XXXI: February 2008

Or that's what if feels like at least.

Sorry I haven't posted in a long time. I have been super busy trying to get a ton of things done before I leave. I'm pretty stressed, and I feel like there is so much that I need to do but won't be able to. For example, I started making friendship bracelets for the kids who I got really close to. Then I realized that there were 30 of these kids. In four days I made 15 bracelets, and my fingers and motivation has are totally exhausted. Oh well, those other 15 will have to deal with only getting a stokie lacker.

So I posted last...Friday? Sorry about that... Here is a super long update:

Saturday
On Saturday, MB gave new uniforms to the BNC under 10 boys team and the Pumpkins. She had received these uniforms in a huge crate, the kind that travel overseas on barges. They were sent from Canada. Now, there were three huge crates. One of them was specifically for MB and her soccer kids. The others were also donations for MB, but were not from the same woman she had been in contact with for the past few months. Side note- let me give you an idea of how much STUFF was sent. Thousands of dollars worth of new NEW tocks and hundreds of uniforms. So much that MB decided to send a ton of the stuff up to the north and just keep some of it for her kids and some of the other teams here in Katutura- So. The lady who had organized this eight months fundraiser to send on these things to MB sent her an email, asking for pictures of the kids in the uniforms she had sent, so that she could show the donors. So Saturday MB and I went to the soccer field and put the kids in the new jerseys and I took pictures. Later that night MB sent some of the photos, and the woman wrote back saying that those were not the jerseys that they had sent, and those must have been from one of the other containers. OH NO. Well, turns out that the jerseys that this woman wanted to see on the kids were planned to go up north, because MB didn't want to hog all the stuff to herself, nor do the BNC kids need all that stuff. She told this to the lady, and the lady said that if her donors didn't get the pictures of the kids in their jerseys, that they would not be motivated to donate again. Crazy, right? Plus, this woman also wanted a picture of two kids with their arms around each other in jerseys from rival teams that kids in Canada I guess are always fighting about. HOW FAKE. Luckily, the stuff hadn't been sent up north yet, and MB was able to retrieve the jerseys she needed for the pictures.

Besides this fiasco, the kids looked adorable in the jerseys that we put them in. The under 10 boys now have green jerseys and black shorts, and the Pumpkins have new orange jerseys.

Wendy, one of the girls on the Pumpkins team, always plays as number eight. Plus, MB once gave her a Wendy's t-shirt (the fast food chain) and so sometimes we call her hamburger. WELL GUESS WHAT. There was an orange jersey with a burger on the front and a number eight on the back. Wendy went bananas. MB went bananas. I went bananas.

So Saturday I was taking pictures of the kids playing on the field, and after I had taken a bazillion photos, Jeniffer and Jane took me over to see what is left of that house that the kids had built. So much for simply cooking for the boys and playing house...there were shorts strew everywhere, a torn apart mattress, and a little stove. You can put that together, there is no need for me to tell you what was actually going on in that shack.

Brian had his group on Saturday, and it was just me, Brian, Taura, Cynthia, and Miss Muffin (Brian's older friend). We talked to the kids about making decisions and the consequences that come from making certain decisions. They seemed to understand what we were telling them about self control and listening to advice from adults even if they didn't want to, and what happens when you make a bad or wrong decision. Then Brian realized that he left the remote for the alarm to the building inside the big room, and someone had just left the CAA office and turned the alarm back on. The the kids remembered that there was a kid still in the library, and they all wanted to run to tell him to not move and set off the alarm. Brian told them to not say anything to him, and just to stay outside where we were sitting talking. The kids ran to the big room anyway, and while Brian was on the phone with MB trying to figure out what to do, the kids just went in the big room and guess what happened? The alarm went off. Ironic. Well, it made a good example to continue our discussion with.

Sunday POOL DAY! It was only me and MB for the first part of the day, because Ilga was at church, Mark didn't feel like coming early because he had been out late the night before, and Kirsten and Bianca were up in the north visiting Etosha and the Himba. But there weren't that many kids there anyway, so it was really fine.

Around noon I went over to the picnic area and started preparing the bread for the kids. I pulled out all the cheesy breads and sweet rolls, and then separated some of the regular brochen. Then Mark showed up, and hung around with me for a few minutes. MB then let the kids into the picnic area and they all sat on the grass as she called them up to get bread. She always calls up the BNC kids first, so I gave them each a sweet roll and regular brochen, and then the kids that followed got either cheesy bread and brochen or two plain brochen.

We left the pool a bit earlier than usual because there weren't that many kids there anyway, and the clouds were looking pretty ominous, plus it had been drizzling on and off.

After the pool we went into Okahanja Park which is an unofficial settlement, one of the worst parts of Katutura, and picked up more dolls at Miriam's house. I played with her kids a bit. They are really sweet!

Monday
No idea what I did. I really truly can't remember.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning MB drove me to a restaurant called Luigi and the Fish, to meet up with Emma ( a 15 year old volunteer from NC) and her mom. I went to school with Emma Tuesday at the Namibia Waldorf school. It was very strange. I felt like I was going to school 200 years ago. And there are chickens and dogs running all over the place. Emma's teacher didn't like me very much, and thought I talked too much during choir. Whatever, I really didn't.

The kids at Emma's school are cool, but they asked me if I ever met any celebrities in NY! Even them! It's crazy!

After school we went to the center, and later on that evening MB and I went to the airport to pick up the new volunteer Jessie and then MB dropped me off at Emma's house for a sleepover. That was so fun! We realized the both of us have picked up South African/British English here, like using a totally different tone with the questions we ask. Example: American way- Is your shirt BLUE? SA/UK- Is you SHIRT blue? Does that make sense? Probably not. And then I realized that I have been picking up little things the kids do, like raising my eyebrows instead of saying "yes", just like Meroldi.

Emma and her family eat Black Cat peanut butter. You know the Skippy-Jiffy rivalry int he US? Well it's the same here, only with Black Cat and YumYum. Of course YumYum is better.

Wednesday
Wednesday morning we woke up and went to school again. I was sure to not talk at all during choir. School was good. After school was even better. We stayed for the Namibian Sign Language club. It was really interesting comparing signs and learning about deaf culture in Namibia.

Then Emma's mom took me back to the center, and I listened to the BNC Choir, lead by Taura, practice their songs. I want to cry every time I hear them. They sound so beautiful! I wish I had a CD of them singing so that I could listen to them even at home.

Thursday
Thursday was today. I woke up and MB brought Meroldi to the house. A few months ago she was tripped by Ruru at the pool and chepped her two front teeth. I brough her to the dentist to have them capped this morning. She looks great now! You can't even tell where th cap and real tooth meet. CAA is paying for the treatment.

When we got back we ate some lunch, and MB arrived back at the house with Paul, the new volunteer from the UK. He seems really cool. Then MB, Mark, and Paul left for the center, and Jessie, Meroldi, and I walked to CLASH so I could buy a t-shirt, and made some stops at the mall. Then we got in a cab and went to the center. Maybe around 3, it started pouring...and guess what?!?!? HAILING! The kids went crazy. I WENT CRAZY. We were running around catching the hail and eating it! I played in the rain with the kids for a while, basically until it stopped. I was soaking wet and cold for the rest of the day, but I had a wonderful time splashing around, and I wouldn't have changed a thing.

I just got back from NICE, where Taura lead a Men's forum- basically a discussion about the role of men in Namibian and world society and the problems/challenged created by them. It was a tad boring so I taught myslef how to bend the first joint of my right ring finger without bending the rest of it.

Times I feel most alive:
1) On the top of the tallest sand dunes in the world in the pouring rain, with a rainbow behind me.
2) Listening to the BNC choir.
3) Playing in the rain.

I have a million things to do before Monday.

On Sunday, a 16 year old boy named Ramashal told Sha that he had found a man who wanted to have sex with her (keep in mind Sha is 12) and would pay her for he. "Don't worry," he told her. "We will just go there and take his money and run before you have to do anything". So they went off to some discrete location and Sha took the man's money and ran.

On Monday Sha and Michelle were teasing Rodney, Usho, and Set. The boys were ignoring them, but the insulting started to escalate. Sha called Rodney a bushman, and soon thereafter Rodney got so upset that he shouted out "Well at least we aren't having sex with old men in shacks like you, Sha!". Sha ran and told MB what he has said, and then at the end of the day MB called a private meeting with Sha and the girls and some of the boys.

The boys were under the impression that Sha was being paid for sex. She cleared things up and told them "No, no! Ramashal and I just trick the men!". MB explained to them how dangerous doing this is, but she doubts that will change their minds the next time the opportunity arises.

I cannot believe this is happening here. I think about the eleven and twelve year old girls I know back i the states, and I think about myself at the age of 12. I don't think I will ever understand the lack of caution and respect these girls have for their own bodies and well-being.

Salome's Aunt runs a whore-house type operation right in the house, so Salome (11), who acts very promiscuously, has grown up around prostitutes and sex and strange men her whole life.

Namibian prostitutes get paid $10 when a condom is used, and $100 when a condom is not used.

Yesterday I let Tete use my camera (see previous post) and then I let Rozein use my camera. Rozein took a picture under her skirt, and then put the camera under Tete's skirt and took a picture. Tete was really upset, understandably. Luckily, I think, her 9 year old little brain has not yet begun to want sex and boys.

I spent 15 hours making a board game for the center the past three days. It's clue, but I called it detective, and instead of murders, it's stealing (who stole what where). Here are pictures.