Off Day
One of the things I like most about my office is that when I arrive at 8am, or thereabouts, the two people I share my space with are sitting and reading the paper. I usually join them.
I get my daily Namibian from the guy who stands at the traffic lights at the bottom of Sam Nujoma Drive. I’m sure he thinks I’m completely crazy. I bowl up on my ancient purple bicycle, give him a couple of dollars, we exchange smiles and hellos, and then I’m off, trundling up the hill, paper neatly tucked into the rack on the back.
I usually find that a nice interlude sat perusing the news is healthy, and it stops me dripping sweat all over my grant application forms.
Today though, there are four pages of grim stories. There’s a picture of the feet and gun of the Deputy Minister’s driver, who publicly shot himself in the head yesterday. There’s a nice wee story about a skeleton that’s been found tied to a tree on a farm in Khomas; it’s believed he/she was tortured. The other news is that murder victim Juanita, who thankfully has been reunited with her severed head after a couple of weeks of strenuous searching, was killed by a blow to the back of the skull. Her family had to identify her head, which was ‘partially decomposed’. Can you imagine?
So, I’m feeling rather miserable about the state of the world today. Perhaps I’ll go back to remaining ignorant of goings on.
July 31st, 2006 at 11:54 am
[...] Chez Ntemba. I’ve heard so many bad things about it. It’s where you should only go in a big crowd. The music is good, but it’s where you will be hassled, and witness fights. It’s overcrowded. It’s where Juanita went the night she lost her head. [...]