Fabulous Fabiola

What a pleasure it is to introduce Fabiola Gaingos to you.  She is my friend and teacher, tutoring me in the Afrikaans and Damara-Nama languages and making the learning fun.  She recently taught me a really rude phrase, and then furrowed her brow all up and wondered, quite seriously, why people in our town most often call each other by a rude word that's slang for a female reproductive part, while in other towns a rude word for a male reproductive part is much more common.  She really spent some time on that question - but finally shrugged and said, "I don't know."

Usually we talk about things like the price of milk, the naughtiness of children and the weather.  (The naughtiness of the weather -- it's gotten quite hot again. But then, Fabiola likes the heat.)

She has to take calls during lessons as very few people use voice mail here.
Ruddy nuisance not to have voice mail, but SMSes are cheaper anyway.

She answered a few questions for me, as follows:

Name:  Fabiola Gaingos          Age:  Almost 25          Where did you grow up?  Arandis          Where do you live now?  Arandis          Where else have you lived?  Okahandja, Karibib and Swakopmund           What language do you speak most?  Afrikaans           What other language(s) do you speak?  Damara-Nama and English (She took a year of German in school, too.)

What do you do for work?  I have my own business, providing office assistance to different clients.          What's your dream job?  To have my own bookkeeping business.

Who lives with you?  Cherial, my daughter, and my boyfriend George          How big is your family?  Just us three -- plus my mum and two sisters

Cherial pulled a Christmas cracker at my house in March.
I had to paper-clip the excess crown to keep it from falling down.

What's a place you'd like to go if you had three or four days off work and money to travel?  Etosha -- I've never been.  [n.b. Fabiola says she doesn't like wild animals, but at Etosha you have to stay in your car, so that would be okay.]          How about if you won an all-expenses paid two-week trip to anywhere in the world?  Paris.  Everyone talks about it and I like experimenting; meeting new people, trying new food and having new experiences.

Describe a favorite meal, please:  A lot of meat, but not too much -- meat means beef; the front quarter, which is very soft -- with curry, and pap and pine-nut kooldrink

What are some things you do for fun:  Play video games, especially a driver-car game on the laptop, sometimes with Cherial.  Also walk to the grassy circle in town with Cherial and just sit on the grass, or chase each other.

What's a really 'Namibian' characteristic of yours?  I love Namibian weddings, especially Owambo ones.  They have lots of traditional activities and many kinds of food.           And something really non-Nambian?  Watching a lot of movies.  That's becoming Namibian as more people get TVs.

And you can meet her yourself on YouTube.

We tried again the next day.

Thanks, Fabiola!