Friday, February 13, 2009

So right after I said that it rained here every day, it stopped for a full week.  It was nice to have sunshine every day, but it got so humid!  It finally rained again yesterday, which brought us some nice cool air!  Luckily, it only rained for about 30 minutes so the river didn't seem to raise much.

Last Saturday I drove Rebecca and some of the kids into town; Rebecca had some stuff to do and the kids wanted to go shopping.  I had to drive because Rebecca has some back problems, and they were getting really bad last week.  It was weird (as a little scary) to drive on the left side of the road, but I made it without crashing or hitting anyone!  Once we got to town, we all went our separate ways.  One of the boys had hurt his ankle, so he couldn't play soccer with all of the other guys that day, so he came to town too.  Rebecca told him to stay with me and "escort" me around.  I first went to the bank to deposit something for Rebecca and I felt so awkward.  I stood in a long line for about 30 minutes waiting- the whole time feeling like everybody was looking at me because I was the only white person there!  Of course the boy escorting me waited outside…being about 14 or 15 years old, I think he was embarrassed to be seen with me!  Once I finished at the bank though, he actually started walking WITH me and talking to me.  He took me to the open air market here, which mainly contained sections of food, clothing, and people braiding hair.  They had a fish section which contained mostly dried fish (a fish cut in half, gutted, laying open, and flat).  When I asked what they eat that with, he said shema, which is something like rice, and the staple here.   After that he showed me the grocery store here, which had a lot more American products than I thought it would.  Then we went to some clothing stores just to look around, but it was too hot and crowded in there to look around for long.  It was fun going into town, but I was definitely glad that I had an escort!  Later Saturday night we went to the children's home and watched "Kung Fu Panda" with all of the kids, who really loved it.  Every Saturday night they have some activity going on, but for the past two weeks we have just watched movies.

Sunday I got up early to go play soccer with the girls.  We had to wait a little while for a ball because the boys didn't want us to use their ball.  After we finally found a different one to use, they stood at the fence and watched us the whole time!  We played for about an hour before Church.  It was really fun though, and now some of the boys wanted to play against us this weekend, so we'll see if the girls actually want to play with them!

We finally started training the children for this track and field competition on Wednesday, and today was the first day that they used the equipment.  A few of the teachers are coming back tomorrow to train with the children all day, so hopefully they will be ready on the 28th!  It would even be great if they won a few events so they could participate in Windhoek and then in other countries!  I am still so surprised at all of the opportunities the children have for living in a children's home!  Rebecca has said that in the past, other schools in the area don't usually participate in events, so when there is an art competition, or singing competition, these kids here come back with at least 3rd place!  There are about 4 or 5 boys who found out last week that two soccer teams want them to play on their teams.  The details are still being worked out, but I think the plan is that they will go and scrimmage with both teams and then decide which one they want.  There were about 10 girls who were able to go to 9 different states to sing at Churches and talk about their lives here.  A few children are actually waiting to hear back about going to school in America next year.  Recently, there was a song writing competition about drunk driving, and apparently a group of girls here who entered were the only ones from this region, so they will be invited to Windhoek to participate in the country wide competition!  There are just so many good opportunities for these kids, which could help their future, so it's nice that they can participate!  As always, please pray for the kids and this orphanage!



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