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.