Pinch punch, first of the month, white rabbits! (I haven’t said that for years – actually oddly satisfying!) Spent the first few days recovering from the tonsillitis and bronchitis and although I have to take medicine until the end of the month, I am now feeling a lot better. Chelcie’s birthday was on the 6th so there was a lot of preparation needed to make it a fun day. I made her a big A3 card – although I have no artistic talents, I am very good at colouring in and I really enjoy it! So I stuck an A3 picture of 3 people on safari (I brought with me an A3 colouring in book) and stuck it onto a piece of cupboard. I also made two bracelets – plaited wool and put beads on, and I made a necklace having found a cheetah’s head made from metal in our store cupboard, I plaited blue thread to make a chain. I also made a little pillow; it was white on one side with a print of a chameleon on and the other side was purple and I copied out the poem for the 6th October from the “A Poem for Every Day” book.
On the afternoon of the 4th we painted our faces to look like Tiger Cubs to celebrate being here a month. We are going to do it every month near to the 2nd to celebrate our anniversary. Some of the children pretended to find it very scary and I kept on forgetting we were wearing it and then seeing Chelcie and getting quite a shock! Gilly says that we will go down as the craziest GAPs, so at least we are making our mark!
The 5th was a teacher holiday so there were no lessons for the learners, so on Thursday night we spent a couple of hours writing a quiz for the learners and splitting them into teams. The quiz started at 8:30am for Grades 3 – 7 and at 9:20 we walked out! We had spent 50 minutes trying to get them to be quiet and sit down in their teams but they were all very disgruntled about being split up from their friends (one person from each year in a team) so as they weren’t listening, we walked out! They were supposed to watch TV for the rest of the morning, have matches in the afternoon, and a mobile competition in the evening but that was cancelled as a punishment! We spent the rest of the morning playing games with the Grade 1 and 2s which was very sweet and fun. Although frustrating as we had spent the time on the quiz, it did mean that we got the rest of the day off!
Paul returned with Sara his wife and his three children Mati (3), Olivia (2.5) and Helena (10 months) who are all very sweet especially Helena who is so cute! In the afternoon I made Chelcie a chocolate mousse for her birthday – I thought my arm was going to drop off. Not only do we not have an electric whisk but the end of our whisk has fallen off so as you whisk metal prongs press into your hand! However, I whisked until the egg whites wouldn’t fall out of the ball and then mixed everything together. It was hazelnut moose as there was no plain chocolate in the shop!
Chelcie’s birthday was a really fun day. Stanley and Tabs came for lunch (Nina wasn’t here as she went to the Kindergarten with Ralph and Paul) and we had chicken and salad and then the moose. We wore the party hats I had found and it was really fun. Also the mousse was really yummy if a little thick so I think that will be repeated at some point. In the evening we went to Paul and Sara’s for a birthday braai which was great fun and we were fed lots of delicious food! We had barbecued pork belly in slithers as a nibble and then beef steak and smoked pork with salad, salsa and potatoes for supper followed by ice-cream drenched in the alcohol which made up the Springbok shot which was delicious! The evening was really fun and it was a really good end to the day....PT the next morning was not so much fun!
Feeling slightly the worse for wear we taught acceleration which involved a lot of running! Luckily the children were all well behaved although I was made to do lots of running so that they all could race me! Sprinting is not my idea of fun, especially after a party the night before! We had our weekly meeting with Gilly on Friday and we were joined by Sara. This left us rather stressed as the list of things that they left us to do seemed endless. The Nativity is only in six weeks time and there is so much to do for that; props, costume, scenery, learning the songs, not to mention rehearsing and learning all the words for the actual play! We also have the Grade 7 leaving party to organise which is on the 5th of November – we have various songs to learn and can’t use their Art or PT lessons as we have to hand in marks for them and we can’t use outside of lesson time as they are already stressed so really we have no idea when we are going to sort that!
We had a really lovely weekend. On Saturday afternoon we had a bit of a tea party with some of our favourite older learners as a MASSIVE cake had arrived the day before from Outjo for Chelcie’s birthday. We sliced up some of the cake and put it on a big plate and took it out to where everyone was sitting – no one moved so we told them to help themselves. I blinked and then all the cake was gone – they were stuffing into their mouths and grabbing pieces in their hands. Very funny and it was good cake! Anyway they stayed for hours and we had to chuck the last couple out! That night we then had our second braai – which was successful although the butternut squash got a tad burnt on one side!
Sunday was a funny day...on Saturday sixteen Grade 7’s had got confirmed at St Michaels (local missionary school) and they all wore their clothes on Sunday. The girls looked like they were going to be married as they were all in white and had little white jackets or shawls to cover their shoulders. Some of them had gloves and they had all had their hair done so lots of fake hair and white flowers and pearls were scattered about, they were also all wearing heels. They boys were in suits and Bascallus had a white one and wore matching white leather shoes! So far I have found Church services quite emotional as I miss the Marlborough ones...I find it difficult to follow the services as it is done mostly of by heart and it is a Catholic service. Also I can’t join in with most of the singing as the hymn books only have the words in and not the melody. This week I found it particularly difficult and I cried throughout the service! This was bad enough but made worse as I was sitting with the Grade 1 boys to make sure they were behaving and they noticed! Took a while to stop crying after Church as had got very over emotional and was very homesick!
After a difficult morning we then went to Paul and Sara’s for a braai which was lovely and made the day so much better. It was their sons fourth birthday on the Monday so this was a party for him and we made him a card. There were lots of people there which was fun: Gilly and Reiner, Paul and Sara and their children Mati, Olivia and Helena, Paul’s sister Jenny with her husband and two little boys and Roland and Byron. Roland (22) and Byron (30s?) are from Ehorango Safari which is nearby in Namibian terms. They were really nice and we got on with them really well. Roland had left a note at our flat a couple of weeks ago introducing himself and inviting us for a braai or a game drive at some point. We asked Gilly who he was but she didn’t know and said to wait until Paul came home to check that he was a psycho and if necessary Paul would drive us there, check him out and if he wasn’t suitable drive us home again! When we asked Paul who Roland was he told us that he was very nice and that he knew him quite well but he also told Roland about him being a suspected psycho which Roland made jokes about. The little children amused us all afternoon – they had a paddling pool which they were diving into and they were chasing each other all over the garden. They then decided it would be more fun to chase us and we were happy to oblige although my head has definitely changed shape having been sat on for about 15 minutes by a 6 year old!
On Mondays we have four PT lessons and I got pretty burnt and have some very strong lines! However I am now definitely going brown and my watch strap mark is now very strong! (Matilda you will have to go on holiday before I come home, sorry!) We have also started doing spelling tests for all the Grades at the beginning of their Art lessons which I then mark. This week they had words which sound the same but are spelt differently such as mayor and mare. Grades 1 – 4 and Wings have 15 words and Grades 5 – 7 have 20 words. This week is much hotter and on Wednesday it was 37˚ which was too hot for my liking! In the morning we took Grade 3s for a cross country run – we worked out a good route around the school and the farm and I took a faster group out in front. It felt amazing to be running again – I’m having withdrawal symptoms from Lacrosse! Although it was pretty hot – the girls were less impressed to be made to run and I was punished at the end by having a lot of water thrown at me which was very refreshing! On Thursday we don’t teach until 7:40 so we have a bit of a lie in but I decided when I was awake at 4am to set my alarm for 6:20 and go running! I did three laps of the route we had worked out the day before which tool me half an hour and I felt very energised afterwards. Lots of the teachers were very impressed to have seen me out running and all the children were too! I need to try and get into a routine of going running by myself occasionally. Also it’s really annoying as our washing machine keeps on shrinking our clothes – I promise I’m not just getting fat but soon I’m going to have to be really really skinny to fit some of my clothes! The washing machine is in German so might have to go and ask Gilly if she can make it stop shrinking stuff as we have it on 30˚ and I’m pretty sure the right wash!
Tonight the Teachers invited us to join them for supper which was really lovely. They cooked in cauldrons on an open fire. We had liver with onions and peppers and porridge. My first mealy pap and it was truly horrible! We ate with our fingers so had to tear the liver apart and the noises were awful! Chelcie quite liked the taste but I really don’t like liver – far too rich. The porridge is totally different to English porridge; it is totally smooth and has the consistency of mashed potato although it’s a lot stickier and is definitely more savoury than sweet although they eat it both ways here.
Chelcie still considers herself a comedian, so each blog there will be a little paragraph to share some of her “funnier” jokes with all of you!: Gilly always says “ney” at the end of a sentence like some people say “okay”. When we were discussing this Chelcie made the obligatory horse jokes! There is a worker here who we have made friends with called Chicken – this is real name and he is really funny! I have already agreed to be his girlfriend (apparently he asks everyone this!) and he has informed me that he is coming home with me in August on the plane. Anyway we were talking about Chicken and Chelcie said “He’s fowl!” I thought I would join in with the jokes so when we were talking about drawing a star with 500 points I remarked that it seemed rather pointless!
Tomorrow I leave for Etosha at 7am – I am so super super excited as I might get to see my first ever elephant which would make my year. I need to pack my bag not forgetting my camera or my binoculars and the sun cream!
It was lovely to hear from Louise and Sarah last night informing me a little bit about their lives and I am looking forward to “the longest letter ever” from Hattie! Please write to me as I have got to the homesick stage if I’m being totally honest! I am absolutely loving it here and everything that I’m doing but it seems a very long time until I will see all my friends and family again! Letter day really is amazing as we get to hear a little bit of what is going on at home which makes it feel slightly nearer. Lots of love to everyone as usual and I hope that England isn’t to dreary without me! And that the weather isn’t too horrible. Hopefully I won’t be eaten by a lion in my tent tomorrow or an elephant – how ironic would that be?! But if I am I love you all!
Lots and lots of love and a massive hug to everyone
Ottilie xxx
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