Another Update

Knightly News Update
August 16, 2005

This weekend we had a whirlwind trip from Lubango to Rio de Huila to Humpata to Namibe! The weekend started out with Dr. Steve Collins picking us up here at Mitcha, in Lubango to take us out to Rio de Huila, as Peter and Areni Ritchie invited us out for the day. The boys, Meagan and Pete went out to the hospital to watch Dr. Collins do an eye operation. I stayed behind and helped Areni sew an outfit for a gal going to a wedding on the Saturday. It turned out very nice. Gave me the spark I needed to start sewing again, unfortunately I didn’t pack any patterns in the container, I gave them all away! We had a lovely lunch at the Ritchie’s and when Dr. Collins was finished his surgeries we headed out to Humpata where he lives and spent the night at his house!

In the morning we drove to Namibe! This was the boys and my first time seeing where we are going to live (when the container arrives and we can get settled there). The Leba Pass is an amazing road down the side of an escarpment with at least 60 switchbacks, it is beautiful! Along the way we saw a springbok (not common in the Namibe desert), baboons (apparently another uncommon sight), and some other sights that I will never forget. Took lots of pictures! In Namibe we went to meet some of Steve Collins friends, it is nice to have some contacts for when we move there, and then it was off to the internet café. We went to the beach and the boys played in the water while we relaxed and ate lunch. Then we went to see the house we will move into when we arrive in Namibe. It looks great, needs a little work, but it looks like they are going to help us with that. We had a chance to visit with the Pastor in Namibe and we are looking forward to settling in and getting to know him and his family better. They are very nice folk. After the visit to our house we were off to the farm, Agro Sul, in the beautiful Giraul River valley. The Joubert family welcomed us for the weekend and we really enjoyed our visit with them. They have 3 boys, Evert (9), Johann (7), and Neile (5) and our boys had a wonderful time with them. They went out hunting for fossils first thing, found shark teeth, dinosaur teeth, and shells in the rocks around the farm!

On Saturday morning Pete and Strauss went into town to do some farm business. Sanette and I visited while Steve read and the boys explored around the farm. In the afternoon all the boys went fishing (they saw a cobra) caught some small fish but nothing worth keeping. Pete brought back some mussels which he cooked up back here at Mitcha. We are looking forward to the seafood at the coast.

Sunday morning we headed back to Humpata and went for a hike with a group (including our girls) from Lubango that met us at Steve’s house. It was nice to see some new sights around the dam near Humpata. It is heading into spring here and the leaves look like they do in the fall back in Eastern Canada. It is beautiful. In the evening we came back into Lubango and went to a bible study with a group of missionaries from several different organizations.

Monday, Pete went to the praca and did some shopping and while he was gone Steve Collins showed up to take us out and about. So the boys and I went for a drive with him, trying to find a farm (didn’t find the right one) and then downtown and up the hill to a place where a missionary family is building a house on the hillside. It overlooks the city of Lubango, it is a beautiful sight. It was another nice day (out and about).

Well, this is a glimpse into our lives! Be sure to write and tell us what you are doing and feel free to ask questions, we’ll try to answer them!

Prayer Requests:
Visa Renewal for the girls (almost overlooked that… they came in 2 weeks ahead of us)
Container Arrival
Smooth import of the contents of our container
Language Teacher
Adjustment for our family
Production of Agro Sul (the farm at Giraul River)

Praise Items:
Many new friends
Some new Portuguese words every day
Seeing the faithfulness of God in our lives on a daily basis
Health and safety
Relatively smooth adjustment to the climate and culture

Thank you all for your prayers. We’ll keep you posted as we adjust to our new life here in Angola!
God Bless,
Charlene for the rest of the Knightly’s