The Weekend

Wow.  I had a blast this weekend.  In summary, I saw five volunteers, played mini golf, ate amazing food, had great conversations, fixed the screen on a laptop, visited a choir performance in Katatura, and had lots of fun.

Copellia and Robin came to town Friday evening from Swokup where they attended a ministry health meeting.  Here they are attending some church organization's health meeting.  Must be nice- traveling all over Namibia!  They come from the far north, near the caprivi strip.[cut]

Erikka came to town Friday evening to meet with Waldo (or APCD) and Clara (our nurse) about some issues at her site.  She comes from Karabib, not more than an hour and a half north of Windhoek.

Will came from the far north to get the laptop screen replaced on his Apple Powerbook.

We also met up with Caroline Sunday, who came to town Friday to see Clara, she's not feeling well. 

With all these visitors, there was plenty to do!  Will stayed at a hostle near by for the first night, but with me on Saturday night.  The rest all crashed at my place, which was a bit crowded, but fun none the less.  Friday we played some miniture golf after a nice dinner of pizza.  Saturday we shopped, fixed Will's computer and had some great Italian food (and ice cream). 

Fixing will's computer was quite a task.  He ordered a replacement screen on ebay and had it shipped here.  We had to take the computer completely apart in order to replace it.  Not only the keyboard and CD-ROM, but the motherboard, processor heat sink, wireless cards, and just about everything else.  All that was left was the external case and a few wires.  We did manage to put it all back together after a few minor problems and six hours of work.  The most amazing part was turning it on and hearing that wonderful Apple chime, then seeing the screen pop on bright and clear.  We had a short victory man hug. 

Sunday we did more shopping and had a great lunch at a coffee shop in the mall.  Will had to leave to get back to his site.  Erikka met up with a friend of the family and Robin took a much needed mid-day nap. Copellia and I went to Katatura for a Choir performance I was invited to by a teacher.

Being in the location on the weekend was great.  It's amazing how different it is, moving from town to Katatura.  In town we blend in as if we were natives.  In Katatura, there's no mistaking our tourist status.  We were the only white (or even colored) people I saw, and everyone we passed on the street gave us inquisitive looks. 

We met up with the teacher at my school (Mr. |Hohobeb) who walked with us to the church.  We passed the "river" on the way, which consisted of a wide trickle of water the looked and smelled more like an open sewage system than any stream.  It was pretty disgusting.

The church was beautiful and very nice.  The choir performance I was expecting ended up being more of a fundraiser, where the choirs would sing songs by request only.  In order to request a song, one had to make a donation.  They also had a strange game involving a twisted wire and a small hoop.  The object is to get the hoop from one side of the wire to the other without touching it. If touched, a light pops on.  Winners received an apple and the tickets were $3.  Mr. |Hohobeb got tickets for Copellia and I, and we ended up being the first to try. 

The whole thing was a great experience and I'm so glad I went.  I can't wait to go back there.  Now that I've been to this area and even spoken to a few people, I think I can now brave a trip to the location on my own next week.  We'll see...

After that we went to Erikkas' place (PeaceCorps set her up with a place) and watched a movie called "Smile" which brought a few tears to a few eyes.  We were lucky to meet up with Caroline who was in much need to friends.  After that we all headed our own ways.  I hope to hear from Erikka and Caroline today to find out how long they will be in town.  I'll likely meet up with Robin and Copellia for dinner sometime this week.

This entry is just an event update.  I hope to get some time tonight to write more about the location experience- what I saw in Katatura and the people there.  Until then, take care![/cut]