Squash!
on Sally in Namibia (Namibia), 13/Mar/2009 09:05, 34 days ago
A new craze has taken hold of the volunteers– squash! There is a squash court at a lodge in Oshakati and there has been a ripple effect of more and more volunteers becoming involved. I even managed to get JJ and Clive involved when they were visiting – we had a fun session with five of us rotating on the court on a winner stays on basis. I think I have to make the most of being able to beat them as they both have potential to be great players – Clive has lots of power so was already able to hit the ball to the back of the court and JJ has speed of response quickly getting to the ball.However sadly our squash days were numbered. A couple of weeks ago when I went we had to walk over planks and tyres to reach the court as there was a small amount of flood water on the path, the next day Leah, Silence, JJ, Clive and I arrived to find the lodge inaccessible by car and we were forced to take off our shoes and wade through calf deep water to get to the court! It has to be said that wading through flood water is not much fun– apart from not being able to see what is under your feet there is also the fear of snakes plus the thought of all the pollution in the water: sewage from the flooding, permethrin from the mosquito nets which are illegally used for fishing, general dirt in the water. JJ did offer to carry me butI decided I preferred to keep my feet on the ground.The squash court has a viewing gallery upstairs which the spectators had to wade through water to get to– when the next persons turn was approaching they had to wade through the water into the court and dry off ready for the game. Lots of fun but it was clear that this was going to be our last game for a while as flood waters were still rising and it wasn't going to be long before the court itselfwas flooded.Unfortunately the owners have now decided that they cannot sustain the business anymore and are trying to sell it. We are just hoping that the new owners keep the squash court going but in the meantime I think I am going to join the local gym. I have been once and gave my body a shock with an hour of cardio work– the running machines and stepper are the same as the ones at Henlow Grange so are quite familiar and the people there seem to be friendly. It will be good to get back to doing regular exercise.