Sigh… as you can imagine, a lot has happened since I last posted an entry. Most of my time is spent with my Sunshine Kids of course, but I’ll try my best to recount the other highlights that went on in these past few weeks. Do check out my pics also because I’m even relying on them to help me recall what I’ve been up to. Haha yup, it sure has been a while. Whatevs… here goes…
So the endeavor to establish a music program at the Sunshine Kids centre continues. Poppy (the music teacher) has now requested that I also teach her how to play guitar and drums. Haha… thing is, I am no instrument maestro. A jack of all trades usually, but I know my limitations. Good thing for connections though, because I soon roped Dollar into the whole shebang as well. He has been taking guitar lessons, so I figure the centre would appreciate his newly attained guitar knowledge and skills. Dollar will primarily focus his time on a select few of the older Sunshine Kids. Things have been going stellar since Dollar stepped in to help. Poppy and the kids love him. Now, who shall I persuade to teach drums? Haha…
Side note: I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank Kim Chung for initiating and organizing a project back in Edmonton to help gather a bunch of books and other materials for my Sunshine Kids. She and a small group of people have pooled together their resources and funds to send a hefty package of resources over to the centre. On behalf of the Sunshine Kids, centre staff, and myself, I would like to thank you all for your generosity and time. Your kindness and compassion are much appreciated. Everyone at the centre is so grateful. They were ecstatic when they heard the good news. They wish God’s blessings upon you all. Thank you again for being such wonderful and considerate people. I am very honored to have friends like you.
On July 9th, I spent the day chilling with Rebecca Ponder, an ex-Mascato member who lives in South Africa now. For those who know Pamela Lowry who worked at MYO with Lex last year, Rebecca was Pam’s roommate and she used to teach at Hanganani. Pam was the one who introduced us to each other… over Facebook no less… haha. We thought it would be nice to meet up and chat about school related stuff, life and whatever. That day, we had lunch at The Village Café (I love the ambiance of that place!) and ate dessert at the Lightkeeper’s Cottage Gallery & Tea Garden. Hectic name eh? Well, I’ve never been to the latter, so Rebecca was kind enough to enlighten me. The tea garden also had a very nice atmosphere. The tables were situated outside where we could enjoy the nice weather and watch various birds fly/waddle by our feet. The restaurant even had a den in the back with even more birds and two tortoises. Cool! Besides that, the lemon meringue I had was absolutely delectable… probably the best I had ever! I will definitely visit this place again.
On July 11th, Scott, Nigel, Joel & I made a daytrip out to Spitzkoppe (aka Pointy Head). Ooowee… what I can recall from that day was the heat, strenuous walks and climbs, breathtaking scenery, annoying flies that buzzed around our sweaty heads, prickly bushes, a nice picnic underneath the natural bridge of rock, street side merchants selling whatever they can to make a buck (mostly gems & minerals which are abundant in the area), and children running up to our cars for candy. It was quite the full day, lemme tell ya. Scoot was the trooper who drove us three sleepy heads safely back to Swakop. Check out my recent pics to get a fuller depiction.
My my, later on that evening, Richie from Mascato was hosting an African Music Choir Concert in the Atlantic School gymnasium. A bunch of local choirs came together to celebrate the music community here in Swakopmund and Walvis Bay. The show was also a tribute to Mrs. Venter who has made an especially significant impact to the choirmunity. She seemed to have started it all actually because the Mascato singers whom she has nurtured and developed over the years are now branching out beyond the Mascato Coastal Youth choir to foster choirs of their own. The circle of life? The cultivation and celebration of music. Scoot was also invited to present awards to the various choirs and Joel was asked to be the emcee. Haha… and guess who got roped in to being an impromptu co-emcee? Of course it was yours truly… MOI! Crazy nuts! I was initially reluctant to do it, but Joel gave me one of his wide-eyed “HELP ME” looks and I couldn’t say no. Haha… but imagine having climbed and sweated all over Spitzkoppe that afternoon and suddenly roll onto a stage and try to look presentable. Bleh! I didn’t have a change of clothes for the event, so I made a quick run for it to Mr. Price to find something decent to wear. Welps, the whole event was a hoot really. Quite informal and disorganized but Joel & I kept going with the flow and doing things like it did (please refer to a nearby Ebonics phrasebook). Joel & I were probably two of the most hammiest emcees ever, but I think the crowd liked us. Everyone seemed to have fun and enjoy each other’s company. Joel probably posted an even more detailed and descriptive entry about this particular event, so check out his post too ‘cause I’m moving on…
'Twas also on this day when we visited Mrs. Venter to see how she was fairing. Her beloved Belka, her German Sheppard of 13 years passed away recently. I can see that she was still very disheartened about the whole thing, but she is coping gradually. To the precious Belka, you will be missed dearly.
Aight! So some day last week, Engelhardt invited Joel & I to teach his students a line dance. Being as Canadian as we are, we naturally chose to teach them The Cadillac Ranch… YEEHAW! Apparently, Lex also taught the dance to some of these kids when she was here last year, but most of those kids looked like they needed a refresher, so we boogied ahead with the plan. The kids had a blast pretending to be cowboys and cowgirls, yeehawing here and there. The dance posed just the right amount of challenge to peak their interests and keep them on their toes. Due to the repetitive nature of a line dance, everyone eventually caught on to the moves. Another successful venture of mine and Joel’s it seemed! WOOT! Ooo… and kudos to Joel and Scoot for trying kepana for the very first time that day as well! Yep, ‘twas Fire Bar kepana again… the best in town!
July 18th. The three Swakop bachelors (aka Scott, Nigel, and Joel) have composed a to-do list of things that they would like to accomplish while being here on holiday. Today, I thought it would be nice to join them in doing a couple of the activities on that list. Scoot picked me up in Walvis Bay because he had some errands to do there. Then we headed to Swakop together. Scoot had to take Squeaky Sam in for an oil change, so after dropping it off at the service station, we decided to walk to all of our destinations. Good idea ‘cause I definitely needed the exercise. Ick… I’ve been feeling kinda blobby lately, what with my frequent consumption of bread, butter, full cream milk, Mammie’s cookies, and kepana. Not the best of diets, I say.
Anyway, our first stop was Snake Park, which wasn’t really a park. It was more like a small pet shop containing about 25 species of Namibian reptiles. Amongst these reptiles were the deathly dangerous Zebra snake and Black Mamba, and geckos and scorpions. One of the two pythons there was named Piggy. One could get a picture taken with Piggy for N$20. That was only about $3 Canadian, but none of us four were brave enough to let the python wrap itself around our torsos. I was more than happy to stand on the side and watch another lady get constricted. Yup!
We next stopped at The Village Café to grab a quick lunch. It’s becoming quite the ritual amongst us Canadians. Then we strolled down to the beach and towards the aquarium for our final activity of the day before choir practice. The aquarium was bigger than I had expected. There were a decent number of fish, sharks, and water life on display. My favorite creatures were the two huge turtles. On the second floor, we got to oversee and look into the main tank and watch the turtles come up for breath. Several times, one of them would pop up right in front of us. I got to touch one turtle’s big flipper! Heehee… not as gross as I thought it might’ve been, sorta like grabbing hold of one of those floating boards they have at swimming pools… firm and not slimy. Anyway, after the aquarium the four of us hung out on the beach for a while. The waves were awesome to watch. I eventually got my pant legs soaked by a big wave, so I thought what the heck, why not get even more soaked and have some fun, right!! So the other three just watched as I ran around making a goof out of myself. Haha… good times.
Later that evening, there was a Mascato rehearsal for the musical. This time everyone met up to do a run through of the entire musical for the first time. It was so cool to see all the individual puzzle pieces come together. I think everyone is beginning to see the big picture. That being said, their first practice went pretty well. It’s going to be a gooder, this one! Bank Windhoek is investing a lot of money, time and effort in this spectacle. Aldo Berons, the director, has been raving about the costumes as well. oOooo… can’t wait to see the finished products! Mascato has never done something of this magnitude before. Did I already mention how sucky it is that I’ll be missing the official show?!! Aiyah… they better record it for me!
Skipping ahead several days to present time now… phew, quite the catch-up post so far… I hope y’all are still with me. Haha…
Yesterday was a pretty chill Sunday. Garth and I rented “The Man” (featuring Eugene Levy & Samuel L. Jackson) and “Ice Age 2” to occupy our afternoon. Both movies were good choices. Haha… “The Man” was especially hilair. I love Eugene Levy’s acting! His facial expressions would crack anyone up! Later in the day, Garth and I went for a stroll on the beach to catch the sunset. With the weather being so nice and warm, it was just what we needed. Then we went to the evening church service. Besides the message being in Afrikaans, my first impression of the church was a good. And guess who I bumped into?? Jan, the guy who gave me a lift from my hitchhiking expedition! Crazy pants… he’s the sound guy for the worship team. Haha… small town, I guess.
This church provides a lot of outreach programs and ministries. One project that particularly peaked my interest was the JCK Project. The project’s mission is to serve food to the children in the Quisebmund community during the week. The organizers told me that they serve an average of 150-200 kids a day. This project is actually nationwide and has support and sponsorship from local businesses and donors who provide and fund the meals. The project even receives goods from the United States apparently. Wow… good to hear that it is well supported.
I went to visit the spot where they serve the food this afternoon. Wow… all the happenings occur within and around one long container… like a narrow portable classroom. No electricity, no water. Sophie, the young lady who cooks the food, arrives at the container at 10am every morning to prepare everything. She uses portable gas tanks to cook the food. At that time, there are usually 10 or so toddlers hanging out with her until lunchtime. She feeds them nutritional cereal while they wait. 1pm, the rest of the children arrive, wash and dry their individual plastic buckets and spoons, and wait for the food. 1:30pm, about 4-5 school boys come to help Sophie out. They all get busy in the container, dishing up for everyone. The kids eat outside. It’s important to keep an eye out for the older kids who sometimes steal the younger children’s food. See, the meal they eat here is usually the only one they get for the whole day. It’s quite unfortunate because most of these children are obviously malnourished, with swollen stomachs and skinny limbs. Children aren’t allowed to take food home as well, because their parents will eat it and leave them hungry. Sadly these grown ups are illiterate and can’t speak English or Afrikaans which means they will never be able to find jobs for themselves. They typically rely on fishing to survive.
I am so thankful that I found out about this project because I was yearning to do more in my day-to-day life. The slow pace of life here was starting to get to me. Being the busy person that I am, I can’t stay idle for too long without getting antsy. This is a worthy project to invest my time in and I am honored to be able to serve the needy Quisebmund community.
In other new news, Scott is in Copenhagen with Katy & Bruce right now. The three of them are participating in the World Symposium on Choral Music. Man oh man, those lucky ducks! I loved Scandinavia when I went with Kokopelli back in 2002. Sigh… I most definitely plan to revisit those countries someday.
Joel & Nigel are also away currently. They went on a camping road trip up to Etosha National Park for a few days. Pretty sweet, eh!
As for me, I’m stuck in Walvis Bay for another week and then… the whole gaggle of us Canadians (plus Dollar) are heading down to South Africa!!! WEEEEE! I am looking forward to the change of scenery and activities fo’ sho! I can’t wait to see all the Siyacula peeps again as well! And so the countdown begins…
Welps, congrats on getting through another catch-up blog post of mine. I hope it wasn’t too all over the place for y’all. Til next time… PEACE, JOY & LOVE to all back home! =D
Check out my newest photo albums:
Day to Day Stuff
Spitzkoppe & Emcee-a-thon
Une Mélange de Photos
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