Etosha and home

Our next 3 days were spent in Rundu, visiting the Orphans and Vulnerable Children project (for more on the OVC, check out the Neufeld's blog), going with Daryl and Sabrina and some volunteers to do home-based care for the OVC, and touring the hospital.

We went for dinner with other missionaries at a lodge overlooking the river bordering Angola, and enjoyed Kudu steaks! We also visited some friends of Daryl and Sabrina and had a delicious lamb braai (BBQ). We were even given an ostrich egg (which did make it home safely)!

After Rundu, we drove to Etosha. Along the way, we stopped to see Mufasa, a 'tame' lion. I scratched his belly and shook his hand. Pretty crazy!

In Etosha we found the Onguma Safari Camp where we set up our tent, cooked our chicken and preassembled potato packs and went to sleep listening to lions rumbling not very far off. I comforted myself with recalling the strong fence and gate which we found wide open the next morning at 6am!! Lions can still eat you in the morning...why did they leave it open?? Another question I have is why the German guys at the next campsite felt the need to blast "Ave Maria" before bed. It was a little surreal to brush my teeth while fighting the urge to break out into my best operatic stylings.

In Etosha, we saw SO MANY amazing animals. Oh look, a giraffe! Wow, an actual rhino! Hey, an ostrich! O my goodness, there's a pair of lions!!

We got up early each morning, and the motto of the day was, "Keep your eyes peeled!" Here's some photos of us with peeled peepers:

Not necessarily so attractive, but we were pretty good spotters. Until...

We had been driving for a while without seeing anything. All of a sudden, some sharp-eyed person saw a turtle. We backed up and found it. Sabrina got out (yes, there are signs everywhere saying not to exit the vehicle, but hey, we hadn't seen anything for miles...) to take some photos. Marc was driving, and joked that this was just the time to see a leopard. Just then, he looked into the bush straight in front of the van, and spotted the evil grin of a hyena. A HYENA.











Marc had just one word to say: "Sabrinagetbackinthecar! Sabrinagetbackinthecar!! Sabrinagetbackinthecar!!! She did. She even got a photo of the hyena bush. We all laughed nervously for the next few miles. And no one got out of the car again.

No one else knew it was Thanksgiving, but we were very excited to have Kudu steak again for our Thanksgiving dinner at the Halali resort. Just before dinner, we went to the waterhole that is just outside the resort, and lit by spotlights. We happened to see a rhino - very rare and exciting. After dinner we went and sat for an hour or so, and only saw a jackal. Bah! We already saw one of them things - and way closer too! Our lack of results later just underlined the excitement and good fortune of seeing the rhinoceros earlier. We went to bed happy.

We drove to Tsumeb, a beautiful little town, had a quick lunch at Wimpy's and said goodbye to Daryl and Sabrina. It was pretty tearful on both sides. We had had a wonderful time with our good friends. Thanks for the memories!!

Marc and I checked into our hotel, and napped. Keeping your eyes peeled all day can be exhausting! :)We did a quick tour of the block around our hotel, but it was pretty deserted on a Sunday. We did get some beautiful shots in the light of the setting sun.We had a yummy dinner at the hotel. Fish and steak. The waitress asked us, "How must it be cooked?" so earnestly, it was as if it was life and death. Which, I guess, it was...

We watched a little South African TV before bed - a game show and a sitcom. Funny. It's so strange how everything was in English which makes it much easier in some ways than living in Germany. Much harder in other ways. We had lots to think and talk about - nice to have the down time before going back to our new home away from home, and children that don't really allow for much debriefing.

In the morning, Marc picked up our car at the Avis car rental. He was very nervous about this because he had overheard someone talking the night before about how hard it was to get a rental car. Thankfully Marc had made a reservation, so our car had been driven up from Windhoek the night before. There were no cars available for drop-ins. So, we drove ourselves to Windhoek in our little car with the steering wheel on the wrong side and no AC in 40 degree weather. We stopped in Okahandja just before Windhoek to have lunch and buy our last souvenirs. We also tried to have cool drinks, but the 'cool' don't last too long.

We pulled into our pension and relaxed around the pool for a few minutes, watching a little bird who was missing a foot. He looked like he had a peg leg, but he did just fine. He looked tough, though. Like you wouldn't want to meet him in the birdhouse alley after dark.

We located the shopping area for the next day, and scoped out a few places before they closed. Then we headed to Joe's Beerhouse for the Bushman's Sosatie: a skewer of crocodile, ostrich, zebra, kudu and chicken. We thought that crocodile really does taste like chicken, but the locals (like our Chobe guide, Innocent) say chicken tastes like crocodile. Whatever. Yummy!

The next day we shopped, had a delicious lunch in a little cafe (including carrot/orange/ginger juice) and headed to the airport. No delays like on the way to Africa (7 hours late -did we mention that? Also that they temporarily lost our luggage?), it was mercifully uneventful.
And so ended our first experience of Africa. I feel like this trip has just whetted my appetite. What an amazing place. So many challenges for the locals and anyone trying to bring support. We are thankful for our time and can't wait to see Africa and Daryl and Sabrina again! :)