managing! Hey, even I’m finding it hard to adjust and have had a few unscheduled sleep-ins…

Added to that, Windhoek residents were warned on Monday to use water sparingly as NamWater had had a fire which took out one of their water pumps. We were all prepared for water rationing and similar drastic measures, but the water was never off, and things were back to normal by Wednesday, instead of Friday as they had announced. However, they also reminded us that dam levels are quite low and if we don’t get a good rainy season (should start raining next month), then we’re looking at some shortages.

AND the airconditioner at the gym was off all week, due to repairs being carried out. For some reason this also affects the hot water, so after working up a good sweat exercising (maximum temperatures here are already up around 30°C), we have the bonus of cold showers! Rachel and I WERE sweating when we finished four games of squash yesterday and, yes, she walloped me in each one. I do have an excuse (having had flu quite badly last week) – but then again, her walloping me is quite a regular occurrence. Oh well, I really enjoy playing and that’s what matters, hey.

Lastly, Jimmy and I actually managed to go to the movies last night and saw ‘Rush Hour 3’. He enjoyed it, I thought the first two were much better. And the fight scenes on the Eiffel Tower just made me dizzy!