Namibia: Week 6

Here’s the challenge: to sum up 7 days that brought me such a fullness of adventure and experience in a blog post that’s succinct enough to keep everyone awake… ne?*

Katatura has been on my heart and mind this week.  I found a new segment of Windhoek’s heart when I visited on Thursday, joined by a wonderful, fun group of teens from a church in Waco, Texas.   Katatura is Windhoek’s largest township, yet it’s name literally means “where one does not wish to live”.  Curious why..?  It formed in 1961 following the forced removal of Windhoek’s black population from Hochland Park, which is where I’ve been staying during this trip.

I actually found an article about Katatura on The Independent this week, written by a British woman who visited an American volunteer working in the centre of Katatura to help and support school children. The writer talked of the “cheerful chaos and beautiful laughing children… and the stories of their tough lives” and I can completely see where she’s coming from.  The Texans and I took a bus there in the morning to visit a lady known as Ouma**, who (on her own) feeds and cares for about 100 children (many orphans) every day when they are coming home from school.  Her house really isn’t a big place, but she has no fear of filling a room up to the corners with children from Katatura.  We all just went along to sing songs with the children and dance around the room with them, followed by a good 45 minutes of playing with them on the street outside.  One 13 year-old named Anna came up to me as I was standing watching the children playing in a big circle - she only came to say hi, but I wanted to know about who she was and what her life was like.  She was a quiet, reserved girl with a very good understanding of English and told me that she walks two hours to get to school each day.  I didn’t know how true this story was, but did it really matter?  She wanted to stand around with me and hug my waist, almost breaking my heart when she asked to hug me through the bars of Ouma’s gate as myself and the group were getting back onto the bus.  I feel that just ten minutes of conversation with Anna has exposed me to all the children’s lives in Katatura.  Though I don’t know how or if I ever could, so much of me wishes I could have walked home with some of these children, discovering where they were living, meeting their families and hearing all about their lives.  I wasn’t uncomfortable at all - I yearned to know more.

Katatura kids outside Ouma's <3

Myself, Anna and two other girls from Katatura

As we drove from Ouma’s, Bryan (my Namibia church pastor) drove us through the centre of Katatura - past Evelyn Street, only a 1km long road yet I was told it accommodates over 180 bars; past the never-ending informal settlements formed with tin and plastic where many of the children I had just met were travelling to; and past a shop where a woman was dragged from a taxi by seven men and bundled into a van (since we only drove by this incident though, it really isn’t right for me to say anymore - for all I know, this was a very drunk woman being assisted home).  I found it tough to believe there and then that this township could possibly be as joyous as the Independent writer described.  Yet when I think of Katatura, I’ll think of the children at Oma’s.  I’ll agree with the writer to a certain level… despite the hardship that is known to exist in these places, there really is a lot of joy too.  What an extraordinary thing. 

On a very different note, there seriously ain’t no party like a YWAP party… (S Club fans with me?  Anyone..?)  The youth group I’ve been going to had their ‘One Day’ event on Saturday with good food, incredible teaching and loads of crazy dancing to some new worship songs the Texas group introduced.  I had some helpful faith discussions with Dana in particular that day, who really helped me to look at some of my God questions in a different way.  I will treasure my YWAP One Day t-shirt for ever as a little memory of the day - and a shout-out to the Texas team: thanks for letting me hang out with y’all for a few days - you are genuinely inspiring people who have such a passion for Jesus and I have LOVED getting to know you and adoring Namibia with you.

Texas Team - can I come to Baylor with y'all?

And the last few days… literally don’t even know where to begin on this.  The SLM Student Project was awesome, in short.  I was so looking forward to hanging out with these students after not having seen them since Week 2 of the trip.  They took me in as though I were another Namibian student, taught me Oshiwambo, made me eat bone marrow (I’ll forgive them for that…), yearned to know about my life in Britain and the way I came to be a Christian, took endless photos with me, dragged me round with them as they danced and sang songs of worship around the campfire, helped me to understand  the culture of Africa as they explained tradition and heritage, shared some of their deepest thoughts, confided in me, comforted me, rejoiced with me… and so much more richness I can’t even summarise.

During my time away, I really enjoyed things that should have made me feel anxious -  travelling an hour outside of Windhoek with people that really, I didn’t know well; sitting on a hot bus with no seatbelt that truly looked as if it would fall apart; eating meat off the bone… this is a bit of silly one I know, but it’s always been a little worry of mine.  All I really felt the entire time was a deep joy, that I was still in Namibia and that I was able to completely immerse myself in the lives and culture of these people.  I have my friend, Tjino to thank for a lot of this.  She invested a lot of time in talking to me and loving me and I’m amazed at how similar we are despite our lives being so far removed from each-other.  She’s got a very big heart for God.

Two highlights:

1) Understanding.  The best part of the project was probably the time spent learning more about who God is and talking to each of the students about their own stories of faith.  I truly understood more of what it means to be a Christian over the last few days.

2) Prayer Mountain.  This is a mountain (aha - obviously…) just 10 minutes walk from Rock Lodge.  The whole team went there on our last morning to pray together, holding hands in a circle around three huge crosses.  The feeling of unity between us and the bursting of love for God from each of the students was something really special.  It was a moment of real hope for us all as we looked ahead to our next semester (or first term, in my instance) of university.  They’re a massively supportive and caring bunch that I so enjoyed being with.

Spot the white girl

Also, my bible finally came loose from it’s spine after ten years (*sob, sob*) - I have been loving reading it this week… a bit too much from the sounds of it!

The Shaves and I are now off to Swakopmund for a few days.  Help please… how am I supposed to spend another few weeks with these people?! (HA only kidding guys - you know I want to cry just thinking about leaving you all).  Swakop was a highlight of my family holiday 6 years ago so I’m excited.

Lots of love,

Charis

*check out my Oshiwambo language skills… “ne?” means “right?”

**Ouma means “Granny”, as Christine (her real name) is known by all the children.  I loved this.

Namibia: Week 5

I’m currently sitting outside the Shaves’ house in a perfect temperature of Namibian warmth, reflecting on just how grateful I am to be here.  I’m sure I’ll talk about this in my last ‘Namibia’ blog post at least, but I’m feeling so glad right now that I chose to take a gap year and had the chance to experience such a rich amount of life before I go to university.

It’s funny, Namibia continues to surprise me and teach me yet I feel so comfortable and used to being here now.  It’s really lovely.  With the plans and trips I have in place for the next few weeks, I know the rest of my time is going to fly by extremely fast.  I feel like I’m trying to savour every moment I have left, even with four weeks still to go.  I won’t dwell on it though as I genuinely want to cry a little just thinking about it... oh dear.

I have been enjoying the best of my day-to-day Namibian life this week.  I just had pretty much the most amazing hair appointment ever, complete with head massages, a view over the Windhoek hillsides, a super helpful hairdresser and a killer new haircut which makes me feel awesome. Seriously Namibia, you’re not allowed to give me any more reasons to make me want to stay… okay?

Saying that haha… I know this one isn’t exactly day-to-day.  Wednesday of course held the big occasion at the British High Commissioner’s pad - the Queen’s Birthday Party!  Amongst chatter of Prince Harry’s rumoured arrival at the event (which I regret to inform you didn’t actually happen), I was totally in my element.  We were greeted by the British High Commissioner and the Deputy HC who looks oddly like David Milliband… (anybody know what Dave’s up to these days?!)  The whole event was so wonderfully British… sarcastic comments from the guests; chatter in the garden with Pimms and nibbles being devoured; and, my absolute favourite moment, when the backing track to our national anthem started to play in the silence that preceded the High Commissioner’s speech… the awkward moment when next to no one started to sing and I just burst out laughing.  Ah, it was a fabulous afternoon. 

Thursdays are my chill days; days when I can take time a good chunk of time out to read a bit of the bible and reflect on what it says.  Caz joined me on my ‘Thursday chill’ this week and we ventured to Okapuka Lodge, just outside Windhoek.  I came to Okapuka six years ago when we were here on holiday, so I remembered what a perfect place of escape it was.  We even saw giraffe - yay!  Caz and I sat in the car for a good 20 minutes watching them and I can say that they really are such beautiful and unusual animals.  Those three hours in Okapuka were well spent watching warthogs wander about the grounds of the lodge (they're so cool), reading the bible and chatting about lots of faith questions with Caz.  Definitely bringing my Momma here when she comes to visit in three weeks!

Okapuka Lodge

We went to a big tourist exhibition in Windhoek on Friday; it’s quite a major event that most in the city seem to attend at some point in the week, so much so that the city just seemed empty that evening.  The Shaves go every year and they totally love it - loads of freebies, food, drink and competitions… they’d be walking around and constantly saying “ooh is this another competition? Let’s enter…” - haha.  While we’re on the subject, please vote for Emily’s photo here! 

http://premium.easypromosapp.com/voteme/33150/620560822?fb_action_ids=1443217562647158&fb_action_types=og.shares

She’d love you forever..!

On Friday evening I joined Emily at her church youth group called ‘YWAP’.  One of my favourite things about this trip is being able to meet loads of young adults and chat to them about their lives… at events like YWAP, I hear so many encouraging stories from people about what they've experienced throughout their lives as Christians and I absolutely love that.  The church even have a group of teens from Texas joining them this week to get involved in various things and I’m really hoping to get to spend some more time with them if possible.  The opportunity I'm having to meet so many young Christians from across the world, hear that they experience such similar things to me and realise that I’m actually pretty normal is really, really cool.

This week was also the first Saturday where we didn’t really have anything going on, so we made the most of the freedom and, courtesy of Mr Geoff Shave, ate pancakes for breakfast and a cooked breakfast for lunch!  Oh yes.  After a worship band rehearsal in the afternoon, Caz and I had just enough time to leg-it (well, drive-it) to the top of one of the hills in Windhoek, where there’s a lovely restaurant with blankets for the chilled Namibian evenings.  The Shaves and I spent a little bit of down-time there watching the sun go down over the city and chatting about life together.  It was quite breath-taking.  Saturday was also fab as I got to hear a little from my boyfriend, Alex, who just moved to Virginia for 9 weeks to help lead one of the summer camps.  He has zero wifi at the camp but of course managed to find a Starbucks (classic America) and at least type something to me through Skype!

I can also announce to you all that finally, five weeks in, I had the guts and determination to get my running gear on and actually attempt some exercise.  Hear the trumpets sound!!  I found out Mum’s been running at least 3 times a week back home and I’m not going to lie to you all and say that it didn’t encourage me, even just a little bit, to get out and run too.  There’s a school opposite the Shaves’ which is great for doing laps (about 1km round).  Granted, I only circled the school twice yesterday… and perhaps only half of that was running… but at least I made it out of the house with those running shoes on!  This is progress!  I blame the altitude. .. 

Caz is also helping me with learning to play guitar, as I’d love to get to the point where I could lead worship at church with a guitar as well as sing.  It’s embarrassing how weak my fingertips have gotten though; it’s been far too long since I’ve played my poor violin.  This trip is certainly a personal development in all areas, I’m telling you!

I’m heading out on another few days of retreat next week with some of the university students from UNAM and Poly.  It means I probably won’t blog until next Thursday (kinda surprised I’ve managed to keep to the schedule this far anyway!) Please be thinking and again, praying if you’re someone who prays, that this would be another great time of learning and transformation for me (if I can possibly ask for any more!)

Until next week…

Lots of love, 

Charis

CCC Namibia Staff Retreat last week!

Leading worship with Caz and the band

Hanging out with Emily & Nate at EXPO

Namibia: Week 4

I’m going to be honest on the outset here and say this blog post feels harder to write than ones previously.  It’s not that anything particularly tough has happened, but this week’s been a bit different and I feel as though I have fewer day-to-day stories and musings this time.  I’ve also missed home a lot over the last couple of days and certainly feel a change in mindset as I now look towards my final 4/5 weeks and the things I may want to do or change.  So to shake off writer’s block and hopefully give me some inspiration, I’ve decided to write this like an acrostic poem… 

I think these Wednesday primary school lessons are getting to me…

N is for “nature”

Yet again, I have been blessed with more of Namibia’s incomparable scenery and wildlife that surrounded us during the CCC staff retreat.  We stayed on a farm which was miles and miles long and I’ve already decided I want to come back here on my honeymoon (ONE DAY… before any rumours arise and Dad rings me up hahaha).  I hope the photos at the bottom of this post give you an idea of how beautiful it was.  We saw Golden Oryx while on a game drive too which was really exciting, as they’re quite rare - sadly my pictures weren’t brilliant so maybe you could google them if interested.  On the wild cat front, I’m still yet to see one on my adventures.  I really don’t know if that’s a good thing or not!!

A is for “afternoon tea” 

Perhaps England will feel a little closer tomorrow as I join the Shaves on a trip to the British High Commission for the Queen’s Birthday (the Queen shall not be attending by the way).  I literally have no idea what to expect from this but I miss my lovely home… and who could say ‘no’ to free scones, tea and cucumber sandwiches?  I promise I’ll take pictures if allowed.

M is for “Miss Cheesman’s fab English lessons” 

I really enjoyed teaching the Grade 4’s last Wednesday.  They’re a great bunch of kids and share my love for Disney films, so the Finding Nemo lesson starter went down a treat.  I don’t know if they actually learnt anything useful from me, but I suppose I’ll know for sure after I’ve marked all 60 summaries of ’The Spiderwick Chronicles’!  Kudos to all teachers reading this; I have never before realised how much creativity teaching requires!  I’m already stuck for new ideas for tomorrow and this is only week 3… help, please.

I is for “I can barely contain my excitement”

Yeah that one was a bit desperate, haha.  BUT, news broke yesterday that Prince Harry is coming to Namibia … and he’s coming before the end of the month, people!  Yes… I know I live in the same country as him and yes… he may just be too busy to visit on this occasion (though I’m sure my name features on the proposed itinerary somewhere).  However with a population of less than 3 million in Namibia, surely my chances of meeting Harry are statistically far higher here than in the UK?  Right..?  I believe there is hope yet for a Charis Cheesman/Royal-family-member selfie.

B is for “battle, blood and brilliance”

Just to clarify before I write any further, I am not inferring here that battle, blood or war is brilliant or worthy of any praise.  While on the staff retreat we were studying the book of ‘Judges’ in the Bible.  This book is gruesome and if you have read any of the stories yourself, you’ll know what I’m talking about (Ehud and the belly fat anyone..?) I really couldn’t have imagined at the start how we were going to understand a deeper meaning behind these ancient stories of violence and toilet humour.  However Simon, who is the principal of the Bible college here in Namibia, did an absolutely brilliant job of leading us through the spiritual and moral issues that underly this book and I have come away utterly dumbfounded by the things I have learned.  It was a fascinating study of humility, transformation and faith and I have such a different appreciation for the Old Testament.  I’m really looking forward to delving deeper into more of these books.

I is for “incident”

On the way home from our retreat we were forced to stop suddenly as three large warthogs ran out into the road.  With what felt like such a small bump, I hadn’t really processed that one of the hogs had been hit by our car until I looked back.  Sadly with the blessing of so much wildlife here, accidents on the road are in turn difficult to prevent.  We were grateful for our friend’s calm manner and skill in stopping the car so quickly, as it dawned on us the accident could have been so much worse.  I won’t go into details of what had to be done, but I struggled to relax as we drove the rest of the way home and naturally, I know the memory will remain at the forefront of my mind for a little while.

A is for “amazing grace”

This week I stepped right back to look at some of the basics of my faith as a Christian, as I was reminded of God’s grace that lies at the beginning and at the centre of my life.  Goodness I could go on about this one… perhaps another time.

Until next week,

Lots of love,

Charis

Namibia: Week 3

Happy June lovely people.  

I’m in week 4 and officially over 1/3 into my trip - how crazy.  Feels like I just got here.  I’m sitting writing this post with all my S Club albums on replay, missing the four lovely girls who joined me on a trip down memory lane at the S Club 7 BRING IT ALL BACK TOUR a whole month ago.  Absolute comfort listening here - maybe I’ll make it my new mission to transform the nation of Namibia into S Club fans.

We actually had a weekend at home this week!  I think we are all-camped-out for a little while at least.  Some of you will have seen on Facebook already that we watched the football on Friday evening and considering I never, ever, ever watch football at home, I found it brilliantly ironic that I was watching the FA Cup final from Namibia.  I was cheering Arsenal for Grandad Cheese and we periodically switched from the FA Cup Final to the COSAFA Cup Final (Council of Southern Africa Football Associations - check me), which was Namibia v. Mozambique.  It was so fun to be watching as Namibia won, for the first time ever!!  The Gillhams (family friends of the Shaves) also cooked their signature dark chocolate and wine casserole potjie (pronounced poy-kee) which I have fallen in love with and may have to ask nicely to take some home to England with me - I’m sure that’ll be allowed through security, right? 

Just a side note to you, Dad - Caz made her white chocolate and raspberry muffins this week - I’ll try and squish some in my suitcase for you too.

On Saturday we joined a team taking part in Global Outreach Day.  G.O.D is an annual event where Christians across the world head out and about to talk to people about faith.  I’ve never been part of this before, but this year I was in a group wandering the nearby streets of the Shaves’ home to chat to some locals about their thoughts on faith and Christianity.  There was quite a contrast of people found along the way - from a young girl who appeared shy but really keen to hear our stories of faith, to a man who clearly wanted to rant about Christianity’s apparent worship of ‘blood and... vampires’… it was an interesting morning …to say the least.  Conversations had were genuinely fascinating though - I’m really glad I had the courage to go out and chat to people.

On Sunday Caz offered to let me sing in her worship band at church - for those who don’t know, I’ve been a worship leader at my UK church for the last few years - I love it!  It was really nice and refreshing though to sing backing vocals on Sunday and experiment with blending my voice in with the leader.  Caz has inspired me to ACTUALLY start learning to play my guitar rather than leaving it to sit and gather dust in my room, so please all hold me accountable to that one!

I’m always meeting more and more people each week and on Sunday I met an 8 year old girl called Charis.  I only know one other Charis in the world (shout-out to you, Big Charis) so that was pretty cool.  We had a good little natter, but I quickly regretted asking this girl what her last name was.  In contrast to my rather bizarre and aromatically questionable surname, Charis preceded to tell me her last name is ‘Flowers’.  F-l-o-w-e-r-s… Flowers.  CHARIS FLOWERS.  Seriously, this girl wins at having the most beautiful name ever (and I’m not at all biased or anything). 

Last Wednesday, ‘Miss Cheesman’ finally met her two groups of primary school children who she’ll be tutoring once a week to support their English studies.  One of my groups is made up of 2 English kids, 4 Namibians, 2 Dutch, 1 German and 1 Russian!  They’re great.  Together we created a story about a desert island, one sentence at a time, but almost every single child rounded off their sentences with something along the lines of: “and then he ate everyone” or “and then they all died”.  I have to say I struggled just a tad to progress their tragic story of a down-right deadly desert island… but they sure do have imagination!  I’m currently prepping for my next lesson tomorrow which is a bit more daunting.  I’m taking both Grade 4 classes (60 ten-year-olds) at the same time to teach them about summaries… but I’ll be fine.  I have a Finding Nemo clip to start the lesson.  I’m set.

In addition to everything else, I shadowed a few attorneys on two occasions this past week.  After working at Pinsent Masons for 8 months of my gap year I was so intrigued to see how the law works in Nam and it was good to have some exposure to a different firm too.  One of the attorneys took me to the High Court of Namibia to manage a few of his cases with the judges.  The first judge was sincere and pensive, but had a subtle kindness and sense of humour to his responses.  I loved that he chose to make subtle witty comments here and there, my favourite being: “this is not the ten commandments; we can amend our next court summons date whenever we like y’know”.  

Just as I was sitting in the Gallery listening to the first judge analyse each case, the attorney I was shadowing stood up from the Defendant’s table, swiftly strode up to me and whispered “let’s run”.  By the time I realised what he’d actually said to me, he had already disappeared from the court room, robe billowing behind him.  He was hilarious - he uttered the words “let’s run” every time we left the court rooms and I just wanted to turn to him and say, “you do know we’re not the criminals here… right?”  However I have to say he uttered my favourite comment as we were crossing the road: “Please watch for cars. If you get bumped it will not be good. It will ruin your holiday”.  What a bloke.

I know you’ve probably realised from the way I’ve been talking, but this just feels like a fantastic place for me to be at the moment.  I’m enjoying the independence of living which I am totally ready to experience, but I also have the lovely mix of being in the company of a family at the same time.  I’ll be spending the last four days of this week at the CCC annual staff retreat, which will be cold (the hot water bottle was out last night), but I’m looking forward to a relaxing and thought-provoking few days with this team.  If you’re the praying type, I would love if you could be praying for us.

Thanks for all the supportive messages and love from across the world.

Lots of love, 

Charis