Further adventures with African wildlife...

Mamiko really wanted a pet, so she caught a chameleon (fimbi in Oshikwanyama). Namibians (teachers and learners alike) are deathly afraid of chameleons. That chameleon escaped so she was looking for a new one. My 11H class found one in their classroom one day so they caught it for Mamiko. When I mentioned that I thought chameleons were cool, and admired Mamiko’s, some of my learners went on a mission to find me my own. 11H offered to sell me one for $50, but one of my grade 12s (Johnny…he wants to marry my sister and move to the US) caught one and brought it to me as a gift. He wanted me to name it John after him, but I named him Bartholomew instead. Some grade 12 learners were carrying some stereo equipment to my place to store and when I mentioned the fimbi I swear they all screamed like little girls and ran away as fast as they could. They all clearly think I’m crazy. Barty hung out on my front window curtain for about a week, before he made his great escape. I felt bad keeping him cooped up in here, so it’s all for the best. But he will be missed.

Even the copier is tired...

I’ve needed to make quite a few copies since I’ve arrived. At first I wasn’t sure of the protocol…I was told to give papers to meme Monica in the office, not realizing that really I can make my own copies whenever. So I gave her a large stack of things I needed to be copied, and she asked me if she could do them tomorrow, since the copier had been working hard and was too tired to do them that afternoon.

A Bug's Life

I am living in relative harmony with a variety of bugs. That’s not to say that I haven’t been killing them, but you just get used to them. I had to kill a massive beetle (and I’m not exaggerating, this thing was almost as big as my fist) not really because I wanted to, but because it was making so much noise running around. I had a spider friend, named Fred, but he died in a freak accident when my map fell off the wall. R.I.P. Fred. He was survived by his cousins, Watson, in the bathroom, and Sid and Nancy, in the kitchen. But my leniency led to more spiders and they started to take advantage of me and run all over, so the cease-fire ended this week and if it’s not fast enough, then it dies. The totally sweet bug tent that I got at one of the China shops in Oshikango is the most amazing thing. Every night I zip myself in and sleep peacefully knowing that the bugs and spiders can’t get to me. And as a bonus I feel like I’m having a grand camping adventure, but with the comfort of a mattress.

Oddities

My friend Jena is teaching primary school in Swakopmund. Swakop is on the coast and is vastly different than the north. I haven’t been yet, but from what I’ve been told it is more like a colonial Germany than Africa. She’s had some interesting encounters…like the learner that heiled Hitler one day! I haven’t had anything like that, but there have been two questions that I’ve been repeatedly asked…do I know where Osama bin Laden is and is Tupac really dead? It’s rather bizarre.

Finally!

Hi everyone! Sorry that it has taken me so long to post an update…my internet connection has not been cooperating! But I finally got a chance to get on and I have a lot to say so here goes…

I’ve made it through 4 weeks of teaching! I can hardly believe it. They have me teaching grade 11 English and grade 12 Life Skills. There are eight 40-minute periods in a school day and most days I’m teaching for at least six of those periods. It’s exhausting…by 1:30 I’m usually ready for a nap.

My schedule has been set since I arrived up north, but some of my friends at other schools are still waiting on a final schedule. I have to say that overall I seem to be faring pretty well in my placement. Not only is my school pretty organized, but my living situation is very satisfactory too. I’m not living at the Ritz, but I have running water (it’s cold, but it’s kind of nice since it’s always hot) and that counts for a lot. My biggest problem was a fridge that actually got hotter when plugged in, but the ministry has since brought me a new fridge that keeps my food cold.

***update…my schedule has actually now changed, twice, and I think it’s going to change again next week. I spoke too soon.

This past week has been especially busy. Two weekends ago I had some learners help me clean up the library, which has made me the de facto librarian. So every afternoon after school I have to be in the library until around 5. The learners have a mandatory after school study hour from 2:30 to 3:30 and the English Club started meeting on Thursdays during that hour. Somehow I ended up being in charge of fundraising activities for the debating club so that they can travel. So we’re going to do some movie nights, a bake sale, a raffle…any other ideas that I’m missing? Also, I woke up too early on Saturday morning and am now in charge of the women’s basketball team. I have absolutely no basketball skills, so this should be interesting. If nothing else they’ll be fit, since I’ll make them run and do lots of push-ups (that’s a shout out to you, Uncle Sean!).

Back in Windhoek

A lot of this week was spent in classes but here are some of the highlights from the past week (Dad, I think you will be very jealous of some of these things):

- We started language lessons on Monday. Since I'll be up in the central

north, the dialect I've been learning is called Oshikwanyama. Our wonderful teacher was Meekulu Ida Maria. It was very much a crash course in the basics, but here are some of the things we learned:

wa lele po - good morning

wa uhala po - good afternoon

wa tokelwa po - good evening

okatoileta oke li peni? - Where is the toilet?

oshebeen oi li peni? - Where is the bar?

oxuxwa oi naingapi? - How much is the chicken?

ondi ku hole unene - I love you very much

Here's a sample dialogue:

Wa lele po meekulu (Good morning ma'am)

Ehee (yes, good)

Nawa tuu? (are you sure?)

Ehee, ove, wa lele po yo? (yes, and how is your morning?)

And so it goes on. This is your standard greeting and it is considered very rude if you don't greet people properly. You have to greet everyone with a hello, how are you.

- On Tuesday night we went to eat at a traditional restaurant called Xwama. They actually forgot that we were coming, but it ended up working out okay in the end. We ate oxuxwa (chicken, and I mean the whole chicken), oshifima (a porridge that is like a cross between grits and polenta) some tripe (not a fan) and then finished off the meal with this drink called oshikundu that was strangely delicious, sort of like drinking salad dressing. The after-dinner entertainment was supposed to be a dance group performance, but they were never booked due to the mix-up so we had to finish up with our own dance circle. It involved dancing solo in the middle of the circle while singing a song that translated to "take it, take it, give it, give it" and then you got out of the circle by going up to someone else and basically thrusting your hips at them.

- Wednesday night was the eve of my friend Kristen's birthday and we celebrated with a lot of South African wine. We rocked an amazing game of pictionary, followed by some thumper, and then evening culminated in an impromptu swim in the pool. Unfortunately, I was nudged into the pool with my cell phone on me...it is now dead. I tried to dry it out the next day, but to no avail. So I ended up giving it to one of the ladies that works at the hostel, not totally sure what she plans to do with it. I got a new phone though, with the same number so all is well.

- Tonight we learned how to play the drums from Moses. Dad, I'll see if I can get him to teach you when you come for a visit! I'll post some pictures tomorrow after I get them off Kyle and Jena's cameras.

Tomorrow we have a celebratory dinner at a local restaurant and then we're throwing a big party at the hostel with all our Windhoek friends.

Etosha!

So this morning we headed to Etosha. We left early, around 7am (the gates opened at 6:30), so we'd have a better chance of seeing some lions. Once we got there one of the guides offered to drive around with us for free for some reason. He warned us that since there has been so much rain recently, causing the salt pans to be really full, that it would be more difficult to see animals. When the salt pans are dried up the animals have limited water sources, making it pretty easy to find them. Pretty much right away we were greeted by a teeny tiny dik-dik and shortly thereafter, a couple of giraffe. So beautiful, but also very odd looking...I wouldn't want to ride one. We also saw: a hyena, water buffalo, oryx, kudu, springbok, birds, lizards, elephants, jackals, zebras, vultures, wildebeasts, more giraffe and some others that I'm sure I'm forgetting right now. No lions were spotted, although we saw some lion tracks that we tried tracking for awhile...but to no avail. I wasn't too disappointed though since I know that I will definitely make it back to Etosha before the year is out. So here are some photos, in no particular order:

Vultures!
Lots of zebras roaming around
No clue what kind of lizard this is, only that it was very large
I love the clouds here, I never get tired of looking at them.
The northern entrance gate

My favorite giraffe picture

Here are some oryx by the salt pan, however, there was no dancing today
A kudu
Highlight of the day for me...hyena picking at a giraffe carcass!

The cutest little dik-dik greeted us as we drove in