Week One and a bit more

Hello friends, family and random followers!

Well I have survived my first week at Otjikondo and done more than just survive. It was a massive shock to the system just to get here after over a years planning. Chelcie and I had the weekend to settle in before the children arrived on Monday afternoon. On the drive from Windhoek we had to stop for a family of baboons to cross the road - this was when it struck me that I'm actually in Africa!

On Sunday evening Gilly, Reiner and Paul took us for a drive over part of one of their farms. Chelcie, Gilly and I sat in the back of the truck on a bench, with the wind blowing through our hair and the sun shining on our backs. A blissful three hours was spent driving - we saw plenty of game, cattle, and part of the Lion King cast - real life Pumbas and Zazzus! We also saw two Giraffe, whom we named Geoffrey and Jemima, who were beautiful but looked as if they had had a lovers tiff! We were put to the test of opening gates which I, the country girl passed easily and Chelcie (the townie of us two) had a little more trouble with!

Classes for us started on Wednesday and Assembly at 6.50am was a bit of a shock to the system, although my body is now already running in Namibian time. Controlling thirty seven children who you don't know their names and they can speak Afrikaans or Damara at will, is no easy feat. To be honest getting thirty seven six year olds to be quiet is incredibly challenging. In the morning Chelcie and I teach art, PT and music together, but between three and six we separate for activities. On my first afternoon I had ten six year old boys for playgroup and then twelve, ten to fourteen year olds, for bead work. By the time the boys had fought, sulked and pleaded every other minute to play football and the the girls had talked to each other in Damara and tipped the bead box upside down so all the beads were mixed up in the lid (far too much for my OCDness) I retreated to the chapel for a good cry.

My first lesson was learnt: NEVER EVER cry wearing sun cream - it hurts like hell and just makes you cry more!

Incidentally the chapel is amazing and has a wonderful atmosphere of peacefulness. There are lots of stained glass windows which tell bible stories and were painted by the children. Behind the altar (a huge rock) is a humongous window in the shape of a cross with a tree in it. It's amazing.

This weekend was an application weekend as well as a music weekend. This means that hundreds flocked to Otjikondo for Saturday - some camping even two nights before to be here. It is the best Primary school in the area and the seventeenth best in Namibia even though its quite small in comparison. Faustinaus, the music man, travelled from Windhoek to teach the children from Friday afternoon until after church on Sunday. He is an amazing musician and a wonderful teacher - the music in the church which featured recorders, marimbas and singing was excellent.

Friday was such a fun day - I had four fitness lessons in the morning followed by the first Nativity rehearsal in the afternoon. I utilised my Lacrosse training and subjected the children to endurance running mixed with sprinting (shout out to Mrs. Marvin!) however feeling like a good teacher I led from the front and nearly killed myself! On Saturday morning even my neck muscles hurt!

The drama rehearsal was hilarious - I have thirty two children in my cast to work with, plus two Grade 7's to help out. This definitely includes some Drama Queens and divas!
In the evening we went to Gilly's house for a braai where we ate eland steak (largest antelope) and the best steak I've ever eaten. It was a lovely evening although Gilly and Paul laughed at some of the things I'd brought with me - chili powder (been incredibly useful), Tabasco but namely my blanket. Paul has already noticed many similarities between me and his children who are all under three! Mostly when he talked about his son's wind up squeezy frog torch and I said I had really wanted to bring a duck one but Mummy wouldn't let me!

The children are all so lovely and welcoming. They find it fascinating that when you touch my skin it goes even whiter! They love to be attached to you and stroke you - most of all they love hair and want to constantly run their hands through it. Being a germaphobe I do not appreciate this at all!
The heat here is very different - it's as if the air is warm rather than the sun is particularly hot! The sun rises are incredible and I have already taken loads of photos.
The Kindle wins the prize for the best bring having already read five books! I love my afternoon siesta.
I can't even try and fit everything in here but most importantly I am very happy here and loving it all so far.
I must go to bed now as I am knackered and I have a staff meeting at 6.50am.
Anyway love to all and sending hugs and kisses,
Lots of love
Ottilie

Hello Africa!

Well I am here at last - I am sitting here in a youth hostel called The Cardboard Box and I have a free 20 minutes on the Internet so lets see what I can cram in!

Mummy and Daddy took me to Heathrow where I met up with the rest of the Namibian crew who were just as remembered which was a pleasant relief! We went to check in and that's where the problems started! I went to check in and they asked when my return date was - I showed them the ticket which is booked for March (you cant book a year in advance so the ticket will be changed later), they then asked to see my visa (you need one if you are staying for over 3 months) when I explained that my visa was being sorted out when I arrived n Namibia and that my return date was only provisionally they wouldn't let me check in EVEN THOUGH Chelcie, Alex and Sophie had been let through. After a few telephone calls to Project Trust and a lot of panicking we managed to change our return dates free of charge to the 20th of September so it appears that we are returning to England within 3 months. We were then all allowed through but not until I had learned that airport people don't like me: one of the officials asked her colleague "What is wrong with this child?" after I couldn't understand her accent - how rude!!

After a very tearful goodbye to the parents and a few friends on the mobile we boarded the plane to  Dubai. This flight passed quickly - flying with Emirates definitely has many advantages but food is not one of  them. To my excitement I saw sticky toffee pudding on the menu but it was an insult to any sticky toffee pudding to call this cold sponge surrounded my congealed cold custard sticky toffee pudding!

By the time we got on our plane to Johannesburg we were all pretty tired and we tried to sleep most of this flight we varying degrees of success. It was decided that Project Trust were being stingy and we could definitely have flown at least Business Class! by the last flight to Windhoek we were all feeling pretty sick - combination of limited dodgy food and being very over tired. However we arrived after a very bumpy flight all of us clutching sick bags for "just in case".

We then had the challenge of getting through without visas! This was interesting.....and once again shown that airport officials just don't like me! We all split up into pairs and there most challenging question was to Alex and Simone (from Glasgow and Holland) was "why are you friends you are from Scotland and you are from Holland"!. Chelcie and I had slightly more issues with the woman grilling us as to why we wanted to travel in Namibia, why 3 months, what were we doing, who were we staying with etc etc. Luckily we all made it through and went to collect our extremely heavy baggage!

All of ours arrived apart from Chelicie's and Alex's after a long wait and lots of talking we discovered that their baggage was being put on a later flight and would arrive at 7.15pm that night. No explanation. We organised it to be delivered to Robert's house (our project trust contact in Windhoek). We then met up with who we thought was Robert who took us to the Youth Hostel. We had a competition to see who could see which animal first - Chelcie saw 5 monkeys (jealous!) and  I saw 3 cows....

The airport was about 30km from the main city and the drive was FASCINATING. Some times you could just see nothing for miles and the countryside is bare and then there would just be a scattering of houses on the side ranging from pretty smart houses to what looked like goat sheds.

We arrived at the youth hostel and the man declared that Robert would be over at about 5.30 (this was when we discovered he wasn't Robert!). It was very hot so we decided to go for a swim in the pool. Having dipped our toes in and nearly gotten frostbite we decided that would be plenty until egged on by some other travellers we all decided to jump in. IT WAS FREEZING but very very refreshing!

Robert arrived at about 6.15 by what time we were pretty hungry and sleepy but we decided to go out for supper. We went to the most  amazing restaurant called Joe's where I have my first ever Zebra steak which was amazing (steak, chips, salad and a glass of very sweet rose cost me 110 rand = 10 pounds!) The place was like a museum filled with nick knacks and a lot of Yagermister bottles! On the roof was a mini which had been driven by two girls across Africa! They were was a pond with MASSIVE fish in and just a lot of relics including a wheelbarrow strapped to the ceiling!

I am off to Otjikondo at 9.30 (having expected to be collected tomorrow) so I will try and buy a Sim card on the way. This is very exciting and I cant wait to get to my new home! So far Namibia is amazing - the colours are so bright and everything is so well African!

After a long night of listening to people snore I am ready for my own bedroom and a proper nights sleep - hopefully breaky will be as good as last nights supper!

Lots of love to everyone

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