First I feel i must clarify from the start - when i speak of we, i will almost always be referring to me, Ryan and Leah....locally referred to as as 'Block' 'Lion' and 'Reah'.
Last Friday we were invited to a 50th anniversary celebration in a bush town about 1 hour outside of our 'already small town. Just a couple feet down the road 'baby' decided she wasn't having it so we left our broken down car and hopped in the back of a pick-up truck (driven by another anniversary celebration goer) and headed out to the bush....or as us Americans might refer to it 'BFE.' The celebration was soooooo neat (although we
having a go at each other....which was such a laugh for us 'non-country' folk....and then such a laugh for the locals who thought our delight and excitement from the chicken fight was even funnier. As you can hopefully see from the picture of Reah and I - this community lives within these stick walls, sharing almost everything, including the rearing of their children (something the US could use). The other pic is Lion and our friend Hofni...who are both sporting mine and Reah's attire (for some reason)....fitting in really well as metro-sexuals. After enjoying the celebration, people, food, great stories and questions we hopped back into the bed of the pickup truck and headed home as the sun went down.The next morning, Sunday - Lion was invited to play in a soccer match which was a very interesting experience as well....not just b/c he was playing on sand and he was the only American
(see pic: white guy in white)....but the match/tournament got pretty heated and ended with people smashing glasses bottles and boulders other players heads. One set of guys actually got into their pickup trucks and started trying to run people over.....so as you can probably guess - the 3 scared Americans decided to dodge the chaos and call it a day.Our weekends are filled with trying new and different things and our weekdays are usually filled with sweating our way around to different schools in the region to help them with their IT problems. We're usually under our mosquito net, fast asleep by 9pm from the long, hot day of fixing. Sometimes I'll stay home and be 'all domestic' doing dishes, fixing lunch, handwashing the clothes, etc.....(if you can believe that)....but that's rare. And i promise to eventually post a pic of me 'handwashing' for all who might be quite skeptical. (hee hee).
This weekend was loads of fun, as we went shopping on Saturday and then set out on an epic (7-hour) journey to buy some clay pots (5 miles outside the city)....(see pic).
Just to provide some background: nothing is done in a real hurry around here and although everyone speaks English it's not that easy for us to understand each other on most occasions. Communication is short and simple; therefore Block, Lion and Reah often find ourselves stranded on the side of the road asking each other 'what just happened?' Saturday evening we went to Benny's, this crazy huge oasis park which looks like it should be in Disney World and not in the middle of this sandy, simple town. The park has a pool, waterslide, antelope roaming around, music playing, peacocks also roaming, turtles, etc...its a crazy site completely opposite to the life outside it's walls. At Benny's we had a drink (maybe 2...who's counting?) and crashed someones bday party.....until we were bored and full. Then we decided to venture to another bday party (which we were actually invited too) and we ended up sitting in the sand next to the house in almost complete darkness (by ourselves) wondering where our host went too (30 min ago), trying to figure out how to mix our gin and sprite without any cups, while getting slapped in the face by sand from the sand storm that was brewing....so we decided not to stick around there for long and hopped in a cab for home.
Yesterday we decided to take it easy and set out to find somewhere we could cool down....we ended up back at Benny's park cooling off under a tree in their fake grass we so enjoyed. To our surprise and delight one of the monkey's had escaped from his cage so we ended up playing with him....letting him jump on our backs and nibble our hands until he got too spastic for us to play with him.It probably sounds like all we do is 'play' - so i feel i must update on 'work,' or 'volunteering' rather. Ryan's been going to different schools, fixing computers, updating software, getting people 'on line', etc and i've been trying to help....starring in amazement, but also amazingly learning some valuable things too.....like how to take apart a computer and put it back together. Many people in the town are starting to catch-on that Lion's here helping so there have been many interesting requests for various things.....recruiting someone to work at the Ministry of Education, grading papers...the list goes on and he's trying to fulfill as many requests as are reasonable and doing a great job of it. In the meantime we've also been putting a plan together for helping some of the Visually Impaired students in the region become proficient (or maybe just comfortable with) using computers. We're also working on putting training courses together for the 23 teachers here at the school - to teach them how to use computers as well as Microsoft word, powerpoint, etc. - so we'll be holding these workshops in February - hoping it will be some good knowledge we can 'leave here.'
I know there's probably something I've forgotten but it's just such a whirlwind everyday....every hour.
To continue the craziness...Ryan and I (and sometimes Leah) will set off on Saturday for our 25-day Southern Africa adventure.....so you won't have to hear from us for 25 (maybe more) full-days. We will first be headed for the Namibian coast (skeleton coast) to drive down to the restricted diamond mines (crossing our fingers our hook-up can get us in)....stopping and camping all along the way. Then we'll head down to Cape Town, SA for xmas just the two of us. The day after xmas Ryan and I will then start our U-shaped back up through South Africa into Botswana where we'll stop and stay at the Okavango Delta Safari Reserve for New Years and then up to Vic Falls and Caprivi Strip before returning home on the 12th January. This is obviously the route we plan (hope) to take, but who knows.....as the pic below reveals - we could end up anywhere....but we'll be safe and be thinking of everyone - wishing you all a Happy(UK)/Merry(US) Christmas and a fabulously fun New Year.
Love, Block and Lion
