Paint Your Face Yellow

This week will be the third week I have been teaching at A.I. Steenkamp primary school. When I started a couple of weeks ago, it was their first day of school. Last week the teams for athletics were announced and both teachers and the learners became very excited and focused on their training. Practices were held everyday after school and only the top three athletes were chosen to compete in the track and field events. All of the other schools had their athletic practices during school, but our principal emphasized that learning should be the focus during the school day.

Well today was finally the day were all of the learner's hard work paid off. The five of us who were placed at Steenkamp got to school a little bit earlier than usual, dressed in the colors of our team. I was the only person placed on the yellow team. We enthusiastically greeted the students that were on our teams and told the other teams that yellow team would come away as the champions. All of the teams separated and started doing their own cheers, then we walked to a nearby stadium. All of my learners were incredibly excited and the stadium was filled with laughter and cheering. The red, blue, and yellow teams had their own space in the stadium. Competing athletes had face paint put on their face, and the crowd did cheers like, "Yellow Team is number one, blue team is number two" and "We will rock you." I had my entire face painted yellow, which proved hard to get off. By the end of the day, I kind of looked like I had jaundice.

My job was to help with the shot put, so I helped measure the distances that were thrown with a roll-up tape measure. It sort of brought back some memories of when I threw in high school. I even threw the shot once, and my students were very impressed. I got to watch the races a little bit while I was working. I had made signs for all of my learners who were on my team. However, I didn't really get to use them, because I was working the shot put. I still got to cheer and watch the events a little bit though. Liz was nice enough to lend me her camera for a little bit and I got to take some pictures. I was then bombarded with my learners, who wanted me to "capture" them.

all of the athletes run barefoot

 After athletics, Allison, Sam, and I went to the Dolam Children's Home, where we volunteer once a week. The children's home is a place where kids can go when they do not have the best home life. Dolam provides a safe environment for about 15 kids ranging in ages from 8 to 16. Today I taught some of the kids how to play chicken foot dominoes. Then,  Gustav, one of the boys who lives there who was also on yellow team, came in to say that yellow team won. I was super excited and proud for all of my learners. After dominoes, we were taught how to dance, which was super fun. It was yet another amazing day in Namibia. I am going to be so sad when I have to leave everybody I have met here in a month!