My First Blackout

September 8, 2010
Woosh, Splish, swish, splash waka waka splash, splish, woosh goes my laundry that I hand wash using the heel of my hand as the wash board. It is my second time hand washing and this time Ndahafa is not at careful watch, but her friend Ebba is. Ebba speaks broken English, and every time she speaks I wonder if she is addressing me in Oshindonga or in English. She is the new addition to our family. I was told that Ebba was coming, but not that she would be staying with us for the remainder of my time here until a few days after she had arrived. There are only two bedrooms in the house and Peace Corps rules require that I get my own room to stay in, so the other three stay in one room. I feel guilty as a sprawl out in my queen-size bed underneath my mosquito net, insinuating that there are too many insects during the insect-free season for my liking.

Next I see Itana come walking toward me, carrying a stool on his head and I wonder if it was sent for me by Ndahafa. But he puts it down and in comes the queen of the house. She sits down on the stool to watch me pathetically attempt to scrub the BO out of the armpits of my shirt and laughs. She orders Itana to get Ebba a chair too and they sit down to watch my performance. Altogether I have washed about 10-12 pieces of clothing since I have been in Africa (not including underwear). It is unacceptable but my Western hands can’t handle the pressure. My back hurts from bending over to scrub in the water and I decide to spread my legs out in the sand so I do not have to bend. I am caught quickly. “Ah ah ah. That is not how a lady stands! Open like that! People will think you are loose!” So I quickly stand up straight against my will to do my back-breaking (literally) chores, listening to her repeating commands like ,“Concentrate on one part” or “Just focus, ne?” Then, my six year old neighbor who speaks mainly Afrikaans runs over and asks me in English, “When you are finished with your work, will you come and play dodge ball?”

This is so heart-warming to me because all I want is to hang out with my little brother and for him to think I am cool. For everyone else it has been automatic; their siblings love to touch their hair, listen to them talk, ask them questions about America, and thus the Namibians think they are cool. For me it has been a slow-moving process. I know what you are thinking, it is very surprising. So when the kids want to play cards with me, I leap up and go get them. When Itana talks to me, I answer immediately like he is a celebrity. On Sunday, I decided that I would teach them dodge ball. Every ball this neighborhood has owned pops in a matter of minutes. There are rocks, thorn bushes, and eager children playing so it is inevitable. I thought, you know what I can teach them to do with all these flat balls? To throw them as hard as possible at each other. So I did. And it turned out to be a big hit! That was Sunday and today is Wednesday, and today we had all the neighbors in our back yard (made of sand) getting down and dirty dodging, dipping, diving, ducking, and dodging. (Too easy to make a Dodgeball the movie joke?) If nothing else, I think that this will be my one act of sustainable development in Namibia.

Ebba asked me to cook traditional American food and I told her that the only traditional American food is McDonalds which she did not understand. No McDonalds around these parts I guess, but there is a KFC so I told her that that was our traditional food and she got a great kick out of it. All they had for me to cook this week was meat and I really do not know what I am doing with meat. So I decided to fry some chicken to bring my culture to her. It was a bit of chaos because of the sauce I was making from a packet for my noodles and I ended up getting flustered. It turned out okay but I began to miss the relaxing glass of wine I could have with dinner at home. It would have taken the edge off because I was revved. To top off the dinner preparation fiasco, Ndahafa had to start bad mouthing gay people and we ended up in a heated discussion about homosexuality while Ebba just watched TV. The good thing is that we can make up in the end without any hard feelings, and I can go wash 25 dishes for the second time that day with dignity. I am constantly being challenged but am happy to have truly put my own values out on the table for my first time tonight. After all, this whole Peace Corps experience is also supposed to help others learn about Americans too.
I am looking forward to playing basketball tomorrow after school and then going out to have pizza with other Peace Corps Trainees on Friday. It is good to get out of this house for a little bit, because it can be a little bit much going to school all day and sitting at home and watching TV all night.

Another eventful thing that happened yesterday was that the entire town’s electricity and water went out because the town did not pay their utility bill to the capital and owes the utility company about 12 million dollars. Haha! We had to have an emergency evacuation from school just in case. We went to the grocery store where all the refrigerators were out of power and food was sitting in darkness on shelves. We bought bread and water in case we would not be able to cook. Fortunately, the power went back on in a few hours because election day is coming up and it reflects badly on the reputations of the current politicians. I asked Ndahafa how often this happens and she said, “Not often, like every three months.” Haha Only in Africa.