Whew, this break has flown by. I’ve had a lot of free time, and no excuses on why I’ve been so delayed updating. Here I am.
The break started one week early due to Namibia’s presidential election. Namibia has had peaceful presidential elections since independence in 1990, voting every 5 years. It was cool to experience elections and campaigning in a foreign country, although there was not a very noticeable change in my small village. Since elections can be times of heightened tensions in any country, Peace Corps was proactive and cautious in terms of volunteer safety and security. For me, living at a polling site (as many secondary schools are), that meant I couldn’t stay at home during elections. Fortunately, since two other volunteers stay in my village, I only had to move 1km away with Jessi. It was basically a giant girl’s week with movies, puzzles, wine, and–of course–delectable food.
Jessi is my culinary soulmate. You put the two of us in the kitchen and magic happens. My specialty is doughs and carbs (duh); Jessi makes the best sauces and is queen of spice. Thanksgiving also fell the day after elections, so we went avant- grade but didn’t skimp on making the day special. In our free time we’re collaborating on a Zambezi Peace Corps cookbook and you’re always welcome at Chez Jess and Gab (ok we’ll have to work on the name). Pics of our election week menu follows!
One of my favorite days was our picnic in the bush. We packed BLTs, chips (aka French fries), cool drinks (soda), books, journals, and shitenge (cloth traditionally worn by women around the waist but has 101 other uses: picnic blanket, towel, blanket, shade protection, babushka, etc…)
We went just past the village to find some quiet shade under one of the many mopane trees that comprise much of the region’s flora. Unfortunately, our first two tree picks were terribly noisy. I thought we’d find serenity outside the village. Alas, I forgot it was cicada season. Cicadas and mopane go together like basmati and saffron or rye bread and sauerkraut. We’d walk under a tree and they’d be crying, screeching, making the most awful noises. It was so loud and piercing I’d have to cover my ears. Finally we found a tree of unidentified species, but clearly not mopane. The cicadas in this tree protested a bit, but left us in peace after some moments. Unbeknownst to us, they were actually planning their vengeance…
For a blissful few hours, we munched on our picnic, leisurely read, and I got some good journaling in. I remember the weather seemed so nice. It was a pretty hot day, but cloudy. I wrote about how every 5 minutes or so a cloud would pass and drizzle a bit of rain on us and it felt so nice on my face. So accommodating of the weather to finally provide some relief after such a hot October and November. I was feeling, well, thankful.
As we started to walk back after a cat nap, Jessi remembered a phenomenon called the Crying Tree. It’s a tree people go to because they believe it cries for their problems after listening to their wishes. That may be so but it’s not the tree crying: it’s actually full of cicadas that pee–yes as in urinate– on the well wishers.
Wait a second. We were under a tree with cicadas. For hours.
But wasn’t that rain…? It had to be rain. I mean, the clouds were a touch dark….
And then it dawned on us.
Our enjoyable mist–on our faces!– was cicada revenge. I’ve repressed the memory so I can’t be sure, but I might’ve even stuck my tongue out to enjoy the “precipitation”.
After some research, I had some slight consolation in Jessi’s assurance that the liquid is mainly tree sap and pee is a loose term… yeah, let’s go with that.
For now,
Cicadas: 1
Us: 0
Looking forward to more village shenanigans and updating with more recent ones soon! Hope your Thanksgiving was also spent in the company of good people and good food.
