Long weekend in Luderitz

Greetings and salutations readers of this email or readers of blog.

I stared up at my homemade wall calendar the other day, and after some serious counting on my fingers, I realized I have been in Namibia for almost five months. That. is. crazy. Not “I can’t believe it’s not butter crazy!” but kind of like, “The kid in my class that eats paper” meets the bug as big as my right hand kinda crazy. I live here folks. In all sheer and said honesty, I have yet to accept it. Somethin’s gotta give.
Just last weekend, I cut loose and headed to the coastal town of Luderitz (look it up on google if you can, it’s purdy). My trip started by heading to Keetmanshoop to hitch hike with some friends. So, just like everybody else, we walked out to the highway, stuck out our hands, and began the wait. After maybe an hour, a government official picked us up, which was pretty awesome, until…he gets a phone call (we are still two hours away from Luderitz), and he declares, “Oh, I have to go back to Keetmans to pick some people up. I will just drop you in Aus (town of 3,000 people in middle o’ nowhere) You will be fine. Someone will pick you up.” What. the. hell. He still wants us to pay him $20 to take us two hours, but Rashid (my friend) totally wants us to jump ship without paying b/c this dude is pretty ridic, but I can’t b/c my laptop is in the trunk of the car. I can lose $20 to keep my ‘puter. We are dropped in middle of nowhere. Stuck. It’s is 3 in the afternoon. We wait on the side of the road for almost 2 hours. We finally decide we are going to have to camp it up in Aus, so I run to the store to buy matches so we can build a fire.
But me running to the store, it has the same effect as going to the bathroom at a restaurant has when you want your food. You leave to pee, and when you come back… Voila! Your food awaits. After a 20 minute walk to get matches, across some railroad tracks, up a hill, past some houses, and a very random encounter with one of my students who happens to live in Aus, I return to find we have not only gotten a ride, but when I introduce myself to our lift, she opens her mouth to speak and the only thing I hear is, “Hi, I have an American accent, because I’m from America too.” Ahh-ahh—ahh (Insert trumpets here, American trumpets, dammit!) The sweet symphony of our nasally, awesomely direct, perfectly splendid accent wafts into my ears. The sound of an American accent here is such a mental lifeboat, it is crazy. Heather (as I find out later, b/c that is what she actually started her sentence with) works for a company out of Australia, was checking out a local Namibian zinc mine, and is now on her own vacation. She regales us the rest of the trip with stories about living on a boat for six years with her boyfriend, and travelling around Latin America. I’m trying to figure out the right question/way to ask how I obtain her life, but I never do. Maybe if I just pat her hair, or you know, steal her DNA (one or the other, give or take an arrest) it will rub off, and I will magically inherit a boyfriend/boat combination. I will let ya’ll know what happens.
Finally make it to Luderitz. It is a cute lil’ town with lots of old school gingerbread house lookin’ German architecture. There are nine of us total staying at our two friends very nice, very hot shower-y, apartment. This brings the total up to eleven. Yeah, that’s right! I teach 7th grade math! Nine + two is ELEVEN. What now?
Now, boat tour. Paddy and Jacob (our Luderitz pals) set up this wonderful boat tour with a local Luderitzian named Gunter, who took us out on his sailboat. I’d like to consider this trip my first African safari, and this kid’s first African safari included penguins, dolphins, flamingos, and seals. Seals are stink-nasty, by the way. They poo on the rocks, and then stay there. So it’s kind of like you are visiting them on their big rock litterbox. There is however, no litter, so it is just a poo box. Ew. The penguins were terribly cute, and smaller than I thought. When the boat pulled around, they all stood really still. I think I heard one of them saying out of the corner of his mouth, “Don’t move…they’ll see us. Stay. calm.” I still saw them though, so HA I say to you penguins. Ha. Also, flamingos fly…awkwardly. It doesn’t look like it’s supposed to happen, but it does. Like, cheese in a can. It works. Maybe I would eat it if stuck on an island. But how is it cheese? And how do they fly? I don’t know. I just don’t know.
My group also stopped by a local soccer game in the location. But we couldn’t even really tell if the game was starting, or what was going on. After watching “the game” for nearly half an hour, this is what I had gleaned: People were on the field. There was a ball. Sometimes, it was kicked. After deciding we couldn’t even tell the teams apart, and the game was in total chaos, we hit the road/sand. Also, we were all sitting together, (eleven Americans sittin’ in the front row, what what) and for a couple of minutes, I kind of felt like we were the show. Went to a great bar/restaurant/kind of a Harry Potter party for one of the Britsh VSO volunteers (he looks like Harry Potter, like really. really. It was amazing). Listened to Sweet Home Alabama (?!), and another night, heard Celine Dion singing her own version of “You shook me all night long!” It was not ok. She needs to stay in Vegas where I can be much less sober to hear her gouging out AC/DC’s song with her vocal chords of steel.
Not much else happened in Luderitz. Just a lot of hanging out, really good time, an Easter barbeque on the beach that lasted for almost six hours. Oh! Some of my friends found snails in the ocean, so they made up some fancy pants Namibian style escargots if you will, and it was actually pretty good. Yes, I ate snails directly from the ocean, and yes, I’m still alive. Once you’ve been here for five months, your stomach develops a coat of iron. It is eventually knighted by a local queen, and can handle anything remotely edible. This must happen, or you will die. The food breaks you down, then you build yourself up. It’s like boot camp, but you don’t get a prize, or to climb the rope wall.
So now I’m back at school. Bet you forgot I teach, huh? ME TOO. They really shouldn’t give us breaks, because then we have fun and don’t want to teach and so we get the flu. Oh yes, the day I returned I got the flu, felt like death, and just recovered. Had to crawl from my bed to get water. It was ugly. But it did involve Sprite, and I don’t really know how ugly anything can be with Sprite.
Anyhow, I have three weeks left, and then I’m heading to Victoria Falls with my friend Jenn, and some other people. I think we might also tour around Zambia. Has anyone been to Zambia and/or know someone who knows a friend who’s got a friend that’s been to Zambia? I’d love to know what I need to do while I’m over that border.
School is good. The kids are good. I hope I am teaching this well, and that they are learning. I hear that the first year you teach is almost always a disaster, and I don’t quite think it’s that bad, but I just worry. My best subject for teaching is actually math. Who woulda thunk it, neh? Eh. English is a little more difficult because it’s so abstract, and there’s so many ways you can do it.
OH. I am also the proud owner of one very fancy, very cute, very sleepy kitten mitten. He is really just a kitten, not a mitten, but I bet if someone hunted him, and skinned him, he would make amazingly soft mittens. His name is Harold Crooner Bloom. He is white with a brown smudged nose, and a grey tail. I’m really glad I found him because he not only likes all the same movies as me, but also likes looking at the Scrabble board, and milk; all things I like.
I want to thank everyone for the thoughtful emails, notes, and packages. I wish you all could see me when I get my packages or letters. Once I am safely behind my door, I usually hug the letter and then do a little happy dance. Or a big happy dance, or a line dance if you’re writing from Kentucky. I did a line dance the other night. For like, two minutes. It was the Electric Slide so I don’t know if it counts. It may or may not have been 3am. It was awesome.
I am feeling… better? Slowly but surely. Something I never knew about myself that I have learned here: I cannot live alone. I have never lived alone so I didn’t know it was unacceptable to my personality/person. I need someone else. Just a breakfast eatin’ pal, and a “How was your day?” pal, or “Are these all your dishes in the sink?” pal. I need that. I didn’t know. So maybe I’ll get one, maybe not. We shall see. Please send me good vibes to help me get a roomie friend. I hope you all are doing well, and know that I think about ya, and I miss ya. But things are gettin’ better ‘round these parts. How’s things in yours?
A girl whose hair’s getting too long for its own good,
Grace