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Published: August 31st 2013
Dear Friends,
It is Saturday, the 31st of August. I am not sure why, because usually I am really depressed toward the end of vacations, but I feel really good today. The kids come back on various busses from various distances on Monday, and classes start Tuesday.
I think that I was worried about vacationing by myself, but it turns out that I needn't have. I went to Windhoek the first week (holiday started the 18th of August). Rode there with a friends. I think I got that far in the last blog. Anyway, as I was leaving the B&B to go to Backpackers, I asked the woman if she knew a good hairdresser who could cut my hair. She recommended hers, just around the corner with her shop in her house, and made me an appointment for the next day. Anyway, I got may hair chopped, getting ready for the heat. There was a whiff of it yesterday, but today is quite lovely.
After the hair was taken care of, I went shopping. I shopped several hours a day for the next four days. All my clothes are falling off, and the ones Nicki brought are starting to get looser, so I had a good time. I bought five pairs of pants and capris, six blouses and shirts, and two pairs of shoes for a grand total of about $350.00 American. I also went to the big Craft Centre (the Fair Trade one) and started buying gifts. That took several days. I looked around one day, made a sort of list, then looked around again and started picking out things. In the middle of all those days, I had coffee. I found an outdoor cafe I liked where I had lunch and a latte a couple of times. And once at the craft market.
The nice thing, though, is that I was right about Backpackers. You meet people. The first night I had my room alone. Then I had a roommate, a young woman from the UK who had just spent four months in Botswana doing research for her PhD. I think it was her second time doing that. Now she has 18 months to write the dissertation. She was young like all the other WT volunteers, but very nice and traveling alone, also. My director/boss Bret and she and I went out for pizza one night. Gosh, that was heavenly. We don't have pizza up here, and I haven't been drinking just because I don't want to do it in front of the kids, and I don't want to drink by myself. That is my one rule in life--never drink alone. But pizza and beer is VERY hard to beat when you haven't had it for awhile. Louise and I went to the craft market the next day, and also had coffee at what seemed like it might be a Goethe Institute. At least it was a German teaching place and had Goethe in the name! Wouldn't it be fun to come to Windhoek to study German?
Another evening Bret came over and we had a braai (barbecue). There is a young man, Freddy, who stays at the hostel and works in game preserves. I've met him before and he was there. I think he helps out there to get a place to stay. He's from Germany but has been in Namibia for some years now. There are a couple of students at UNam who stay at the hostel, too. So they all braaied with us, as well as Freddy's girlfriend and Bret's girlfriend. They were all very nice and the two students were very interesting. One is from Zimbabwe. Fungai (pronounced like eye on the end).
For one night after Louise left, I had a young French woman for a roommate who was taking her vacation volunteering at a game preserve for two weeks. In chatting we discovered that her mother teaches English and is retiring soon (and is recently divorced) and is interested in volunteering to teach abroad. So she asked me if I would email her mother about WorldTeach. Did that yesterday. Her name is Catherine.
My friend from school has a brother in Windhoek who drives a taxi. He picked us up that Sunday, then he took me to reserve a place on the bus home another day. So I came back up on Monday, getting in to the filling station in Divundu at 1:30 a.m. Fortunately Mr. Subeb who has a car, also has three kids and did not leave for the holiday (too short), so Niyo, my traveling friend picked me up. Pretty impressive staying up until 1:30 to meet a friend. And quite a relief because it would have been dangerous to have to walk back to the school. Not far, but risky.
So since Monday I have been cleaning house, washing clothes, sleeping until 8 or 9, reading a lot--"The Hare with Amber Eyes", Wangari Maathai's memoir "Unbowed", and a couple of mysteries. I am loving my Kindle. What a lifesaver! I brought with me a very large book "Wild Swans" by Jung Chang. My book group read it before I joined and they all still talk about it. But I'd like to leave it here, so it is next. Then I have the new list for my book group, in case I can't think what to read.
I ordered a set of "Harry Potter" from Amazon and it got here in a little less than a month. I've been reading it to the 8th grade and one of the grade 11s, hoping listening will improve their English. But they are all such different levels, that I am not sure it is helping that many. I'm thinking about reading "Cry the Beloved Country" to the 11th grade this term. One of our jobs while we are here is to try to instill a culture of reading. I don't know if they aren't interested, or just don't have books available, because our library seems pretty popular. Did I tell you one of the things they did when the President came was to put all the extra and not yet being used textbooks on the library shelves so the President wouldn't know the library was so empty.
Besides reading, I have been playing Solitaire (I bought some cards in Windhoek), and Shanghai and Bridge on the computer. All of those are very addictive. I have to make myself go out and walk around to get some exercise.
I read a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt of Facebook or somewhere recently, and it was about how facing the thing you fear and looking it in the eye makes you strong and confident. There was a little more to it and it was said better, but I think that is why I am feeling so good. I think I was really worried about spending this vacation alone, and traveling by myself, and now I have done it. And although I only went to Windhoek, that was more because of finances and tiredness. It costs a lot to fly around here, and the bus one can only take so much. But being back here for that time, too, was something I worried about and it has been great.
My friends Barbara and Alan Braley are coming over in October, so I am hoping they will want to go down to Maun one weekend, so I can see the Delta. Until then, my adventures will be in teaching. And I am going to stage manage the school play, as well as teach a learner to do it. Our stage has no backstage, so that will be a challenge. Rachel has done a lot of theatre, so she is producing and directing with a student director. The play is called "Now That You Know" by Ainna Kaundu, a new Namibian playwright. I haven't done this in a long time. I hope I remember how. I think I may have to do sets as well.
I'm going to have dinner now. Mushed carrots I had to rescue mixed with rice and lots of garlic. I am getting a whole different attitude toward eating here. For so long it was just surviving without a refrigerator, so lots of peanut butter and jelly and canned veggies. So now I get very excited at fresh veggies. I bought some already peeled, sliced butternut squash before I left, so I put it in the freezer. The other day I just boiled it and mushed it and added butter and garlic and it was soooo yummy. If I had a blender, I could make soup, but mushed is almost the same. I hope I can still love vegetables when I get home and be adventurous with them.
More soon. Third term then home! I am suffering cognitive dissonance about that!
Love to all,
Wendy
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John Crittenden
non-member comment
Guten Tag Frau Baker/Warren
es hat mir glied das taglich ich ein anderes geschichte fon meine lieblich halb schwester gelesen kann. Du bis immer so getanklich das zu schreiben. It is so nice Wendy, to know you and to be a part of your adventure! John Crittenden