first day of school

today the staff of otjituuo met to go over the schedule for the coming year -- since my predecessor, jarad, was not a teacher it means there has to be some shifting of classes and whatnot. right now it looks as though i will teach grade 6 english and maths, as well as some computer classes for adults. peace corps assigned me a "reduced teaching load" so that i might do outside work like fund raising for the community garden.
i am really happy that the internet is working -- yesterday when we tried it there was no sound when the modem tried to dial out, it scared me because we had had 2 modems get killed by lighting in omaruru and i wondered if this wasn't the cause. it turned out that the phone service to otjituuo is turned off during the holiday season and today the connection has been relatively fast.
i'm pretty well moved into my room at this point -- i've painted 3/4 of the room and decorated the walls with pictures and posters so it's definitely starting to feel like home. i'm also enjoying the speakers and shortwave as well as the all the kitchenware and my french press. peace corps namibia definitely deserves its reputation as posh corps...
i went on a run last night on the dirt road out to coblenz, it was beautiful, around 7:15pm and the sun was just starting to go down. i was running along ancient cattle posts that were originally set up by german farmers with boreholes along the way that mark off the km. i'm wondering if i can pull off the training to run in the swakopmund marathon later this year, if the weather holds up then it won't be a problem but there is a spot on the road that is flooded which might prove impassable if the rains get heavier.