this is finally Africa.

In the past few days it feels like I've finally gotten to experience some of what I imagined Africa to be like, or what I expected my experience here to involve. It's been an intense few days, for sure. God has really been opening my eyes to how different it is here, and how spoiled I've been, and just how ignorant I am. How sovereign He is.

On Monday we had a lady called Julie come and talk to us about AIDS – how it's spread, how many people are affected by it (1/4 of the population in Namibia has it; the 2nd highest in the world), what the public's perception of it is here. That afternoon we had another lady called Hanalie come and talk to us. She was a prostitute before she became a Christian. She's lost her
family's support due to the fact that she has AIDS. Her young child does too. Hers was a sad story, but also an amazing story of how God redeems lives – I can't even put into words how
cool her story was. She has such an amazing faith and a hope. She talked about forgiving her family for shunning her, for not living in the suffering of her disease but rather reaching out to people. She helps prostitutes that she used to work with and now works at a children's home in the poor part of Windhoek. We are actually going to visit her tomorrow and see the kids there.

On Monday afternoon after taking Hanalie back to her work, Mick's wife drove us through Katutura, which is the poorest section of Windhoek. This section of the city was started about 80 years ago because that is where the black people were forced to stay during apartheid. So even though apartheid was outlawed here in 1994, there are still people here that are hugely racist and that are very segregated. Katutura is still an extremely poor, dirty, and generally lowly looked upon area. It's crazy to think that if we'd come here 15 years ago, there would have been segregation, that it would have been completely inappropriate for us to interact with black Africans. So we drove through Katutura and most of the houses are just made out of zinc, a kind of metal that people cut into large sheets and bolt or string together with rope. I mean this is like the poorest of the poor. No electricity, dirt floors, no stoves or refrigerators or plumbing or any convenience. It's a really violent area and people are in constant fear. Needless to say it was a sobering and humbling experience.

Yesterday, Tuesday, we went early in the morning to what is called an AIDS testing center. This one is run by the Catholic Church and it's free. They test people for AIDS and HIV. We actually went through the whole process of getting counseled, asked questions, getting our blood taken (it was a finger prick) and seeing what our result was, whether or not we had HIV. I can't put this into enough words to describe what that was like. I have such a better understanding of what AIDS is, how it affects people, what the perception is, and what it's like to actually get tested for it. So very crazy and very amazing. After the testing 3 Namibian guys showed us around Katutura. We actually walked around the neighborhoods and in the markets. There were about 12 of us white people, and we got so many stares you wouldn't believe it. White people just don't come around those parts. It was an interesting experience for sure. We had lunch in that area, they had AMAZING bread!

We spent the afternoon yesterday hanging out with kids at a church's after school program. While we were waiting for the kids to get out of school, we were sitting around and one of our guides went to go buy some roasted worms. Yep! He came back from the store with a bag of
them and somehow convinced everyone in our group to eat one. I don't know how that happened! But I told myself I would regret not taking part in that experience. So I ate one. Head and all. It was super crunchy and black and tasted very chalky, but otherwise not much taste. The grossest part was that it was a worm, just the thought of that, not necessarily the taste. I gagged and almost spit it out, but finally swallowed it down with a bunch of water. So there you go!

Once the kids got there me and a few other girls went and read with some of the younger ones, they were 6 or 7. Some of them read to me a little (one's English was quite good) and then we spent the rest the time reading to them. It was my first real experience to just get to know a
few kids here and interact with them. They climb all over you and love to see your camera and love being in pictures and love being read to and have no sense of personal space! After their reading time was over they sang a few songs (gorgeous!) and then we played frisbee with them for the rest of the time. It was a good afternoon, but spending the whole day in Katutura was absolutely humbling and eye-opening.

That was what I really imagined when I thought of Africa. Here in Windhoek especially the gap between rich and poor is very wide, and you have Katutura 10 minutes away from very very expensive houses. Mick lives in upper middle class, basically, and that's where we've
been spending most of our time. To wrap up a very long post, God has been teaching me great things. Pray that I would keep my eyes and heart and mind open. I want to learn everything I can down here. I want to get my hands dirty and build relationships and cry and be joyful and be integrated in the culture. I want to be okay with making mistakes and doing things wrong and I want to suffer or rejoice along with these people. Thank you for your prayers. I ask you to continue them. I love you all.