The notes of Grace: 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