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.