What I Did on My Thanksgiving Vacation, Part 3

While we were getting ready to come to Africa, we spent a lot of time in prayer- A LOT. We thought and prayed about our service, the meaning of sacrifice, our team, our families and friends we were temporarily leaving behind, our marriage…it would impact every facet of our lives. It was very intense, and very serious, and very necessary, as it prepared us for what we would need to do here. In addition, we took a bit of time to think of some fun goals we had for our time here, things we wanted to learn or experience in another culture. My three were to see a giraffe, try African drumming, and go sand surfing (called sand boarding here). Check, check, check. Sort of.

On Friday of our Swakop adventure, we went sand boarding on one of the dunes found outside town. It’s so amazing- you are standing on a mountain of tiny grains, and yet you don’t sink in (I just can’t comprehend that!) You can see the Atlantic ocean literally across the road from the dune.

As we got there, we saw some parachutes landing (look closely)

Although Josh, Kitty, and I knew we wanted to sandboard, we thought we would need to go with a tour company (which is a bit expensive). While in a store on Thursday, we saw they were selling kits for sand boarding for really cheap, which meant we could avoid tour fees. We bought one kit, and split it three ways, so that was perfect. The only problem is that you have to use these sitting down, because you have to lift the front of the board up as you go. That’s probably okay though, as sand boarding while standing up is a lot more dangerous than snowboarding (have you ever heard of snow burn?  I didn't think so).

Here is a picture of Josh’s first attempt…



…and the resulting battle wound:

In spite of the hazards, there was a line of people ready to give it a try. What can I say? We live in Africa; we have adventurous spirits : ) Love these people!

Since the hardest part of the whole undertaking was walking back up the dunes, Jessa and I decided to take rides together, 2 for the effort of 1. Oh yeah, and it was REALLY windy.


Making memories with my best friend.

Love this