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
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