Hello! Here’s the latest from the island of the Caprivi :) --

We are still at Hippo Lodge and finally seem to be settled in and finding a routine that works for everyone. Luckily, it has not rained at all, so the children spent a lot of time last weekend fishing off of the two docks that we have there (they only caught little fish, but it kept them busy!). Bringing food and staff to and from the lodge seems to be going a lot more smoothly than last week, but we still have had a few times when something goes wrong, or someone is late, and that puts everyone behind schedule. But, like I said, it seems to be going a lot better this week than last.

I was at the children’s home yesterday and saw that the water has gone down a lot; it seems to be almost completely gone from there! There is still a fair amount of water in front of Gary and Rebecca’s house, which is the reason why we are not allowed to move back yet and there’s no telling how long that will take to go down. There are still predictions of a second wave coming on April 17th, but everyone is hoping and praying that it won’t happen. It also seems like the social workers might want us to move again because there are some concerns about the place we are staying now (snakes, holes in a couple roofs, etc.), but we are going to fight to stay where we are now.

Today I got up at 5 am to start the long journey into town with six of the boys who are playing soccer for teams in this area. This weekend is the competition between all of the teams; all teams played today and will play again tomorrow, and then the teams that win those games will go on to play in the finals on Sunday. The boys are on two different teams, three on each, and had to play against each other today! They were the first game of the day, scheduled to play at 7, but they didn’t kick-off until 8:30. Unfortunately, only one of the six boys got to play at all, and he was on the losing team! The coach for the winning team said that the three boys on his team will be able to play tomorrow, so hopefully that will happen. Today they were lucky to be the first game so they could go back to school afterwards, but tomorrow will be a longer day because the first three boys play at 7am again and the second three won’t play until 12:30.

Tomorrow the Minks are leaving for the States for a month, so we will definitely need prayers while they are gone! I will be leaving a few days before they get back so it’s sad to say goodbye to them so soon; it almost makes me want to stay until they get back! The last thing I wanted to say is that I am still asking for donations for the extra two weeks that I will be here; I have received some, so thank you to those who have sent extra money!!!! If money is not a possibility, then please send your prayers! :)