Driving in Namibia

24/2/13

This weekend, Wendy and I went back to Omungwelume to see a whole lot of the WorldTeach volunteers for Jessie’s 25^th birthday! It was awesome. 

                Travel arrangements could not have been easier.  Mr. Simubali, the history and geography (which is really like earth science) teacher, was travelling to that side to visit his girlfriend and friends, so we rode with him right after school on Friday afternoon.  We got to Omungwelume by 10, just in time for birthday cake! The ride back was perfect, and Simubali let me drive for a long time!  Mom, I feel your pain with driving on the left, but luckily, Namibia is super flat and empty, so I didn’t have to worry about going off at all, and the roads were really wide.  Two lane roads, 75 mph, and cattle walking, standing and sleeping in the road.  Exciting! It was really nice to drive though. I miss driving.

                We arrived at the party to hugs and delicious vegetable chili! There were a whole bunch of volunteers there, and it was great to hear stories about other schools and their experiences.  Their classroom management horror stories made me feel really lucky to be at this elite school, where we’ll just send kids home if they’re not behaving as expected.  Additionally, we definitely have the brightest of the orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) at Vision School, based on the marks the other volunteers are giving.  Their kids are not qualified as OVC, but are scoring very very low on tests.  I wish I could spend some time in a “normal” school to see what it’s like there. 

                The stories made me really happy that Vision is happening.  Even if the changes to the education system that are being made aren’t always the ones I would make, and changes happen slower than I think they should, these changes are helping raise the chances that these kids will get the support they need to get to university and get into a good career path.  I would just love to see more counseling and student centered teaching in practice, not just on paper. 

                We got burgers for lunch on Saturday! We haven’t really been eating any meat, without a fridge, so that was amazing! Then we went to Bennie’s Park, which was like a resort/water park in Ongwediva, and hung out until it was time to hike to Jamie’s site in Onamutai, where we got hot dogs and fries and Hunters. Then we watched Dr. Who and ate cookies.  Overall, I’ve been a fatty all weekend. 

                But now we’re back to Divundu.  Under the advice of Nora, a PeaceCorps volunteer in Oshikati, we got lentils, to hopefully get more vitamins and protein into our diet.  So maybe some good cookin’ will be happening soon!