Pics of the Tree From the Wild Dog Chase Episode

Some of you have already heard this story - for your reading pleasure:


I went out for an evening run, as usual. As I approached the hill at the sand dune, I heard a group of wild dogs barking and running toward me from the top of the dune. Fearing for my life (silly me) I decided to run for the nearest escape. Luckily for me there was a tree only a couple meters away. Unfortunately, this wasn't in the United States. As Matt put it, "Everything in Africa is trying to kill you." In the US, trees don't need to defend themselves. Africa, however...


I lunged up the tree to safety, happy to have outsmarted the dogs. As soon as the adrenaline began to wear off, I started to notice a stinging in my arms and legs. Looking down, I saw some nice gashes on my legs and both hands and left arm (later I also found one on my face). I checked the tree and to my horror, found it was full of thorns, almost as long as my fingers!

When the dogs realized I wasn't coming down, no matter how much blood had drained from my body, they scampered off to find something else to bother.

The run home (about 2K) helped me find all the cuts thanks to sweat and salt. I still have a puncture wound in my left arm, as a reminder of the experience. (Note: this happened a few months ago ... no dogs were harmed in the telling of this story.)

My Lament of iPod Music Lost

I laboured so hard to get it and now it is all gone. *sniffle, sniffle*

Including the previous music, add to the list:

Indigo Girls
Sarah McLachlan
Matt Nathanson
George Carlin
Gordon Lightfoot
James Taylor
Prince
Gear Daddies/Martin Zellar
DMB
Jack Johnson
Green Day
Allison Krauss
Bob Dylan
Simon & Garfunkel
Miles Davis
Alicia Keys
David Bowie
George Strait
Michael W. Smith
Liz Phair
Big Head Todd and the Monsters
The Jayhawks
The Honeydogs
Jon Stewart (America the Book, the Audiobook)
Poison
AC/DC
Billy Idol
Motley Crue
My MASSIVE classical music collection

Pepper Spray for Chalk? Maybe I am Cracking.

Yes, it's true. I did it. After the 20th abduction of chalk from my classroom, I decided to be proactive and give the chalk a fighting chance. My chalk will no longer be a victim to senseless eating! I mixed together cayenne pepper, hot curry and paprika spices with a dab of water and soaked my chalk in it. Yes, I made pepper spray for my chalk. No, I'm not crazy ... at least by Peace Corps standards. It makes perfect sense – if you eat chalk you don't like spicy things. How to prevent that? Make it ultra spicy. Sheer brilliance!

I let my learners try the concoction too. I hate to say it, but I enjoyed watching their facial expressions when the flavour “hit” them. Before you start to think less of me, I tried the mixture at least four times myself to prove to them doesn't kill you, and paid for it the following morning. I swear Namibians are somehow Scandinavian in the sense that they'd think ketchup is too spicy for their palette. I sent Waldo a text (the APCD, boss of the teachers in the South) claiming this was my new secondary project. He loved it :-)


I just found out I can get Cities 97 on the Internet! Schoolnet prevents many things but apparently this slipped through their icy fingers of censorship. Hooray!!! A touch of the Twin Cities in Namibia. Can't wait to hear Acoustic Sunrise and Acoustic Sunset on Sunday, that is if they still do it.



From Monday night:

I was in the library watching the Peace Corps episode of Family Guy (they've taken the place of The Simpsons in my heart now), preparing for my classroom observation tomorrow morning – did I mention I had just met with the country director, associate country director and safety/security advisor earlier in the day? It went well but had to do a lot of thinking, something I'm not quite used to anymore. My favorite quote, "Try living like a Peace Corps volunteer." I can't belive those words came out of my mouth, but am glad they did.

After it all, I just wanted to relax. I get a text message, one in a flurry of messages during the day, to go check out NBC radio (Namibian Broadcasting Company) for this “special” program. I rushed home, taking pause to view the moonless night sky (was going to say 'drink in the moonless sky' but it sounded too artsy-fartsy). Billions and billions of stars. Finally getting in my hostel, the program on the radio was an adventure about a cake escaping from axe throwing people, enlisting help from a talking fox along the way. First of all, what kind of cake has arms?!! And why wouldn't the fox want to eat it? Do you see why I'm going a little crazy? Oh wait, the fox just did.


And now for something completely different...


Hooray! I had my first overnight visitors this past weekend – Courtney and Dani. My site isn't exactly the social hub of the Karas Region, but we do have a nice sand dune with its own three meter snakes. They were here to do a girls conference for my school. My principal really wants to get a girls club started and they were willing to spend the extra time to do one just for us!

Aside: It just blows me away ... the more I get to talk to fellow PCV's here, the more amazing I find that each of them are. I have Dani listed as “Amazing Dani” on my cell phone since January when I (and other 25ers) got to talk/spend time with her in M'tal. Without a doubt you can add that prefix to Courtney's name. They just put together the Southern Girls Conference in M'tal (I couldn't attend due to a schedule conflict) just a month ago and took time out of their schedules to do one just for the girls here at St. Therese.

The conference, chatting, chicken quesa's, choc chip pancakes, a near impulse trip to Keets at 9pm Saturday night (having to be back by 9 the next morn). Nice refresher before the second trimester finals begin.

Ah sanity, I feel you flowing back into my body. Hopefully my immune system doesn't fight you off. I truly miss you.

Your Online Guides to Namlish

Here are a couple web sites to help you translate from Namlish to English. I am having some of those phrases in my vocabulary.



http://www.serasphere.net/Extras/namlish.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namlish

These Days Are Just Packed!

I was journalling in bed on Saturday night after an action filled day. I felt so busy - these days are just packed! And then I wrote down what I accomplished. Upon further review ... the day really wasn't. Let's see: made chocolate chip pancakes, typed up a question paper, modified a spreadsheet to act as a gradebook program, typed an e-mail and started reading The Secret Life of Bees (to steal a line from Cynthia, “Hey, this book isn't even about bees at all!”). I was busy from dawn til dusk, or so it seemed. I swear I got more done.

Mephloquine insomnia – On a typical Wednesday or Thursday night, the good 'ol wonder malaria prophylaxis keeps me from a full night's rest. Last Wednesday I put the extra awake hours to good use, reading from 12:30am til 4:30am. Polished off Into Thin Air and awoke an hour and a half later with a couple page creases on my face. Books do not make good pillows. Hey, there's an idea ... some kind of covering for a book so you can also sleep on it, if you like to read in bed. Genius, pure genius!!! Just like Kramer's coffee table book that's also a coffee table!

Thanks for letting me vent earlier last week (you know who you all are). I just needed a catharsis. According to a stress study we heard at the Swakopmund conference in June, Peace Corps service is THREE times the stress of the death of a spouse, FOUR times the stress of a divorce and FIVE times the stress of being jailed. This is Africa. We're supposed to experience stress?!

Musings From the Past Couple Weeks

It's been a while and I've meant to update but just haven't had the time. Oh well, life goes on, eh?

Let's see ... it's been a rather busy couple of weeks. We're getting ready to shut down to do term two finals. Thank goodness all my question papers are done and turned in to copy!

Last Thursday my principal asked me to come up with a blueprint/floor plan for a new school library so she can send a proposal. Currently we share a library with the primary school, which leads to some complications, so we want one just for the secondary school. I asked, “When do you need it?” “Tomorrow - Friday.” I just smiled and went to work – seriously. It doesn't even phase me any more. Finished it by Friday morning after some measuring and researching. Nothing like a 24-hour turnaround! You get used to last minute changes and requests. You just monitor and adjust...

It is not a good time to be an electrical device here. In the past two weeks the school copier broke and needs to be replaced (cheapest quote our principal could find is N$11,000), the office computer is about to go to the electronic graveyard in the sky (akin to the “Bring out your dead” scene in MP and the Holy Grail), my iPod died AND my cell phone battery is now only strong enough to survive a 30 minute phone convo or to send seven text messages.

AND a primary learner now has the protection of Saint Christopher. Sorry SEan. I had him safety pinned to my backpack and it was “privatized” yesterday afternoon when I was mobbed by some learners. I was speaking to Brother Tapps and I made the mistake of speaking in Nama to three children, who then called over every child in the area to hear me talk. They freak out with excitement if you say anything in Khoekhoegowab. Then, with a couple tugs on my backpack, it was gone!

Fortunately last weekend I was intelligent enough to under dress for the evening train ride back from Keetmanshoop, forgetting how cold the cars get. Have had a little tingle in my chest ever since.

Oh, how can I forget this story: On Monday, I had four learners absent from various classes – good students too. One of them left his bag in my classroom, so I put it by my desk (so it wouldn't get stolen). He came back in the afternoon to collect it. “Where were you?” “Sir, I was sent.” (In Namibia that means the learner had to run an errand for a teacher, usually involving purchasing personal items for them from the store) So I ask, “What was he having you get?” The reply, “Smokes.” Imagine doing that in the US?! Whoooooooo! Ah-ta-ta-ta!

Thomas Jefferson and Independence Day

For the 4th of July I decided to discuss a couple of my favourite quotes by TJ. Not sure of the effect it had on the learners, but they're great quotes:


“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

“In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will discover, and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate and improve. Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves therefore are its only safe depositories. And to render even them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree.”

“A society that will trade a little liberty for a little order will lose both, and deserve neither.”


http://www.nps.gov/thje/

Newsweek day and my iPod - Phoenix Lazarus

I love Newsweek day - today! Once a month we get our PC newsletter and the previous issues of Newsweek. Like a junkie needing his fix, I hurriedly ripped open the envelope, expelling the contents on my desk. Throwing aside the newsletter for later, I hungrily digested every word on EVERY page, including the ads. We got four of 'em this time!

The only bummer of the day was my iPod (named Phoenix Lazarus). The good news is that it is alive and working, resurrected yet again. The bad news is that it lost its memory ... all my songs ... gone (sniffle). All 12000 or so. No more 80's music, no more Mary Chapin Carpenter, nothing.


At least I get to end the day on a good note. It's Bucket Bath Thursday!

Blog fixed (I think) & donkey carts

(note: donkeys and cart not actual size)

Think I have the whole font situation figured out. Not sure how IE makes it look, but it's sweet on Firefox.


Ok, so here's the story behind the web address:

I was heading out to the library Sunday evening to get this blog started, feeling so excited that I was almost rushing out the door to get there. By rushing I mean walking - this Africa pace is growing on me. Anyway, I stopped in the kitchen to grab an apple. As I peer out the window I see that ... (I kid you not) ... my path is blocked by a DONKEY CART! Their noses were about a meter from my hostel door. Must have been a braii going on, as the butchered remains of a donkey, goat or some other animal were in the back.


Trapped in my hostel by a double parked donkey cart...

I'm Online!

Hey all! I finally got the Net here so instead of mass e-mails, I'll post the happenings here. It feel just like Christmas here :)

**this site still under construction**

p.s. - Janet (a.k.a. Chuck Norris), THANK YOU so much for that chocolate cake mix. It was sooooooo good - just like what it would have tasted like at the day 2 "guesthouse" on the Naukluft Trail ;) You are my personal hero!