Fall semester and Christmas 2015

Here are just a few snapshots from the last few months. Most of these are actually with my relatives. What a blessing to have cousins fifteen minutes away! They have made a (sometimes lonely) college life more bearable with their friendship and support.

A church picnic in September.

One weekend, I had the privilege of going along with some students to the home of Jacob (on the right). It was great to meet Jacob's family and get better acquainted with some of my fellow students. I was the "lone ranger between two couples"!

Some of the fall scenery at Penn View.

Another weekend, my Aunt Kezia and Uncle Chris visited Uncle Fain, so I went over to see them. We ladies worked on preparing crafts for VBS's my relatives were planning to hold on a missions trip to Guatemala. 

My cousin Candace with two of Aunt Kezia's children: Matthew and Lydia. It was fun to get to meet little Matthew.

Somebody wanted to send a picture of we cousins who helped Uncle Piet the first year in Namibia. The only one who didn't go the second time was Nathaniel, on the left.

I got to go home for Thanksgiving and of course, for Christmas. It was fun to go walking through the fields again, under the big Colorado sky.

While I was home for Christmas break, I got to see my friends at Federal Heights.

Beautiful sunset as I headed back for Penn View. (I think this was in Charlotte, where I lost my cell phone! I never did find out where it ended up. I have a different one now.)

Belated post--trip from Namibia to South Africa

This was supposed to have been posted a long time ago. I thought about just deleting it, but someone wanted me to post it anyway. So here it is, for the benefit of anyone interested!
 The morning we started for South Africa, we had a lot of stuff to pack. It was interesting trying to figure out how to get seven people and lots of camping gear into this five-seater Land Cruiser and camping trailer. We had to pack tents, bedding, cooking stuff, lawn chairs, etc.

 

The last tent to come down.

 Under Uncle Piet's direction, the boys had to pack and repack the top of the Land Cruiser to get everything to fit.

 Finally tying down the load. There was stuff packed in the back of the Land Cruiser too, with just enough room for two people to lie down on top. There wasn't room to sit up straight!

 Some baboons we saw along the road.

 Our first night, we young people stayed in the same tent-houses we had stayed in on our way north. Uncle Piet and Aunt Hester stayed overnight with acquaintances of theirs who lived nearby. For supper, we feasted on sandwiches. You can be sure that before going to bed, we girls thoroughly checked our beds to be sure there were no spiders! No more spider bites, thank you!

Candace and I enjoy our tea at a restaurant the next morning. The secretary of the Bible Society of Namibia treated our whole group to breakfast. He thanked us for helping get Bibles to places that the Bible Society has been unable to reach. 

 A stop by the road side for lunch.

The second night, we stayed in these cabins at a hotel complex in the middle of Botswana.

 Inside the cabin we girls stayed in.

After crossing the border into South Africa on Friday, we camped Friday night and Saturday night in a small game park. We saw quite a few animals there. Here are a couple female kudu.  I want to maybe add more animal pictures but for now I will post this.