Oshili Ngini?
How are you?

I am starting to feel at home here in Oshivelo now! I will tell you some of the things I have done so far.

The other day I, Hofni and Kakweya was going out in the bush, collecting firewood. We hitched two donkeys to the cart and slowly (or actually quite fast when the donkeys were running) moved into the bush on the sandy tracks. Hofni is very skilled getting the donkeys were he wants and it was a quite relaxing ride. He uses the ropes to steer and a plastic pipe to hit the donkey’s behind to speed it up. After approximately a thirty minute ride we stopped looking for a good tree. We found a good one and used a big chopping axe to get it down. After about 2 hours of chopping (and me hanging in the tree swinging it back and forth) in the hot sun it finally fell. I insisted on helping with the chopping but it was clear my Namibian friends had swung an axe a few more times than me. The trees are very hard and dry and you often hit it by its length trying to split it up. Although I had not been chopping that much, I was very tired (and thirsty!) when we returned to the homestead with a full cart, after four hours in the sun.

Sometimes the cultural differences create funny situations, like the other day when I showed Kakweya pictures of my family. When I showed him a picture of my wonderful sister Freja (telling him this was my only sister) he said: oh, a fat one. (!) He did not mean to offend me or my sister but it is surely not the way we put it at home! (…and you are not fat Freja!)
Regarding the “African laziness” it differs widely. My friends Hofni and Kakweya for example; they work almost all the time and are saying that if a man don’t know how to work, he will probably get a woman that also don’t know how to work. On the other hand I have tried to gather the “SCORE-committee” two times already without anyone showing up! It is also quite funny how the police are just sitting around (they don’t even pretend to work).

There is lots of good music here! Some of the most popular names are The Dog, Gazza and Sunny boy and they all mix English, Afrikaans and oshiwambo in their lyrics. I will try to buy a CD in Windhoek.

On Thursday Beatrice moved in with us. She is a Mexican painter who is going to have a 3 week art workshop with kids from school here in Oshivelo. We went to Etosha National park to get approval and help from the Namutoni Lodge. I will tell you more about the project later. When Beatrice and the principal had a meeting with the director I and Barney took a drive in the park. It is a truly amazing wildlife there! It is a very big park but you could see lots and lots of animals from the car. It was a great experience!

Next weekend I will go to Windhoek for a planning meeting. I write to you then!