Morokeni (hello)
blog readers!
Sorry for the long gap in between posts… I have not one
legitimate excuse, there have been a combination of deterrents. In any case,
I’ll try to catch you up a bit!
Bad news first…Bekah (my dog) is gone. She has disappeared
into my village somewhere, most likely not on her own volition. My friends here
in Mayenzere tell me it is not unlikely that someone has taken her. It’s very
sad, but it’s been about a month now…so I don’t think she’s coming back.
Happier things:
I’m proud to announce the school library opened on March 4th,
and has been a huge success so far! The first day it was open we had 70
visitors, and since then we’ve been averaging about 50. The room is small, so
all the learners line up outside and I let a few in at a time, trying to keep
the internal chaos to a minimum. Everywhere I go I see learners carrying their
library books… I’ve even had to ask a few to put their books away while I’m
teaching! Each of my English classes elected 4 library helpers, who I have been
teaching how to check books in and out, repair older books and organize the
books into their classifications. Most of the books were here when I came to
Mayenzere, but they were in boxes in a classroom, not being used. I’ve also had
some donations from family in the US, and the Ministry of Education even sent
some to our school last week! So, slowly but surely, the collection is growing.
Teaching is going well, for the most part. I have bad days
of course…where every lesson I planned goes horribly wrong, or simply goes over
their heads, or is interrupted by a mandatory teachers meeting… but the good
days make up for all of that. I’m constantly discovering new areas where my
students need help, and those topics get recycled into my lessons for the next
week. For instance, last week I discovered that my 6th graders had
no idea what an opposite was, and my 7th graders didn’t know the
word weather… so this week we’re learning antonyms and weather vocabulary. :)
Sometimes I get so caught up in the idea of preparing them for the outrageous
exams they must take, that I forget that my learners have only been speaking
English a few years… sometime it’s good to take a few steps back and realize
that we need to go back to the beginning and lay some more groundwork. So, it’s
a learning process for all of us. But I think we’ll accomplish a lot this year!
I’ve been staying very busy the past month or two, I’ve
hardly been in my village a whole weekend! (My towering laundry pile is
evidence of this!) Among my travels have been two trips to Windhoek for Peace
Corps meetings. One of them was a planning meeting for Camp Glow (Girls and
guys leading our world). It’s a youth camp for Namibians, focusing on topics
like leadership, self-esteem, health, and co-operation. I’m very excited about
it – especially because one of my grade 7 learners has been accepted to go! I’m
very proud of her, and glad she’ll get this opportunity to meet other learners
from around Namibia, and develop her skills as a leader. I’ve also spent some
time in Rundu, saying goodbye to the group 33 volunteers as they finished their
service and started heading home.
This weekend I also had to pleasure of hosting my first
couch surfers! Couchsurfers.org is a website dedicated to helping travelers
make connections with people all over the world. When I edited my profile with
my Namibian information, I was not really expecting a lot of interest… but I’ve
had two requests already! Last night I had the awesome opportunity to host 3
Ukrainians who have been traveling all over southern Africa. It was great to
hear about their trip, tell them a bit about Kavango, and learn from then about
Ukrainian culture.
Okay….I think that all for now! If any of you have any
questions, I’d be happy to answer them, just leave me a comment or message me
on facebook! Mbaa (good bye) for now!
