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?
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”.
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,
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
WHITE CHOCOLATE AND RASPBERRY MUFFINS!!! I now have an uncontrollable craving that can never be satisfied!
ReplyDelete