Thank You, Life

I had a really wonderful experience last night, and I'm not sure it qualifies as an uniquely Namibian moment, or a Peace Corps moment.  It could probably happen a lot of places, in a lot of jobs.  So I'm just saying, 'Thank you, life,' for presenting me with this glimpse of pure joy -- but I'm also recording this rare event as one of the especial joys of my Peace Corps service in Namibia.

I had stayed a bit later than usual at the office, as did Silas and Ester.  We split up near the bakery, since they had errands to run and I didn't need the temptation of All-Gold Tomato Sauce flavour, Mrs. H.S. Ball's Chutney flavour and Creamy Chedddar flavour Simba chips, especially as I recently had the brilliant idea that I should buy all three sometime and mix them up in a bowl together.  Seriously, they're tasty delicious and there's no Starbucks whipped cream drinks here to pervert my healthy lifestyle, but there's no way you can negotiate the Simba chips into the menu plan and claim they're health food.

Anyway, I stepped along solo and heard singing about a block from the bus stops.  Gorgeous singing.  Beautiful, a capella, small group singing, right there on the street corner.  I had my camera, which felt serendipitious as I don't usually carry it to work, so I pulled off the lens cap and shot this video.  I hope you love it as much as I do.

I talked to the singers when they finished, to be sure they didn't mind my recording them and posting the footage. They are youths (youth are roughly 16- to 35-year olds here) who were practicing for a performance the next day in the local Lutheran church.  I have a prior commitment for that one, but I'm going to watch out for future opportunities to hear the sublimely lovely music they make together.