We kicked off last weekend with Tsumeb Thanksgiving - the volunteers in the area got together for chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and apple pie. Yum! We played Christmas music in the background and between that and the decorations it felt almost more like Christmas than Thanksgiving. In the picture - Allison (and her dog Tulah), Chris (and his dog Arya), me and Dylan (minus Other Dog who was temporarily banned from the house due to fleas), and Kelly (who does not have a dog). In the background - our cleverly created Christmas decorations!
All Christmas activities tend to happen in late November here since school is out and everyone travels as of the beginning of December. The day after we had our Thanksgiving meal, our church had its Christmas program featuring the children and youth. We've been watching Christmas movies in our free time such as: A Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, White Christmas, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (so far). =) Next week, Christmas cookies are on the menu. The learners had their final exams earlier this week, so they are now gone for holidays. Teachers will still come for the next week, finishing up marking and making reports. It's very quiet without the kids here! We're having our first good hard rain as I write - it's been pouring since about 7am (it's now 11am) and shows no sign of stopping. This is the real rainy season! I'm anticipating rivers running down our street when I get home. We're looking forward to meeting up with some old friends this weekend and going to Etosha (hopefully the animals come out in the rain?). These friends happen to be Americans, who we know from England, who are now living in Gabon. It's one of those crazy coincidences that we now get to visit with them in Tsumeb, Namibia! These pictures are actually from a couple weeks ago when Dylan and I hiked to Otjiwarongo for a games weekend with friends. It was wet and rainy and cold, which was kind of wonderful, except it kept trying to put our fire out. Hence the marshmallow toasting inside on candles... (see below) We were extremely happy to have rain again last night! It cooled everything off and has stayed cloudy today, which makes a big difference. As a headline stated today, the strike seems to have fizzled out, even in Windhoek where it was strongest. Good thing as all learners should now be able to take their end of year exams! Thanks for your thoughts and prayers on that. =)
At my school and Dylan's school, things are running normally. Only 3 or 4 teachers are striking (really effective right?) so the learners are having classes and we're expecting to start exams on time, which is a relief. However, the situation in and around Windhoek hasn't really changed - in some schools there have been no classes for almost 2 weeks. We're not sure what'll happen if some schools get to take their exams and other schools don't. Exams start on Monday so they have to sort it out this weekend!
Many of the teachers at my school resigned their membership in the teachers' union, NANTU, because they are so frustrated with how things are going (or rather, not going as it seems no progress is being made). I've learned this week that the union has very close ties with the ruling government party...You can draw your own conclusions. In other news, it's ridiculously hot again as we've had no rain for three days. I'm a little afraid my computer will melt, it's burning up right now! It's a relief to finally be done with our first year of teaching - I have my last two lessons this afternoon. Still three weeks of exams to get through, but in our afternoons and evenings we'll be free to relax and dream about the upcoming December vacation. Check out this news link to read more: http://www.newera.com.na/articles/48775/Teachers-launch-nationwide-strike-
So far Dylan and I are just teaching our classes as normal, although many of the teachers at our schools have joined the strike (Not all of them joined, I should point out). Learners are due to start writing some of their exams tomorrow, which may or may not happen depending on how many teachers show up. Teaching is such a different job here. Unlike in the States, where I think most people become teachers because they like working with kids, here many people become teachers just for the money. Hence the current strike to get more money while the learners are left without teachers just days before their exams... Hoping this gets resolved quickly! - Half marathon run on September 22 - Mid-Service conference completed on September 26 - Half way through our time in Namibia as of the end of September! That's right, we made it half way! It doesn't quite seem like it since we still have a couple months of our first year of school, but we have now been in Namibia for 13 months, half way through the required 26 months service. We celebrated this milestone with a week-long trip to Swakopmund for a marathon and Windhoek for our mid-service conference. Swakopmund was beautiful as always and a wonderful break from the hot weather! The marathon, which is often run by Peace Corps volunteers, runs from Walvis Bay up the coast to Swakop. Dylan and I split it, Dylan running the first half, and me finishing! The route was truly beautiful, especially along my half. I was literally running between huge smooth sand dunes on one side and the ocean waves on the other side. Blue sky, lots of sunshine and a cool sea breeze made for a very good run. Both Dylan and I exceeded our expectations and finished with a combined time of 3 hours 49 minutes! Highlights: - Dylan blowing away the first half in 1 hour 33 minutes - Tagging hands at the half way point for me to start my run - Water and Coke (yes, Coke) offered every 5km - Cheering PCVs at the finish - A really delicious Italian meal to reward ourselves =) After the marathon we went on to Windhoek for our mid-service conference. For the first time since December our whole group came together to share our experiences from the first year. It was great to see everyone, play some games, see a movie, eat good food in the city, etc. It's also nice to step back from teaching for a bit and reflect, with others, on successes and failures we've had and improvements we can make. As you can see, we've collected some Nam souvenirs at this point, including the shitenges we're sitting on in this picture. Today and tomorrow we're still together as we all have mid-service dental check-ups in Windhoek. On Saturday we'll finally be heading back to Tsumeb!
Weekend at the Farm
We got back to our house from the farm at about 9am Tuesday morning – having left the farm at 5am! One of our hosts, Elana, had to be back in Windhoek by 9 for work, so we left early. It was a good weekend! We got there Saturday afternoon and met Elana’s parents, who own the farm. Fortunately for us they both speak English as well as Afrikaans. The farm is along the southern border of Etosha a little ways east of Outjo. The name of the farm, Grensplaas, actually means “border farm” because it shares an 18 km border with Etosha. One of the first things Patat (Elana’s father) showed us was a lion he had shot because it was eating his cattle! It was in a closet-like space and he moved some stuff around then told us to look in and a lion was staring at us. Creepy and cool? We took a short walk in the evening to see the goats and sheep (their sheep look like goats by the way, not white and wooly) and some cattle. It’s very dusty on the farm. On Saturday night we had a braai with steaks and homemade potato wedges and onion rings. It was quite delicious and amazingly I managed to eat my whole steak – probably for the first time ever. I did feel a bit sick afterwards. We sat around and talked for a long time (varying between Afrikaans and English) and had some hot chocolate. For breakfast on Sunday, Dylan and I had eggs and toast and everybody else had eggs and toast and leftover steak. They had said something about having steak for breakfast the night before, but we thought they were joking. Nope! They really were very serious about their meat – and only red meat. They said (jokingly?) that chicken wasn’t really meat. So for lunch on Sunday we had kudu schnitzel (which was quite good), then for dinner we had lamb (or goat, I’m not sure which). On Monday we had fatcakes and mince for breakfast, lamb/goat for lunch, and beef for dinner. I have never eaten so much red meat in my life! Dylan and I are eating only chicken and veggies and pasta now that we’re home. =) We didn’t have to get up too early – although there was a rooster who successfully woke us up at 4am every day, we just went back to sleep. During the day we went out driving on the farm with Patat and Dewet doing things like bringing water to some workers who didn’t have any, putting a water pump in at a “pos” (drinking place for cattle), collecting wild watermelons for jam, dropping off “dropers” (fence posts), and other errands. We stopped frequently for Patat to explain to us different kinds of trees and grass you’d find on the farm – and which ones are better or worse and which ones the cattle like and so on. Not sure how much of that soaked in. We drove up to the Etosha border and looked in. The farm and Etosha are separated by three fences, although apparently that’s not always enough to keep the animals out. As you can probably tell, farms in Namibia tend to be more like what I would call a ranch – all the focus is on animals, not crops. I don’t think they actually grow anything intentionally, although they use the wild grass and berries and whatnot. At this particular farm, they also produce charcoal which is sold around the country. We saw the whole process more or less – from cutting down the wood, to burning it, sorting it, breaking it up, packaging it, etc. Packaging charcoal is a very dirty job. Most of the manual labor on this white-owned farm is done by black people. It was challenging to be a white guest of a white host being shown around like a tourist amongst blacks doing hard, dirty work. For the first time, I realized that when my learners say they went to the farm over break, at least some of them mean a farm like this – one where their parents work, not one that they own. The workers had their own little villages on the farm with huts and shacks. From my attempts to communicate with some of them, I think they mostly speak Afrikaans and their mother tongue, not English. They were very subdued. Worked hard, not much talking, didn’t speak to the boss unless spoken to, no smiles. It was a very different world from the one where I go to school and am surrounded by empowered, professional, friendly people who happen to be black. Aside from that part, we really enjoyed the weekend. We drank homemade lemon juice (kind of like lemonade, but sweeter), played UNO, milked cows (I even squirted milk directly into my mouth!), enjoyed hot baths and showers (the water is heated by fire in a “donkie”, a big water tank in a brick structure outside), and enjoyed getting to know our hosts. Hopefully we’ll get to go back again sometime! For the rest of the holiday (one week), I think we’ll just be hanging out in Tsumeb. As fun as it was to experience life on a farm, it wasn’t as relaxing as sitting around at home with all the familiar comforts near at hand. We have some lesson planning to do, some house cleaning, some baking…but mostly enjoying the time we have to ourselves, especially as our roommate is also away this week. It’s getting hotter every day – we just put away the last of our extra blankets and took out the fan. It’s going to be a long summer… |