The times are trickling

Here's a bit of a recap of the last month or so:

Three awesome Israelis came to visit my homestead via couchsurfing.org and stayed for two nights with me and my family. It was such a great visit and it was very cool to meet these free like minded travelers. They have plans to come to USA someday so we will meet again.

They cooked us a wonderful meal of fresh pita bread accompanied by Shakshouka!!!

Tillie being lifted by Rom, Meme, Grizzly Adams, Ran, and Lia

After term 2 ended, I went down to Okahandja to meet the new group of Peace Corps volunteers. Good luck to them as they start out on their two year odyssey, I know how they feel! Then it was time for vacation so I made my way up North to Rundu and met up with my Israeli friends again. We drove in their car to Livingstone, Zambia and spent a few days chilling at Victoria Falls. I forgot my juggling balls at the hostel but still managed to get my obligatory juggling picture. I eventually made my way back to Windhoek (they continued on to Malawi) and attended the last Peace Corps function before our Close of Service in December. All the logistics were worked out and I will be getting on the plane home on December 15!

Here is a typical view of what's in the fridge: Lucky Star canned pilchards, Savannah Dry (alcoholic cider), and a freshly caught rabbit in a bag



Nightly dinner scene: the kids covered with dust and smoke and ash, Meme sitting on her blanket cracking jokes, and the porridge-stirring spoon being passed around for everyone to get their licks.

Egumbo climbing the massive termite mound outside our homestead

When I went to Cape Town for the World Cup a very gracious friend-of-a-friend donated some soccer balls for the kids. I can assure you that they are a huge hit!

Donkey Cart 64. See how strong that girl in front is!?!? I could have used one of these on the hike from Epupa to Ruacana!

Me and the local soccer gang before our evening pickup game at the school field. (Me, Nepando, Namindi, Shikongo, Johnny, Biangi, Ileni, Amwaama, Dangi, Evelina [the cutest little girl you've ever seen] and Egumbo)

Sunset as the ball makes its inevitable way towards goal

Tillie with ondunga (palm tree fruit). This is a prime example of how kids look after a day of playing in the dirt and dust.

Meme after finishing her stunning basket. It took about four days of hard work before it was complete

Don't I just look like a drunkard? Actually the jar contains oshikundu (a refreshing slightly alcoholic brew of millet, sugar and accidental ants). And I'm reading Ishmael which I highly recommend.

Top to bottom left to right: Magano, Tusnelde, Sylvia, Bonifatius, and Thomas

I have about a million of these pictures of kids where they are striking some sort of 'cool' pose. This year I started offering to print pictures for kids (one photo is N$4) and they have jumped at the opportunity.

Now it is my last term of teaching at Elamba Combined School! I am busy trying to make sure the Grade tens are prepared for their important exams which determine whether they can continue on with grade 11 and 12. Trying to teach Trigonometry in one week is not so easy. You would not believe how packed the syllabus is and compounding the difficulty is the fact that many of the kids are still having problems with material covered during the previous years (be it that they didn't study enough then or that the teachers didn't teach it). So it has been a struggle but I think/hope that at least half of my kids will pass the math exam which is actually a pretty good percentage compared to most rural schools.

With only two months or so left in Namibia, I am trying to live it up and do as much as I can before I say goodbye. I am taking pictures of everything and anything and trying to get in some last visits to neighbors and learners. I cannot describe how much I will miss my Namibian family and my learners, and will be very sad to leave Elamba, the place that has been my home for the last two years.

Life in the Village

Here are a few more snapshots from the homestead.

This is what the cupboard in my room looks like most days. I compartmentalized all my foodstuffs: candy, vitamins, peanut butter jars, apples, granola bars. Apples and Peanut Butter for breakfast, apples and peanut butter for a snack after school, and if dinner wasn't fulfilling, apples and peanut butter for late-night noshing.

In Oshakati there is a big open market. The vendors don't really sell crafts because there are rarely tourists, but instead you can find for sale, live chickens, second-hand bras and underwear, goat meat 'fresh' off the barbeque, and several memes who sew dresses. On a whim one day I stopped there before getting a taxi back to Tsandi and bought a dress for meme Emilia for N$100 (about $15 USD) which was one of the best purchases I've ever made. She absolutely loved it! She made a big show of appreciation and even did the traditional ululation reserved for very joyous occasions. So I think I'll be stopping there again some time before I leave. One of her friends is on the left and Meme Emilia is on the right in her new digs.

One Saturday afternoon, Meme Wakamba (a neighbor who has at least 5 kids in various grades at Elamba) came over to visit and also to help Meme Emilia brew omalovu, the traditional beer. Lunch was included and I had her pose with a nice juicy piece of pumpkin.



I love this picture: Both memes are in mid-speech as they work together on their craft. They are using flexible wet bark strips to tie together dried grass that will eventually produce a funnel-shaped device. After boiling a mixture of water, sugar, and sorghum flour, they pour it into the strainer so as to remove the pulpy sorghum leaving behind the drinkable alcoholic beverage loved by many a villager.

Here are the two methods of straining in action. The left one is an example of the traditional grass strainer that they were making. The one on the right is just an old sack that does the trick quite nicely although I like the traditional method better.



Meme Wakamba and some buckets of omalovu. She is my favorite meme besides Emilia and she comes to visit often. She also wove a really nice basket for me as a gift so in return I'm printing out some of these photos for her.

After school one day, here is what I saw when I came home: Meme and Hare

One of the village boys had caught a hare in a snare and meme paid him N$20 for it. So as I was walking up the path to the front door I saw Meme and Niita surrounded by all this white stuff and didn't realize it was fur until I was close.

Look at those ears!!

First they pull out as much fur as they can and then roast it on the fire to burn off the remaining tufts. Then it was chopped up and cooked. I have to admit, that as much as I love the Redwall books where hares are my favorite characters due to their comical and heroic nature, that as many fond memories I have of my pet rabbit Hopper, that as much of an animal lover I am, I was fascinated by the whole process and the final product was the best meat I have ever had. That one hare provided for three sumptuous nights of meaty feasting.





Tillie (till ee ay) with the latest puppy. I am trying not to get attached to the cuddly little bugger because I don't have much hope for it's survival as this is the seventh or eight in a series, none of which have lasted for more than 3 months before they've bitten the proverbial dust due to malnutrition and general lack of attention. (Hah, I just reread that and I want to make sure you all know I was talking about dogs and not children) Tillie is just fine except that the other day she fell on a brick and cut her face. That black spot under her eye is fireplace residue that they put on in a medically misguided attempt to heal the wound.




We have tabacco plants all over the homestead. Meme picked some to dry and she will sell a handful to neighbors for N$1. Some people smoke others snuff. Here's a bunch drying on the roof of a hut.

Here are some plants in the 'hallway' to the front door .

Girls spend hours and hours on their hair, braiding and rebraiding it in various styles. It always amuses me to see girls at school midway through the process with half of their hair in nice neat rows and the other half in a semi-tamed afro. Methano ndino, Mwiingona ota panda Petrina


Peace, Paka

World Cup Fever

It was amazing! Being surrounded by rabid avid crazed soccer fans who are decked out in wacky costumes and chanting along with drums and vuvuzelas is a goosebump inducing experience. I felt quite underdressed with my two intertwined USA and Argentina scarves. My adopted team got crushed but it was still an awesome game and I have to admit that Germany (with their Polish players) played extremely well. Great atmosphere but I wish I could have seen the USA Algeria game! Donovan is my hero. Here are some pictures from my first world cup (I say first, because, for something this awesome I will obviously have to attend again. Anyone want to go to Brazil in 2014?) :

Notice the Argentinian fairy and aviators

Pregame parade

Los locos

Juggling at the stadium

The flags come onto the field

Germany in black and Argentina in white

First half: Argentina plan their free kick

Second half about to start

Zakumi the mascot

Some disappointed Argentina fans agreed to snap one last juggling shot

Threshing Thresholds

Last week I got a surprise. The principal organized a thank you ceremony to show appreciation for the work I've done fixing up the library. All the learners were lined up outside the library and she told them in oshiwambo ('so that each and every learner can get what I am saying') that she had some gifts for me for the 'good good job' that I did. She had asked me earlier to give her a picture of myself and I was kinda suspicious something was up. It turns out that she wanted the photo so she could print it on a shirt. On the front it says, Mr: Parker Lewis captioning my semi-blurry enlarged picture, and on the back it has a message about the improvement of the school library and how they will 'aways remember me and never forget.' I also got a certificate and a big container of omashuku (nuts from the marula fruits).

Meme Principal showing off my new shirt

You can see my picture on the shirt and the big container of omashuku - I joked with the learners that now I can watch them with four eyes

The learners lined up in their classes

Susana and Ester playing checkers; Gertrude and Helvi enjoying some literature; And look at all those books on the nice new shelves I bought with your generous donations!

Justina and Alina working a couple puzzles

And here are some more pictures from the homestead. After all the millet is gathered from the fields, they pile it up in the oshipale which is the place where they thresh the grain from the stalks. Some stems are raked out to the middle and they just start wailing on it with old palm tree branches. After it's separated then they sweep it up into the ever growing pile of threshed grain. When it is all beaten, they then have to sift out the unwanted parts and it is stored in one of the few huge grain baskets they have within the homestead. The threshing took about two weeks of sporadic work and all the while trying to shoo off the marauding birds.

Corn cobs, ground nuts, and millet

Meme and Tillie observing the millet pile

Mwingona and Niita midthresh





See the grains fly





Homestead in the background

Meme with headwrap, corn, and cell phone pouch

The pile post-threshing