We made it!

"Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed are those who take refuge in Him.  Fear the Lord, you His holy people, for those who fear Him lack nothing."  --Psalm 34:8-9

We got to our final destination last night at about 4:30 p.m. EST, or 11:30 p.m. Namibia time.  We were all relieved to be done flying for a while.  Since it was dark when we got to Namibia, about all we could see of the countryside was the vast, starry sky.  But here are some highlights from our travels…

There are 13 of us in our group:  our leader, Calvin; his dad, Bob B.; Bob E., Julie, Mike & Betty, Myron, Chad, Nicole & Brian, Wayne & Lisa and Bekah.  Just so you know who we are talking about as we go.



We met in Hanover at noon, only to find out that Brian had a flat tire on his truck on his way to meet us.  The problem is that his vehicle is a huge truck which was to transport a bunch of luggage and people to the airport.  And the spare tire wasn’t going to get us there.  But we thanked God that the only place around with the right tire happened to be right on our way.  20 minutes later, we were good to go.



Bekah, Bob E., Bob B, Nicole & Betty with our huge pile of luggage at Dulles



We got our massive amounts of luggage checked in, boarded the plane and prepared for many hours on board.  We took off at 6:00 p.m. and landed in Dakar, Senegal at about 2:00 a.m.  Some passengers got off and others got on.  We just stayed put and took off about an hour later.  Another 8 hours later, we landed in Johannesburg, South Africa.  What a relief to get off that plane!  They did serve us three meals during our stay and we found South Africa Airways to be very accommodating.



In Joburg, we found that our flight was delayed about an hour, so we had a little time to get our first look at some African wares in the airport stores.  Apparently, we’ll have to check labels—some of the items were made in China and even the USA!



Flying the friendly skies.



We all got loaded up for our short (2-hour) hop to Namibia.  It was a pretty bumpy ride for a few minutes, but then the ride was smooth, and we got served yet another meal, which most of us weren’t too thrilled to see at that point.  But we landed, walked across the tarmac to the terminal and we had arrived.  We were praising God to get there safe and sound.  Most of us had slept very little on the planes, so we were dragging but excited to be in Namibia.  All we had to do was collect our luggage.  Yep.  That’s all.  Well, some of us collected some of our luggage.  A lot of our bags didn’t make it.  Most of us had checked two bags because of bringing supplies along.  Wayne, Lisa, Bekah, Julie, Chad, Brian, Calvin, and Bob B. didn’t get any of our checked bags.  I think everyone else got all or part of theirs.  We’re thinking they’ll catch up with us today.  Meanwhile, we had all packed one change of clothes in our carry-ons, so we’re making do.



Hallelujah, we're here!



So then we had a van ride of a half hour or so to Windhoek, the capital city of Namibia.  The driver told us he had to be on the lookout for kudus which like to run toward headlights.  Fortunately, we had no close encounters of that kind!  At Windhoek we noticed that the city was very clean and modern.  All the houses and properties are gated and fenced.  The apartments and rooms we’re staying in are very clean with modern kitchens and bathrooms.



Today, we plan to get acclimated in the morning—taking care of some grocery shopping and business.  Then in the afternoon, one group will begin painting at the seminary while another group goes to observe the after-school program.

 P.S.  We got the rest of our luggage today-- plus an extra bag that wasn't even ours!