I think I am suffering from Vitamin D deficiency. It's day five of traveling in consistently heavy rain and over a month of damp weather. I just need a little sun.
We moved in with the Pienaars yesterday, and while it is a bit like camping without the plumbing, it is very comfortable camping (and we are not outside in the rain). The toilet works, and in the big scheme of things, that is something to be thankful for. Last night Russ and I went over to the old house to shower, except that we could not get the lock to open. I felt desperate to wash my hair and so we found a guesthouse in the neighborhood which allowed us to take showers. When we asked the owner, we told her we had a strange request, to which she replied that much weirder things had happened; our request was nothing new. The hot water felt incredibly refreshing. Zack and Elaine bathed at a friends' house.
We sent back our contracts to Kuwait this morning with a bit of sticker shock. Courier companies charge an unbelievable amount of money to send a few pieces of paper. Talk about a scam.
Things have settled down here since Saturday when there was so much moving around, and we are enjoying our time with Zack, Elaine, and their kids. John and Nina are at the University but live at home, and twelve year old Fide is the delight of her parents. The more we spend time with them and their friends, the more we are reminded of our time in Namibia. If one has not lived in South Africa, its a bit complicated to describe the "Coloured" culture - what that has meant in the past and what it means today. It's a separate ethnic group essentially of any mixed race heritages. However, they were seen as having special privileges during the apartheid era because they weren't black (and yet not white either). Now, because they aren't black, they are also kept at arms length from political empowerment. It is always fascinating to talk with them about their stories of struggle growing up in "The Old South Africa" where they would never think of living in Bloemfontein, the former stronghold of the Afrikaaner republic (they find it quite ironic now, but are encouraged about how much the city has changed). They speak Afrikaans as a home language but also quite comfortable in English. The food brings it all back - cornflakes or weetbix with warm milk for breakfast, snoek (a bony fish) and chips, curries, cheese rolls, gravies, macaroni of all kinds, sugary cool drinks, pancakes (crepes), koeksusters and melk tarts. Here in Bloemfontein, there is something new - "cherry bacon" which are grilled vienna sausages wrapped in bacon and eaten with marachino cherries. Interesting and surprisingly good -in a "don't eat this too often" kind of way.
Zack is the pastor of a growing congregation in Hoedendal, the Coloured location (both words are not nice, but is how people refer to it; mixed-race township might be better?) We went there yesterday morning and received an extremely warm welcome from genuinely friendly people. As I remembered from many years ago, the people in his church love to sing and sing well. It was an uplifting experience. Zack is in the middle of a fundraising campaign to build a community centre near the church; the building is already halfway done. He had built a multipurpose "Life Change Centre" in Windhoek and it is still very successful.
Glad to be here, but in the rainy afternoons we have been looking at maps and wondering where to go next. I think tomorrow we will trek east into the hilltown of Malealea, Lesotho and see if the rain follows us.
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