Happy New Year

Dear Friends,
Happy New Year to you.
We returned from an amazing trip to Namibia on the 30th of December to bring in a quite New Years in Mwandi. We were totally exhausted after long days of driving in Namibia, but we had a great time. What an amazing , diverse country. From forests, to rocky ranges ,desert to sea. We started off heading to Estosha National Park and spent a few days there at a lovely lodge on the South end of the park. We saw allot of animals and Lucy loved the Zebra and springboks . We then headed for the coast through the desert and had two blow outs on the coast road leaving us stranded hoping and waiting for someone to come!!! It really is quite deserted out there and the closest town(camp) was 40 km on the salt coast road. So windy and cool and Lucy was quite oblivious to what was going on and that we may have to spend a night sleeping in the car.

Anyway, some fisherman came to our rescue and lucky had a Toyota tyre on the back of their ute they were taking to a fishing camp way up the coast near the Angolan border. So they let us use the tyre and we organised a place to drop it in Swakopmund . We had Christmas in Swakopmund , a German  town in the middle of a desert!!!.. And then headed back to Etosha before heading home to Mwandi. We traveled over 4500km but really loved exploring the countryside of  Namibia.I can highly recommend Namibia for a holiday.

On the trip we found that Lucy has two new loves - Play school and Wiggles ( kids TV shows ) She never liked watching them, but now we cant keep her away.!!! ( we took my portable DVD player and taped it to the back of the car seat to keep her occupied for the 7 hr days of driving.)
 
Its been so hot here in Mwandi for the past few weeks and no rain so please pray for rain for us out here in Mwandi. The crops were looking so good but this week the leaves are starting to weep and dry.

The OVC Project has been really busy. last week the sewing group that started in May had their graduation and that was a fun afternoon for students and quests. We are currently advertising for new classes to start at the end of January.

We are currently building a staff eating area so that  keeps me busy with building, so I have to keep pushing the builders to get jobs done on time.

School started this week so we are busy running pregnancy tests for the grades 8,9,10 11 and 12 students we sponsor.
Pre-school started this week too and many new faces attending pre-school in the mornings.
Lifaliza, Namachana and Mutafela head back to school this week coming at Choma so we are getting all their bags packed for the term. They are looking amazing and understanding so much more. We are so proud of them and I know that they love the boarding school.

I spend a few hours each morning unpacking boxes and helping the store man with up grading of the asset register. We are so blessed with all the wonderful items that came in that container.

Feeding Program is pretty full on this week with kids coming and going back to school. I have given Gertrude a big list of cleaning jobs for the children on Saturday morning as the grass is knee high around the project. Looking a bit dead but its still high and doesn't look very nice. So all the big children will be slashing all the lawns at the front and side of feeding hall on Saturday.

The garden is producing some maize,beans, eggplants and okra this time of year. Tomatoes and cabbages do struggle in the rains. But we keep trying.

We are going to head up to Lusaka in a few weeks to purchase allot of project needs - and Sewing machines for our micro-finance program. We are finally getting the machines so we can start this very important program. I shall let you know how it all goes once we get the machines and interview clients.

We all appreciate your love and support and pray that it continues.

If anyone is interested in supporting students at school please let me know, as we have about 50 children that need support that we do not have any sponsors for them yet.

Till next time
Fiona ( Fred )