Swakopmund, Spitzkoppe, and the Past Weekend

Hello Everyone... I am back from a great trip to the Atlantic coast and really enjoyed myself. I tried to post two blogs before I left but the server was down so this blog will be long as I will update everything from Thursday on... get comfortable.

Thursday was a great day with lots of things accomplished. Being Mb's personal assistant, I was assigned to do some grocery shopping for her in the morning and therefore skipped the Hakehanna kindergarten. She is hosting a prayer meeting tonight and a St. Patrick's Day party on Sunday so she had a lot of cooking to do. After the chores I road the bicycle to the BNC and went back into the computer room- the kids love it, but they can be a little overwhelming with their enthusiasm and excitement.
At 5pm, when we close the BNC for the day, the kids and a bunch of us adults went down to the soccer fields to play a kids vs. volunteers game. It was a lot of fun and the kids really enjoyed themselves- as did I. The first game was volunteers against my beloved Pumpkins and the girls did great running around laughing. Then the boys played us which was a close game, which we ended up winning 1-0 but the competition was great. After the two games I was dripping in sweat to the amusement of the kids who wanted to know why I poured water all over my shirt. MB and I then rode our bicycles home, something I really enjoy because it is a nice final workout for the end of the day and the evenings are nice and cool. There is talk of doing this type of soccer game once a week which should be really fun.
Last night I boiled pasta for Sebastian, Michael, and myself and it turned out pretty good. Then Tim, Karina, and AnnaKaren showed up- they are two Germans and a Swede, all very nice people who are volunteering in Katutura as well. MB received about 15 bags of books (70lb mail bags) which were donated from the US by various people and we all spent last night organizing them into four piles- teacher's books, storybooks for little kids, books for older kids, and useless books that were too old, too irrelevant, or too inappropriate. Among the books deemed too inappropriate were "Johnny Loves Apartheid," "Fun with Electricity," "101 Things to Do with a Box Cutter," and "Teletubbies March in the St. Patrick's Day Parade."
I have come to be a little concerned that MB might have a substance abuse problem- I think she is a cocaine addict. :-) Her high energy level was always amazing, but this morning I woke up to find her wide awake (which she never is at 6:30am) and I come to find out she didn't go to sleep last night. (Binging?) She spent the whole night organizing more books, cleaning, cooking, etc. The twisted thing is I am more tired than she is and after a full day of work today she is hosting her prayer dinner... I don't know how she is going to do it...

Friday was a busy day. MB and I rode our bikes to the Bridge School which is twice as far as the BNC, so it is a great workout to start the day. There we did little relay races with the little kids and then did a soccer game with the older kids afterwards. I am beginning to recognize more and more faces there which makes showing up on Fridays more exciting. The teachers there are very nice and are enthusiastic about MB helping out there; Ingrid works with the little children and Queenie works with the older children. At the BNC there was a big delegation of people from US A.I.D. there which apparently is a major source of funding for Catholic Aids Action, which is the group that runs theBNC andfourteen other after school programs across Namibia. All that to say that there were about 20 important people there roaming around for about an hour looking at how the center was run and observing the kids. To me it sort of felt like watching fish in a bowl, "Oh, look at the little African children!" but I guess in a way I do the same thing- these people atleast donate millions of dollars. We left right at 5pm because MB was hosting a prayer meeting and needed to get back home. Unfortunately for us, it was cold and raining at 5pm so we had to ride home in the rain- needless to say we were drenched. The weather here has been weird the past two days with overcast skies. Since I have been here the has been rain, but usually just pockets of rain the intense sun again, but these few days it has just been cool, overcast, and rainy.
Last night we went across the street to check out the restaurant that is being built hoping to score some more free food but it was a bust and there was little food to be had. From there we skipped over to Tobias' house and ordered some pizzas. He is roomates with those lovely East Germans and when we showed up and sat down, they came out of their rooms, sat down and said hello... then immediately mentioned they still needed their N$35 from Michael and me. Michael and I were both taken back a bit at their bluntness, but I just gave them their money. I am a non-confrontational guy so I paid; but the way I see it, I paid N$35 ($6.50 American) to never have to deal with those two weasels again. Michael was a bit more forward and told them straight up that he refused to pay because he thought what they did was wrong. In hindsight I wish I would have done the same, but as I said, atleast I am done with those two. That sort of set the mood for the evening for me and after eating pizza at Tobias' house, Michael, Sebastian, and I went home around 11pm. Tobias's house is being worked renovated and sort of feels like a prison or a cage so I was just as happy to come home and go to bed.
Saturday was a full day of soccer once again, but this week I was exiled to the little boys. They bicker a lot and being only 4-7 yrs old, they lose interest very quickly and end up loafing around on the field. Needless to say, I lose interest as well. After soccer we went to the BNC to get our bikes and about 30 kids came with us so we let them in and played Bingo for sweets for 2 hours. It was nice spending extra time with them. Lately, I have been letting kids listen to my iPod and I put one song on loop and it gets passed around. 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy) and No Woman No Cry are the two popular ones. When Martha wants to listen I put on Martha My Dear by the Beatles- she loves it. They also love when I let them ride on the bike with me up and down the street. Saturday night Rick, MB's friend, invited us to Taal for Indian food and it was great. A friend of Ricks named Tim is in from Seattle for the week and he was there too. He is a nice guy who works for Maryknoll I believe and is considering moving down here. MB and I finally rode our bikes home around 930pm and after a quick shower I joined Sebastian, Mark, and Kristen at a lounge for drinks and then we met up with Michael and had another drink at some down-n-out blues bar which was pretty lame, but an interesting experience.
We decided to take our trip to Swakopmund from Sunday morning to Tuesday night because Tim, Karina, and AnnaKaren were able to borrow a van from a co-worker for free and so Kristen and I will all go with them and Tobias and Katrin to save a little money. The trip should be a great!

So those were the earlier two postings... feel free to get up and stretch, grab a drink, or go to the bathroom and when you get back I will tell you about my trip. Go ahead, I can wait, take your time...

Welcome back... I might be a little long winded (surprise) but I am just going to let my fingers start typing. Sunday morning Kristen and I were picked up around 7am and the 7 of us packed into the van and drove to Swakopmund which is a coastal resort town on the Atlantic Ocean. The drive goes mainly through the desert but with the mountains the scenery is still beautiful. We got to Swakopmund around midday, checked into a backpackers lodge and walked to the beach. The beach area is very nice and after playing a little soccer and relaxing, Karina convinced me to go in the water with her. The water was very very cold... like an ice chest. I thought that if I went under the water and came up I would acclimate myself to the temperature- that didn't work as planned and I froze! Karina convinced me to stay in the water and after swimming around enough, I got use to the water after about 30 minutes and we swam out far then swam back in- it was a good workout. After a little more time on the beach AnnaKaren, Tobias and I went to a beachside restaurant and had a beer looking out over the ocean. From there a few of us walked to an Aquarium which was a bust... little to see. We then headed back to the lodge to shower and head out for dinner. I was the only one who didn't get burned at the beach. We had dinner at the same place we had a beer earlier and though the service was slow, the food was good, cheap, and the portions were huge. I had an enormous burger that looked like a Dagwood sandwich with French Fries, Calimari, and a milkshake. We were all pretty tired the first night and just went back to the lodge and went to bed.
Monday we woke up early and took a dolphin tour which was great. It was a small, cozy boat with just 8 people so it was very personal and up close and the captain was super friendly. We saw dolphins, sea lions (or seals.. I forget which is which) and two of the seals jumped into the boat to be fed. We also pelicans, thousands of other birds and a nice tour of the coastline. At the end we had a bottle of champagne provided on the tour and oysters. It was very cool and cruising around the boat in the ocean was so relaxing. Afterwards we all went our seperate ways and did shopping, went to the beach, etc. Later on Tobias and I went to an antique shop which had a lot of cool little artifacts but it was a bit pricey.
Just before sunset we went to a beachside bar which faced the coast and we watched the sunset over the Atlantic... it was a beautiful sight. Looking out I looked to the Northwest and felt close to Montauk, and New York.
For dinner that night we ate at the Tug, which is an old beached tugboat that serves seafood. I had Kingclipper with roasted potatoes. It was delicious. Afterwards Tim, Tobias, Kristen, AnnaKaren and myself went to a few bars but found no nightlife. It was a holiday weekend (Namibian independence day is March 21) but there was nothing exciting going on in the town.
On Tuesday we went to see Flamingos and walked up the sand dunes in the morning and around noonweleft Swakopmund for Spitzekoppe which is a mountain about an hour West of Swakopmund. It is in a very isolated place and the views were breath taking. The mountain was formed from a volcano millions of years ago and the rock is smooth. We found a pool of water in one part that we relaxed next to for a few hours. Tim, Katrin, and I climbed to the top of a smaller rock pile (a few hundred feet high) and the views looking out into the desolate part of Africa were breathtaking. I really liked it there and camping would have been fun had we the time and appropriate gear. There is a super small village outside of the park area where we had to buy gas from a store. The gas came in buckets and had to be siphoned into the car.
We got back Tuesday night and I was very happy with the experience but just as glad to be back "home" and I am looking forward to seeing the children today. With a little over two weeks to go before returning to NY, I am beginning to realize how much I will miss the children. There was talk of staying in Swakopmund another day, but I am glad to be back with the kids instead.