So remember when I was going to write about food? Whoops! Generally, breakfast is oatmeal with peanut butter, snack is bread and butter or eggs and toast or bread and like... bologna, lunch is an apple and peanut butter, and dinner varies. Sometimes, my room mate will cook porridge and game meat and stew or gravy. Other times it's baked beans, rice and veggies. Or fried Kavango River fish and rice or porridge (delicious... and I was watching her cook them last time, so I'm going to help next time! Update on that to come. Also an update on how to best prepare kudu meat).
Anyway, throughout the term, I've made some pretty delicious things. I made my go-to dish for a few volunteers. Mushroom cream sauce with white wine with chicken and pasta. Turned out well, and it was on an electric stove top thing with only one side really working... the water for the pasta was the hardest part! Turns out the water kettle switch is opposite the one I have in my flat; it wasn't broken! Oops. But I think it was worth the wait!
Ingredients:
1 can mushrooms
1 bottle of wine (you'll need about a cup for the recipe, the rest is for you!)
1 clove garlic
1 small onion
1.5 cup cream
1 braai package of chicken
salt and pepper to taste
Pasta for 3
Procedure:
Put water on to boil 2 hours ago
Cook chicken in the frying pan, because it's the only pan you have. With salt and pepper
When the chicken is finished, leave the juices in the pan, but remove the meat. Saute the onion and garlic in the rest of the juices. Add mushrooms after 5 minutes, tossing occasionally for 5 more minutes.
While the veggies are heating, cut the chicken off the bone.
Add wine to the pan, boil and simmer for a few minutes. Let's call it 5 minutes.
Go back to trying to get the chicken off the bone before the dog gets to it. For those of you into Namibian music, I accidentally typed that "The Dogg."
Add the cream to the pan and turn down the heat just before boiling, so that it will simmer for another... oh... 5 minutes (but it can be left over low heat for a while). Add the chicken.
If you're lucky, now would be the perfect time to cook the pasta!
Serves 3 volunteers (about 5 normal people)
For the fourth of July, I went "Treat-yo'-self" and bought feta cheese and mixed it into burger patties. Very good decision! With avocado and tomato and lettuce and home-made barbeque sauce made by a PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer, for those not ITK (In the Know)).
I've been making a lot of cream-based soups with sausage and spinach, which have been turning out well.
Tonight, I made a nice veggie and noodle soup.
Ingredients:
One package of Knolls Curry Vegetable Soup Mix
1/3 large onion (probably could use 1/2)
1 clove garlic (could definitely use 2)
2 small green tomatoes (probably want to use 3)
1 small green pepper (probably could use 2)
about 1.5 cups frozen veggie mix (could definitely push this to 2 cups)
.75 L water to cook 2 cups uncooked macaroni (could probably cut the pasta in half if you're not going to add more veggies--the ratio I ended up with was really off)
Procedure:
cook pasta
While water is boiling etc cut veggies and saute fresh ones until the onions are translucent
Add frozen veggies to the cooked veggies, and keep over low-medium heat until they melt
Combine the soup mix with about 3 cups of water
Add cooked pasta and its water to the veggies
stir
add soup mix + water
bring to a boil
simmer for like... oh.... 5 minutes. I think. (I say five minutes when I don't know how long I left it for. It was enough time to wash the pasta pot and put away some other dishes and stir it a few times)
Enjoy with 3 other friends! Or save some for tomorrow... there are about 4 servings.
And one last recipe for you.
You will need:
Spoon
Peanut butter
Apple
Procedure:
open jar of peanut butter by twisting off the lid
put spoon end of spoon into the jar
scoop out as much peanut butter as will fit in the spoon (or catch some in your mouth as it falls)
spread on each bite of your apple.
hopefully, you will have an excess of peanut butter.
If you do, don't waste it. Put it in yo' mouf (Sorry I couldn't wait!)
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Monday, August 5, 2013
Sunshine and Yoga
After hours of exams in the morning, and hours of study in the afternoon, I gave an open invitation to all of the learners to join me for yoga over in the sports complex. Walking out to the brick area by the basketball courts, the sun was shining warmly. Water bottle in hand, and learners in tow, I stretched out, ready to lead them in yoga.
20 learners joined me, and we moved through the vinyasa, sun salutations and a warrior flow. Then we came to child's pose, and as I was introducing it, I suggested that they pretend someone was sitting on their back, pushing down, as they stretched their hands out as far as they would go. Opposing forces to stretch your back. Well, the girls decided that pretending was too much. Why pretend, when you have a good friend ready and willing to sit on you. So they partnered up and helped each other achieve a deeper stretch, then resumed trying to get that feeling on their own.
The learners all took it super seriously, but not too seriously. They were there to stretch and free their minds from the classroom, under the open sky, saluting the sun before it sank behind the trees. We worked hard for more than 30 minutes of solid yoga.
Tomorrow will be a core-focused day. Boats, twists and backbends galore.
20 learners joined me, and we moved through the vinyasa, sun salutations and a warrior flow. Then we came to child's pose, and as I was introducing it, I suggested that they pretend someone was sitting on their back, pushing down, as they stretched their hands out as far as they would go. Opposing forces to stretch your back. Well, the girls decided that pretending was too much. Why pretend, when you have a good friend ready and willing to sit on you. So they partnered up and helped each other achieve a deeper stretch, then resumed trying to get that feeling on their own.
The learners all took it super seriously, but not too seriously. They were there to stretch and free their minds from the classroom, under the open sky, saluting the sun before it sank behind the trees. We worked hard for more than 30 minutes of solid yoga.
Tomorrow will be a core-focused day. Boats, twists and backbends galore.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Inauguration, A Brief Summary
I know I didn’t update you all right away about the amazing
event we had here on the 22nd.
The school was officially opened by the President of Namibia. A speech
was given, a plaque was revealed, a dance was done (video below!). Our learners were such troopers! With a long
morning which was supposed to be filled with our school’s cultural groups and
presentations but was instead filled with miscommunication, they kept smiles on
their faces and welcomed the President, Minister of Education and other major dignitaries
with full hearts.
First: Links to the videos of the dance!
Rehearsal for the dance. Electric Slide=Dance De Familia!
Rehearsing the transition from a Damara song into an Oshivambo song
Performing for the President! (It was really windy, so sorry about the sound)
Second: Pictures!
After the president's speech and lunch, our learners took the stage to present cultural dances to remaining guests and visitors. We had lots of laughs, and one Kwaito group from a neighboring school even took the stage and showed us their moves!
I think my favourite part of the day was cleaning up and
re-setting up the school the way it normally is. We had to move all of the tables and benches
out of the dining hall, and shift a lot of tables and chairs around in the
classrooms for the event. That
afternoon, we shifted everything back.
The kids were amazing with this.
A group of four grade 11 boys kept asking, “Miss, what next?” all afternoon. Never a “Miss, we’re tired” or a “Miss, we’ve
done enough.” Always “What’s next?”
First: Links to the videos of the dance!
Rehearsal for the dance. Electric Slide=Dance De Familia!
Rehearsing the transition from a Damara song into an Oshivambo song
Performing for the President! (It was really windy, so sorry about the sound)
Second: Pictures!
 |
| Our dining hall, full of learners, teachers and community members |
 |
| The President of Namibia, inaugurating the school. Behind him are many Ministers and dignitaries. |
 |
| Our learners, lined up to welcome His Excellency, the Honourable Pohamba |
 |
| Learners dancing Kavango dances |
 |
| Damara Nama Stap dances |
 |
| Vambo Dancers |
 |
| Still looking sharp after dancing |
I helped motivate some of the less enthusiastic young men
and women by partnering up with the smallest grade 8 girls to carry benches
back to the dining hall, purposefully walking past all of the grade 11
learners, and talking loudly about how strong this little girl was, and how it
was too bad that no one else at the school was so strong. Blows to ego can get people going fast!
I was incredibly motivated to get the school running back to
normal, and I was so excited by the prospect that positive energy just exuded
from me, which helped a lot. That and
the music blasting from the new speakers in the dining hall!
Overall, the event was filled with motivational speeches
from Governors, Ministers and the President, great food and loving, highly
disciplined learners. And the day was beautiful. Best of all, the day is over!
Now on to exams!
ICT Conference in Ongwediva *An announcement at the end*
This weekend, the school counsellor, the Information and Communication
Technology (ICT) teacher, and I attended a conference hosted by WorldTeach on
ICT in schools. We travelled for twelve hours to get there, most of that time also travelling with our circuit inspector (pretty much equivalent to a superintendent in the US), and other teachers and the principal from Rundu Secondary School. We spent the night at Bennie's Entertainment Park and Conference Center, which was nice... complementary hot breakfast, yes please! Amanda, the semester volunteer in Rundu, and I, had dinner with Bret, who did a great job planning the conference and Mallory, another semester volunteer.
We heard from volunteers
about their achievements and struggles with ICT in the classroom, then
discussed ways to overcome some of the challenges present.
I thought it was pretty cool to show people the direction of
technology in Namibian classrooms, and other teachers, principals and circuit
officials were very impressed by the technology that we have at Vision
School. Other volunteers mentioned that
Smartboards etc are coming to their schools.
I think this tangible knowledge that technology is coming helped
motivate other schools to start preparing their teachers now with laptops,
internet and training to embrace technology as soon as it arrives.
It was also great to see the other volunteers for a bit! I
met the summer volunteers, and roomed with Sherri, a teacher from Kansas who
has so much experience with teacher training and teaching at so many
levels.
She helped me a lot, and provided me with hand-outs, ideas,
links and names to help me next year, when I am the Teaching Fellow for
WorldTeach Namibia. This position will
mean that I continue on for another year at RVS, and work with WorldTeach to
train incoming volunteers and provide teaching-related support to them as they
start their career as a volunteer teacher here. I will be in Namibia for another year!
In other news, back in Divundu, goats
are able to sneak through the school fence and have eaten all our shrubs around
campus. Now to find a way to keep them from the soccer pitch so they don’t get
to that grass.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Pictures from Inauguration
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Classroom
One of the great parts about this grand opening inauguration is that EVERYTHING is at the school now--chairs, tables, lab supplies, computers, paper: everything! So that means that we get to move into our own classrooms.
This has been one of the parts of being a teacher which I have been looking forward to the most. I have my own classroom now! I share it with the school counsellor, who also teaches Life Skills with me. I've been laying out chalk boards, white boards, posters and desks. It's almost completed! I've recruited learners from one class to help me to make posters for my room, so the boards will be completely filled with various Life-Skills-Related-Tidbits tomorrow or so. It feels like I have a place to belong now. I couldn't be more happy about this. 8 groups of 4 learners, desks for art supplies, and a table by the door to pick up books on their way in (thank you Mr. Baier for that idea), posters about time management, summarizing skills, communication, stress, smiling, and relationships, homework/notice board with the objectives for the week, messages on the mirror about smiling (thank you KD for that idea). I think I've said "my classroom" about 50 times more than is necessary in the last 2 days.
This has been one of the parts of being a teacher which I have been looking forward to the most. I have my own classroom now! I share it with the school counsellor, who also teaches Life Skills with me. I've been laying out chalk boards, white boards, posters and desks. It's almost completed! I've recruited learners from one class to help me to make posters for my room, so the boards will be completely filled with various Life-Skills-Related-Tidbits tomorrow or so. It feels like I have a place to belong now. I couldn't be more happy about this. 8 groups of 4 learners, desks for art supplies, and a table by the door to pick up books on their way in (thank you Mr. Baier for that idea), posters about time management, summarizing skills, communication, stress, smiling, and relationships, homework/notice board with the objectives for the week, messages on the mirror about smiling (thank you KD for that idea). I think I've said "my classroom" about 50 times more than is necessary in the last 2 days.
Three Days and Counting
Three days until the grand opening of the first ever Vision School in Namibia, and things are all coming together!
This weekend, we rehearsed for many hours for a large dance that will be the focal performance from the school during the inauguration ceremony, in front of the President of Namibia, as well as a multitude of dignitaries, ministers and other really important people. On Monday, the principal informed us that we needed to make the dance over 10 minutes long (doubling the time of the performance). Ms. Mupiri, Mr. Kapisi and I stayed up late coming up with new choreography, and we were super worried, because the choreography we had done had taken the learners a week to learn. But the next day, we added two solid minutes of choreography (they call the electric slide moves "dance de familia" here, and that takes up a lot of time! Thank you high school gym class!), a train into an RVS formation, and a specialty dance group. Boom--these kids are all awesome! We doubled the length of the dance in less than three hours of rehearsal. And tonight, we showed all of the staff, and everyone was very, very pleased and impressed, and I am still just glowing with pride, 4 hours later. AND the kids are starting to understand what it means to be timely--they were all in their positions for the beginning of the dance before the teachers had all arrived. Seriously baller, dedicated, talented kids, I'm telling you.
I have learned so much about myself and what adaptability means in the past week. I have always struggled with asking for help and clarification, and I continue to work on that every day. I didn't really realize how much theatre practice from the US was ingrained in the way I expect things to run. Scheduling here is much more flexible (especially when it comes to ending times for events/rehearsals/meetings etc), and the structure of a rehearsal is as well. There is not so much of a director who makes executive decisions, but rather a discussion. That aspect of Namibian even preparation was the hardest for me to adjust to, because moments, comments, adjustments and changes felt like challenges to my ability, worth and experience, and I got super defensive. But on Monday, after a long rehearsal with a lot of these discussion-based rehearsals and hot tempers (mostly mine), we cooled down and discussed the cultural differences and where we could meet each other in the middle. It frustrates me that things will take longer here, but the result is still a polished, high-quality dance, so that's what matters. How we get there can be different, but different is not always bad or wrong. I think a lot people are learning that this week, myself most of all.
I've also decided that I'm going to try saying "Yes, And" every time that I would say "No, But." I think that little bits of positivity throughout the day will help me. Monday was a really, really rough day, and with a lot of positive effort, I feel as though I've really become more culturally adapted to this school, this job and this role.
**obviously, a video of this dance will come VERY SOON, but I don't want anyone reading my blog from Windhoek/elsewhere in Namibia to see it before these kids debut for the Pres!**
This weekend, we rehearsed for many hours for a large dance that will be the focal performance from the school during the inauguration ceremony, in front of the President of Namibia, as well as a multitude of dignitaries, ministers and other really important people. On Monday, the principal informed us that we needed to make the dance over 10 minutes long (doubling the time of the performance). Ms. Mupiri, Mr. Kapisi and I stayed up late coming up with new choreography, and we were super worried, because the choreography we had done had taken the learners a week to learn. But the next day, we added two solid minutes of choreography (they call the electric slide moves "dance de familia" here, and that takes up a lot of time! Thank you high school gym class!), a train into an RVS formation, and a specialty dance group. Boom--these kids are all awesome! We doubled the length of the dance in less than three hours of rehearsal. And tonight, we showed all of the staff, and everyone was very, very pleased and impressed, and I am still just glowing with pride, 4 hours later. AND the kids are starting to understand what it means to be timely--they were all in their positions for the beginning of the dance before the teachers had all arrived. Seriously baller, dedicated, talented kids, I'm telling you.
I have learned so much about myself and what adaptability means in the past week. I have always struggled with asking for help and clarification, and I continue to work on that every day. I didn't really realize how much theatre practice from the US was ingrained in the way I expect things to run. Scheduling here is much more flexible (especially when it comes to ending times for events/rehearsals/meetings etc), and the structure of a rehearsal is as well. There is not so much of a director who makes executive decisions, but rather a discussion. That aspect of Namibian even preparation was the hardest for me to adjust to, because moments, comments, adjustments and changes felt like challenges to my ability, worth and experience, and I got super defensive. But on Monday, after a long rehearsal with a lot of these discussion-based rehearsals and hot tempers (mostly mine), we cooled down and discussed the cultural differences and where we could meet each other in the middle. It frustrates me that things will take longer here, but the result is still a polished, high-quality dance, so that's what matters. How we get there can be different, but different is not always bad or wrong. I think a lot people are learning that this week, myself most of all.
I've also decided that I'm going to try saying "Yes, And" every time that I would say "No, But." I think that little bits of positivity throughout the day will help me. Monday was a really, really rough day, and with a lot of positive effort, I feel as though I've really become more culturally adapted to this school, this job and this role.
**obviously, a video of this dance will come VERY SOON, but I don't want anyone reading my blog from Windhoek/elsewhere in Namibia to see it before these kids debut for the Pres!**
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