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