Namibia: Week 2

It’s been a wonderful second week here in Nam.

Windhoek has actually seen some cloud over the last day or so which feels weird - almost like the UK!  Ha, maybe not quite. I’ll be reaching for a jumper more and more over the next few weeks though, just as I know everyone in the UK will start to dig out shorts and t-shirts… I can feel the African winter chill drawing nearer.

Unsurprisingly, lots more events and adventures have taken place since my last blog post.  Nate had a party on Wednesday to celebrate his 11th birthday, so I did at least try and attempt to assist Caz (with my limited creative skill!) to put together lego-themed party decorations and games!  It was really nice to be a part of the family event (and the Lego Movie is pretty decent by the way - go watch it).
On Friday I attended a CCC (‘Campus Crusade for Christ’ - as Agape is known as in Namibia) staff meeting.  It was great to finally meet the rest of the team that Geoff and Caz work with.  They have kindly invited me to their staff retreat next week and I’m looking forward to planning a communion session for the final night (oh the pressure).

As I expected and hoped, I’ve also had more opportunities to spend time with the students involved with CCC from UNAM and the Polytechnic.  On Wednesday and Thursday I was on campus to hand out flyers and invite students to ‘Prime Time’ - an event on campus that is led by these students.  The group meet weekly to encourage one another, worship Jesus and hear talks from various speakers.  Caz herself was speaking this week and a huge amount of students from across the Poly turned up, which was awesome considering their exam season has kicked off and it’s an understandably busy time.

Worship Cafe team

On Friday, the same students involved with CCC also organised a free gospel event/worship cafe.  They had spoken word, live performance, bible teaching and loads of refreshments gathering a really good turn-out which I think encouraged the student team.  I enjoyed helping out at the event and continue to feel grateful for how welcoming and kind the students have been to me.  The event itself was fab - I danced, sang worship songs, ate food, chatted to lots of new people and thanked Jesus for this opportunity to be in Namibia.  My kind of evening.

Then this weekend the Shaves took me on another camping trip (I know, they’re spoiling me rotten).  We drove over to the Erongo mountain range this time which, once again, is absolutely stunning.  I loved walking up the mountains and across the dry land, particularly in conjunction with the fact that I’m currently reading the novel ‘Wild’.  Of course our morning strolls along the mountain range were clearly nothing in comparison to Cheryl Strayed’s trek (for those of you who know the plot), but it was kind of fun to walk and think about her journey.  While I have a big love for cities, I am definitely beginning to realise how much I love nature.  Namibia’s beauty is probably also the reason for my growing adoration and love for photography and this is definitely the place to practise as I’m constantly wanting to capture things that I see here.  I am thankful for the many blessings of this weekend: catching sight of baby giraffe; hanging out with friends; excitement (and apprehension) of camping out in the wild which is just super cool; making pancakes on top of a boulder; and in particular the growing trust and friendship I am developing with Emily and Nate - I am loving hanging out with this crazy duo.

I’ll be honest and say that the last few days have been challenging for me as I’ve realised more truly where I am at with my faith.  I suppose that differences in faith are often expressed in different cultures (like the one I am experiencing right now), so I think my being here in Namibia is challenging some of the assumptions that I have previously had.  As a result this is causing me to re-think some things and re-align my thinking and focus a bit, but I’m glad that I have the space and time here in Namibia to do this.  Again, I am loving Skype and it’s ability to let me touch base with people like Alex from home who know me and can work some of this through with me, but it’s also really wonderful to be able to grapple with some of my questions over new conversations with those I am meeting here in Namibia.

After declaring that I felt absolutely fine in last week’s blog post, I’ll admit that I had quite a pang of homesickness the next day.  I was in no way expecting to go through this trip without a number of homesick and nostalgic moments, but I suppose the important thing is that I am so grateful and pleased to be here and I truly feel more and more settled and happy each day.  I’m also massively grateful for the letters that a lovely group of friends from home gave me before I flew out here (#Wafflers).  Special shout-out to Alex Williams and his comedy genius displayed in my letter for this week - thanks Alex, you made my Wednesday!

I am now preparing for tomorrow morning as I go into school for the first time to assist with English language development - hoping I will be able to say at least some vaguely insightful things to these children.  Then on Thursday and Monday I will be shadowing Leigh-Anne (an attorney here).  I’ve also been invited to a birthday party, will be taking part in Global Outreach Day on Saturday and will be joining Caz as she leads worship at church on Sunday.  There’s so much to look forward to.

Until next week…

Lots of love,
Charis

Namibia: Week 1

I have been living in Namibia for just over a week and I'm a little bit in love with this place.

I'm glad to say that my journey to Africa last Sunday really couldn't have been smoother.  After having to remove a number of items from my suitcase to meet the weight allowance (I probably didn't need 7 novels and 4 journals for a 9-week trip anyway) and some slightly tearful goodbyes at the gate, I thankfully navigated my way to the plane without any hassle.

I sat next to a lovely South African lady on the way to Johannesburg who acted a bit like my flight-mum! I think I looked slightly lost and confused as I got onto the plane so she probably took pity on me.  The sunrise over South Africa took my breath away as we came into land... blood-red sun with streaks of bright orange sky behind... seriously beautiful view which I took advantage of as I sat waiting for my second flight.  I arrived at Windhoek's tiny little airport on Monday morning (and paused to take in the fact that I had actually made it to other side of the world by myself - woop!)  Caz and the kids were at the airport to welcome me and have basically been looking after me ever since.

It's been a great first week.  I'm still navigating my timetable for the trip, but it looks to consist of some involvement with the Agape student teams at the Nam universities; attending team meetings and the staff retreat with the Agape team; hanging out with the university students associated with Agape; assisting with the teaching of English sentence structure and vocab extension at Nate's primary school; getting involved in some bible studies and small groups; shadowing Leigh-Anne (an attorney here); visiting the children's cancer ward with a lady named Dana; buying and distributing blankets with the money I raised before I left the UK; going out to see other parts of Namibia during bank holiday weekends... there's quite a lot to be doing here.

But this week has been exactly what I needed really.  I had time to take in the feel and culture of this place; space to read a book, pray, reflect on the past few months and write down any and every new thought that popped into my head; an opportunity to get to know the Shave family and see how I can play a part in their family life for a while; oh, and camping in the desert - that was kinda fun.

I did also spend this week attempting to treat a beastly amount of insect bites along my legs (21 to be exact).  My pale skin doesn't react well to an insect bite, so much so that my legs looked a little diseased.  When driving back to Windhoek from our camping trip on Sunday, we were stopped by a traffic officer who gave Geoff and Caz a questionable look as she gazed at my bruised legs and asked what was wrong with me haha!  I have to say that the bites have probably been my only low light of the week though.

I am genuinely in awe of Namibia's beauty.  On Friday morning while camping near Sossusvlei, we decided to get up at 5:00 and travel to see the sunrise by the sand dunes.  'Big Daddy' dune is one of the biggest in the country so really, the best time to climb it is in the early hours of the morning while it's still fairly cool (and it really was quite chilly).  Amazingly the sand rapidly heated up as the sun rose higher, so it was pretty warm by the time we reached the top of this dune at about 8:30.  I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that my family were probably just leaving the house as I sat at the top of this sand dune in Africa.  The views from the top of the dune were absolutely INCREDIBLE.  So so worth the trek.
The Shaves did well at showing off their country during our camping trip - rocky mountains, bright blue sky, dark red sand dunes, the colour of the sunrises and sunsets, clear nights to gaze at the Milky Way, all sorts of birds and mammals to spot... Namibia hasn't stopped amazing me.  God hasn't stopped amazing me.

Wednesday morning was a fun one.  I had a few hours to look after a beautiful little girl called Nea, who I last saw in 2009 when she was about 4 months old.  It was wonderful to be able to help her learn letters of the English alphabet and read some basic words, watch Shawn the Sheep and pretend to be magic fairies (I was Luna the wind fairy).

Monday night (18th May) was one of my favourite evenings.  Some of the small group leaders from the Agape student groups at the University of Namibia (UNAM) came to the Shaves' house for food and a meeting together.  All the students greeted me with hugs which was great - hugs are right up my street.  I really want to get to know these student leaders better.  They have already managed to inspire me and open my eyes up to the way I live life.  One of the student leaders said that she was going to lead a talk on religious persecution during the evening, but I wasn't expecting her to take this from the angle of family persecution.  Family is important in Namibia.  The challenge of standing up for your faith and admitting that you follow Jesus, facing disrespect and abandonment from your family, is one that is all too real for some of these students.  I could tell this by the way they nodded in agreement of the challenge to tell their parents that while studying for exams, they are also dedicating a lot of their time to chat to those on UNAM campus about Jesus.  These people are bold and it's amazing to see.

This afternoon (19th May), I visited the children's cancer ward at Windhoek state hospital with Dana and Emily.  This hospital is a far cry from any UK hospital I have seen.  It's dark and quite smelly.  Somehow the place feels almost deserted, yet so many corridors are lined with beds of patients who simply cannot fit into the wards.
The children's cancer ward feels a bit different though.  There are soft toys suspended from the ceilings and walls covered with paintings of Disney cartoon characters.  Emily and her friend had raised money to buy gifts for each of the children (19 in total), so we watched in hope that this could bring a small bit of light into their heart-breaking situations. 3-year-old Edina latched onto me pretty quickly and spent a good 20 minutes placing her new teddy bear on my head, shrieking with laughter as it landed on the floor, and jumping back onto my legs to repeat the cycle again.  I don't really know what to say about this experience... it was too much to take in during the hour I spent there to be perfectly honest.  All I know is that it filled me up to see this little girl laugh.

It's been a week full of experiences.  I have already realised while being here how important it is to make space in my life when I can.  It's very easy for me to say this on my gap year with the luxury of a few months to myself, but I think that offering yourself the time and space to get away for a moment is so so healthy.  I have really been trying to identify the things that relax me and I've learnt this week that for me personally, good music and writing down thoughts and reflections are two of the best.  I may not have been able to realise this so easily without the space I have right now.

I feel really at peace here.  I'm loving this opportunity to adventure on my own and I wake up every day excited for what I have ahead to see and learn.

Also, Skype is really really great.

Lots of love,
Charis

First night in Sossusvlei - watching the sun set

View from my tent - not too shabby

Swatting away flies - this was me basically all week

Running down sand dunes is SO FUN

An African Adventure

For those of you who don't already know, I will be jumping on a plane this Sunday evening - 10 May 2015 - to have a little solo adventure.

My destination: Windhoek, Namibia

Most of my gap year so far has been spent working as an intern at a law firm in Birmingham.  Since my placement came to an end a couple of weeks ago, I conveniently have a few months open to adventure! And well, when on gap yah...

Plans!

I am going to be living in Namibia for the next 9 weeks, probably doing an array of different things that may consist of the following:-

• assisting the 'Agape' team in Namibia where possible ('Agape' is a Christian organisation that many of you will know my parents work for);

• helping with English/Humanities/reading at one of the local primary schools;

• shadowing a lawyer;

• getting involved with one of the local churches;

...and, of course, you can't step foot in Africa without enjoying the beautiful desert landscapes and safaris.  A girl's gotta enjoy a holiday too.  

I'll be honest and say that a lot of my day-to-day plans and activities are loosely planned at the moment, but I think this is the best way to approach the trip.  I believe that God wants to use me and any gifts that I have for a greater purpose than the one that I could dream up.  I think this is part of life's great adventure as a whole, but is especially true of my time in Namibia.  My prayer is that I will come to understand more about Jesus and be a blessing to those I meet during my time there.  However if there are other purposes or things that I am to learn about during this trip, I would hope that I have allowed enough space and time for these purposes to unfold.  And this really excites me!

For those of you who pray and might like to receive prayer requests and updates from me during my trip, please do let me know - my aim is to send weekly updates by email and I would love to add you to the email list if you're interested.
(I will try and stick to the weekly updates,
honest! haha)

The wonderful Shave family pictured below are kind enough (and brave enough!) to take on the challenge of having me live with them for the duration of my time in Namibia.  The Shaves are close family friends of ours and I've actually spent three weeks with them in their home there already, during a family holiday a few years ago.  I have to say that being able to stay with close friends makes the trip far less daunting for me and I am so grateful for their generosity.  I can't wait to travel this adventure with them.

From left: Geoff, Emily, Nate and Caz

I'll continue to update this blog with updates/news/stories/thoughts and I'd love for you to join me on my adventure from across the internet.

Thank you to all those who have already said such kind and encouraging things to me prior to this trip.  Please send big fat virtual hugs to my family who I'm sure will miss my emotional teenage presence dearly.

Lots of love,
Charis

P.S. for those of you slightly bemused by the title of this blog, my name 'Charis' is Greek for 'Grace'.  
Thought I'd use the play-on-word of my greek name and my general life intention of seeking ways that I can better demonstrate grace to those I meet...