Bead Training in Keetmanshoop and Rehoboth

Last week on Sunday I traveled to Rehoboth and Keetmanshoop. Rehoboth is about 2 hours from Okahandja and Keetmanshoop is about 6 hours from here! I was able to give a lift to a volunteer from Germany who is staying Rehoboth. It was nice to visit on the way down. I spent the night in Rehoboth on the way down, and was off to Keetmans at 9:00AM (alone). I cranked up the tunes and bounced down the highway... stopping for brunch in Mariental.

After arriving in Keetmans I spent a little time with Susanna (the Care and Compassion Coordinator) and shared some ideas with her and gave her some bead books to look through. Then I spent some time visiting with the Ark staff and volunteers. It was nice to spend time with Rita (the house mother... she is from Belgium and doesn't feel confident in English, but we still had a great time visiting!!).

On Tuesday morning the Care and Compassion ladies began to arrive at 8:30AM, they went for a devotional time and I spent that time organizing their bead room. Around 9:30 they returned and we began a day of learning new beading designs. It was great... in pairs they learned a new stitch... so all together they learned 3 new stitches. The end result was beautiful... I am just hoping that they can get it started again! They were going to stay until 1 PM but ended up staying until 5PM. It was a long day, but fruitful! In the evening, Rita and I went to a restaurant in town and spent several hours visiting!

Wednesday morning I headed back to Rehoboth for another training. Okahandja spotted them some supplies to get started. Four volunteers, 2 local ladies (who will work with Care and Compassion) as well as the Ministry Coordinator, Marlene, learned to bead in the afternoon when I arrived. I taught one stitch and they all did very well. They will be able to help each other, but I will return and show them some more in the next couple of weeks. Since it is only 2 hours away! After bead training I was on the road to Windhoek, and spent the night with Berdian and Juliet. We had a nice evening visiting.

Thursday morning I was off to the airport (after having Berdian change a flat tire, going to get it fixed and picking up Meagan) to deliver a TAAG ticket for a gentleman who flew in from Canada and was to continue on to Angola. Unfortunately his luggage did not arrive from Johannesburg, but hopefully they will send it up on the next TAAG flight to Lubango on Sunday! After the airport run, Meagan and I did some shopping in town, and then we met up with Pete (who had been in Rehoboth to help with a container), but since he had more to do in Windhoek we went home. In the evening we went to a restaurant for Valentines Day... at first we went out and they had no space... every restaurant in Windhoek and Okahandja was FULLY BOOKED! Valentines is a big day around here! Okahandja Lodge had a cancellation so we ended up being able to go for dinner together.

Well, it has been a long week and after all the traveling and stuff I woke to find myself completely exhausted on Friday... so I took a day off! It was nice! Totally relaxing! Feeling better today!

Blessings,
Charlene