Christmastime Is Here

Friday morning I was suppose to catch the bus at 8:30am. It finally showed up at about 11:15 and we headed out on the 3 hour trek across the desert to the coast. Supposedly this was a luxury coach bus, but the air conditioning hardly blew out and every seat was booked so I was tightly seated with a friendly older woman who graciously shared the arm rest. With about an hour to go we pulled over and they shut off the engine. The fan belt had broken. But apparently that’s why they were late in the first place, because the same thing happened before, so they had brought an extra one. They finally dropped me off on the side of the main road outside Arandis and I caught a lift into town. The 2 ½ hour drive had turned into about 6 hours. As they say, TIA. This is Africa.

This weekend a Hopes Promise family from Rehoboth was being moved out to Arandis so all afternoon we helped clean and move furniture into the new house. That night Toivo and I slept over there to make sure nobody made any moves for all that nice stuff we were moving in. Franco reassured us that they had found lots of salt in the closets, a superstitious way to keep away evil spirits, so we should be safe.

It’s been a lot of fun hanging out with Toivo. I’ve missed his sense of humor and non-stop chatter. He’s also been helping me learn Afrikaans. I don’t think I’m much help for his studies, because I just want him to come out and about, but he’s been pretty dedicated to getting his exams done before the end of vacation.

Around town I’ve seen a few people I recognize from our trip this past summer. I saw a guy from the high school that we nicknamed ‘Professor’, Raymond - one of the dancers that Amanda was friends with, and one of the girls that came to our after school program that befriended Kat. It’s cool seeing the effects of our relationship building goals and having everyone here ask about the people they know from back home.

Monday night I’ll be playing some songs with Tresford for their children’s Christmas program. Then for Christmas I’ll be joining the Hope’s Promise family at Dolphin Park for a little celebration. Apparently you can’t reserve the place (it’s first come, first serve), so Roland’s going over the night before and camping out in his infamous Bobo camper to save the spot for us. It’ll be a little odd going to a pool on Christmas, but at least I have my Christmas tree scent from Jackie for a little fragrance from home. What are you all doing for Christmas?