Back in Namibia and Loving It!

After a wonderful month and a half long vacation at home we are back in Namibia. We are settled in our new house in Tsumeb and absolutely loving it!! We do miss Nkurenkuru and Kavango a lot, but Tsumeb is a really nice place to live. It is the middle of the rainy season here, so everything is growing and green. Tsumeb is especially green because there are lots of big trees, making for very beautiful neighborhoods and streets. (yes we have neighborhoods and streets in Tsumeb!) Tsumeb is a bigger town so we are enjoying having all the stores and groceries we need right here, and not having to travel to Rundu every month to get necessities. Our house is wonderful; we are thoroughly enjoying all our new luxuries...and I am especially enjoying our new housemates Titus and Donny, Gary and Elizabeth’s dogs! Even more than that, we are really enjoying working for By Provision. Not having to go back to teach the first term of school was such a huge relief! Working for By Provision is much more relaxing and much more fulfilling for both of us.

In the past few weeks, Caleb has been helping organizing all the work equipment and doing various other things around the compound to get ready for drilling. Caleb and Gary went to check out possible drill sites near Rundu in the Kavango region and drilled for three days in a nearby village called Tsinsabis. I have been busy doing some fundraising and grant writing for By Provision well projects as well as the D.A.T. Home for orphans and disadvantaged Namibian teens that By Provision started last year. I also spent a week in Okahandja at a PC training to plan the Pre-Service Training for the new group of Peace Corps volunteers that will arrive in Namibia on February 18^th. I will be going back down to Okahandja to meet these new volunteers at the airport and be a part of their first week of training. This week Caleb and Gary will go back to Tsinsabis to finish up one remaining well, and then we will all head to the Rundu area for about a week to drill 3-6 wells. We are looking forward to being back in Kavango and getting the chance to speak a little Rukwangali! We are also hoping to get away from drilling for one day and travel back Nkurenkuru to see some of our friends and to check out some possible drill sites for later this year.

Although we miss family and friends always, I think we can both say that we are glad to be back in Namibia and very happy to be working with Gary and Elizabeth for By Provision. Last year we both felt like the change in assignment from teaching to working for By Provision would make the world of difference in our contentment living here and that has been confirmed after almost a month of living here again and working for By Provision. We are energized to be supporting an organization whose goals are to bring clean water and God’s love to people in need and to encourage and support young teens who do not have a stable place to live. We love the pace of life, the adventure, the new and interesting people we meet who are so warm and welcoming and working for such a fulfilling mission. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, and please remember – we LOVE getting letters, emails, pictures and chats from you! We may be far away, but it really makes our day to get an update from family and friends!

This is Gary and Elizabeth Wilkins, founders of By Provision and our generous hosts!
They are great people to work with and we are so thankful for their generosity
in giving us such a great place to stay!

My new BEST friends - Titus and Donny. Love them!

Our new digs! Thanks for the awesome hammock JD and Hope!

Our neighbors - the girls who live in the D.A.T. Home for orphaned and disadvantaged teens. They are a great group of girls and I look forward to getting to know them more and doing HIV/AIDS club with them this year.

Helping the girls start a garden! Soon we will be enjoying
cucumber, squash, zucchini and baby spinach!!

Caleb busy at work cleaning out the drill rig, getting ready to go drill!

Some community members in the Rundu area where we are going to go drill this week.