hey, everybody.

i should have told you that gretchen had her baby. her name is cadence emily geyer, and she looks healthy from the pictures. it sounds like she's already sleeping through the night and being good.

also, i haven't done a good job of showing you pictures of my girlfriend. i don't have a lot of them, but the best one is probably to tell you that she's the girl on the right in: http://www.ofoto.com/PhotoView.jsp?Uc=zphsj51.nkko15h&Uy=o4jc3l&Upost_signin=BrowsePhotos.jsp%3fshowSlide%3dtrue&Ux=0&collid=51310030805&photoid=18411030805

school is fine. i seem to have given my grade eight class a mental block regarding density, which is a shame. i was trying to encourage them to formulate an explanation of it by themselves, and they seem to be kind of subconsciously unhappy with me for doing it. anyway, classes are going kind of ok.

ok, that's it for now. it doesn't look like i'll be to town for a few weeks, so i will type to you then.

yes. sorry. i waited until i was on the way out of town to try and update this before i went home. then, the internet wasn't available when i tried, and you all were left un-notified. again, my apologies.

the rest of the vacation was pretty ok. strange, too. i spent the last of it in windhoek (the capital city), put up in a hotel by the peace corps so they could do a mid-service medical check-up. it turns out, though, that the budget has been cut enough that the check-up consisted of a nurse checking my pulse, giving me a tb test (got a positive, which you'd expect from the fact that i've been inoculated, but you might not expect because the last time i tested negative), and going to see the dentist for a motivational speech. all good things.

pretty much, the highlight was going to some bar that was playing some kind of accordion sounding keyboard music and watching families dancing on the floor while the waitresses kept coming over to tell us that these shady women dressed like "business women" were interested in dancing with us.

there was also plenty of hanging out with other volunteers and visiting tourist trap restaraunts that serve "mexican" or "chinese."

the first week of school was good. the kids are excited about learning when they first come back to school, and we cleared up a lot of confusion. it helped that lessons could begin and end as needed -- we were short a teacher and teachers kind of ease into the work cycle. this week all the teachers are back, and seem to be attending classes. next week inspectors are coming, so i'll have some objective evaluation of my performance. i'll have to let you know how that turns out.

today i'm in town because people from the american embassy are visiting. dollar signs flash in people's eyes when they hear "embassy," so we were sent to gain the americans' trust via our common background and negotiate some assistance, cash preferred. it turns out they're here regarding setting up a "american corner" in the library that would have information for namibian students that want to study in america, information about our government's policies, and facilitate cultural exchange stuff. they do seem really ready to help us with whatever we need, so i will try to hit them up for some stuff that will help out around town and isn't too marketable.

yep, that's what's going on. thank you for your letters, emails, and other assistance. please tip your bartenders and waitresses. take care, jon