Days at the BNC
Good Morning...
Today Erica, Nina, Aunt Gert, and I are leaving to head up to Victoria Falls. The trip will wind through the northern part of Namibia, (the Caprivi Strip) cross over into Botswana, and then to Zambia and the falls. If all goes well I will return. Hope to see elephants along the way.
This was a nice week at the center. Tuesday and Wednesday MaryBeth was in Swakopmund with her family so I had to stay in the big room and help run the center. Yesterday Steve was not there and MaryBeth took her family around Katutura so I had a chance to run the whole show more or less. I survived. With this trip taking up a week I am now down to only two weeks at the center. It is nice to see the children take on more and more responsibility and do the right things. With MB out, Rian was fantastic helping me and Steve out in the big room. During clean up there are always one or two kids staying later to sweep and even mop! The regulars also keep an eye on the toys and games. Yesterday a few new boys returned the dominoes but about 10 pieces were missing. I called Rian and Jerome over to help me interogate the kids and they immediately began patting the kids down and found the missing pieces in their pockets and kicked the kids out of the center. MB told me later that day another kid tried a similar stunt and about 20 of the regular kids surrounded him, recovered the contraband, and escorted the perp out of the center.
Macrenne is amazing in the computer room. He is only about 11 years old but I leave him in charge the whole day with no problems. I gave him a pep talk before I left yesterday about how helpful he has been and how I need him to fill in for me when I am gone and he really seemed to embrace the challenge- we shall see how it turns out.
Emi, Suzie, and Aunt Pat leave today- it's surprising how quick 3 weeks goes! They were a lot of fun to have around. Last night we had a braai at the house for them to say goodbye. Twenty people ended up at the house and we had a nice time. Afterwards Aunt Gert wanted to scratch her gambling itch so I took her, Nina, Ajay, and Erica to the Kalahari Sands Casino. (The picture is of me, Ajay, and Nina at the casino.) We played a few of the slots and had a few drinks- it was fun. But, as the saying goes, if they were giving away shit I wouldn't get a sniff.
Today Erica, Nina, Aunt Gert, and I are leaving to head up to Victoria Falls. The trip will wind through the northern part of Namibia, (the Caprivi Strip) cross over into Botswana, and then to Zambia and the falls. If all goes well I will return. Hope to see elephants along the way.
This was a nice week at the center. Tuesday and Wednesday MaryBeth was in Swakopmund with her family so I had to stay in the big room and help run the center. Yesterday Steve was not there and MaryBeth took her family around Katutura so I had a chance to run the whole show more or less. I survived. With this trip taking up a week I am now down to only two weeks at the center. It is nice to see the children take on more and more responsibility and do the right things. With MB out, Rian was fantastic helping me and Steve out in the big room. During clean up there are always one or two kids staying later to sweep and even mop! The regulars also keep an eye on the toys and games. Yesterday a few new boys returned the dominoes but about 10 pieces were missing. I called Rian and Jerome over to help me interogate the kids and they immediately began patting the kids down and found the missing pieces in their pockets and kicked the kids out of the center. MB told me later that day another kid tried a similar stunt and about 20 of the regular kids surrounded him, recovered the contraband, and escorted the perp out of the center.
Macrenne is amazing in the computer room. He is only about 11 years old but I leave him in charge the whole day with no problems. I gave him a pep talk before I left yesterday about how helpful he has been and how I need him to fill in for me when I am gone and he really seemed to embrace the challenge- we shall see how it turns out.
Emi, Suzie, and Aunt Pat leave today- it's surprising how quick 3 weeks goes! They were a lot of fun to have around. Last night we had a braai at the house for them to say goodbye. Twenty people ended up at the house and we had a nice time. Afterwards Aunt Gert wanted to scratch her gambling itch so I took her, Nina, Ajay, and Erica to the Kalahari Sands Casino. (The picture is of me, Ajay, and Nina at the casino.) We played a few of the slots and had a few drinks- it was fun. But, as the saying goes, if they were giving away shit I wouldn't get a sniff.
posted by Jim | 12:45 AM
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