Cooking Lessons in Namibia

Monday night was the first time we had a cooking group cook the full meal deal.  I have learned the trick to loading pictures, so I will make a short blog posting before leaving up North.    

On Monday night, it was the second cooking group’s turn to make dinner—the first group had made the salads for our braai, but Willy, the maintenance man at Wadadee house did the cooking. Thehe group decided to have spaghetti, salad and garlic bread.  I forget that there are many students who don't know how to cook.  So Paula gave them guidance and even taught them how to chop and saute garlic and onions and carrots to add to the pre-made spaghetti sauce.  She talked to them about a slow sauté and how to lessen the sharpness of the onion flavor. The girls also made a big salad that included hard boiled eggs, olives, and chopped apples. 

We invited Scobie (Shaun’s cousing watching over the house while he is away on tour) and Felix, a NZ pilot who is a house guest here to join us.  Because of the evening rain, we had to eat inside, but brought a deck table so we had one long table.  The talk was lively and we had such a great feeling sharing a meal and conversation together.  There was teacher talk, but our true 1.5 hour debrief  about first day meetings and preparing for the first day of school happened later with Amarula and mint chocolate brownies (now that's a good way to hold a class!).

What the rest of the group gets to do while others are cooking

  While the cooking group were cleaning, the rest of the students ran/walked laps around the neighborhood and did lunges up the hill to the left of our house.  Paula and I, along with another house guest Felix, a pilot from NZ stood on the deck and cheered—felt like a Boston marathon viewing.  There were at least 14 kids from the neighborhood cheering them on and even racing with them.  That was an evening we  just felt so good about the arrangement and other opportunities here in Katutura for the students. The final stretch had all the kids cheering them last group of four as they raced up the hill.

I believe Suzy, our varsity track athlete won the race, but the neighbors are asking for a second race