The country of Namibia is old German Southwest Africa. It was given up by Germany following its loss in World War I in 1918 and made a protectorate of South Africa by the League of Nations. Following World War II the United Nations asked South Africa to make the area a protectorate of the UN. However, South Africa refused to recognize the UN request and ruled Namibia as a proxy state. Finally the UN passed a mandate in 1968 that formed the nation of Namibia. No problem, South Africa refused to recognize the UN mandate also and continued to rule Namibia by force of arms. This led to the rise of SWAPO the "South West Africa People's Organization" a revolutionary (largely Marxist in belief) that fought for independence from South Africa. South Africa rule by force including instituting the doctrine of "Apartheid" or "Apartness" -- meaning forced separation of races and assignment of living areas by the whites in control of South Africa's national government. Finally, after 20 years of revolution and the Global institution of trade sanctions against South Africa (during the Reagan Administration), South Africa in 1988 recognized Namibia as a separate country.
Virtually ALL of Namibia is desert "technically speaking." Some of it rivals the great deserts of the world - miles and miles of sand. A great deal of it reminds me of "West Texas ... with mountains." The most northerly section of Namibia (which is the wettest and the major agricultural region of the nation) receives 450-550 ml of rain per year. That is 45-55 centimeters which is ~ 18-21 inches of rainfall per year - and average of 1.5-1.75 inches per month.
The pictures above show the igneous rock (volcanic rock) that forms one range of mountains in the most southerly section of Namibia. The rocks are largely granites.
Driving past the area above it looked like a conglomerate rock. A bunch of rock "glued" together by sand and pressure.
On both of the mountain faces above you can see areas of metamorphosis that has occurred. In the top picture it is in an igneous rock face; in the lower one it is in a sandstone face. It is the area that looks "bent down" right in the middle. This is caused by the heat and pressure of rock that used to be on top of it.
The 3 pictures above kind of look like the Grand Canyon in shades of brown to gray brown to dark purples instead of sand, ochre, oranges and reds. These are sandstone cliff facing but the basic igneous rock that make up the sandstone has a different chemical composition than the Southwest US. The greenery is because the border between South Africa and Namibia is the Orange River (Oranje Rivier in Afrikaans)
As you see after the Orange River you enter into the first of the two Greater Deserts in Namibia - The Namib Desert from which the country gets its name. The other desert farther north and east of the Karas Region (of which Keetmanshoop is the capital) is the famous Kalahari Desert
The above 2 pictures are the ones that remind me soooo much of the "miles and miles of miles and miles" of West Texas fame. Semi-arid land with its very own variety of "sagebrush" (it isn't actually sagebrush but it sure looks like it as you drive by.
We came to Keetmanshoop this time because the last time we were here 3 years ago Irene told the church if we ever got to come back again she would do some teaching with the kids. So, she put together a "Super Saturday" for the church kids -- 5 lessons in one day: Noah, Abraham, Jesus in Gethsemane, Jesus' Death on the Cross and Jesus' Resurrection. Additionally, today she taught the ladies at a "Ladies Day" with the Theme "Can Christ Be Seen in Me?"
The Super Saturday went really well. There was true culture shock for Irene when she gave out activities that had stickers on them. The kids had never seen or used stickers before. They didn't know what to do. A teenage girl told Irene that something like stickers was "a once in a life time experience for them!" I guess even SHE had never used them before then. The kids had a great time. The total session was 2 1/2 hours long. Irene said they were the best behaved kids she had E-V-E-R taught. They were totally enraptured by the pictures of each of the five stories that she projected up on the wall. They don't have a movie theater in town (or within 125 miles), so seeing pictures THAT BIG on the wall was amazing. They hung on to every word she spoke and were as quiet as a church mouse.
We also did some other teaching on the family - Sandra and Rohan had separate classes for the men and ladies on "Is Christ Seen in Your Home?" I had a very frank class on keeping yourself sexually pure for the teens and young adults. I also taught on "Bringing Hope to the Hopeless" - (i.e. - the need to be evangelistic) and tomorrow morning the class I'm teaching is on "The Church's Hope for the Future - Raising Believing Children."
We head back to Cape Town tomorrow after morning services and will stay the night along the way (It's a 12-14 hour drive straight through which we do NOT want to do). So, we will arrive in Cape Town on Monday in the afternoon. Do our laundry (maybe) rest for a while and then on Tuesday we leave Cape Town to fly back to Mission, Texas via Johannesburg, South Africa; Madrid, Spain, Chicago, Illinois and Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. We arrive in McAllen, Texas LATE on the 5th. We do our laundry (if not done in Cape Town); Get the mail that's been held for a month in Florida at our mail forwarding service); Rest for ONE DAY (the 6th) and then fly to Highland, California to take part in our first sojourn of the year. I will preach the gospel meeting as part of the sojourn that actually begins tomorrow.
