Goodbye Lemme

To Windhoek, Namibia

On Monday we woke with only one goal in mind, getting ourselves and the rental truck to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, by the 4:00 check in time. After saying goodbye to the Ohio family, we were on our way by 9:30 or so. Due to our schedule, we had to skip stopping for the warthogs and baboons that we saw from time to time along the roadway. The land feature that we've started to see yesterday, and in droves today, are the towering termite mounds, often enveloping whole tree trunks.

Playing at camp

By noon, we were in Otjiwarongo where the biggest and most traumatic event of the day ocurred as we were shopping at the fancy Super Spar grocery store. To save time, we all picked out prepared food at the counter and then sat outside for lunch. When Dex went to the bathroom afterwards, he handed me his ever-present stuffed animals, Nipper and Lemme, which I promptly put inside our shopping bag...or so I thought.

Lunch time

Somewhere along the line, something went awry, because when we got back to the car, Lemme was nowhere to be found. This is not the first time one of the mascots has gone AWOL, so we tried not to panic and started a thorough search, first of the car, then our lunch spot, and then trash cans, the bathrooms, food aisles and on and on. After more than 30 minutes of fruitless searching, asking managers of the store, and retracing our steps, it seemed that we would have to face the inevitable.

Dex’s anger had, by this point, already started to shift to complete and utter devastation. Kylie too, had tears streaming down her face. Lemmy was not just a toy or plaything, she was a member of their tribe. They had spent countless hours playing “stories” with Mr. Monster, Nipper, Rocko, and Lemmy. She had a life, a history and a personality. Both Dex and Kylie feared that Lemmy would be hurt by whomever had picked her up and taken her away from them. It was a good hour before the sobs and wails began to lessen and we could begin to talk. (Meg's note: It was heartbreaking seeing the kids so devastated, but the one silver lining in all of this, was how gentle they were to each other for the rest of the day. It was a compassion that they rarely exhibit, especially with one another, and it went a long way in helping them recoup from their traumatic experience.)

Lemme and Nipper

Rocko and Mr. Monster

We did make it to the Avis rental return center at 3:55 with five minutes to spare -- pretty good for us. The man that checked in the car, recommended a nearby hotel and drove us there where we had our own little two room cottage with small kitchenette. I happened to turn on the TV before dinner and got drawn into a movie (Hairspray) with John Travolta in drag as the mother of a teenage girl. We have definitely not watched much TV in the last few months. The music, singing, and dancing was a ton of fun to watch and there were a slew of famous actors -- Christopher Walken, Zac Efron, Michelle Pfeiffer.... Afterwards, we wandered over to the hotel restaurant, still humming music from the movie, for a late dinner. It had been a rough day for the kids, and although the loss of Lemme was still fresh, they were well on their way to moving on. Tomorrow, back to South Africa.