Looks pretty dry, doesn’t it? It is. Our new home is dry, dry, dry. The first few weeks, we had to slather on lotion twice a day to keep from feeling itchy all the time. There were some bloody noses, and we had to adjust to the over 5,000 foot altitude of Windhoek. Our neighborhood is pretty hilly, and after we bought our standard shift truck, there was a lot of grinding of gears as we re-learned to drive a stick shift on steep hills.
We are so appreciative of all who prayed for a 
smooth entry into Namibia for us. There were no problems at all. This country has just over 2 million people, and is very protective (rightfully so) of the jobs of their population. It can be difficult for foreigners to enter. However, God provided the work permits we needed at just the right time so we could come for the handover from our colleagues. Our house is in a middle-class suburb on a busy road, with taxis passing by constantly (a plus, since you can step outside the gate and hail one to take you downtown for about 80 cents US. I took our puppy to the vet in one of those taxis and no one batted an eye.) We can see the beautiful mountains surrounding the city from our hill, and we love to see the city lights from our windows at night. Crime is about the same as in Moz, so we have burglar bars, big dogs and a secure gate, but an electronic security system instead of a guard who stands outside (or sleeps outside more usually).
There are a lot of wealthy people in this city and therefore there are 3 nice malls, and lots of “nice things” we can take advantage of. We are enjoying those. However, there is also a huge poor section of the city where, when we drove through recently, Ben exclaimed “This looks just like Mozambique!”. The houses are rather different though, as you can see. Those tin shacks must be incredibly hot in the Namibian sun. We compare the climate here to New Mexico though we’ve never lived there. You try to stay out of the sun between 10 and 3, though it cools down at night.
Here in Windhoek, we also enjoyed taking over ownership of the house dog 
(as in comes with the house, not lives in the house) Molly, a 10 year old Great Dane who is the sweetest thing. Quite a crime deterrent too.
It’s funny, so many things are familiar to us, even after 20 years away (we lived in Namibia from 1994-1996). And the biggest surprise? Afrikaans is still the main language though almost everyone also speaks English. We are brushing up on our Afrikaans skills, long forgotten, and enjoying getting settled into our new house, with plenty of room for visitors. All of our trunks arrived safely from Moz, and it is nice to have a few familiar things though there hasn’t really been time to arrange those yet. After the thorough training by our predecessors, it was time to jump feet first into personnel care and support, our main job here. – C
Kevin & Cami in Southern Africa 
