Happy Birthday Maxine!

Maxine turned 10 today! We went to Windhoek’s only theatre for her birthday and saw the Golden Compass at Windhoek’s very modern mall. She also had a pretty elaborate scavenger hunt, finding her presents around our yard. Her favorite present was that Bill caught the HUGE, elusive spider living in her room. Most everything is shut down here on Sundays aside from a few stores and the cinema, so we are lucky we bought a cake the day before. We still don’t have a working oven, and as the university is completely closed (the whole place shuts down for a month), there is no one to contact about it. This is the middle of summer vacation/school holidays here in Windhoek, and a large percentage of the population has left to either cooler locations or to stay with family in their villages. We were happy to learn to drive the combi in a pretty deserted town. We will try again tomorrow as we venture up north to the Etosha Pan – one of the largest game parks in Africa.

Christmas in Namibia

Today is Christmas and due to the time difference Santa came here about 8 hours before he would have come to our house in Minnesota. Most everything was closed today, and tomorrow is a national holiday too – Family Day. It was a beautiful day – Maxine, Alice and Ruby had fun playing with water guns in their bathing suits outside in the roughly 85 degree sunshine. The saying around here, right before rainy season begins, is… “I’m dreaming of a wet Christmas…”, but we are enjoying the sunshine.

It’s been fun spotting the strange and beautiful animals even in our yard here in Windhoek. A pair of Yellow Mongooses comes through the yard every day on their rounds. They are very cute, as you can see here. Their heads look a bit like foxes, but they are long, in the shape of a weasel.

Also, there is a fascinating pair of weaver birds just outside a bedroom window. The male so far has built 3 nests trying to impress the female. She hasn’t approved of the nests yet, and she has torn down the first two nests. He is at work on the 4th nest now. See these great pics here.

Bill

We Made it to Windhoek

We finally made it to Windhoek - and to an Internet Cafe! Our trip to Namibia was fun, but tiring. Our 3 days in Amsterdam were fun, but cold and expensive. There were short, rainy days in Amsterdam, but we had fun at the museums and riding on the canal boats. The kids were most happy with the fancy hot chocolates and walking on the bridges. The kids also really liked our trip on the fancy 777 airplane from Amsterdam to Capetown. They got to watch movies for TWELVE HOURS straight, with no one to tell them to stop! It was clear the whole way, so Bill and I took turns looking at Africa from the window with binoculars. It was thrilling for both of us. Capetown was brilliant. We played at the beach and walked all over downtown Capetown. We all gave Capetown a thumbs up.

We landed in Windhoek on the 14th of December, and were picked up by Ray from the Embassy. The summer is just beginning in Windhoek, and it is HOT. People are complaining about the humidity, but it still feels pretty dry to us. We have met several Namibians and several ex-pats who have gone out of their way to help us get around, buy supplies and set up accounts. We are currently in the process of buying a "combi", otherwise known as a Volkswagon van, from a German Volkswagon mechanic. We hope to have this all settled by Friday, so we have time to buy Christmas presents for each other, and so we can go camping right after Christmas.

Our flat in "UNAM Village" is just great. Our favorite part are the pair of weaver birds that live right outside our second floor.

Windhoek is more westernized (or South Africanized) then any of us expected. We will be able to get around easily, and can get ahold of most things we need, even if they may look or taste a little (or a lot) different. We are looking forward to meeting more Namibians, seeing more of the country, and getting started at our work, school, etc.

We hopefully will have access to Internet fairly soon, and then can update regularly.

Travel Plans

We will be leaving on Friday, December 7th for Namibia. Our plans are to stay in Namibia for 13 months. Liz will be working at the University of Namibia, and the girls will be going to school. Alice and Maxine will be attending Windhoek International School and Ruby will be attending pre-primary at St. George's. We are all excited, and a bit nervous.

Since this is a LONG trip, we are going to break it up with several layovers. We will spend 3 days in Amsterdam, staying in a large youth hostel. Maxine is especially excited about visiting the Anne Frank House, and we are planning on doing a special kids' tour of the Van Gogh Museum. We then take a 12 hour flight from Amsterdam to Capetown, South Africa. We will stay in a Guest House there for two days. We will arrive in Windhoek on Friday, December 14th. The director of the social work department will pick us up and bring us to our new home.

We are now very busy packing up our house and our offices. We can only take 44 pounds per person, which is about the amount you can fit in a large suitcase.