Beautiful, hilarious, chaos

I am sick. I have been sick for 10 days and I missed attending school last week. I decided to get on the bus to Rundu anyway because I thought it would be restful to be in my own home, my permanent home, with only Matias. While at the bus stop in Okahandja, a man insisted that we are going to Angola and showed us his pornagraphic camera roll. Eight hours go by. My counterpart picks us up at 1am Saturday morning from the bus stop in Rundu even though he’s been waiting since 11 and takes us home to the school housing in Kayengona in 15 minutes. There is one table, two chairs, and a bed. 4 big plates, 3 small ones, 4 spoons, 4 cups that say flower flower flower flower and have a flower, and 2 bowls. The stove isn’t connected but it’s there. The refrigerator is not plugged in and it’s in our room. There are two rooms. One for us and one for.. maybe a cat. Maybe a chicken. There was a chicken in the office at my school midday Monday. A woman from the village just wanted to sell it but my colleagues said 100 dollars for a chicken is crazy. But it’s a big chicken. No it’s not, it’s a normal size chicken. I had a nightmare that Matias went on a chicken killing rampage and we got divorced. On Sunday there was a knock at the door at 8am from Mr. John saying we are going to church. Okay I said. We go to church with Mr. John 20 minutes late but it’s okay because “African time” and we introduce ourselves in front of the whole church but we can’t really because I keep coughing and we’ve been learning Rukwangali and people mostly speak Rumanyo. The priest says we are husband and wife. Damn we really need to get those fake rings. A moth flies into the church and lands on the floor to sit for a while. I’m feeling anxious and existential so I think about the metaphorical implications of moth death in the eyes of God and then it flies closer. It flies under my chair and up my skirt. People are singing to welcome us and I shimmy along trying to get the moth out of my skirt. About 20 minutes later Mr. John says he saw it fly out. I never saw it leave, but I saw it on the ceiling a bit after that. The queen is there. Nobody comes up to us after the catholic service but we say hi to the queen and its chill. Today I was teaching math, oh yeah I guess I am not a science teacher but a grade 9 math teacher and that’s fine. The head of department wanted me to teach his classes because he’s running in the upcoming election. I am teaching a lesson on the cartesian plane when my counterpart walks in. We are late for properly meeting the hompa (queen). Okay I say so I leave in the middle of my lesson and leave for my next class as well and there is a truck outside waiting for me. Inside is Matias. We go to the royal court and then to a royal meeting room at the palace and sit and wait. We should have brought something to offer the queen according to my counterpart. We rise to greet the hompa and she is impressed by Matias’ Rumanyo he doesn’t speak but I guess it’s similar enough to Rukwangali and we leave with 6 sodas, some are cold. I miss the cold. It’s about 100 degrees fahrenheit and this little house gets SO hot. Sunday morning I woke up in a sweat at 7am because the adapter plug for the fan we made sure to bring couldn’t fit in the wall because it was too long horizontally. I also woke up hungry because we didn’t have food so I called my counterpart about shopping and he said he called a taxi and to be ready in 2 minutes. I go to brush my teeth and come back to my phone and my counterpart says the taxi driver left because he waited too long. He said he’s on the way. We head to Rundu and I say I am interested in going to culture cafe. Okay he says and drops us off at a very nice hotel by the river with peacocks. Peacock here, peacock there, congo grey parrot in a cage? Lots of peacocks on a playground and in an empty swimming pool. Maybe he thought I said vulture cafe? We eat and the housing director calls and says he’ll be there in 2 minutes. There he is. He asks if there is anything wrong with the house besides the obvious needs like tiling the shower, painting the doors, and plugging in the appliances. No, I said. That night on Saturday I am rinsing my feet in the shower and I go to turn off the water and zap. An electric shock through my arm and chest. I am scared and Matias says I am alive so we forget for a few hours until Matias goes to shower and electrons have a party inside him. They were having so much fun, they didn’t want to leave! Everything metal Matias touched that night caused him to get electrocuted again. Even though the housing director ensures us he cut power to the geyser, we opt to bucket bathe. It saves water for the garden anyway. After the whole school sang to me at Monday assembly for 30 minutes, I was shown a tour of the school garden which is the #1 national prize winning garden in Namibia. They use Moringa tree leaves to add nutrition to the learner’s meals. It’s run by volunteers in the village and they sell a variety of fruits and veggies. They use all natural and home made pest killers. I hope to someday help expand the garden and help take care of it.