Thursday, July 7

Today we went to Dune 7! I woke up this morning, not feeling well again, so I was not sure if I would travel to the dunes with the team or not, but I didn’t want my mom to miss anything again by staying back with me, so we went. The dune buggy rides were first, so I made a little bed out of the back seat in the van, enjoyed the sun, and got a good start on my new book, “Bite of the Mango.” The rides lasted about an hour and when everyone got back, they were tired, hot, and a little unhappy with the rides because everyone had to travel at one speed that was too fast for some and too slow for others. I was still not feeling great, but it didn’t seem like I missed much on the rides. Then we drove over to the dune, had lunch, and people started to hike. Of the 19 people that were with us (our team of 15 minus Joyce, and the Banda family), 16 attempted to climb. Sandi, Karen, and I were the only ones who didn’t try. Karen and I because we weren’t feeling well, and Sandi didn’t because she didn’t want to. Lynda was the first to the top, and Tresford was last, but only because he left a lot later than everyone else. Julie, mom, and Joshua started up and couldn’t finish because it was too hot outside, which I could understand because it was very, very hot. Yeshua went up part way and came down about 3 times, but after we gave him some water and he changed his pants (he was wearing jeans, which are heavy and hot) he started on his way with his dad, and they both made it. This was so much fun, and I got some great pictures. I was a little bummed that I couldn’t go on the buggy rides, but not so much when it came to the climb because it was just way too hot. After we finished climbing and everyone emptied out their pockets, socks, and shoes of the sand, we headed back. When we got back to the Beach House, we had to pack up our things because the next day we were heading to Windhoek to stay with Pastor Stephan.