Progress Report: 4 Months in Africa Living in Namibia

We arrived in Namibia March 14, and here we are July 9 with many life changes, updates and stories to share. I'll form this in a bit of a bullet pointed fashion to share details in a way that helps those who are also considering a shift such as this.

The Kids are OK! One of the questions we get regularly is how the kids are doing. Our kids are quite young, so they are adapting easily. The baby girl is 2 years old and has now mastered her potty training. She initially began that back in Denver last fall and was successful until MOM made the mistake of celebrating too loudly, and she got upset and quit on me. Now she's back at it again and loves the celebration together every time she succeeds. Our 5-year-old son is working phonics in home-school, has weekly playdates with two little boys down the street, and has bi-weekly fun with two girls from another family that moved here from the U.S. The kids love outings to the mall, the arcade at Muera Mall, the open-air park area at Grove Mall, and walks around the neighborhood. They play in dirt almost daily except when it's way too cold. They also have a great relationship with the nanny, who helps out to make sure we have time to work. Just as in Denver, we're at home all the time with them, so they can see us working and say hello or ask for help. We still put the baby girl down to her naps because she loves to fall asleep, feeling mom or dad holding her.

Yes, it gets cold here. I'm not playing. After our trip up north back in May, we returned home to freezing weather and had not yet purchased anything to help us except firewood. We quickly learned that the wood-burning stoves didn't heat entire rooms well, and the one in our room got smoke everywhere.

This morning, it was 34 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 2 degrees Celsius. I wake up and put on a scarf and a thick robe. My kids wear robes, slippers, and sometimes hats in the house. We do not have central heating and cooling, and I'm learning many or most homes may not have this. We had friends over recently and asked them how they keep warm. They said electric blankets. My nanny said she heats charcoal outside the house and then brings the bucket of coals to the middle of the home to help warm it up. We bought electric heaters that look like radiators and use water inside the coils to send out warm air. When I take my shower, I crouch in front of those things to stay warm because the house has such high ceilings and large rooms that never really warm up.

When I asked people why they don't have central heat, they said it isn't a priority because winter is short, and it doesn't bother them enough to invest in it. Everywhere I go, people complain about the cold in the morning, so I do think it bothers them, but it does warm up by noon most days. During the coldest week was when the kids ended up sick. Nothing we did kept them warm enough, and it was overcast for a long time.

In the US, we have always had central heating. Clearly, in Michigan and Denver, where we lived, it was necessary because it was colder most of the year and could reach unlivable conditions. I always knew that I would walk out of the heated building to the heated car and into the heated home, so I was only actually cold for a few minutes as I went from building to building. This experience of cold is new to me because of that experience. However, it doesn't snow here, and there is no experience of needing things like snow boots and gloves unless you want to insulate yourself from the winds during the coldest hours. People do wear winter coats, hats and winter boots here.

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We've invested in one business and working on a second. The first business we invested in was an agricultural-related company. The woman who leads the company believes Yah has given her understanding that there is a famine coming and that she must prepare her business and get up and running quickly because she must get going before the US dollar collapses. Remember how I said people are openly Christian and spiritual here? The business already owns a massive food dehydrator. We provided cash to help her seek out agricultural contracts to purchase food for the dehydrator, along with other materials required to start packaging dehydrated food. Most of the food in Namibia comes from outside the country, and her goal is to get the company going and acquire farmland that she can use to grow food for the business. Dried foods are much more shelf-stable for longer times and maintain the nutrition better than canned. Frozen foods require freezer space, and not everyone has freezers here. It's important to be able to store food now, and to ensure the country isn't reliant on imports, which is a risk if other countries need to keep their goods to themselves for a while during a dry period.

The other business we are investing in (paperwork pending) is a delivery service. Windhoek and the surrounding cities, such as Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, don't have services like Instacart, Uber Eats, and the like. These are areas with wealthy populations and nearly zero competition. Once we get it going, we will be acquiring the delivery vehicles, building the app, and setting up a strategy and structure for the new delivery service to thrive. It has existed for a while, but the demand was too much for this fledgling startup to keep up with on just one car and one man. The expansion will allow him to go back and renew his contracts with the capabilities to really get the work done. This company also will look to acquire farmland and grow food to deliver to the community. This local farming is a big deal because Namibia's goal at this time is to grow its agricultural sector, and they are seeking investment in that area. There is a great opportunity in agriculture here.

Still waiting for that employment visa: The best route to becoming legally able to stay in Namibia is to receive an employment visa. To do this, you can invest in a local business and request a visa to help work in the business, or you can start your own business and begin working there. The application was put in mid-May, so it hasn't yet been two months of processing. The majority of the time spent on the application was dealing with the legal firm back and forth to collect information and compile all required documents for the Ministry of Home Affairs and NIPDB to review and approve us. If you're planning to do this, plan on it taking many months because if you don't know what you're doing, it takes help, and that help takes a while to go back and forth to complete the paperwork. We actually sent all the information we thought we needed back when we were still in Denver, which is what you're supposed to do. You can get the application done while out of the country. We arrived thinking the application would be put in right away and ended up having even more back and forth to finish it while we were here. This meant having to deal further with immigration attorneys to help us figure out visa extensions and legalities. It's nerve-wracking, really. So remember, just because you're sent here by The Most High doesn't mean you won't have a little anxiety in the process of awaiting important documents.

As a note, our business, Shofar Business Consultants, helps connect investors with business opportunities here that are open for investment and willing to negotiate things like helping with your employment or business visas in exchange for you being part of the company and assisting with expertise and funding.

My top things that are different here:

• Meat - The meat scene at the grocery store is different. We don't eat pork, so there are limited options for other types of sausages in the grocery store. We found that Food Lover's Market always carries beef sausage in 1-2 flavors, and sometimes they have chicken. It's a thin breakfast sausage-style link. They don't have options I've seen for beef hot dogs or beef sausages like a ballpark-style sausage. We miss that. The taste of meat and sausage is also quite different as they use different seasonings here. They have something called Biltong, their most popular jerky option, and that comes in beef. So basically, our diet is chicken and beef, and on rare occasions, we also find Salmon at the store and get that.

• Eggs - The eggs here are farm-fresh and unrefrigerated. They are kept on the shelf and don't need refrigeration. When that's the case, you have to get used to understanding dates and bad eggs. Bad eggs look and smell bad, and you can do a float test to see which ones sink and know if they are okay before you cook them. We eat eggs pretty fast, so we generally don't have any issues ever seeing a bad egg.

• Left-hand driving - Namibia drives on the left-hand side of the road and uses kilometers for speed, so you'll need to practice that. There is also a lot of passing on the roads, and it can be scary because there are reports of head-on collisions due to the passing behavior. It's still rare, but it's a caution to be aware of. I never got on the highway in Denver without seeing an accident, and some were so bad we couldn't understand how someone got enough speed to get in the predicament of being upside down on a highway that was backed up with traffic. I always assumed they went mad and tried to bash their way through somehow. Here, it's literally because there is one lane, and cars can go super slow or very fast on the same highway. The designated passing spots do come around, but people are not patient to wait for them and take chances getting into the opposite lane.

• Parking lot attendants - There are literally parking lot attendants at every store. It's common to have men who are stationed in the parking lot at the store just to direct cars where to park and monitor. They will sometimes take the shopping carts and put them away also. This is not common where I have lived and traveled in the US. I feel like I've never seen it anywhere in my life.

• Door security - Nearly every store has security at the door. They monitor going in and out and may ask you to show your receipt and dig through the bags. It's sort of like Costco, but everywhere. Not all stores will check the receipts, but this is a normal thing to see men standing at the entry at a post.

• Electric fences - Just like in South Africa, everywhere you go, the homes will have electric fences. We haven't been everywhere, but generally, these are seen all over the place and in all neighborhoods. Either the neighborhood complex has a fence around it and a gate, or the home itself has a high gate and electric fence.

• Less medical paperwork - In our experience of visiting medical offices, we have found that there are a couple of pieces of paper to deal with, and this is all that's required. There may be more for insurance holders (they call this medical aid), but there are no extensive forms, agreements, or HIPAA documents. My kid's doctor is from New York, and he said things are done very differently, some for the benefit of the kids because they don't want to make children go through trauma for medical tests. He felt our US ways could be more effective and also more secure with all the paperwork, but I was happy that when my little girl had an issue, we didn't need to go through what he described he'd be doing in New York to check on her. She was fixed in just a day, thanks to the easier method.

• Spirituality - In the US, I always kept my beliefs to myself and didn't feel comfortable sharing them. Here, most people appear to be Christians and are quite obvious about it. I've been in serious business meetings and had scriptures brought up or spiritual things discussed. At the hair salon, Christian music videos were playing and people were singing and praising all around me. I told the hairdresser I was divinely inspired to come to Namibia, and she celebrated the fact that The Voice of Yah had sent me here.

• Real estate is more affordable - It's not cheap here by any stretch, but compared with many things in the States, you'll find your dollar can go further in real estate. A dream house in a high-end neighborhood may cost $350k USD, while the average home price in the United States was $495,100 in the second quarter of 2023.

• Housekeepers are common - In my neighborhood in Denver, many people had housekeepers who came in weekly to deep clean and reset the house. In Windhoek, many people we meet have full-time help at home to maintain every inch of the house. Domestic work is a common trade, and many people work in homes as caretakers. There have been several occasions when someone has come into our house and said aloud, "You should have the girl who keeps your house do X more often," it's not considered negative to say that. They feel they are giving us a suggestion on how to better manage our staff and ensure the home is well maintained. They are also assuming (accurately) that we have someone helping because it's expected.

• They have such cultural connections - People here often know what tribe or country they came from, which means they are anchored in an understanding of who they are. I remember, as a young person in American schools, being taught that we are a melting pot, some sort of soup or even a tossed salad. The people here connect with their country as Namibians but also to deeper roots that lead to ancient cultures and languages. As African Americans, our only identity is that our great-grandparents were enslaved, and prior to that, they lived in Africa. We know our DNA links to the people on this continent, but we don't know which culture, tribe, or identity is ours.

• Children are allowed to be kids - Prior to being here, I always felt the kids were in the way and that people didn't want to see them in public spaces unless it was a park. I know it may just be my feeling, but that's not my feeling here. Even at restaurants, I find kids are allowed to be themselves, and I don't see people making faces or groaning. They have great patience for children here, and when they see our kids, they view it as a blessing and sign that Yah has been good to us and we deserve to have children for a reason. The only thing they don't do is have a lot of kid dishes and sippy cups, so we bring our own. The restaurants often give the kids glasses just like adults, and we had one embarrassing incident of breakage when my daughter was sleepy. They were still extremely kind, and no one looked upon us with disdain after the scene.

• Tacos aren't really a thing here - Back in Denver, tacos were everywhere. Now, nothing. They sell taco shells and tiny bottles of salsa at some grocery stores, but no taco meat seasoning. You have to know what goes in taco meat to get the taste right. There is a restaurant at the malls called Roco Mamas that has a mean nacho with tasty guacamole, but that's the closest we've seen to having a Mexican-style meal.

• Ordering online is not as easy - I was one of those people who never liked going to the store. I went to Walmart about once a month for cheap kid clothing and to give my kid a chance to go pick a toy. Now we must go to the store to do our shopping and find the items we need. If we can't find it, that's it. I found just one fashion store so far that had online shopping and brought my items to me. It was a jewelry shop with free shipping. Pick N Pay also has a delivery driver who brings me groceries, but the online store is limited compared with in-person shopping. The Pupkewitz delivers if you call them. I have tried using a tool called UBuy, which has delivered me a number of linen garments from overseas. These must be picked up at the DHL offices downtown. A couple of my boxes got lost as well as an expensive dress I ordered from Etsy that has never come. I do miss my Amazon deliveries and other delivery services that dropped at my door, but walking around the mall is good exercise and opens us up to meeting new people.

• Cash and ETF are common here. It's important to carry some cash on you, and people also trade via ETF (electronic funds transfer) on phones or their banking websites. When we ordered our furniture for the house, they sent us the bank details so we could wire the money. It was a little scary because we're not accustomed to that, and we're discouraged from wiring money in the United States. Since this move, it's now pretty normal to have someone send wire information and ask for proof of payment to do business.

• Prepaid phones and prepaid electricity are normal. In the US, we're used to everything being credit. Here, electricity isn't a surprise bill at the end of a month when you find out how much the lights were on. You plan your budget, and you can monitor the box to see where you are and adjust it. The electric box is prepaid, so you won't go over what you have, but you can run out and be without power. Most people here are also using prepaid phones instead of unlimited phone plans. This way, you pay for what you will use and can budget accordingly or adjust usage based on the budget. I have found it to be a useful strategy, and it has shown me how much airtime is used when we navigate around the city with GPS. GPS uses so much wifi! I'm now more aware of what things cost and how much resources are used or not used, thanks to this prepaid system.

• Police checkpoints on the road. One thing I had never seen before was an actual police checkpoint. Now, each time we go grocery shopping, we experience the checkpoints between downtown and home. At the checkpoint, we show our driver's license, and they sometimes ask questions about where we're headed and who we are. Sometimes they are not actively checking IDs and they give a wave to let you know that you can just press ahead without stopping.