Tugging on Your Heartstrings

I'll warn you upfront, there isn't too much in the way of humor today.  Nor any real cool pics, though I have some.  I won't share any funny stories like how at the Council meeting tonight, we were broadcast live on NBC (seriously, Namibian Broadcasting Company). What I will share with you, is what we did for a good part of the day.

We ended up touring the "informal settlements". It was simply heartbreaking.  10'x10' tin shacks, in the thousands.  Children and women washing clothes, barefoot, or playing in the dirt/sand next to their "home" under the hot African sun.  No sewer, no water, no electricity.....

The City of Windhoek has a population of appx. 350,000 people.  Over 200,000 of them live in these "informal settlements". On the professional side, it painted a very clear picture of  the policing challenges this City faces.  On the personal side, it left a permanent and profound imprint in my memory that I'll never forget.

On the positive side, we did hear of some efforts that are underway to help all of those people. There is a lot of history to share on how this came to be, but I'll share that on a different day.

As I mentioned, today I don't want to share any other experiences, or photos except the ones I've published below.  The next time one of my children (and I have many of them) are unhappy that they aren't able to get that new toy, or game, or cell phone, I'll be showing them some of the 100+ pictures I took today.  I'll remind them of how good they have it, and how happy some people are in the world just to have a sandy back yard to play in.....