November 28th

Letting the writing flow. The pent feelings that accumulate throughout the week want expression in my blog. So here it is and there will be no editing here – this is a free indirect discourse a stream of consciousness.
Yesterday my friend visited me, one of my best friends ever. I have known him for about 16 years. Together we baked this Bulgarian pumpkin pie – tikvenik . The pumpkin was sitting in a basked on our dinner table (where we never have dinner by the way, we eat on the kitchen table) for a while and I decided it was time to slaughter it. In Bulgarian tikva is pumpkim and I heard that in Hebrew it means hope. So hope it was, especially since Namibia went to the polls this past weekend to elect the president and the national assembly. My mother though likens the head of our incumbent and soon to be reelected president to a pumpkin. Ahem, that’s where the politics of this blog ends for now, besides, I would not want anyone to read this, Namibia is tiny. Oh yeah and I did not vote. No public debates, no innovative policies, no politician disclosing his or her HIV status for the sake of encouraging others to stay alive – no vote from Pancho.

My friend and I spoke about the young people in Namibia our age and how hard it is to relate to them. They are fixated on cellphones. My friend Willie Horn works at the central hospital, a stones throw from where I work at the ministry of health. During his lunchbreak, he and his friends, Elricious, another guy that dresses rather suave and a girl Celeste, sit on the benches outside and play with their cellphones. I just could not relate to that. I tried to strike up a conversation, but I struggled to express myself in Afrikaans. Of course they speak English. However, they speak to each other in Afrikaans and to partake in their exchange I felt I had to speak it. So I told them I was going to do a masters next year at the University of Namibia, in public health. “Nou wat is public health” Celeste het vir my gevraa. (What is public health, Celeste asked). I could not explain in Afrikaans what it was so I just said “epidemiology” but then she did not know what that was either. So I just muttered something about sickness and such and left it at that. She was sweet and wished me good luck.

Speaking with Chinonto, my good friend of 16 years in my room, I mentioned how one relates to these youths. With good humor Chinonto said “You just buy a cellphone with the latest application and you show it to them.” He chuckled and added “at first I also thought it was hard, but over time you just get used to it [mindlessly playing with the phone over lunch break]. Thank goodness me and Chinonto have each other. That way we provide ourselves with good, edifying company amidst all of this mind rotting. “It’s not that I feel better than them, it’s just that I am not like that” said Chinonto. I agree with this, but how can I still engage with them? Is there a point? I guess this is what happens when you access the best education and move around really interesting people. In any case, Lord please help them, I pray.
Help me to be able to approach them with love and kindess and humilty.
Help to reach out to my brother , so I can show him that there is way more possible apart from going out every night and texting friends. Help me mould his potential into action.