Etc, whatever

my laptop power cord got a short and my now dead-battery laptop has rendered me computerless for more or less the last week and a half. a replacement should arrive from America with Todd's folks in about another 10 days along with other goodies from my wonderful friends and family. Whoo-hoo!

been learning more Otjiherrero, even though our class was cancelled twice last week. =( its amazing how much you're bummed when its a class that you're taking just because you want to learn, not because you HAVE to for a grad or something. I've been learning from Maveja mostly, and practicing with the neighborhood children. (Otjiherrero is a language - a cross between the Otjiwambo language and the Herrero language - in case you're wondering)

VERY FEW people in Nau-Aib have a washing machine, so I have learned to wash clothes by hand the African way - big plastic tub full of cold water in the front yard + Omo washing powder + lots of hand friction. and i'm pretty good, even if i do say so myself. I spent the morning on Sunday learning from Carina. We washed the clothes of her little sister, Deborah. Of course there was much laughing and disbelief that I actually wanted to do it - and for FREE! (here you usually pay someone to do the washing) I was telling two of the other girls from the OSS study - Elmarie and Victoria - about my new hand-washing expertise and I offered to come by their place to do the same, which they jumped on right away! So, i'll be over there this week sometime. It will be a great opportunity to spend some more one-on-one time with them, meet their family, and be a servant.

i made some salsa and it was really good. its a combination of tomato puree, the canned tomato/onion mix, plus fresh peppers, fresh tomatoes, and some garlic and spices and sugar. not bad. and i have this great recipe for flour tortillas, which although its time-consuming, it makes a lot of them. so, i can quench my longing for mexican food. tortilla chips are the missing piece of the puzzle. maybe if i can find a good corn tortilla recipe and i use someone's oven...

its a little warmer now than it was the beginning of last week. for several days it was seriously freezing. literally. it got down to -4C. (which is just below freezing, for all of you Farenheit people.) and below freezing when you don't have heat in your house is COLD! I was wearing a hat and gloves in the house, and Jennie and I both were wrapped up in blankets just to sit and chat together in our living room.

Jennie has been accepted to the Au Pair American program. she will begin hearing from prospective families, and once she chooses one, she'll be heading to America!

the World Cup starts next month, which is a HUGE deal here. Maveja said that last year she actually got up at 3:00 in the morning because thats when one of the games was on. so, people are getting excited for that to start soon.

also, June 4th is the Global Day of Prayer.


looking forward to:

coffeebar and the Biblical teaching gathering starting this friday and saturday
watching the girls first netball game of the season
june 16th...2:20pm...Sammy's flight arives in Whk.
my care packages from home - 1 coming via todd's parents and 1 coming in the post - someday. we hope. =)

a taste of Namibia

for anyone who wants to feel a little bit more like they are living in Namibia:

www.nammusic.com

might i recommend "Best of Both Worlds" by Faizel MC featuring The Dogg and Sunny Boy



other factoids from today:

twisted my ankle
attended my first class at Namcol - Introductory Otjiherero
i think there is a major dogfight going on outside right now
my feet are freeeeeeeezing!
hoping and praying that my parents care package arrives
4 weeks till June 16th
realized that I talk to the roaches in my kitchen

Nelda

Tonight was such a sweet time. Wednesday is usually the women’s Bible study at my house; tonight was different and yet, I think exactly what the Lord had in mind. Erin has been very sick since Saturday with tonsillitis, and although we had hopes that my chicken soup and a rousing game of Phase10 last night had cured her, unfortunately this was not the case and today brought continuing rounds of Erin vs. Tonsillitis. So, needless to say she was unable to join us for the Women’s Bible Study (which lately has looked more like what we can call “Nelda’s Bible Study” since she is really the only woman in attendance with any regularity). I love Nelda. She is UNcharacteristically African in her punctuality – always on time, and usually early! She has such a sweet spirit and personality, often shy, but one-on-one once you push past that initial shyness wall, she can carry on a great conversation. Such was the case tonight. She arrived as usual a few minutes before 5:00 and joined me in the living room with about 5 neighborhood kids who were enjoying the new toys, games, and puzzles I got from the German container. She shyly said hello and I made coffee and began the process of enticing Nelda into conversation. It continued like that for about 30 minutes, me asking questions with her answering in quiet, short responses, kids playing amongst us, more kids and a dog coming in…pretty much normal Africa visiting. Then I asked her what she has been reading in the Word, and asked if she and Christaan are still reading in Philippians, which is what they had been reading together last week. She totally blessed me when she said, “no, but I’ve been reading on my own in Matthew…Matthew 6:25, that’s what I read last night.” I asked her what it was about and she, with her Bible still closed next to her said, “don’t worry about what you will eat or what you’ll wear” And from then on it was as if the floodgates were open. Back and forth the Lord began a sharing of scripture, encouraging, words of practical application, and a flow and ease of conversation that was based completely on Him. The kids packed everything up and went home, she and I continued to talk and talk and talk – Nelda sharing scripture and quoting verses she had read, tying them into how they are applying to her life now, telling me about how she has even been sharing the scriptures she is reading with neighbors and friends when she sees how what she’s read applies to their situation. I could just see so plainly tonight - Nelda gets it. The Lord has opened her eyes and she is growing right before our eyes! We talked for over 2 and half hours, sharing scripture and talking about life and God. We spend some time in prayer together and around 7:45 she headed home for the night. I closed the door after she left, so very joyful over what God is doing, and thankful that I got to be encouraged by seeing it tonight, through Nelda.

Happy Birthday, Carina

Today was Carina’s 16th birthday. I got to enjoy the blessing of taking her out to dinner to celebrate. I made a turn by her house this morning to confirm plans and tell her, “we’re dressing nice tonight”. She didn’t know what we were going to do, just that I was stealing her for the evening. I had gotten permission to borrow the bakkie from CHI and went to pick it up around 5:30. I picked up Carina at 6:00 and we were on our way. After a very short drive we arrived at the Okahandja Lodge. As we were pulling in, I asked Carina if she’d ever been there before. “No,” she said, “I was just about to say, this is my first time coming here.” As we drove down the dirt path to the lodge, she shifted forward on the edge of her seat, anticipating. It was so great. It gave me such joy just to see her so excited. The lodge came into view and I parked the bakkie. As we climbed out Carina said, “I have butterflies in my stomach!” Carina chose our seats inside, near the fireplace, since it was a cool night. And we began to peruse the menus. The one stipulation I gave her was, “I want you to get whatever you want!” After seriously MUCH debating, she chose the spare ribs. We had lovely conversation, lots of laughter, and I got to learn even more about this great young lady. I wish I would have snapped a picture just as our meals came, because Carina’s eyes about popped out of her head when she saw hers….



She ended up eating the chips and veggies and what seemed like the smallest bit of her ribs. They were seriously pretty huge. She was really glad to hear that she could take home what she wasn’t able to eat. Her response definitely showed her heart when she said, “Oh, good! I can take some home and share with my family!”

Please pray for Carina as the second trimester of school starts up tomorrow. She is a very intelligent girl and a great student (for those of you who know anything about the grading system here, she got a 35 for the first term. Yeah!). Netball also begins this term, (she and two of the other girls in our bible study are netball players) so very soon I get to go to my first netball match.

And to finish off for tonight, here are just a few random pictures…

The view from my office/teen lounge/homework room at the MPMC



the sunset-lit mountains as we drove home from Sossusvlei



me.

joys

things I love right now:

only 1 week till school starts again and i get to begin studying the Word again regularly with my girls.

cold nights with warm days in Nau-Aib.

the phrase, "i am come tomorrow"

living in okahandja's "samaria"

only 5 weeks left till June 16th

phase 10

my former random roomie K Glease, will be Kristi Demeter in a matter of two days

having a toaster. finally!

little faces peering in my door, "amanda! mahk oop!" telling them, "not right now, i'm busy. but come back later." 5 minutes pass and it begins again.

seeing pictures of spring in Ohio

My Jesus, who is always faithful

respite

sorry for my quietness recently. Not a lot of exciting news to report. However, since it is holiday, the students don't start back to school till mid May, and lots of people are still gone, and Bible studies have been hit-or-miss; we took the opportunity to have a mini-holiday of our own. the plan was that there would be 6 of us: the fourfrom our team plus jennie and maveja, but jennie's plans changed and at the last minute Todd got really sick and therefore Erin and he had to stay behind. So....Buddy, Maveja and I headed out E-A-R-L-Y monday morning and started on our way to the first destination - Swakopmund. we spent a day and a half there, then continued on the the red dunes of Sossusvlei, farther south in the Namib-Naukluft park. For more of the pictures, go visit my Flickr site. But here are some of my all-time favorites from the trip:


Trees at Dead Vlei


Dead Vlei trees against the red dunes


Dry


Self portait


The red dunes of Sossusvlei


Gemsbok grazing at Sossusvlei


Sunset over the plains as we drove home