2/26/08
So tonight ended up much better than it started. So let’s start there – other than TheOrganization, there are numerous global organizations interested in the betterment of other developing nations. This includes the World Teach organization, the Japanese organization that Dai belongs to, and what is called VSO. VSO stands for Volunteer Student Organization (I Think…), which is a British organization that accepts applications from any country.

We discovered sometime last week that there was a VSO volunteer that operates in and around Usakos. His name is Rob and hails from Nottingham, England. A really nice guy, he’s been staying for the past couple days with us. He primarily works in Swakopmund, but he has weekly excursions into our neck of the woods. So far, the arrangement has been pretty nice – he’s been staying in our living room rent free, and he’s been cooking for the house since he moved in. Dinners are fantastic, and always go late with conversation. Topics of conversation have so far included Namibian history with the Dutch, the English, and Germany, English history – Margaret Thatcher, what the British think of Tony Blair, the differences between socialized medicine and welfare in Britain, France, and Us. The War of 1812, current global political trends…Been pretty nice so far.

2/29/08
Once again and to no one’s surprise, Usakos has been pretty benign and quiet. We’ve begun to worry about the state of the Youth Center. Without a head director, there seems to be little drive or motivation for other people to get things done. Neither Ian nor I have been able to give our presentations. It seems that “later” is always a better time, even with a lack of anything better to do. Later tonight will be the preliminary service for the death of Mr. Hermann, with the main funeral being held this coming Sunday. It doesn’t look like it’ll be a great weekend.

3/03/08

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd of course there’s nothing really to report on. Sorry I couldn’t update this past weekend – this weekend was the funeral of Mr. Herman, and there have been multiple thunderstorms this weekend, making the internet connection spotty. A minor word on both counts…Mr. Herman’s family decided to bury him in traditional Damara style. Basically this means that I could have had my own child, had him baptized, had his communion, and had his confirmation all before this was finished. For every hour that you were all asleep Friday night, I was standing either in the church or the cemetery. 7am to 3:34pm. Basically your midnight til 9:00am. It technically started at 4:00am at the family’s home, but we figured our presence would have been inappropriate, and we do love sleep after all. I won’t say much more about the funeral, just because there’s some things you really can’t put into words.

The thunderstorms however, are from another world entirely. From what it sounds like, Usakos has had more rain than it has in a decade. The very cool thing is that the land around Usakos is predominantly flat in one direction; luckily, this is the direction that my window faces. We were rather quick to discover that any rain we get passes quite quickly. But we also discovered that the thunderstorms we get are rather incredible – these thunderclaps are vibrating the walls, which is very impressive when they’re made from cinderblocks. Last night was VERY pretty, it seemed my room was being lit up every couple seconds or so for a good half hour.

At this point, I’m given props and shout outs to Karen and Kristen, both for calling me this weekend! Very awesome and very cool. I’m going to ask either one of you to comment with my phone number, since I have no idea what you guys are punching in to get to me. Please, everyone – feel free to call me. You can actually hear how excited I get when I get to talk to someone. ‘specially if I like you. And I promise, I’ll always have more than enough time to talk to you. J

So this following week it seems we’re heading north. Far north. Like, a 14 hour drive north. We’re heading to a town called Oshakati, which is not too far from the Angolan border. Namibia is broken up into Ministries, rather than the USA’s departments. We have the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, et cetera. I happen to work for the Ministry of Youth, which every year pays its employees to attend a week long conference to discuss our ideas for the year. It should be entertaining, and it at least gives me an opportunity to see some more of the country. Don’t worry, more will come when I find out more about it.