Windhoek last week (email from Amy)

Well, in a 7 and half hour hike down on Friday and a 12 and a half hour hike back on Sunday, I managed to get my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Which I love, by the way. I managed to restrain myself and didn't finish until Monday. I'm reading through it again because I was not reading particularly carefully the first time.)

I was particularly nervous about the 12 and a half hour hike back. I left Jason's house, packed, showered, and ready to go at about 7:30 AM and I didn't get back to my house until 8 at night. I had forgotten that hiking from Anker is sort of like traveling a river- on the way to Windhoek it is easy to get hikes, like going downstream, but trying to get back is like trying to swim against the current- it can be harrowing and exhausting, and it takes a lot longer.

I managed to do a few other fun things while I was in Windhoek. I had bottomless coffee at Mugg and Bean (I think that Peace Corps volunteers are the only ones they don't get their money's worth on that one, we are sort of broke so we can't pass up another free cup, and when we're in Windhoek we often have enough time to spend an entire afternoon there. I told another volunteer that I was measuring out my life in coffee spoons but they didn't get it (it's a reference to T.S. Eliot) I have to get some better jokes.) I also went out to dinner a couple of times. I saw a movie at the movie theatre there (Harry Potter 5), I went shopping, I got the photos for my school, and I got as many groceries as I could carry. Still, the main reason I was there was for the book and I'm very glad I went. Hope you all are doing fine.