June Java

Hello! Its good to be back from the land of dead power-cords and no blogging! Todd’s parents have arrived and brought with them lots of goodies from America. One of those goodies was a new power cord (and a back-up, actually) and so I am back online once again and have a connection to the outside world. So, lets see what can I offer from the last few weeks to update you on what has been going on in this dry, dusty land called Okahandja.

Friday, June 3rd marked the start of our coffeebar ministry - an open place we want to offer as an alternative to the people, rather than going to the clubs, bars and shebeens to hang out, have fun, listen to loud music, and dance on Friday nights. Our first night open we had a turn out of about 15 people, which was pretty good I’d say, considering we didn’t advertise – just did things by word of mouth – because we wanted to start small. We served coffee, tea, and cooldrink. Drinks were free the first night, and we told everyone we would begin charging a meager fee the second night of the coffeebar –
N .50c for coffee and tea, and N .20c for cooldrink. To give you some perspective, that’s about USD 8cents for coffee/tea, and about USD 3cents for cooldrink. The second Friday went very well also. Saw some new faces, had some good conversations, sold a lot of coffee, and cookies! Erin baked peanut butter cookies and sugar cookies and sold them for N .50c a piece. They were a big hit. One great way of getting to know the people who come, and beginning to build relationships with them is simply by gathering at a table in the coffeebar and playing a game together. I saw a few people sitting quietly, not interacting much and I decided to see if they wanted to learn how to play Phase 10. An hour later we were all joking and laughing and having a great time playing and getting to know one another. Here are some pictures from the coffeebar:

Clinton dancing to the music:



People playing games:



Hanging out at the coffeebar: