End of Service

Sunday, August 10, 2008
This morning we had time to do some shopping and hang out before our end of service meetings and dinner. Laura, Dana and I had fun exchanging stories and ideas for music mixes over brewed coffee. We then met some of the other volunteers in Zoo Park to eat lunch outside. At end of service, there were some fun games and competitions. I almost won most likely to own a shabeen and I did win most likely to hitchhike at home. Dinner was at a west African restaurant called LaMarmite and afterwards a group of us went to Joe’s Pub as a last hurrah.

Saturday, August 9, 2008
I’m shocked! Government transport showed up at the homestead, just before 7am. Wow, I have to hand it to Kavungo. Unfortunately, I had arranged my back-up plan and was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to see Johnson and Delicious one last time before leaving. I called both Johnson and Steve to cancel my rides, but was having trouble getting through. Maria and Kaia came with me to Ondangwa – Maria had been planning to go for the weekend anyway. And I thought that Kaia decided to go at the last minute, however it turns out that she just wanted to see me off and only went along for the ride. Since I couldn’t reach Johnson, on the way out of Edundja, I stopped at Delicious’ flat to ask him to tell Johnson that I had government transportation and to tell him good-bye. Solomon, the driver, told me that he would have to get his pilot’s training since there was no road to drive to visit me in the US. As prompt as the regional transport was, our transport from Ondangwa to Windhoek was not. We didn’t leave the regional office until just before noon, which made our group the last to arrive at Backpackers. It was fun to see everyone and we had a braii. Also, Tangeni agreed to get me a SWAPO t-shirt. We were able to watch a bit of the Olympics on TV.

Last Days in the Village

Friday, August 8, 2008
I received a text from Maggie that the region was not providing transport from my homestead to Ondangwa. When I mentioned it to Kavungo, he insisted upon calling the regional office to arrange for it. But, since he was not able to get confirmation that it had been set-up, as a back-up plan, I arranged for Johnson to take me to Oshikango to meet Steve, one of the year-long volunteers, to give me a ride to Ondangwa.

On the way home from school there was a “ghost wind”, which is like a mini tornado blowing across the veld. Kavari said that it’s a ghost wind because there is a spirit caught in it. I’m going to miss all the superstitions and beliefs that come out of nowhere. When we got home, I used the shower to bathe and wash my hair for the first time since the water went out. Even though it was warm out, the shower was still a bit cold for my liking, but I am so burnt on buckets baths and head under the tap hair washing. I started packing up the rest of my things and cleaning up my room and got ready for the cookout.

In addition to the kids, Maria, Kavari, Inno, Teodore, Delicious and Johnson were there. Later in the evening, Mpinge returned from Angola and I learned that she was not aware that I was leaving the next day. Everyone enjoyed the cookout, despite the fact that we didn’t have the marshmallows. I felt that I was short-changing the kids, but they didn’t mind at all. They were excited to have so much food.

Thursday, August 7, 2008
Today Kavungo held a staff meeting, my final one, and I presented the money (N$266 in profits) raised from selling photos. We also took a couple of photos of the entire staff together. Around 1pm I left with Ashiyana to have a beer at the cuca shops. He had marking to do, so the intent was to have one or two beers and then head home. However, some of the Tates in the village kept buying more Windhoek Lagers. We were getting ready to wrap it up and head out when Kavari sent me an SMS saying that she was coming to the village. This was around 4p. She, Maria and Esther ended up showing up at around 6:30p. By this time, Ashiyana moved on to Kandja’s bar and were hanging out with Kavungo, ZapoZapo (who I hadn’t met before), Johnson, Delicious, Nangolo, Teodore.

Nangolo left for Ondangwa after school to get the keys to his new house, but had forgotten his phone, so when he reached Oshikango he decided to come back to Edundja and just leave in the morning to get the keys. As a government employee, Nangolo only has to pay 30% of the mortgage and the government covers the other 70%. When Nangolo came and joined the rest of us, at this point, it was just me and the boys, he started giving everyone nicknames and joking around. Nangolo’s nickname was “City” – as in LA because his first name is Angelius. Other names were Prof. Dubious, Prof. Flabbergasted, which are some of Delicious’ favorite words. The funniest was when Nangolo pointed at everyone at the table except for me and told them that they “must call me City” and then he pointed at me and said, “but you must call me ‘Honey’”. It was another late night, as we were out until 10pm. Kavari, Maria, Kavungo, Esther and I all walked home together. As usual, I was using my phone as a torch and Kavari was making fun of me.

Wednesday, August 6, 2008
While marking and invigilating in the staff room today, Kavari brought in her portable radio (broadcast was in Oshikwanyama) and there was a news story about a plane crash. Kavari, who has never flown before, said that she would not fly in a plane piloted by a woman or a black man – WHAT?

After school, Johnson gave me a ride to Oshikango to get stuff for the campfire cookout that I planned for Friday, as a parting celebration with the kids, since I’d be leaving the next day. We went to both Portugal and Pick n Pay, but unfortunately I could not find marshmallows. As usual, Portugal was extremely shady and mobbed.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Today I spent all day marking papers. After school, I went with Maria, Kavari, Esther and Joolokeni to dance at one of the bottle stores that I had not previously been to. We went there because Kavari loved one of the cds in the jukebox.. Nangolo, John and Mutwa came by for a bit, but didn’t stay too long. Once we got home, we watched the new soapie, Catalina and Sebastian, which debuted the night before.

Don't Worry Baby, It's From My Thug Days

Today at school was more marking and invigilating for grade 8D. I have not had as much exposure to the Grade 8 learners and came across the greatest name so far - Happy Son. It just makes me smile to hear that name. There is also a learner that has no shoes, Jackson Paulus, and that made me sad. Many of the kids don’t have much and their clothing is in disrepair, but to not have even one pair of shoes to wear.

So, on Sunday in the bakki, John Delicious asked me if I had a marker pen. He wants a shirt that says John Delicious on it. I was hesitant, because I did not want to ruin one of his shirts. Again, he does not have much. But, he insisted that he has a shirt to write on. He said that it’s “too big” and that it is from his “thug days” and a “XXL” shirt. So, today after school I went over to Delicious’ with a Sharpie and made him a shirt. I assumed that he just wanted to have a shirt with his name on it, not that he was going to wear it. But, he did. He was so excited about the shirt. We took a bunch of pictures of him posing and showing it off. While I was making the shirt, Delicious was making food for himself, Soini and several others. But, again, he was struggling to cook – so Soini had to help him. They ended up making Pilcher’s canned fish with soup mix sauce and eating it with bread. I was reluctant to have the canned fish and was hoping that they would forget to save me some, since I was busy making the shirt. But, no, they saved some. So I felt obligated to at least eat a little bit. But, after tasting it, it wasn’t bad. I kind of liked it.

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out at a couple of the cuca shops in the village, with Delicious proudly sporting his new custom made shirt. It was Mutwa, Mr. Cash (Jonnah), Nangolo, O Seven, Johnson, Kaio and others and we were out until after 9pm. While hanging out in front of Max’s, I met a man, Charles Haindongo, who left Namibia for Cuba when he was 15. He returned to Namibia in 1988 just before the end of Apartheid. He was in Edundja to register at the Regional Councilors office for Veteran’s benefits, which means that he’ll get a pension from the government each month for the rest of his life. Johnson gave me a ride back to the homestead at the end of the night. It seemed that everyone was already in bed for the night, so I got ready for bed. Just after I turned out my lights and was in bed, Takataka knocked at the door, so I assume that he was in Kavari’s room watching tv and saw that I was home, but since I was already in bed, I didn’t answer the door.

An Eye for An Eye... Or, A Dog for an Egg

At lunch, Maria made maize meal porridge, told me how to make it. We spent the rest of the afternoon playing Connect Four and card games.

Kavari made Otjiherero bread for dinner, and we ate it with butter and coffee. Kavari has lived at the homestead for 5+ years and has always promised to make it, but this is the first time that she is doing it. The bread came out great, but Kavari kept saying that it was a disaster because she did not have the same type of pot to put over the fire as they use in her tribe. Victor had to say all the things he’ll miss about me. Ana, Kangube, plaited my hair. Kandambe = Rosaria.

Meme from neighboring homestead cam by and conversation about the dog that just had puppies came up. Apparently the dog keeps eating their chicken’s eggs and they are planning to wait until she is finished nursing the pups and then they plan to kill and eat the dog. So far, 4 of the puppies have been given away. Kavari’s distant, distant relative was on the news, his name is Dr. Gift Kavari.

Admission for Three to Bennie's Park

So this morning we were all up by 6:30a. At 8a the village tap opens for business, so we took Johnson’s bakki to fill up 5 giant jugs with water for the homestead. When Johnson is not there, which is most of the time, I assume that Sem walks over with just one of the jugs, as I can’t imagine that he could handle more than one full jug at a time. The village tap is near one of the schools and is locked when the Meme who “owns” it is not open for business. The Meme that runs the tap records the number of liters that each customer takes and the customers pay for their water usage – vs. using a well at no charge. When we arrived back at the homestead, Johnson’s sister made up porridge and evander for breakfast. And, it was actually one of the best oshifima and evander meals that I have had. After breakfast, Sem took several pictures of me on his cell phone, as did Sylvia, and then we left for Oshakati so that I could check email, we could pick up Delicious’ chain and then meet Tiela to get the disc utility before heading to meet Kimberlee, another summer volunteer, and one of her colleagues, Frans, at Bennie’s Entertainment Park in Ongwediva.

Bennie’s Park has a pool, picnic area, restaurant, DJ, water slide, trampolines and springboks and peacocks that wander around. I thought that Sylvia was headed home in the morning, but she must have changed her mind, as she came to Oshakati. Johnson said that she was going to visit a friend. But, when it came time to go to Bennie’s she came with us. I ended up having to pay for all of our admission to get in, which irritated me. It was not about the money, it was about the expectation that I pay. In Namibia, if you invite someone to do something, the expectation is that it is your treat. However, I did not invite Sylvia. Kind of like the situation in Oshikango with Lavinia. At the restaurant, the 7 of us that were there split 4 pizzas and had a bottle of champagne – at Frans insistance. Frans also insisted on picking up the entire bill – but Kimberlee and I both forced him to let us contribute. Kimberlee, who was a competitive diver at Penn State, was very excited about swimming in the pool. She brought two bathing suits – one for herself and one for me to borrow (since I was not aware we’d be coming to Bennie’s when I left Edundja). At lunch, Kimberlee was trying to convince some of the Namibians to swim. There were no takers, until Johnson reluctantly said that he’d do it. I am sure that the only reason that Johnson decided to swim was because he into Kimberlee. Add another Angel to the roster! Once Johnson was in the pool, I knew that the reason he agreed to swim was because he was into Kimberlee. He could barely stay afloat and looked like he was going to drown for the majority of time that he was in the water. We left Bennie’s Park around 4:30p and dropped Sylvia off in Oshakati to hike back to the village.

Once we got to Oshikango we picked up John Delicious and headed back to Edundja. On the way, Delicious said that something smelled “delicious” and he wanted to know what it was. I realized that it was the left over pizza that Frans had insisted that we take home. So when we got back to the homestead, Johnson and Delicious came in and we shared the left over pizza. It was the first time that Delicious had pizza and it was the most hysterical thing in the world to watch. He was pointing to various ingredients and asking what they were and holding his slice up for inspection from all angles. It was too cute. Once Johnson and Delicious left, I joined Kavari, Maria and the kids to watch a movie. Of course, I fell asleep during the movie.

Random Hilariousness: I'm not sure if I wrote about this - when referring to the day that Delicious left his flat with boiling macaroni on a hot plate and came back to a flat full of smoke, he says that he “fried the macaroni to ashes”, it’s not burned.

Delicious told me that he “was taken, but came back”, meaning that he had been drunk.

Delicious wore a khaki shirt with a little pocket on the sleeve, I liked to call it a Boy Scout shirt, and I asked him what he kept in the pocket. He said “Pepper, salt, chilis, cinnamon, whatever makes me delicious.”

Johnson said that he wants a wife that cooks, not boils.

When we shared the leftover pizza, Johnson and Delicious had a conversation over the rarity of napkins and said that the only places you get napkins are restaurants, lodges and hotels. Generally people use newspaper, a cloth towel or I guess toilet paper if they need a napkin.

Village champions – people who never leave the village and are always around

Delicious wanting me to help him correctly pronounce "metropolitan".

Still a Stranger

Last night, as I was falling asleep, I realized that somewhere along the way my bed became comfortable (even with the rock underneath it).

This morning I did some last minute tutoring with Selma and Idelini, 2 grade 9 learners for today’s Business Management examination. After reviewing and discussing questions for about an hour, Selman began to ask me if I knew any Oshikwanyama words and if I knew how to spell them. They were surprised that I could correctly spell the words that I knew and started teaching me new words. Finally the learners are starting to open up and feel more comfortable using English to talk with me and I’m leaving soon – I wish that I had another term here. At 11am the examination period began and I invigilated for 10B while marking grade 9 math papers.

After school I left to meet Johnson, as we were going to the homestead where he grew up, which is about 20km from Oshakati, for the weekend. Last week Johnson was saying that he’d like me to go there sometime, so I said we should go this weekend. Johnson mentioned that he couldn’t afford the fuel to get there, so I offered to pay. As it is, when I travel for the weekend I end up paying close to N$100 (roughly $15 US) on taxis and hikes for the roundtrip. After we dropped off Kavungo and John Delicious in Oshikango, we went to get fuel before hitting the road. I ended up filling Johnson’s tank with gas, which was a mistake – 1) the roundtrip wouldn’t have needed more than ¼ tank and 2) Namibians are notorious for driving around with very little gas in the tank, so his tank was empty and 3) petrol is sold by the liter, not gallon and currently petrol is N$11 per liter. I spent close to N$300 ($45 US) on fuel. But, in my mind, I can justify it by the fact that Johnson has given me countless rides to and from town or from the village to the homestead after dark and he never asks for money (typically I would give someone N$10 for a ride to or from Oshikango). Also, he and the boys typically outspend me when we have beers in the village and at the bottle stores.

Once on the road, Johnson said that we needed to stop and “drop off some paperwork” in Ondangwa. I assumed that it was something from school, but then we headed to a residential area, near where Soini’s sister lives. I was not sure what we were doing. We parked in from and went in. We greeted a meme at the kitchen table and a girl in her 20’s in the living room. Johnson invited me to sit down. There was a conversation in Oshiwambo and Johnson gave the girl, Caroline, a packet on interview tips. I met Caroline’s 2 year old daughter and what might have been Caroline’s younger brother, then we left. Back in the car, I asked if those were relatives? A friend? I found out that it’s Johnson’s on-again-off-again girlfriend of almost 5 years. So, it turns out that Johnson is not with Marvin’s mother, Sunday. Marvin is 6 months, Caroline’s daughter is 2 years old, so they each have a child with someone else and they’ve been on and off for 5 years. Interesting… So now I’m starting to understand why Johnson is ALWAYS on his cell or SMSing. But there’s more – apparently Caro found another girl’s number in Johnson’s phone, so he’s changed that girl’s number to be under UNAM (which is University of Namibia). Btw, the other girl is named Pandu and she goes to UNAM, which is in Windhoek, which is 7 hours from Edundja. Anyway, Johnson wants to get married and has said that I have to come back for the wedding. The problem lies in who he will marry… For the rest of the ride, I teased Johnson about his woman problems, accused him of being flirtatious and told him that instead of Charlie’s Angels, I was going to refer to his women as Johnson’s Angels.

Next, we stopped in Oshakati to drop off Delicious’ chain to be repaired and then headed to Game (S African/Namibian version of Target) to get Lobello lip gloss for Amanda. We also stopped to buy some food to make for dinner and at a bottle store to have a beer. At the shebeen we met up with a couple of Johnson’s friends and were invited to meet them at the bottle store in the village later. We left with just enough time to get to Johnson’s homestead before dark. As we drove down the tar road it became a gravel road and eventually a sandy path.

Along the way we picked up Sem, the first born brother. Johnson is second born and has 2 younger sisters and a younger brother. One sister is in school in Windhoek and the others live at the homestead. Johnson never knew his father – his parents never married and his mother passed away a couple of years ago. The homestead doesn’t have electricity or running water, but he is in the process of building an outhouse and has built 2 concrete structures – a block of 3 rooms for the boys and a separate block for the girls. Out of the siblings, Johnson is the only one with a steady income and profession. For the outhouse, the hole has been dug and the bricks are there, but the construction has not begun. Currently, all personal business is taken care of behind a thorn bush in a sloped area a short distance from the homestead. They have a solar panel that is used to recharge car batteries, which are used to power the radio and charge cell phones. Once it’s dark, they use either the campfire or an oil lamp for light.

Despite Johnson’s appearance of having some degree of money – a recent model bakki, slim Samsung cell phone, being a teacher (one of the better jobs in Namibia), I see that he’s probably put most of his money towards building up his homestead from huts to concrete structures. Also, Namibians are not known for saving. Payday is once a month and when payday hits, you’ll find grocery store, banks and bottle stores full of people spending their money. Shortly after arriving and meeting the other brother and sister, Johnson, Sem and I left to meet Elago, Johnson’s friend.

As we drove into Johnson’s village and past the cuca shops, people were staring, as not many white people come to the village. The same thing happened when we went to the bottle store. There were probably 15-20 men there, a female shop keeper and 4 other women. I was definitely the focal point. Once drunk guy (drinking punya punya, Tassenberg and coke, of course, they are always the most drunk) was mad at me for bot being fluent in Oshiwambo, but only because he was afraid to use the little bit of English that he knows. Eventually I was able to say enough random vocabulary words to make friends with him. Sylvia, one of Johnson’s friend, took pictures of me and her on her cell phone. Repeatedly. At least half of the people there made an effort at some point to say hello or try to chat with me. Francina, a local teacher who is moving out of the Ministry of Education and into the Ministry of Sports and Culture and to Tsumeb (a town) was friendly and obviously interested in Johnson. Another potential Angel… We danced and drank beer until close to midnight. Sylvia came back with us to Johnson’s, we made macaroni and finally went to sleep.

The Invigilator

This morning I proctored the mathematics examination for class 9B. Except in Namibia, instead of it being called proctoring or monitoring, it is called invigilating. I am an invigilator. Doesn’t it sound impressive and authoritative?

Anyway, the exam started at 9am. At 9:40am, one of the male learner strolls in, places his study materials at the front of the class and stops by my desk to pick-up an examination paper. When he walked in, he did not shut the door behind him, I had to ask him to do it. This is not uncommon. Last Friday I invigilated an exam where 2 boys came in 1 hour into a 2-hour examination. Calculators are allowed for the exam and some learners share calculators, passing it back and forth as needed. As I was passing out the exam, one girl was trying to re-assemble her calculator. Well into the exam she was still working on trying to fix it. I was a bit concerned for her, but finally one of her peers that finished early let her use her calculator.

Random funny stuff: Today Johnson and John stopped by the homestead – most likely because they knew that I had gotten the pictures developed – but Kavari gave them a hard time because they would never stop by to visit until I arrived. Johannes Indongo a.k.a. John Delicious has upgraded himself from Mr. Delicious to Professor Delicious. Today when I gave Johnson a picture of the two of us from the staff party, he commented that next to me he looks white.

I’m freaking out right now! This evening I was going to copy of few of Kavari’s CDs of African music and as my computer was burning the first one, it froze. I powered it down and tried to re-boot. The drive started whirring, the circular “thinking” symbol was there, but it stayed there, and stayed, and stayed… So I got worried. I left it alone for a while before trying again. But nothing – nothing but the white screen of death and a flashing folder with a giant question mark inside. Thankfully I backed everything up before leaving for Africa and burned a DVD of the photos that I have taken so far at Tiela’s the other day. Tiela is going to bring me a disk utility CD that she burned from the apple website this weekend in Ondangwa, but other than that, there is nothing I can do…

Did I Mention that Payback's a B*TCH?

Well, usually, Tiela has hot water… Unfortunately, there was no running water at Tiela’s this morning. Tiela headed off to school and I stuck around for bit hoping the water would return. Finally, I gave up and headed back to Edundja around 9am. Luckily, once I got a taxi, the driver didn’t wait for it to fill with passengers and he proactively drove to several corners in town to pick people up. Soon we were on the way back to Oshikango. At Omatala, while waiting for a ride to Edundja, there were a couple of combis with chatty drivers that wanted to know where I teach, etc. However, this time, instead of asking where I am from (in the past I have gotten Denmark), he asked if I was from Pakistan. I said no, America. It is funny, because I normally get asked if I am Arab or Muslim when I wear my headscarf that I bought for dusty rides in the back of a bakki. But, I wasn’t wearing it and didn’t even have it with me. Around 11:30ish I got back to the village and walked to the school to find that the water was still out. I’m sure part of it was psychological, but I felt really dirty and was beginning to feel very thirsy.

Today there were not examinations, so only some of the learners came to school. I think a couple of teachers held classes, but most were either marking papers or killing time. Since there was no running water, Ashiyana and a couple of learners had taken Mrs. Shaningi’s bakki to the well to draw water and fill people’s jugs and buckets. Although the well water is brownish, it is safe for drinking. Esther was sick and had stayed home (at the teacher housing) for the day. Around 12:30p, Kavari, Maria and I walked over to see how she was doing. She was preparing to go to the doctor in Oshikango, so we waited and ten walked with her to the gravel road. On the way back home, Kavari, Maria and I stopped to have a cool drink at one of the bottle stores.

As we were finishing our cool drink, a group of children from the primary school, including Shangala passed by. I called her over and we gave her the last of our cool drink. A second group of children, all boys, including Joe, with chalk dust powdered all over their faces ran by. As we started our walk home, I bought a fat cake for both me and Shangala. Finally, we reached the homestead and I felt disgustingly filthy. This week is the warmest we’ve had since I arrived in Namibia and I haven’t showered since Sunday (except for Monday morning’s bucket bath) and I had done a lot of walking – to school, to the village, through Eenhana, back through Eenhana, to the village back to school, back to the village and now back to the homestead. My feet and ankles were so dusty that even Joe pointed out that I was dirty!

At home, I called all the kids together and we looked at the pictures that I printed out and handed out the photos. We also took a lot more. Each time I take a photo, everyone crowds around wanting to take a look. Eventually, since the water was still not back, the kids headed to the well to draw water so that we could begin cooking dinner. When Shangala brought me a jug of water, she knocked on my door and told me in English. I was so proud of her. She also counts to 10 in English for me – which is a far cry from her just looking at me, hiding her face and giggling.

I was really thirsty and decided to boil some of the well water to drink – it was just too brown for my liking – and to wash my dirty feet. After Joe pointed out how dirty my feet were, I used some of my stash of sani-wipes to clean from my knees down to my feet, but I still felt filthy. While I was waiting for the boiled water to cool down, the running water returned. Thankfully! Since it was my night to cook dinner, I got started while Maria went to shower and Kavari marked papers.

Mpinge made oshifima and a traditional dish made of mashed white beans and oil for dipping. We then watched one of Kavari’s horrible Nigerian DVD’s – this one was called Expensive Game, about a group of conniving women going after wealthy men for money and fame. It was terrible and I fell asleep during it. I went to bed dreaming of the refreshingly cold shower that I would gladly take in the morning.

Payback's A B*TCH

So last week while the Minister was at the homestead, we all enjoyed having hot water and being able to take hot showers. Over the weekend I adjusted back to taking a cold-water shower (as much as I can adjust to it). This morning there was just the tiniest trickle of water from the outdoor tap and I was only able to partially fill the kettle for my morning bucket bath. The toilet was a mess – I guess having a household of 16+ people and only one toilet had to catch up to me at some point. No running water.

Several other volunteers experience water outages fairly regularly and many people in Namibia live without having running water and depend upon a community tap or on drawing water from a well. Thankfully, I had planned to go to Eenhana after school to stay with Tiela, one of the year-long volunteers, to print out the pictures from my fundraising efforts and use her computer to upload pictures that I’ve taken and also to pay my bills. Tiela had the internet installed in her house, she’s in teacher housing. Although I could print the pictures in Oshikango or Ondangwa, in Eenhana it only costs N$3.50 per print vs. N$10.00 per print, so I’ll be able to donate more money to the school and charge less for each print.

I left school at 1pm to walk to the gravel road (20-30 minutes) to wait for a hike. I was hoping to catch a ride heading east to Ondobe and then take a taxi to Eenhana from there. But, I knew that there would be more cars heading to Oshikango, which is to the west and about 40km out of the way. Victor, from my homestead, and Lebbeus were near the hike tree at the gravel road, they had carried Ashiyana’s briefcase home for him, and waited with me. It took about an hour to get a hike – as I was passed by government SUV heading west, a full (and I mean full by Namibian standards, not American ones) heading east and several bakkis that were just heading into the village, which is just past the hike point tree. Finally, 2 government workers in a covered bakki (heading west, not east) stopped to pick me up and I was on my way, the long way and to any logical person, the wrong way.

Once I arrived in Eenhana, I bought a fat cake from the open market and headed into the photo shop. Being white (and a woman), the first thing that people ask is if I am a teacher, where I teach, where I am from and where my husband is. It turns out that the guy that works at the photo place is from Edundja. Once I finished printing photos, I SMS’d Tiela to get directions to her school and headed off. Coincidentally, Monty, the British summer volunteer who is staying in a nearby village was at Tiela’s checking his email and doing some internet research for a colleague of his. Shortly after I arrived, Krishna, another summer volunteer who is teaching just outside of Eenhana stopped by as well. As we switched off using Tiela’s internet, we used someone else’s laptop to watch a couple of episodes of Entourage. There was a scene where Turtle was walking over to get into the Hummer and I expected him to get into the driver’s seat on the right side of the car. This is when it hit me that coming back to NYC is going to be an adjustment in lots of small ways. Tiela made pizza, homemade dough, for dinner and we chatted and watched more Entourage before going to bed. Since there was no water at home, I was really looking forward to a hot shower at Tiela’s – yes, she has hot water – in the morning.

Traditional Namibian Foods

This afternoon Meme Kristofina, from the school board, came to the school to bring me lunch. She brought oshifima (traditional porridge made from mahangu) and evander (dried spinach mixed with oil made from marula nuts). I’ve seen Mpinge, the meme of my homestead, digging the meat out of the shells to make this oil. It takes so much labor to shell the nuts that I can’t imagine the effort to get enough to then pound into oil. I’m not sure how much I really like oshifima, but I think that it’s because there is always so much grit from the sand. Without sandy bites, it tastes much better! And it doesn’t hurt that oshifima is typically eaten by dipping it into a bowl of sauce and oil. In this respect it’s similar to tofu, not a lot of taste in and of itself, but it acquires the taste of what you cook or eat it with.

When Meme Kristofina arrived, she was carrying the traditional meal in a large clay pot accompanied by a large woven plate, both wrapped into a bundle being balanced on top of her head. The oshifima was still warm and I shared it with my colleagues at school.

Random funny stuff: A Herero guy that Kavari knows goes by the name Neil Armstrong. Some funny bar names – Hot Box and Thailand Bar.

If The Bed Is A Rockin'... Or Has A Rock Underneath It?

Joolokeni and I arranged for her to come by today to take photos of her daughter, Josephine. I am pretty sure that she said that she would come by around 11am. She came at 3pm. Not that I had somewhere to go…

I did my laundry, shaved my legs, made eggs and toast at Maria’s and didn’t have any other chores to do, so I started watching episodes of Lost and listening to iTunes. Not too long after Joolokeni came by, John and Johnson came over. They walked over – which is rare – Johnson drives from his flat across the street to the bottle stores. It’s a 40-minute walk from Delicious’ flat to the homestead. Johnson, who is very restless and is never sitting still, came back into my room after having wandered around and made a joke about not sitting on the bed because he didn’t want to break it. John, Joolokeni and I were all on the bed. I told him that was ridiculous and that he didn’t weigh enough to break the bed. Johnson sat down and the bed broke. It was hilarious! Frans brought me a chunk of concrete to place beneath the bed to balance it out and it almost worked. We watched more Lost and I had dinner with Maria and Kavari when they got home.

"I Have No Problems - No Girlfriend, No Wife"

Today the plan was to go with Johnson to Oshikango to do my shopping for the week and then to go pick-up Marvin (Johnson’s son, named after Marvin Gaye) to take pictures. Around 9am Maria and I headed over to catch a ride with Johnson. Maria was planning to meet up with Kavari, who had gone to Odipo the night before, before heading to Ondangwa. Delicious and Nangolo also came along. Before noon, we were at a shebeen called Hip Hops, next to the Portugal market. It seems that the boys come here regularly and it’s a place that I would never have come without being with the boys. We settled at a table and got a round of Windhoek Lagers. Jim, aka the Dog, one of Nangolo’s acquaintances from soccer leagues, was at the bar and joined us. He was drinking punya punya, which is a combination of a really cheap crappy red wine called Tassenberg and coke. Within five minutes of meeting him, he told me he had no problems – no girlfriend, no wife – and that he could call me and take me around. He also wanted to take a photo with me. Right then. So Delicious came with me and Jim to go next door to Portugal, which has a photo place inside. It was crazy mobbed! So we left to go down the street to another photo place. Jim, John Delicious and I took a picture in front of a cheesy screened background outside. But Jim wanted a picture of just the two of us, so we went to the plain wall in front of the bank next door to take another picture. Of course he only bought the one of me and him. I should have bought the other one, it was only N$10. Picture in hand, Jim was a happy camper. However, he was trying to get too close to me, and he was getting more and more drunk. Eventually, the boys stepped in and he ended up leaving. During the time that we were at Hip Hops, we kept hearing the same songs over and over, which is typical, but it was better music than what I’ve been hearing. Justin Timberlake, Cry Me A River and Fat Joe/Lil Wayne, Make It Rain.

By 4pm we were back in Edundja to meet Sunday (Marvin’s mother) and Marvin. Nangolo boiled potatos, Johnson made chicken and macaroni. We hung out, took photos, ate. Delicious “crunched my bones” since I don’t crunch them – I only eat the meat off the bone, many Namibians crunch on them and eat the bone too.

It's Not Burned, It's Fried

Today was the first day of examination and I was asked to invigilate. Invigilate – sounds official, right? I am an invigilator. It sounds intimidating. It just means that I am the monitor or proctor for the test. But, I love that word and have done my best to work it into conversation any chance I get. Today’s examinations were for Oshikwanyama – the region’s native language, or as they call it mother tongue. For some reason, I knew there would be a problem. Luckily, the class I was invigilating was 9A – a class that I know well and that is well behaved. Minutes after passing out the blank paper and the question paper, Lebbeus raised his hand. Lebbeus is the student who raises his hand to answer any question that is asked, whether he knows the answer or not. He’s also the class representative for the Learner’s Representative Council and known to make the class burst out laughing when answering a question or by attempting to speak with an American accent. Anyway, when Lebbeus raised his hand and snapped his finger, I was scared. Apparently, the question paper referred to an exhibit or illustration in question 6. There was no diagram, no picture, nothing. Since I can’t understand Oshikwanyama, I was going to have to leave the room to ask another teacher. My first thought was that Lebbeus was trying to be funny. But my second thought was that Lebbeus is not one of the naughty boys or troublemakers. I would have been worried if it were Oscar or Jackson. So I left the room to ask Joolokeni, in the next classroom. As I was walking over, she emerged from the class and was on here way to the 9A classroom to clarify that since the diagram was missing, to just skip the question. Over the next 2 weeks, I learned that the examinations and memorandums (answer keys) were full of mistakes and oversights that I am sure negatively impact learners’ marks.

About 45 minutes into the 2 hour exam, Frans and Tuhafeni strolled in – and I was relieved that they showed up, as I was concerned when I realized they were both missing. I later found out that the reason Frans was late was because he went home to change clothes and put on a tie for the opening of the Regional Councilor’s Office. He finagled an invitation to come from Queen – the new Meme that moved into the room next door.

After school Hilya gave a good portion of the teachers a lift in her bakki to the inauguration of the Regional Councilor’s Office to catch the end of the official ceremony and participate in the meal. Three people donated a cow and at least one goat was donated. At the conclusion of the speakers, a group of the teachers from both the primary and secondary schools went to sit in the tent that had been used for the VIPs and speakers during the ceremony. We were then invited to go inside the gates of the regional office and into a tent for “invited guests”, not to be confused with the tent for the VIPs. Once we were situated in the tent, someone came along and apparently thought that John, Johnson and some of the other male primary school teachers were not teachers and that they did not belong in the tent. Funny enough, Frans was not one of them, probably due to the tie that he was wearing. The tie was hysterical. I think that he borrowed it from Patricia and it was really short and embroidered with the name of one of the high schools in the area. John and Johnson had gone home to change after school and were dressed casually, which exacerbated their baby faces. Jason, Takataka, was working the event and serving oshikundu, etc. to the invited guests. The VIPs had a buffet line with servers. Our tent did not. The VIP area had better food, so we were able to sneak into that line. If we hadn’t been able to do that, I may not have eaten. The VIP line had western-style food – potato salad, slaw, salad, chicken, fish, meat, bread and cool drink and beer.

In the invited guest tent, when the memes were done eating, they started pulling out all kinds of food containers and started packing away food to take home. It would have been much more hilarious if I didn’t know that this was probably the only meat that they would have to feed their families. Kavari did not like one of the pieces of meat, so she left the partially chewed piece on her plate when she was done eating. One of the memes noticed that she was not eating it and asked if she could take it.

After the inauguration, we all went to one of the bottle stores in the village to play pool, drink Windhoek Lagers and listen to music. Nangolo said that he ate so much at the opening that would not eat again until tomorrow and pointing out how full and fat his stomach was. Not an hour later he was joking about going back to the opening to see if there was any left over food. He said that his stomach was now flat.

John Delicious, in his rush to go with Johnson to the opening, left his flat without turning off the burner on his hot plate. After the inauguration, John came home to find that the macaroni in the pot was “fried to ash”. Not burned. Fried. And there was a hole in the pot. Luckily, the flat did not catch fire. Sadly, Delicious had to wash all of his clothes and leave the door to his flat open to air out the smell and the smoke.

Say Cheese, or Sign Mshasho

Africa is a funny place. So many things are beat up or not taken care of the way we would maintain or take care of things in the U.S. and then there’s the random exception that jumps out at you. The other day some guys in a bakki full of old school desks and chairs came to the school and unloaded them behind the administrative building. All week, there’s been a team of 3 men cutting new desk tops, chair backs and seats to replace and repair the desks and chairs.

Today, the official last day of classes, I took lots of photos. It’s funny, I’m never quite ready for the rush of grabbing hands and calls of “Miss, Miss” to see the pictures. It’s hilarious to see that each of the learners make either a GMP or Mshasho hand sign in their poses.

Two Cokes and a Fanta

Aoife was initially planning to leave Edundja on Tuesday, but the school staff had organized a party for both me and Aoife for Wednesday, so she ended up staying an extra day. Funny enough, even though it was not a surprise party, no one really talked about it to us. Only Kavungo. At the staff meeting the week prior, he excused Aoife and I from the meeting early to discuss the last agenda item, which was Contributions. The party was not going to start until 4p, so Aoife and I went to Hangala’s to watch satellite TV before heading over. Wow, with both of the village celebs in town, I was experiencing the high life – hot water at home and CNN at Aoife’s! Disappointingly, after 10 minutes of BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera, I realized how little had changed in the news cycle since I left the US. Watching the news is a bit like watching soapies – nothing ever changes, but you keep on watching. We flipped around a bit before turning off the TV, but thought that it was hilarious that 90210 re-runs were on.

At 4p we headed to Kandja’s bottle store and were the first to arrive. Shai and Johanna were there to braii the meat, but no one else was there. Soon, people started to show up and I learned that this is the first time that the entire staff of the school has gotten together, outside of school. Some of the primary school teachers came as well – Johnson, Delicious, Soini, Teodore – as well as the retired pastor and several others. Jonnah became "Mr. Cash" because Kavari took up a collection of change for the jukebox and put him in charge. We took lots of photos. Kavari commented that one of the pictures of me between her and Maria was “Two Cokes and a Fanta”. Obviously, I was Fanta. There was lots of dancing, beers kept coming and we stayed out until around 10:30p. We walked home in the dark with Kavungo and Esther accompanying us half way.

I Finally Met Nghimtina

This morning Aoife and I left Connie’s and went straight to school. We just dropped off the car at Hangala’s homestead. Technically, this is the last week of classes before examinations begin. The first one is scheduled for Friday, July 25th. This week in Business Management, we are wrapping up the last chapter and I was planning to let Joolokeni conduct review sessions and cover any material she thinks is important for the learners to know. Today, she had nothing planned. Since I’ll be leaving in a couple of weeks, I decided to give the learners an assignment that would help them use their English and asked them to write me a story or letter and hand it in before the end of the week. I decided to let them work on their assignment during the class period. However, many were doing class work for other classes, which was fine with me, as long as they were being productive. Unfortunately, today one of the Memes decided to come to the school to see if her children/grandchildren were interested in learning and if they were participating. Hilya, the HOD (head of department), randomly decided to pop into my classroom for an observation. The funny thing is that the Meme does not understand or speak English. So, when Hilya brought her in, introduced us and explained what the Meme was doing, I wondered how she would be able to gauge. As an aside, the Meme mentioned that she had heard that there was an Oshilumbu in the village and wanted to meet me. So, when Hilya brought her to class, I told Hilya that the learners were working independently on a writing assignment and that we were not lecturing today. I mentioned that we had just wrapped up the final Business Management chapter for the examination. Hilya insisted that the Meme wanted to observe a lesson. So I asked the learners to pull out their summary notes and handouts for the Ch 10 Organizational Structures to review our previous lesson. I had the class re-do the exercises that we had done the session before. Hilya and the Meme were pleased and eventually moved on to another class for the next period. This entire incident left me feeling uneasy and was a perfect illustration of the current state of the educational system. I know that I am not here to change the system, but I am definitely not here to be a contributor to the problem. And that’s what I felt happened. I participated in the dog and pony show. After school, Aoife and I went to meet Soini and the other locals for a couple of beers and I headed home before dark. I had been told that Nghimtina is in town for the week in preparation for the inauguration of the regional counselor’s office. Nghimtina = hot water = Lisa is ☺. I got home shortly before dusk and gave the kids the N$16 ball that I got for them at Pick-N-Pay. They were excited and immediately put it to use. As a side note, by Sunday, unfortunately, it was flat and by the following week it was completely deflated. Since I knew that Nghimtina had been at the homestead since at least Saturday (Hangala had mentioned that he had been at church on Sunday a.m.), I sought him out. Mpinge was in the midst of preparing a traditional Ovambo meal of oshifima, fish and mopane worms. Nghimtina is a physically large, imposing figure, fitting of the reputation he has as a war hero and former Minister of Defense for Namibia. Meeting him was a bit anti-clamatic We chatted for a bit about JoAnn (the PC volunteer that lived at the homestead in 1999), Etosha, etc. Nothing too eventful.

Overnight in Oshikango

This morning, since Erikki Nghimtina is at the homestead, I was able to take another hot shower before school this morning. I am loving it! After school, I went over to Aoife’s (the Hangala homestead) and we had a snack and watched some CNN and Al-Jazeera before heading into Oshikango to meet up with Connie and Tomane. As much as I was craving real news and pop culture, within 5 minutes of hearing what’s going on, I realized that I haven’t missed much – the same news stories as always…

When we got to Piscas’s, we saw Tomane from a distance, busy with hotel business and decided to get a table outside to have a beer and chat until Connie arrived and Tomane was not busy. Connie arrived shortly and eventually, Tomane came and told us that he was busy cooking for us and invited us to move inside. Once again, dinner was amazing – we had the most tender, delicious pork, fried potatoes and salad. After dinner we had coffee/expresso ad sat around chatting. There were stories of when the fighting broke out near the Angolan border when Aoife and Joann were removed from theirs posts, there was a story of an accidental shooting of one of Tomane’s friends in Pisca’s and lots of discussion about the prostitutes in Oshikango and how they are not allowed in the restaurant, back patio or rooms at Pisca’s, but that he cannot control what the truckers do in their cabs, under their cabs, or on top of their cabs.

Tomane was unable to give us a room for the night at Pisca’s, as they are usually fully booked now, but Connie insisted that we stay at her house rather than drive back to the village. We followed Connie back through the main shopping center, through where the Chinatown warehouses are and down a dirt road a short distance and came upon a relatively new development of a modern looking community of individually gated houses. Connie has a security guard at night, a barred porch and a gate on her front door. Her home was really nice, definitely the nicest I have seen since arriving in Namibia. It’s a 3 bedroom flat with a huge kitchen area, small sitting room and bathroom. She is renting and has been there 3 months, but just bought some land to build a larger house on. She said that she is waiting to build the house because she is in the midst of building a warehouse for her business. One of her neighbors, a young Lebanese guy in his early 30’s came by for a bit. Apparently there are about 35 Lebanese in Oshikango and they are all involved in importing and exporting. His family has been in South Africa since the 1970’s. Around midnight we went to bed – I slept in Connie’s daughter’s room and Aoife slept on the couch.

In the morning we got up early to drive back to the village in time for school.

Pisca's Take Two - A Success!!!

This morning after breakfast, we cleaned up the kitchen and our cabins and the group of us that live in the North headed out for one last game drive before heading home. Those in Rundu, Caprivi, Swapkopmund, Omaruru and other points south left the park through the Tsumeb gate and headed home. The highlight of this morning’s drive is that we saw a rhino. Our timing could not have been more perfect. When we arrived at the watering hole, the rhino was already on his way over to the water the drink. He drank for several minutes and then headed back into the bush. We also saw an ostrich walking along the side of the road and I was able to take a fairly decent photo before we moved on. Sadly, we did not see any more elephants, but we did see plenty of evidence of their existence – gigantic dung (and lots of it), huge tracks in dried riverbeds and broken tree branches.

Since Aoife was in Ongwediva for the weekend, we had planned to meet for me to get a ride home with her. It turned out that Soini, who was also in Ongwediva for the weekend, decided to stay until the morning to head back to Edundja to spend more time with her children. And, coincidentally, Aoife was able to connect with an old friend of hers from when she volunteered in Namibia. Tomane is Portuguese, lives in Oshakati and does lots of business in Angola. He is one of the owners of Pisca’s and another hotel in Oshakati called Roche’s. He owns the Shell gas station in Ondangwa and has recently gotten involved in road construction in Angola. Aoife was planning to catch up with him over the weekend in Oshakati, but found out that he will be in Oshikango until Tuesday. So, since we were headed that direction, we decided to give Pisca’s another try, knowing that we would be meeting the owner.

When we arrived, the parking lot at Pisca’s was crowded. We headed through the restaurant and bar into the patio area and found Tomane sitting with a table of about 6 other people. He introduced us to everyone and it was a mix of both Namibians and Portuguese Angolans. We met Paula, Tomane’s wife, a handful of Paula’s relatives, a close friend named Connie, and some businessmen. Connie is a white Namibia, but could pass for either Portuguese or Middle Eastern. Beautiful face. She is from Walvis Bay and has been in business in Oshikango for almost 10 years. She was wholesaling but is now focused on exporting goods to Angola. She is in her mid-thirties, divorced with a 7 year-old daughter that lives in Windhoek with her mother and she has a home in Oshakati, an apartment in Klein Windhoek and a rental flat in Oshikango. For the rest of the afternoon, people were both joining and leaving the table, but it was obvious that almost everyone that came by was a player in the Oshikango business world.

As it turns out, one of Paula’s relatives, I think his name is Cupito (whose name translates to mean “small glass”) is the man that helped two of the other summer volunteers that were bent on going to Angola (they even skipped a day of orientation to go to the British and American embassies to get proper visas to enter) get in. Apparently, despite their visas, they still needed to pay some people off and have an Angolan sign some of the paperwork for them. We also met Shivute, who is the police commissioner for the area. He insisted that I take down his phone number in case I get into any trouble while in Namibia. Each person that joined the table and was introduced to us wanted to know where we were from Each time Aoife said Ireland and I said America. Immediately, the conversation would turn to American politics. We joked that I should start saying I am from Ireland.

We met several Angolan businessmen, both African and Portuguese. One of the African businessmen was a man named Claudino, who goes by Dino. Once we wore out the topic of American politics, he turned to Aoife and told us a story about how Ireland became under British rule – Two Englishmen were running towards big lake in Ireland. They had bet that the first one to touch his hand to the water would win control over the island. As they neared the end of the race, the one that was losing cut off his hand and threw it into the lake, winning control of Ireland. It was a good story, but Aoife was not familiar with it. Before Dino left, he offered to take Aoife and I into Angola, as did several others, and each insisted that it perfectly fine to go in with an Angolan. He also asked for my number, and as it turns out, he sent me a text on Monday.

Not too long after we arrived, Aoife and I each ordered prawns, which were AMAZING. But later Tomane insisted that we stay for dinner, as he was cooking for us. Although we were not hungry, we ate this tasty cod dish of cod, onion and potatoes cooked in olive oil with hard boiled eggs and olives on top. After dinner, we had to get back to the village, as it was already dark and Tomane insisted that we come back on Monday and offered that Connie would cook for us and said that we should stay overnight at Pisca’s.

Over the weekend, Aoife had gone to the funeral of a Deputy Minister that had died earlier in the week (she went because he was a distant relative of the Hangala’s). She knew that Leyaki Hangala, the owner of her homestead and current Managing Director of Cell One was staying the night in Edundja and wanted me to meet him. We went in chatted briefly before continuing on to drop me off at my homestead. But, when we went in to chat, we saw that there was satellite tv and world news channels. Leyaki filled Aoife in on what his children were up to and we chatted a little about New York. He also mentioned that he had seen Erikki at church that morning, so I assumed correctly that Nghimtina was at homestead.

No Internet, No Nice Meal, But Plenty of Beer

Today after school Aoife and I planned to go to Oshikango to check out the Oshikango Country Lodge and Pisca’s and to check our email at an internet café. We were hoping to treat ourselves to a nice meal and have a couple of beers. We knew that if we had mentioned our plan to others, that they would want a lift to Oshikango or to come with us. Since the plan was to have a restaurant meal, we did not want to bring along others. Even though Soini is from a wealthy family, even she does not have the money (or desire to spend her money on) an expensive meal. Aoife had told Soini that we were going and right after school I told Maria that I was going to head to town and asked if she needed anything. When we passed through the village to pick up Soini, she was waiting with another woman from her homestead and said that she would be going with us. At this point, Aoife and I knew that our plan was in jeopardy.

When we got to Oshikango, Soini needed to stop and buy a large bag of maize meal for her mother and electricity credits. We then took the other woman to the bank. We headed over the use the internet while she went to Pep to get something (it turned out that she bought a hair piece). Disappointingly, the internet at the Telecom store was not working, so we were unable to check our email. Aoife bought a recharge for her phone and then we were going to drop Soini and the other woman at Soini’s sister Susie’s business for a bit. Susie sells car parts in Oshikango. Her business is a truck trailer and (for all practical purposes) a metal cage that are on one of the side streets in Oshikango.

We stopped and got out to greet everyone. The plan was just to say hello (since greetings are HUGE in Namibia) and then Aoife and I would head to the lodge while Soini and the other woman visited. We were going to send Soini an SMS when we were done to come by and pick her up before heading back to Edundja. Apparently, Susie was getting ready to close for the day because she did not feel well – so it turns out that Soini and the other woman were going to come with us afterall.

We headed to Pisca’s. which is a truck stop for people passing through to Angola. When Aoife volunteered here in 1999-2000 she was friends with one of the three owners and went there frequently with Joann, the PC volunteer that lived at my homestead. The owner that Aoife knows really well has long since moved to Portugal. Pisca’s has a really nice outdoor garden in the back with a swimming pool and some exotic birds in cages. There was a decent crowd inside eating and drinking at tables and at the bar. We passed through the restaurant/bar to sit outside. Outside, there were a couple of different tables of Portuguese Angolans. Soini and Aoife went back inside to order, but came out several minutes later and said that we should head over to Oshikango Country Lodge instead. Apparently, they were not getting acknowledged at the bar and attributed it to the fact that we were unfamiliar and not Angolan.

Oshikango Country Lodge was virtually empty when we arrived, but our friend Jaffe was working at the bar. We went outside to check the pool and the grounds before coming back inside to order our beers. During the floods earlier this year, the Lodge was damaged and had to close for several months to rebuild. Shortly after serving our initial round, Jaffe walked over with another round of beers on the house. Just to gve an idea of the price difference between the village and the town – at the shebeens we have been getting what I call the 40oz. size for N$10, at the Lodge a normal size beer is N$10. While were there Aoife and I checked out the menu, knowing that we would not be ordering anything. As we were chatting, I mentioned that I would love to go to a Namibian wedding while I am here. It turns out that the daughter of one of Soini’s cousins is getting married on August 30 and Soini invited me to come. She said that there will be many relatives coming up from Windhoek and that I could get a ride up and back and that I could even stay at Hangala’s if needed. The wedding will be about 30 km from Edundja. The timing fits perfectly with my travel plans – as I have a couple of days to fill before heading to Cape Town and I was not looking forward to spending it in Windhoek. Aoife is going to let Ndahafa, one of Soini’s cousins and her friend, know that I will give her a call in Windhoek and that we should meet up at some point before the wedding weekend. I am so excited to be going to a Namibian wedding! Soini said definitely to bring a camera. After we finished our beers, we left with just enough time to drive back to the village before dark.

Once we arrived, we stopped in the village to pick up the maize meal that Soini had bought (she had put it in her principal’s car to bring back, since it was a 50lb bag and would have weighed down the back of our already low clearance rental car). Aoife decided to stop into the take-away shop to get chips before heading home. While there, Soini ordered a beer, then one of Aoife’s former learners recognized her and bought us a beer, then the Tate that owns the take-away bought us a beer. The former learner turned out to be Jonnah, one of the small boys that has visited my homestead several times over the last couple of weeks, and he wanted to buy another beer for me – I told him that I would take him up on it another day. We had several others stop and have a drink with us or chat as they were coming and going. Oddly enough, the entire time the other woman from Soini’s homestead was with us – she hardly said a word. I assume that she does not speak English, but generally people speak with each other in Oshikwanyama and bits get translated for the benefit of me and Aoife. As we headed out of the bottle store, a Meme asked if we were going to Nghimtina’s, I guess she has heard of me and where I am staying, and wanted a ride our direction. It was close to 7:30p by the time that I got home, which is the latest that I have ever been out at night. In fact, it’s the first night that I have been out after dark in Edundja!

Tonight was Kavari’s turn to cook dinner. Once at the homestead, I heard loud music coming from Kavari’s room and went over to join her, Maria and the kids. I wanted Shangala to dance for me, but she was being shy – so I went to get my camera, knowing that she would love having her picture taken. We all started dancing around and then I taught them to limbo. Kavari and I held our arms out and made the kids limbo under them. I also taught Joe and Shangala how to have a thumb war. Somehow over the past several days, Shangala has stopped laughing hysterically when she sees me and know loves to wiggle her fingers at me as if she is going to tickle me. She has gotten really brave with it and tonight figured that she would tickle my feet. She’s a riot!

Prison Break

Today just before the 10:40a break, several Namibian police officers came to the school. During the break they sounded the bell, which sounds like an air raid siren, to gather all of learners and showed everyone two pictures of escaped prisoners. Apparently they escaped from Eenhana, about 40km away the previous night and were thought to be in the area. One was arrested for house breaking. The other was arrested for stealing solar panels.

After school, Aoife and I decided to take a walk to explore the area surrounding our homesteads. We walked along the sand road until we got to what is called the pipeline. Apparently, it is a gravel road that follows the same route as a water pipeline. There are public spigots along the pipeline for homesteads without running water to get their water supply. Most homesteads do not have running water – Nghimtina’s and Hangala’s homesteads are exceptions.

As we were walking, we kept getting passed by bakki’s full of policemen. We figured that they had been out looking for the prison escapees. On the way back to our homesteads, a man yelled Aoife’s name from the doorway of a bottle store and we walked over to say hello. The Tate remember her from when she was here as a volunteer. He did not speak English, so the wife was translating a bit before the daughter, who is in grade 10 at my school showed up. We decided to sit and have a cool drink before heading home. The mother wanted both mine and Aoife’s phone numbers and suggested that I stay longer in Edundja to help the learners practice their English.

Lazy Sunday

This morning while waiting for a lift back to Edundja from Aoife and Soini, Jen and I were watching a couple of episodes of Lost, Season 3. It was the very beginning of the season when Ben offers Kate a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs and coffee. I looked at Jen and asked her if she had eggs. She did. I asked if she wanted scrambled eggs and toast. She did. So, I made 4 eggs with milk and grated cheese. Jen made the toast in the oven. I can’t tell you how delicious it was! And I couldn’t believe that a plate of breakfast in a tv show could make me want “American” food so much…

Aoife and Soini picked me up at Heroes Private School, where Jen lives and then we headed to Soini’s eldest sisters house to say hi. We visited for a little while and then headed for Edundja. Once we got to town, we stopped at Konja’s bar to see how the braai went. Jason, aka Takataka, was there with couple of people and there was a larger table with about 6 or 7 Meme’s and one of the pastors. We ordered a beer and sat down to socialize. After a couple of beers, an order of chips and some beef from one of the local women, we were close to wrapping up for the evening. Kavari stopped by on her way home from Odipo and Aoife gave us both a ride to the homestead.

This definitely qualifies as a Lazy Sunday...

Pension Day

Today after school Aoife and I headed into the village to check out Pension Day and have a couple of beers. Basically, Pension Day happens once a month and is when the government comes to designated villages to pay the elderly a monthly stipend. And, this month was particularly anticipated because each eligible recipient would be getting an additional N$240, as the monthly payment was increased by N$80 per month and it was being paid retroactively from April. For many, this is the only money that they receive to live off of for the month (I believe the normal payout is N$450, which is roughly $70 US). When we arrived in the village, there were vendors (which travel around from village to village) set-up all over to take advantage of everyone having money in their pockets. However, the government representatives had not arrived yet. They did not arrive until almost 4p, which means that most of the elderly would not be able to get their money and would have to come back again in the morning.

With Aoife in town, I was able to get a bit more background on everyone than I would have been able to acquire on my own. First, Maria and Kavari do not really hang out in the village or drink beer. Maria does not drink at all and Kavari does not like beer. Second, a native English speaker that is familiar with many long-time residents of the village can communicate more effectively with me. Over the course of her stay, Aoife would periodically reference that she wished that I spoke Irish… and at times, I wish that I did.

Aoife and I met up with Soini, who is part of the Hangala family and lives across from where Aoife is staying. She is a teacher at the primary school. On several occasions I have shared the back of a bakki with her to Oshikango, but had not formally met her until Aoife introduced us. Johnson, John and Theodore, who are also all teachers at the primary school, joined us, as well as Jaffe and several others. The principal of the primary school owns the bottle shop that I have been to a couple of times and Nathan, whose father is the headman of the village, owns the bottle shop next door. While at Nathan’s bar, a mother and her daughter walked by. The daughter could not stop staring at me and Aoife and she put her arm next to mine to compare skin color. After several minutes, the mother was ready to keep walking and pulled her daughter to go with her. She did not want to go. Finally, the mother had to pick her up and carry her away. I think that this is the first Namibian child that has actually not been afraid of me!

On the way home, we stopped at Kondje’s bar, which is relatively new, as it was not there the last time Aoife was in town.

Do You Know Eva Peron?

This morning I saw a shooting star – just before the sun came over the horizon, around 6:30a, there was a streak of what looked like a sunbeam moving across the sky. It was gorgeous and I wish that I had been able to take a picture. Even if I had taken one, I know it would not have done it justice.

Since I arrived in Edundja, I occasionally get asked if I know Aoife (pronounced Eefa), a volunteer that was here some years ago and has been back to visit a couple of times. Sometimes it sounds as if they are asking me if I know Eva Peron. Aoife Fallon, who participated in the Irish version of VSO or Peace Corp, arrived for a visit today from Gallway, Ireland. This is her third trip back to Namibia, her last being about 3 or 4 years ago. Her volunteer service took place in 1999-2000, but she spent the last several months of her service in Ongwediva because the conflict in Angola had moved too close to the border. She was here at the same time as the Peace Corp volunteer that previously lived in my homestead, Joann. Aoife keeps in touch with Joann, who lives in North Bergen, New Jersey. So I am going to get in touch with her when I get back to the US to show her pictures and share stories of the locals. Joann worked in several schools in the area and had a PC jeep while Aoife was teaching math and physical science at Edundja JSS. At the time, the school consisted of only one block and had 6 teachers and was only about 1 year old. The school now has a staff of 14, approximately 330 learners and consists of three blocks of classrooms, an administrative building and a teacher house with 4 or 5 rooms.

Even before Aoife arrived, I was planning to head into the village after school because it was supposed to be Pension Day. Apparently, they were running behind schedule and there was a radio announcement notifying everyone that it would be on Thursday instead. After school, since there was no Pension Day, I went with Aoife to the “nicer homestead” that Kavungo had mentioned to me, saying that he would have preferred for me to stay there but that he did not have the owner’s new number. The owner is Leyaki Hangala and he formerly was a big boss at NamPower but is now a managing director at Cell One. As nice as my homestead is, the Hangala homestead puts it to shame. However, there are hardly any people living at the Hangala homestead and the ones that do speak very little English. So, I am happy to be where there are lots of school children and colleagues to socialize with – I think that I would be lonely at Hangala’s.

Myths and Manual Labor

Today at break when I made my daily offering of banana, Kavari did not take any and said that if you eat too many bananas, the mosquitoes will be attracted to you during the rainy season. Last week Patricia, one of the other teachers that I live with, told me that I was going to get malaria from wearing open toed shoes in the cold.

After school today, all of the learners that were late (well, technically not all – by all I mean all of the learners that arrived after someone on the staff decided that they were late) were cleaning up the school yard by using a hoe to dig up the grass and weeds from the sand and then carting it off of school grounds with a wheel barrow. There were probably about 30 learners working to clear the yard.

Yard clean up continued all week and by Friday the area leading from the school gate to the administration building and from the administration building to the teachers’ house is clear.

Namibian Names

Since I have been in Namibia, I have come across some unusual names. Cat works with a teacher whose name is Manchild. There is a child in Edundja named Memory. Kavari’s close friend in Odipo is named Innocent. There is a guy at KFC in Ondangwa named Shoes. And Eric, in Swakop, has a learner who goes by BrookeShields – as one name, not a first and surname.

Angola Mission Accomplished

By 5am, we just decided to get up, get in the car and turn on the heat. We also decided that we would drive to chase the sunrise and then go find the Angolan marker that we couldn’t find the day before. Kimberlee was also up and came with us. After driving around and taking various pictures of sunrise in action, we headed back to the Falls and decided to explore to the right of where we had parked the day before. We very quickly found the marker – mission accomplished. By 7:30a we were back at camp, packed up and on the road. On the way back to Ondangwa, we picked up three more hitchhikers – and again, nothing eventful happened. Before dropping Brian and Colleen at the hike point for a combi back to Omaruru, we stopped at KFC for breakfast again. It turns out that about 6 PCVs on their way back to their respective villages had the same idea. Eric, one of the summer volunteers that is in Swakop had initially been planning to come to Ruacana with us, but decided to go with a PCV acquantaince to a PCV party in Omuthiya, which is where Cat lives. Apparently, the PCV that had the party had over 40 people show up at her homestead for the weekend. She was already not on good terms with the owners of the homestead and they gave her until the end of the month to move out. She’s only got 6 months left of her service, but I don’t think that it is going to be easy for her to find another place to live.

Since it was still early in the day, Cat offered to drive me all the way to Edundja – so we took a detour through Oshikango, Odipo and then Edundja on the way to my homestead. Cat lives in teacher housing and doesn’t really like being there anymore than necessary. She shares a house with a teacher that barely talks to her. The next day at school, Johanna, one of the teachers at my school, asked if I drove by Omatala (the open air market in Oshikango) the day before. I’m telling you – I’m easy to spot and always being watched, wherever I go.

KFC in the AM

Around 8:30a we left for Ruacana, planning to stop in Oshakati at Fruit and Veg for fruit salads and ice cream/yogurt. Sadly, Fruit and Veg was just opening and did not have the fruit bar ready or any ice cream made. Half of the group decided to wait and get fruit and yogurt and the rest of decided to head over to KFC.

I never eat KFC and am not even sure when the last time that I had it was – and I would never think of eating fried chicken at 9am. But somehow, when you’ve been up since 5a, a KFC Twister (chicken fingers on a wrap) and fries sounds and tastes really good. Once we got back on the road, Cat said that she would like to pick-up some hikers on the road and give them a lift. We all hate when we are passed by when needing a lift, so we wanted to spread the love. The first time we decided to stop, we decided too late and pulled off the road rather quickly. We were going too fast to stop near the meme that we wanted to pick up. We passed by, created a huge dust cloud and probably scared her to death, so she didn’t attempt to come get in the car. We were more successful the next two times and ended up giving a ride to a tate and to a boy.

Once we arrived in Ruacana, we went to Hippo Pools, the campsite, to check it out before heading to the Falls to explore. To get to the Falls, you must go through the Namibian border post. Once you pass through, you go straight to the Falls or turn right to go through the Angolan border post. At the Namibian border, they warn you to go straight and not turn into Angola. We went straight, parked and got out of the car and started to explore. We came across this long, steep stairway that led down to the rocky riverbed. There were only a couple of small trickles of water falling and some pools in the riverbed, so we had lots of opportunity to climb around and explore. A couple of girls had brought their swimsuits and went swimming in the water. I wish that I had, as it was a beautiful day. Some had heard that there were crocs in the water, but we were not sure if it was true or not and figured that it was not because there was really nothing for the crocs to eat around there. We are still not sure if that is true or not, but everyone survived the swimming. After several hours of exploring the Falls, we decided to head back to camp to set-up the tents and get ready to cook dinner, etc. As steep as those stairs were coming down, they were a thousand times worse climbing back up. It didn’t help that only a couple of people brought water to the Falls – most of us left our water bottles at camp. We were all dying when we made it up to the top and I felt really out of shape.

Before coming to Ruacana, I had seen pictures that some of the year-long volunteers took with a concrete marker that says “Angola” on it. I knew that it had to somewhere near by, but we had not seen it yet. Brian, Cat, Colleen and I were determined to find it and thought that maybe it was just through the Angolan border crossing. So, on the way back to camp, we took a detour and turned left through the Angolan border fence. The other car did not follow and went straight back to camp. There was a cuca shop just inside Angola and I stopped to ask some of the people there if they knew where it was. There was an African woman, a Portuguese man and a Chinese man outside the shop, but they did not really know what I was talking about. They just kept telling me “Here is fine. There is fine.” and gesturing that it was okay to drive wherever we wanted. We drove in a little further, knew that we were not going to find the marker that we were looking for and decided to leave. Once we were back in Namibia, we stopped at the Namibian border post to ask them about the marker. They did not know what I was talking about either, but kept warning us not to go into Angola – little did they know that we already had. We decided to give up our quest for the moment and head back to camp, planning to come look for the marker again the morning.

We decided to go find a store before heading back to camp because we wanted to get some beers and we were in dire need of water. We stopped at the first place that we saw and they did not have cold beer and the water was N$12 for one bottle. Typically, a bottle of water is N$4-N$6, so we decided to drive closer to the Ruacana village in search of cold beer and better prices. We bought one bottle of water to share because we were so thirsty. Although this store did not have what we wanted to purchase, there was a Himba woman sitting outside – the Himba have not adopted Western influence and still dress as their tribe has for generations.

For dinner we roasted hot dogs and s’mores over the campfire and made hot chocolate. While we were hanging out by the fire, we heard the sound of roaring water and could see that the river that had no visible current earlier was now running briskly. We assumed that the damn had been released upstream and that the Falls were now flowing. The sound of the water flowing lasted well into the early morning hours and I am sure that it would have been a great sight.

After dark, which was at 6p, it started to get chilly out and we kept adding more layers of clothing and adding to the fire to stay warm. Nearly everyone went to sleep around 8:30p, except for me, Cat and Brian. We were sharing a tent and stayed up (or at least outside of our tent) until 9:30 or so. Once we got into the tent, we were giggly and laughing and could not sleep. We were also freezing. I think that we picked the coldest weekend of the winter to go camping. I was wearing a t-shirt, sweatshirt and fleece, sweat pants and socks and was zipped completely into my sleeping back (which is for as cold as 7 C or 45F) and was still shivering! At 1:45a, we realized that all three of us were up and again started giggling and laughing about anything and nothing.

Are Those Your Friends?

Today after school I headed to Ondangwa to meet up with Brian, Cat, Colleen, Kari, Kimberlee, Theresa, Allison and Ashley to head to Ruacana Falls to go camping for the Fourth of July weekend. Since I knew that I would not be able to make it to Ondangwa by 3p, when they were all meeting, we had arranged for me to SMS them when I arrived and they would pick me up after getting what we needed at the grocery store and picking up the cars.

Initially, I thought that I would be there by 4:30p, but I got there earlier than expected. Since the group was still picking up the cars and buying groceries, I spent about 30 minutes at the internet café and then decided to just wait outside. There is a café/bar in the shopping center with the internet café and as I sat waiting on the steps, some guys came out to talk with me. It turns out that they are nursing students and as we were chatting, a white Yaris full of white people came into view. They immediately asked if those were my friends...

The crew headed to Jen’s house to stay the night before leaving for Ruacana in the morning. Ashley cooked spaghetti for dinner and we took up the entire living room floor when we went to sleep. Around 5a, Ashley was talking in her sleep and shouted “Are you okay? You are in the hospital!” Most of our group starting giggling – so we must have all been awake in our sleeping bags, not knowing that the others were also awake. At least we were going to get an early start to our trip…

I'm Officially Settled into a Routine

So, I forgot to mention that on Sunday, while walking me home, Takataka told me that the Connect Four game was broken. Apparently the piece that slides across the bottom to hold the checkers in the game is broken - it must have been stepped on - but the kids stuck some cardboard in the grooves to hold the checkers in and just dump the checkers out of the top when the game ends. So, Connect Four lives on... I still hear it being played almost every morning and evening...

Yesterday when I got home from school, the new Meme was in the process of moving in. I greeted her in Oshikwanyama, but did not chat with her.

Also, last night was the final night of The Gardener's Daughter. I assume that the new soapie will begin tongiht - and from the ads promoting that it is coming soon, it looks just as cheesy as GD. The kids were disappointed with how it ended - they were hoping that something bad would happen to the villains (one was in a mental institution and one was in jail) and thought that the wedding between the two main characters (yes, another wedding!), the announcement that a baby is on the way, another marriage proposal, the grandfather having his memory back and his original will being found with Luisa Fernanda, the main character, as the sole beneficiary was a let down. Again, my favorite part was the overly flamboyant gay character asking Luisa Fernanda to please make sure that she threw him the bouquet!

My weeks have become quite routine, so there's not much to write. But, this weekend I am going to Ruacana Falls with a bunch of other summer volunteers. We are renting two cars and I am still waiting on final details, but it should be a great trip. Despite the fact that the Falls are not currently flowing, it is supposed to be beautiful scenery. And, there is an area where you can cross into Angola and take a photo next to a marker by signing into the immigration log. A visa is not required, so I am sure we will do that.

Tonight is my night to cook again, so wish me luck...

Everyone Knows I Went to Okahao

I successfully slept until 8am again! Whoo-hoo! Once everyone was awake, we finished the cake and had fruit for breakfast and then we started to get ready to make our way back to our respective homes. Steve generously offered to give us (all 6 of us that were leaving) back to Oshikati. Once in Oshikati, Katie, Kathryn and Dan headed off and Cama, Jen and I went to Spar for some groceries with Steve. Steve then dropped Jen off in Ondangwa, Cama in Okatope and me in Oshikango. We all paid him for the ride, but it was great to not have to be crammed in a taxi the entire ride. I would have gladly taken a taxi from Steve’s town, which is about 10k before Oshikango, but Steve said it would be no problem for the ride to Oshikango.

He dropped me off at Omatala and waited with me to get a ride. It only took a couple of minutes, but while we were waiting Else’s friend Ina walked up and asked me how Okahoa was. She did not come in the same bakkie, but we chatted for a minute before I left for Edundja. The bakkie was headed straight down the main dirt (sand) road, so he dropped me off just before the village. As I was getting out of the bakkie, the Take Away Tate was driving by and stopped to say hi, unfortunately, he was not headed into the village. As I started walking through the village, I saw one of the elder men of the village – a former pastor and teacher – sitting and having a beer in front of one of the cuca shops and stopped to say hi. He invited me to sit with him and share a beer (one of the 40 oz). As I was sitting there Jason (I found out he has a nickname, Takataka) came by to ask how Okahao was. I also chatted with Theodore, who gave me a ride a couple of weeks ago, and he seemed to know I had been to Okahao. I also saw one of the teachers at my school, Isaac. After an hour or two in town, Jason walked me back to the homestead. And, it turns out that he lives in one of the homesteads that I walk past each day on my way to school.

As it turns out, the former pastor and teacher is the Headman of Edundja. From what I can tell, it must be like the mayor or something. Ronnie Headman is acting headman of a village very near to where I live, so I guess that one day soon I will have to pay a visit to Ronnie Headman and find out what a Headman actually does.

The Trip to Okahao

I think that I am finally starting to adjust to a more normal sleep schedule – as all week I have been using the snooze function on my alarm and this morning I was able to fall back asleep until almost 8am. Typically, I have been up before 6am and only able to toss and turn until close to 7am. As I was getting dressed and ready to go, I heard lots of commotion in front of my room. When I looked outside, it was Joe and Rosaria playing a makeshift game of soccer. They were using a filled plastic grocery bag that had been tied shut as a ball, some bricks as goal markers and lines drawn in the sand as the field and scoreboard. It was cute. Maybe one day I’ll pick up a ball in town for the kids to play with.

This morning I headed to Okahao to celebrate the birthdays of two of the year-long volunteers. Irene’s birthday is today and Dan’s is tomorrow. Since my phone was not working, I was not sure who else was going. Previously, Cama and I had discussed meeting up and going together, but I decided to go on my own because I was unable to reach her.

To get to Okahao, I have to hike to Oshikango, get a taxi to Ondangwa, then get another taxi to Oshikati and yet another taxi to Okahao. This morning Frans wanted to escort me to the village and wait with me until I got a hike. I think that he only wanted to do this because he now has a phone (I think that one of the small boys, a cousin of some sort, that arrived earlier this week to visit from Swakop brought it for him) but needs a start pack – which is a SIM card and 15 or 20 minutes of talk time. He wanted me to buy him a start pack. I told him I would think about it. Before we got to town, I heard a car coming and was able to get a hike. When we got to Oshikango, I thanked the Tate and paid him N$10 for the ride. He introduced himself to me as Ronnie Headman and wanted to know why I had not yet been by to see him. I said that I did not know of him, but now that I did, I would.

I then got a taxi to Ondangwa. It turns out that the two girls that were in the taxi with me were headed to Oshikati, so the same driver went ahead and gave us ride there. Since I was in Oshikati, I decided to go to Fruit and Veg to have bananas and ice cream before picking up beer to take to Okahao. After I picked up the beer, I was walking across the parking lot to get a taxi to the Okahao hike point and I saw a familiar tall, blonde guy. It was Monty and I stopped to chat. He was in town to use an internet café and seek out US dollars. He is planning to go to Zambia to see Victoria Falls at the end of our service and you need to pay the entry visa in US Dollars. Since I am also planning to go to Vic Falls, we discussed potentially going together (I have some US Dollars for my entry fee). His flight back to London is out of Zambia on 8/16, so it may work out for us to head there together and then I’ll come back to Namibia to continue my travels. We’ll see…

Once I got to the Okahao hike point, the taxi filled up quite quickly and we were on our way. There were 4 passengers in the backseat (2 Memes, a Tate and me) and a larger Meme and the driver in the front seat. The Meme that was next to me started asking about the bones of the leg. I was a little confused until the Meme told me that she wanted to sing “The head bone’s connected to the neck bone”, etc. She had me get out a piece of paper and pen, draw a skeleton and start labeling. It was quite funny. Then we had a discussion of the word “eye” and “ear” and how English was confusing. After a while she asked me to “help her” write a paper for a class that she is taking at UNAM. At first I was confused and then I told her that I would not be able to write her paper for her. That was the end of our conversation and she took a nap after that.

On the way to Okahao, we passed two boys with a donkey drawn cart selling what looked like catfish at the side of the road. Well, we didn’t actually pass them, the taxi driver stopped and he and two of the other passengers bought bunches of the fish. ICK! I am those fish were caught in the remains of the flood water from several months ago. We also passed some more hilariously named shebeens – one that stood out was Half Way Entertainment House.

I finally arrived at Irene’s school, Shanika Nashilonga, which is a hostel school with around 800 learners. In addition to it being Irene and Dan’s birthdays, Irene’s school was having a full day celebration and feast to raise money for air conditioners for their computer lab. There was a tent, cultural performers, several area dignitaries, including 2 Owambo kings and a traditional Owambo feast. For Irene’s party, we were planning to have dinner at the event and then hang out at Irene’s. Our group bought a table and the feast consisted of Owambo chicken, goat, braai chicken and beef, traditional mahangu porridge, potato salad, macaroni salad, slaw, pumpkin and caterpillars. We traded the caterpillars for ground nuts/beans. We were also served oshikundu, which is beer made from mahangu and a bottled beverage called Club Shandy, which is a beer and lemonade combo. I liked the Club Shandy. The oshikundu, not so much.

After the feast, we went back to Irene’s for birthday cake, to play card games and have cocktails. We played Mafia and a game called Aflac, which I was terrible at!

Fresh Goat, Anyone?

Each Monday and Friday morning there is an assembly before classes. The learners sing the Namibian anthem and recite the Lord’s Prayer at each assembly. Today the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer was particularly bad and Mr. Kavungo stated that in each class’s next Religious and Moral Studies class the teachers ensure that all of the learners know it in English. I’ll be very curious to see how assembly goes next week!

Sometimes teaching is so frustrating! Since Joolokeni has been at a workshop all week, I have been responsible for covering her classes. She just asked me to review and explain the notes. Grade 10 is studying the 4 P’s of marketing and we were discussing pricing policy decisions. I asked the class to tell me factors that they would take into account when setting the price of a product. To ensure that they understood the question, I also wrote it on the board and was prepared to write their responses on the board. Silence. I repeated the question in a different way. Silence. I asked them to look in their notes. Silence. I asked them to pretend that they were selling something and to tell me how they would set the price. Silence. This was painful. And kind of like the scene from Ferris Bueller. But I did not want to move on without having someone take a guess. Finally, a brave soul gave me something and we were able to move on. The learners at my school have been taught to memorize, not to think for themselves. There is no focus on comprehension. It makes me dread planning my lessons.

After school today I went to Oshikango with Else and several other teachers from the school. Else wanted to see a doctor about some back pain that she is having. Ester, another teacher, did some shopping and then got a taxi to head out of town for the weekend. After Else saw the doctor, we got her prescription filled, went to Pick N Pay to do our shopping and then took a taxi to the Omatala hike point to head back to the village. Omatala is similar to an open air market with lots of small vendors selling their goods. There are corrugated tin structures, makeshift tables, etc. The hike point is across the dirt road from the market. Behind the hike point there is a fence and there are always goats tethered to the fence. Today, while waiting for more people to get into the bakkie, I noticed that there was a goat hanging from a wooden structure in front of the fence. And a man was pulling the hide off of the goat. Apparently, the tethered goats are there for slaughter to use when the vendors have sold their current supply.

The bakkie that took us back to Edundja belongs to a Tate that owns the take away shop in the village. On the way to drop us at the homestead, we stopped at the take away to drop off stock for the store. A take away shop sells prepared food. This particular take away shop is also a cuca shop, which is like a mini market. You can buy beer, cool drinks, basic canned goods, bread and a few other things. This Tate told Else to let me know that his shop also has Russians (sausages) and chips (fries). This is the same shop that Frans and I ate at, so I already knew.

When Else and I arrived back at the homestead, I spent some time playing with Shangala, who still loves to laugh and giggle when she sees me. I started threatening to tickle her by wiggling my fingers at her when she comes towards me, which makes her laugh even harder. She has also started doing it back to me and she tries to sneak up on me while wiggling her fingers. It’s really cute. I also tried to teach her to play “slaps” – when one person has their hands palms down on the other person’s palms up and the palms up person tries to slap the hand of the palms down person. She does not quite get the game, but has fun playing. After a couple minutes, she started wiggling her fingers on my palms like she was tickling me.

Tonight I also realized that phone was not actually sending the SMS messages that I was sending to people. I was receiving texts, but not sending them. I figured out that this had been happening since Tuesday – and I was a little relieved, as I was feeling a bit blown off by a couple of people. I was a little stressed about my phone not working, but later was told by another volunteer (in Okahao) that I just need to power down and restart the phone to fix it. Thankfully, that worked – but I was not able to do that until Sunday because I had to find my pin number (in my room in Edundja) before powering down the phone.