March 19th mass mailer
Hi Everybody!

It's hard to believe that I am in Africa! These last two weeks I have been staying at Mick & Suzanne Rineer's house. Mick is the country director of all the AIM missionaries. The first week there were three of us girls who were in orientation that were staying there. Aimee from Pennsylvania and Kelly from Australia were my roommates. I was very thankful to be able to have some instant friends that were going through the same transition that I was! They and their five children were great at helping me feel right at home.

I am finally in Rundu (ROON-doo). The Griedanus' (Rob & Alisa and their five children) and I arrived here Saturday afternoon. It was a good drive down from Windhoek (VIND-hook), Alisa and I were able to do a lot of talking and getting to know each other. God has truly blessed me with this wonderful family. Right now I am living right next door to them. They have been feeding me (since I don't have groceries or even dishes at this point) and it has been so nice to not have to worry about how to feed myself! The trip down was also nice because we were able to see some animals. There were baboons sitting on fenceposts, ostriches and at one point a pair of camels but I think those might have been someone's pets because I don't think they are native to this area.

The trip was much less exciting that their first trip to Rundu when they hit a warthog! As you travel to Rundu there are signs along the road that have pictures of warthogs that really do mean that there are warthogs in the area and you need to be careful of one running out in front of you! How many people can say they have run into a warthog?!?! (In case you are wondering it crumpled the bumper pretty bad but all the people were ok, the warthog however did not make it.)

The house I am in is not where I will be living permanently but it will be home for the first three months while I am learning Kwangali (kwan-gallee) then I will be living in hospital provided housing. It is a little difficult here in the meantime as I am trying to set up a home and don't know what I should and should not buy since I don't know what kind of housing I will receive in the near future. I have lots of new pets. The Johnson's left me with two dogs, five chickens, one lizard (he lives outside but likes the doorjamb as a place of rest, I sometimes am 'locked' out of the house because I won't go anywhere near where he is!) and plenty of cockroaches! These unfortunately are inside the house. They aren't the big black ones like in the states, they are little brown things that are easy to squish. The result however is that I don't walk around the house barefoot (yet) and I have to keep my pant legs hiked up because I fear one running up my pants!

For those of you who are wondering, the week of orientation went well. It was interesting to learn some of the culture and history and be able to go on tours of some of the important places here in Windhoek. We also had quite an education on HIV/AIDS. We had a case study, a speaker that is HIV+, and we actually went to a HIV testing center and went through the testing and counseling process (my test was negative). It was a good experience and I am glad that I have done it, though my response to it surprised me. Though I knew I didn't really have any risk factors I was still nervous and had a feeling of shame. It was interesting. Like I said I am glad that I have done it and will be able to counsel people on the process and even how they might feel during the process! (Who said leading by example was always best?!)

Today we went to church at the local EBC church. It was a 4 hour service and over half of it was singing. WOW can those women sing! When we arrived , bringing our own chairs, the choir created two lines and escorted us in with singing and dancing! It was quite an honor! They also sang us a hello brothers and sisters we welcome and accept you song. Again, it was quite an honor. I was asked to say a few words to the congregation. As I shared with most of you the church was started in Angola and brought down to Namibia during the wars in Angola so they speak a different language than the Namibians. It is Luchazi (loo-cha-zee) and the entire service was in it! What a blessing that they had one of the members translating for us! I can't imagine trying to preach a sermon one or two sentences at a time and waiting for someone to translate it! But they did and it was wonderful! Afterwards there was a lot of handshaking and me just smiling because I didn't even know how to say hello! And of course there was a bit of me playing with the kids. They are always the easiest to connect with since they love to play! The one thing that struck me last time I was in Africa that kids everywhere are just kids. They love to smile and play and have fun!

This week has in store for me a little bit of cleaning (though they left the house very clean I have been killing bugs everywhere and need to spray for bugs then sweep and mop) and unpacking and settling in. I also have to do more shopping for some of the basics like sugar and flour. Did any of you think that I was going to ever say I was tired of shopping? Setting up a household can be tiresome at best but when you don't know what the brands are and what is good quality it can be quite stressful! I am glad that I am almost all settled. I am hesitant to buy too much furniture though since I don't know what the hospital housing is going to be like. There are a few things though like a bedside table and lamp that I get to go look for this week that can go anywhere.

I will write a little more later but it is after midnight and I need to get some rest. I think that I am getting sick. I have had a sore throat for a few days now.

Lots of love,
kimmie

p.s. please remember not to send me any forwards with attachments. Internet is slow here and charged by the minute so it can be quite expensive to try to download anything large. Thanks for your help with this!

p.p.s. My contact information is as follows. My cell number is 081-303-0207, and 264 is the country code. It is free for me to receive calls! For those of you in GA I am 7 hours ahead of you and from NM I am 9 hours ahead of you. Please keep this in mind if you decide to call. I do have a P.O. Box but I don't know what it is. The address on the back of my prayer card is an acceptable address to use. There are two or three boxes and they are all under the mission's name so it doesn't really matter and the three houses are next to each other so mail would get to me even if it wasn't 'mine'.

Kimmie Tibbetts
Serving the people of Namibia at the Rundu State Hospital
http://thekimmieconnection.tripod.com