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I have had a call for more posts, so for those, here goes. I guess I will first describe my setting, right now (Saturday night) I sit in front of my laptop typing, while outside the sky is so clear you can quite clearly see the Milky Way. I spent some of my day at school, trying to download good templates for grade books for the teachers here to use. Our computer lab runs in Linux so it’s difficult to find templates that work on OpenOffice and not Excel. I was not alone at school; there is a teacher who holds class every Saturday for the Grade 10 learners. I think today he also held class for a grade 8 class that has been falling behind. He only teaches Business Management, is Windhoek educated, and is very, very motivated. My most interesting and revealing conversations about education in Namibia and Namibian culture in general have been with this teacher. He has also taken over a computer class that he teaches directly after my class. I teach it from 1:30 to 3, when he takes over and runs his class from 3-6! As I said, he is very motivated. I still have yet to ask him directly why he runs the longer computer class and holds class on Saturdays, but I have a feeling his answer would be that he just feels it is needed. As you can imagine, this is quite a pleasant surprise for me that I am still getting used to. Coming into Peace Corps I was told to be ready to set the bar high and don’t expect to be shown any gratitude. Well things are totally different for me; I sometimes find myself saying why am I not working as hard as he is? It’s a good problem. And though the entire staff doesn’t share this level of enthusiasm, they are all pretty dedicated. We still are two teachers short, one is out on sick leave and the other has yet to show up, but in general the staff is pretty decent. To be honest, sometimes I feel this school doesn’t necessarily need a PCV, but then something will happen that reminds me they do.

I spent the other part of my day with soccer. We have a local team in my town, the Epupa All Star 11 FC (football club). This was the second game I have seen, and it’s great. They play on a gravel field, which is a little crazy. But it is very fast paced, I have learned (if I was a Namibian textbook writer I would say learnt….its written all over all the text books...”today you learnt that…”) that the African style of soccer is much different than the European version. Much less focus on passing and finesse; here it is get the ball toward the goal as fast a possible. Thus, we were on the winning side of a 6-1 game. More football at the place with the DSTV. More conversations with my colleague. Overall a good day.

The week consisted of the ups and downs that are becoming normal for me. Thursday was a low point; my day at school didn’t go well at all which causes the rest of the day to kind of go downhill as well. Friday was the total opposite; learners were answering questions and making connections. I have noticed really how much my mood effects how well the class goes. My educators out there know.

I am feeling a bit more part of the community. I start to see people I know; my town is only an estimated 2000-3000 people. My neighbor gave me a huge butternut squash that I ate over 3 days, and we played cards for a while last Sunday so I hope that continues (for my recent college grads….I taught her “President”).

I hope everybody is well, I hear it’s wicked cold in the states so enjoy that, cause it’s wicked hot here. Heard NY got dumped on with snow. I tried to explain 2 meters of snow to my neighbor; it’s definitely a hard thing to describe when the closest thing they can identify with is hail. Nangala po nawa.

Keith