Goodbye Namibia

Here I am, sitting in a backpackers hostel in Windhoek, writing my final post from Namibia. It's very strange to think that it's now a matter of days, not weeks or months, until I'm back home with my friends and family (and caramel wafers & bacon butties). I have had such an increible year, with so many good times and a few challenging ones as well. I'm sure than when I return, everyone will notice me much changed (for the better I hope!)

The last few weeks at Gqaina were a strange mix of being sad at my year being almost over, being excited to go home and wanting to make the most of what time remained. Amongst the learners of Gqaina there were many choruses of “Sir you must give me many presents when you go home” and “Sir when you go back I will cry”.

As to the presents, I did end up leaving over half of my clothes, because some of the kids at Gqaina will probably never be bought new clothes by their parents. I also left these sunglasses to X’amce here; she clearly felt very suave and liked them more than I did! And as for the crying, there was actually very little, which was nice. Now the children will remember us laughing and playing rather than crying and being sad. 

This is me helping to make the maize porridge a few days before I left – seriously good arm exercise! The kids eat it once or twice a day, but I have not developed a liking for it. It’s bearable with a heap of sugar, but give me Weetabix any day.

This is me with Salinda, one of the girls in Pre-Primary class. The night before I left she burst out crying. It was difficult to tell her that I would miss her and remember her as she speaks next to no English, but hopefully she, too, will remember all the nice times we played together.

One of the last lessons we taught - grade 2 PE. The boys love playing soccer and the girls love netball, but they also enjoy throwing a rugby ball about. This is a girl called Queen throwing it to me.

We had a small party with each class in the final few days. They each got a toffee and a bubblegum and some juice. It also gave them the opportunity to draw pictures or write letters to us. The letters were very sweet, and some of them were quite amusing. “God pless you,” one of them wrote, and one girl signed her letter “Mrs Ben.” This is the picture that !Oro (Sussana) drew for me.

I will post again when I'm back home with a few final photos and thoughts. For now, however, it's goodbye to Namibia!

Holidays I - Namibia

Once again I have neglected my blog, so apologies for that! I have less than 2 months until I come home, so I will be definitely be more active on my blog until then.

In April - May, I had a month of school holidays, which was spent with my brother and sister. The first part our trip was spent in Namibia itself. One of the highlights of the whole trip was in Swakopmund, when I skydived from 10,000 ft into the barren but stunning Namib desert, which backs on to the Atlantic Ocean. We also went sand-boarding (which I wrote about at Christmas) and I beat my record to get to 78km/h. Here is me and my sister Anna pre-skydive. Looking pretty calm, don't you think? It's only 3 kilometers up the air, after all. 

After Swakopmund we made our way to Etosha National Park for 3 days.The first 2 days were reasonably uneventful - apart from some giraffes, all we really saw were springbok, and springbok, and more springbok. Our local guide said that because of the recent rains, many of the animals had enough water so they didn't need to rely on the waterholes. When it got to day 3 we were a bit disheartened at the thought of missing all of the "big 5", but then our luck turned. We saw a cheetah, a sleeping lion, a rhino crossing the road and an elephant washing itself. In our tent at night, we heard what sounded a lot like a lion roaring just outside the campsite...luckily the fences were high enough. Here are a few of the pictures I took in Etosha.

Giraffes play fighting. This is also how they fight for real - hitting each other with their necks.

After leaving Etosha NP, we stayed in several towns throughout Namibia - Tsumeb, a mining town; Rundu, a town in the North of Namibia which is just over the river from Angola; Katima Mulilo, which lies at the very end of the Zambezi Region (formerly the Caprivi Strip) which is the northern part of Namibia which juts out Eastwards. My sister Anna left us from Rundu to fly home. Apparently something important to do with sitting university exams...

Anyway, tomorrow we will be teaching the grade 1 class all day so I better go and plan some lessons. I promise it will be less than 3 months until my next update.

The New Year

So, what has happened at Gqaina in 2014 so far? Well, the grade 1 teacher left about a week into the new term for a job at a different school, and the class was left teacher-less, so Ollie and I decided to teach them ourselves - using our initiative or something like that. Easier said than done. 

Let me paint a picture of the grade 1 class for you. 41 children, ranging in age from 6 - 9. English is their 3rd or perhaps 4th language, after one or two tribal languages and Afrikaans. Whilst some of them know a handful of words and understand the basics, some of them know nothing at all in English. This makes it difficult to give instructions or tell someone off if they just look at you blankly and have no idea what you're saying. However I did rely on what little Afrikaans I've learned to try and make them comprehend, and I have learned the very useful phrase "be quiet" in 4 new languages.

Luckily there was a "Grade 1 Readiness" program at our disposal, so we had plenty of worksheets to do with them, as well as play-dough and PE to fill up time. This photo shows me re-arranging the desks from the military-style rows they were in beforehand.

In true African style, whenever it rains here, the electricity goes off, usually for about 24 hours. However I've learned to keep a supply of dry wood in the house, so when there's a power cut, we build a fire and have a braai. It usually consists of meat and corn-on-the-cob, but it's fun nonetheless. My normal cooking skills have also improved a lot, I thought you would all like to see my signature curry (from scratch, I'll have you know). We don't get chicken very often, so when we do, it has to be put to good use.

This term is also athletics season for Namibian schools so I have been helping to train them in everything from running to discus and javelin. Gqaina got an impressive 10 learners to the regional competition, but none qualified for the national level. Last but not least, here is a really cute photo of some children helping me on the swings. 

Holidays

It has been far too long since I last posted, so in this post I will talk about my holidays and next time I will update what has been happening since then.

The majority of our Christmas season was spent in Swakopmund, a town in the West of Namibia, on the Atlantic Coast. It's very popular as a holiday destination amongst people from Namibia and South Africa as well as further afield, especially Germany. In fact the town is still very reminiscent of German influence, being home to a "Brauhaus" pub and plenty of old European-looking buildings. 

We had originally intended to stay in Swakop for only a few days and then travel to South Africa to visit Cape town and Port Elizabeth, but unfortunately our work permits from the government STILL haven't been processed, so we were unable to travel outwith Namibia. Considering all the plans we had made for our South Africa trip, it was very frustrating not to be able to go. However, Swakop was a very safe and relaxing place to be - 5 minutes walk from our hostel to the beach and plenty of things to do.

As I have grown up near so many beaches, it was wonderful to be able to swim in the sea again - and the South Atlantic Ocean was about as cold as the bitter North Sea! On two separate occasions I was swimming in the bay of the beach, I found myself in the presence of about half a dozen dolphins, who were all very playful and not at all scared to come within 2 metres of me. You don't get that at Largo beach.

As well as the Atlantic, Swakop backs on to the dramatic Namib desert. One day we went quad-biking through the dunes. I don't have any photos of that day, it's rather hard to hold a camera whilst on a quad! Another day we were introduced to the activity of sand-boarding, which was incredibly fun. The sand-board, in typical Namibian fashion, was nothing fancy, in fact nothing more than a 2'x5' piece of oiled plywood. In the photo below I am doing a tandem run with Katie, another volunteer, but most of the runs were done solo, lying face-down on your board, your face no more than a couple of inches from the sand. I think my fastest run was 74km/h. It could be a bit sore when you hit a bump in the sand but the bruises were soon turned into proud battle-scars. 

The dunes themselves were about a 15 minute drive from town so we had to take a mini-bus. Of course, the health and safety regulations are somewhat lacking in this country, so I was obliged to hold the door shut to stop myself falling out.

Another day we went out on a day-cruise from Walvis Bay, a nearby town. We saw a colony of thousands of seals, as well as a few dolphins here and there. A couple of the seals were trained to come aboard - here is me trying to hi-5 one of them. Walvis Bay is also the home of one of the biggest oyster fisheries in the world, so we were allowed some fresh oysters.

Drimiopsis, Harnas, Eensaamheid

Two weekends ago we went to Drimiopsis, a neighbouring school (by that I mean only 50km away) for the Omaheke Regional Culture Festival. The school at which I'm teaching is made up of about 60% San Bushmen, so the San culture group here are very good. Most of the traditional songs and dances are about ordinary parts of traditional San lifestyle - hunting, gathering food, etc. They competed in the primary school category and won first prize. We went there late morning, but the sun was unbearably hot for us white folks, so we hitch-hiked back to school in the back of an ambulance, as you do. Thank goodness we did because the children didn't get back until after dark. As usual we were stared at quite a lot, being the only white people at the event, and sometimes the stares are a bit hostile, but if you smile or say hello, almost everyone is very friendly. They also find it amusing if you greet them in their own language. This is the culture group in their traditional dress, including the unfortunate Simon, who is dressed as a springbok.

On Wednesday we went to Harnas  for the Grade 7 farewell trip. Harnas is a Wildlife Foundation which houses lions, cheetahs, leopards, wildcats, baboons, meerkats and various different antelopes. Despite loading myself with sun cream, I managed to get a slight t-shirt burn. Nothing serious, though.

Friday and Saturday night were spent at one of the teacher's farms, the one which we visited before. The farm's name is Eensaamheid, which is Afrikaans for "loneliness". A fitting name considering the farmhouse it bang in the middle of 120 square kilometers of, well, not very much really. There has been some rain recently which is good for the farmers, but it was only 8mm and it's the first in 2 years. We went on another mini safari round the farm and managed to see all of the animals again, including a giraffe pretty close up.

And here is a photo of me holding a crocodile in Otjiwarongo which I didn't manage to upload last time.

Day 60

Firstly, apologies for the lack of blog posts this month. With school finishing at 1 then maths study, library duty and computer classes, the rest of the evening is spent cooking (at which we are becoming quite the chefs), playing with the learners outside and planning lessons. That means that what little time we have left is spent on pastimes such as reading, planning holidays and mosquito hunting.
Teaching remains a challenge - keeping control of a class is hard at the best of times, let alone when there are 40 of them. However we haven't even been here for two months yet so we are still getting to know the classes, and we are learning some tricks to make things easier. And as I was told before, you just have to take the small victories to heart and over time it will come naturally
We have been doing quite a bit of travelling around Namibia with our weekends. Three weekends ago we went to Otjiwarongo to visit two Project Trust volunteers who are at another rural school. The highlight of the weekend was probably holding a baby crocodile at the nearby crocodile ranch. Either that or the crocodile fajita I had shortly afterwards.
The weekend after that we spent at Gqaina. We went into town at half past 7 on Saturday morning to get our food shopping, thinking that we would be home by lunch. But, as per African time, we arrived back at 5 in the evening. It's useless even trying to be punctual. Us and all of our shopping were in the back of an open-topped pick-up truck (or bakkie, as they're called here), so the cheese and chocolate were pretty much liquid by the time we got back.
Last weekend we went to Windhoek to see another volunteer as unfortunately her partner went home a couple of weeks ago. We met quite a few American Peace Corps volunteers who have been in Namibia for over 2 years already, and they showed us a bit of the city. We also visited the craft stalls and, despite our bartering, were almost certainly ripped off for bracelets.
On Friday we were invited to the farm of one of the teachers here, and we stayed there for a night. The two of us, along with the teacher's daughter, spent quite a lot of yesterday smoothing out the sand roads. That consisted of one person sitting on a tyre tied to the back of a truck and one of the others driving as fast as they liked. We also went on a mini safari around the farm, and we saw meerkats, oryx, kudu, zebra, and even a giraffe from far off. Apparently there are 8 giraffes so hopefully we will see more when we visit again.
Today is day 60 since leaving home. African time is usually slower than usual but the weeks are starting to fly by - it will be Christmas before we know it!
Ps there have been no photos on this blog because I seem to have misplaced my external hard drive. I'll make it up next time

One month down...

Sunday was the 29th of September, which marked one month since I left home. Compared to the first couple of weeks which seemed to last forever, days are passing much more quickly now. I have now done 4 full weeks of teaching, which is, slowly but steadily, getting easier. My day was made today when I walked in to take a Grade 3 class for arts, and some of them literally started clapping and cheering because they were so excited. Below is a photo of me teaching a Grade 5 maths study class how to add multiples of 10. They have a national test coming up and many of them are falling behind so we now do study sessions every day, with alternating halves of the class. Note the fantastic new African shirt.

Last week was the national Readathon. The school found out the theme (Read, Study and Explore the African Ecosystem) in typical Namibian fashion - the day before. All the children piled into the assembly hall and each class took it in turns to read a story, sing a song or act out a drama connected to the theme . This picture shows Ewelline from Grade 4 asking questions about the short story she had just read. The enthusiasm of the audience may partly be due to the fact that you got a sweet if you answered correctly.

At the weekend we had our first visit to a Namibian farm, owned by the principal, Carien, and her husband, John. It was nothing like farms at home. There's no grass, for a start. This can be a problem if you have 13,000 acres of land like John, but it's all sand and bushland, not ideal for herds of sheep and cows. Carien told us that it's common practice for farmers to poison their own trees so that the water is left for what little grass there is. There hasn't been any proper rainfall in this region for almost 2 years either, so the farmers need to rely on boreholes for water.

We helped John out on the farm a bit, herding cows into new grazing grounds, and chasing 2 bulls back to the kraal to be loaded on to a trailer (which they were not at all happy about), so that they could be moved into an area with 66 females, just for them.

Below is a photo of a braai, which is essentially just a barbecue, but a much more serious affair. We had pork belly, beef, and sausages made from kudu meat and sheep fat. The beef and sausages were both made from John's meat. Around 30% of John meat is exported to Europe, so if your beef packet says Namibia, it might have come from here! This grill was practically covered in meat for 4 of us.

And finally, especially for my sister Anna, this is a photo of me and adorable little Sowi, the granddaughter of one of the teachers here. My short haircut is courtesy of a lovely Herero man in Gobabis....called Mike.