I end with a picture for the future: Barney’s two crazy kids who always smile to the world. Vicky is now speaking in four different languages. She calls me “Nonatan”.

My brother Barney.

The biological father of the boy, Barney's brother.

Beautiful singing from the school kids.

Dephnie with her son. She was often coming to our house to clean when Barney was staying here.

Funeral

The funeral of Willanton took place outside the house where he used to live, also the house Barney grew up in. There were many kids singing and it was a very emotional event. The coffin was carried to the nearby cemetery and he was buried beside his grandmother. As the children sang and the men filled the grave of the young boy his grandfather, Barney’s father, could not bear it and ran crying towards the grave. Barney who is very professional but also a very emotional person held a speech not showing the tears behind his eyes. Back at the house we hugged and he cried briefly before pulling himself together again. After giving everyone at the funeral food he had to rush to Grootfontain to prepare the funeral of his wife’s aunt who past away the same day as Willanton. Death knows no timing.

Joseph and Joseph are providing good entertainment with their duels in 1500 m and 800 m. Joseph to the left (who is the best student in grade 9) is unfortunately always one step behind Joseph to the right (who neither care too much about school nor training).

The fastest girl under 12 years in 100m uses a special "speed suit".

Jackie, a.k.a. Jackson, 13 years old, is a strong athlete. He excels in sprint, long jump and volleyball. He is also a very nice kid.

Today Barney’s brother’s son got hit by a car passing trough Oshivelo and died. He was 10 years old. Hofni who I am now staying with (Barney is with his family in Grootfontain) had lived together with the boy for seven years, they were like brothers and Barney was their father. The boy sometimes came to our house to visit us. The kids were crying in school today. Too many people die too early in this country!

Ameb's older brother. He can not write his own name but he can cook nice food. Many times that is more important.

Messa, 5 minutes before he is running 1500 m.

He has put his tongue were he is missing one of his front teeth.

Iiyambo, the teacher. He is serious about sport and my biggest asset in Oshivelo.

I was promised a (live) goat (300$) delivered in the morning on Saturday but because “yes, don’t worry I will take care of it”, “yes, yes, of course” and “trust me”, even if it’s told to your face by your friend, doesn’t mean that it will happen, the goat was not delivered. Everything went well in the end and the participants got their meat and Ameb (the genitor at the school) and his brother came and cooked for us.

Workshopping

Hello! I haven’t been writing for a while now. I have actually been busy with assignments and reports (yeah, my work is not all practical:) ). Now I have some more pictures for you and I promise to write something very soon (to be creative in front of the computer is not easy in this heat (and no, it is not cool in the nights)). I and my SCORE colleague and friend Pemiah from Zimbabwe (who was here for a week) held a workshop for youth in the local community this weekend. Some of the topics were self-confidence, to be a good role model, leadership and planning sport activities. We had a good time all of us and already in two weeks will we do a follow up workshop dealing with “sport administration”.