Damn, It's Cold Here! --- Followup

I was really worried about those kids freezing because of the principal's rules. But now I realize that they simply ignore him. At the morning devotion today, about 1/4 of the kids were wearing extra hats, gloves, scarves, sweaters, and coats. So much for the principal's rules.

Speaking of which, during this year I think I finally have learned how to deal with principals. Do something that makes the school look really good, and then ignore everything they say. It seems to work for me!

Damn, It's Cold Here!

I wouldn’t have thought that the words cold and Africa would ever go together, but I was wrong. I just left the library, where I was working on my Oshiwambo while ‘monitoring study hall,’ and I’m wearing jeans, a t-shirt, a sweater, a fleece jacket and a hat. Mind you, it’s only 8pm, so the weather will get colder yet through the night.

The last few days, the weather has definitely taken a turn to the cool side. The temperature hasn’t dropped below freezing, but at night it can get down as low as about 40 degrees Fahrenheit. That may not sound like much to you Chicagoans and New Yorkers who suffer through winters where temperatures regular dive to the teens. However, you have one advantage that we in Namibia do not have: heat in your homes. Here, none of the buildings on the mission have any sort of heat whatsoever. None in my dorm, none in the dining hall, and none in the classrooms. The buildings retain a little more heat than the outside air, so they are usually 5-10 degrees warmer. Still, it can be pretty freakin’ cold.

Watching people deal with the cold is interesting. My favorite nun, Sister Khotaram, wears a sleeveless black jacket over her habit, giving her a military look. Sister Francis, the slightest of the nuns, wears a jacket, gloves, and a humongous white scarf wrapped around her head. It looks like a cross between a turban and the gauze bandage that people wrap around the top of their head and their chin to hold a hot water bottle in place. This morning, I had to bang my hands together for a few minutes before I could start marking papers.


The kids have it worse than all the staff, however. The principal won’t allow them to wear anything besides their school uniform, which consists of a short-sleeve button-down shirt and a very thin sweater. The students made a formal request at assembly on Monday to be allowed to wear jackets over their uniforms, and he turned them down flat. One student, who has a note from her doctor, is allowed to wear a coat. I’m considering asking one of the doctors in town to sign notes for ALL the kids and then see what the principal does. Ha ha ha!

By the way, I know that some of my dearest friends are now thinking, “Aha! Let’s send Josh a hat/sweater/long underwear.” Thank you very much, but really it’s not necessary. They sell all the warm clothes I need here. Besides, by the time it actually arrived, it would be hot again! Thanks for the thought, however! Cheers, and enjoy the warmth of the northern hemisphere.

Nature, Nature, Nature -- Part 3 -- Addo Elephant Park

The next two days we spent at Addo National Park, just north of Port Elizabeth. This was a wildlife reserve that specialized in elephants, and we saw LOTS of them. The park itself had a herd that numbered around 400 elephants. The main thing to do was game drives. On a game drive, you creep through the park in your car at about 3mph. Now, this may sound terribly boring, but it wasn't in the least, because the animals were everywhere!

We saw a turtles, ostriches, birds, zebra, and several types of antelope species. I fell in love with warthogs, who look like cute, squat dogs with tusks. There were warthogs with their babies all over the park, little squat piglings following their mamas. Now I see why warthogs are popular characters in Disney movies.

In the game area, visitors were not allowed to get out of their cars because the park has a few lions. The lions weren't there originally, but without predators, the other species were getting out of control. We didn't see a lion -- our only disappointment.

Several of the roads went near watering holes where the animals congregate. At two different spots, we just parked the car and watched for 30 or 45 minutes. During that time, we were able to see probably 50 or 75 elephants drinking, washing, and playing. At one point, a small herd on its way to the watering hole passed within five feet of my face. Amazing! With the elephants, pictures really are worth a thousand words, so here's a 6,000 word essay:

Africa, in my imagination, had always been about a countryside densely packed with very traditional cultures. With Addo, I saw a different side -- the wide open savannas that support some of the most extraordinary creatures on the planet.

Nature, Nature, Nature -- Part 2 -- Tsitsikamma

The next day was a good day. After a rather disastrous attempt at braiing(grilling) the night before, we woke up early so we could hike the first part of the Otter Trail in Tsitsikamma National Forest. This trail was right along the coast. The rocks looked as if they had once lain flat, but now had been pushed upwards by plate tectonics to stand vertically. When the trail wandered just 10 meters inland, we immediately entered a jungle-like canopy of vines and trees.



During the hike three-hour hike, we discovered a huge cave, and then ate our lunch by a waterfall that emptied into shallow tidal pools. When we tried to get closer to the waterfall itself, and Lynn slipped down below a bush. It looked like she had been swallowed by the earth, and my heart lurched, but she was fine—just clumsy.

Lynn showed her clumsiness on the way back from the waterfall too. With only 1k left to go, she twisted her ankle, and then shortly thereafter fell and skinned her knee. But each time, she just picked herself up and carried on, grimacing but not complaining. Not only was she clumsy, but she was plucky too. I thought “Plumsy” would be a good nickname, but I’m not sure if Lynn was thrilled with it.