We had a ‘long weekend’ in that Carla and Hannah
taught our Monday lessons so we could continue with the Art Displays. For the
Europe board background (also two boards) we drew out a map of Europe and then
painted the countries different colours. Chelcie copied the map from an atlas
but then ‘Chelciefied’ it; this means that the countries size depended on how
much Chelcie liked it (massive England and Ireland) and some countries like
Kazakhstan seemed to mysteriously disappear and don’t feature on our map. I
tease her about this but we all know what would happen if I had to copy out the
map – I would probably still be doing it now I’m such a perfectionist!
The Art Room now longer looks like a classroom – all
the chairs have gone into storage with a couple of the tables and the rest have
been rearranged to create a shop. This means that all our Art lessons for the
next two weeks will take place outside or in other locations. For G3 this was
just too much excitement and the lesson was pretty chaotic. Luckily lots of
picnic tables have come out of storage and we have created a classroom outside
the art room so lessons shouldn’t be so unruly from now on.
At lunch time I went for a walk on the tar road
(meeting four warthogs) and was stopped by a tourist bus who was very concerned
about me. They seemed to think I was trying to walk to Outjo and wanted to give
me a lift and couldn’t understand that I was just walking to go for a walk as
opposed to trying to get somewhere!
We have started working in the Art Room after supper
in order to try and get everything completed. We stuck up all the children’s
Europe work on top of the map and started on the Australasia boards. One has a
black background with lots of Koru art work stuck on and the other one we have
created an Ayres rock on which we have stuck turtles and lizards which have
been done aborigine style. The Ayres rock has been made with literally sand
paper – paper covered in glue which we put in the sand outside the art room to
create authentic sand paper! Also very busy making and printing off name tags
to display next to the children’s work. I have started making the people for
the world – we painted a giant world on a piece of fabric in bright, block
colours which is going up on one of the walls. We are making 7 people to be
stuck up around the world; one representing each continent and they will be
wearing clothes traditional to a country from that country.
Europe – Greece (a toga
and green garland)
Africa – Namibia (body
paint and an Ovambo skirt)
Asia – China (a kimono)
North America – Hawaii
(sequin bikini, grass skirt and flower garland)
South America – Rio
(carnival outfit – sequin top, feathered skirt and mask)
Australasia – Australia
(t-shirt, shorts, cork hat and surf board)
Antarctica – Arctic
(snow suit)
All
the clothes are made from Material and so actually took ages to make. I painted
the body of the person the same colour as the continent was painted on the map,
so when they are stuck it will be really obvious where they come from. (Europe
– lilac, Africa –yellow, North America – orange, South America – light green,
Asia – dark green, Australasia – red and Antarctica – pink)
The Africa board is now completed as well. For the
background we stuck up loads of red African patterned material which looks very
effective. We then displayed G6’s silhouette work – sunset background with a
black tree or animal in the foreground, and G7’s charcoal drawings of African
trees. We decided that the Europe board didn’t have quite enough WOW factor so
subsequently some of it is becoming 3D. Each country has various drawings stuck
on to it and now some of the drawings are attached to half a loo roll so they
stick out. This was an absolute nightmare to achieve but the whole thing looks
a lot better. I had to use a mixture of glue, masking tape and selotape and
they still all repeatedly fell down until I thoroughly lost my sense of humour
with it all!
Matilda posted a picture today on Facebook of her
diary with 26th of August marked as ‘O coming home’. All very
exciting but can’t really believe it’s so soon. Flu has now hit Otjikondo and
most of our cast seem to be suffering – aghhh. Uapiona one of the four main
parts has lost his voice which isn’t very conductive to successful rehearsals! So
now we are trying to look after all the cast in order to make sure that they
all stay healthy and happy!
Friday was a bit weird – all of the teachers apart
from Mrs Vermaak, Ms Fabiola and Ken were away at workshops, meaning that we
had responsibility for Grades 1 to 4. We did PT for two Grades at a time while
the other two Grades watched a film, so it worked out quite well. In the
afternoon we had a dress rehearsal in front of Gilly - this was to determine
whether we were ready to perform and subsequently whether our first performance
to St Mike’s on Sunday would happen….or not. Despite Uapiona being unable to
sing, Paulus being in bed and a couple of out of tune songs we were deemed ready
for performance. Button Your Lip (Damian’s rap), Crow’s Button (Wlatraudt’s
solo) and the Irish Leprechaun Dance were absolutely brilliant and we were both
ecstatic. This was the first time that we had actually allowed Desvino
(Granddad) to eat on stage – we supplied him with a packet of biscuits and
sweets and he was marvellous. We also realised that we hadn’t yet worked out a
bowing sequence of an encore song which is customary so that was quickly
remedied. They will repeat the second half of ‘The Pgyama Button’ (the last
song) to bow to and then the encore song is ‘Button Your Lip’ with everyone
joining in on the chorus rather than just the three backing singers. This is a
risk as Damian still tends to rush but everyone enjoys singing the Chorus so much
that hopefully it will work out. Gilly rated us 95% ready however we are going
to change our set….
Just before TV started Byron arrived at our flat
with a two week old baby baboon! It was so, so, so, cute. He had called it
Thomas Philemo. When out hunting he had seen a lone baboon which means that it
is a male one so he shot it (they have way too many baboons here so this is a
form of population control) however, it turned out to be a female and there was
Thomas. Byron was giving it to a conservation trust and was just waiting for it
to be picked up. Thomas was like a really ugly little old man with a lot of
hair. He was really sweet and we would just cling to you- he was fascinated
with the collar of my jacket. His hands were amazing and he was just like a
little baby but apart from the fact that he was a baboon! The children did not
except our excuse for being late for TV and wouldn’t have believed us if a
couple of children hadn’t also met Thomas.
After TV we joined Paul, Sara and Byron (now minus
the baboon) to watch the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics. I can’t say I was
overly impressed. Despite everything being executed amazingly and the lighting
design being incredible, we all thought it was a bit random. I’m not sure if it
was just because we were watching from Namibia but the commentator was awfully
dull and much too quiet. The highlights for me were Mr Bean and fire beacons
right at the end which did make it worth staying up for, just. What were the
Germans wearing?
So, on Saturday morning it was time to redesign the
set. Before we had our window on the backdrop stage right and stage left we had
two ‘armchairs’ in fact two chairs draped with duvets. In between the chairs a
table and on the wall behind some photos and a painting Chelcie did. Gilly has
now given us two wicker chairs and a matching coffee table, a little desk and a
book shelf. We have hung a painting over the desk and Chelcie’s painting
(although amazing now doesn’t fit in with the rest of the set) has been
replaced with a lovely wooden clock. The bookshelf has been filled with books,
some DVDs and board games on top. The stage now looks a lot more filled and
much more like a home. I only hope the children like it….
On Saturday evening Hannah and Carla returned from
their Etosha trip where they had spent two days with Aileen, having had a great
time, and we had Hannah’s leaving party. We decided it was time for another
fancy dress party and Chelcie and I became matching Aborgine people/African
warriors, Carla was an African witch doctor and Hannah was a clown complete
with an Elephants head! I made a curry and Chelcie a syrup cake and we had a
great evening.
On Sunday both my Intermediate and Advanced
Recorders played in Church and they performed really well. They usually get
quite nervous and it never sounds that good but I played with them both and it
worked really well so I was extremely happy. In the afternoon it was our
opening night of……The Button Box! We were starting at 3:00 but the lorry with
St Mikes aboard turned up at 2:00 which momentarily through us until Sara sent
them all to watch TV. Our first hurdle was to discover that we were missing two
cast members. Firstly Tuhafeni who declared he was too ill to perform, the
children all said there was nothing wrong with him but when I went to talk to
him he said he was ill and couldn’t perform. Frankly, it was his loss not ours.
The second person missing was Robertine. In the holiday she was bitten by a dog
so she has been going to have lots of injections this term. She had gone to have
one and hadn’t bothered to tell us. We were both seething. Luckily, Waltraudt
said she knew all of her parts and she managed to fill in beautifully twice.
Tuhafeni’s absence we just had to ignore. We then opened the curtain to show
the cast their new set and the ‘wows’ from the children confirmed it clearly
that they approved of our decisions. St Mike’s were a hard audience to perform
to as they didn’t particularly respond to us but for a first performance I was
very proud of them. It was completely flat but nothing major went wrong. The
main four weren’t really acting which meant that the whole thing lacked life.
Damian forgot his words at the start of the rap but then recovered brilliantly.
The Uncle Tom Duet was horribly out of tune but luckily that was it. Kenisha
sang her solo the best she has ever done it and it was stunning and once again
the Crows Button and Irish Leprechaun dance were brilliant. Damian was really
reluctant to do his song as the encore and bless him was totally petrified but
I managed to persuade him that he could do it and he proved me right. I really,
really love that boy.
We came back to the flat and just collapsed –
totally exhausted. Home in four weeks. This time next week Parents Day will be
over – aghh, lots to get done still before then. Once again a very busy week
which seems to have flown by. I could really do with a time machine at the
moment just to slow everything down as everything seems to be speeding up. Love
and hugs to everyone
Love Ottilie xxxx
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