Now on the Way to South Africa! and the UCCSA General Assembly

Here are six of the 10 of us who will be going in the combi (van) to South Africa.  Our delegation

 includes: 

The President Elect of the UCCSA, Rev. Philip Strydom and his wife and another couple (Collin and his wife who are delegates from the church of Swakopmund) who drove on Saturday, the Synod Secretary Jimmy Heyman who flew this morning, the Chairman of the Namibia Synod Rev. Moses Korumumu, (the man in the picture below), the Synod Treasurer Vernie van Roois not in the picture, a student minister (Lizel with her back pack below) and a minister (me) representing Women at the Well and the churches in Namibia and I will also be present as the newest Global Ministries missionary, a youth representative- Arochelle in the blue shirt below and the three women from the women's fellowship in the picture.  The three other ministers from the Namibia Synod (we have 6) who are voting delegates as ministers (one of whom is the Synod Moderator) and the Synod Investment chair were unable to go.  We are waiting outside the Synod compound for the Synod Mission Convener Frank Adonis to arrive.

Welllllll... this was an interesting trip.  We started out at 5:00 pm driving from Windhoek through Gobabis to the border with Botswana.  We didn't see much. There were a few ostrich but the combi was moving so fast we passed them before I could get good pictures.

There was the mine.

And then there was dark and no possibilities for pictures.  We stopped and got gas and a bite to eat (the last possibility for these things for MANY hours driving across Botswana) and left Gobabis, Namibia about 6:45 pm.  At about 7:30 pm, in spite of the best efforts of our driver, we hit a bosvarke (warthog).  Everyone (except the pig) was okay (too dark for a picture of my closest encounter with one- very large, young and big tusks which thankfully were not part of the impact).  But one radiator coolant tank was leaking.

So we headed back to Gobabis where thankfully the driver knew a mechanic.  At about 11:30 pm we were back on the road.  But when we reached the border at 12:20 it was closed.  So we turned back and rested (I can't say slept), at an abandoned gas station in the combi until 6:30 am.

We crossed the border with no problems and drove through Botswana in the daylight which was VERY good because there were herds of donkeys, goats, cows, warthogs, ostrich, baboons, dogs, all over the road searching for food.  The drought is very bad.  The animals are literally dying of starvation along the road because there is nothing to forage and the farmers cannot afford to buy feed for them because their plant crops have all died for lack of water.  Very hard to see.  Even if the combi had slowed down, I couldn't bear to take pictures.