namibia2010

Update

2010-05-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

Firstly a big hello to our neighbours Kath and Arn and thankyou for your letter and news on how our puppy is going at home. Kath does not have a computer to read the blogs but receives a printed version from another great neighbour, Doug. It is good to know our home is in reliable hands.

We have a bright spot this week as the road is now drivable after patchup work, it is a big relief as being restricted to using only one boat for 57 kids and over 20 staff places pressure on everyone.

The first vehicle to come in this morning was a local taxi and he is amazing at the places you see him driving. The road is still only suitable for 4WDs but this is a small Toyota hatchback which only sits about 9 inches off the ground and the staff use him a lot to come to work. Even on a Sunday when I take the boys to their soccer match in the middle of the bush he will turn up.

Marg was in the hospital sitting with the boy who had the ear infection and they were both snoozing when a monkey jumped onto the bedside table and took his lollypop. He took it to the roof with his other "loot" and they had to watch him lapping it up like a two year old. There are quite a few of them at the hospital and you are probably thinking it is in the middle of the bush and not clean but both are not true as the hospital is in the middle of town and quite clean. The boy has recovered very well and we were impressed with the treatment he received as his infection was serious and needed mega doses of antibiotics. He is now one of our fisherboys and loves it.

We have a deaf boy about 16 years old who goes to a special school in the capital, Windhoek, about 1200kms away and comes home for the school holidays. I took him out fishing last week, he had never done it before, and of course he caught the biggest tiger fish of any we have caught. He was "hooked" and is always ready to go now in the morning. They were fishing from the bank on Sunday when he caught a huge Bubble (catfish) and if you could have seen the look on his face you would have thought he had caught a million dollars. They had it for dinner that night which meant there was fish 2 nights running as I was lucky on Saturday and had got three nice tiger fish. I have tried several times since without a bite.

Marg has been busy covering the kids and many staff in calamine lotion as the chicken pox has spared only a few of them. Many who have been with relatives etc during their holidays have also been struck but still have mainly enjoyed their time away. We have heard differing stories, some have missed their friends a lot and others have been very busy doing what the locals do,eg one older girl has been helping her Aunt build a new mud hut. When they are built here the tradition is that the men put in the framework of sticks and posts and it is then the womens' job to do all the mudwork for the walls. The girl has also learnt many traditional cooking recipes. This was a nice story as she has done exactly what the program was intended for the children to do and accomplish.

Marg has to do one of the trips to the western Caprivi region on Friday to bring them back. She then has to drive to Livingstone across the border in Zambia on Saturday to take a volunteer to catch her flight home. It is a 2-3 hour drive each way but some of it is through game park or reserve and their is a good chance of spotting giraffes or elephants.

We have been given a 2-3 week old baby to care for after she was deserted by her mother and left in the bush. The kids who come back,especially the girls will get a nice surprise to see her and I imagine will spoil her lots. One of the really nice aspects about being here is watching the way the children all get along with each other, apart from the isolated argument of course. If one or two children have to go away for a short time they get a very warm reception on return.

Each Monday we have to take food to a feeding centre where up to one hundred children are supported by it. They come from disadvantaged families who cannot feed the children and the food gives them one good meal each day. Marg of course loves going there and on Monday she bought some of the small fish I have spoken about before (1-2 inches long). She then watched the ladies there prepare them into a mushy meal and of course was asked to try, she found it quite nice. We take dried fish for them and Marg learnt how to buy the good ones at the market in town as some have a beetle in them that send them bad.

The local gossip; the local airport has had no jetfuel for over a month and planes have to land at the nearest one about 100km away in Botswana to refuel before coming here to offload passengers.

Another airport has no water.

Our puppies are not popular as washing is going missing from the lines and it is ending up on our doorstep. We have moved house and brought their mother with us so there is no guardog at the mainhouse and the hippos are taking advantage of it as they are coming out of the water at night and grazing about 5-10 metres from the front door. We see a new set of tracks each day.

I have a new alarm each morning. I call it the " morning breeze alarm" as it is cool now and the window in the bedroom is typical of many here and wont close so I have this cool breeze blow on me each morning from about 5am. I guess you could say it is environmentally friendly, does not need batteries and still works with a power failure.

Best wishes to all.

Update 4May2010

2010-05-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

We have a relatively quiet home for the next 3 weeks as the majority of the children have gone to stay with relatives for the school holidays. They were all excited about their holiday so we are hoping they enjoy the break. Some have gone to relatives in very nice homes and others to people in mud hut villages so their stories will be interesting and varied as to what they would have done during the time away. Marg helped take the kids out to the western Caprivi and enjoyed seeing where they came from and meeting the relatives.

We are feeling sorry for the ones left here as it is a terrible feeling to think of an orphan who does not have any family links at all. There are different jobs which we have been able to get them to do and give them rewards to try and make them feel that someone cares for them and stop boredom. We are not getting any help with this as it is not part of the local culture to keep children amused.

The water peaked last Friday at close to the same level as a month ago and now is on the way down, hopefully it keeps going and we can get back on the road in a couple of weeks. I have had to be relieved of boat driving as the new home for the older children has to be finished so I am back in building mode. We laid floor tiles last week and the next day when I went to do more the workers were in the room cutting up steel on them with a 9 inch grinder ( I am finding out new definitions for patience). On the other hand I have a worker helping me who I know is keen to learn and he has picked up the tiling methods quite quickly and he feels quite proud to have done something technical.

Marg has a badly infected finger at the moment after something bit her while sleeping. I have had two similar problems from cuts while working and the infection is so aggressive that the next day your finger is swollen like a boil, you cannot bend it and a red streak is already running up your arm. We don't know what causes it and it takes a week or so of treatment for it to come good.

Something we were dreading did not happen did this morning as one of our boys had a badly infected ear and he was writhing on the bed in pain so we had to take him to hospital by boat at 4 in the morning. The moon was up otherwise it would not have been possible and we did the trip and return without a problem. The little fellow is still in hospital for a few more days as it is so serious. Marg of course is doing her normal babysitting and has spent all day with him and will probably do the same tomorrow, she is a marvel the way she always puts other peoples wellbeing before her own.

A little snippet; was watching the local news tonight of a story about a murder and they showed where it occurred. Then it showed someone shovelling about a bucket of blood off the floor, very effective coverage of the event.

Talking to our security guards one day and they said with the full moon last week they saw six canoes each night at one in the morning crossing the river from Zambia. They were not sure what the reason was??

We have only two of the puppies left and the children are feeding them any leftovers so they are growing quickly and still getting into mischief. The others have gone to staff members and the local villages, primarily to be used as guard dogs.

Will write again soon

Weekly Update

2010-04-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

Update 21 April 2010

Firstly my apologies fo missing last week, the pace has been hectic and with a shortage of people it means you finish the day feeling like nothing but sleep so we are normally in that state by 9.30. We have another man coming soon so will be able to share the workload more especially the boat driving as after 6 weeks of it for 4 hours a day it becomes tiring. The Transition home for the older kids needs finishing so I have to do a lot there and also show the workers how to do some of it.

Our hopes for getting back to using the road this week were dashed as the river has risen rapidly again all week and is now only about 6 inches below the peak of a few weeks ago. It seems to have slowed today and with it being so late in the wet season we are expecting it to start receding again otherwise we will be looking at evacuation again. It is a dry flood also as the only rain we have had here has been storms that bucket down rain for an hour ( normally when you are in the open boat) then clear up. Many of the local villages have been moved into tents on dry land and have been living that way for the 5-6 weeks now.

Marg has been busy as always helping anybody who asks for anything and the children and staff have got to rely on her to help with many of their problems. She loves the involvement especially being called on to nurse the children and fix many of their ailments. She has also showed them how to do beading, cooking meals and had one girl making a long dress. A couple of the boys have had minor operations so she has had to spend hours at the hospital with them and then we have had them stay at the house with us while they recover enough to return to the other kids. One of the teenage boys was asked when getting ready for his op to go to the bathroom and change into the surgical gown. An hour later they had to send someone to find him as he had locked himself in a toilet because he was frightened of what was happening. He has recovered well.

10 of the older children have started vocational training in either joinery, bricklaying or sewing and they are enjoying learning something different and practical. They are always keen to help when Marg or I are doing different jobs around the village although one boy helped me lay tiles for a day and the next day Marg showed him how to make cookies and he says he would rather make cookies as tiling is too hard.

Marg had her birthday this week and shared it with one of the girls. The older girls always bake a cake for each childs birthday and they made one for Marg as well which made her feel very special, then the 50 kids all sang Happy Birthday to her, she was even game enough to tell them how old she was. It was a nice moment and I loved to see them show their appreciation for her after the time she takes with them.

Our keen little fisherman has caught his first two fish, I was away in the boat at the time but Marg heard a loud yell and guessed what had happened. The fishing has slowed down with the rising water but the boys are still trying. One of the local men from the hardware store caught a nice one tonight out the front of the home. I managed to find a few minutes one night just on dark to throw a line in from the back of the boat and I had no sooner cast out then a hippo surfaced about 6ft from me. That made it the shortest time I had ever spent fishing as I was backing out of the boat and reeling in at the same time. You can actually tell when one is under the water as if it is close to the surface it causes a small distinctive wave on the water.

Marg bathed the smallest child yesterday and had finished doing the local thing they do to their babies ( rubbing all over with vaseline) and started powdering him on his backside when the other small kids laughed at her. She asked what was wrong and they said you don't put powder on the back only the front.

One of the security guards asked me for a bit of petrol last week, said he needed it to fix his tootache.

Many of the children are excited this week as they have school holidays next week and they often go to stay in a village with their nearest relative. It is a good change for them and also gives them the experience of village life.

To finish off I can say that we are settling in well and are now getting along with the children and staff. It does take a long time to understand how the locals interact with each other as it very different from our culture and you learn something each day, despite this being out 4th trip to Africa. One difference is if you go and ask anyone to do something they don't react immediately,might nod their head or say OK but you don't get a real reaction for about 5 minutes. Another one is that if someone makes a mistake that damages a tool etc they just say a couple of words to each other and then dismiss it and forget it. We are getting to know several local people, especially Marg with the hospital staff, and you often get a stranger come up to you in the street and address you by name which puts us in an embarassing position of asking who they are.

Hope all is well with everyone at home, will "try" and write again next week.

Weekly Update

2010-04-06T13:50:00.000-07:00

6 April,

All the action is on the fishing front this week with the call from the boat ' Uncle we have caught another big fish' becoming regular as the fish came back on the bite on Easter Sunday ( is their a connection) and the boys have been having a wonderful time and caught about 6. The sad part is the keenest of them, the small boy I told about last week is the only one yet to land one, maybe the biggest is being saved for him but he is still excited when the others catch one.

I have been buying wire trace for them as the Tiger fish bite thru the line and today there was none left as they keep losing it by getting it caught in the reeds. So they were sitting on the bank unable to fish when there was a knock at the door and the little fella asked if they could have the rods and he had copper wire in his hand that they then used in lieu of the trace and 10 minutes later the cry went up again and another fish was in the boat. They then told me not to waste my money buying the trace as theirs was just as good. A precious moment seeing young kids use their initiative and being rewarded. I also taught one of the girls who likes outdoor sport how to cast and she hooked onto two fish within 30 minutes but failed to get them to the boat. She is very keen and has tried again.

One of the older boys was fishing from the boat which was pulled up onto the bank when he asked us if we had seen the hippo that had come out the water and ate the grass beside our lounge and bedroom the night before. When asked how he knew he showed us the tracks, their were more tracks again this morning so the grass must be tasty, their is an outside security light as well which obviously doesn't worry them. We are so tired of a night that it will take a big noise to wake us but will try to have a look at some time tonight.

The small kids kept asking for a boat ride to pick fruit so I had to take them all with some of the big ones to watch them and pick the fruit for them. The fruit is a local wild one about 25mm in size, purple in colour and grows on the bushes near the bank but these at the moment are surrounded by water so we just motor the boat up to the bush and can get 50 or more very quickly.

The newly hatched tiger fish are about 25 - 40mm long at the moment and have started to come back into the river in their thousands, the big fish are feeding on them voraciously. When we went to pick two of the female staff up one morning at the boat ramp they were up to theirs thighs in the water with a mosquito net strung between them dragging the water for these small fish with young girls out in front of them chasing the fish into the net. They caught 2 20litre bucketfuls in short time then after sharing them with any local that came along bought the rest to work. The housekeeper had about 1kg or 200 of them and we asked her if she was going to cook them. She said she was but had to clean them first, we looked at her in amazement as she then proceeded to gut and clean each small fish and took them home to cook in the pan.

Our two best soccer players were chosen in the aged regional representative side to play a tournament in the capital over Easter, they won one game but lost the next and came away with the feeling that the experience shows them the level that they have to play at. The kids were bored over Easter so Marg and I organized a sports day for them with the littlies in the morning and the big ones after lunch. We taught them some ball games that the schools in Australia play and once they realized that they had to think quickly and concentrate it became an enjoyable game. We had the usual problem with anyone who dropped the ball or was not in the right position being strongly criticised but overall it was a nice time. They are quite cruel and critical of weaknesses in their peers and don't realize how much they hurt these kids with their words. One surprising thing was how some of the kids are not used to being in the sun and complain about the heat after 10 minutes in it. I thought about it and it must be because they spend all of their time either inside the main house building or inside school and get very little exposure to the sun. This is very surprising for African people as when in town you often see a mother and infant sitting on the footpath in full sun selling fruit, vegetables etc for hours of a day.

The two soccer players were going to training last Monday but we had the boat in town being repaired so the first part of their trip was in dugout canoe across the river then a 3 km walk where we were waiting to pick them up in our van. However when we got their in the van the fanbelt had broken and we had to ring our mechanic for a tow the 5 km back to town. The boys had to walk another km and catch a taxi. We also had 4 days supply of food for all the kids in the van, some frozen. It was a memorable tow with the rope only 8 feet long and the mechanic pulling us at 60km/hr and us with only a handbrake and little steering. Things could have been worse as the van was close to being used to take a volunteer back to Livingstone in Zambia so she could fly home and a breakdown in another country would have caused more problems. It is now over a week since the belt was ordered and it arrived today.

I have been trying to teach the workers some simple ways to do things, they were putting up a new clothes line and asked to buy a wire tensioner so I showed them the way my father had taught me when I was about 12 and a method I thought would be common here. It was to simply use the fork out of a branch of a tree with a hole drilled in it and the wire put through it then turned to tension the wire.

Then they were building an annex for the workshop and when I had a look they had 12 holes dug where they were going to put posts in to support the roof which meant the storage space would have been obstructed by the posts so I showed them how to just run a board along then run rafters out from it to a single line of posts which leaves the middle free. They are amazed to see these methods as most of them have only built mud huts by age old ways.

However I didn,t feel like helping them when I discovered that when they were digging the trench last week for the new power cable they cut a power cable running between two buildings and must have been lucky not to be badly hurt when it happened. It meant the pregnant ladies house was without power the night she was in labour (next para) and I guess might have amplified the situation.

We had to do the typical trip you read about in books on Monday which was to take a pregnant woman in labour to hospital by boat at 6.30 in the morning. She had been in labor most of the night and was lucky to hold off as a night trip in the boat would have been dangerous to say the least. She had a baby girl at 11am and we brought her back home today.

We are keeping a worrying eye on our water storage tank as it was leaking for over 12 hours last week and now is down to a drop every 10 seconds or so. It seems the boys will have to pull it down and repair it which means finding an alternative water source for at least 2 days at least as that is how long it will take to pull it down, patch it and wait to dry and put back up and hope it does not leak again and with an 8 year old tank???. They might be lucky and be able to do a new one which would be a one day job and less inconvenience and a sure fix and what our plumber recommends.

To show how decent African people can be our plumber gave me $500 to give to the young boy he has been teaching for 3 days a week most weeks. I told him it was too much as the boy would expect that amount all of the time or at another job. When I asked him how many days the boy had worked he said he didn/t know but the way he worked was he just shared the spoils of a job once he was paid for it with whoever helped him. I then said I would ask the boy how many days he had worked and pay him $35/day which was what many adult workers earn,some less. That I did then gave the plumber back the leftover money which was quite a bit.

We decided to give the small kids a special time and had the 6 girls over with us one night to eat their dinner, watch a video, read stories to them and have brekky next morning. They loved it and were so excited and behaved very well. Not so the boys, there were 8 of them, 3 were very good but the rest made some of the mischievous kids you see in the movies seem like angels. As a small punishment I have not been back yet to read them their normal nightime story, which also is like walking into a lion's den.

That was last week, the water is going down and we might be back on the road next week with luck if the bridge can be repaired with cooperation from all parties??? as some of our neighbours are testy at times.

Update 24Mar2010

2010-03-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

Subject: Weekly Update

Hello to all,
We trust all is well with everyone and that your lives are a bit slower than ours even though we do enjoy it as it is what we were looking for.

We have had a few different experiences this week that will stay in our memories for some time I have been taking one of our oldest boys (19) into town by boat three days a week to work with a plumber who is also very keen to work with us to try and train our kids in trade skills. It is a great and very lucky opportunity as this man is a jack of all trades so he is teaching the boy in many different areas. The young fellow is a big fan of listening to music on his mobile and every time you see him in the home he is just walking around with earphones in and the phone in front of his face. he started doing the same thing when I was taking him to work and he would come along to the boat, hop in and sit down and listen to music I always had to ask him to help load the boat, hold the rope or any other small job of the many that has to be done in a boat. But I had to tap him on the shoulder first because he couldn't hear me. I spoke to the plumber about it and he agreed it was too much so we have banned the earphones from the boat and work.

The school headmaster and I went out and saw the Vocational college people who are going to give about 18 of our children a 3 month course in whatever area they choose between Hospitality, Bricklaying, Joinery, Welding and clothing manufacture. each time we go there they say the same tale of how they do not have enough instructors but are in the process of interviews and they hope to have the new teachers by the 29March?????

Before the floods we had arranged with the local electricity company to connect power to our new transitional home. Well our electrician came out last week and told our boys where to dig the trench for the cables. But the power box they were running the cables from was in 2ft of water and after the boys had dug about 10 metres of the trench the floodwater had engulfed it. We saw the eleco the next day in town and he said the power company was all loaded and ready to come and connect but their workers are like many Africans and scared of boats and water so they were getting the OK from them to come out by boat. I had to tell them to postbone the lot as the situation was comical to think of them laying power cables in 2 ft of water and flooded trenches. I think it will mean a long wait when we go and ask them to connect next time.

The small boy (7 years) Marg took to the hospital last week has a hernia in his testes and has to have an op next month. They are so lovable when you take them out like that as he was spellbound by the boatride, sat at the hospital for 6 hours wuth Marg and did not utter one word of complaint or ask for anything, then on the ride home in the open boat we got drenched by a storm. I put my coat over him and he just sat their in the pouring rain not saying a word.
We took our keen fisherboys up a lovely side creek near the home on the weekend and one hooked a good sized tiger fish but it was on a small hook and the fish got off when we had him beside the boat ready to lift in. This is the third fish the boy has lost and I think we are as keen as him to see him land one as he absolutely loves it and is on our doorstep all the time asking to use the rods. He is 13 years old but has HIV and only weighs 26kg and is on a lot of medication. He is the hardest worker of any of the children even when filling sandbags and he is a joy to help. The advice from the old locals is that the fish will bite well once the water levels go down as at the moment they are spawning on the floodplains and it seems to be true as we see lots of babyfish when we have to walk thru kneehigh water to get from one building to another.

Our headmaster had organized a soccer match for our boys with a team from town last Sunday to start at 2pm. Our boys were told we would leave at 1pm and pick the other team up and take them all to the field which was outside town. Well our boys turned up at 1.45 and the teachers wanted to put 13 big boys and 3 adults in our 5.7 metre boat with a 40hp motor. They did not believe me when I told them how unsafe it was and what would happen to me if I did the same thing in Australia. Other volunteers in previous years have carried that number of people in the boat so the locals can't see what the problem is. they also treat it the same as a car and load it like the local utes with 15 or so people in the back. I eventually settled for 12 boys and 2 adults and when the boat got going and was only chugging down the river they realized what I meant.
it was all to no avail as by the time we got to town the other team had got tired of waiting and gone home, I then took them to their normal Sunday afternoon game in the bush and the team they play was waiting for them.

Our current director and myself had to spend a day or so last week hunting around for a suitable place to evacuate our kids to if we have to move, even our plumber tried all of his local contacts and we eventually found a place with enough amenities and buildings for the needs of 57 kids. The local logistics manager for flood evacuations and his boss came out last friday and saw our situation with the water still rising and he said we had to move and he was going back to finalize things and would be in touch. Luckily that night and the next day the phone network collapsed and he was called away to another area to evacuate 400 people by boat and truck. Luckily again over the weekend the water stopped rising and when we saw him today he agreed to let things stay as is for now so we have our fingers crossed.

Marg has been busy doing a lot of mending of clothes and school uniforms and giving the kids, especially the littleones new clothes. Our next permanent directors who are a lovely couple bought Marg over some material with them when they visited and she is now making nighties for a lot of the girls. She is of course still being the local Florence Nightingale and treating the kids for the many different ailments they get.

One of the female staff asked me for some ' black fill' and I didn'i know what she meant so I asked her what it was to be used for and she said to rub on her arms so I called marg out as I thought she was after some skin cream. Marg eventually got out of them that they wanted brake fluid as they use it to treat a skin ailment they get. Another male staff member asked me for some more again today as he wanted it to treat a rash on his 14 month old baby's face.
Our puppies are becoming typical for their age, shoes are disappearing, you have 4 of them biting your feet as you walk, they tear up anything in sight and the food bowl is empty before it hits the ground. Marg was frightened of them slipping into the river as the bank is muddy from the boat wash so she put them inside with us for a couple of nights. That was all we could stand as they howled half the night so they are back outside with mum. One has gone to a local tribal elder and 2 to staff members..

That has been most of the main events of the week, hope it is of some interest to you, will write more next week

Namibia Update 14Mar2010

2010-03-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

Hello to all,

Our main news today has to be the creeping waters of the Zambezi and the flooding. Last year was the worst for about 50 years and the home had to be evacuated for about a month.

We helped to put sandbags on the small bridge on our dirt road leading out of the village as it is the first place to go under and block the road. The sandbags worked well and we were able to use the bridge for another 2 days but not it is gushing across a few feet deep.

By Friday afternoon however it was too risky to take the 4x4 across and go into town as we did not know when the road would wash out and leave a big gutter so we took staff home by boat.

We have a 6 metre aluminium punt with a 40HP motor which is a little small but we can manage to take 9 adults at a time. We now have to use the boat to bring in food and any other supplies, take people to town which is a 20-30 min trip depending on the load, take children to sport or the hospital and bring staff to and from work. It so far has meant about 4 trips a day starting at 6am and finishing at 6pm.but could be more tomorrow as that is the first working day where we will have to move all the staff and school teachers.

On Saturday we had the children helping to fill and lay sandbags and they did a good job and worked hard with only a few complaints. The bags had to be put around all the doors to the buildings but there is still more to be finished off this week by the yard workers.

At the moment the water has to rise only 1/2 metre to start coming into buildings and it rose about 200mm on each of Friday and saturday but has slowed down today so we are praying that it keeps slowing or preferably stops rising.

The hippos that we hear 100-200 metres away on the other side of the river seem to be enjoying it of course as we hear their loud grunts often during the day and night, it is a very deep sound that carries a long way and you always think that they are on your side of the river but as yet they are keeping their distance.

Apart from the flood our watchdog Lydia had 8 puppies about 6 weeks ago, she rolled on one when it was very small so we have 7 left and they have been a laugh a minute to watch them grow and climb over each to get to their mum at feeding time. Their antics change every day and the children have loved coming over to play and cuddle them. Marg feeds them and mum twice a day and she is like the Pied Piper to watch all the puppies follow her in a line to get fed. Lydia has been a good mum except when they come up and put their little heads in her food bowl as she then turns and virtually puts the whole of their head in her mouth together with a vicious yelp that has the puppie scurrying away crying loudly.We have now given one away to the local village elder and a couple to staff and our eldest boy wants to take 2 home to his village. We will be keeping one in the home and one in the transition with the older kids.

The kids have been cleaning up the long grass at the transition home and working hard too, we have been proud of their effort as they are not used to manual labour.We are hoping the home will be finished in the next few weeks after which we will start teaching the kids how to live on their own and support themselves. they will be starting Vocational training in early April.

One of our keen fisherboys caught a nice tiger fish last week and Marg cooked it for him tonight and he ate the whole fish about 35cms long himself. It was a really special treat for him. They have been trying very hard to catch more but the fish will not be biting again until after the water level drops, I have about 6 trained to cast properly and they will be very happy when they start catching more. They no sooner finish school of a day then they are knocking at the door asking for the rods and bait.

The local chiefs (Indunas) from the village came for a meeting last week and requested a boat ride as they had never had one and they did enjoy it so that was a nice way to mix with the locals.

Will have more news next week

Test Blog

2010-03-10T11:06:00.000-08:00

This is a test blog

Namibia first edition

2010-03-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Hello to all from Namibia, we have settled in now to the normal busy schedule here at the village and of course love it especially the time we get to spend with the kids as they do look for it always.
We were set to work on the 3 hour drive from Livingstone airport in Zambia to the village as after an hour he just pulled over to the side if the road, said he needed my help then hopped out of the car and walked around to my side of the vehicle and said he was tired and asked if I could drive as he had got up early that morning This was after we had traveled 36 hours and I said we had not even gone to bed but I managed it somehow.

Marg has been doing her usual running around after all of the kids, doing the cooking for 7 people every night and patching the kids and staff clothes amongst many other things. She has not stopped from 6.30 till 7 at night and many hospital trips with different kids which have to start by leaving home at 6am so that you get close to the front of the que but you still never finish until after 1pm and many days she has been there until 3.
The kids guardian had to organize birth certificates one day, she left home at 5am and we picked her up at 2pm after she had very little success.

The kids had an athletics carnival one Saturday in 34degrees heat, our local soccer star came second in the 5000metres which he ran on bitumen barefoot then next day played 2 ninety minute games of soccer. Our kids did well with 4 individuals winning, one boy ( Goti) won his 1500 and 100metre and Lisetti won the 100, 200 and 400.

I have been teaching the boys and one girl how to fish and Mawinda caught the first tiger fish and he was really thrilled so the next day about 20 kids turned up to either watch or have a go. They are a fish with about 12 razor sharp teeth around the front of their mouth so you need a wire trace to catch them and they do put up a good fight as they are lightning fast swimmers and jump out of the water a couple of times when you are reeling them in. They are the prized fish in a lot of southern Africa.

We have had heaps of rain and the river is still rising about 4-6 inches a day and if it continues for another 4-5 days we will be evacuating all of the kids and leave a skeleton staff here for security and support them with our floodboat. They have a patch of land available with 6 foot high grass on it and nothing else so we will have to bring in everything to support the kids,going to be an interesting time if we do have to leave.

Well that is most of the news up till now, this is a test of the blog site as well so we will write more next time. Hope everyone is doing well back home.