My Last Monday

When I woke up I was in an unbelievably good mood. I could not stop smiling because I was going to make the best of the last three days I had with my learners. We had been voluntold to lead devotion during our staff meeting. My contribution was leading "Peace Like a River." We were a little pitchy, but eventually got the hang of it. Afterwards our principal came up to us and told us how much she like the song and how she wanted us to sing it again before we left. Allison led the actual devotion for our staff meeting and then Liz led the devotion for the assembly. Both girls did a tremendous job and spoke to the message of fighting and beating. Allison challenged the teachers to make every interaction with learners a positive one and to question each interaction to see if it is positive. It was pretty well received. There were several "mmmhmmms" and "amens." One of the head of departments even took it to type it. Liz put a challenge to the learners to treat others the way you want to be treated, so if you get beaten walk away and pray for them.

After the devotion the guidance counselor invited us all up to say something to all of the learners. I just briefly thanked everyone for being so welcoming and told them that I learned a lot and that I would never forget them. I made it brief because I was about to cry.

 Within the last couple of years, the school has instituted a reading period right after break. Each grade level is provided with a reading selection to spend the entire week on. The reading selections are not ideal. This week's selection has two sentences. It reads (the capitalization error is included):

Arabs often give names to their camels. The name of the camel on the left is Camil. the one in the middle is called Hakim and Fredda is the name of the camel which is kneeling.

A picture is included with "Arabs" and their camels. Comprehension questions are included such as, "What are the men and women in the picture?" and  "In their country, there is never any rain. What do we call a country where rain never falls?"

It did not provide a whole lot to work with because it is so short. So, we labeled the camels in the picture (first we had to learn the trick for distinguishing right from left), then we voted on a name for our "class" camel. Kristin was unanimously chosen, which I am not sure if I should be flattered or offended. We then sang "Sally the Camel, except it was changed to "Kristin the Camel." They liked the "Boom, boom, boom" part.

When I was teaching English today I was interrupted by my teacher, who asked which of the students who of them had lost a parent. Probably about seven of my students raised their hands. She called on them one by one and asked if it was their mother, father, or both. It was required for school records, but still.

My day ended with me breaking up a fight with two of my learners. I had to physically tear them off of each other. They were sent to the office, but the sad thing is is that they were probably beaten in the office.

I feel like this blog post is not as positive as it usually is. I would not say that today was a bad day, but it was just a little disappointing. I recognize that each school, and each job for that matter has some frustrations and disappointments. My biggest frustration and disappointment today was just the fact that I did not get to teach as much as I would have liked, in my own teaching style. However, I arranged to teach a math and a science class tomorrow, so hopefully tomorrow feels like a more productive day.

To end on a positive note, I took my camera into school today. Everybody wanted me to "catch" a picture of them, so here are some from today. Enjoy!

Me with some of my 5C learners

My classroom seems a great deal smaller when there are learners in the desks

And The Rain Came Down

All students who enter the Education program get to take a literacy class, which is taught by the wonderful Judy Hassen. Everyday in class, Judy would model for us how to do a read aloud. On one memorable occasion, she read us was a predictable text that had the same repeating line of "And the Rain Came Down." When we knew it was coming, the whole class would read along with Judy "and the rain came down."

On Friday at school, we got out of the car and the rain came down. I had gone briefly into my classroom and found that somehow during the night we had acquired three cabinets wrapped in plastic. The new addition made it even more difficult to move around in the classroom. One of my students came up to me and asked, "Where is the ant?" He was talking about the ant that we had used for prepositions the previous day. The ant was folding in half on the desk. My learner then said, "Oh, the ant is sleeping." 

The school was already severely flooded. There are cement walkways to most of the classroom buildings, but everything in between was flooded.  A pathway of bricks had been placed leading into the office, so that learners and teachers would not have to step in about three inches of water. During our staff meeting the principal mentioned how she could tell who the late ones were because they were soaking wet. We had beat the worst of it though. All the Steenkamp teachers looked out the window, and the rain came down. It was decided that the teachers would rotate to their classes instead of the learners. 

I went to my classroom to find that the majority of my students were either soaking or they had stripped off their uniforms and were wearing what they wore under their uniforms. There were many uniforms hanging from the windows trying to dry. In addition to being very wet, we were also tight on space because three filing cabinets had been randomly delivered and were sitting in our already snug classroom. My learners informed me that they could not sit because they were wet, I decided to teach them a song. They were supposed to have Afrikaans, but I did not know where the Afrikaans teacher was or my cooperating teacher. I was going to teach them the song, "Singing in the Rain," but the one where you do various actions along with the song. Before I had time to finish teaching the songs, the Afrikaans teacher came and I went to my other classroom. 

I went to observe our guidance counselor observe him teach Life Skills. Afterwards, I had an administrative period, where I got to interview my teacher about her life. While I was going to the office on my way to interview the teacher, I ran into Rudolf, his mother, and his brother. Rudolf's mom came up to me and acted like she knew who is was. I was slightly surprised. She introduced herself and said, "We hear too much about you!" 

We then went and had two periods of 5E English. One of the most frustrating parts of education for me is the seemingly randomness of the materials and the curriculum. My teacher gave the learners the spelling words on the board, they read them several times, and then it was time for the spelling test. The rest of the period was spent marking work. When I have a class for 35 minutes, I would much rather teach than correct work. I always try to collect the learners' books and grade them rather than to take class time to mark them. During lunch I worked with one grade 5 learner, who cannot read. 

After break, I was going to finish teaching my learners the song, but a teacher called me to go teach 5D because the class did not have a teacher. We had had a rough day in 5D the previous day, but we quickly settled down in our seats. We acted out multiplication problems. So for the problem 1X1=, we had one person hold up an arm for one. One person was the multiplication sign and made an X with his arms. The other person would hold up one of their arms and then a person would hold up their arms parallel to be an equals sign. The whole class would say the answer and then the number of people would come up as the answer. The whole class participated, which was very nice to see. When we did 5x6 the whole class had to stand at their desks so we could get an answer of 30. 

On Fridays my teacher has two periods of Afrikaans, so I went to go see Jenn's grade 1 classroom. It was incredibly different than in grade 5. She has the same learners for the whole day, but one of her main issues is that the majority of her learners do not speak English. There was quite a contrast between her classroom and mine. Her learner get out at noon, so I was rather surprised when one of my learners came to pick up his brother from her class. I asked him why he was not in class and he said that school had been let out. I saw grade 7 learners also out. I asked why school had been let out and the learners said that it was because the rains were coming. 

Jenn and I waited for about an hour for our cab to come. The rains did not come down. I guess they wanted to make sure that all of the learners were able to get home before the rains came down. After school some of us went to a traditional Namibian restaurant in Katutura. They served a sheep's head with porridge. I tried some sheep brain and ear. The ear was pretty fatty, but it tasted okay. The brain was pretty mushy and tasted kind of like tofu, flavorless.

 We got back to Casa and the rain came down. We did not have internet when we got back and did not have it until this morning. 

Today we went into town and finished up some last minute shopping. And the rain came down. Here's hoping the internet lasts. 

The First Last

A week from tomorrow we go home, which make me incredibly depressed. There will start to be many lasts and many goodbyes. Today I did not have the best day at school and I had to remind the learners that I only have four days left so I have to make the most of it. The day started off with me ending up teaching Life Skills. I usually teach Life Skills once a week, so I had something planned. However, I was just taken a bit off guard by having to teach it. We are learning about study skills, so I had them do an activity that they seemed to enjoy. I read to them a list of fifteen grocery items and then after I was done reading they were to write down as many as they remembered. Then I wrote them on the board and they had a few minutes to look over them and try to remember. We then talked about why they remembered more the second time and then the first. They said that they got to see the items and read them. We talked about how when you are told something once, like by a teacher you do not always remember it. But when you study something it stays with you for longer. We then talked about why it was important to study and how we studied. I also put to use a management technique that the school guidance counselor, who usually teaches the class, uses. When someone comes in late, someone of the opposite sex has to give them a hug. In grade 5 it is a big deal to be hugged by someone of the opposite sex. I have also instilled it for fighting as well. If learners come up to me and say, "So-and-so wants to beat me," I have them hug it out.

I feel like one period today was a major success, and then there were only a couple small successes in other classes. A minute before class my teacher told me she wanted to teach prepositions. So we went over sentences identifying nouns and verbs and some students thought prepositions were nouns or verbs. It was the perfect segue into prepositions. So I introduced them to what a preposition was. Earlier I had been making a teacher's aid and I was going to say "anywhere a mouse can go." However, the learners I was talking with did not know what a mouse was, so I changed it to anywhere an ant can go. I had a giant ant on a piece of paper and I had the students put it in different places. The learners got very excited. One girl put it between her back and her desk. I asked her where the ant was, she smiled and said, "behind." It was just amazing feeling knowing that they understood. I taught the same lesson to two other classes, but they were less focused.

The last period of the day one of my learners came and got me because they did not have a teacher. I asked what class it was and, of course, it was Afrikaans. Except half of the class was missing. It was not a productive period. The other half of the class was "working" with the principal, which consisted of running around and playing around the school. So I would have the learners in the classroom quiet, and then one of the other learners would come in a throw off the whole class. It made my day incredibly unsuccessful. I was incredibly frustrated and down afterwards.

Earlier in the week, I had had my 5E learners write letters to my learners back home. Then my teacher said I should just have my 5C learners do it because they are better communicators. Today during class one of my 5E learners told me that he had finished my letter and he gave it to me. I read it and it made my day worthwhile. This is what it said:

I am Rudolf and you are Brendan. I am very happy for you because Miss. Walker is going to teach you. So I think you are happy to see her and I was so happy to be teach by Miss. Walker. She is the best teacher in the world and I think you must respect her. I also respect her and I respect her so much and I respect her so much I will miss Miss. Walker so much. So you must respect Miss. Walker and I love Miss. Walker as much as you do. 


It made me cry. I am going to be so sad when I have to say goodbye to my learners. Tonight was the first of our goodbyes. Uanee, our Etosha guide, came by for a farewell dinner. When he drove up, Kayla and I ran to his truck and I hugged him and he picked me up with his hug. He is the best hugger and a dear friend, whom I respect and admire a great deal. We were sad to say our goodbyes, but thankful we got to see him one last time. 

Uanee

Zonal Athletics: Show Us What You Got!

Monday was the Zonal Athletic competition for Steenkamp and many other competing primary schools. We arrived at Steenkamp at our normal time and collected the competing athletes. The athletes who qualified were the ones who got first our second during our athletics. I had many learners competing, so it was incredibly fun to watch. During the school-wide athletics, we had walked to the stadium. However, during zonals the stadium was far away, so we had to take the school "bus." The Steenkamp bus is really a 16 passenger van, so we had to take two trips plus learners piled into the back of one of the Head of Department's pickup. As I waited for the bus to come I noticed that my class did not have a teacher for the day because both my teacher and I were going to athletics. 

We ended up getting everybody there. The stadium was very nice and big and there were about twelve other teams competing. Our school was the only school who did not have uniforms. It was kind of strange seeing a German school, who had predominantly white learners participating. They not only had uniforms, but they also had spiked shoes and starting blocks. One of my learners noticed this and said, "Miss, did you see there are people with your color skin who have spiked shoes. You must get for me." I told him that it was faster to run barefooted and his face lit up. We may not have had the equipment, but we had spirit, yes we did. It also helped that the night before we had a sign-making party, so during athletics there were signs for our learners to hold up. 

Two of my homeroom learners before school started

Some of my learners holding up the signs

One of my 5D learners, Wrechell, who is a fellow shot putter

One of the German learners competes in long jump

One of the grade 7 Steenkamp learners competing in long jump

 During this competition, we did not have to work. Therefore, we all had fun going around and watching our athletes compete, cheering, and "capturing" pictures. I got to see my learners compete in long jump, high jump, shot put, running, and hurdles.

A Steenkamp learner, who ended up taking first in the 75 m hurdles

My learners worked hard and competed well. We left before the competition ended, but I do not think we won. We had some great performances though and I loved watching and cheering on my learners. The competition took a break and the learners got a lunch break, which Hungry Lion (KFC equivalent) was provided for all of the learners. It was well-earned treat that the learners enjoyed. As I was sitting with my learners, they asked me if I would sing for them. So we sang the paddle song and the Schoolhouse Rock noun song that I had also taught them. It broke my heart.

A Namibian Birthday

On February 16, I celebrated my 22nd Birthday day. It was the best birthday I have ever had. I was so fortunate to get to celebrate it with my learners. When I arrived at school I was greeted by my learners, who instantly wished me a happy birthday. All day I had learners I knew and learners I did not know coming up to say happy birthday to me. I also got many cards and birthday hugs. One of my learners got me a plant and one of my boys got me a set of multicolored heart barrettes. I was just in an incredibly good mood all day. I could not stop smiling. One of my learners even asked me why I was so happy. I told him, "It's my birthday, can't I be happy on my birthday?"

I brought my homeroom, 5C, learners cake. However, since there are about 43 learners in that class, there is a rule put in place by my teacher for who gets cake. On a girl's birthday the girls get cake and on a boy's birthday the boys get cake. Therefore, only the girls brought cake, but I brought some sweets for the boys.

So I got cake and I also got sung to by all of my classes. I was just so happy that I got to spend my day with my amazing learners.

After school I went with Liz and our school's guidance counselor on a home visit. We visited one of my grade 5 students, who I teach English to at Steenkamp and I also have at the BNC.   It was so nice to see that Mousie was concerned about Odette's education and well-being. She asked us if Odette talked too much in class and her face lit up when we told her that Odette was always very focused in school and set a good example.

Mousie, lives with her four children in a room that is probably about the size of my dining room at home.The room contained a queen sized bed, a dresser, a fridge, and a table with hot pots and a hot water cooker on it. Even though by my standards the room was small, it was clean and decorated nicely with artwork and plants. There was a hanging plant suspended from the ceiling. We told Mousie and Odette that we had those in America. She told us that plants in your home shows that you have an open heart.

Liz had brought Almond Roca to give as a gift for opening their home to us. Mousie said that even after the Almond Roca was gone, they would keep the box on top of the fridge to remember the time when the two American women came to visit them. Odette and her mom started speaking in Damara. Suddenly Odette went outside and brought back a plant. She told us, "My mom wants me to give this to you. It is the only green one we have right now." It was just so sweet, which was a theme throughout the visit. Odette took us on a tour of where her extended family lived next door. They were also very friendly and it was interesting to see the contrast of living situations. For example, next door they were playing FIFA World Cup on their X-box.

After the wonderful visit, Liz and I went to the BNC. I taught English to my grade 4 and 5 kids, who also had made me cards. We read, did some writing, and I taught my grade 4 students a new song. My grade 4 students love music. I came home a little bit tired, but feeling extremely good about the day.

We had planned to have dinner as a group, just sharing pizza from the place down the street. I was incredibly, pleasantly, surprised though when all of my colleagues showed up in my room singing happy birthday with a lit cake. We ate our pizza and cake and discussed some of the classic lines that we hear from our learners. It was a great ending to a great day. My colleagues made me a card that said, "Would you rather have a birthday or a Namibian birthday?" Hands down I would rather have a Namibian birthday.

Monday + Valentine's Day

Here is a summary of my week, and I have to say it was a great one! My week began at 5:30 Monday morning, when I get up to start getting ready for school. I eat breakfast at 6 at Casa, and then we get picked up by cabs at 6:30 to get to school by 7:00. Allison, Alicia, Jenn, Liz, and I get dropped off at A.I. Steenkamp. We get greeted by our uniformed students, who are on their way to school. Everyday before school there is a staff meeting where there are hymns, a devotion, prayer, general announcements, and a message from the principal. The bell rings, which sounds like a siren, and then we go to assembly. At assembly all of the students are lined up by their grades and classes. The classes are grouped by their ability level, so 5A is supposedly the most capable, then 5B, 5C, etc. The most evidence of this grouping can be seen in the behavior of the class, but more on that later. During the assembly the prefects (Yes, just like in Harry Potter) lead hymns, the school song, and the national anthem as well as keep the students in line and disciplined.

On Monday, my teacher did not show up to school, which meant I was on my own for the day. Absenteeism is a problem with teachers. It is something that is addressed frequently during the principal's message. Teachers will just not show up to school and then there is nobody to watch their class. Some of us have had the pleasure of finding a classroom without a teacher and then scrambling to figure out something to teach them. Some of my other colleagues' teachers will also just leave the class because we are there and they do not have to teach. My teacher is good about coming to school, I have been left by myself before though.

When my teacher leaves, my biggest challenge in the classroom is behavior management. I have about 45 students in each class in a very small room that is very hard to move around in. Furthermore, even though corporal punishment was made illegal when Namibia became independent in 1990, it is still practiced throughout the school. The students do not behave as well for me, because they know I will not hit them. What is incredibly sad to me is that they will tell me that I need to beat them because otherwise they will not learn. Another thing is that the modelling of beating can be seen through the students when they beat up on each other. I have had to break up several fights inside and outside of class.

So on Monday I had some behavior management issues. Allison helped me teach in the afternoon. I wrote the word Valentines on the board and could take letters away if they were not doing what they were supposed to be doing. If they had one letter left we would play Valentine's Day Noun Bingo. My homeroom class lost all of their letters, so we did not play on Tuesday. 5E, which has the most behavior problems, was supposed to take a spelling test, but we could not get them to be quiet enough to take the test. 

In Namibia primary schools are like high school, where they switch classes along with the subjects. Each class period is 35 minutes, which is extremely short. Since my teacher teaches not only English, but also Afrikaans on Monday I had to teach Afrikaans. During the first Afrikaans class they taught me some Afrikaans and I taught them some Spanish. For the second class we just sang songs back and forth. It was fun. 

After school I went to visit the home of one of my students. Supposedly her uncle is a famous R&B singer. I got to see her home, which was interesting. It had a sheet metal roof, which was typical of houses in Katutura.  I talked with her aunt and her sister, as her mom was in bed and did not want to talk to me. It ended up being more like a conference than a traditional home visit. 

So my schedule for the week is that usually I go to Dolam Children's Home on Tuesdays and the BNC on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Dolam is a place where children can stay if they do not have a good home life. There are about 16 children there now, and I get to play and hang out with them once a week. It is amazing and is always a highlight of the week. The BNC is a after school program that is similar to the Boys and Girls Club. The children who go there get to play for awhile, then we teach class from 2:30-4:30. Last week I went to the BNC on Monday because I went there right after my home visit. I ended up not teaching, but doing some remedial reading work with some of my students. I also helped create a reading program for a couple of the students in grade 4. 

So Tuesday was Valentine's Day and I was super excited. All of my students were allowed to wear red and white instead of their normal uniforms. It was so cute seeing all of my learners super dressed up. One of the highlights on my day was going to the classroom next door to observe. My students had to give addresses to their secret admirers in front of the class while we listened to romantic music. The romantic music consisted of Celine Dion. Most of the students' addresses were like, "I want to wish a happy Valentine's day to my friends, parents, and teachers." They were all very embarrassed though. With 5E, we played Valentine's Noun Bingo. It was a little bit of a struggle for them to understand how BINGO worked. I called one word and they put up their hands and said, "bingo! bingo!" It was pretty fun though, now they ask me everyday if we are going to play Bingo. 

Since I have about 140 learners, I could not make each of them a Valentine I just brought them candy. I also had several students come up to me before Valentine's Day and asking if I would be their Valentine's partners. During one Afrikaans class I had a girl come up to me with a card. Inside of the card it said, "Dear Miss, will you be my Valentine's partner?" Then I had to check a box either yes or no. It was like a middle school flashback. I said yes of course though. I tried to ask her what being a Valentine's partner entailed, but she seemed confused by that question. I had several partners, who I made Valentines for. I also got quite a lot of cards from my learners that were incredibly sweet. 

Since my class lost Bingo, I read them the book "Wherever You Are My Love Will Find You" by Nancy Tillman. They loved the illustrations. The book's illustrations are of a boy with different animals. I had them predict what kind of animal  would be in the picture. The text was "whether you are sitting with friends" and had a picture of a boy sitting with pandas. I asked what kind of animals they would like to sit next to. One of my boys said Senovia, who is a girl in the class. She was really embarrassed and put her head down on her desk. Ah, young love. 

There are nine class periods in a day, including one reading period. During the reading period, we are given these awful passages to read with our classes. The one we were given this week was about canoes, so I taught them the song, "My paddle's clean and bright." As I sang, we mimed paddling canoes. During the song there are several parts where it says, "Dip, dip, and swing," so we dipped, dipped, and swung our paddles. Then at the end we say "dip, dip, and swing" three times, getting quieter each time. They loved it. It was so much fun. They asked to sing it everyday last week. 

After school I went to Dolam. I was incredibly excited to spend Valentine's Day with them, and I made them all cards. That day we played dominoes, like we usually do, slapping the dominoes on the table as hard as we can. Then we made Valentine's cards. Two of the girls, Bianca and Prisilla, made Valentines for everyone in our group even though they have never met some of them. Dolam is always a highlight of the week. I will write about the rest of my week tomorrow. It really was a great week last week. It makes me incredibly depressed that we only have less than two weeks left of our trip!

Pt. 2: Weekend in Swakopmund

This weekend has for the most part been one of rest and recuperation. Only half of us are at Casa, because the other half of our group is enjoying their turn of an exciting weekend in Swakopmund. Even though I am about a week behind, I would now like to write about the rest of our weekend in Swakopmund.

On Saturday we got up early-ish to drive to Walvis Bay. Many people live in Swakopmund and commute to Walvis Bay for work, because it is one of the largest ports in Southern Africa. One of the biggest businesses in Walvis Bay is oyster farming. Although all of the oysters are imported, Namibia is one of the largest producers of oysters. In Walvis Bay, we went on a dolphin/seal cruise and got to witness workers in the industry firsthand.

Our guide for the cruise was Skipper Peter, who happened to be from Jersey (one point to Jersey). He was very funny and informative about not only the wildlife, but also his journey to Africa and Namibia. My camera decided to stop working, so these pictures are courtesy of Kayla, Jenn, Cinnamon, Alicia, and Lauren

Not long after we had set out on our boat, did a seal hop on board inquiring about the fish Peter had brought on board. During our ride, we had two seals come up on board. We also saw many seals lying on the beach. Did you know that there are more seals in Namibia than people?

In addition to seeing seals, we also saw several dolphins. We created a good wake and they jumped in our wake and around our boat. We also saw flamingos, pelicans, and jellyfish. The boat stopped and we enjoyed some sandwiches and other finger foods plus champagne. Our group also had the opportunity to try raw oysters. I tried them, but I did not particularly care for them.

After our cruise, some of us rested while others went to the beach. That night we went to a bar to see the sunset. We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant and then we went dancing. On Sunday we started back to Windhoek mid-morning and then spent the rest of the day recovering and preparing for our week at school. Yesterday we had a Swakopmund reunion, when we all went out to celebrate Hishu's birthday and next weekend we are going to do the same when we celebrate my birthday.

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!

Xtreme Weekend in Swakopmund

This past Friday a group of us left at 3 AM to make it to Swakopmund by sunrise. On our weekend adventure we were joined by our guide, Shaun, Andrew (from Team Canada), and Robin and Hishu (from Team Sweden). It took us about four hours to drive west from Windhoek to Swakopmund and the Atlantic (a different) ocean. On our way, some of us slept and others of us listened to a mixture of pop, rap,  and South African club music to get us ready for an epic weekend.

When we got to Swakopmund, our first stop was the beach. Swakopmund is based largely on tourism, so it was interesting to compare and contrast it with Windhoek. There were a lot more tourists and touristy shops and businesses. After the beach, we had breakfast at a cute little cafe, stopped to drop off our things at the hostel we were staying at. The eight girls on the trip shared one room with bunk beds and two bathrooms. We had a half an hour before we left for our first adventure of the day.

Photo courtesy of Alicia Copeland

We got picked up and got driven out to the dunes. These dunes were different from the dunes at Sossusvlei, because not only were they smaller but also you could see the ocean on the other side of them. I was very thankful that the dunes were smaller, because we had to climb them in sandboarding boots with our sandboards in tow. 

They taught us how to sandboard and it was rather steep and scary. It was pretty fun though. I just panicked a little every time I got going too fast, so I would purposely fall. The sand provided a nice soft landing. Although, one time I was going pretty good and I don't know what exactly happened, but I majorly biffed it and somehow did a somersault. My neck was very sore the next day and somehow only two people witnessed it. We also all managed to get very sunburned. I had put on sunscreen, but I was so covered in sand I did not reapply. 

A fox was under the jump. Only Cinnamon and Rayna were brave enough to go off it. 

I have come to learn that sand is to Namibia as snow is to Minnesota. Therefore, I was very excited when we got to try lie-boarding, which to me was like the Namibian version of sledding. Our "sleds" were big pieces of wood and we went down headfirst down the dunes with our feet and elbows up. At the bottom, two of the group leaders were waiting with a radar gun to track our speed. On my first run I tied for the fastest speed at 73 km/hr and ended . I loved it! I went again and was the last person to go. The people called up from the bottom and said that Cinnamon had beat the record with 74 km/hr. I knew I had to beat it. As the guide pushed me he told me to think of going 75 km/hr. When I got to the jump, I got massive air and when I landed I immediately turned around and asked what my speed was. My group members thought that I had been injured from the landing, but I was just excited to see if I had got the record. I did get the record, with 76 km/hr. It was awesome! I did not even notice that I had totally broken the board too, where my elbows had smashed down when I landed. My first thought was, "Do I have to pay for it?" and the guide said, I think jokingly, "No, it is awesome. They are insured." So I had my picture taken with him and the broken board. It was definitely one of the highlights on the weekend for me. The guide even carried my board up the dune before we had one last sandboard run. 

By the end, I was thoroughly covered in sand. Including in my left ear, still. 

After our last run, we all walked back and someone noticed that someone else had ripped their pants down the back seam. It was pretty funny. We ate lunch and I ate a lot of sand that had been in my teeth. We stopped briefly at the hostel to get a change of pants and then we were on our way to quadding. PS: We got a video of our sandboarding, which will be aired at a later date. 

When we went quadding I ,apparently naively, thought that we would spend like a half an hour driving around in a parking lot before we went driving on the dunes. I was wrong. They gave us a hairnet, helmet, a quad, and then we were driving up the side of dunes. Earlier, the members of my group told me that when you rode a quad you needed to lean forward when you are going uphill and lean backwards when you are going downhill. So I thought it would be just like horseback riding. I was also wrong about this. 

The first half an hour I had so much anxiety. We went in a line and our guide told us that we had to follow the tracks that the person in front of us took, or else we could get stuck or thrown off of our quad. Also, there was a hand signal for danger, which was used like every two minutes. I was worried that I was going to die and I think I almost did like three times when I was making a turn on the side of the dune. My quad got stuck twice. It also stressed me out because you can't always see where the tracks were and sometimes I would fall behind and I thought I would die in the sand and sometimes you needed to accelerate when the person in front of you was going too slow. We stopped for a little bit and I was shaking. Lauren and I commiserated together and she said, "I just want to go and see some dolphins!" Shaun decided to help us with our fears, he was going to take us one by one all the way up the side of a dune. I held on so tight. After we got going again though I was actually able to get over my anxiety, sing "My Favorite Things" and then I didn't feel so bad. I actually had fun. 

Shaun showing off

We had a little bit of downtime before we went out for dinner. We ate at a pub and I had fish cordon bleu, which had smoked salmon in it and it was very good. After dinner, the majority of us crashed because we had been up for 17+ hours. However, we woke up at 7:30 the next morning to drive about 30 km to Walvis Bay for our dolphin/seal cruise. This post is getting rather long, so I will write about the rest of my weekend tomorrow. 

Zebra River Lodge + The Dunes

 So this blog is about a week late, but it is about our adventures last weekend. Last Friday we loaded a bus yet again to travel to the Southwest. We traveled mostly on dirt roads and so it was a rather bumpy ride. The group stayed at a place called the Zebra River Lodge, which was located in the middle of nowhere in the desert. When we arrived on Friday, we spent the rest of the day lounging around by the pool.

On Saturday we left bright and early at 5 AM to go to the world's largest sand dunes. We left so early because we did not want it to be scalding hot by the time we climbed to the top. Our first stop was a place called Deadvlei. If you Google Namibia, pictures of Deadvlei are what show up. Deadvlei is a clay pan, or a dead marsh. There are dead trees there that people think are over 9000 years old. However, the trees are still standing and they do not decompose because it is so hot and dry. In order to get to Deadvlei, we had to climb up half and dune and then turn right.  Now after you climb a dune, there is only one way to get down. That way is by running down the side of the dune, which results in lots of sand in the shoes.

Walking among the dead trees on the hard, patch worked ground. It was nice not to have the resistance of hard ground for a little bit.

A sand buggy had originally taken us to Deadvlei and it came back and took us to climb one of the bigger sand dunes called Big Mama. Although it took me awhile, I made it to the top. It was amazing to me how untouched the sand dunes seem and so far away from human disturbance. Yet, when you are climbing the dunes it is so much easier to follow in the footsteps of those who have come before you.

Here is a picture of our group and me at the top of Big Mama.

 After I ran down Big Mama, I came across a completely dried up lake.

As I said earlier, when you run down a dune you get a lot of sand in your shoes. When we got back we had a little downtime and then we all got into various trucks that drove us up to a cliff for what is called a sundowner. On the cliff we enjoyed some wine while we watched the sunset. As we were looking over the clifftop, we noticed that there were two people walking down the road towards us. In fact, they were two members of our group that had gotten left behind. Paula and Jan had to get pick them up. Other than that rather large error, the sunset was beautiful. 

I have notice that my blog posts are becoming more pictures and less words. Hopefully next week I will be better at posting more consistently. Next week I will write about my first two weeks student teaching. However, I need to go to bed now because some of us are leaving at 3 AM to go to the beach. I am super excited! Until Then.