Part Twenty Five: Bronchitis.... (1st – 5th April)

On the 1^st of April not only was it April Fool’s day but we also celebrated Palm Sunday. Various children came around early on Sunday morning to tell us that Gilly wanted to see us but were caught out when we enquired as to where she was “the hostel” and simultaneously “her house”. Luckily we weren’t fooled and returned to our beds.

Palm Sunday is a massive celebration here and they really went all out. Instead of lining up outside the Church the children lined up by the gate house and then walked toward the tar road. They lined up on either side of the path here facing towards the church and then we gave them a palm leaf each. Gilly stood on a chair in the centre and read from the Bible and then we had a procession. Stanley, dressed as Jesus in a white robe, riding a donkey led the procession and he was followed by some of the G6 and G7 children who were in costume for the play later. We then all followed them to the church where we left our palm leaves at the entrance. The church had been decorated with more palm leaves and looked spectacular. During the service we had the play which told the story of Jesus’ crucifixion. It was a really good service.

At lunch time Diina returned from the Nationals....she had come 3^rd! She was competing against 13 other children and so had done absolutely amazing. She returned very happy with a bronze medal. I am so unbelievably proud of her, she has trained so hard and improved so much and I’m so happy that it all paid off.

Monday was our 7^th month anniversary here at Otjikondo; it seems totally unbelievable that we have been away from home for over 7 months now. Monday’s lessons went well, in Social Studies we did a quiz which I had written on Unit One to help them revise for their exams. In English I gave out the prizes to the best three writers in each class and read the best ones aloud. In G7 the winners were Vanessa, Xunta-I and Sevelina, G6 Theopoldine, Uapiona and Emilia and G5 Revonia, Alberthina and Audrey. There was a massive kerfuffle about Alberthina’s story, half the class accused her of having copied it from a G4 Afrikaans book and the rest claimed that Theopoldine had written it for her, both allegations she denied. This resulted in a lot of tears from Alberthina (this is not an uncommon thing) and me having to get cross about making false accusations. Otherwise all went well. I was feeling really ill all day and nearly didn’t do activities in the afternoon so decided to go with Gilly the next day to the doctor. Even thought the antibiotics I’d been taking were double strength they didn’t seem to be making much of a difference.

Gilly was driving to Otjiwarongo so I was in Outjo by 8:00 and made an appointment for 10:20. I then went to the internet cafe where I was able to Skype Mummy and Emma which was an unexpected bonus. Skype really is amazing and it was wonderful to be able to see them and talk to them. Also talked to Peppy which was brilliant although she couldn’t quite work it out! When I returned to the surgery I had to wait about half an hour for my appointment and a man who was obviously drunk came and sat right next to me, even though there were plenty of other chairs free. He started talking to me in Afrikaans which I didn’t understand and was sitting far too close for comfort. Luckily, we were then joined by some other people which made me more comfortable. When I went in the Doctor then questioned me about my ‘friend’ as the receptionist had told him that he was drunk. I explained I have never seen him before, that he had just joined me and was most definitely drunk!

After listening to my chest, taking my blood pressure, and hitting my head a lot with a hammer type thing and asking “Does this hurt?” (What do you think?!), the Doctor informed me that I have bronchitis again. This is really annoying but at least I now know why I have been feeling rubbish. He gave me a prescription for different antibiotics and four other medicines and told me to go to bed. I then managed to meet up with Paul, and after doing a food shop with him (this was really weird – like being at home, not that I often went food shopping with Daddy and we never bought nappies!) and then we came back to Otjikondo.

I went to bed and after finally allowing my body to feel ill then felt properly awful. Today is now the 5^th and the start of Easter weekend holiday. Chelcie is now going home with a girl called Aune who is in G7 and I am staying here to properly recover. I doubt it will be the best Easter ever as I will be myself but hopefully I will feel better soon. This is going with Chelcie in the hope that she will be able to send them home to be posted on my blog if she gets internet over the holiday.

So Happy Easter, I hope you all have a lovely day and that the Easter Bunny finds you where ever you are in the world at the moment. Sending lots of love

Love Me xxxx