Part Twenty Nine: Zambia (7th – 13th May)

After Chelcie and I were reunited – a whole eleven days apart, we spent one night in The Cardboard Box before getting on the ridiculously long journey to Zambia. It didn’t start well as we were being picked up by a mini bus from The Box to take us to the Intercape. We were supposed to leave The Box at 1 o’clock but it didn’t arrive until 1.45 which made us rather stressed as the bus left at 2 but luckily we made it in time. After weighing our bags we chose our seats and settled down for the next 22 hours. As we were travelling over night we presumed we would be on a sleepliner...we presumed wrong. This wouldn’t have been so annoying if they hadn’t played adverts on the television continually for the sleepliner advertising the complimentary tea and coffee and the chairs which rolled right back and had feet rests that popped up. Our chairs rolled back about 5cm, there was no foot rest and definitely nothing complimentary! The journey wasn’t actually as bad as I expected as I hadn’t slept the night before so I was rather tired. Chelcie made herself comfortable using my shoulder as a pillow and then we both managed to drift off to sleep. We also were able to watch two films which was an unexpected bonus but neither of us realised that the Intercape was a Christian service. Not only did the films have a Christian moral but we were prayed for and read passages from the Bible. Sadly it didn’t get us there any quicker. We finally reached the border to Zambia early on Tuesday morning and we suddenly realised that we would have to pay for a visa. Not only had we not budgeted for this but we weren’t sure we had enough cash on us...luckily we did. The border was very African and actually rather scary. The border office was a wooden shed in the middle of nowhere but there were a lot of scary men about. However, we got through without any major mishap although I did manage to leave my passport with the border man and only realised when I asked Chelcie if she had it and she replied No!

Zambia is very African....as we drove towards Livingstone we passed various round mud huts with thatched roofs near the side of the road. It definitely appears to be poorer than Namibia and the street sellers are relentless. They are quite happy to walk with you for 20 minutes if they think there is the least chance that you will buy something and we are continually addressed as sister. This confused me a lot when one seller showed me the painting he had done of his sister, I presumed he meant his really sister but Chelcie said he meant me! The taxis here are bright blue which really stand out and they look amazing when all next to each other. There also seems to be a large population of baboons who are everywhere and will happily run down the road and onto the backs of lorries. We had planned to camp at Jollyboys thinking we would save money however, after nearly freezing to death on the Intercape we decided we wanted a bed rather than to sleep in a tent without a sleeping bag. So we have ended up staying at Fawlty Towers which is very nice and there are lots of people here.

We met an Australian 28 year old girl called Kai on the bus who also came to Fawlty Towers with us. On our first morning we went to do a ‘Gorge Swing’. Chelcie and I decided to do a tandem one and we watched Kai go first. Very bad idea – I was absolutely petrified. I thought that we would just be swinging across the Gorge and back again on a zip wire or something similar. No-one mentioned a 53m freefall first. However, by now I was already strapped into my harness and the papers had been signed and Chelcie wouldn’t let me duck out! We were strapped together and then taken to the edge of the cliff. We were told that we would be doing the ‘Death Drop’ – as you can imagine the name really helped with my nerves. To make matters worse we were being filmed and I had the worst nervous giggles. We stood on the edge with our heels over and on the count of three we lifted our toes and dropped. This was absolutely petrifying and Chelcie now claims to be deaf in one ear although I seem to remember her screaming just as loudly as I was. After the fall we then swung forwards and backwards across the gorge which gave us the most amazing view and this was incredible. My adrenalin was definitely pumping. After we had walked back up again we watched the film which was hilarious but we decided not to buy it as we had some really good photos.

We then made our way to Victoria Falls or The Smoke that Thunders which is actually a very apt description. It really is very, very noisy. We were both shocked by the amount of water there was – I know this might sound stupid as it’s the waterfall with the largest volume of water but there is a lot, a lot of water. We hired waterproofs but still got pretty soaked from all the spray that the waterfall gives off. It was absolutely stunning and we were so close to it. There were lots of rainbows everywhere which made it even more beautiful and magical. Our only wish was that we had a waterproof camera. Having walked round everywhere we went and sat right at the top of the falls before the water goes over the edge. It was very peaceful here as it wasn’t as noisy and we just sat soaking in the sun and scenery. We then walked to the bridge which connects Zambia and Zimbabwe where people bungy jump from. More spectacular views. In the middle of the bridge there is literally ‘No Man’s land’ where it is neither Zambia nor Zimbabwe. We crossed into Zimbabwe and stood watching the Zambezi. Chelcie then decided to time me to see how many countries I could visit in 15 seconds. So I ran forwards and backwards across No Man’s Land crossing the border and managed to visit 10 countries in 15 seconds!

When we had planned to visit Vic Falls we said that we wanted to White Water Raft but as we came in Winter the water levels are too high so there are no rapids. Instead we decided to blow our budget on riding an elephant – something I have always wanted to do as long as I can remember. This was the most incredible experience ever. We shared an elephant called Marula who was a 34 year old male and pretty massive. He had his tusks cut off half way as he used to sharpen them and poke other elephants in the bum as a joke! We went for a hours ride which was amazing. The elephant handler sat in front ‘steering’ and then it was me and then Chelcie. We sat on a padded numnah which had stirrups. Never thought I would ride something wider than Orange! His stride was absolutely massive and because of this you didn’t feel that you were actually moving very fast. He was really comfortable and his skin was very warm which kept my ankles nice and toasty. Occasionally he would flap his ears right back which would then cover my feet. It was brilliant to watch the other elephants; there were 9 in total, snap off branches and bits of bush to eat along the way. One elephant, Bob, who was HUMONGOUS, was carrying half a tree around with him. Obviously someone hadn’t had enough breakfast. One of the elephants was only 3 years old (only a handler was riding him) and he was really little and so cute. When we got back from our ride we dismounted, using the biggest mounting block ever – Daddy would be impressed, and then we got to feed Marula. We were given a bag of what looked like horse and pony nuts. Marula then sat down and we were able to drop nuts into the end of his trunk which he then carried to his mouth. It was amazing. We then went and watched the DVD that had been made of our journey; this was absolutely brilliant and we decided to buy one so that we would always remember our trip. As an added bonus we also saw a hippo in the Zambezi as well as a buffalo. That means that I have now seen all of the big 5 except a leopard.

Two of the people who we rode an elephant with were on their honeymoon and they invited us to have supper with them that evening at Fez Bar, which is a Mexican place just up the road from where we were staying. They were really good fun and we had a very enjoyable night. They live in Cape Town so we are going to meet up next week and do something together. At Fez Bar there was a Beer Pong table so we decided to play Beer Pong. Chelcie was the only one who had played before but it was very good fun. You play on a table tennis table and you make a triangle of six glasses at each end and fill them with beer. You then take it in turn to try and get a ping pong ball in one of the glasses from the opposite end of the table. If you get a ball in then the other team has to drink the beer and that glass is removed. I was absolutely useless at this and despite playing about 4 times during the evening I have yet to get a ball in the glass! We were then joined by some American Peace core workers who challenged us to a game and then taught us the actual rules. They were rather more talented than we were. Having been empty at the start Fez Bar came alive and we spent the rest of the night dancing. Avery, very good day.

We had planned to go a Salsa lesson at Cafe Zambezi but when we arrived there was no one there so we ended up going to see a ‘Yes Rasta’ Concert who were a Bob Marley tribute band. Although we didn’t learn to Salsa we learnt how to reggae from all the Rastas which was highly entertaining. It’s very energetic and both of us could feel our leg muscles the next day. Some of the dancing was absolutely hilarious and by the end we were definitely pros!

On Sunday morning we posted our 40 postcards and made a quick trip to the market before getting on the bus. Sadly once again it wasn’t a sleep liner and the journey was not much fun and I reckon I only got about 3 hours sleep. However, I am now sitting in the Cardboard Box and very happy to be back in Namibia. Weirdly, I found it very disconcerting not to be in Namibia – I felt that if I wasn’t in Namibia then I should be at home. It is now 2:00 and at 5:00 we get on another bus, luckily a sleepliner this time, and we start the journey to Cape Town. Very exciting!

Lots of love as usual to everyone

Me xxxx

Part Twenty Eight: Rhinos, Lions....and Tok Tokkies! (25th April – 6th May)

Desert Rhino Camp: This was our first destination and probably my favourite place we stayed at. We were staying in ‘Luxury Tents’ – so I had a massive double bed (I’m seriously considering about having a mosquito net at home as it makes me feel like I’m a princess when I’m in bed...!), a double basin, a shower and loo...all in a tent! Very crazy. Mummy suggested that our first day we should have a relaxing start as it was obvious that I was pretty tired but our guide had other ideas and our wake up call was at 5:00! We went out on the most amazing game drive – for eleven hours! This may sound a bit extreme and in all honesty the last couple of hours could have been cut out but we had an incredible day. We were warned the night before as we sat down to our three course supper (the lady who announced the menu was called Grace and as Daddy isn’t very good at understanding the Damara accent he thought she was saying grace and couldn’t understand why she was talking about custard) that we might not actually seen any Black Rhinos. The concession is 450,000 hectares and all the Rhinos are wild. Trackers go out in front of the cars but the aim is not to disturb the rhinos. We were incredibly lucky and saw eight rhinos in five different sightings as well as numerous springbok, oryx, zebra and giraffe. The countryside we were driving through although incredibly bumpy was absolutely stunning. The rhinos were magnificent and we were really privileged to be able to see so many. The next day we decided to go on a shorter drive but we still started at 5:00. We didn’t see any rhinos but instead we sat 60m away from a pride of twelve lions – one male, three females and then lots of cubs. The cubs were so cute and very photogenic! We also saw some spectacular sunsets and sunrises. Both my parents couldn’t get over how big the sky was over here which wasn’t something I had previously picked up on.

Mowani Mountain Camp and Twelfontein: We arrived here in time for lunch and this time we were staying in a thatched tent which looked like a mushroom! This place was also spectacularly beautiful and all the tents were very hidden among all the rocks. We went on a tour to Twelfontein and went on the Lion’s rock. This place is famous for its rock engravings and painting which are 6,000 years old. These were amazing and we saw the famous penguin rock engraving which so baffles everyone. We then drove to the Organ Pipes and Burnt Mountain which were brief visits but none the less interesting. The Organ Pipes are rocks that funnily enough look like organ pipes and Burnt Mountain is a black mountain that was burnt by lava.  The next morning we headed to Erongo but when via the Petrified Forest. I was imagining a forest full of dead trees but I couldn’t have been more wrong. There weren’t actually any trees...instead there were some piles of wood that had been carried by floods from Central Africa thousands of years ago. The wood had been turned to stone somehow, so in appearance it looked like wood but when you touched it you realised it was actually stone. We bought a little Giraffe wood carving from a couple of boys here and when Mummy asked what the Giraffe was called the boy replied “Giraffe”! So she asked his name which was David so our Giraffe has been christened David Giraffe.

Erongo: Erongo was absolutely stunning and was built among the rocks in a very Swiss Family Robinson style with lots of wooden walk ways. Once again we were in amazing tented rooms and my bathroom was actually outside among the rocks. I have to say I did feel a bit weird showering outside but the view when I brushed my teeth was incredible! Erongo was filled with these creatures called Rock dassies which looked a bit like a beaver cross otter and were very weird creatures that made a lot of noise. Erongo was all about the walking and we went for amazing early morning walks through the rocks. The first morning we did the Baboon walk and on the second morning we did the Eagle walk. It was amazing to walk as the sun rose and to see the incredible views from the top of the mountains. We also went on a sun downer walk and watched the sun set from the top of a mountain. On the second night we went to Paula’s cave which was at the top of a mountain – there were rock paintings of animals and Bushmen inside which were fantastic as well as massive honey bees which were less fantastic! The food here was really great and we all enjoyed particularly eating ostrich for the first time.

Desert Homestead and Sosoussvlei: We drove to Desert Homestead via Swakopmund – although this added on a couple of hours driving time the shopping here is amazing (making Mummy happy!) and it meant I could see a Doctor again as my cough still hadn’t cleared up from the last lot of medication. The Doctor was really nice and gave me a whole new batch of medications which have finally sorted everything out and I’m now only coughing very occasionally. It was lovely to be able to show Mummy and Daddy around briefly and then we went to the Market where we did some serious present buying. I was definitely the best at bargaining and getting a good price for the things we bought. We finally got to Desert Homestead at about 5 o’clock having driven all day. Our only other stop was at ‘Moose McGregor’s Desert Bakery’ where we bought brownies and apple pie. This Bakery was literally in the middle of nowhere but it was amazing. At Desert Homestead we stayed in little stone, thatched cottages which were very fairy tale esq. We were literally only there to sleep as we left at first dawn to go to Sosoussvlei. This was definitely my favourite place in our whole trip. These are the famous red sand dunes (they are the highest dunes in the world) and they were just as beautiful as they had been described. We drove a long a tar road with dunes on either side of us – what made it so beautiful was the shadows that fell on one side of the dune creating such contrast. Having decided not to climb Dune 45 we drove on to Deadvlei where we climbed ‘Big Daddy’. Climbing sand dunes is actually quite hard work but it is definitely worth the incredible view from the top. Mummy and I then had great fun running at speed down the side while Daddy followed at a more leisurely pace. This is where we first met the Tok Tokkie. It’s a type of beetle which in the sun looks a brilliant shade of blue but if you pick it up it is actually black. They scuttle at an incredible speed and leave brilliant tracks in the sand. We then visited Sesriem Canyon which is a very beautiful rock canyon just outside Sosussvlei.

Wolvedans: Wolvedans was literally in the middle of nowhere, we drove for hours on dust roads until we were amongst the mountains and after weaving through the countryside we arrived at the lodge which was hidden among the sand. This place was absolutely stunning, totally spectacular. We stayed in a luxury Family Room which was tented with two massive double beds looking out onto the plane with the mountains framing the landscape. You could roll up the walls (!) and then you could see miles upon miles of beautiful landscape while lying in bed. Here we went for drives in the morning through the countryside – there was some game but the main purpose was to appreciate the scenery which we all did. It was much colder here at night and we returned from supper a hot water bottle would be waiting for us warming our beds. Sadly the time flew by as usual and soon it was time to start the drive back to Windhoek.

My holiday with my parents was absolutely amazing – firstly just to spend the time with them after eight months apart made the holiday for me. Although, I haven’t suffered much from homesickness I have obviously missed my home, family and friends an enormous amount.  Secondly, I was thoroughly spoilt and we stayed in the most incredible places which were so beautiful. My favourite time when my parents were out here was when we were at Otjikondo purely for the reason that I was able to share with them how much this place means to me. As we walked away from the final assembly of term my parents remarked that they didn’t know how I would be able to leave this place. Not only have I fallen totally in love with the country and school but I have 236 children who I consider my own and saying goodbye to them will the hardest thing I have had to do. I just want to say a massive thank you to my parents for coming out to see me and for our magical holiday. I am sure that the remaining four months will fly by and it won’t be long until I’m home for good.

End of the Month: During my holiday another month ended and I have now done over eight months away from home. I’m writing this in Zambia so I don’t have my list of records but I do know that I only cried once which is a first! It’s been another incredible month and I appreciate more and more how lucky I am to be able to have this experience. I want to say thank you again to all the people who made this possible for me whether you granted me a scholarship or bought a chocolate biscuit cake. I am truly grateful as I would never have got here without you and I’m having the time of my life.

Lots of love to everyone and to everyone who is embarking on exams GOOD LUCK and I will be thinking of you

Ottilie xxxx

Part Twenty Seven: Arrival of Mummy and Daddy and the end of term (22nd – 25th)

They are officially here! After months of anticipation, Mummy and Daddy are in the pastoral centre, a couple of metres away from me rather than hundreds of miles. To be totally honest I was really rather nervous about seeing them, obviously very exciting but truly quite scared as well. I didn’t know what would have changed in eight months, whether they would be different or think that I had changed massively. Luckily it wasn’t like that at all...

Sunday morning started with a final tidy and clean of our Kitchen so that it would be sparkling ready for the inevitable inspection. We had church as usual which was filled with music due to Faustinas being there and it was a really good last service. I then went and did birthday cupboard for hundreds of people and talked to Mummy while they were shopping in Otjiwarongo – putting the orders in! Luckily as I was rather busy the morning went quite quickly and 2:00 approached fast. At 1:45 we were both just sitting in the kitchen trying to do something but actually just staring out of the window to check for cars....and then I saw them.

It was so weird to see the car with Mummy and Daddy inside (especially as Mummy was driving which I definitely hadn’t expected). It was absolutely incredible to have first hugs and it felt straight away as if I had only seen them a short while ago and not eight months ago. I gave them a tour of our flat, now my home, and luckily they liked it a lot. Lots of the children had seen the car arrive and therefore knew my parents had arrived so they all came to introduce themselves. Lots of them had been just as excited as I was to finally meet my parents!

At 3:00 we went to a Button Box rehearsal where we did another run through. The children were all very well behaved – partly due to the presence of two adults and the fact that they always play up to a camera! The run through went much better than on Friday afternoon and it was a very successful rehearsal. I’m really glad my parents got to see this as the musical as been a massive part of this term and it will be an even bigger part of next term. Chelcie and I then took them on a mini tour of the school and I also introduced them to Dankie. He’s quite shy around adults so he was clinging to me but they got to see how sweet he was! We then went to Sara’s house and introduced her and Gilly to Mummy and Daddy briefly.

We spent the rest of the day talking and I made chicken curry for supper. Mummy also distributed all the things she had bought me and the other things that people had sent out for me. All very exciting. So a couple of thank yous must be said – first and foremost to Mummy for the obscene amount of chocolate she brought out for me as well as some clothes, my scent, Harry Potter on tape and lots of clothes for me to give Dankie. He is going to go from being one of the worst dressed children to one of the best! Also thank you to my sisters for my CDs to keep me occupied on my ridiculously long bus journeys and to Cluny for lots of new books for my kindle and audiobooks for my ipod – AMAZING! Also thank you to Emma for the CD and the really cute teddy bear for Dankie – he will absolutely love it. Also to Gill for a beautiful necklace snd to Godmother Iona for chocolate, earrings and a really cool hair tie.

When we finally went to bed it was so lovely to have a goodnight hug and to be able to say see you in the morning! Monday morning was filled with final cleaning of the Art Room – the children set to work cleaning the windows while Mummy and I scrubbed the tables. Daddy was put to work in the wood workshop where he made us an AMAZING window and button box for our production – thank you very much. We then returned to the flat where we put some finishing touches to some of the costumes that we have been making in the last week or so. At 3:00 my eight Grade 7 remedial students arrived for a party. Mummy and Daddy had bought the music enormous box of biscuits, chocolate cake, sweets which turned out to be chewing gum much to their delight (it’s strictly banned at Otjikondo!) and crisps. Needless to say my children were ecstatic! After polishing off all the food in a matter of minutes we put on some music which they danced to and as always had great fun with my camera. They then turned on the hose and had a bit of a water fight which I got then dragged into. Never wear a red bra and a pale yellow t-shirt around water!

We then had a rehearsal for our end of term concert which was in the evening. We were totally in charge of the concert and in looking after all the children and keeping control! It was a real success and I was very proud in particular of my recorder pupils. I felt so proud to watch one of my students perform a solo beautifully having taught her from scratch last term. As well as all the recorder groups, the three violinists played, one of the girls dorms sang, our cast sang a song from the Musical, we had a dance and some marimba playing. Chelcie and I also sang two songs together which went well apart from a slight case of giggles in the middle of the first song when we caught each other’s eye! Dankie came and saw my parents again and he was a little less shy although still very firmly attached to me!

On Tuesday morning Mr and Mrs Chelcie arrived. It was so lovely to finally meet them properly. Both Chelcie and I feel like we know each other’s family really well as we know so much about them. Mrs Chelcie very kindly bought me sour fruit pastilles – my favourite, and my Mummy bought Chelcie wine gums – her favourite, which we both found amusing! In the afternoon we took all the parents on a proper tour of the school and we met lots more children. Hopefully now when I talk about Otjikondo they will be able to understand a bit more what I am actually talking about! We then went to Paul and Sara’s house for Ola’s third birthday party which was good fun. After this we got a little production line going in order to fold the 400 newsletters which had to be distributed the next morning at assembly.

That evening we all went to Paul and Sara’s house for a braai. I was really pleased about this as I always go on about what amazing food they feed us and I was really glad that they got to experience this! Luckily, it lived up to their expectation and Mummy said her steak was the best meat she had ever eaten so high praise indeed. We had a really fun night and my parents really enjoyed getting to know the Stommels. This was really important to me as they are properly my second family – they have been so kind to us over the last eight months and I really feel like family so it was very important to me that my real family saw and understood this relationship. Luckily they did. As usual Chelcie and I were made to sing for our supper and at first we failed dismally as we couldn’t get rid of the giggles but then everyone started singing and unsurprisingly we ended up singing quite a lot.

The last day of term ended with an assembly up at the school. The children sang and the top ten children with the highest exam averages from Grades 5 -7 were announced. Uapiona had the highest average and he literally had a smile from ear to ear which he couldn’t take off – it was so sweet. Just like last term the assembly ended with the children filing out shaking everyone’s hands as they past. However, I pretty much ended up hugging all the children rather than hand shaking so that was a lot of hugs. As we were walking back to the flat my parents remarked how they didn’t know how I was going to leave this place. Finally they properly understand not only how much I love this place but how these children feel like my children. I have no idea how I will be able to say goodbye when I love them so much.

I really can’t believe that I have now completed my second term at Otjikondo and now only have one left. I didn’t think it would be possible for this term to have gone quicker than last term but it did and everyone says next term is the quickest. So my rucksack is packed and I’m ready for part four of my adventure....

Lots of love to everyone

Ottilie xxx

Part Twenty Six: Happy Easter (6th – 21st April)

After Chelcie had gone I moved in with the Stommels so that I was being looked after and so I wouldn’t be alone in the flat. Obviously I’m supposed to celebrate Christian events with them. I spent a very relaxing weekend reading, writing a couple of letters and watching films on Chelcie’s laptop. On Saturday I helped Gilly get ready for Easter, we hung Easter Eggs with ribbon from the lights in the dining room where we had stars at Christmas. We also dyed some eggs – red, blue and green which was great fun. We then made an Easter basket which was filled with our dyed eggs, candy coated chocolate eggs which looked like normal eggs, chocolate covered marshmallow bars and chocolate covered almonds.

 On Saturday night we went to a candle lit service at St Micheals (Otjikondo’s brother school), this was the first time I have been there so it was very exciting. Lots of the teachers also came with us with their children in their school Combi so that was lovely. The service started outside with everyone standing around a big bonfire which was beautiful and then we went into the church. Reiner designed and built this church in the 60s and it’s much bigger than ours and has a very modern feel to it. The service then went on for 3 hours which nearly killed us! It was split into four parts and in the first quarter we had 8 readings which I felt was slightly excessive! When we returned it was just before midnight and we thought we both deserved an Easter egg!

Easter Day was very relaxing and in the afternoon we went for a game drive where I saw warthogs, a kudu, a springbok, a gemsbok and finally got to meet Charlie the Giraffe. Charlie is the resident Giraffe, apparently he is a bit thick as he doesn’t realise that he can step over gates and fences and if you want to move him you have to open gates for him to walk through! He lives here throughout the year and has friends who come and visit him and then go away again. Chelcie had left me an Easter Card and hidden 8 paper eggs around the kitchen for me which was very sweet. There was one multi coloured one and then the rest were the colours of the rainbow – in the card she said she had hidden them somewhere to do with that colour. I had a good look but failed to even find one egg! I also had a jiffy bag from home to open which was lovely, lots of sweets and an amazing mint balm which tastes incredible, the only downside of this is that I am now putting it on several times a day as it tastes so good! TWO WEEKS TODAY MUMMY AND DADDY ARRIVE! Now counting down days rather than weeks or months, can’t believe it!

Throughout the weekend I’d been feeling much better although still coughing like crazy but on Monday I woke up feeling much worse again. I spent the morning reading and then in the afternoon I opened the shop with Gilly for the children and parents to return to and then Chelcie returned! Although we only went 3 days without seeing each other this is the longest we have been parted in 7 months and we were texting each other several times a day! She had a brilliant time in Owambo land, on the way up she got stuck behind an elephant which was hugely exciting as this is the first one she has seen. On Saturday she went to a traditional Owambo party in traditional dress. She was then given the dress as a present which I was hugely jealous of, she also tried Mwbame worms (caterpillars) which I apparently didn’t miss out on! After moving back to the flat we spent Monday evening telling each other about our weekends and then we watched a film.

Woke up on Tuesday morning without a temperature but every time I coughed it felt like my head was being sawn in half. Gilly made me a doctor’s appointment for the afternoon and we spent a normal morning teaching. The doctor listened to my chest and said that the antibiotics obviously hadn’t worked as m lungs sounded worse than last week and they had closed up a bit. He said that my tonsils also weren’t looking great just as an added bonus. After going through the routine of discussing the origins of my name again and hitting me on the head he started prescribing more medicine. His theory was that I’m allergic to the grass seeds out here which is why the bronchitis is getting worse rather than better so as well as another sort of antibiotics, I’ve been given a special inhaler and antihistamines to take for three months as well as two other medicines to get rid of the bronchitis. He said that if I’m not any better by next week I will have to go into hospital.  All incredibly frustrating and rather scary as I really don’t want to end up in hospital out here and I want to be teaching and not lying in bed.

I woke up on Wednesday morning felling truly awful and totally out of it. After lying in bed, feeling very miserable Sara came over and persuaded me to come and chill at their house. I spent the morning watching cookery programmes on TV and coughing my lungs up. After a sleep at lunch time I returned again in the afternoon, although I didn’t want to talk to anyone it was nice not to be alone and Sara cheered me up. Chelcie came and picked me up at 6 and cooked me supper and then I went to bed.

Luckily, over the next couple of the days the copious amount of medication I had been prescribed finely started to kick in and I started to feel better. On Friday morning I was sitting in the kitchen area sewing one of the costumes for the Musical when I looked down to see a.....SNAKE slithering out from behind the bin towards the area where I was sitting. It slithered towards the corner where it stuck its tongue out at me and then turned around again. I ran for shoes and then for the safety of Sara’s house where I texted Chelcie. I was surprisingly calm considering that there was a snake in our kitchen. I have said right from training that the day a snake moves into the Flat is the day I move out! We returned to the Flat with Stanley and Simon who proceeded to turn our kitchen upside down in search of the snake. However, it was a lot better at hide and seek than we were after a while we had to admit defeat. From my description they think it was a zebra snake so highly dangerous! We think it must have crawled out under the door and away through the garden as it was really nowhere to be found in the kitchen. Both Chelcie and I were incredibly jumpy for the next couple of days in the kitchen and would check under the cushion and chair before sitting down!

We spent Friday evening making a ‘Kicks and Dimps Bus Food Allowance’ sign. Having worked out that after we leave our respective parents we will be spending 87 hours and 15 minutes (knowing our luck with transport Paul said we should just round it up to 100 hours!) we decided we were going to need some serious supplies as well as entertainment. Luckily my sisters and Emma have been making me CDs at home which Mummy and Daddy are going to bring out so the new music will be much appreciated. As Mummy pointed out Eye Spy isn’t much fun in Namibia! I also got a lovely parcel from Godmother Katie containing some things to remind me of England – a lavender bag (the children loved this but couldn’t understand why you would want to put it in with your clothes, three lucky buttons which will be sewn onto my rucksack to bring us luck while travelling and a sheep! The sheep is about 2 inches long, made from wool and pipe cleaners and made us laugh a lot!

We have been incredibly busy making costumes for the play, every time we return to the flat I sit down and start sewing and Chelcie starts painting. I have been making a chocolate button costume, and three dresses for backing singers as well as sewing numerous sequins onto a hat for our Rapper. Chelcie has been painting a Crunchie, Bar One and Smarties costumes. These all look really effective and we are very pleased with how they have turned out. We have also finally finished painting the backdrop yellow – we now just need individual paintings, a window and a border for that to be finished. On Friday we had our first run through of the whole play which took forever. It went like a first run through should – definitely illustrated what we need to work on next term but there were some parts which I was really happy with but there is a lot left to do.

Last Saturday in TV we watched ‘The Wizard of Oz’ which the children loved. Chelcie and I sat amongst the little boys in front of where the older sit on chairs. I had two little boys using me as a pillow and Tuhafeni sitting behind me plaiting all m hair into lots of tiny little plaits so by the end of the night I looked pretty crazy! Unfortunately, one of the G3 boys went to sleep and then wet himself and woke up in a big puddle. I felt really bad for him but it also smelt awful! We came back to the Flat via the little boys hostel as I wanted to say goodnight to Dankie, he then very sweetly undid all my plaits for me which saved me the job later!

On the Sunday we had a Thanksgiving service – instead of the usual collection everyone gave in either toiletries or some food. We gave the two tins of baked beans and the tin of pilchards that have been sitting in our kitchen since the start of the year! Boys from G6 and G7 processed down the aisle with pumpkins, from the school gardens, on their heads which looked amazing. All the donations will be distributed to the poor, sick and old in our community. When I went to bed that night there was the most humongous spider I have ever seen on the wall next to my door. It was the size of my hand outstretched – no exaggeration. Both Chelcie and I were petrified of it so we texted Stanley who came over and got rid of it for us. By then we had both got really freaked out so Chelcie ended up moving her mattress and sleeping on my floor that night!

In all our last PT lessons we played Party Games such as Musical Chairs/Bumps/Statues with all the Grades which they loved. G7 were the most awful cheats which was very amusing but it was a very fun week of lessons. In my recorder lessons I’ve been busy preparing things for them to play at the end of term concert on Monday. Both my Intermediate and Advanced classes will perform two songs with two solos as well. My beginner class also would like to perform but I’m not really sure I can stand listening to them – they are truly awful! I also don’t feel it’s fair to make other people suffer them as well!

We have also planted the sunflower seeds that Mummy sent me for my birthday. They are growing at a crazy rate so we’ve taken to making a video diary of them each day as they seem to be on steroids! We now need to work out what to do with them over the holiday when we go away.....!

On Friday morning we had a Spelling Bee with ten children from G5-7 who had done the best in their weekly spellings throughout the term. I had ordered all the spellings from this term into levels of difficulty and they all took turns in spelling a word. If they made a mistake then they were out. We got down to the ten unseen words and by now it was only between Uapiona (G6) and Aune (G7). Uapiona spelt ‘examination’ correctly but Aune spelt ‘proprietor’ wrong making Uapiona the winner.

On Saturday night we had our ‘Star Party’, this was for the 16 children with the highest amount of stars. We had one from each Grade and then another eight children. The children earn stars through good behaviour, acts of kindness and having tidy bedrooms. Gilly had given us borevors and brotchen for them which I cooked on the braai and we also cut up lots of cucumber for them – a big novelty, and made them little party bags (in yogurt pots!) with sweets, fruit, balloons and little toys in. Having made two parcels the children played their first ever game of Pass the Parcel which they loved. I gave them my camera which as usual caused endless amusement. It was a really fun evening and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves.

Visas: Gilly went to have a meeting with the Deputy Minister about our visa situation but returned to Otjikondo without having been able to meet with him. We now have our passports back ready to go travelling but the visa situation is all a bit scary. I really don’t want to have to leave Otjikondo before the end of next term. So if anyone has a magic wand please grant us one wish: ‘To have our visas extended until the end of August’, thank you very much.

I can’t believe I have taught my last lessons this term and we only have the last couple of days of cleaning before my second term is over. This term has gone at least as twice as fast as last term, which I didn’t think was possible, and everyone says that next term is the quickest. All very scary. The next time I write here my parents will be with me which is so exciting. At the moment they are on a plane between Frankfurt and Windhoek and I can’t wait to see them! I hope that all is well with you at home.

Lots of love

Ottilie xxx