"I just want to know your footprints."

The animals among us
Tuesday, 5 October, 2010

Yesterday in our morning staff briefing, the principal “addressed” the fact that the wives of two of the male teachers fought each other, so the men have to “take control” or their wives and “be commanders” of their homes. I almost walked out. He noticed some of the female teachers weren’t so happy with those comments, so he tried to correct himself by saying “some women are also commanders, but they can’t be in this culture.” Great. So glad I’m here.

Today I am glad I’m here. NO SCHOOL!! International Teacher’s Day. Didn’t know it existed until I taught in Namibia, so I’m not sure how international it is, but I’ll take it! I made plans with Muwara Betholda Kashivi from 7A to pound in the morning.

Kashivi came to get me before 8am. I was ready, but I was also hoping to get a few things done at home before she came. It was earlier than I expected. I was briefed on who she stays with – her mother, but she had gone to the hospital in the morning, her younger sisters. That’s it. Somehow there are always more people kids stay with who they don’t mention.

Lala from grade 8 was there. Kunyanda from grade 10 was there. (I didn’t know the name for Kunyanda, so when I asked, she told me, “Applonia, but Kunyanda is the easy one.” And after 2 years, Kunyanda IS the easy one.) It was the 4 of us who pounded. With a few brief visits from passing neighbors. I pounded in the same kakundhu with Lala and I asked her early on, “Is it hard to pound with me because I’m slow?” She told me yes. I tried to be faster.

Later on, after about an hour of work, she told me, “Madam, you’re good. You are knowing!” I guess I just needed to warm up my muscles.

Kunyanda was the most talkative, and the one I knew the least. She’s writing her national exams now in school so I asked about those. We talked about the learners who got pregnant this year, too many.

When we were finished with the pounding, the grandmother and great grandmother for Kashivi came and greeted me. They didn’t believe that I had actually pounded, so I showed them the video Kunyanda had taken of me pounding with Lala. They, separately, each looked as if they would have a heart attack – huge eyes, a sudden intake of breath and their hands to their mouths. They couldn’t believe that a mukuwa had come to their home and pounded, and they’d missed it!

I sat with the three young girls and we watched the drama of the drunks about 50 meters away at another of their homes.

Chickens made their way over to the 2 kakundhu we’d used with the mehangu on the ground that had flown out while we pounded. They were enjoying the mess we’d made. And Kunyanda started explaining to me why all of the animals behave the way they do.

Chickens. Long back, chickens only lived in the forests. And guinea fowl lived at homes. When the chickens came to the home, they learned that the fuinea fowl had lost the needle for sewing, so they started looking for it in the sand. They scratch in the sand always looking for the needle and they’ll keep searching until they find it.

Hippos. Long back, hippo and fire were friends. Hippo told fire that hippo wanted to visit his friend at their home. So hippo left the river to go and visit fire. But fire burned hippo and that’s why his skin looks the way it does. Then fire wanted to go and visit hippo at his home in the river. So fire went to the river, but he couldn’t go in the river to visit. So that’s why hippo comes out of the river at night, to visit his friend, fire.

I knew a different story about hippo. When the animals were being made, then hippo was told he had to live on land. But hippo wanted to live in the water. He wasn’t allowed to live in the water because he would eat all of the fish with his big mouth. So he promised that no, he’d only eat the plants, and to prove that he’s keeping his word, he’ll come out of the water at night to spread his dung for all to see that there are no fish bones.

Dog, donkey, cow and goat. One time, the four animals went to Rundu together. They stood at the road and hiked a car. When they got to Rundu, goat didn’t have any money. But the other three paid too much and they needed change from the driver. The driver went to get their change, but he never came back. Even in the afternoon, to come back home, the animals all had to foot to get there. They waited at the road back at home for the driver to come. So now, every time a car comes, the dog will chase the car looking for his change and donkey and cow will stand in the road waiting for their change trying to stop the car and goat will run away from the car because he never paid.

Dog and cat. Long back, dog and cat got married. Cat took dog to her home. She told dog that he had to wear his best clothes and act his best because she didn’t want to feel shame. So he put on his nicest clothes and they went to the home for cat. But at her home, when their was food, there was a bone for a chicken that fell on the ground and the dog quickly picked up the bone from the one who had dropped it and cat felt shame because of this. So when they left again, cat told dog that he had shamed her and she was leaving him and that he will always go after the single chicken bone that falls on the ground and he will always be alone. That’s why when cat and dog now see each other, they just fight.

Fish. Long back, fish lived on land. But they told too many stories, and not good stories, but rumors. So all of the animals got together and the headman, the elephant, decided that they had to cut out the tongue for the fish and throw the fish in the water because they talked too much. So now fish only live in the water.

Dog and chicken. Long back, dog and chicken went to the headman in their village because they wanted to also eat from a plate like people. The place for the headman was far, so when they got there and told him the problem, they had to sleep there and go back in the morning. The headman promised that they would get plates. So when food was served, they ate from plates that night. Then to sleep, chicken got a house and dog got a house. But in the morning, the headman found chicken in the bed and there were feces on the bed, chicken had defecated on the bed! And dog was not in his house, he was sleeping in the cooking area on the ground! The headman told chicken that he couldn’t eat from plates because he defecates on the bed and he had to sleep in the trees so he doesn’t defecate in the bed anymore and he told dog can’t eat from plates because he sleeps in the cooking area. So that’s why chickens sleep in trees and dogs still sleep in the cooking area.

I just want to know your footprints
Thursday, 7 October, 2010

After school, Nicky came over. At break, she’d come to me and asked for money to cut her hair now now now. Segunda was cutting, so I told her to tell him to come get his money from me for that in the afternoon. We took the money – all 5 and 10 cent coins to make 5 dollars – and sat outside. She sewed the strap back onto her school bag, I asked what size skirt she wears so I can get her a new uniform before I go, we laughed about insignificant things that we somehow both find amusing.

“Let me see your mahutu,” Nicky knows I always have blisters after pounding.

I showed her how much better they are after opening randomly and then pounding again to begin turning them into callouses. She showed me her blister from pounding!

“Let’s go pound,” by far my favorite thing to do.

“Where?”

“At your house.”

“We’ll pound on Sunday. After church.”

“OK, I’ll try to get back in time to come and pound with you. After the 9 o’clock church?”

“Ghii.”

At some point we went inside and started playing Set. I didn’t really mean to and I thought she’d lose interest as fast as usual. But once I slowed down and gave her clues about where to find them, she kept going about twice as long as usual. In the middle of one of the games, I asked her, “Nicky, am I getting fatter?”

During periods 7 and 8 in the staff room, I found myself in a conversation with Mr Shangara and Ms Ndunda about how it’s an insult to tell a white person she’s fat, and Ms Ndunda making the indirect argument that it’s an insult to tell any woman she’s fat.

Nicky laughed and looked down, avoiding my gaze, telling me what I already knew. She took a step back, checked my arms and butt and said, “Ghii. Kudya thikuma!” Yes, you eat too much!

“I know. From now on, I’ll just stop eating,” as I patted my stomach.

“But your stomach is too small. And your food will become rotten.”

“And that’s why I eat too much. I have to stop cooking on the weekends to prepare for the week and only cook when I’m going to eat it.”

She checked out my arms again. “But Nicky, they’re muscles!” as I flexed for her.

She tested their strength and then tried her own. I touched what would be muscles and exclaimed, “How do you pound with those?! There’s nothing there!”

More laughter ensued and her curiosity about how I have more muscles than she does when I’m just a lazy white person.

I invited her to dinner, “Long time to eat together, do you want to eat here tonight?”

“But I have to be home at 7 because I don’t want to miss Timeless.” The soapy that’s just started. It was already 6 so that dinner date will have to wait until at least Sunday.

“Madam, where’s your…your…” My iPod is what she wanted and I told her where it was, or suggested we put music on the computer. I went to the computer to turn it on and remembered that I had new photos of Miles, from her request, that I hadn’t shown her yet. We looked at them and agreed he’s a good baby. She’s more interested in Miles than anyone else in my life, and more interested in him than anyone else is here. It’s very endearing. Her love for my family is just as big as it is for me.

“Madam, let me borrow your colored pencils and I’ll bring them back on Monday.”

“You can keep them.” A look of stunned silence.

“What?”

“You can keep them.”

“Thank you very big,” in a shier than usual voice.

“You’re welcome very big.”

I put an Akon song on my iPod for her and we walked home. I almost walked out of the house without my sandals and she reminded me, but I refused. Shoes, any kind, are just too hot in this weather. So once again, she wore shoes and I walked through the village barefoot.

As we left my house, my neighbor said to me, “But don’t you have an chicken spice?”

“No, sorry, I don’t cook chicken so I don’t have the spice.”

“No, it’s no problem.”

Nicky and I left. That was the second person today who started a conversation with, “But don’t you have…” The other was a teacher at school who wanted money. I don’t know how much it started out at, but eventually after telling her I didn’t have any money, she only wanted N$50. Still, no. Those are the most common conversations I have, most people will only approach me for a conversation if they’re requiring some tangible thing from me.

Nicky and I were leaving through my gate when I said to her, “Nicky, remember when you asked me, ‘But madam, why do you love me so much?’”

“Ghii…”

“I love you so much because you hang out with me without demanding anything. You never say to me, ‘But aren’t you having…’ I’m your friend not because I have things but because you actually know me and like me. Some people only talk to me when they want something, but you, you’ll always talk to me.”

When we reached the deeper sand, she slowed and walked behind me. I thought maybe she was going to walk in my footsteps, so I started taking big steps and hopping on one foot to make it harder.

“No, just go. I just want to know your footsteps.”

Every time I leave my house and I expect her to come visit but I just need to be alone, I wonder if she’ll follow my Chaco prints to wherever I might be. So far, no.

We got to a turn in the path. “When I come to your house, I have to stand here to see if your door is open or closed.”

“And if it’s closed? You go and visit Seglinde?”

“No, I go back home.”

“Why did Kambango move to a different group in your class?”

“What symbol did she get in math?”

“I forget, maybe A or B.”

“No, between B and C. Because every time she was doing the math, she would have to help Seglinde. Seglinde would say, ‘What can I put here? What can I put here?’ and Kambango got sick and tired of it and moved.”

We saw the marathon runners finishing their training. They go in just one week! Nicky’s sister, Kunyima is going, and will see Swakopmund for the first time just a little while after Nicky saw it for the first time.

“I told Kunyima when she goes to Swakopmund, it will be cold cold cold!”

“Even me, I told them, ‘It will be cold in Swakopmund. You can forget everything else, but bring a jersey and a blanket!’”

“When you bathe there, in the sea, then all the sand gets in your pants!”

Hysterics followed, but thinking back, I have no idea why it was so funny. She proceeded to tell me that at the tour, her friends bought her swimming shorts and after swimming in the sea in them, she washed them and put them to dry and the next day they were gone! She had thought that she could swim in them in dipupo, but someone stole them!

Oh Nicky, how you’ll never know how important you are to me.