A Walk to School Part 7

Now we are crossing the highway and heading down the path to the road to the school.  We are about half way there- 13 minutes walk from the church grounds.  There unpaved road ends at a turn off from the highway.  Ann Maria and Chantell are still behind and there are three other children now behind them.  You can see the bed and breakfast/dairy processing plant on the right.

If you look down the highway toward the settlement you can see the municipal building.

Across the highway the dirt road continues and off to the right you can see the short cut where William and Geraldo are far ahead of us.

Sharifa and I have crossed the highway and are heading for the short cut.

The view of the path ahead.

Chantell and Ann Marie and the other children are catching up.

At the end of the short cut is the road to the school.  Ahead is the Principal's house.  We are almost there!

A Walk to School Part 6

We head down the road (this is actually looking back toward the railroad tracks) and go toward the highway.

On the left hand side of the road is the NamWater station which pumps the water in Kalkfeld from the dams somewhere.  If you look very carefully in the middle of the screen at the top of the tree you can see the top of the square water tower.

Further down the road on the left hand side is a very nice spread.  Here the elderly twins who run one of the little convenience stores next to Helga and Garrett's house live with a sister in law.  The whole property was a house for the family, a bed and breakfast and a dairy product processing plant 30 years ago-one of the three major employers in Kalkfeld back then.

A Walk to School Part 5

Onward to the Highway!  Geraldo and William go ahead.

Chantell and Ann Marie follow behind.

Looking back toward the railroad tracks and the road back to the church.

Chantell and Ann Marie fell behind

Sharifa and I in shadow looking toward the Highway and Geraldo and William ahead.

Sharifa's beautiful morning smile.

A Walk to School Part 4

 Crossing The River 

Down one bank

And back up the other- for my hiking friends, this is the largest hill I have climbed since I have been here- but there are plenty of real hills to climb about 50 miles from here- but watch out for the snakes!

Crossing the railroad tracks

A Walk to School Part 3

Here we are on our walk to school again.  This is a back road.  We could follow it to the right but we will instead go straight ahead on our short cut.

Now we are heading toward Ann Marie's house.

The black pipe on the left is the water line.

This is where Ann Marie lives with her parents, younger sister, aunt and older cousin.

 

Here are Ann Marie, Chantell and William

And on we go toward the river and the railroad tracks.

A Break from the Walk to school- Critter update

For anyone who might have been a little surprised or even dubious about my statement in the last post about watching where I was walking - on the path, road and under the trees for snakes to drop out, here is the latest critter update.

One night when the electricity was off because of the lightening, I decided to go to bed early- 8:00 pm no lights, may as well!  I heard two gun shots from the house across the way.  I know that they sometimes shoot to scare away baboons or goats, so I wasn't too concerned.

The next morning, Vanessa texted me- if you aren't busy, come see the snake!  Grabbed my camera and walked over.  There it was in all its glory.

Seeing how long it is- that is my size 6 tennis shoe. Later Om Jon got the tape measure and it was 90 cm!

You can see the gun shot underneath.

Om Jon told Vanessa to pick it up and put it in the bucket. She did as she was told but shuttered and squealed the whole time!

Vanessa said it was dark with no electricity, but because Dexter kept barking, Om Jon when to see what was up.  There in front of Zoe's sleeping cage was a 90 cm long PUFF ADDER.  Om Jon shot once, they sprayed it with chemicals, and finally beat it on the head with a shovel.  It did NOT want to die.  Dexter (little white dog in some of my previous pictures) saved Zoe's (black dachshund) life no doubt.

But now Vanessa says we need to watch for the Puff Adder's mate.  And I said I just hope they didn't have eggs so we have "cute little baby" puff adders running/slithering around.

By the way, in case you wondered- yes I did touch it and it was very rough on the top- the scales feel like they are bent up around the edges.  On the bottom the scales are smooth- long and thin rather than diamond shaped and run horizontal and when you life them up there is a soft skin underneath.  It looks like they move with the snake as it crawls.

One week later I was called to come and see the python that was as big as a truck tire.  Unfortunately one of the guys decided to throw rocks at it to scare it away and I didn't get there in time to take pictures (sorry Kyle and Tyler!).  Then Geraldo said he saw a cobra when he was coming in the gate to the church property and it raised up threateningly but he ran away.  We have had rain and the bush is starting to grow in some places.  So the critters are coming out!

A Walk to School Part 2

Sorry for the long delay in continuing this walk to school.  The internet signal has not been reliable or strong enough to load picture for quite a while- no matter what time of day, and there have been power outages due to rain/lightening/hail.  It takes about 12 minutes to load a picture and you have to pay attention because it might error out and waste your time and internet credit!

Back to the walk.  We head off the main road to the center of the settlement from the church property and take a short cut.  (I am dubious how short cut it is- it might take 3 less minutes and is a more adventurous walk- I am looking for snakes on the ground and in the trees all the while)

Sometimes the boys go off ahead on their own, sometimes we all walk together.

Sometimes three go ahead and I get some time one on one with one of the kids- in this case I am with Chantell while Geraldo, William, and Sharifa go ahead.  The mornings can be quite cool- so long sleeves, hats, scarves, jackets.  But they come off by 10 am and shorts are needed by 12 except on the coldest days in the winter and then at mid-day a long sleeve shirt and pants are still plenty.

This is the remains of the school in Kalkfeld.  I believe it was started by GK Wahl a private citizen.  For some reason the hostel was built across the highway- a 20 minute walk away- perhaps the government built it and there were land ownership issues.  When the government took over the school, the buildings were moved to the location by the hostel and the foundation is all that remains.  Probably 20 years ago.  

 

This is on the other side of the dirt road we are walking on, across from the area where the school was.  This is the small Afrikaans speaking/coloured Lutheran Church.  The larger/black Lutheran church is in the "location" and services are in Damara and Otjiherero.  Neither have a Pastor.  At the larger church the deacons/elders preach and a Pastor comes every quarter to give communion. At the smaller church, they only hold service when a Pastor can come and give communion (once a quarter?).

When we have communion at the Congregational church sometimes the members of the Lutheran church come.  Before I got here the elders of the Congregational church would preach except when a visiting Congregational Pastor would come and give communion. When the Lutheran church had their quarterly communion they would go to there.

The small building in the back is the latrine (no running water).  There are slat windows at the top in the shape of a cross for ventilation (I don' know why I find that interesting.)