And another week of teaching is over! Tomorrow I will upload my latest photos when I head into Oshakati where the internet cafe has a USB port.
One of the highlights of this week was helping out with the athletic trials. It was quite the experience, and made me think back to my days of athletics in secondary school. Comparing these two experiences, I am mostly struck by what I perceive to be the many challenges that the students here face: not a single students appears to own a pair of runners, most do not even have any sports gear to speak of (shorts etc.), the weather is about 30 C, most do not have water bottles and so are unable to drink anything for the whole afternoon, and lastly, many have not eaten since early in the morning. But no one complains about any of this! It's incredible.
Speaking of their morning routine, the students have to wake up at 5a.m. in order to shower and go to Mass before school. Apparently they wake up so early primarily because there are just too many people for the number of showers available. One girl told me that she sometimes wakes up at 3a.m. to guarantee taking a shower!
As for my own daily routine, I am up at 6.30a.m. every morning and at school by 7.30a.m. School runs until 1.40p.m. when we end and eat lunch. I am cooking for myself, and have reverted back to vegetarianism! Truth be told, I only ate a piece of chicken one time back with my host family in Rehoboth because they didn't consider chicken to be meat! I remember Pete's host mother saying that she doesn't eat a lot of meat, which is a little strange considering we are in Namibia, but that when asked what she eats instead, she said a lot of chicken and fish! Pete and I cook dinner together every evening, which is a welcome respite in the day. Afterwards, I drive home on the sand roads and enjoy watching the beautiful Namibian sky changing colours. I think I'm getting better at tackling these roads, and sometimes I think that this is what it must be like to be a rally car driver! Another aspect of driving here is that I almost always give people hitchhikes. It reminds me of my days back in boarding school in rural Wales, where I would hitchhike on a regular basis! I enjoy the company and getting to know some other people in the community.
More and more of my students are coming to visit me in the evenings, which is really nice. I don't want to promise too much, but it's hard not to get caught up in their enthusiasm. Recently we have been discussing extracurricular activities, and if I am not too busy, I am going to try start the drama club next week as well as get a women's soccer team together, although we still have to buy a football, and the girls will have to play barefoot!
Pete's school is only 5km from the border with Angola, and I found it incredible when told that some students walk all the way from Angola to attend his school! I guess this is just another example of the porous and ambiguous nature of borders! Apparently there is an agreement between Angola and Namibia that people living within 30km on either side of the border do not need any documents to travel between the two countries.
This weekend we are heading off to visit some of the other volunteers again, and I think that we will even attend a VSO party! It will be fun to meet some volunteers from other organisations. That's all for now, remember to check back again for the latest photos!
One of the highlights of this week was helping out with the athletic trials. It was quite the experience, and made me think back to my days of athletics in secondary school. Comparing these two experiences, I am mostly struck by what I perceive to be the many challenges that the students here face: not a single students appears to own a pair of runners, most do not even have any sports gear to speak of (shorts etc.), the weather is about 30 C, most do not have water bottles and so are unable to drink anything for the whole afternoon, and lastly, many have not eaten since early in the morning. But no one complains about any of this! It's incredible.
Speaking of their morning routine, the students have to wake up at 5a.m. in order to shower and go to Mass before school. Apparently they wake up so early primarily because there are just too many people for the number of showers available. One girl told me that she sometimes wakes up at 3a.m. to guarantee taking a shower!
As for my own daily routine, I am up at 6.30a.m. every morning and at school by 7.30a.m. School runs until 1.40p.m. when we end and eat lunch. I am cooking for myself, and have reverted back to vegetarianism! Truth be told, I only ate a piece of chicken one time back with my host family in Rehoboth because they didn't consider chicken to be meat! I remember Pete's host mother saying that she doesn't eat a lot of meat, which is a little strange considering we are in Namibia, but that when asked what she eats instead, she said a lot of chicken and fish! Pete and I cook dinner together every evening, which is a welcome respite in the day. Afterwards, I drive home on the sand roads and enjoy watching the beautiful Namibian sky changing colours. I think I'm getting better at tackling these roads, and sometimes I think that this is what it must be like to be a rally car driver! Another aspect of driving here is that I almost always give people hitchhikes. It reminds me of my days back in boarding school in rural Wales, where I would hitchhike on a regular basis! I enjoy the company and getting to know some other people in the community.
More and more of my students are coming to visit me in the evenings, which is really nice. I don't want to promise too much, but it's hard not to get caught up in their enthusiasm. Recently we have been discussing extracurricular activities, and if I am not too busy, I am going to try start the drama club next week as well as get a women's soccer team together, although we still have to buy a football, and the girls will have to play barefoot!
Pete's school is only 5km from the border with Angola, and I found it incredible when told that some students walk all the way from Angola to attend his school! I guess this is just another example of the porous and ambiguous nature of borders! Apparently there is an agreement between Angola and Namibia that people living within 30km on either side of the border do not need any documents to travel between the two countries.
This weekend we are heading off to visit some of the other volunteers again, and I think that we will even attend a VSO party! It will be fun to meet some volunteers from other organisations. That's all for now, remember to check back again for the latest photos!
posted by Sinéad at 5:39 PM
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