Ms Rachel didn’t return from her trip from Windhoek until Wednesday so on Tuesday I took the G1s again. Mrs Vermaak kindly took them for the first period so I had time to prepare for the rest of the morning! They were much more energetic and very boisterous – we did a worksheet on weather, filled in our weather charts – there was one cloud in the sky so we put down cloudy as I didn’t want to put sunny down again! We did some simple maths sums and then I read them a story – “Beware Princess”! Had our first really long power cut from lunch time until about 8 today when Paul came and fixed it for us – he switched the same switch we had been switching all afternoon but he obviously had the magic touch as suddenly we had light!
The children here are all obsessed with my feet! Everyone here wears open toed shoes – flip flops or sandals, and I’m literally the only person who wears closed shoes! When I went on the Grade 4 trip all the children saw my feet when we went swimming and reported back to the rest of the school how beautiful my feet are. Since then I have been plagued with requests to see my “beautiful toes” and questions as to why I don’t wear open toed shoes – I find them uncomfortable! Although I find this all very odd and a bit weird I have at last shown all the children my feet and they are totally fascinated – quite a few children have promised to buy me “plaquies” at Christmas so that they can see my “beautiful feet” every day!
We had our last spelling tests for the term – food for the younger ones (only 14 spellings as I wrote down macaroni twice) and magnetism and electricity for the older ones. We have three children who got full marks throughout the term which was very impressive: Jacky (G6), Linea (G7), and Otsho (G7), so they will get spelling prizes at the end of term. We finished on a high with 56 children getting sweets for spellings.
We had an upsetting incident in one of our Art lessons with G1; everyone was working when suddenly I noticed that Andrias was crying on the floor. We didn’t see what happened but apparently he had teased Leonardo and Leonardo had hit him. Leonardo had whacked him across the face which made an already wobbly tooth bleed and then come out. Ms Rachel the G1 teacher came and went absolutely ballistic at Leonardo (really scary) and said that she would ring his father and get him to come to Otjikondo that afternoon to thrash him. It was really horrible and in my view not a good way of teaching the lesson of not to hit other people.
I might be famous...! A man arrived in the staff room- he had come about a month ago to visit Tuyakula and Tuwilika (identical twin girls in G5) as he knows their mother, this time he returned with a TV crew! Apparently, he had permission to film from Mrs Stommel via Sara but when I later confirmed this neither of them knew anything about it only that he would come occasionally with some tourists but not a TV crew! I showed them around and took them to the G2 class and the G7 class, both of which sang for them. Sao (G7 girl) played up beautifully and was hilarious to watch as she followed them around. I then took them outside and they filmed some children playing. I also was filmed quite a bit but only realised half way through that I was carrying my red clipboard and wearing a pink t-shirt – I will most definitely be edited out!
I brought with me the ring that Sas gave me for my birthday, the ring Izzy gave me for my birthday and obviously my silver seven ring, ring. I always wear two of them and the children absolutely love them...especially the boys! They love to borrow them and I have so many requests for them to be allowed to have one “to remember me by”! I’m not so sure about this!
Sara and Paul went to Swakopmund for five days so Snowy came to stay with us and we went everyday to feed Georgie bird (the parrot). Snowy is so unbelievably cute and a very good time waster. He slept alternately in Chelcie and my rooms. One night he fell asleep on my foot as I was writing my diary at my desk – so sweet! Alas Snowy didn’t understand that at the weekend we are able to sleep a little longer and wanted to be played with at six in the morning!
On Friday night we had four G7 girls come help cover cardboard stars in silver foil – they got lots done which was perfect. While they were doing this I helped Elifas (G7) with some Geometry as he had asked me for some extra help. He doesn’t do Remedial maths with me but he was in Wings. I had spent the last couple of nights making him some beautiful revision notes – if I do say so myself! And hopefully they will be helpful and he will pass! Had an incredibly busy Saturday as we cleaned the GAP flat so that it was immaculate – it had got a bit messy because of all the prop making and Gilly had noticed. Everything is now spick and span – I sharpened so many pencils that I got two blisters on my fingers and no I’m not just being pathetic! We also decorated the Hans Seidal hall with balloons and bunting for the disco we were holding that night. Stanley had promised to be back from his day out to do the music for us....but he wasn’t. This left us with no African music and not knowing how to play music out of the TV so we only had the GAP flat CD player. Luckily one of the children went and got Mr Ken (G6 teacher) who came to the rescue, and soon we had African music blasting out of the TV speakers. I gave my camera to Goddie and Immanuel (both G7) who took hundreds of photos. Everyone had a really good time – some of those children can really dance! I also now have about 50 photos of Immanuel, luckily he’s beautiful and really photogenic, and quite a lot without his top on!
On Sunday we started painting the backdrop – the top two thirds indigo and then the bottom third clouds. We both had rollers and it wasn’t that bad although you get covered in specks of blue paint! On Monday morning we finished making 17 pairs of sunglasses for the Angels – quite a feat! On Friday we had our first run through for the whole play – although it took an hour and a half to do it wasn’t too disastrous and made us think that it would just be about possible to pull it off in time as long as God was on our side!
I have been very busy sorting out the music for Swakopmund. I have made ten music folders which is filled with recorder music and singing music – hymns, carols and some other songs such as “Any dream will do”. We have had lots of extra rehearsals and they sound really great. In Church on Sunday we all sang “From a Distance” which went really well – hopefully all the girls will be allowed to come! On Sunday evening the children go and sing in the Church and it was lovely to hear them learning “From a Distance”.
As it’s nearing the end of term, in PT lessons with the younger ones we have been playing games like Musical Chairs and Musical Statues which they all love. I am actually quite good at Musical Bumps and in the G2 lesson I was the last girl in for Musical Statues! Chelcie is not as good but claims it’s because she is tall...?!
On Tuesday night we went down to Gilly’s house to get meat and Ms Shituleni (G3 teacher) came to collect money for their class outing the following day to Outjo. Gilly asked if one of us would like to go to – what do you think our answers were? And as we were teaching G3 double art and Music she said that we could both go much to our excitement. We set off from outside the Dining Room at 6:30am (having already sprinted back to the GAP flat as I had forgotten the letters to post!) and we set off for Outjo – the learners were very excited to see that we were coming too as we had told them that we weren’t. We were both very excited to see Outjo from another perspective and to do something different from the day. We sat in the front of the Combi which Tabs was driving. Technically it was only one seat so we were quite squished but definitely not complaining at this point!
Our first port of call was the Bakery – although they had already finished most of their baking we were given a tour and we saw some pastries being glazed, pigs ears (pastry biscuits) being dipped into a vat of chocolate and some sesame fingers being made. This was all fascinating and absolutely mouth watering! The children were all given a free Koekis (square piece of chocolate cake with hundreds and thousands on top) and in return they sang lots of songs beautifully for the owner. We then made our way down the street stopping at the bank, the garage, a leather shop (some really beautiful leather bags), a general shop and finally ending up outside the Post Office. At each stop we were either given a little talk or Ms Shituleni improvised and then the children would sing. While the children breakfasted on peanut butter sandwiches and oros, (the most disgusting brightly fluorescent coloured molten sugar drink!) Chelcie and I went into the Post Office to buy stamps, post letters and open the magical post box to collect the mail. Not only were there three letters for me but a parcel slip which I excitedly and mistakenly thought might be for me – no such luck! After a quick trip back to the Bakers – custard Danish for me with mango juice and an apple doughnut and apple juice for Chelcie, we headed for the police station where we were given a lengthy and at times interesting talk by the Commander in Chief! We were taken to a prison cell which was incredibly basic and horrible – walls covered in obscenities, metal loo in the corner, and the sounds of prisoners coming through the walls. We were also taken to the room where all the evidence from cases is stored – this smelt awful as there was no window and the door has to remain closed at all times. The evidence ranged from empty coke bottles, to pairs of shoes, to food Aid, to rucksacks to a packet of marijuana which the policeman took out to show the children and then managed to spill over the table! The policeman took all the children’s hand prints using the finger printing machine and then Chelcie and I stamped each other’s arms with our thumbs!
We then made our way to the hospital – this was the first time that I have suddenly realised that I am in Africa not for a positive reason. The hospital was split into two parts; old and new. The new part wasn’t that bad (it was for private patients) in that it appeared to be clean and functional although there were no single rooms and there didn’t appear to be much privacy at all. We were shown the “Psychiatric Ward” which I found deeply shocking – it was no more than a prison cell. There were no windows and the floor was stone, in the far corner there was a mattress on the floor and there was a drain for the loo. The door had bars on and three bolts – we were told that if you didn’t get better here, then you were moved to the big mental hospital in Windhoek. I don’t know how anyone could possibly get better in such surroundings, especially, as it was called a ward suggests you would have more than one patient in there at a time. We were then shown the morgue and the nurse informed the children that this was where the dying people (not dead) people were sent – I sincerely hope that this was a grammatical error.
We then made our way to the older part of the hospital which was truly shocking and made me feel very teary. The rooms were bigger with a lot more beds in and the state of the rooms were awful. It appeared to be very dishevelled and dirty, signs on doors were selotaped on and they were holes in the floor where the tiles were missing. Just walking around I started to feel dirty and tainted. The children’s ward was horrible – instead of beds there were cots which to me looked like cages. It was very obvious which patients were there suffering from AIDS. In the maternity ward we saw the G4 teacher who had a little baby girl the day before. I think that both Chelcie and I got our first real dose of culture shock – I find it really difficult to understand how it can be deemed acceptable to have somewhere so inhumane and in obvious neglect supposedly helping people to get better.
We then made our way to the museum where we ate our lunch in the garden – hamburgers, ice-cream and fizzy drinks – a real treat for the children and for us! We had a quick rest before going in – I lay down on my front on the grass in the shade with the girls and soon I had about three girls playing with my feet, Destiny playing with my hair, and Japua lying on top of me as apparently the grass was spiky! We spent a short time looking around the museum which was about the history of Outjo before heading for the Taxidermy...
The Taxidermy was fascinating – this is the place where you take an animal skin and it is made into a rug or mounted. We were told the method they use and shown some of the places where it all happens. We went into one room which looked like a dry cleaners – lots of racks with hangers, however, instead of shirts or trousers hanging up there were lots of animal skulls! Needless to say it was a pretty smelly place! The end room was a large barn filled with the mounted animals which were incredible and very realistic. I saw my first snake in Africa – luckily it was dead and was persuaded to touch one, strangely it felt rather nice – very silky!
We then make our final stop which was to the supermarket before heading back to school. Chelcie and I decided that after all our hard work we had done and to come we deserved a few treats! We bought pizza for supper, a large pot of ice-cream for our freezer as well as toblerone for me and coco pops for Chelcie! It was a very interesting, if shocking, day out and we had lots of fun and it was a lovely change from the norm.
This is a dedication to Lou Lou who has requested via letter, text and via Mummy that she would like a mention in my blog! So here goes....thank you very much for your regular correspondence which is much appreciated and very welcome. You are a very good sister but I cannot give you the prize for the best sister as that is an ongoing competitive race which is yet to have a clear cut winner! I’m very glad to hear that you aren’t e.....d or p......t yet as promised and I hope it stays that way until I come home!
Lots of love to everyone as usual - I hope that you are all well and that it isn’t too cold. I’m missing you all lots and I really do appreciate everyone who is staying in contact – it makes me feel a lot closer to all of you, hearing what you are all up to. Second shout out has to go to Hattie, even though she has yet to write to me! (A very long letter arrived from Hattie, the day after I wrote this, which was much appreciated, so the last comment is no longer valid! I am very excited that we will be living much closer to each other) Every Saturday I take my iPod to the cleaning session as it makes the time go quicker – my group of children have three songs which they request weekly: 1. The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars, 2. California King Bed by Rihanna and 3. Without a Smile by Hattie Briggs! They all love it and it makes me very proud of you as it is brilliant – we all want to hear your next songs so send them to me (for the sake of the children)!!
Lots and lots of love and a gigantic hug
Ottilie xxx
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