Easter Touring

This weekend was a holiday weekend.  For a school where children don't leave, this was an interesting prospect. Which teachers would have to stay with the learners? Which teachers would be allowed to leave? What would the children do while all of their friends are at home celebrating?

To help with most of these questions on Friday and Saturday, at least, the Ministry approved our request for buses, and we toured around the Divundu area.  The Grade 8 learners and 5 teachers went out on Friday, and the Grade 11 learners and 5 different teachers went on Saturday.  So these two days have something for the learners to do, and an insurance that teachers will be around.  Perfect! Problems solved!

And it was a lot of fun! Outside of the afternoon that agriculture students spent at a farm across the river, this was the first time that learners left all term.

I went with the Grade 11s on their tour around.

First, we went to the Mahangu Game Park, which is about 10 km down the road towards Botswana.  We saw lots of wildlife! Antelopes, kudu, springbok, water buffalo, one zebra, tons of birds, warthogs and moneys!

The kids were very excited, but unfortunately, we didn't get to see a lion.  The grade 8s saw two lions.  But apparently, it's very rare there.  The woman we spoke to at the park said she has only seen a lion 3 times in her 14 years working there!

Next on our stop was the Botswana border! We briefly left Namibia, and crossed in Bots for a few minutes, to speak to the customs officials and take lots of pictures at the border.  These kids LOVE getting their pictures taken!

Once back in Namibia, we went to the Ministry of Fisheries ponds and tanks.  The whole facility reminded me of the fisheries which I think might be near Powder Mill Park.  For some reason, I have those two places associated in my head.  The facilities also have tanks of pretty fish!

Again, the learners wanted their pictures taken.

The last stop before lunch was a beautiful youth center near the Andara Hospital.  It has a training facility for Information, Communication Technologies jobs, and it right on the river.  Junior was getting clingy and starting to get tired, but he hid it well!

We went back to school for lunch, then it was back on the road.  We traveled to an army base from the time of colonization (1980s) which hasn't been used a base since, but is now a small village. There were old army trucks around rusting, and an old air strip.  It was really interesting to go out so far into nowhere and find a village of people sustaining themselves. And there were many trees.  It almost felt like a camp or a museum village (think Genesee County Village and Museum), but people were living there.  It was their lives.  I forgot my camera in the bus.

On our way back toward Popa Falls, we saw this.

No big deal. Just crossing the road.

We got to Popa "Falls" which are rapids on the Kavango.  Not super awe inspiring, but nice.  The sand was really pleasant! To get to the river, we had to drive down a really small path, really... not so much a road, and then get back out. That was an adventure all on its own. And our driver was getting really pissed because he had to get back to Windhoek that evening.  So he started driving a little bit crazily. Slightly terrifying going back up the hill.

We found berries that tasted like raspberries right before they are completely ripe. Just a little bit sour but in a really yummy way! I love that these kids know what is good to eat wherever they go.

On each of the days when the grade was in school, they had study hours in the morning and afternoon and movies at night. One night we watched the Gospel of Luke, and the other night we watched Star Trek (a deviation from the themes of Easter, but whatever).

Sunday we had study in the morning and evening, and in the afternoon, my student council officers and other more religious students planned and pulled off a very nice service, reading scripture of the Easter Story, prayers of thanks and hope and songs of thanks to Jesus.  It was really nice to see them embracing their spirituality.  Many of the learners I think struggle with the lack of availability of communal prayer here most Sundays.

Monday was a shit-show.  At first, it was said that the learners would be in classes like a normal Monday, but then we switched to a Saturday schedule.  So I thought I would be able to teach like all day because most teachers weren't going to be there.  But then that didn't happen.  I did get to a bunch of the classes, which was nice, but man.

Moving into two weeks of exams now.  And I'm still going to try and organize the grade 8's to get a performance evening going next weekend.  We're going to videotape the scripts, and then have singing and dancing and fun.  It is going to be a mess, but I think it should be fun! Next term, we'll start with the visual arts, and using many supplies on their way here from America, thanks to many of you! I'm hoping to get a competition going for getting their artwork hung in the reception here, in Ministry offices, the Dining Hall, the dorms, and maybe even in schools in America! If anyone is interested, let me know.

Life Skills this week was fun--to review for exams, I had the learners write songs, and to get credit, they have to come up to me and sing them.  They had a lot of fun with that, though! It was really nice to see them working together, being creative and learning course materials.  I'm really excited to be able to work more activities into my classes next term!