The Power is Back!

Through some dealing, the village council was able to broker a deal to get the electricity turned back on, but only through the end of the month. If we don't pay the bill in full the power is out until the account is settled. Just in time for the grade 10 October exams.

Anyways, school is back in session after a strange weekend in Keetmanshoop. Right now I'm up in Windhoek doing some stuff for group 27 training. If the power wasn't back on, I was going to try to hook my passport so I could do some traveling. Perhaps I'll be able to do so in a couple weeks?

The Day the Lights Went Out in Tses

It all comes down to drama and my village has been full of it over the past weeks, more drama than in a typical day in the life of a volunteer.

For over a year we've been hearing how NamPower was ready to shut off the electricity to Tses because we owed them a truckload of money. Empty threats are a part of life here and nobody believed it, that is until last Tuesday.

Sitting at the computer during a free period to research potential jobs post-PC, when at 11am my monitor goes blank and the lights go out. Not a problem, it's happened before. I just need to talk to the principal of Nowak and he'll send a learner to the circuit box to flip the switch. (aside: After almost two years living here I still have no idea where the breaker is. The principal and I have searched for it unsuccessfully, which leads me to believe it is located somewhere through a wardrobe in the land of Narnia.)

As I walk to the office I see members of the village council swarming the mission. Humm, red flags are abounding. Turns out that NamPower arrived and cut power to the entire village. Of course we've been under the specter of this threat since the previous Tuesday and, as usual, it went unknown to me. Here's the chain of payment in Namibia: People in the village pay their water and electric bills by paying them to the village council and the council then pays NamPower and NamWater. Makes sense, nay? The mission has not missed a single payment and many in the village prepay their electric and yet all are lumped together.

Am I upset? Having candlelight dinners, using my Solio (solar battery) to recharge my iPod, perfect stargazing conditions (now that the streetlights aren't working), cozying up to the candle every evening to read and carrying water to my flat. No problem, it's just like camping. I ran out of matches so I had to use my camping stove (it has an ignition switch) to light the candles. It's exactly like using a blowtorch to light a candle. It was fun to go out stargazing in the evening, but I wish the power would've went out during the Perseid shower in August instead of now.

My principal called the regional office for help. Their advise: cook all the hostel food (no refrigeration now) and you won't be getting any more. Oh, and you'll still have school. Ok ... where's the logic in that? The other problem is now that we've had electricity at my site since around 2000, the village water is no longer pumped by hand or windmill. It's by electric pump. Some learners were leaving the hostel to go home.

Fast-forward to Thursday, ignoring some craziness in the hostel. Again a phone call to the regional office, saying we don't have any food for the learners today or enough gas for the stove either. Unbelievably the people in the office were shocked, showing how much attention they were giving our situation. They did immediately sent a truck with food and gas. Arriving just two hours later was a weeks worth of food, including meat. Much of the food required refrigeration ... WHAT? Can't believe this! The regional office's solution: we're going to store the meat and such in Berseba (44k one way on a winding, bumpy dirt road) and the principal will drive there daily to get it. Makes sense to me!

The straw that broke the donkey's back came when the bore hole water ran out. So at 2pm on Thursday we released the hostel learners and closed the school until the power comes back. A friend of a friend in Keetmanshoop was in the area, so I got a hike out of here to the comforts in Keets of electricity and running water.

I'm completely fine. Actually, I've been laughing at the absurdity of the entire situation. Can't get angry, what good will that do? Be interesting to see what Peace Corps does with me about this. We'll see how long this outage lasts. Grade 10 national exams start in three weeks.

The Home Stretch

As of now I am close to reaching my mission of reading, on average, a book each week for my two years of service. Only seven to go after a reading blitz of 34 books from May through the first week of July! The highlight was doing all seven Harry Potter books in 12 days. The books are BY FAR much better than any of the movies. In fact, it frustrates me now that I know how much the movies cut out of the books.

Before term two finished I worked on teacher computer training (teaching them all how to do their marks on a spreadsheet), the updating the computer lab network and trying to fix up some old computers, including my laptop. Oh, did I mention my laptop broke back in April and have been working to fix it since? Got it working about a week before term two break but it went down, possibly for good, last night ... hard drive failure. Hopefully I can resurrect it once again.


The brief tales of South Africa

A 16 hour bus ride to the Cape. Cape Town is not Africa at all. I felt like I was walking around in San Francisco. The waterfront, Table Mountain, botanical gardens, the smells and sounds, completely opposite of my village. Did a tour of the cape, on which I met some interesting fellow lone travelers. Reading Long Walk to Freedom in two days, finishing just before doing the Robben Island tour. Just before going on the tour I ran into a group 25er who was doing the tour a couple hours later. Reading the book made the tour so much better.

Yes, the country still bears scars from apartheid, but I also saw many more reasons for hope than I did while in Jo'burg last year. I will admit I still got lots of strange looks when I walked around Cape Town greeting the people I met on the street. That lasted for all of half a day. I'm not in the village anymore.


The week in Hogsback

A 20 hour bus ride to East London and Intercape was two hours late, so I missed the shuttle to Hogsback. We had some issues with the oil pressure and a leaky ceiling which just happened to dump onto my lap, looking like I had a bladder accident. The nice woman sitting next to me requested a wet suit for me from the attendant. The delay was thanks to switching buses.

Anyways, II called them to tell of my dilemma and it turned out the owners were in town and they gave me a ride! Talk about luck. Planned on spending only a weekend there and it ended up being five days. The hikes are incredible. It feels just like you're in a scene for any Tolkien book. All the waterfalls are fed by natural springs. There was mud everywhere – I nearly feel full profile into a huge mud pit on more than one occasion. The waterfalls, moss-covered ground, gnarled tree trunks and mountain scenery were breathtaking. I watched a family of monkeys savage a tree just outside my bedroom window! Living in a desert for two years makes you appreciate the smell of moisture and plant life. An invigorating experience.

I would go out for hikes in the morning and then spend the evenings watching cricket and rugby with fellow backpackers. I got along so well with the owners that they upgraded me from my dorm (a room with a bunch of beds) to a private double bedroom, called Frodo's Room, with a fireplace and fantastic view. I got a ride back to East London with the owners, stopping by a maximum security prison – they were having a silent auction and he was bidding on a vehicle. Yes, we walked right in the prison yard. How many vacations can boast that?


The journey home

Decided to come back a little early, riding 36 hours on a bus over two days. Not as much fun as you'd think. I spent the time reading and listening to my “Last Term of Service” mix on my iPod. They showed Hitch on one leg of the journey. Not so much fun when we crossed the SA border. The police brought out the x-ray machine and scanned all the baggage. That happens when you are the first or second bus through, not the sixth as we were on the way into SA two weeks ago.

My ticket was from Cape to Keets, but I was able to beg and plead my way to getting dropped off right at the Tses B1 hikepoint, and the two liter of coke I bought for the crew didn't hurt either. I am much safer walking home at 2am in Tses (completely safe) than walking around in Keets. The best part was that I got to ride shot-gun on the Intercape (double-decker bus) for the last leg. The funniest moment happened in Cape Town as I walked out to queue with everyone else. As I walked out of the Intercape building I heard someone yell out, “Mike!!”. It was another group 25er heading back to her site too. So funny.


The closure of service conference at Midgard

I took the train to Windhoek, so in the past week I've spent over 46 hours on buses and trains. Midgard is a weird place, like Greiters insofar as they have the feel of belonging in some kind of horror movie, though Greiters has more of a Psycho feel to it being that it's on a hill. Huge chess set, some pools, bowling alley, volleyball and tennis courts, a ping pong and pool table, car museum, amphitheater, but all at the cost of an hour plus down a bumpy dirt road.

The first two nights I spent my time with people I normally don't. We played volleyball, a lot of billiards, swam in the icy cold, mildew-smelling pool amongst other things. One of the volunteers in our group also teaches tennis and we wanted to play sometime before leaving Namibia. Although we didn't get the time to play on the tennis courts, on the last night we did get in some good table tennis time. He beat me every time, but had some great rallies and close matches. One of the older volunteers strolled by and joined in, saying she wasn't that good and nearly beat both of us. It was a lot of fun.

I had the worst insomnia there as well. I got about seven hours of sleep in three days. The hardest part was knowing that this is probably going to be the last time I'll see most of the people in the group. Most are completing service early to travel, while I'm going to stick it out to Dec 15th. Also add in that I'm down in the “deep south” and most of the group is a seven plus hour hike away on a good day. Afterward I'll be staying to help out Group 27's teachers at model school from Dec 10th (with a break to do some closure of service PC stuff) until Christmas-ish or so and then traveling to Vic Falls and possibly to Tanzania and a bunch of other countries along the way. Depends on if my credit card works and some other things. I just noticed the other day that my Wells Fargo ATM card expired in May...oops. If all goes to plan I should be home sometime in January, February at the latest. After that...


Right now I'm torn between six different short/long term career options of which three involve teaching, however only three of the six options are in the United States.

Only something like 95 days to go until I'm officially an RPCV.

Take care and I'll see you soon


p.s. - I've put in 26 hours of sleep in the past three days since leaving Midgard.

p.s.s. - If you're thinking about sending a package specifically for me, don't because I probably won't get it. With the probable delivery time, I'll be finished with service and gone from my site. If it's for the school/learners, great! Send away!