Elizabeth in Windhoek, Namibia, Africa

Well, it has been an adventure just getting here.  We spent the night in Vancouver where I learned that the MEC duffel bag I had purchased was just too awkward and heavy for me to carry.  I also found out that Max had worn his flat soled skater shoes which would have been quite useless on any hikes here. So Wednesday morning we visited Zellers and bought new running shoes for Max, and a duffel bag on wheels for Elizabeth.  Talk about last minute shopping.

The flights were long and I was only able to sleep a couple of hours on each of the long routes.  By the time we arrived in Windhoek, I was very grateful to have a few sleeping pills with me.  It helped with the time change.

We stayed at a backpackers hostel called "The Cardboard Box".  It was serviceable.  Nothing fancy, but we had our own room.  Met some lovely travellers there including two French girls who were very sweet.  We tried to use the internet together, but the hostel's computer was too archaic.  A kind Japanese education student let me use his MacBook Pro, but it kept reverting to Japanese which was annoying.  Funny to see me typing in Japanese so quickly.

We visited two churches on Sunday morning; a methodist church where most of the congregation was African and the church was packed and the choir sang with gusto, and the Lutheran German church which was mostly empty except for mostly grey haired parishoners.  The service was in German and the pastor gave an excellent sermon on the nature of evil...that evil results primarily from people remaining silent when they should speak out.  I enjoyed hearing the organ.  The church was small, beautiful, and made in the style of a Bavarian church.  Had a good conversation afterwards with a man who used to work for a factory which made organs.

Today we picked up the camper truck.  My head is spinning with all the details of how the truck works.  It truly has everything.  I wonder who came up with the compact design.  We bought bus tickets to get us from Windhoek to Lusaka on December 14th.  I've changed the itinerary of our return home once I found out how expensive airplane tickets are withing Africa.  We will no longer be returning home via a stopover in Paris, but will instead stay that extra time in Africa.  In case anyone needs to know:  we fly Lusaka to Entebbe, Uganda on Saturday Jan. 14th arriving in Entebbe at 19;05.  We depart Entebbe on Tuesday 21 Feb. and fly via Brussels, Frankfurt and Vancouver to end up in Nanaimo on Thursday Feb.23rd at 12:05, flight 8261 from Vancouver.

It's hot and dry here.  No sign of any rainy weather.  We will drive 3 hours south just past Marienthal and do our first night of camping.

Max is a great traveller - very patient and helpful.  His patience at waiting for me to do my boring business is helped by the new iPod touch I bought him. 

So, south it goes.  We'll keep you posted when we hit reliable internet.  It might be a week.  Oh yes, I have a cell phone:  011-264-81-7857691
Elizabeth