Africa- The Setting

Upington, South Africa. Now where is that? Why in the Northern Cape Province, of course. In north west South Africa but south west of Johannesburg. Still no idea, here's a map:


Upington is right on the edge of the Kalahari Desert.

(Kalahari shown in red)

When I think of desert I think of a sand, cactus, and tumble weed kind of image. Wrong image. Here's are a few images of the various landscapes we saw.


While we were there it was the beginning of winter. In the mornings and at night it was cold but most days it got quite hot. There was at least one night that the temperature got to freezing.

We stayed in dormitories at Petrus and Mariana's house. They were really nice. Beds, electricity, toilets, running water (hot water!).

I guess you could call it downtown, or maybe it was just simply in town, the business district, the city part, whatever you want to call it, it was similar to what you would find in the States, nothing out of the ordinary. Paved roads, buildings, shops, restaurants, hotels.

We worked in 3 areas. Rosedale, Louisvaleweg, and Paballelo. I think they might be referred to as townships, but don't quote me on that. I would describe them as neighborhoods or subdivisions. They had some paved roads but mostly dirt and gravel roads. I can only speak with certainty about some of the houses in Rosedale because I never went in any houses in Louisvaleweg or Paballelo but I do believe they are all pretty much the same. The houses are small, either brick or corrugated iron. They had electricity and running water. I think what kind of threw me off about them was the fact that they were so small but yet they did have electricity (lights, stove, tv, refrigerator) and running water. It's like because of what I am accustomed to in the States seeing this combination of size yet having resources for some reason threw me for a loop. If all that makes sense. I didn't really get very good pictures of the neighborhoods but here are a couple:

Rosedale
(actually if I'm not mistaken this is a newer part of Rosedale that might not have water yet, it's not quite like the rest of Rosedale)
Louisvaleweg

See the tall light poles in the background? Not the playing field lights but the other ones. They have these in both Louisvaleweg and Rosedale (I don't know about Paballelo) to try and make it safer at night and stop crime.

I will touch more on the places when I post about each one but here is a quick run through. Church in Rosedale is held at Lena's house. Youth church is held at Debra's house. I think prayer meeting is held at different houses but the night we went it was at Dinah's house. Louisvaleweg has a church building. It is made of metal and has one light that is plugged in once it gets dark. Paballelo has a church building too. I only went to it once so I don't know much about it but I do know it has electricity.

Church Building in Louisvaleweg

A few more little tid bits about the setting. The Orange River runs through Upington. They drive on the other side of the road, and their steering wheels are on the other side. Upington has the longest runway in the southern hemisphere and it is an emergency landing spot for NASA.

Orange River