Sunday - A Day of Rest

I went for a walk this morning before church.  Its the first heart-rate exercise I've had since I left home and I really needed it.  I've been stretching every night though and that is keeping me feeling good in the body.

Here are a couple of images of the streets of Grootfontein:

Ok, I went to church this morning.  The young people who attended were dressed up to the nines!  The girls looked like they were going to a ball.  There was a lot of clapping and singing in the church, and the Pastor's wife lead the singing with a microphone at the front.

After church, Ellen took me to the Pastor's place for a morning tea he usually hosts for some of their friends.  Wow!  His place was a mansion which "he built himself".  It was built out of a soft rock that looked like compacted clay to me, but he said it was limestone.  It was cut from the local fountain which has ceased to exist since Windoek has been taking its water from the underground lake and thus lowered the water table.  A beautiful, luxury residence full of antiques.

It is Pastor Boet who has in store for me, one of the greatest experiences of my life.  He grew up in a remote location, where he played with a number of the San (commondly known as Bushmen) in his youth.  He came to have a great deal of compassion for their plight, and now does what he can to help them.  He is working on a project in conjunction with the Government, which gives them food for being involved in educational programs such as growing their own food.  This is where I come in!  Pastor Boet is taking me out to a remote community of Bushmen in a couple of weeks.  They speak no English and are completely illiterate.  Only a small number of them can speak and understand Africans.  They live out in the middle of the Kalahari Desert with no electricity or services for hundreds of kilometres.  This is going to be interesting!!

Ellen and I went back to the unit, and their volunteers from Kavango have arrived to stay for a while.  Ellen was to accompany me out to Bushman Land, however she has now decided that Alex and Jellie (pronounced Yelly) will join me instead.

Alex and Jellie have brought water plants down from the river at Kavango.  We are going to go and put them in the pond soon.

We went to dinner that night at a different place, however the menu was very limited and very fattening.  The salad was drenched in mayonaise and the only choice was steak or schnitzel.  I have decided to cook my own food from now on, eating out like this isn't my style.