Monday was such a bizarre day – now that Parents Day is over it didn’t really feel like we should be teaching anymore. In Wings Art we got them to draw out of the magazines while we everyone turned everyone’s marks for the term in Art and PT into averages so that we could give them a grade. In the afternoon we had one last performance of The Button Box for the school and we had it recorderd. Mr Schnurr (he wrote the book ‘Namibia Calling’ which tells the story of the Stommels and Otjikondo – it’s fascinating and I would definitely recommend reading it) and some of his friends were visiting Otjikondo and had some equipment and very kindly said they would record it. This means that I will end up with a DVD of the play which is hugely exciting. In the evening we went to climb the water tower to watch the sunset – apparently this is a GAP tradition and therefore something we had to do. However the tower is very, very tall and even more rickety. I got about 6ft of the ground and had to come down again – very scary! Chelcie got to the top and said the view was incredible – she took a quick photo so I could see and came down rather fast!
It has now been totally confirmed that Laurie is arriving to record our girls singing which is very exciting. Mrs Vermaak said that we could watch Olympics in class with the children as she thought it was important for them to see some of it. This meant we had an incredible week teaching and got to see lots of the Olympics! Laurie arrived on Tuesday evening and work commenced on Wednesday. We did all the vocal recording in the Church because of the amazing acoustics but then we went to different locations to video them. We did some of the filming at the most incredible location – Holstein Rocks which is where Paul and Sara had their wedding photos taken. Masses and masses of giant rocks which made a spectacular background especially with the sun setting behind them.
We have made prizes for each of the Drama cast – just a little medal type thing. Each of them have a different award according to what they did best or what we remember them for. Some were quite silly or in jokes amongst the cast but others were more serious awards.
Aune – Best Grandma Rage
Desvino – Most Valued Player
Uapiona – No 1 U18 Wrestler
Diina – Arrum Prize
Damian – Best Impuku Dancer
Sitaleni – Good Egg
Tuhafeni – Most Distracting Face
Ruben – Marvelous Matelot
Paulus – Best Chair
Twasindana – Magnificent Mango Picker
Evangelina – Most Bootylicious Wiggle
Tuyambeka – Miss Otjikondo
Albertha – Triple Threat
Davensia – Most Reliable
Theopoldine – Star Chorus Member
Avihe – Miss Paradise Island
Stacy – Little Miss Sunshine
Robertine – Truly Scrumptions Chocolisious Smartie
Britney – Cheekiest Chocolate Button
Waltraudt – Super Singer
Anna Debs – The award for...8 appearances on stage in the correct costume
Kenisha – Miss Sugar Sweet
Vanessa – Best Knicker flash
Xunta-I – Best Soldier
Emelia – Best Behaved
Joyce and Helena – Star Stage Manager
Carla – Speediest Dresser
I’ve been busy writing the end of term Newsletter as well as my Post Report. The Post Report is to leave for the Stommels and for Gilly to read in her old age to remind her which GAP I was! I could do it in any format that I liked and it was just about what the year had meant to be and what I had gained. Luckily these were all things I had been thinking a lot about recently and it wasn’t too much of a struggle.
Friday was CRAZY. As in really crazy! We set off for Tanigu Kindergarten which is the Stommels Kindergarten in Khorixas. It was their Parents Day and we were going to paint the all the children’s faces while the parents were in the meeting. The kindergarten is an oasis in such a poor area – the houses are one room huts built from corrugated iron and the roofs are weighed down by stones or old car tyres. The children were all so sweet and we had great fun transforming them into lions, butterflies, flags and generally anything we felt like! We then painted each other’s faces – a GB flag for Chelcie and me, a German flag for Carla and we even did Gilly – one side Namibia and the other half Great Britain. On the way home we stopped to buy some lunch in Khorixas and the looks and laughs we got from other customers were brilliant. As soon as we got back to Otjikondo we rushed off to Holstein Rocks with Lauire, Sara and the children. We filmed them in lots of different positions – for one we climbed up a series of rocks and had them positioned scattered over the boulders. As the sun set the children just became silhouettes against the sunset which was stunning. Definitely not a typical Otjikondo Friday.
On Saturday Chelcie and Carla did some more filming for BOOF in different locations and I went to Outjo with the U9 and U12 Football teams and the U8, U9 and U11 Netball teams to play in the finals. We had a very successful day out and returned with three medals. It’s lovely spending time like that with the children outside of school and I also got to see some of the old G7s who came to watch and support. Peterson, who plays for the U12 team but is half the size of most of them, was the star player. Twice he was totally surrounded by five players on the opposition and managed to dribble around them leading to goals which was just amazing. I saw a girl wearing what appeared to be a McDonalds t-shirt – a big red yellow ‘M’ on a red background but when I looked closer under the M instead of saying McDonalds it said Marijuana and then ‘Over 1 billion stoned’ – very inappropriate for a 11 year old to be wearing! In the evening we ended up having supper at Paul and Sara’s house with Laurie which was great fun and we ended up singing to Laurie playing the guitar. Laurie also very kindly recorded Chelcie and I singing together so that we now have a CD. This means that Gilly can also keep on listening to us sing once we’ve gone home.
Sunday was very relaxed – we sang Lord of the Dance in church which has become the Stommels new favourite song. We went with all the teachers to Mrs Vermaak’s house for lunch where we were treated to a meat feast including warthog which is yummy and liver which is less so! In the evening Carla gave me a saxophone lesson which was brilliant. It was the same fingering as the recorder so I picked it up pretty quickly and found it great fun.
Last full week at Otjikondo....Gilly informed us that she was putting a clause in her will so that our flights would be paid for us to fly out and sing at her funeral -she wasn’t joking. We said we’d rather come out for a big birthday so she could actually hear us sing! On Tuesday Gilly drove us to St Michael’s to say goodbye to Sam as he was leaving for Windhoek. I found it quite upsetting as knowing that he was leaving really brought it home to me that in just over 10 days time it would be my turn. We had a resale of the left over Craft bits and then packed up the remaining things. We have left all the boards up with the art work on – feel a bit sorry for the next GAPs as it will all be up when they arrive.
Lessons this week consisted of taking the children for walks and just chatting. At this stage we just wanted to spend the time with them and start to say our goodbyes. In the afternoons we gave parties for our activity groups – this consisted of giving them some food, dancing to music and having water fights in our garden! We had our last music class with the Kindergarten where we went over all the songs we had taught them this term. It’s amazing how much English and confidence they have picked up in such a short period and I have enormous respect for Sara for this. I was sitting next to Sinky who is very enthusiastic about music and kept on bursting into song and spontaneously growling which I found hilarious!
On Tuesday evening we went over to Ms Rachel’s house and she let us dress up in her traditional Herero dresses. These are absolutely brilliant – firstly you have to be wrapped in quilts and blankets as the rounder you are the more fertile you are and therefore more attractive to a husband. You then wear a petticoat and then a Victorian esq dress but with massive shoulders and hat which is triangular. When we got undressed again I suddenly felt so light and tiny – a good feeling! On Friday morning we went to school dressed as Hereros and got the best reaction from the children and the other staff. They all thought we looked beautiful (actually I looked about 8 months pregnant!) but they see it as a massive compliment that we went to be involved in their culture and experience a part of it. We walked down to the farm yard and the farm workers found it hysterical. The Stommels also loved it and there was more than one conversation about marrying us off to a Herero!
On Thursday evening we finally got round to having Paul and Sara to supper. We had been meaning to have them all year as we have been frequent guests at their house but only just got round to it. I cooked curry and they brought champagne and wine and we had a lovely evening. Although this week has been really fun, everything we have been doing we have been doing for the last time and therefore been tinged with sadness. I’ve cried less than I thought I would but I have been on the brink of crying most of the time! I love these children and place more than I can possibly describe and I honestly can’t imagine leaving them and not seeing some of them again and the others not for a year. Just writing this I’m starting to tear up at the prospect of having to say goodbye.
Friday break time we had a goodbye party with the teachers. Over Carrot cake and tea we were presented with beautiful chunky copper bracelets as well as a massive card from the teachers with messages inside from them all. The reality of having to say goodbye hit me and I cried. I can’t imagine what I’m going to be like next week saying goodbye to the Stommels and the children. How do I explain to Dankie that when he comes back after the holidays that I won’t be there anymore.
On Friday evening we had the cast party for The Button Box and it was one of my best evenings at Otjikondo. At 3pm we set off for Oenitzaub (the Heritage Centre) laden with tents, sleeping bags and an enormous amount of food not forgetting 27 children! Nearly crashed on the way there when a warthog came running out into the road but we got there safely! We set up camp and then had a sort out of all our things. We sat talking and listening to music before giving the children a tour of the heritage centre. As tradition calls we all signed our names with the date on one of the doors inside. We started cooking quite early as had a lot of borevors to cook and only a small braai. Supper stretched out as I could only cook 10 borevors at a time and everyone had 2 so that was 60 to cook! As it got dark everyone got changed into their pj’s and it was very cosy. As Desvino got into the buggy I asked him if he had a jumper – the answer was no but he’d be fine as he had brought a blanket. As soon as it started to get cold – ‘Ottilie I’m cold’, luckily I’d brought two jumpers and being the nice person that I am, I gave him one of them! By now it was pitch black and we only had two torches....luckily I’d brought 10 light up balloons and 4 glow sticks which Mummy had sent out for my birthday. These were absolutely perfect – thank you Mummy and the children loved them. We gave out all our prizes and gave a little speech saying thank you for all their hard work before having the promised talent show. We had singing, dancing, rapping....
We then sat around the camp fire roasting marshmallows on sticks. I had Damian curled up on my lap and it was idyllic. Damian whispered in my ear how I was the best GAP in his life and that I was perfect and just the best. It meant the world to me to hear this and broke my heart just a tiny bit. They wanted to hear a ghost story so I made up a story about the Ghost of Oenitzaub complete with sound effects done by Chelcie. It wasn’t particularly scary but it was very jumpy and they were terrified – but in a good way! Carla thought it was true at first as she didn’t believe that I could have made it up on the spot like that! I told them that the way to pacify the ghost if you saw her or heard her crying was to sing ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star’ and throughout the night we heard little burst of ‘twinkle, twinkle’ which was highly amusing! It was then time for bed but said they could talk and be in each other’s tents for a bit. In England the tent would be a four man tent but with five its fine but 6 is pretty squishy. I was in a tent with Stacy, Avihe, Emilia, Robertine and Tuyambeka however we were quickly joined by Desvino, Sitaleni and Damian, making nine of us which wasn’t much fun! We sat talking, telling stories and singing. They got me to teach them ‘Lord of the Dance’ which they loved and Desvino said that Chelcie and I were better than Rihanna which was very sweet of him!
Chelcie came and collected me for a loo run and we both decided that we would quite like to go to sleep now so very cheekily we got into one of the boys tent – it was empty as they were spread out amongst the other tents, made a bed and tried to get some sleep. However, it didn’t take long for the children to miss our presence and come looking for us and we were discovered but allowed to stay put! At midnight we told them they had to get some sleep and we made Desvino and Damian come join us as 8 children in one tent was not going to be conductive for sleeping. I don’t think Chelcie and I got any sleep at all – when we had escaped our respective tents we had left behind our pillows, duvets and blankets meaning we were left with one sleeping bag between the two of us and it was FREEZING! Desvino is also a very, very loud snorer and windmill was incredibly loud- it sounded like a clock chiming but it was continuous! The children woke up and started talking about 5 and we were joined by various children who came to snuggle! At 7 we gave up the pretence of trying to sleep and decided to feed them much to their delight. We played two games of pass the parcel and gave out the ‘2012 Button Box’ cup for the best performance at the Talent Show last night – Damian won this for his medly of all the songs that he knew ranging from ‘How many times do you read your Bible?’ to his rap from The Button Box, which was incredibly amusing.
After some much needed sleep in the afternoon we went for a Braai at Paul and Sara’s house – the first evening braai in months. Summer is on its way! I also found out that my remedial Maths classes had done really well in their maths exam which made me so happy. Stacy got 70%, Brenden 72% AND Diodores 75% so I was extremely proud of all of them.
Four days left at Otjikondo....not sure where the time has gone and I don’t know what to say. I’m excited to go home but I don’t want to leave here. I miss it already
Lots of love Me xxx
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