February 16

I have been trying to find time to write all week and finally now at 9pm I have the library to myself to get some thoughts from my head into this computer. I'm never comfortable writing when other people are around because although I try to avoid anything too personal about people here my opinions come out pretty clearly from time to time and it seems that this blog has to be my safe place to talk about what is going on around here.

This week I am feeling like I am getting a handle on everything better. We had a little Valentines Day celebration that wasn't much but the kids learned about the holiday and didn't have to go to evening studies. Including this Valentines in Namibia my last few have been rather odd, last year I was dancing the rumba with a bunch of old folks and two years ago I sprained my ankle playing basketball with the Brian McFarland. Oh, basketball how I miss you. We have a hoop but it is laying down in one of the primary classrooms because I haven't got them to set it in the ground yet. I have a nice Infusion basketball in the library waiting to be used but not yet. This week we had a visit from Raleigh International, which is a youth organization that will be building us a playground during the holiday in April. They were here yesterday to look around and do some initial planning then we will work out the details in March and they will have a group of 15 volunteers aged 18-25 from all over the world here to build the playground in three weeks in April. I will be gone for Peace Corps business during the first half of their time but I am looking forward to working with them and hosting them in my new home. Its a great deal for the school, we pay for one third of the cost of materials and they secure the rest of the materials and do all of the work, bring their own camping equipment and take care of their food while they are here. I am really excited for the kids to have this playground because there is really nothing to do except play soccer which is almost enough for most of the kids.

This week also kicked off our Drama and Debating Society that I am supervising with another teacher. The kids that came to our meetings this week seem really committed and had very good ideas about the sorts of topics we should address with dramas and debates. If we're lucky I'll be able to video some of the activities the club does on my digital camera and send them back to the States eventually. The 25 or so kids in the club are some of the smartest in the school so I have high hopes for them. Our first debate will be on corporal punishment, which was banned in the Namibian Constitution when it was written in 1990 and interestingly, some of the teachers and some of the learners think corporal punishment should be reinstated. Before you cry foul consider that if you support corporal punishment by parents, these kids live in a hostel away from their parents except for one weekend a month, so who acts as their parents? I hope we will be able to teach the kids about how to debate so that this issue is addressed well because I am interested to hear the arguments from both sides.

Speaking of debate, what is the latest with Bush's domestic spying stuff? I am still horribly deprived of news but I catch bits here and there. Also, when are Israeli elections going to be held and will the new prime minister be hawkish enough to push for a real showdown with Iran or a committed diplomat that might help get the world out of this mess. In my package from Peace Corps I got the January editions of Newsweek which included a lengthy look at the life of Ariel Sharon. I didn't know he was so closely linked to the massacres in the camps in Lebanon but I still think he was good for the region as prime minister. The most interesting thing though is wondering if he was only trying to buy time and appease the world by pulling out of less significant territories without ever planning to allow for a viable Palestinian state? We'll never know, but I tend to think you're doing something right when the extremists on both sides of the argument are trying to kill you.

This weekend I am going to a nearby village for the district athletics competition for the under 13 and under 11 kids. I am excited because I just found out that at least 3 other PCVs will be there that I haven't seen since swearing in at the first of the year. Without a cell phone I haven't even been able to SMS like most of the PCVs around the country. Yesterday, a temporary teacher at the school brought me his old antenna that he doesn't use anymore so now I need to find a phone and I might have cell phone service soon. Even then it is only likely to work in the evenings and mornings, but that is when I'm not at work so it is fine.

I must admit that the highlight of this week was reading the first Harry Potter book. I started it Monday evening and finished Wednesday evening, but now I don't have the second book because a girl borrowed it from the library and didn't return it. She doesn't go to school here anymore but the kids know her and will hopefully retrieve the book during the next out weekend. There are several books that were never returned from last year so I am cracking down of the library. We are hunting kids down for the books and blacklisting those who have lost books until they pay $5, which is kind of a joke because its not even close to replacement value but the kids don't have that kind of money and $5 is enough to make it hurt a little.