Rain, Rain Go Away

Term 1 is over!! That means I am roughly 1/3 of the way through the year already. March has turned out to be a very trying and busy month. I apologize for not updating as frequently as I would have liked.
Before we left for Namibia, we were warned. We were warned that Namibia would be in the middle of its rainy season. At home, April is our rainy season and as the saying goes, “April showers bring May flowers.” Not in Namibia. Showers here bring nationwide school closings, drownings, and malaria. I have never seen so much rain in my life. Namibia has had its largest rainfall in its recorded history. There are 400 cases of malaria in my region, Omusati, alone. Other volunteers have been on “holiday” for over a month now because the health of the learners were in danger. Their “rain” days are equivalent to our snow days. In some areas, primary school children on their way to school were walking in water over their heads and sadly there were a number of them who drowned. My school, fortunately, is a hostel school so the majority of our learners live on campus. The ones who do not were devastatingly affected. Many houses filled from roof to ceiling with water and were no longer livable. Haudano decided to bring the day learners to live in the hostels. Some rooms were over capacity by 4 people when the rooms already fit 12 people in bunk beds. Haudano is the only school in Okalongo that stayed open after the floods. There were days when I had to stop class because the rain was pounding on the tin roof and my learners could not hear me over the noise. There was a week period when I had a moat around my house. I had to roll up my pants and carry my shoes in my hands in order to walk out my front door. The Omusati Circuit Inspector visited schools in our area to inspect the seriousness of the water and she had to travel around in a motor boat. That is how much water we have gotten. Every other day I did not have power. The internet and cell phone service was often periodically down. It is insane to see what nature can do to this country. Roads and complete villages are completely washed away. People camp in cheap tents bought in China shops along the sides of the roads. There are new lakes or oshanas every couple of miles. The local people have taken advantage of the new abundance of fish that have now shown up in the waters. They stand on the side of the road selling “bubble fish,” a bundle of about 20 fish for 10 Namibian dollars. Everyone swims in the new oshanas to cool themselves down during the heat of the day. I do not swim in them though because there are parasites that burrow in ears and feet. I find irony in the fact that I am too stubborn to use an umbrella. My colleagues enjoy it because they think it’s funny that my hair can withstand the rain. They shelter their hair with wraps and umbrellas because I am told if it gets wet it will smell bad. One good thing about the rain is that the temperature significantly drops. The days it rains, the nights are much cooler and I sleep significantly better. Namibia has reached the end of its rainy season although we do get a random shower here and there. It is exciting to see that Namibia has finally made international news; it does not happen often. All in all, I have finally learned the full extent of what it means that “Namibia is experiencing its rainy season.”