Divundu

So I've been doing more research on my future home, Divundu. According to the Lonely Planet, Divundu is only a town because there's a road junction there, and it's often mismarked on maps and even road signs as Bagani, which is an actual town 2km away. And, what my field director said about Rundu being the closest major town, accessible by a ride with a community member or a 75 cent taxi? It's actually about 120 miles away.

Right near there is the Bwabwata National Park, the Mahango Game Reserve and the Former West Caprivi Game Reserve. There seems to be a lot of camping in the area, so if any of you feel like roughing it Africa style, now's your chance!

Different topic: A week or two ago I started digitizing my music collection, i.e. ripping all of my CDs to my harddrive, with the plan of getting rid of them all. Then I had the idea that I could take a couple of stacks with me to give away as rewards in the classroom or gifts here and there. But after taking a look at the pictures from Divundu and asking my field director, I don't think that's going to work. Some people have cars with CD players in them, and the wealthier families might have a stereo at home, but for the most part it sounds like they aren't common. So this brings me to the question: what should I take for gifts/incentives? And, what the heck should I do with all these CDs? :-)

In travel news: This weekend I plopped down on the floor in a Borders and read more about Zambia, Zimbabwe, Madagascar and Mozambique. Ooohhh, my mouth was watering let me tell ya! The M's are my the big countries on my list...unfortunately the most direct route from Namibia is through Zimbabwe, which all official-sounding organizations are warning not to enter. We shall see about that. I figure I'll be able to sniff out the situation on the ground once I'm there. A backup is to just go back to S. Africa and over. This will all be after I'm done with my teaching of course.

Ok, back to Namibia and WorldTeach...I emailed the volunteer I'll be replacing on Friday with a ton of questions, the most pressing being on Internet access. I have yet to hear from him, so I'm taking that as a less good sign that I'll be very connected. Will update the blog when I hear something back.