We left the city after staying there for about 5 days or so. Windhoek is nice, but very expensive. The drive from the capital city to my village is 8 hours long. It's a very long drive. We usually do it early in the morning, we start the journey at about 5 am and then we get to the village while the sun is still up and not dark, but this time we had to pick up my mother-in-law from the airport, so we started the journey late. It was long, even though we didn't stop much, we still couldn't get there before the sun went down. It's not really safe to drive at night, because of the wildlife and livestock
closing the road at night and it's hard to see them.
It was very exciting to arrive in the village. Things are the same, the trees and the houses are were they have been, a few changes here and there but not that much. The people have changed a lot though, especially the young ones, they all look so older, but still somebody who you might think is 10 years old there is usually 15 years old. We tried to guess the kids age and we were always wrong, they are usually older than they look. Kids there seemed so mature for their age and well behaved compared to the children here. I love my village and I felt home
instantly when I got there. I love the environment, very relaxing. It's nice that C likes it too. He rather be in the village than in the city, it's just very relax, everything is slow
paced. We are often outside, in the
company of each other, talking and watching the kids play, we can see the livestock grazing in the field, I don't have to worry about being late for an
appointment or missing a TV show or the updates on
facebook. It was
really relaxing having to not to worry about the stress that technologies brings. I couldn't watch TV, listen to the radio, connect to the
Internet and I hardly used the
Internet the whole time I was in Africa and I loved the feeling. My mind seemed so
refreshed. I even told C once that we should try to live there for a few years. He asked what will he be doing there, I said we can just teach school at the elementary school in the village. He didn't really like the idea very much. He had done that already though, that's how we actually met, He was a volunteer teacher there. I won't mind doing though. The things i enjoyed the most is having a refreshed relaxed mind, which I guess comes from not having to worry about so many
unnecessary things, like a dirty house, undone
laundry, late for an appointment, and all that stress, that comes with life here in the city. I loved having company and being surrounded by people I love and care about. I loved the African sun and the warmth it brings. I enjoyed eating the food I grew up eating. It was really nice overall just being there. The kids had fun too. They got sick, while we were in the village but i think, it's kind of expected, it's big change, for them, new food, new weather, new environment, everything is new. During the day, they are usually fine and happy to play with other kids, but at night they had some fever. They also had some
diarrhea, but they eventually got better.
They enjoyed learning about their new world; the bugs, which one bites and which one
doesn't, the language, especially from playing with other kids, it's amazing how much they can pick up. They enjoyed the animals too. We
baptize our
daugther there, at the church I was
baptized and grew up in and we had a party to celebrate and that went well. It was lots of fun. We also celebrated Christmas there.
After about 10 days there, we left the village to a small town called
Grootfontein. It's about about 6 hours drive from my
village. We went to hang out at another farm there. It's a
commercial farm similar to a r
anch here in the US. My mother-in-law and sister were taking a tour to learn about the
San people and their culture, the tour was near the area. So my family and I, plus my brother decided to wait for them at his dad's farm. It was relaxing as the village, except it was much cooler, it rained a lot there. It was also very quiet there. One day, we took a day trip to visit Etosha National Park, one of the biggest wildlife park in Namibia.

After church with my kids, brother, sister and cousin

Buying some fire wood

Drivng to Onesi to visit C's Namibian family (he stayed with the when he was a volunteer)

Playing with cars in a "giant sandbox", that's what P likes to say.