crazy dayz

Wow. A lot has happened here in the past 2 days! Good, bad and everything in between!
Friday continued nicely... I got home from the Internet café to find Theo and his wife, Tanya there. They had brought their brand new baby along... Not a brand new baby but brand new to them! They just adopted an 18 month old boy named Valentino. He is SO cute and smiley and curious. They stayed and had lunch with us and then it was time for me to head to MYO.

I saw two of Pam’s music classes, the grade 4’s and then the grade 5’s. They both learned the Adiemus dance. It was awesome! They were picking it up really quickly...it’s going to look really cute!

Afterwards Pam and I went shopping for the potjiekos we were having the next day. I still had no idea how many people where coming and how much food we should get. Luckily we met an Afrikaner in the grocery store and she helped us out a bit. Haha
We got TONS of veggies and meat!

We headed back to her house then to prepare the salads and cut up all the veggies for the potjiekos so the next day we would be able to do everything really fast. It was just after 6:30 by the time I left her house. I walked home and got there around 6:45. I figured Mrs.Venter had probably eaten by then so I thought I would just have some soup or something for myself. (I usually always make supper for both of us)
But it was a little weird when I got home because she wasn’t there...but I checked in the garage and her car was still there. Anytime she’s gone her car is gone too, so I thought that was a little odd. I decided to eat though thinking she was maybe just talking to a neighbour or something in the complex. I was going to Lex’s after to get my hair done by Tiro and Sandra but I didn’t want to leave without telling Mrs.Venter because I figured I wouldn’t be back until really late.
She still wasn’t back to I phoned her cell phone to see if I could get a hold of her. She answers and says “Oh sorry to make you worry Jen, I’m just in the hospital”.
“WHAT???” I instantly panicked because she had been feeling ill the day before a bit (like a fever or flu or something...we weren’t sure..)
Apparently she had internal bleeding. Her daughter came to drive her to the hospital.
Now, this sounds worse than it is...I got a call from her the next morning. She said the bleeding was caused from an ulcer. (They did a gasto-whatever to her in the morning...where they stick a camera into your stomach)
So, she had to stay in the hospital all yesterday getting blood transfusions. She’s still there today but phoned this morning to say she’s doing much better but just has to stay for observations till 5pm.
That was quite the scare though... of course being Mrs.Venter she didn’t want anyone else to know or worry about her. She didn’t even want me to tell Mascato! But after I heard everything was fine I told them anyways...

Which brings me to rehearsal – I ran it all by myself yesterday. Mrs.Venter felt so bad and kept apologizing for not being at my last rehearsal! She’s crazy! I told her a million times not to worry and I’d be fine! I’d much rather see her get better and take care of herself!
Rehearsal was really fun though!! I told them right at the beginning that it was my last rehearsal and gave them a little speech about my time here. I told them that I wanted to give them all presents or take them back to Canada or something just to show them how much I love them all but I decided on a potjiekos instead. They were SO excited to get over there after rehearsal. So we ran through the stuff that they needed to do for this dinner in the dunes coming up. We were going to finish at 5 and then head over to Pams for the party but it was only 4 and I had basically done everything we needed to do! So people just started requesting songs like Sanctuary and Baba Yetu and Shed A Little Light. It was really fun! We sang a bunch of traditionals and basically got the party started there.
So I finally decided why don’t we just move it over to Pam’s and then we could at least start cooking and stuff.
EVERYONE came!! I couldn’t believe it! I was sure a few people would leave but everyone in choir came! It was SO much fun!!

Those crazy Namibians really know how to party. There was literally dancing going on wall to wall in Pam’s house! Straight through the kitchen to the living room and right outside! Ernet was incredible and basically took over making the potjiekos for us! She said she makes them all the time and gave us tips and stuff for how to do it. I was really worried about having enough food since there were about 40 people there. We decided instead of doing like a buffet line that we would serve everyone instead! It worked out PERFECT! The last person had just as much as the first and then all the bowls were completely empty! We had a green salad, a pasta/tuna salad, baked beans, maize and potjiekos. It was incredible! Everyone loved it and had a great time.
After the dinner they put on a little show for me. Some of them made up song, they also changed the lyrics to Sweet Spirit (“We’re so sad that Jen is leaving” instead of doom vap va) and sang Hard Goodbye. I got a bunch of speeches and a few presents from people. I was presented from Mascato as a whole with a Springbok skin and a springbok pillow. It was so great. They really now how to make someone feel appreciated and missed.
We finished off with a little dance party and some more singing of traditionals.
After things started winding down and almost everyone left we had a nice little chill out time in Pams room. I had bought wine and beer for some of the older people and also people not in choir (Fonie and Shannon)
We headed out to Fagins and Grunie’s after which is probably going to be my last time there too! Crazy! I had only gotten about 3 hours of sleep the night before so I was started to fade pretty fast. I think I lasted till about 1 and then decided I needed to go home to bed!
It was a fantastic evening! I loved it!

This morning I had Pam, Lex and Ellen over for pancakes. REAL pancakes! Not the little crepes that they call pancakes in Namibia! It was so great to have them! Lex brought over her maple spread. Mmmm it was so yummy!

I kind of feel like I’m going to pass out now though from tiredness! I think I’ll go have a nap! My last lazy Sunday! I’ll miss these!!