Lindsey and I are almost done with our first FULL year of teaching in Namibia! The students are about to be done with their exams before the long December break, so it has been pretty relaxing for us the last few weeks. I will admit, due to the lack of exciting events recently, this post is probably on the weirder side of things I have written. But if you like pictures of beards and kittens and enjoy stories that seem to have no point, then maybe this is right up your alley. If not, don't loose faith, the posts next year are bound to get much weirder.
Crazy Weather
The end of November marks the beginning of the rainy season for the northern part of Namibia. Typically, it rains hard for 3-4 months straight and then not a drop for the next 9 months, which is when the north turns back into a dry, sandy desert. Namibia is coming out of the worst drought in 30 years, so hopefully this rainy season will be a good one for the sake of all the people that rely on farming. Right now, the rain looks like it is on track to bring a good harvest since it has been raining nearly everyday.
The view of a storm rolling in from our backyard .
Lindsey testing out the water. She can't resist puddles.
Some of the storms here can get a little intense. I am sure it rains just as hard back in America, but since we have just a single sheet of metal over our heads (our roof), when it rains hard, the sound of the rain hitting our roof literally gets so loud that you can’t even talk inside our hut. The last time it really rained, we had a little river flowing through our yard. There were even some hippos that swam by.
Beard
There was a beard challenge amongst all of the male volunteers in our group which began a few months ago. Although the longest I had ever gone without shaving was previously two weeks, I reluctantly joined just to see what my attempt at a beard would look like. If you are ever going to let your looks go, the Peace Corps is the time to do it without being judged. Needless to say, I did not come close to winning the beard challenge since some of the other volunteers look like teen wolf and can grow a beard in like... 2 hours or something. Despite my utter defeat, my plan was to let the beard keep growing until our parents came in December, but my mind was quickly changed one day when I looked in a mirror and saw what resembled a pubescent lumberjack looking back at me. Also, I never thought the day would come when I would write an entire paragraph on my blog about a beard. I can now check that off my bucket list I suppose.
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| I felt as if this were the only way to smile with a mustache. |
Things here always seem to happen in clumps. Clumps you say? What do you mean? Well, take last Sunday for example - a woman came by and wanted to give us a puppy and later a man also came by in the same day and wanted us to buy a turtle he found (unusual I know). I jokingly asked the man if the turtle can kill snakes to which his reply was, “No, but it is 200 years old and very funny.” The turtle didn’t seem funny to me. He seemed a bit... reclusive? Get it?
So we were offered two different animals on the same day, which is the only time anyone has ever offered us any living thing. If we would have accepted, we would currently have 4 cats, 1 dog, and 1 very funny turtle. Fortunately, we still just have the cats which will hopefully be given to other volunteers soon.
So I briefly mentioned in my last post that our cat had three kittens. They are about 6 weeks old now and are running around like crazy at the moment.
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| She made a similar face when I asked her to marry me. |
Some of you might be thinking - Tim, you were right, that was a weird post, but also - all you and Lindsey do is travel. I do agree that our blog highlights our travels as they are the most exciting times and it is where we get the best pictures. However, about 90% of our time is actually spent at our school and in Mayara. With that said, let me tell you about our next travels.
Well, December and January are going to be a bit crazy for Lindsey and I. The schools have a month and a half break, so we have a lot of time to travel yet again! Both sets of our parents, plus Lindsey’s brother and sister, are coming to visit in December and we are going to go on a tour across Namibia (we are traveling all together). It will be the first time we have seen them since we left Texas a year and a half ago and we are super excited to see them. Then, Lindsey and I are hopping on a bus to Cape Town the same day our parents leave Namibia to meet my brother and his wife. Then the four of us will travel up the eastern coast of South Africa and stay in hostels along some of the most pristine and untouched beaches in the world. We are also going scuba diving in an area that is rated one of the 10 best dive spots in the world. I will tell you all about it when we get back.
Peace,
Tim
