Trip to Otjiwarango Part 3

This is Edna's butcher shop.  Edna and Wilbur live in Kalkfeld on the weekends and during the week they live in Otjiwarango so their daughter can finish high school (Kalkfeld doesn't have 11th and 12th grade).

There are some folks that Edna allows to run a braai on the property for lunch.  I have been there several times but you have to be there very early to get roosterbrood!  It looked like rain so people cleared out fast!

 And it POURED.  A much needed rain with the heavens opening up- but it only lasted 5 minutes.

Auntie Lokie with Edna and Wilbur.  Edna is moving her butcher shop to Kalkfeld when after their daughter graduates.  She will have a shop in the new Kalkfeld "visitors center" which is scheduled to be finished Easter week 2014.  It will be a much smaller shop with much less traffic but she is hoping to make a go of it if some of the customers are willing to travel to her there.  She is a very generous person and seems to help everyone who comes along, but has found it hard to get good employees and to be commuting back and forth.

The sun didn't come out like Namibia but the rain ended and the clouds made it a nice cool day.  This is where one of the other two grocery stores in are in Otjiwarango.  On the left is a Wimpy's (like a Denny's), then a pharmacy and a bank.  In the middle is the grocery store and then there is a small primarily Afrikaans Christian bookstore (the only bookstore I found in the area) and then a cell phone store and an African arts/travel store.

Norah (right) and Caren (left), a wonderful person and good hairdresser Norah introduced me to!

Trip to Otjiwarango Part 2

Looking down the street from the mall back toward the Cafe and the Pep Store.  And it is lunch time so there are more people out and about.

In back of the Pick n Pay (one of the three grocery chain stores- I found it interesting that the grocery store my mother used when I was a child was a Pick n Pay!- like going home to Parma, Ohio!)  are some street vendors selling fruits and vegetables, milk, candy, cell phone minutes and miscellaneous housewares.

If we walk to the corner of the street here is the sign for the mall.  Looking down the street.

Looking up the street toward the main street.  On the left is the beginning of another strip mall shopping area where the two other grocery stores are located.

Now we are at the main road and the cross roads of the freeways to Okahandja, (south east) Kalkfeld (south), Outjo (south west) and Otavi (north?).  I have been to Okahandja which is larger than Kalkfeld but smaller than Otjiwarango.

Another view looking down the main street.

 
And across the main street where there was an open area park and I saw people taking wedding pictures and pictures for advertising.  The grass is watered by reclaimed water.

A Trip to Otjiwarango Part 1

The closest, largest town to Kalkfeld is Otjiwarango (about 70 kilometers or 50 miles).  Wikipedia says it has 70,000 people.  I have never counted them.  

I just know that on the 20th and end of month there are lots of people there because that is where people go to 1) cash their bimonthly paychecks and 2) shop for everything.  

So if you are smart, and can avoid it, you do not go to Otjiwarango then or a couple days before or after those times.  Then, as you will see in these pictures, you see very few people.

It was the first rainy day I had been to Otjiwarango.  There were a lot of clouds but it only rained about 5 minutes all day.  And when it rained, the skies opened.

This is the main street.

There are three chain grocery stores on this street - Pick n Pay, Spar and Savers.

This is the main (center) perpendicular street to the main street. It leads to the new outdoor mall.

A cafe/bakery that has been there many years.  It is the only bakery I found. I liked to stop in for a sweet and cappucino.  It was very expensive relatively speaking and had a regular somewhat exclusive clientele of ranchers, farmers, and business people but was quiet and had a bathroom for those days when I had all day in town waiting for my ride back to Kalkfeld.

 Looking out from the mall to the cafe (right) and the Pep store (left).  Pep is a discount clothing and houseware store a little like KMart or Target.

The covered part of the outdoor mall.

Decorations for Christmas.  When the sun came out these glittered all over the tiled floor and walls like magic.

Looking out from the mall down the street.

The Great Fish Fry

I am not exactly sure the whole story... but there is a wonderful retired minister Rev. Nakhamela who lives near Kalkfeld and is involved with ensuring all the 150 seniors in Kalkfeld get remembered and served by the government and community.  There was to be a Christmas dinner for them and he obtained a donation of fish from one of the fishing companies in Swakopmund.

Their donation turned out to be 45 boxes of uncooked fish "cakes"- enough to serve many times the 150 people.  We got the fish at 5 pm and started preparing it for the next morning.

I got to do the breading.  Helga (yellow), Auntie Sarah (blue stripes) and Auntie Joey (blue flowers) did the frying.

Better and safer to keep me away from the hot oil!

The fish cakes turned out very nice.

We breaded and fried until midnight!

Roche'/OC/ Poplap, Helga's niece (all her names and nicknames) got to be an official taster)

She said it was good!

 
Lulu (Helga's daughter) was our official photographer but she also had a new hairdo she was showing off.

There was enough fish fried to feed all the 150 elders and enough fish donated that they all got to take home ten boxes of five cakes!  A very nice Christmas gift indeed.

Christmas Cookies

We did some kitchen "spear-i-menting."  Pastor is not a cook, but we all love cookies!

We decided to try making oatmeal and peanut butter cookies as gifts for all the neighbors.

For the oat meal cookies we used oatmeal cereal that had dried fruit and nuts in it.  I had bought the wrong stuff thinking it was granola but everyone enjoyed the way the cookies turned out.

We had a good time making the balls and "smashing" them with a fork.

The oven I had was small so the muffin tins gave us more "cookie sheets" and made for some interesting muffincookies.

And clean up was always fun.

And then came the trees

The next decoration was the Christmas trees with Chrismons.  Jaydine decorated one tree and of course posed with it. 

And Geraldo decorated the other but sometimes he is shy.

Mischieviously shy.

The Chrismons also went on the chain across the front of the chancel- in the correct order of course.

Geraldo's tree.

Jaydine's tree.

And we had to decorate the plant in the corner so it did not feel left out.

Geraldo took some views of the full sanctuary.

It turned out quite lovely.

But you know which were my favorite flowers and decorations of all!