End of Orientation is the Beginning

Orientation this year was eye opening for me, again.  This new group of volunteers has so much spirit and energy and dedication, and I am so incredibly excited to see all of the wonderful work each is able to accomplish.  I feel like I’ve continued to grow as a person, this orientation, discovering weaknesses and strengths and learning from mistakes.  As the volunteers left this morning (Kavango picked us up last, of course), it was so bittersweet.  After such a long three weeks together, we’re all headed out into our own adventures.  We’ll integrate into our communities and make new friends.  We’ll focus on our communities’ needs and teaching our kids. We’ll stay in touch.

I think the major thing I’ve learned this OR was that it’s not about me.  I tried to focus on giving to others so that the program can be successful.  I don’t need to be the center of attention and that is a really refreshing place to be.  I’m hoping I can continue in this mind set at my school, where I am focused on the needs of the school, and not necessarily what I think the school needs.  It leaves me more relaxed and able to actually make things happen.  I'll be teaching Grade 8 Life Science and Grade 8 and 9 Arts this year!  I'm going to use Ahlquist-style organizers/summaries for note taking, which I'm really psyched about doing.  I think it'll be really good to have the learners generating their own notes, because usually here what happens is the teacher will write out a summary of a topic on the board, and the learners will copy it down, so making them go to the textbook and write out the information in a way that makes sense to them will be really helpful (I hope!).

Leaving Windhoek was hard this morning.  The volunteers scattering around the country, and friends staying in Windhoek are difficult to say goodbye to.  But I am excited for that feeling I get every time I walk through the gate to the girls’ hostels. That feeling of pride in my learners and belonging in my school.

PS: This part is mostly for last year’s vols.  WT2013, I miss you all like crazy!! This year’s volunteers wrote Bret a song and sang it to him at the goodbye dinner. Hilarious.  It will be posted soon. J Additionally, it’s super interesting how adding men to the group of volunteers changes the group dynamic.  It’s super refreshing to have more male humor and presence around. I think it created a more social group from the beginning, because people we’re afraid to go out and stuff from earlier on in OR.  And these volunteers are super-de-duper.  But I don’t have anyone to sing Granite State of Mind with, or reminisce about Ithaca with, or geek out about Dewey or Montessori with, or share every day ups and downs with, or I can go back and forth between wanting to be a social worker and teacher with, or whose insanely good trip planning skills I can take advantage of for a month. I love you all so much!