Yossarian in Africa

Feb 7
No real news, but here is some info my dad sent me on Nkurenkuru, the Kavango, and the Caprivi Strip via google:
ELCIN stands for Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia.
Located primarily in the north of the country, the ELCIN was originally initiated by Finnish missionaries in 1870. The ELCIN became autonomous in 1954. It has 522,000 members and is based in Oniipa in the far north.
This church suffered much during the occupation of Namibia by South Africa, including having its church printing press destroyed twice and many of its people fled to neighboring Angola and Zambia. The task of rebuilding the church and country began in earnest with the independence of Namibia in 1990.
The present priorities of the ELCIN are Christian education, mission work and urban work. Christian education, centered around the church's two high schools--Oshigambo and Nkurenkuru-- is being strengthened because of the rapidly changing situation in the society. Urban work has brought the church into the cities of central and southern Namibia. Outreach also is happening among other ethnic groups within the country.
The ELCIN, in cooperation with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia, relocated its Paulinum Seminary from a rural site to the capital Windhoek. This is a project that received some assistance from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Enrollment is about sixty women and men.END
I also learned from the book, that the Caprivi area (long and narrow region in the NE) is tropical, has lots of wildlife, and is about 30% flooded in the rainy season. It's named after the German chancellor, Baron von Caprivi, who was the leader of Germany in the late 1890s when they took over Namibia.

I read that the Kavango people are found on either side of the Okavango River and are the 2nd largest ethnic group in Namibia. Most of these people living in Namibia immigrated from Angola during their civil wars in the 1970s. German and Finnish missionaries have had a big influence on the people of this region in the past couple decades starting over 100 schools in the region (one of which is your school). The Kavango region now has a modern hospital in Rundu and the road system has improved dramatically in the past several years.