On Simple Pleasures

Enough about all these deep, depressing, philosophical things I have been writing about, time for some good clean fun. This weekend Carmen and I are in Opuwo, and it has been pretty nice. This is a home weekend for the learners. Most schools here are hostel schools, and this is an opportunity for learners to go home for a while (those who can pay for a hike at least). The town is a bit empty, though tourists have begun to creep in, together with honest-to-God fanny packs.

If you are not traveling or imbibing, there is not a lot to do here on the weekends. I have a lot of work, but during those moments when I decide to take a break, it's some serious down time. Yesterday Carmen and I got off school early, and watched a movie. We went running, made dinner, and read. We read some more, watched part of another movie, and went to bed early.

Today we got up, made a leisurely breakfast, and ambled over to my place. We met some friends along the way, and stopped to say hello. Everything is pretty slow here, especially on Saturday mornings. We went to my place and I did some clothes washing as we ate some oatmeal. Then Carmen and I went over to my school's library, which is in an old chemistry room (complete with sinks and gas outlets). I am helping to get the library up and running, as it is now just a pile of unused books. I have decided that if I accomplish one thing this year, I want to get a functioning library going, with some learners helping to make it better. There is a very random assortment of old textbooks, many UN publications, and the occasional gem like Grahm Greene, Shakespeare, and an amazing edition of Grapes of Wrath.

We worked on that for a couple hours, then grabbed some dinner ingredients at my place and headed back to Carmen's (she has a real kitchen). We then relaxed again, read more, and I sat down to watch Liverpool lose to Middlesborough. Awesome. Then we had some beef stew, and now we get to... well, relax again. Maybe we will go out, maybe not. It's raining off and on, but that cools it down, which is nice.

Random post, but I thought some people might like to hear about some of the silly litle things that are good here.