Bits and Pieces (2-21)

Saturday I went to the mall in Ongwediva to look around. I took my bank papers for opening an account with the idea that, if the line wasn’t too long, I would do that. Since there were only a few people in the line I needed, I sat down and joined them. While we were waiting, a small boy—about 2 years old—was opening a zipper on his mother’s pouch and handing out coins. He gave several to the man next to me but looked at me warily. I held out my hand and asked if he had any for me. After a few moments, he gave me one very small coin. Then the man handed back his coins; so I did the same. The boy put them in the pouch and zipped it. Then he unzipped it and handed out coins again. On the third round, he gave me a big coin. I guess he’d decided that I was OK. As time went on, I received many coins as did the man. It was fun entertainment. Although the line was short, everyone needed a lot of time. I couldn’t complain as I knew my transaction would also take a long time. I waited for 45 minutes, and opening the account took 45 minutes. But it got done, and I didn’t need to have someone else spending that amount of time at the bank with me. When I left, I texted Wilhelmina to tell her I’d opened the account. She responded that she was coming to meet me.

While I was waiting, I noticed that a store had watches and thought it might have an alarm clock. It did. So now I don’t need to be concerned about waking up if the power goes off in the evening and doesn’t return before I go to sleep.

Wilhelmina arrived with Queenie, her friend and sister-in-law. Since Friday was pay day for them (My salary hasn’t been processed yet.), they wanted to buy me lunch, which was quite nice. We went to a fast food place that specializes in fish and had an enjoyable time eating and chatting. Since Wilhelmina bought my lunch, Queenie bought a take out for my dinner.

Queenie asked about my religion, and I learned that, although she was raised Catholic, she, like Wilhelmina, has many questions. I also learned that she spent a month on vacation in Spain where she learned that not all white people are like the ones here, which was an eye-opening experience for her. White people there worked even when they were old, and they took care of their children and took care of their house. Whereas white people here have black people who do the work around the house and take care of the children and would not know what to do if they had to do these things themselves. That may be an over-generalization, but it’s how she sees the situation. It reminded me of the transition of plantation owners in the U.S. after slavery was abolished. Namibia has been independent from the Germany for only 25 years, and these changes take time. Rachel had told us that many while people are still very racist.

Since Wilhelmina was going to her farm, she drove me home. All in all, I felt very lucky that everything worked out so well that day.

Sunday morning I put old calendar photos on the walls. Now I have some pretty pictures to enjoy. That was the last of my settling in things to do.

Some learners are getting comfortable with me and my teaching style. More are raising their hands to volunteer to answer or to write answers on the board. One day a few girls came to tell me they didn’t understand their writing assignment; so I went to study time to explain more clearly. I was pleased that they had told me they didn’t understand. On the way out, one girl wanted a high five. Another day several girls came to ask me the differences between “this” and “these” and between “where” and “were.” I was pleased that they are comfortable enough to ask such questions now. Quite a few have started giving me a thumbs up.

Mandatory after school study time started two weeks ago. Learners go to their homerooms and do their homework Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 2:15-4:00. Wednesday is sports day, and they go to the “field” to play soccer. For the most part, they are unsupervised. Two or three teachers are on duty each day and walk around sporadically, but most of the time they are in the staff room or their classroom. Learners have been told that they are to be quiet while they do their homework, and, for the most part, they are.

On Monday and Friday, the school day is to begin with a morning assembly at 7:45. A learner says a prayer and a religious song is sung. Then the national anthem is sung while the flag is raised. The principal usually says something to the group. This has often been cancelled due to learners—and most teachers—not arriving early for the assembly on those days. When we have the assembly, it always starts late and runs into the first class time; so that class is always at least ten minutes short. On Friday, Mrs. Reinhold told learners they will be punished if they are late for assembly in the future.

Now that mornings are cooler, learners are arriving at school later, and the first class is often 10-15 minutes shorter, making it 25-30 minutes instead of 40. Can’t get much done in such a short time. And it’s not really cold yet.

The school board had their first meeting a few weeks ago. I was asked to go in to meet them. The chair’s comment was that he anticipates much better results this year since I’m here. I keep hearing that, which is typical in foreign countries. At the Friday morning assembly the principal announced that the board set a goal of 80% or higher for all learners, no 70%s, which seems pretty unrealistic for any school.

The board met again to interview the selected two candidates to replace the teacher who left. Afterwards they chose the one they would like to hire. Their selection has to be sent to the regional office for approval before they can make an offer to the applicant.

I’m making a little progress on my effort to learn learners’ names. My class seating charts help, but it is still a struggle. One problem, of course, is that I’ve never been good at memorizing names. With the seating chart, when they are in class, I know some of them by where they sit. Out of class they look familiar, but the names don’t come most of the time.

Another problem is that the learners all have the same hairstyle at this school, which means that many of their faces, especially those of the younger learners, don’t give a clue to their gender. At the Oshikunde school where we did our practicum, girls have longer hair but it must be braided. At least this enables easy distinguishing between boys and girls. Some of the older boys have a bit of facial hair and look more mature in general, which is a clue. And some of the older girls have distinguishing female features. However, even more than the Chinese girls, they looked the same to me for a few weeks, reminding me how much Western hair variety—long, short, straight, curly, blond, brown, etc.—helps distinguish people easily. It took a while to look past the learners’ hair to notice the differences in their faces. 

Since learners wear uniforms that may be the same for both genders, sometimes boys and girls look the same. Both wear gray pants and a white shirt. Girls, however, sometimes wear a maroon skirt and/or vest. (Yes, they sometimes wear a vest in this hot weather.) I also learned to look at shoes, as the styles are different for boys and girls. And a few of the girls have pierced ears. With time, their faces do look different, and I now recognize many faces of those who participate a lot and/or talk to me outside class.

An additional challenge with learning names is that they write their names differently. The typical way to write one’s name in Namibia is surname and then first name. Some learners do that, but some write their name in the Western style—first name followed by surname. This becomes a challenge because some of the first names and surnames are the same. So, I can have Naftal Tomas and Iithete Naftal; Festus Aina and Simeon Festus; and Johannes David and David Lemisia. As a result, for a while, I wasn’t sure which name to call the learner when I read names on their notebooks. I now recognize the names they are called my most of the time.

Additionally, some names are pronounced the Namibian way and some the Western way. Thus “Simon” is “Seemone” and “Jeremia” is “Jeremiah,” as we pronounce it. I had to ask about both of those several times before remembering which pronunciation to use. “E” at the end of a name is pronounced; so “Leonore” is “Lay o nor uh.” And there are a few Namibian names, such as “Ndasilohenda,” which was the most challenging for me. In the early weeks, when I came to her name on a paper and paused, others knew which name I was looking at and a few helped me out. She smiles now when I say it quickly and correctly.

Some of the grade 10 girls are starting to bond with me. A group of them—and a couple boys— came to chat on Wednesday before sports while one of their classmates swept the floor. They had many questions about America—What is the land like? Are there palm trees? What fruits do we have? Do I have a house/car? Are their black people in America?

Learners in the classes are of very mixed ages. Grade 8 learners range from 15-20 in one class and from 13-18 in the other, grade 9 ranges from 13-21, and grade 10 ranges from 15-19. Two learners who I know are siblings are two years apart in age, but the older is in grade 9 and the younger is in grade 10. Some started school later than others. Some have failed a level or grade and have or are repeating. Grade 9 has 32 learners, but I noticed that last year there were two classes of grade 8 with a total of over 50 learners.  Wilhelmina explained that one class this year is mostly learners who are repeating; the other is mostly learners who were in grade 7 last year.

I have noticed that Namibians do not squat like Asians. Instead they bend over from the waist to wash their clothes and do chores on the ground.

A few weeks ago I noticed that if I look at msn.com after closing my email, it has the temperature for Oshakati. Then, and earlier, it was in the high 90s and low 100s with lows in the low 70s. Now the temperatures have decreased to the low 90s. People still say it’s very hot every day, but I think the scorching hot days are over.

It rained during the night for about an hour a couple times. Otherwise, the rain seems to be going elsewhere. We can see it in the distance, but it’s not coming here. Some mornings it smells like rain, but none has come. The wind blows like a storm is coming, but it doesn’t. Saturday we finally had some rain. When Wilhelmina and I returned from town, there was water along the road in places, but it stopped before our village. 

That night there it was stormy and everyone was waiting for the rain to start. It finally did, but I don’t think it amounted to much in total.

The electricity has been on most of the time for over a week. It went off for about 1.5 hours one evening and has blinked off for a few minutes during strong winds, but otherwise it’s been working. One of my favorite sounds is the humming of the fridge.

In the last couple weeks ant hills have been popping up all over. I don’t know where they were before then. One group is in my washing room beneath a crack and small hole in the floor, and I have to sweep the floor of their sand balls every morning; they are active at night.

The dog is now used to me and hardly pays attention to me most of the time.

Sunset

Valentine's Day (2-15)

Sunrise

Sunday was Valentine’s Day. In the big stores I’d seen advertisements mentioning the day, which had surprised me, but I hadn’t noticed much special other than that. The newspaper had a couple articles about Valentine’s Day, too. On Sunday I gave a small bag of sweets to Helena and Sark. Later he came to tell me it was Valentine’s Day and to thank me. When I gave her a small bag of sweets on Monday, Wilhelmina was surprised that I knew about Valentine’s Day. She had thought about sending me a message but didn’t think I knew about it.

Later in the week she asked if we have Christmas in America. When I explained that we do and mentioned that people give a lot of presents, she said they do that here, too. However, I don’t think the concept of “a lot” is the same here as it is in the U.S. She wasn’t familiar with the concept of a Christmas tree.

I decided to do a lesson about Valentine’s Day on Monday. I also took sweets/candy to the teachers and learners. When I asked, usually one or two people in each class could tell me what special day was on Sunday, and they knew that Valentine’s Day is about love. My favorite answer to the question “What is Valentine’s Day about?” was the boy who answered, “Jesus Christ was born.” I guess he isn’t active in church.

Wednesday I went with Wilhelmina to see her homestead/farm here in the village. She has a man who lives there and takes care of it, and she goes a few times a month. Her millet is growing but slowly, as there hasn’t been much rain. I’d seen several fields with plants in the distance, but this was the first time I’d seen one close up. She planted in January and said harvest will be in May if there is rain. Helena and Sark have not planted yet; they’re waiting for the rain. Everyone talks about the lack of rain. Sark came over after church and said the next two Sundays will be for praying for rain. We haven’t had rain since the little rain early in the month.

Wilhelmina has chickens, goats, and cows. She took bags of shredded paper for the goats since there’s not much grass left for them to eat. One Sunday when I was at school a goat came to the door. He looked in, quickly grabbed a piece of paper from the trash box, looked up triumphantly, and ran out. The local people open the school gate and let their goats go in to eat grass there.

Friday she took me to the bank to open an account so my stipend can be deposited directly. It didn’t happen that day because there is paperwork needed: a form for me to complete, a letter for the school to print on school letterhead, and a letter stating my salary and length of contract. We got the last from the district office, and we’ll return after I have the school’s letter. Then we went shopping so I could purchase groceries and a few other items. One thing I wanted was a battery operated alarm clock in case the electricity is off for a long time overnight and my phone battery dies. The three stores we looked in didn’t have such an item. But I purchased a lot of food. She called a friend to meet us and drive me home. She has offered to take me shopping every Friday on her way home so I don’t have to hike to town on Saturday, but I might like to do that sometimes just to get away and wander around on my own.

Saturday morning I decided to clean up my yard, which means dig up the weeds that had popped up since my arrival. I think Sark must have cleaned it up prior to my arrival, but it is obvious that this is an ongoing chore, like digging up dandelions. Like dandelions, the roots go deep, and the plants grow anew after the tops are cut off. I found a tool to dig them up with, but when Sark saw me, he gave me a hoe, the tool of choice here. After I got the hang of chopping into the sand near the plants, it worked well. 

Since I’d observed the cleaning up of the school yard, I knew to rake the mounds of sand afterwards to make the area smooth and neat again.

I had agreed to go with Sark to meet his friend at the local cuca, which is mostly a bar, Saturday afternoon. I wasn’t enthused about going there, but I felt that I couldn’t refuse to meet his friend. He came twice on Saturday to remind me of our agreement, telling me to wash my body the last time he came. When I was leaving the house, Helena arrived to visit. She was not happy about this plan and told me not to go and to sit down and rest. Then she went home and they argued. I guess she’s looking out for me, which is nice to know. After a bit, he returned to tell me we won’t go.

I had two guests on Saturday. In the morning, Sark came with his phone because someone wanted to talk to me. I recognized that it was the woman he’d had me talk to a couple weeks ago. After our brief chat, he explained that she is his sister in Windhoek. At 9:15 that night, Helena came with a young man who introduced himself as the first born; in other words, Sark’s eldest child. He is a teacher in a school along the road to town. All three of Sark’s children are teachers.

Wilhelmina has asked about religion several times. It is her belief that everyone has to believe in God, the creator of all living and non-living things. When the topic came up this week, I asked her about Lent. She was not familiar with it at all since she is not Catholic. But Rebekka is Catholic; so she told us about Lent. Ash Wednesday is the big church day. Everyone goes to church in the evening and people put an ash dot of their foreheads. They abstain from eating meat and chicken that day. They used to abstain from meat for the 40 days of Lent, but nowadays no one does that.

Sunset

More Training (2-7)

This was a short week at school, as Monday and Tuesday I was sent to training for novice English teachers in the region. Wilhelmina also attended, as she is new to teaching grade 7; she may have been told to accompany me as she is my mentor, but that wasn’t mentioned. I was a little resentful about being sent to the training because we covered the topics during our WorldTeach orientation and training and because it interrupted my getting into the swing of teaching. However, it was OK. One of the trainers was a woman who Mrs. Reinhold had said would meet with us on a Saturday to provide guidance; so I don’t know if that will still be necessary. We’ll see. The other was a Peace Corps volunteer. Most of the attendees were teachers who have taught for a while but this is their first time to teach English.

I stayed overnight in a bungalow at the university with another teacher, Trinity. We chatted quite a bit while she waited for her friend to take her to dinner. This is her first year teaching, and she’s excited to finally be a teacher, her childhood dream. As a member of the younger generation, she said her friends told her to take any job but she would only go to a school that has wi-fi. After we chatted for a while, she asked if I speak Afrikaans. When I said I don’t, she asked why not. She was very surprised—and excited—to learn that I am American—her first American to have a conversation with. After she left, the Peace Corps volunteer came to lend me a pillow. He and I chatted a while about our Peace Corps experiences and about Namibia. When he apologized for the food at the workshop, he explained that teachers like to have food that they don’t have at home. Thus the Western-style food—bologna sandwiches and fried egg sandwiches for snacks, stir fried cabbage with rice and fried chicken legs with pasta (sauce on the side) for lunch. Not really very good. I enjoyed chatting with both people, and the evening passed quickly.

Wednesday I returned to school, and the rest of the week went quickly. It was good to be back. I feel comfortable and feel like I’ve been here for longer than three weeks.

Friday afternoon we had a small party for people who were leaving—two student teachers and one teacher who is moving to a school closer to her home. I helped make the salad. Although the main meat was beef, 

Wilhelmina had purchased a few chicken legs for me. They also prepared a small pot of beef for a teacher who liked it cooked differently than the big pot of beef for everyone else. Lots of special porridge was prepared. Rebekka explained that it is Nama style—with canned corn and sweetened condensed milk added. It is named for one of the tribes that eats it that way. Quite tasty.

While the food was cooking, one of the conversation topics was my hair. I was asked what I do to it. When I said I wash it every two days, they were amazed and told me how lucky I am. They like the fringe of brown at the bottom of the back of my head. Women here wear extensions or wigs. Rebekka confessed that her hair is actually the same color as mine. There are a couple teachers who I think straighten their hair, but I’d have to look very closely to see if it’s actually a wig, as I had just noticed that one person’s hair that I thought was natural and straightened actually wears a wig. When I suggested to the women that they could wear their hair short like the learners do, that idea was quickly nixed. I’ve seen only a few adult women who display their short, natural hair. One day there was a woman I didn’t know who was acting like a teacher, but I hadn’t met her. When I asked Wilhelmina who she is, I learned that she is a teacher I’d met, but her hair was now shorter. She’d changed her wig, and, since hair is such a distinguishing feature, I hadn’t recognized her until I looked very carefully.

In the evening I took a walk and enjoyed watching a thunderstorm in the distance. 

At 8:00 the electricity was turned off, and it wasn’t turned on until between 9:00 and 10:00 Saturday morning. I don’t know why it was off for such a long time. It was also off while I was at the workshop, but for a longer time, I think, as my refrigerator was warm then and was still cool after the thirteen hours.

It was turned off again Sunday morning between 8:00 and 11:00 for the third time in a week. I don’t know why, as it was not raining or windy and there was no sign of either being on the way. It wasn’t turned on again until 5:00. It’s frustrating, as on Sunday I had things I wanted to look up for materials for class. I have realized that part of the frustration is that this didn’t happen the first two weeks; thus it didn’t become part of “this is what living in the village is like.” Now I needed time to adapt to the change, and this took a while.

The clouds have produced some spectacular sunrises. 

Sunsets continue to be normal to amazing. I continue to be awed by both. And I continue to take photos even though I thought I’d taken enough.

This was a weekend at home. Saturday morning I took a walk for about 80 minutes—down a road and back. I dare not deviate too much, as I think it would be easy to get misplaced because there isn’t much variety in the scenery. 

It took fifteen minutes to get near the first homestead. From there I could see a few others in the distance. 

For the next twenty minutes there were no homesteads near the road I was on. It gave me an idea of the distances learners walk to school. The village is certainly spread out over a lot of land.

One area has a lot of ant hills. 

Bitter bush

The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and relaxing and reading in my outdoor chair. When Helena returned and came to say “hello,” I was using my fan to keep flies away. When she said, “Give me,” I almost handed it to her to look at, but I remembered that “Give me” means just that and handing it to her would have been giving her a gift. So I said I have one and it’s mine. She laughed. When she walked away, she said she likes me.

Two other requests this week: A student asked me to buy him batteries if I went to town. I explained that I can’t do that because then I’d have to buy things for everyone. The male student teacher seemed to want me to have someone buy soccer boots for him and mail them. He wants a special kind that is not sold here. Shops on the Internet charge a lot for foreign mailing. I told him it would be very expensive to buy the shoes and have them mailed and suggested that he use the money to go to Johannesburg or Windhoek. He said shoes are very expensive in Windhoek and it didn’t make sense to go to Jburg just to buy shoes. But it makes sense to have someone he doesn’t know buy them and mail them.

Wilhelmina asked if private enterprise means that everyone has a business in America. The ideas they have about the country are interesting.

One day Angel sat down and told me to tell him about September 11. It took a few seconds to realize that he meant 9-11. He wanted to know what happened and why the World Trade Center was the target because very little information was given in Namibia. He just knew that something bad had happened. I was glad he didn’t want too much information, as I’m not sure how much in depth I could have responded. I thought it was interesting that this was still on his mind after such so many years.

Church and more (1-29)

Sunday I went to church with Helena (Sart was working.), as it was my first Sunday in the village and I thought it would be important for her to have me go with her. It also gave others in the village an opportunity to see me. The church is just behind the homestead; so it’s a short walk. It’s a Lutheran church. I was told that the three main churches in Namibia are Lutheran, Catholic, and Anglican. I’ve also seen a few other smaller denominations. When I’ve talked with people about the wide variety of Christian churches—and other religions—in the U.S., they are amazed. Angel asked me if there are churches in America and was astonished when I started listing all the kinds of churches.

Sunday morning the church bell was rung from 7:15 to 7:45. When we arrived at 9:50, the minister, a woman, was speaking. The service officially started at 10:00, and the bell was run again for a few minutes. It looked like about 200 people attended, all dressed up. Women wore dresses, and many wore fancy hats. Before we left, Sark asked if I had my Bible to take along; it’s in storage. Then he gave me his hymnal, which was nice even though it’s in Oshiwambo. He also asked if I had money for the collection. I did.

The service included seven hymns and a few Bible readings and prayers. During the hymns and readings, Helena made sure I followed along in the books. I was pleased that I was able to do so, thanks to Willbedone’s language training. The minister and another woman each spoke for twenty minutes consecutively. All this was getting to be a long time sitting and listening to a language I don’t understand, but my time with the Thai Buddhists was good training. When the collection was taken, people walked to the front and put their donations in the baskets. After the collection, the choir sang for fifteen minutes, which was the highlight of the service for me, as it was beautiful. Helena instructed me to take a photo. The whole service lasted almost two hours. I made a point of telling everyone that I will not go every week, which Helena understood to mean that I would go only this one time, because I have my own church and I can’t understand what is being said in their church.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at school wrapping my textbooks, planning, and using the Internet for work and pleasure. This will be my main Sunday activity.

Monday morning Mrs. Reinhold announced that she “had to” visit my class. I thought it was a bit early for an official visit, but I guess she wants to know what I’m doing since I’m an unknown quantity. Starting at 11:00, students cleaned the grounds; so there were no classes the rest of the day. Mrs. Reinhold had told them to bring hoes and rakes for this purpose because the yard was very dirty with all the grass. (The litter from their snack bags wasn’t mentioned.) Their task was to dig up the grass—at least some of it. They enjoyed having photos taken while working—or not working. 

And, like young people their age in most places, they enjoyed clowning around for photos.

In the afternoon, Angel took me to town to meet Mrs. Reinhold to take care of my official paperwork. We also took my fan back. After several attempts, the woman at Customer Service pulled the “missing piece” out of the stand. I was embarrassed until she said that I wasn’t the only person who had brought the fan back. In the evening I put it together, and what a difference it made. We got my tax ID number, had copies  stamped at the police station, and delivered it to the regional office. Task accomplished. Mrs. Reinhold told me to keep the original copy of the tax ID number because it is my number and can be used if I return to Namibia to teach after leaving.

On the way to meet Mrs. Reinhold, Angel dropped off a container of millet to be threshed by machine, as it’s easier that way.

When I returned, the replacement refrigerator was sitting outside my room. They hadn’t told us that it would be delivered that day; so I hadn’t made any preparations. I decided to turn it on to make sure it worked better than the other one, which didn’t get cold. It did. On Tuesday, several grade 9 boys moved it into my bedroom. It didn’t take long to enjoy having cold water and being able to keep food properly cold easily. I will enjoy being able to have more vegetables—even frozen ones—on hand.

Wednesday afternoon my wardrobe, which had not been delivered with the other furniture prior to my arrival, was delivered. So I could finally unpack the clothes for this season and other items to put in the drawers instead of the suitcase. The room started to look and feel more like home.

I finally figured out my host’s name. People kept calling him a name I didn’t recognize, and I realized after time that the name he had originally told me was his full three names; so I asked Angel to help me sort this out. Once I learned the name he is called by everyone, Kamonga, I asked him about his name. He explained that Sart is his English name.

Saturday morning I went to town again. Sart had decided that he should go with me to show me places. Before leaving, he came to tell me that he didn’t have money and ask if I could pay for his transportation, which I had planned to do, but it was nice of him to ask in advance. He had the driver take us to the Shoprite mall, which I hadn’t yet been to. I purchased a small, rechargeable lantern so I have a littlelight in the room when Helena doesn’t turn on the lights until late and/or turns them off early. Having that bit of light makes a big difference. Also, it’s getting darker in the morning and I need a light. So I was happy to find this. Then I bought my groceries and a few other items at Shoprite, one of the big grocery stores in Namibia. I felt a bit self-conscious buying so much when Sart had no money; so I didn’t purchase many extras. As I finished, Sart asked me to purchase two newspapers for him. After Helena’s telling me to give her money for church the previous week, this didn’t sit well with me, as I felt like they always expect me to provide money when we are together. My compromise was to say I would pay for one newspaper in English so we could both read it. While I stopped at another store, he went off to do something for his job. Then we got a ride with one of his friends to the meeting place for getting a ride directly home. While we waited for the bakkie to leave, Sart went to a shop to chat with his friends. The wait was 50 minutes, which meant that my frozen vegetables thawed completely. Angel had shown me this meeting place, but, considering the long wait, I’m not sure it’s any faster than waiting to hike on the main road.

At home, Helena asked me if I had a gift for her. I didn’t. Later she came over and sat on the couch for a while. Rachel had told us that Namibians often just sit together and that chatting isn’t necessary. But her presence meant that I had to stop washing clothes to sit with her. After a while, she got up to leave, saying “No gift.” I don’t want her to be in the habit of expecting and asking for something from me every time I go to town. It’s awkward. Later, when Wilhelmina mentioned that her children would want a treat when she picked them up after being in town, I mentioned Helena’s wanting a “gift” as being the same behavior. She responded that it is not their custom, which I had wondered about.

Clouds were rolling in from the east as I finished washing clothes Saturday afternoon. The rain lasted only a short time, but the wind was fierce. I’ve been told by several people that early February is when the main rainy season starts. Coming soon.

For now, the skies have more brilliant, white clouds. 

And the clouds enhance the sunsets, resulting in more photos.

Sunrises have become a little later—6:40; so I see one every morning these days.

An excitement this week was realizing that, since the Internet connection is pretty good most of the time, I could download Downton Abbey again. Two episodes finished on Friday; so I had them for Saturday night entertainment. I think weekends will be long; so some entertainment will be good.