Swakopmund!

We're paying a late-night visit to Mrs. Venter to use her internet connection and do a quick blog post. We drove in from Windhoek yesterday morning and arrived in the early afternoon, stopping in a carvers' market enroute. Unlike last time, we knew that we would have plenty of chances to buy carved animals and jewellery, so we didn't buy very much but enjoyed a chance to see some African crafts and experience the African bartering. We were greeted in Swakopmund by Mervyn, Jen, and Marcelino -- it was great to see them all again!

We had a short break to grab lunch, then headed back to rehearsal before dinner with the Cantu Maluti from Free State South Africa and Mascato. We saw Lex again, too, which was exciting. We chatted with our Mascato friends over dinner. The highlight of the evening for me was hearing Mascato sing their arrangement of Ti Mama, with solos by Romano, Garth, and Dollar. We were all wiping tears away by the end!

When we performed, Jen sang the solo in her own arrangement of This Woman's Work, and we loved watching the reactions of the Mascato singers. It's obvious that they've come to love and appreciate our amazing Kinghorn as much as we do! We may have to fight to get her back.

This morning, after a bit of a fiasco with bus pick-up locations (Jenica and I passed the time and made some money with a little busking on the street corner), we all managed to meet back at Namib High and took off for Dune 7, one of the highest dunes in the world. We climbed and climbed and mostly made it to the top (though between the heat and the exertion, there were a few queasy stomachs along the way). We'll be picking sand out of various unmentionable crevices for days to come. Part of the group also found a little chameleon and took turns holding it.




We had a (not so quick) lunch in Walvis Bay before we came back for an afternoon rehearsal at Namib High. We finished off the day with a group dinner at the Lighthouse Restaurant right on the beach and now everyone's scattered off to billets' homes or to local establishments for a nightcap.

My internet access is a bit patchy at the moment but I'll do my best to post every other day!