This past weekend has given me a recharge for this week of teaching. I was able to go right after school on Friday and travel to Ongwediva to meet up with some of the other volunteers. Onwediva is about an hour and a half away on a good travelling day. I caught a ride down the road to the hike point with one of the other teachers and then hopped in the back of a pickup truck driving by going toward Ondangwa. From Ondangwa I then caught a taxi that was going into Onwediva and they dropped me off at Benny’s. Benny’s is a wonderful amusement/lodging park that has a pool, water slide, and wonderful rooms to stay in overnight. I met up with Monique and we checked into a room. The moment we walked in I instantly fell in love with this place! It had a comfortable bed with a pillow (exciting because I left my pillow in a lodge on accident while I was travelling up north and I’ve been using my sleeping bag as a pillow ever since) and it also had….RUNNING WATER! It was crazy to be able to turn the faucet and be able to shower and wash my face whenever I wanted to. At my home in Onambutu I shower in a tin structure outside and carry my water in a bin and wash my hair with my water bottle.
The weekend was so wonderful. Monique and I eventually met up with two other volunteers who hung out with us for the weekend and stayed with us. We were able to swim in the pool and on the second day I got a pedicure. I think I take many things for granted when I’m in the U.S. however, I didn’t realize that properly taking care of my feet was one of them. We also went dancing on Saturday night at the club at the hotel. It was pretty much dead there so the four of us busted out our dance moves and requested songs freely. I requested my new favorite song called “Windeck” (it’s an Angolan song) and the others requested Beyonce. Yes we busted a move to “Single Ladies”!
On Sunday I stayed in Ongwediva until about 5:30. I was able to grab my groceries on the way out to put into my hiking backpack. I also bought puppy supplies. In two weeks I will be picking up my new puppy! I am beyond excited to be bringing him home with me and train him. Because I live in my house alone it gets very lonely at night. This puppy is two weeks old right now so I’ll be getting him when he is a month old. He is black and white (not sure what kind of dog it is it’s probably a mix) and I’m naming him Hunter. I have a teacher who has offered to take him at the end of the year when I come home.
As for my teaching and an update on that…I don’t have much yet. On average I teach about four classes a day. I’m teaching English to grades 8A and 8B and I’m teaching computers (also called BIS here) to grades 8A, 8B, 8C, 9A, 9B, 10A, and 10B. That is 9 classes total! Right now I’m trying to find the best system I can to keep track of what I’ve done in each of the classes in order to plan better. In my English classes so far they have written introduction papers and played some introductory games. In my BIS classes I’ve asked them to write introductions and let me know what they remember from the other WorldTeach volunteer from last year. She was here for two months teaching them some basic computer skills.
It’s been extremely hard to plan because I haven’t taught any of these subjects before and I need to get a sense of how much English or computers they know. The learners here are for the most part quiet and are having a hard time participating and asking questions. They are used to most of their teachers writing on the board and having them copy it down. My teaching style is much different than I think they are used to so it may take some time.
I’m personally having a hard time with how little information I’m given. We had a staff meeting today about ordering composition notebooks for our classes and I think the teachers may forget that I won’t know how everything is done. I end up having to beg the Head of Department for Languages to help me understand what’s going on. Hopefully as the year goes on I’ll be more self-sufficient with a lot of these things.
Also during the staff meeting today they were talking about the sports starting up after school here. They also mentioned that they need to raise some money for some equipment and jerseys for the girl’s netball team. I’m mentioning it here because maybe some people back home would be interested in donating a few dollars for their cause! Feel free to contact me if you are interested either on here or through email (cewing22@gmail.com) I was talking to the coach and he said they need about 1,000 Namibian dollars which is about $125 US.
Peace and Love,
Chelsea
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