Last Sunday (25th?) we had a car accident and rolled the car 180 degrees. The roof tent must have cushioned the fall. All five of us are all fine – Ajay has some internal bruising. I think he partially dislocated his shoulder, but pushed it back. Nothing broken in the car or otherwise – not even the bottles of wine. On the other hand, 6 of the 8 windows are smashed, and unless we want a permanent convertible, the car is a write-off and our bank account also more than dented, along with our pride! Especially as it was well documented by you know who!
We were driving too fast on a gravel road, and could not take the corner. We were trying to get early morning Soussoussvlei sand dunes. My first reaction was relief – and then anger and grief mixed up and jostling for position. The boys on the other hand were very cheerful and frankly delighted to see some real action at last.
Now I feel more circumspect.
We have just bought a car that is even better. It's hard to know how to pray this through. We believed that God truly blessed us with the first car. It feels weird. Within a week, we rolled a car, crawled out alive, and bought a new one. As if nothing ever happened. Ajay is incommunicado at the moment, at Hammerstien Cheetah Farm, transfering bits from one car to the other. It's the same model, one year newer, and generally smarter. I don't think the carpets have been used. Bit of a shame really to turn it into a family car/home! And silver, which is a lot more practical than dark blue. (Plus dvd player!) To be honest, if we had thoroughly researched a place to break down, I don't think we'd have found better. Hammerstien Cheetah Farm – thank you so much!!! And beautiful leapords and cheetahs up close too.
The camping is hard work. The kids are finding it hard. I am concerned about the heat as we go further up.
But Namibia is great. We came to Windhoek faster than we intended and met the larger-than-life MaryBeth who is an inspirational lady, and refers to herself as a freelance-do-gooder. She has no salaray yet almost single handedly looks after 200-300 township kids up until 16-18 years. She has a daily after school club from 2-5pm where they eat a bowl of soup and bread, have free time, she tries to work on their basic eduacation skills, some of the older boys she ennables them to have weekly tennis lessons, Saturdays are taken up with football tournament which lasts the whole day, every other Sunday she has arranged for the kids to use the local swimming pool – and basically builds their sefl-esteem in every way she knows how. And no income. Today we listened to Salomes' choir, full of African harmonies and life. Salome, the musical director is 12.
So here we are based for a short time, particuarly while Ajay pushes maths into the Yr 7 kids so that they can move up into High School. My number is 00264 (Namibia) 814811875 if you want to call. Our children are known as 'the little volunteers' and have got stuck right in!
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1 comment:
Sorry to hear about the car accident! Thank God, you and your family are all safe and sound. May God continue to look after and bless you all for the rest of your journey.
Take care,
Siew Mei
http://siewmei.cahk.org
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