living without water on tap
on John and Dinah with VSO in Namibia (Namibia), 09/Jan/2008 10:30, 34 days ago
This week has been relatively uneventful after all our wonderful holidays. It is the lull before what will probably be quite a storm when term starts.Most of the time we've been in Mpungu but we had no water here until this morning so we escaped twice! Luckily it rained really hard on Monday and John and I (being the only teachers around and being reasonably assured of privacy) showered in the rain! It was so funny passing the shampoo. I wish I'd taken a photo (he had swimming trunks on, so don't get too squeamish!). It really was great as it was raining as hard as a really good shower, and the temperature was perfect despite having no control over that whatsoever.The reason for no water is the pump has been switched off and went on today because the district education inspector (very important!) came home. We have been brought water in a bucket twice a day and there is a photo of Luther, our saviour, complete with bucket. When managing on so little water it is very difficult to keep standards up and we have suffered for the first time with insects this week. Of course there are more mosquitos in the rainy season and they luckily don't like John. Is it the Tafel beer? Perhaps I should start drinking it. We have had to give 2 lots of biscuits to the goats as they were crawling with ants. Tiny ones that got in to an unopened packet and another lot that were in a plastic container we thought was airtight. On the whole that side of things is not as bad as we feared. Today we spent 2 hours cleaning and really enjoyed it! I got a thrill from hand washing the clothes (before I've been pining for my washing machine!) We then realised that the pegs which had been left on our line have disappeared. Call in No. 1 ladies detective agency.The other photo is of Victoria, one of our learners. She has been clearing our garden which has become overgrown and we need to keep it back so it is free of snakes. She has been paid but wanted a photo so I told her that she must explain we gave it to her because she worked for us. We are frightened of being the official photographers of Mpungu!We had a couple of days in Rundu at Nico and Margaret's house, although they are still away on holiday and the lodges and cafes were shut so it felt less welcoming. We had a lovely evening with Jackie and her delightful boyfriend. It was great to see her looking so happy and to meet him finally after hearing so much about him. They cooked us a lovely meal (as good as the lodge). We talked quite a bit about what we can hope to achieve here (a little) and re-adjusting when we go home. For us that's a long time still but Jackie finishes in August. We all felt we had slowed down so much (as Flor said moved from 5th gear to 2nd). John and I are enjoying this new pace, but I think Jackie finds it frustrating. She has so little time and wants to make a difference. I'm sure we all do but even if we were flat out it would be a drop in the ocean. Really people work so hard at home and of course earn well. That brings us on the old chestnut of finding people at home very spoiled (we are SO lucky) and the whole consumer society thing. This from someone who has just returned home with a bakkie full of goods from Windhoek, but I absolutely include myself as one of the consumers, so don't think I'm being horribly pious.We also met up with other VSOs who were on their way through Rundu to Windhoek having been in Botswana and Zambia having had a camping trip. The main attraction had been the Vic Falls which J and I intend to go and visit in the May holiday. They said it had been really wet and in fact the whole of southern Africa has been having loads of rain but not Namibia. Here the situation is becoming desperate for some people as this is the third time the rainy season has been well below average. Windhoek may have to import water by truck. Farmers are the worst hit. Fields should be ploughed and planted by now and they are still waiting.We went on Sat. to stay with another VSO, Ros, over in Oshakati. It was interesting that we noticed a very different atmosphere over there this time that we hadn't picked up when we were there for some training in Oct. We picked up hitch-hikers (as usual) and one women didn't talk to us at all. When we got to where she wanted she suddenly yelled 'STOP' at full vol. Not a smile or word of thanks. We were quite shaken by her hostility as we find people here in Kavango generally friendly even if somewhat demanding (money, photos, lifts). We stopped at a petrol station and when I went into the shop a woman came up to the till with me and told me 'you are buying my bread'. If she'd said this in a pleasant manner I may have bought it for her. Her whole manner was really aggressive and when I refused she started berating me. Ros says she often finds people antagonistic because this is the area where the war was most violent and which suffered from imperialism before that. Even though independence is 17 years old strong feelings persist against whites.Funnily enough when our water went on our signal for our cell phones and the internet went off. I may have to wait and send this from Rundu tomorrow. I'm eagerly looking forward to having both at once!We have joined Skype and my user name is Dinah Hilbourne (very imaginative). If you also join we can speak over the internet for free. So far the calls have not been useless! However Bob (J's brother) used Skype to call our landline @ 11 p a min. which worked brilliantly and was much cheaper than normal. We are still hopeful that this will work and that we can cure our technical problems once we get some help. Other VSOs find Skype good.The views expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of VSO.