During our first 10 days in Katutura the water was being cut off daily without warning from the local authority. It could be off for seven or eight hours at a time. Simple things like going to the toilet you needed to think about before you went. We got into the habit of filling up the kettle, water bottles & a bucket each night “just in case”. Thankfully things have now settled down.

We are now experts at hand washing. Routine is to have a bath & then use the same water to hand wash your clothes. Once washed you hang your clothes on the clothesline & they tend to dry very quickly. You do not however leave your clothes on the line over night otherwise they may not be there in the morning! Namibians also do not hang their underwear on the clothesline so you leave these to dry inside.

Ever seen a fridge with key locks on the handles? Food is a valuable commodity in the developing world & one you need to protect in certain circumstances. I wonder if fridge locks would go down well in Australia for different reasons?

Notice the key locks on the fridge handles?

How do you respond when people come to your door begging for food because they say they are desperate? What if they say it is for the children? How do you know if they are genuine? What kind of food is appropriate to give? How much do you give?

These are some of the questions we have been grappling with in recent weeks.

There is a man who goes through each garbage bin in the complex where we are staying every morning – you can hear him rattling things around. He is partly looking for recyclable bottles for which he can earn some money, but mostly he is looking for left over food to eat. We carefully put the rubbish in a tied up plastic bag before putting it in the bin, but the next day it is all undone and everywhere. So what do you do? Do you put out other food so that he has no need to do this? Do you make sure there is a bit of extra left-over food in the garbage so that he can eat it the following morning? Or by doing that are you creating a sense of dependency? We have not resolved this dilemma.

One Saturday while attempting to do the shopping in the supermarket in town I (Kate) was approached by a man who asked me to buy some food for him, stating that he had recently come from South Africa and had been unable to find work and was now so desperate he was begging in the middle of the shop.  I was unwilling to hand over money in the middle of the supermarket (too unsafe to take out your wallet). When I said I would not be able to find him if he waited for me outside the supermarket (his suggestion) he assured me he would find me! This made me feel quite uncomfortable so in this instance I declined to help him. He followed me for the next aisle continuing his story but eventually left. I did feel guilty wheeling my trolley of food after that as I think he probably was genuine.

That afternoon while doing some jobs at home we had two people come to the door asking for food or money. The first man stated that this was particularly for his children although they were not with him. Communication was difficult as he did not have good English and would have preferred to conduct ‘business’ in Afrikaans. We decided to give him some oranges and apples. At least, we figured, these have some nutrition and do not require any cooking. Apparently what we gave him was insufficient as he came to the door again some time later, this time asking for raw meat. This request we refused.

Shortly after this and older lady came to the door asking for housework to do so that she could earn money so that she could buy food. Having just completed all the washing, ironing, floor mopping and other cleaning tasks I had to tell her that there was no work we could give her. We were also uncomfortable in letting a stranger into the house anyway when security is such an issue here. I guess we could have also offered her some fruit (we did not have much else we thought we could give away easily) however she left once we said we had no work.

So what kind of food is appropriate to give? We spent a morning trying to figure this out. Many people have suggested a loaf of bread, however in this dry climate it goes stale within a day and there is no room in the freezer to keep it ‘fresh’. As we are not close to the shops this did not seem like a practical solution.

Fruit remains a viable option, however without a car to transport the shopping home (a N$9 taxi fare will get us close but not all the way) an extra bag of fruit is quite a heavy thing to carry along with everything else.

We wanted to find something that had nutritional value, that was relatively light to carry, that could be eaten as it was (no guarantee that a person this desperate would have any means of cooking or heating food) if need be and that would last until it was required. So this week we added a few ring-pull tins (unlikely to own a tin opener in this situation) of baked beans to our shopping trolley. As we walked around we deliberately looked for other options that may be of use in weeks to come.

Although the central business district of Windhoek is modern and busy with people shopping, there is significant need and poverty in the township areas.  How to respond to this poverty is challenging but we are learning as we go. Another organisation we have just begun working with is located in the most destitute area of Windhoek so no doubt there will be more challenges to come!   

We are serving in the Evangelical Bible Church with a congregation of around 200 (mainly Herero people). The church is involved in many & varied ministries including an After School Program for children & youth & an HIV / AIDS home based care ministry. Weekly Bible Studies & Prayer Meetings are held along with the usual Friday night for youth. The Sunday School annual camp us coming up in a few weeks time with 70 kids & 10 teachers already signed-up.

The Sunday service goes for around 2.5 hours & is spoken in both English & Otjiherero. The singing is full of praise & in typical African fashion there is no musical accompaniment, yet four part harmonies fill the meeting space. Many of the songs we actually know from our own time in youth group back in Australia. Fortunately for us, Otjiherero is a fairly phonetic language so we can sometimes join in those ones as well, even if we are unsure what we are actually singing about. The song is chosen from the songbook, someone then starts us off & everyone joins in (with gusto!). In fact, if the singing is not enthusiastic enough for the leader it is stopped, the congregation reminded of how great God is and how worthy He is to be praised properly, and we start again. There is both a youth & adult choir who often sing ‘items’ each week.

The church is based in Katutura in a black community on a large block of land. As is typical in most of Windhoek, there is no grass or gardens just dirt & stones surrounding the buildings. There are bars over every window (as is usual in Windhoek) and security grills on every door. The church was designed by a Swiss man back in the 1960s and is made up of hexagonal shaped sections joined together. Covering the wall at the front of the church is a painted mural depicting a water scene and green bushland.

We have been warmly welcomed into the church & relationships are slowly being formed. The Bible is being faithfully taught & guests are being introduced & welcomed each Sunday.  

We are currently living in a township called Katutura.

In 1959, as part of South Africa’s apartheid policy, black Namibians were forcibly removed from Windhoek to townships around the city. Katutura (“the place where we cannot settle”) was the largest of these. Thankfully Namibia is now a Republic & apartheid ceased over a generation ago.

Modern day Katutura remains a black township, a sprawling suburb bigger than central Windhoek. Houses range from smart abodes to corrugated iron shacks. Many in the community live in very simple homes & poverty unfortunately remains a reality.  The land itself is not conducive to gardening & lawn is non-existent. Homes are surrounded by bare earth & dogs bark in unison throughout the night.

We are living with a local Namibian family who are graciously sharing their two-bedroom apartment with us for the next three months. We are being well looked after & enjoying the inter-cultural exchanges that occur each day. We have so much to learn about the local people & customs & at the same time they are leaning about Australia & our way of life. Our host’s eleven year old daughter was aghast to see Mike doing the washing up & advised that African men would never do that!

Getting about the community we get the feeling they don’t see too many whites walking around these parts. We went food shopping last week & were the only white people in the shopping mall. Many of the more modern apartments have bars over each window & the front & back doors have large key locked security grills in front of them. Caution needs to be exercised & you don’t go outside after dark. Even some of our Namibian friends have been mugged at night time, so we listen carefully & adhere to advice. This morning we awoke to find a man going through our garbage bin outside the front door!

Despite these challenges we are blessed to be living where we are & we are within walking distance of the EBC church.  We are honoured to be living with a Namibian family & sharing daily life, laugh & meals with them. 

They say, “When in Rome, do what the Romans do”. When in Windhoek you catch a taxi.

Taxis are the public transport here. Every third car or so is one. All of them have a number on the side and are generally older in appearance. A driver can take four passengers in their vehicle at any one time. The cost is a flat 9 Rand / Dollars (approx AUD $1.20) to most places in the city.

How to catch one? Basically you stand at the side of the road and one will come by within about a minute. If they have room for more passengers they will honk their horn. Mind you, you only have to be walking down the street and you will have taxis honking at you constantly; you just keep on walking and not look up. Sometimes the taxi will pull over to the side of the road, but generally it just stops. You then indicate vaguely the direction you wish to go, the closest landmark near to your desired destination and how many people wish to go there and the driver will generally indicate that is fine.

Do not expect to get driven to your landmark ( drivers do not go by streets or addresses ) immediately. Depending on who else is in the taxi at the time and who else the driver picks up on the way, your route can be quite a circuitous one. It is no point putting on a seatbelt when riding in the back of the taxi. There may not be one, or not enough, for a start. Also, as other passengers get out and new ones get in you have to keep sliding across the seat anyway.

Driving seems to be done a lot via the horn; the streets are quite loud with the sound of them. You honk to indicate you have more room, you honk if the person in front of you is not driving fast enough, you honk if you are generally unhappy with the state of the road, you honk if its your turn to go across an intersection.

We find ourselves holding my breath every time we come to a four-way intersection. The rule seems to be whichever car is at the intersection first, goes first; the second to arrive goes next and so forth. With a lot of taxi drivers in a hurry all the time there seems to be interesting interpretations of who actually got there first. We had our first near miss the other day. We are well and truly getting into the life that is Windhoek.

“The Lord is my rock, my fortress & my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield & the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm18:2)