Day 7: An end to a relaxing day

Since my last entry, I’ve played an exhausting game of football, sat and chatted for a few hours, and walked downtown to a small coffee shop called the Dragonfly.

The Dragonfly is owned and operated by an American who visited years ago, deciding to come back and live. She has frapiccinos and lattes which she says that cannot be found anywhere else in Namibia. The place was decorated intricately with antiques and samples of local art. There, we met a Canadian who is teaching in a town west from Omaruru through the world teaching program. He paid $5,000 to teach here, and we are getting paid $6,000! He had a great deal of insight for us. In addition to corporal punishment (which is both outlawed and prevalent), he deals with tribalism (various gangs exercising prejudices and stereotypes) and poor teaching standards (no one is required to pass a class until 10th grade). He talked about the extreme poverty here; kids living at the dump where food can be found, locals willing to work hazardous construction jobs for days without food for just a few dollars, and prostitution. None of this is visible to me now, but I’m sure it will be soon. There is so much more that I’m not putting here.

We had a pleasant surprise for dinner: pizza! It tasted so good: Ham and peppers and cheese, onions, and a great sauce. Everyone is pretty tired after a long day in the hot sun, and I think most of us will be getting to bed at a reasonable hour. But before that hour, we’re all sitting down right now to start a game of Mafia. Reasonable hours tend to float late into the night when fun games are shared.