Finally, Africa!

Hey Everybody!
Well, we are here in Namibia, getting settled in. We arrive about a week ago after a weeks holiday in Cape Town, South Africa. We stayed with some really lovely Cape Towners, Brett and Louise, who we found on CouchSurfing.org. They showed us around, told us all the good places to go and let us stay at their house for free! Louise works at the Mt Nelson hotel, a one of the nicest and oldest hotels in the city where movie stars (and Elton John) stay, she treated us to afternoon tea there, which was amazing! We felt pretty rich and famous! They also directed us to several really awesome restaurants, we were super spoiled in the culinary department. One day we went down to Hermanus, a small town about two hours from Cape Town that is famous for its shallow bay where whales come to calve. There are cliffs all around the bay and we spent about two hours watching a pair of whales play with each other just a few yards from the shore. It was pretty incredible.

Another day we took a cable car to the top of Table Mountain, where we had a breath-taking view of all of Cape Town. Speaking of which, Cape Town has got to be the most beautiful city that either of us have ever seen. It’s got huge jagged mountains right up against white sandy beaches and cold blue water. We looked at pictures before we went but were blown away when we actually got there and saw how beautiful it actually is, we were amazed. Cape Town should definitely go on your lifetime to-do list! The last thing we did in Cape Town was take a tour of Roben Island, the former prison and leper colony where Nelson Mandela and other South African and Namibian political prisoners were held for decades during apartheid. This was very interesting for us as the repercussions of apartheid are still felt in South Africa as well as in Namibia, which was a colony of South Africa until the early nineties. All in all, Cape Town was a wonderful experience and we would absolutely love to go back sometime, thanks Brett and Louise!
At the end of the week we said a sad goodbye to our hosts and hopped back on the airplane to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. After a short flight we touched down and passed through immigration without much trouble. Our team leader and good friend Dr. Rob Greidanus was there to greet us with two of his daughters, Shea and Sara and one of our very best Namibian friends, Daniel. It felt great to see them all again and get started with our term in Namibia. Another volunteer, an Australian named Blair, arrived on a different flight later that so we met him and talked for a while and then went to sleep. The nest day we did some shopping, grabbing a few kitchen implements that McKenzie wanted and most importantly, bikes! The last time we came to Namibia, we were driving a Toyota truck that belongs to the OVC project. This became not only quite a significant expense, but also we felt sort of like we were a slave to it and it was one more thing setting us apart from our neighbors and making us look like stereotypical rich whites. So we had been planning to ride bikes instead of driving as much as possible. So far we have made two trips into town and back on the bike and it has been fun, but challenging. We live out in Kaisosi, a village outside of Rundu. The road to town is about 4 km of dirt, and since it hasn’t rained in months, it is filled with pot holes and, worse, sand traps. Riding a bike in sand is very very challenging and sometimes impossible. So the ride to town is also partially a walk to town. Also it is very hot right now and it’s only going to get hotter, the rains aren’t due until December-ish, and it’s windy, which help on the ride to twon, but can make the ride home a fair bit tougher. Despite this, it’s only a 20-30 minute ride so it’s very doable and we are determined to make it work as much as possible.
In other news, we have been having a great time reconnecting with the Greidanuses (and their 7 kids) and our Namibian friends, as well as making new ones. Most of the kids remember us and were very happy to see us, as we were them. In two years, some of them have grown and changed so that we almost don’t recognize them, others are exactly the same. The OVC project is still going on but has changed a lot since we were here. There have been some issues with dependency on missionaries and thus, our organization has pulled back in hopes that nationals will step up again and it can go on in a sustainable way. We are living in a very nice house near the OVC Project building, right in front of the playground where the kids gather to play soccer, swing and hang out. We are very comfortable here but we are considering making a move to another house, deeper in the village in order to have more contact with locals, learn the language and culture better and be more a part of the community. More details to come. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, we are happy to be here but missing home as well. Talk to you soon.

David and McKenzie