363 Days Until People Take Me Seriously.

Legally being a child always seems to work against me. No one wants to be responsible for me. No one wants to hang around with a "kid". And yet, I'm more mature and more responsible than a million other adults in this world.
I have once chance. Ilga is going to Caprivi this weekend, which is in the way Northeast of the country. She says it won't work out if I join along because she is going with some former house mates and they all speak German. Kirsten wants to join them, except visit Victoria Falls, which is right there on the border with Zambia. She doesn't want to be responsible for me, and so doesn't want to take me.

Personally I really don't think there there is a difference between being 17 and 18. Screw laws. Screw needing to be 18 to be considered an adult. It's so upsetting. I don't get it. I don't understand the big to-do. I am in Africa. Who knows when I will be back? Who knows when I will get another chance to see Victoria Falls and Etosha and Sossusvlei? I am right here. I want to grab this opportunity and go!

UGH. THIS IS WHEN I WANT TO SCREAM AND CURSE.
And please, to mom and dad and teachers and family friends reading this, please don't try and tell me that they have a point and that life isn't fair and that you know it stinks and that I cant always do everything I want. I've heard enough of that already.


Sunday I went to UNAM with MB to try and sell some jerseys and shoes to the guys who play there. She borrowed a car from on of her Rotary friends. She is using the money we make from the shirts to put kids in school. We didn't sell everything, and came away with about seven or eight hundred Namibian.

Gazza is basically THE biggest music artist in Namibia. He owns GMP, Gazza Music Productions. He plays soccer at UNAM every Sunday with these guys. It's totally casual and everyone treats him as a friend and not as a famous rapper. If people knew he played there every Sunday, he would probably stop going. It was cool watching him play.

Then MB told me on the way back home that I was invited to see some wild cats with two of her friends. I got really excited and went to the ATM to take out $510 for the safari ride and dinner, and when I came home, MB told me that their safari trip was booked and they actually wouldn't be able to take me. What a let down.

I just read my book and took a nap and escaped from everything else.

Yesterday morning I woke up with a really sore throat. I have a cold, I guess. No idea where I got it. Perhaps from one of the kids at the center, or MB says maybe it's just my body reacting to the dust and allergens here.

Great week, really. All sarcasm aside, Rodney started school yesterday. The school at first didn't want to enroll him, but MB had the cash, and so of course they took him. Anyone here can be bribed with money. They put him in a "special" grade three class. It's for kids who are behind in school, have learning disabilities, or even kids with deafness or other issues like that. MB says the first thing his new teacher asked Rodney was as follows: Teacher: (holding up a blank piece of paper) What do you see on this paper? Rodney: Nothing... Teacher: Good. And that is as much as I want to know about your past. MB says she seems amazing. Rodney asked her if he could bring in the Pup and Pop books. His teacher said of course, and MB is going to let him donate them to the class, so that maybe Rodney can help the other kids read them. I love Rodney. I think he has great potential. He is the hardest worker I know, and his motivation and will to learn is way above that of any other child in Katutura. I really hope the best for him. I finished making another game for MB last night, and started a third. I'm cutting back on food so that I have enough money left to travel (if anything ever gets sorted out, that is...) and to bring home gifts to the US. Today Bianca came from Germany. She is 21 years old. She was telling MB that she was ridiculously nervous to come here. She hasn't started college yet, and it's the first time she ever left her home town. Shes still a bit nervous about everything, and homesick as well.

God, please let me have strength to deal with those I cannot change.