*Written Wednesday 16th November
After our one refreshing rain about a week ago, it’s gone back to being unbearably hot and stuffy. I always know it’s going to be a really hot day if I’m hot at 6:30am when I get picked up for school! Yesterday I was proctoring an exam from 10:30 to 12:30 in a tin-roofed building. Wow, did that room get hot! I felt pretty bad for the learners having to write their exam in that heat. I’ve been told this is not normal weather here, that usually it’s not so hot for so long. I also remember being told that in Egypt in November last year, seems to be a pattern…
Anyway, Dylan and I were tipped off by another volunteer to a really good cool snack – Oshikandela and fruit juice mixed and frozen for a few hours. Oshikandela is a yoghurt drink that comes in little cardboard cartons like we used to have for milk in school. I’m not a big fan of it by itself, but it’s great when you mix it with some sugary fruit juice! Dylan and I fill up two glasses with half Oshikandela and half fruit juice and put them in the freezer in the morning. When we come home from school it’s frozen into something like sorbet. Yum!
In other news, Dylan’s actually on his way to Windhoek right now for the national SpellQuizBee Competition (it’s both a spelling bee and a general knowledge quiz)! When we got to site, Dylan got involved in helping the learners at his school prepare for the regional competition, especially helping with the spelling part. As it turned out, one of the learners from his school won the regional competition and is going on to nationals! Since Dylan was so involved in the regional bee, he is the teacher accompanying her to nationals. This is definitely a big deal – the competition will be broadcast on national TV, the contestants and teachers will be meeting both the current and former Presidents of Namibia, and there’s big money prizes involved. Dylan will be back on Saturday so we’ll get a full report then.
Last weekend I was able to be involved in an event at the Tsumeb Family Support Center, which works with issues of domestic violence. We held a community meeting to decorate shirts for the peaceful march and Clothesline Project that will be happening in a couple weeks. The Clothesline Project is actually an American thing that was introduced here by another volunteer. Community members (including learners, officials, domestic violence victims, teachers, etc) decorate t-shirts with messages about domestic violence and then display the shirts on a clothesline in a public place to raise awareness. Another volunteer actually organized this event, but she was out of town and asked me to fill. I enjoyed meeting so many women from the community and helping to paint the shirts!
This coming weekend also promises to be eventful. Several PCVS from other towns are coming to our house to celebrate Thanksgiving (I know, we’re a week early), which will be a lot of fun! However, due to lack of gas for our gas oven and our electric oven being broken, we will have to prepare the entire Thanksgiving meal on the stovetop and in a broiler. There are no turkeys available here, so we’ll be improvising anyway. =)
It’s partly cloudy right now, so I’m holding out hope for a bit of rain. Fingers crossed!
Addendum: It rained Thursday morning to Friday morning - so refreshing!
Below: Pictures from T-shirt decorating for the Clothesline Project.
After our one refreshing rain about a week ago, it’s gone back to being unbearably hot and stuffy. I always know it’s going to be a really hot day if I’m hot at 6:30am when I get picked up for school! Yesterday I was proctoring an exam from 10:30 to 12:30 in a tin-roofed building. Wow, did that room get hot! I felt pretty bad for the learners having to write their exam in that heat. I’ve been told this is not normal weather here, that usually it’s not so hot for so long. I also remember being told that in Egypt in November last year, seems to be a pattern…
Anyway, Dylan and I were tipped off by another volunteer to a really good cool snack – Oshikandela and fruit juice mixed and frozen for a few hours. Oshikandela is a yoghurt drink that comes in little cardboard cartons like we used to have for milk in school. I’m not a big fan of it by itself, but it’s great when you mix it with some sugary fruit juice! Dylan and I fill up two glasses with half Oshikandela and half fruit juice and put them in the freezer in the morning. When we come home from school it’s frozen into something like sorbet. Yum!
In other news, Dylan’s actually on his way to Windhoek right now for the national SpellQuizBee Competition (it’s both a spelling bee and a general knowledge quiz)! When we got to site, Dylan got involved in helping the learners at his school prepare for the regional competition, especially helping with the spelling part. As it turned out, one of the learners from his school won the regional competition and is going on to nationals! Since Dylan was so involved in the regional bee, he is the teacher accompanying her to nationals. This is definitely a big deal – the competition will be broadcast on national TV, the contestants and teachers will be meeting both the current and former Presidents of Namibia, and there’s big money prizes involved. Dylan will be back on Saturday so we’ll get a full report then.
Last weekend I was able to be involved in an event at the Tsumeb Family Support Center, which works with issues of domestic violence. We held a community meeting to decorate shirts for the peaceful march and Clothesline Project that will be happening in a couple weeks. The Clothesline Project is actually an American thing that was introduced here by another volunteer. Community members (including learners, officials, domestic violence victims, teachers, etc) decorate t-shirts with messages about domestic violence and then display the shirts on a clothesline in a public place to raise awareness. Another volunteer actually organized this event, but she was out of town and asked me to fill. I enjoyed meeting so many women from the community and helping to paint the shirts!
This coming weekend also promises to be eventful. Several PCVS from other towns are coming to our house to celebrate Thanksgiving (I know, we’re a week early), which will be a lot of fun! However, due to lack of gas for our gas oven and our electric oven being broken, we will have to prepare the entire Thanksgiving meal on the stovetop and in a broiler. There are no turkeys available here, so we’ll be improvising anyway. =)
It’s partly cloudy right now, so I’m holding out hope for a bit of rain. Fingers crossed!
Addendum: It rained Thursday morning to Friday morning - so refreshing!
Below: Pictures from T-shirt decorating for the Clothesline Project.
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