Around Otji on a Saturday Morning

As we were driving out to take a picture of a business with an interesting sign we saw walking down the street this group of Herreo ladies dressed in traditional dresses. We stopped and Aaron asked if he could take their picture. When asked where they were going Aaron was told they were going to a parade. He also inquired as to how long it takes to iron one of their dresses and was told one hour. We have seen some beautiful Herreo dresses and it has been a fairly common sight here in Otjiwarongo.






Below you see groups of men. The men on the left were dressed in traditional Herreo stype, military type jacket, hat and walking stick. A man Aaron conversed with told him he had been an officer in the military. The group of men on the right came marching down the street doing an intricate style of step. A man called out a beat to keep them in step. When they saw Aaron with his camera they began to perform maneuvers--turning around, snapping their arms. Oh how I wish we had brought the video camera to have caught this incredible sight.




In the background behind the gentlemen you can see the group of soldiers coming up from behind them. It wasn't long before they passed us.

I was so glad to get these pictures because I'd been wanting the Herreo style of dress to show you.

A Wimpy Breakfast

A Wimpy breakfast is not a wimpy breakfast. The plate I ordered is the Hashbrown Splashdown.

In the lines below I cannot figure out how it became underlined
and no matter what I did I couldn't change it. I've also had a great deal of trouble getting this accomplished this morning because our dial up internet kept disconnecting so I'd have to start the downloading process of the pictures all over again. Frustrating!





Our waitress Ingrid. When we go into Wimpy for coffee the ladies like to wait on us so Aaron has them call heads or tails with a coin. The "winner" has jumped for joy.

This is Spar, where we do much of
our grocery shopping.

After breakfast we took a drive around town to check out the sights and found some interesting things to take pictures of. I'm going to start another blog to record what we saw.

House Church in Sam Saat

This is a very common sight in Ombili--small children carrying even smaller children.

Below you see Pastor Brown greeting the young lady who asked him to start a house church in her yard. On the right is Pastor talking with an Herrero lady.


The lady in blue, Siska, takes care of 5 children none of whom are hers. The parents may be away in Windhoek working. Many grandmothers are raising their grandchildren while the parents are away working.
Pastor Brown preaching to people eager to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Children waiting for House Church to start.


As I've reported before Pastor Brown has been building a church in Ombili--outside of Otjiwarongo. One day while passing a small house in San Saat, a young lady dressed in blue asked him and Fredna to come pray for her and her home. Later she asked him if he would be willing to do a house church. He replied with great joy, "I was just waiting for you to ask."

So now on Saturday afternoons he and Fredna pick up a young couple with their 3 little boys, and another couple. Joel and Neddy from Zimbabwe help with the service. Neddy leads the singing and she has a great voice. Billy and Helen go weekly and Billy is a great interpreter for the Pastor. They work together like coffee and cream! It is a joy to listen to Pastor preach and Billy interpret. The residents begin to gather in and before long...church starts.

People bring their own chair--one girl sat on an overturned can, one lady on a block. The children sat on the ground on a blanket.

This was a church service we thoroughly enjoyed.

Enchanting Etosha

On July 31 we visited Etosha National Park about 1.5 hours north of Otjiwarongo. Below you'll find pictures of some of the animals we saw there. If you wish to see a bigger picture, just click on it and it will fill the screen. We were gone for 12 hours, including the driving time, and saw elephants, springbok, kudu, oryx, secretary bird, kori buster bird, wildebest (sometimes known as gnu), warthogs, red hartebest, black faced impalas,lions, black backed jackal, ostriches and zebras. The Park is enormous, you can drive all day without seeing everything. It was an incredible day. A wonderful place to visit.

Elephants and babies

Noah's Ark





Sundown at the watering hole

Two wild guys--Aaron and Mark