Best week yet

This has been, by far, the best week in Africa. On Wednesday several of us played softball with a group of local kids. It was so much fun seeing the faces of the children, happy just to be playing against another team. It reminded so much of when I was young and played baseball for the pure fun of the game. Later that was ruined and I only played because of the friends I had playing, not for love of the game anymore. We received our results from our language evaluation and I passed. I didn’t do as well as I had hoped but I’m going to start working on language and actually studying instead of mostly goofing off and playing guitar. On Friday (Sept 17th) we found out our sites and I will be heading to Rehoboth. It’s roughly the same size as Okahandja and only about an hour away from Windhoek. The only problem with this site is I can’t wear my Indiana Jones hat for several months. Because Rehoboth is in the south there is a larger problem with racism and the apartheid mindset. Being of German descent, and wearing that style of hat, I look too much like a Boer. A Boer is a white farmer, typically, but it has a very negative connotation in the southern regions of Namibia. It would be very counterproductive of me to look like a Boer in the first few months because people would go out of their way to avoid me. After 6 months or so of integrating into my community I will once again be able to wear my awesome hat. Integration shouldn’t be too difficult because there is a health volunteer already in Rehoboth. His name is Ricky. Only one member from my group (group 32) is within 80km of me and that is Caitlin. Most of my group is located in the north, near Etosha and in the Caprivi region. I will spend a fair amount of time going to planning in the north with my other science and math teachers.
Yesterday was an amazing day. We went to a hot springs, and by hot springs I mean algae covered urine colored pool. It was actually a lot of fun and everyone was able to kick back and relax. It’s good seeing all of the trainees without the thought of language and education sessions in their minds.