Long weekend, a drive-through wedding, and some traditional tea (email from Amy)
Long weekend in Otjiwarongo
It was a fun weekend in Otjiwarongo last week. I did basically everything I needed to do and it was great seeing everyone. At one point there were 24 of us sleeping at Megan's place. She has two extra bedrooms and a living room, but it was still a little tight, with seven sleeping bags stretched out across the floor in the room I was sleeping in. I finally bought a sleeping bag, which will definitely make for warmer nights, but I had to borrow a sleeping pad from Matt P who has about 5 of them. We had a braai (barbecue) and we bought almost a whole oryx and 6 lbs of beef brisket for N$12 (less than US$2) per person. We also made braai bread, potato salad, French silk pie, and lettuce salad so we had plenty of food to eat. We watched a bunch of movies—High Fidelity (I've just started to enjoy some books by Nick Hornby, so it was even more interesting), Sliding Doors, a bunch of Adult Swim cartoons, and Holes (that was my contribution.) I traded some books with other volunteers, I bought a copy of National Geographic, and I got some music from my friend Mike—Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, U2, and a bunch of other hippie save-the-world kind of music.
Many letters
I mailed 55 letters asking companies for donations of books, magazines, and toys for the school and hostel, causing some of the other volunteers to label me a super volunteer which is funny since sometimes I feel intimidated by the quality of those same volunteers. I think we all feel like all of the other volunteers are better than we are sometimes. I sent the letters to book donation charities and to book publishers. I'm betting that I'll get a donation or a response from about 10% of publishers and from about 50% of charities which will mean 16 responses for the letters I sent.