Happy Day

When your thousands of miles from home and missing your family and friends, nothing washes the bad feelings away better than a package from home.  I was thrilled to find out that my guarded hope at possibly receiving a package today was fulfilled.  Good old DHL.  But most importantly, good old family.  Coincidentally the DHL package, which contained a replacement DVD player for my laptop (Dad, all I can say is you are amazing- thanks!), was accompanied by another package they had sent in January.  Two packages in one day![cut]

I extracted as much pleasure as possible as I removed each carefully packed item like a dedicated chocoholic (that's me) would while enjoying what would be his last candy bar for months.  A painting made by my three-year-old niece; what beautiful craftsmanship!  Straight to the wall with this one!  Some flavored almonds; oh yeah, a wonderful sample from the land of plenty.  The next Stephen King novel in his Dark Tower series; what's the last word in the book?  What great cover art!  I took my time as I removed each item, inspecting them carefully as though handling fragile valuables.  But alas, as all good things do, it came to an end. 

I am starting to feel cluttered.  With all the books that came in the last package (thanks sooooo much mom!!) I actually have things on all the shelves I own.  I've got things on all the walls and am considering the ceiling as the next display area. As much as I like keeping my place spotlessly clean (let's see how long that lasts...), a little clutter really felt good today.

The great roller coaster of life seems to be on the up-swing at the moment.  Now with a working DVD player, tons of books and magazines, an almost fixed hot water heater, and reliable Internet at school just within an arms reach, almost all my worries are being resolved.  I'm now faced with a new challenge and irony.  With plenty of movies to watch (thanks Luke for the tv shows!!), books to read, computer games to play and newspaper clippings to catch up on (thanks Grandma!) I have to start watching my sloth-level.  I hated wasting more than an hour on TV each day in the states, and it's the same here.  It's so easy to make an evening disappear with these little proclivities.  I remarked just a few posts ago that I felt like I had so much time.  Well leave it to movies and computer games to take care of that.

I've considered spending a day one weekend at the Location, just walking around and talking to people.  I want to get to know some people and that's the best way to do it.  It's quite a hike form my comfort zone though, so send me your courage.  While in Katatura, the simple fact that I have to take a taxi to get there makes me feel vulnerable and far from home.

It's Thursday night and I have yet to decide whether or not I want to take a short trip to Omaruru tomorrow.  I've considered going back to see my host family, meet up with the PCV's there and take in the small-town air for a few weeks now.  It's comes down to how tomorrow plays out.  There is a big athletics event in which our school is participating.  Even though only 15 learners are competing in events, ten teachers have been assigned various judging duties.  This means that the school will probably shut down.  I'm not sure exactly what will happen, but if everyone goes home early, I'll probably be off to O-town.

On a more technical note, I've been working with Schoolnet and some technicians from TelCom to resolve our internet problems at the school.  It took three visits each with different technicians to convince everyone that the problem was not on our side of the link.  It's a microwave wireless network which is owned by TelCom, but leased by SchoolNet to provide low-cost internet to schools.  Today's visit was by far the most productive, and we think we've narrowed the potential problem causes to just two places: the SU that connects the tower to the computer which may be malfunctioning, and/or the content filtering system at SchoolNet, which may be causing packet timeouts by delaying the already delayed wireless data while inspecting it for inappropriate material.  Maybe sometime next week I'll have a consistent connection to the Internet at school.  Oh yeah.

Well, that's all I've got for now.  I've got more to write about classes at the school, but the DVD with season 3 of "The Shield" is staring me in the face, giving me that "you know you want me" look.  I give in.[/cut]