It is storming outside. Storming like you wouldn't imagine-Africa storming. I could tell by the cloud cover that it would rain today, and I could hear a low rumble of thunder in the distance. Then, like a light switch the rain was coming down in buckets and lightening shocked the sky, and I could feel the thunder. It's incredibly loud, the rain here, on my tin roof and through my thin windows, but I love the sound of it. I'm going to be held captive in my house until it stops-and probably for a while after, considering it turns the roads and everything around me to puddles and thick mud- but I kind of like the idea of being shut in, with the electricity coming and going with the flashes of lightening. I woke up at 6 this morning, and despite my best efforts, could not fall back asleep. I started my typical Sunday routine-had a cup of terribly bland instant coffee, did some yoga, started on some laundry in my kitchen sink and then swept all of the rooms of the house. If I don't sweep practically every other day my house starts to resemble a beach. I made a seriously gourmet breakfast (out of character for me, I'm hooked on oatmeal with apple and have it every morning here) of french toast and grilled apple. I didn't realise until today that I had all of the necessary ingredients-bread, milk, egg- and was ecstatic with it. Simple pleasures. The rest of my day will now be taken up with planning my English and math lessons for the week and typing up the scheme of work (year plan) for the Omusati region English department that I have been entrusted to type up and edit and augment. This is going to be the guideline for English teachers across the region for the next 5 or more years, so essentially, I am having a say in what is taught here in northern Namibia, and the how it is to be taught. I'm pretty excited about that.

A little bit more on my life here.. I am living and working in a town called Okahao in the Omusati region of northern Namibia. Okahao is famed as the birthplace of the freedom fighter and first president of Namibia, Sam Njoma, which is a really big deal. I've asked different people what the population is of Okahao and have received answers of 200, 1000, more than 1000, 20000, and "no idea". So...I don't know. People are really nomadic here, often having homes in more than one town. Many of the teachers I work with, for instance, live in Okahao in teacher housing and then have their "homes" in another town, where their spouses and even their children may live, and yet another home in their hometown, where they may have farms or livestock or extended family. This is very common. Almost none of my colleagues live with their families, they are spread out over northern Namibia.

I live in a small house on school property, with my colleagues as my neighbours. Shaanika Nashilongo SS, my school, is through a gate and across a small patch of land. It takes me two minutes to go back and forth. I have a really nice place in terms of teacher and volunteer housing. I have a large sitting room, which has a desk and a table with a few chairs, and shelf-stand with books and binders left from various past volunteers. My kitchen is small, with a metal sink, propane stove, table for preparing food on, shelf-stand, and fridge that I have to kick at the base in order for it to shut properly and keep things cold. My bathroom is great. I have a sink (with a mirror!), flush toilet and shower that has only boasted 3 cockroaches so far..but I'm ever on the watch for them. I went on a cleaning rampage when I got here, and my bathroom looks pretty darn good. There are three 'bedrooms', although only one has a bed, my room, so the others are just empty rooms right now. There are some persistent ants burrowing into my room through a large crack in the floor, and I am continually sweeping away their anthills-in-progress and plan on coming up with something to dissuade them from continuing to try. Ants and cockroaches are my two main opponents here. The wall spiders-my flatmates- I can live with, but if you are an ant or a cockroach you are in for a world of hurt. I've grown quite fond of my little house, and take a great deal of pride in keeping it clean and taking on different cleaning tasks every weekend to make it that much more comfortable. I've started decorating it with a few pictures from home, and some that my learners have drawn for me. I posted some pictures of my house as I found it when I first moved in, and will try to take some more now that I am more established. In general though, it looks the same, just a little more tidy and Jen-ified.

Yesterday I had my the kids from two doors down, Manga, Charles, and Massi, over and we ate cookies and made Valentines cards. They're great kids, and their mom, a colleague of mine, makes them speak English at home, so it's really nice to be able to have decent conversations with them in English. Manga is young, maybe 7, Charles is 9 and is the most animated and entertaining child I've ever met. He's quite the character and talks a mile a minute about anything at all. Massi is one of my grade 9 learners and is a very bright and sweet girl. She visits me fairly regularly, often to get a break from her full house of 6 children (in a house that is smaller than mine).

Okahao:

My town of Okahao boasts a bakery, a few general stores, a post office, petrol station, police station, a couple of secondary schools and primary schools, a hospital and pharmacy, a Pep (like a mini K-Mart(esque) shop you find throughout Namibia) and many many little shebeens (bars) where you will find locals at all hours of the day and into the night. Shaanika Nashilongo is located at the end of a dirt road, which leads to the main, paved, road. Immediately on the left at the junction of the dirt and paved road is the post office, bakery and a supplies shop. On the other side of the main road is the Lutheran church. If you follow the main road to the right you will encounter the majority of the other locations mentioned. Further down the road is where the open market is held, where locals sell meat, fatcakes (fried bread), onions and tomatoes and sometimes green peppers, and other goods. I can get basic essentials here in Okahao, but for anything other than canned goods, pasta and rice, peanut butter, bread, and cooldrinks, I need to go into Oshakati, a larger town about 70kms east from here.

In Oshakati I can purchase a surprising array of produce (tomatoes, potatoes, apples, nectarines, bananas (with a very short shelf-life), avocados, carrots, green peppers) at a specialty store called Fruit n Veg. There is also a grocery store where I can get many things that you'd see in a grocery store back home. I've got it pretty good here. I try to go into Oshakati once every couple or few weeks to stock up. There are a few other volunteers in my region, and we try to coordinate our Oshakati trips so that we can see eachother and share stories. It's so therepeutic to have eachother to share in our success or to comiserate with. It's just so nice to have people to talk to who truly do understand exactly what you are going through.

Well, I've written a short novel and I should have been using this time for my lesson plans. I will try and blog with more information about my school and my work here soon. Also I will try and get more pictures up. I love and miss you all!

xoxox
-Jen-