View of Cape Town from Elephant's Eye



Table Mountain




Dad swimming in the Indian Ocean and Mum walking on the shore





African Penguins



Chameleon (I think, it seemed to change colour!)

We have having a brilliant time in Cape Town with my parents, which of course includes eating lots of good food and drinking good wine! Today we are going to take a dip in the Indian Ocean and next week I look forward to getting up close and personal with great white sharks, after much encouragement from my father (perhaps it will cure my shark phobia?)!

Franschhoek

Table Mountain


Up to Table Mountain (the lazy way!)



Cape Town


Camps Bay

Kirstenbosch Gardens



Native South African Forest Fig

Cape of Good Hope


Ostriches on the shore

Road Trip from Northern Namibia to Cape Town, South Africa

Last night I happened to bump into the nightwatchman of the mission and noticed that he was carrying a very large bow as well as several arrows. Unfortunately, my Oshiwambo is not quite good enough yet to have asked him why he was carrying these items around, but I have to guess that they are for any wrongdoers - I definitely wouldn't want to be caught getting up to no good with those weapons around! I suppose that a bow and arrow is probably more efficient than the worn-out old rifles that people carry around here!

On another note, the teachers here are unbelieveable. They work so hard. My principal was saying the other day that there is no rest for an Ovambo person. For example, several of my colleagues are working part-time teaching jobs on top of their full-time position at this school, as well as pursuing some additional degree/certificate and this may all be on top of raising a baby as a single parent. For the holidays, the number one activity for teachers at my school will be working in the fields.

These mounds always point to the north

School Life

Morning Assembly (we have just finished singing the National Anthem as the flag was raised)



Learners braiding hair in the pre-shaved hair days.



Some students put on a drama for the parent-teacher meeting last Saturday. The drama was about two sets of brothers - one rich pair and one poor pair. The rich brothers liked to go drinking in the cuca shops (bars), even though this was strictly illegal behaviour, and they would often ask the poorer brothers to join them. The poor brothers however, only pretended to drink on these occasions and afterwards, late at night, they would go and study in the boys' toilets! As a result, the rich pair ended up failing their grade 10 exams, whereas the poor brothers still passed with flying colours. In their impotent rage after the results were released, the rich brothers tried to beat up the poor brothers who merely laughed at their folly. The rich boys' mother just couldn't understand how rich people could fail the exams. Money can't buy everything, eh?

The students performed the play using a mixture of Oshiwambo and English, and they did really well, particularly the principal's son who played the principal in the play and managed to capture some of his father's more amusing mannerisms, such as hoisting up his trousers every few minutes or so!

The parent meeting went on for almost 6 hours. Thankfully the principal tried to translate most of what was being said.







Some children I walked to school with yesterday. They had forgotten/didn't know that the clocks had shifted back by an hour and so they were an hour early for school! I particularly like the pose of the boy in the pink flipflops.

Staff vs. Student Soccer Match!
Final Score: 4-3 to the students

Don't let our appearances fool you - we are a serious soccer team.



Two student subs for the staff team, Amalia and Elizabeth. These lovely girls are in the girls' soccer club and also one of my grade 11 classes. It was a good thing we had subs too, the turnover rate on the staff team was remarkably high!



A tense penalty shot - thank goodness the principal came on in the second half - he scored 2 of our 3 goals (including this penalty shot)!



Now I actually thought I was reasonably fit before I played this match. However, the students soon proved me wrong. I am in fact an old, old woman when it comes to playing soccer with them...