Valentine's Day - Oshakati trip

It's Tuesday evening already..and I have no idea how that happened. The last coherent thought I remember having was last Friday, thinking about how quickly the past week had gone by. I had a very busy and eventful weekend: going into Oshakati, attending the Valentine's Day event at my school, and lots of house and schoolwork to attend to.

Saturday morning I woke up at about 7 to the sound of my incessant and irritating sweat-fan and the rain outside (the English translation of saying that it is raining in Oshindonga is "the rain is raining", which I see a lot of in my marking. I think it's kind of cute in its redundancy.). I wasn't thrilled about the rain, because it just adds an extra degree of difficulty to anything that involves leaving the house. I jumped from my top doorstep down to the ground about 3 feet out to avoid the puddle forming in the small lull of earth by my front door and then I made my way through the mud and water to the school's from gate where I was meeting the student teacher, Trefina, to go into town. The dirt (sand) road that leads to the school turns to mush with any significant amount of rain, so you really have 3 choices as you make your way down the road: 1)tough it out in the mud and try to judge where the mud is thickest and will most support your weight without suctioning around your foot; 2) walk right through the water and just try and go as quickly as possible and avoid the murky shadows of the frogs enjoying a leisurely swim; 3)walk in the grass and brush along the side of the road (where the ground is usually harder-the plant roots absorb the water faster than straight sand), getting your legs and clothes wet and risking stepping on prickly and thorny foliage, snakes, mutant insects, or frogs. I opt for the mud.

We hiked into Oshakati without much trouble. 3 people in the front, 4 in the back. In town we went to Pick n Pay where I bought my groceries for the next couple of weeks-splurging big time on some items..my Valentine's gifts to myself-diet Pepsi (woo!), Nescafe instant coffee (not the yellow-tinned tasteless rubbish I'd been drinking for the past month), and yogurt-covered rice cakes (de-li-cious). Oh, and a bottle of white wine from South Africa..for $3 Canadian...and yes, you get what you pay for.

We then hauled my gluttonous load to Fruit n Veg to buy..you guessed it. I bought two bags of tiny apples, a semi-soft zucchini, tomatoes, onions, a couple of bananas (they have very short life-expectancy here) and some almonds. I met Adam and his Peace Corps volunteer there and we enjoyed fruit salad and iced instant-coffees. When I say 'his' volunteer, I mean only that they are stationed together at the same school. It's like an added perk for him though, so I tend to think of her as his extravagant African possession. Adam's village is in one of the worst flood areas of the Omusati region, and to get to and from school he has to wade through over a foot of water. To get to Oshakati he and his volunteer waded through water for the majority of their 3km walk. Luckily he was able to locate some rubber boots for these endeavours. In addition to this, his school has been having some problems with goats breaking into their classrooms (which isn't as unrealistic as it sounds, many classrooms at different schools may not have doors, or doors that close properly - and goats will do anything to get out of the rain) and eating their books. No dogs, here it's the goats that eat the homework. Except, really. Anyways, I digress. It's always such a relief to meet with other volunteers because you're then able to convince yourself that you're not crazy, you're not defective...everyone is having the same issues you are. Everyone is tired. Everyone is frustrated and confused multiple times a day. Everyone's learners look at them like they're crazy and sprouting a third head at least once a day. Everyone has lessons that completely bomb and make them want to cry. Everyone is loving it.

We didn't stay and visit for long-everyone has places they need to go and things they need to do when they come into town- so Trefina and I made our way back to the Okahao hike point and took another over-stuffed taxi back to Okahao at about 2pm. The school's Valentine's Day Event was scheduled to start that evening at 6- leaving me some time to get a little bit of work done around the house and then start getting ready for...I had no idea what.