A Weekend That Was

Hello Again...
It is a lazy Sunday afternoon here at the house. I just woke up from a nap and MB, Tobias, Mark, and I are heading off to tennis soon. The past few days have been eventful.

Friday MaryBeth and I went to the Bridging School (named that because it is an alternative school that attempts to "bridge" undereducated children into the main schools) where we go every Friday morning to do sports activities with the children. This school is very new and very clean and has a fair amount of resources at its disposal, despite the neighborhood in which it is located. We set up two basketball hoops and taught the little kindergarteners basketball. They practiced dribbling and taking shots. For many of the kids the ball was too big for them and when they would shoot the ball it would barely get above their heads and then bounce down off their noggins. Then the bigger kids from the bridge school came out for their exercise time and a good game of basketball developed with about 20 kids on the court. There is an American who just started working at the bridge school named Paul. He is an evangelical Christian named Paul from Chicago who came to Namibia from another part of Africa after being called here by God. He has that "high on Jesus" vibe about him, which is nice, just a little weird. You know the type, one of those people when you meet them say "God bless you"... even if you didn't sneeze. Anyway, the basketball was great and I got the chance to interact and meet a few of the kids and get to know their names.
Then we were at the BNC which was, of course, fun. The picture up above is looking in at the BNC from the street. After the BNC, MB, Tobias, Mark and I went and played tennis and about 20 kids followed us again. We played late into the evening but when we left the courts the kids were still there hanging out and playing with each other.
Friday night we had a bunch of people over for a BBQ. Two of the newer Germans in town cooked up some steaks and then we went out to El Cubano, a short walk from the house, and had some drinks and hung out. The scene there is nice with a mix of all races. There was a local band playing and it was a good, relaxing time.
Saturday was soccer day again. I was up at 8 and made sure to lather up in sunscreen. It is amazing though how the sun will always find someplace to burn you. This time it was on my upper lip. The rainy season seems to have ended and the sun is out from dusk till dawn. The actually air tempurature is nice but the sun is extremely instense and there is no escaping the scorching sun out on a soccer field.
Most of the day was spent in Otjumuise, a town outside of Windhoek. There is a field there where we took MB's girl's team (nicknamed the pumpkins because of their orange jerseys) and a boys team. The pumpkins went first around 11am and we piled about 15 of them into the pickup truck with myself, MB, and Steve, a volunteer from Seattle who works at the BNC. I was in the back of the pickup with the girls and they had a blast on the 20 minute car ride singing songs the whole way. Many of the pumpkins are the girls I hang out with at the BNC including Charlotte, Salome, Wendy, Rita, and Suzmita. They ended up losing the game against the Otjumuise "girls" team which was actually a hodgepodge of 4 or 5 girls and 6 or 7 boys. We dropped the Pumpkins back at the BNC and reloaded the truck with the boys' team. They are a little older and they play with more strategy and talent. They too ended up losing but all seemed to have a good time.
Saturday night about 8 of us we went out dancing again. This club was also a mix of black and white and a lot of fun. We danced and hung out until the early morning. I really like the people that live here. They are all easy going young people who just like to have a good time.
That is it for now, I have to be running along. Later on this evening or tomorrow morning I will post some new pictures.