A Nam Birthday

So I know that I haven’t written in a while, but it seems like some days there’s just nothing to say. In these last few weeks though seems like I haven’t even been able to catch my breath! And from all of that, what I can say is that my birthday weekend was definitely a success. It started off with a phone call from Brian, another PCV in Opuwo, telling me that I had mail and he’d swing by after school to drop it off. Wahoo! I knew that I had a few packages coming my way, but honestly the way things were going I wasn’t expecting much. But much to my surprise a birthday card and one of the packages from my Mom & Dad came! I was sooo happy to pick that up at the post office. After finishing my day at work (and staying past five after a meeting ran long, of course), I rushed home and wanted to open that package so bad that I didn’t even do my normal workout. In it I found lots of goodies.....tons of different flavors of Crystal Light, a package of dried apricots, a two pound bag of pistachios, some new workout clothes, a couple of days worth of the newspaper from back home, and the May 2011 Oprah Magazine! Who'd ever thought that seeing a copy of the newspaper from back home or a bag of pistachios would give me joy?!

The care package along with the very thoughtful birthday card brought tears to my eyes.  Surprisingly, I’m not often homesick but when things like this happen, it reminds me of how much I really do love and miss my family and friends back home. They’re my world! And I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be sitting in my own flat here in Namibia doing Peace Corps without their love and support.

On Friday, after going grocery shopping and picking out a menu for my birthday dinner Saturday night (American chop suey, wahoo!) I went home and just chilled until 2 o’clock came around. At that time, I went over to the Bicycle Empowerment Network (BEN) to pick up my bike. And after shelling out N$650 (a little over $100 US) for my shiny sky blue bike, it was mine :) Then my focus the rest of the afternoon was the OVC (orphans & vulnerable children) class at the Red Cross. Mrs. Mutambo (the regional director for the Red Cross in Opuwo) must have read my mind because we ended up leaving the Red Cross for the afternoon and instead driving the few kilometers out of Opuwo to the garden that they have. It was just what I needed to refresh myself.

At the garden we spent the afternoon plucking maize (corn) from the cornstalks and then shucking the husks off. After the corn has been harvested, it's put out in the sun to dry. Then the dry corn can be cooked and eaten or the kernels can be plucked from the cobs and ground up to make corn meal. Quite a process! It was great to actually work with everyone in the field too. It gave me a great opportunity to get to know the kids and to learn the staff members’ names. The technical person/driver is Gerald and there are a few older kids that seem to help out. And if memory serves me right, there were about 30 kids there today! At the end of the day, we ended up with a gigantic pile of maize...and I ended up with some dry hands full of little nicks and cuts and feet full of prickly things from those bushes. Needless to say, I won’t be wearing business clothes and work shoes the next time we head to the garden. Jeans, a tshirt and sneakers for me! 

Some of the children harvesting the maize/corn

Me trying to get all the maize from the bakkie (pick up truck)

I don't know how they do it!

A sunny winter's day in Opuwo

I didn’t realize how much I missed being out in the fresh air on a sunny fall/winter afternoon...and am so glad that I was able to do that for myself. Just the beginning of a great birthday :) 

Then on Saturday I spent the day off right by doing 5 miles with my workout DVD and then took a nice hot water bucket bath. Although it was a bucket bath, it sure beat taking a freezing cold shower! I knew that I wasn’t going to want to do a thing on Sunday so I figured I might as well get my exercising and other chores out of the way on Saturday.

And somewhere between Friday and Saturday my toilet started to leak. It wasn’t the actual water overflowing from the toilet basin but was somehow leaking from the base of it or something. And of course with my luck, the handyman at the hospital wasn’t going to be able to fix it for another week because of it being the weekend and then this next week was National Immunization Days and I’d be gone all week. Luckily though, I was able to mop up all the excess water on the bathroom floor so it was dry enough for the night when my friends were there. Buuut of course for the following week the bathroom floor was covered with water :( Sigh, just another day in Namibia.

After cleaning my apartment and making the American chop suey, I was ready for my birthday night. Celebrating my birthday halfway around the world from home and from family and friends is hard, don’t get me wrong. But I am really thankful that I have a good group of friends here in Opuwo and other amazing friends all around Namibia. When I moved to Opuwo and found out that there would be six other volunteers also living in Opuwo, I was shocked...but also so so happy. People to share the ups and downs of the life of a volunteer with. Later that night all my friends arrived and we spent the night just filling our bellies with food and wine and having a very enjoyable night. Life is good.