Part Thirty Three: Dramatics during Drama! (18th – 28th June)

Monday morning started with me giving a drugs talk! Once again I was teaching for Ken on Monday and Tuesday as he sat the last of his exams – the Police Inspector had kindly left his colourful poster and it was up to me to take the Grade 6s through it. I won’t lie....I definitely was learning new things as I was teaching them, for instance did you know that all cannabis plants have an odd number of leaves. The children took this piece of information to mean that a green plant with an odd number of leaves is cannabis and I was brought various specimens of cannabis throughout the day! Mondays mean triple Grade Five which is always a struggle. By the third lesson they had way too much energy to be conductive so I sent them out to do 3 laps of the football pitch and they returned with slightly less energy. Grade 6 agriculture was really satisfying – I started with a test on everything that we had covered last week and they had remembered it all which made me very happy. Grade 7 agriculture was a slight shambles as they knew they had a test in science next with me and were panicking about it so I did a quick recap for them. I really wanted them all to pass as the test was on Scientific Processes which is what I had taught them and therefore their marks would reflect my teaching.

Monday afternoon as incredible weather and I decided it was too nice to waste on sitting inside playing the recorder. Instead we played hide and seek and this crazy African game where one person has a stick and tries to hit everyone else with it on the bum?! Not really sure I got the finer details of this! Glenn is one of the girls in G6 and in my advanced recorder group. She asked me before to go home with her for the Out Weekend and we talked again about it properly and I said I would love to go. I really excited about going home with her as she is so lovely and it will be fascinating to stay with a Damara family. On Monday evening I stayed in the Art Room and skyped Staighty which was lovely. She is the only friend that I’ve actually managed to talk to out here and that was on New Years Eve. It was so great to be able to talk ‘face to face’ with her, being able to have an actual conversation is so much more satisfying than just communicating through leaving messages for each other on the internet or writing letters or texts. It was brilliant to hear what has been going on at home and to be able to share some of my news with her. I was also talking to Zim which was brilliant although he was in a ‘Grahamstown funk’ which I had to get him out of. As he knows I only have one joke which he doesn’t find funny – “What do you call a donkey with three legs?”..... “A wonky”! So I was googling jokes to try and amuse him. I then felt really sad sitting in a dark art room by myself in the middle of Africa, freezing cold and laughing out loud at jokes such as “Why does the elephant wear red shoes?”.... “Because his white ones were dirty”! So thought it was time to go back to the flat – a perilous journey without a torch!

Tuesday was brilliant – having nearly turned into an icicle last Tuesday I literally put on most my wardrobe in order to survive another three double periods of agriculture. However, it turned out to be a lovely day so I shed my layers and switched my hoody and cashmere gloves with Diodores in exchange for his cap so I wouldn’t get burnt! I sat on a bench sewing costumes for the drama while talking to the boys who would take it in turn to go and do some work and then come back to chat. A really lovely morning. In the evening after study we had an extra drama rehearsal for the Belly Button Boogie – the children really love this song as the music is so energetic and the dance is great fun. I always get such a high when we practise this as it makes me so happy and gives me a buzz.

Wednesday was Mrs Vermaak’s and Ms Laurencia’s birthday so at break time we had a celebration with the BEST carrot cake ever. It was absolutely incredible and cake at 9:00 is always very welcome! Thursday was a day of sewing for me and painting for Chelcie as Catherine and Jordan took our lessons so that we would have the time to try and get some things finished for the play. We also got a new kettle as we’ve worked out that it was our kettle that kept on fusing the electricity when Catherine and Jordan took it to the art room and managed to cut out the electricity all over the school! Our new one is very smart and lime scale free but we will miss our old one which used to just turn itself on randomly which we always considered a prompt for a tea break – if the kettle realised we needed a break it must be time for one!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Granny Paul today (22st June) – really hope that she’s doing something amazing to celebrate her 80^th birthday. Wish I could spend the day with you or at least talk to you on the telephone but my thoughts are with you none the less.

On Friday afternoon we had the most DISASTROUS drama rehearsal ever which produced tears in my eyes and great frustration from the both of us. We wanted to have a run through of the first half which would give us an indication of how much work we had left to – the answer was everything. I have never been so bored watching a performance, the main four gave dismal performances needing to be prompted every other sentence and Aune, who plays Grandma, had a two year old temper tantrum and refused to put any effort into anything. No one remembered when to enter or what the dances were and the whole thing was a shambles. Sara arrived and gave them all a pep talk and said that the weekend after the out weekend she would be coming to watch a full run through and expected great results – more pressure. The children just aren’t taking it seriously enough at the moment; they are acting like there is lots of time left rather than just a few weeks. There’s not much more that Chelcie and I can do, at some point the results have to come from them and they have to realise that they have to put the work in if they want to have a good show and not get it cancelled. After this Chelcie and were very downhearted and the last thing we felt like doing was TV for the kids so we went and organised to switch with Alberthina would cover for us and we would do it on Saturday instead. We went to the shop and bought chocolate and then made a picnic of egg and bacon rolls, popcorn, cut up apples and oranges and chocolate! We made a massive bed on my floor where we then curled up and watched Disney films. A very fun night and an effective way to cheer ourselves up!

Saturday was a really unexpected lovely day. There was no official cleaning today but with the help of my girls we managed to turn the Art Room back into an acceptable state in 45 minutes and sharpen all the pencils and colours ready for next week. The reason there was no cleaning was that St Michaels were arriving at 9:00 to play football and netball matches against our U11, U12 and U13 teams.  We looked incredibly smart in our green and white sports uniforms....unfortunately although we looked better turned out than St Michaels they had the talent! We lost every single match apart from the U12 football. Our only excuse is that they have double as many children in those grades so more children to pick from but it was pretty dismal and I think they will now be training harder from now on. At lunch time we did our May face painting (I know it’s nearly the end of June but things have got a bit delayed for one reason or another) – we each had an “S” on our face and we had a piece of paper in between us saying “O”. So we spelt out SOS as we were thinking of May Day in the ship sense! We did Bank and shop in the afternoon and then watched Duma with the children during TV. I was reading my book at the back amongst a couple of the G7 boys and looked up at the part when a boy is fighting of crocodiles trying to get out of a lake where he was swimming and I embarrassingly ended up clinging to Bredon’s (deputy head boy) arm in fright! Luckily, he didn’t seem to mind and is by now thoroughly used to me being scared of everything.

On Sunday I ended up having to read in Church as Ken didn’t turn up. I had helped Brendon with his reading during the week but obviously hadn’t looked at Ken’s so ended up reading it for the first time out loud in Church but thankfully it went okay. It was Sara’s birthday so we ended up there for a birthday lunch which was lovely. We had Indian which not only was scrummy but also a very welcome change. We both had wine hoping that it would relax us sufficiently for the drama rehearsal at 3.30. It wasn’t quite as disastrous as Friday but not much better. In that we now have one person who is taking it seriously – Desvino who plays Grandad, love that boy so much at the moment. However, at the end of the rehearsal we were just mucking around singing along to the backing track and it sounded really good. When we first chose the play we really wanted to use the backing track as it’s brilliant but there isn’t a speaker system in the Dining Room where the stage is. Also we have had to put a lot of the songs down as the music is written for English voices which tend to be a lot higher than the children’s voices out here. However, we have decided to use the backing track for a couple of songs. The music isn’t incredibly loud but you can hear it and it gives the children an instant boost of energy which is what the play needs. It’s lacking pizzazz at the moment. We can’t use it for all the songs as the majority of them are just too high for the children to sing to but it has worked out for six of them. Hopefully, this will really make a positive difference as we are starting to run out of ideas and time to improve the play.

This week in PT I took all the boys in each Grade while Chelcie took the Girls. I did penalty shooting practice with them and put it into practice by playing little games. This was good fun especially as they all really enjoy it and therefore are a pleasure to teach although I lack much football skill! In G7 PT I took Desvino, Aune and Diina to do some extra acting work with them. I managed to inject some life in to their performances and we worked on talking slowly and clearly but still having energy. I still have hope for them....!

G5 Art on Tuesday was a total nightmare from beginning to end. They arrived full of energy and never really settled down. It took us 40 minutes to complete their spelling test which consists of 20 words which they all failed miserably having not learnt it – 8 people scored 1/20. This doesn’t amuse me at all as I always write out their corrections for them and that’s a lot of corrections to write out in a class of 34 with the highest mark being 12/20. After the spellings we got them to line up outside in silence before we would continue with Art but they were being so disrespectful and would not stand quietly so after a while we took them to Mr Hawaxab and left him to deal with them. This was our final resort as this term there have been quite a few lessons when they have been playing up with us and we needed them to realise that they couldn’t behave like that. That afternoon, I had a craft session with my girls which includes a girl called Liezel from G5. None of us were feeling creative so we just went and crashed in the Grass Hut and they were giving me the low down about all of the teachers. I asked what the G5 punishment had been, expecting a bad class punishment such as no bank/break/vet cookies for the whole class......however, it turned out that the class had chosen eight members of the class who they considered responsible and they were beaten. Liezel was saying how she hated how her class were such snitches on each other and the G6 and G7 girls were saying how their classes always stuck together and would much rather take a whole class punishment then rat on each other. I felt so guilty that a decision I had made had resulted with eight children being beaten. The worst thing was that although I knew that Mr Hawaxab hit the children and it’s something I openly disapprove of I thought it was just with his hand however I discovered that he had a piece of metal that he hits them with them. I felt such shame and guilt that the children had been punished like this because of me and I have vowed that I will never send another child ever again to Mr Hawaxab.

Tuesday was Catherine and Jordan’s last night at Otjikondo so we had a special supper. I cooked I between the electricity cutting out a sausage and vegetable pasta bake and we had a lovely last night altogether. It’s been really nice having them here and to be able to share stories and memories with each other. A little daunting when Jordan mentioned that she read my blog....so if you’re reading this “HI!” I have definitely found someone who is blonder than me which is a relief although I’m now panicking about first impressions at Uni as I have been very blonde recently.

On Wednesday we did our first music class at the Kindergarten which was brilliant. There were 15 children, none of which apart from Mattie and Ola have much English so at this stage it was more of a question of singing at them and getting them to join in with the actions. We did “If you’re happy and you’re know it” which was good fun and then we sang some other songs which Sara had already done with them. Sara has given us total free range with these classes and says that if we want to do a game with them or something different than that’s fine. I’m really looking forward to taking over the parachute that we have in the store cupboard – I remember absolutely loving that when I was younger and I reckon not much will have changed!

Thursday I had rather a scary experience and another Oh My God I’m in Africa moments – funnily enough most of the negative ones of these are attached to medical care. When Glenn a girl in G6 and one of my favourites – she is my pen pal, returned to school we were told that in the holidays she had been fainting lots but it was nothing to be overly concerned about and it was to do with growing up. She told her friends that she had epilepsy but we were told this was wrong and we should play down anything we heard. She had fainted a few times at school and had just spent a week at home recovering from a couple. She was in my second remedial class and we were a verbal times and dividing competition. She was very quiet and said she felt faint but didn’t want to go and lie down so we just continued and I kept a close eye on her. When it was time to leave I saw she was very unstable and thought I would accompany her back to the hostel. She then got worse and luckily Chelcie appeared and with some help we were able to carry her to the Clinic. As soon as she was horizontal she blacked out and her body went completely like rigid. We got her on a bed and sat with her having sent someone to get Sister Lizetta. Her whole body was totally stiff but she was having spasms and we couldn’t get her body to relax – her hands had turned into claws as she was so stiff and the end of her fingers were freezing. Her breathing was regular generally although sometimes it went shallow but then would return to normal again. I was very worried that she hadn’t woken up and after half an hour we sent a child for Sara. Sara fetched Mrs Vermaak who had been dealing before with Glenn and with her help we massaged and moved all her limbs which started to relax but then would bounce back to being rigid. Luckily after about 45 minutes of being totally out of it she woke up which was a massive relief. Whatever we had been told this definitely wasn’t fainting but something much more serious. Her Mother came to pick her up that evening and she has to go and have lots of tests. She is very much in my thoughts at the moment.

Our theme for our Art Room for Parents Day is ‘Around the World’. With the younger ones we are colouring in animals from different places but with the older ones we are exploring different endemic art styles. With Grade Three we did Koru Art which is from New Zealand, Grade 6 Aboriginal Art from Australia and with G7 we were exploring Chinese symbols. It’s really important that the art work is of a very high standard and that it all looks spectacular. This is one of our big challenges for the year – 4^th August has become our D Day! As we this is when Parents Day happens and therefore the Art Room is open with the craft fair inside as well as performing the Drama in the afternoon.

On Thursday night we had supper with Nicole, Sabine, Mathieu and Maxime as they leave tomorrow. I cooked Gemsbok Josh Rogan Curry and we ate in the Pastoral Centre where they contributed wine and Swiss chocolate! It was a really fun evening and I only wish we had done it with them before however they invited us to come and stay with them in Switzerland which both of us eager to take them up on! They gave us all their leftover food bits which was so welcome – we now have very exotic foods such as honey cheerios, balsamic vinegar, an avocado, raspberry jam.....so exciting! It’s been really lovely having so many people around this term and we are expecting more people next week, finger crossed that they are as nice!

In order to be ready to perform a complete run through next week to Sara we had evening rehearsals of the Button Box on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night after supper. This is possibly the worst time to have a rehearsal as its 7:30, the children and us are ready for bed and its freezing but there isn’t another available time. I got into a good habit of being changed into my pj’s, teeth brushed and  a hot water bottle warming my bed so once we returned I could jump straight into bed and go to sleep! Monday’s rehearsal went well, we rehearsed the first 5 songs and added the backing track to two of them which was successful. Tuesday was less successful....we went through the middle section of the play and although the majority of the cast were brilliant Aune once again was being silly – she was putting no effort into speaking which was annoying everyone else and refused to sing without covering her face with her arm. We had discussed with Sara what we should do if this happened again and so we put the plan into action which then massively backfired in our faces! At the end of rehearsal we asked Desvino (Grandad) to remain behind as well as Kenisha and Tuyambeka. We asked both of them to read through the first scene with him so that we could “consider our options”, we explained how we weren’t replacing anyone but we needed to think about other options in case things didn’t work out. If we were going to have to replace Aune which we REALLY don’t want to do it was going to have to very soon only to be fair to the person who would take over. We walked outside to discover Aune in floods of tears, literally having hysterics. We sent everyone back to the hostel and took her aside to talk to her. We talked to her and explained that we weren’t replacing her but she was on her last chance and it wasn’t fair to the rest of the cast if she kept dragging us behind and if necessary we would have to replace her. We told her that she was our first choice of Grandma but if she couldn’t pull it together then she would be out. She then went on a massive rant about how seeing people happy and smiling at her reminded her of her Dad. She hasn’t seen her Dad since last Christmas which is very hard on her and we have talked and helped her with this before but at this particular point she was just using it as an excuse. We decided to go with it and said she had to make a grown up decision; she could either cope with it and was able to turn up to rehearsal and just focus on Drama and obviously we would be there for her to talk to at any other point or she had to make the decision that it was too much for her and she should step aside. We were very firm and said she had to make a decision by the next day. Luckily she has decided that she can “cope” and we shall wait with fingers crossed to see what happens next. On Thursday night we went through the last 5 songs in the play which all went well and hopefully things will keep improving.

I really hope that everything is going well in England or whether you are reading this from and as usual sending lots and lots of love to everyone reading this. Please feel free to send me an email as it’s now a viable form of communication for me or if you would like to skype let me know! Also forgot my very exciting big news – I’m officially legal after 43 weeks in Namibia! Finally our visas have been properly sorted and stamped into our passports until the end of August, huge relief although I’m looking forward to getting my passport back and seeing with my own eyes that its true. I trust no one when it comes to visas as we have been let down so many times. But all very exciting and it means I should be able to get home safely, touch wood! Bye for now

Love Me xxxx

Part Thirty Two: The Diamond Jubilee, Crounders and.....WIRELESS INTERNET (4th – 17th June)

This was the week of the Jubilee which we weren’t doing anything in particular to celebrate so we thought we would have a Jubilee themed Art week. With all the younger children we made crowns and they decorated them. This resulted in us having to draw out 34 crowns for G1 as we didn’t think they were capable of drawing them on their own, luckily the rest were able to as the novelty wore off pretty quickly! With the older grades we got them to design an outfit for a Royal to wear to a celebration or to design a form of transport for the Royal to get to the celebration. We started each lesson with a little talk about our royal family which they all found very interesting although they were outraged to learn that the Queen never carries any money on her!

We also invented a new sport which we played all week with all the Grades....it’s called Crounders. It’s a mixture of Rounders and Quick Cricket but played with a tennis ball and bat! It was really fun and all the children seemed to enjoy it as well. One of us would bowl each time and the other would either field or with the younger ones help them to bat. With the older ones the games got quite competitive and we had a really fun time playing this. Wings this year have been quite difficult to teach PT to as they have such a range of ages, however, this was something that they all could play and enjoyed. I think for the first time ever we went a whole week without a strop in PT from a single Wings child, which is unheard of.

I spent the actual day of the Jubilee in bed as at 3am I woke up and then was sick for an hour or two for no apparent reason. Didn’t get much more sleep so spent the day dozing in bed with a rather sore tummy feeling sorry for myself. After the holidays I haven’t been sleeping as well as I’m getting back ache like I did at the start from the mattress. Over the holiday I was spoiled and got used to sleeping on a proper mattress and my back isn’t appreciating my return to my Otjikondo bed! Chelcie is very excited about the return to her bed but worryingly I can’t remember what mine feels like! I know it’s nice but I can’t imagine it at all...

I have started running again on some of the mornings as I need to get fit and thin to come home. It’s a massive struggle to get out of bed that early especially as it’s freezing. I must look absolutely ridiculous in my running gear – trainers, leggings, a t-shirt, Uapiona’s beanie and my cashmere fingerless gloves! Luckily no one else is up at that ear to witness me like that. On Friday morning I met two Giraffe at my half way point which brightened up the run. They were crossing the road where I turn around (a road sign saying Kamanjab 70km) and when I turned around they followed me for a bit. My run took rather longer than usual as I stopped for about 10 minutes to watch them as they were really close to me and very beautiful.

On Friday’s we have a clash class when we have to teach G4 music at the same time as G2 PT. G4 is our devil class so neither of us like to teach them that much, especially on our own, but said I would do it. Last term we battled away doing Theory with them which they hated and I can’t say I enjoyed teaching that much either. I thought I would do something they would enjoy hoping that would make them behave. We went to the grass hut and I taught them some new songs – we started with ‘Nick Nack Paddy Wack, give the dog a bone’ which they already know and like and then I introduced ‘One Man went to Mow’. This has to be one of the most monotonous songs to sing as it never changes but they absolutely LOVED it. We probably spent half an hour just singing this repeatedly! Song of the girls asked me to write down the words for them after the lesson but I said if they couldn’t remember the words to this after singing it about 20 times they really shouldn’t be in G4. Finally I started to teach them ‘There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea’ which they also really enjoyed.

I then had my first keyboard lessons with Theopoldine and Revonia after the holidays. Theopoldine remembered lots and we made great progress so I was very happy. On the other hand it was like I have never taught Revonia the keyboard before, let alone the fact that she is in my Intermediate Recorder class and therefore should be able to read music! I would show her one C minim and ask her what note it was and how long she should hold it on for her. After a couple of tries she would get it right but if I then pointed to another C minim the whole process would start again and she would say it was an G. I haven’t even taught her how to play a G yet! Very frustrating but I made her a key which should help her to identify notes in future and make it easier.

Friday afternoon was spent rehearsing the Button Box (just to warn you if you haven’t already guessed the Button Box will be my main topic over the next 10 weeks or so!). We repeated The Belly Button Boogie, rehearsed Button Your Lip and Crows Button and then added dances to Uncle Jack’s Sailor Button and the Chocolate Button. Absolutely exhausted by the end of it but came back and did some planning of rehearsals before doing TV. We watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which was brilliant – haven’t watched it for ages. I ended up lying at the front on the floor where all the little boys sit. I had Dankie lying on top of me on my back so that he could style my hair – my boy is definitely going to be hairdresser when he’s older, he loves to play with hair and can actually make it look nice as well! I was propping myself up on my elbows and I had Ambrosious (G1) by my side with his head under my chest asleep, Alex (G4) just lying next to me and then Deon (G1) curled up into a little ball in front of me leaning back against me and using my face as a pillow. I can’t say I was particularly comfortable but I did feel extremely loved and they were happy which was the main thing.

We came back via Paul’s house to check he was alive. Sara has flown home to England as her Grandfather isn’t very well and is in hospital, she took Helena, the youngest, with her but left Mattie (4) and Ola (3) with Paul. The children were in bed already and we ended up having a very funny conversation about what we would have for our last supper if were on death row. Paul’s answer pretty much straight away was crayfish for a starter, then t-bone steak with salad and chips followed by chocolate sponge pudding. It was more difficult for me – obviously sticky toffee pudding but couldn’t think of a starter and I was debating between the same main course as Paul versus lasagne and peas!

Saturday was a very nice day – before cleaning I put up the new spellings for the week. It’s quite challenging comeing up with new words each week. There are three different lots of spellings; one for Wings and G2 who need 15 very basic words with no more than 4 letters, then 15 words for Grades 3 and 4 at a medium level and finally 20 quite difficult words for Grades 5, 6 and 7. I had done all the lists and then decided to play the dictionary game for Grades 5, 6 and 7. I came up with a word for the letters A-R all of which the learners wouldn’t already know so that they would end up improving their vocabulary. I can’t say I was very popular when they saw the list and spotted Quibble and Rumbustious. Chelcie and I spent the whole afternoon painting our border for the backdrop while eating chocolate – very naughty. Gilly came and invited us for lunch tomorrow – t-bone steak, chips and salad, which we both found very funny. Paul obviously couldn’t wait any longer!

On Sunday morning rather than go to Church we went over to the Costume Room and got out all the costumes that we need for the Button Box. The musical has 14 songs, all of which require different costumes as they are all about different countries or music periods so as you can imagine that’s an awful lot of costumes! Last year all costume changes were eliminated from the Drama to make it easier so I’m not really sure what we’ve got ourselves into! Luckily we managed to find most of them and get it all sorted but we still have a couple of things to adjust and make. My latest project is to sew 6 green sashes for the Irish Leprechaun Dance all of which need a big shamrock sewn with beads on the chest. In the afternoon we had another Button Box rehearsal which went well partly as Gilly came to watch most of it and therefore all the children were very well behaved. Sorted out a couple more of the dances which was good but still not finished which is slightly worrying. Also Nicole and Sabine arrived – they are two Swiss women who are training to be teachers and have come for three weeks to get some experience. Nicole has brought one of her son Mathieu who will be joining the Grade Fives and Sabine has brought her youngest daughter Maxime who will join Grade Four. They will live in the Pastoral Centre which is adjoined to our flat.

Can’t believe second week of school is already done. This is our shortest term and it’s already flying by. On Monday and Tuesday I was back to teaching Ken’s subjects for him as he was in Otjiwarongo taking some exams for his degree. Having talked to Mummy on the Sunday night and said there was no need for her to send out some winter clothes I swiftly changed my mind on the Monday morning. I have never been so cold – when I was packing for Namibia I really didn’t believe that Winter in Africa could actually be that cold as it’s Africa! MAJOR ERROR – so I am now trying to combine summer clothes to make winter ones which isn’t really working. It’s freezing, luckily I have a sympathetic Mother who is sending out my hat and Lacrosse jacket, cannot wait, literally.

Craziest thing ever happened on Monday....we were sitting in the staff room during break and there was a telecom man installing something. We asked what was going on and Mrs Vermaak informed us that they were installing WIRELESS INTERNET. I now have internet at Otjikondo which is mental. Luckily it doesn’t get as far as the flat otherwise I would get nothing done but I can get it at the school. So you are now free to email me! So exciting as it means I can be in better contact with my friends and hear what they’re up to rather than hearing about it 3 months later. Looking forward to some skype dates....

On Tuesday I had double agriculture first with the G5s, then the G6s and finally the G7s.             This was quite torture like as I have never been so cold and the sun was refusing to come out, so I was very unhappy. The boys finished levelling their plots in about 15 minutes and then were left with not much to do. They haven’t planted anything yet so there is nothing to weed or tend to so they were literally just levelling the soil and then lightly watering it. They then introduced me to Namibian figs which are purple, very sour and quite yummy. They stain everything you touch so you end up with bright pink fingers and tongue. Also they have thorns on the outside which can be very painful but the boys were very sweet and de-thorned figs for me so I wouldn’t get hurt!

I started making beaded match boxes with my girl craft box to sell in our craft shop. My idea for this was to paint the top of the match box white and then glue beads on to it to make a pretty pattern or shape. Some of them got the hang of this but others much to my horror put glue onto the whole of the top and then just threw a handful of beads onto it. Needless to say this looked pretty disgusting and I made them pick them all off again. My theory is that if I can manage to do the craft project then the children definitely should be able to and I managed to produce a decent looking matchbox!

Unsurprisingly, during the last ten months we have heard a lot about our predecessors from the children. When they left the children only had a two week holiday before we arrived and therefore the previous GAPs are very much still in their minds at the beginning and are never totally forgotten. Also once you leave you definitely become golden in the eyes of the children and are used against the next GAPs – ‘Miss Catherine and Miss Jordan always let us do this/never made us do that’. You know most of it isn’t true but you do get to hear a lot about them. We have been in contact with Catherine and Jordan most times when we have had internet which has always been nice and we’ve known for a while that they were coming to Otjikondo for two weeks ish sometime this term. We were actually really worried about them coming as we were concerned that a) they may not like us, b) they could be really scary, c) this was their home for a year and now it’s ours and we were just generally very nervous. However they arrived on Thursday evening and were perfectly lovely – they said they were just as nervous about meeting us and coming back to Otjikondo. We stayed up for a long time on the first night after having supper talking about all the children, general life at Otjikondo, travelling and what they had been doing in their year since being here. It was so lovely to be able to talk to people who understood how amazing Otjikondo is and knew all the children so weren’t bored by stories about them! They also brought us ingredients to make Fajitas which went down very well – it’s always nice to have something different so we have some variety.

Saturday the 16^th was the day of the African Child in Africa however we ended up celebrating on the Friday as there was too much happening on the Saturday. After lessons finished for the morning we all trooped to the Hans Seidal Hall where we were given a talk by the Head of Police from Outjo, our nearest town, and then a little concert from the children.  In my eyes the talk was very inappropriate – he was trying to make the point that the police are our friends and there to protect us rather than being people to be scared of. However, the story he used to illustrate his point was horrific. He asked if anyone knew what had happened in Outjo recently and then proceeded to tell us in detail….‘a woman had been hitch hiking with her two year old child and had hitched a lift with 5 men. They took her to the bushes and raped her before killing her child by bashing its head against a rock’. He told this story in very graphic detail which I found disturbing and I’m 19 – the whole school was present and therefore lots of six year olds were listening to this. The point of this story was that the police have since arrested the five men and they are in jail so the police have protected us. Chelcie and I were slightly more concerned that this had happened in the first place. He then went on to talk about drugs and started talking about date rape….with six year olds in the room! His English accent wasn’t very clear and he was talking about how juveniles are sent to an institution in Rundu where they are rehabilitated but it sounded like amputated – I was very shocked and thought that this was a bit extreme!

The concert was definitely not one of the best we’ve heard as not much preparation had been done. We heard from all the culture groups who either sang or danced in their traditional clothes. My advanced recorder group also played and luckily didn’t put me to shame even though we hadn’t rehearsed for a while what they performed so I was happy. We also heard from Maxime, Sabine’s daughter, on the violin which was impressive.

On Saturday morning Catherine and Jordan took our cleaning and did bank for us so that we could fit in some extra Button Box rehearsals. Unfortunately, it was a music weekend which is always lovely but it meant that we had to fight Faustinas for the children. Funnily enough all the musical children are in our play and therefore they were being pulled in all directions. We managed to finish choreographing the Irish Dance which was a massive relief and now it just needs loads of practice.

When checking my email – how crazy is that?! I had an email from Daddy saying how fantastic Cluny’s new flat was. Well this was the first I’d heard about a flat, funny how being in Africa people can forget to tell you things! Anyway, they have found a flat for her in Wantage which they are renting and she is moving in next Sunday. Totally bizarre.  

On Sunday morning I went for a run with Sabine, we set off at a very fast run and luckily she said it was too fast for her which was good as I was dying slightly. So much easier running with someone else and it pushes me a lot more and we definitely ran a lot faster than I normally do by myself. Church was filled with music and it was really good – especially the debut performance from Catherine and Jordan on the flute and violin. In the afternoon we managed to finish all the choreographing which was very exciting and satisfying. Technically everything is now learnt we just have to get it to a standard where we can actually show anyone which will take quite a while!

These two weeks have gone in a flash but a good flash! It’s been fun having lots of people around although we know that as soon as they have gone it will only take about a day for it to feel like they were never here. Just remembered that on Sunday Chelcie cut my hair again; having not cut it since January it was in a serious need of a trim. Loads of the G7 boys then arrived into the flat and thought it very strange to discover me sitting on a chair on a towel with Chelcie behind me armed with a pair of scissors. The scissors were then hastily put away as I definitely didn’t trust the boys with them!

Sending lots of love

Ottilie xxxx

Part Thirty-One: Back to school, back to reality (26th May – 3rd June)

We had planned our return well which left us with a weekend to recover from Cape Town and to prepare for the next term. Both of us are very aware that this is our third and final term and therefore we need to make the most of every second not forgetting the incredible amount of things that we need to get done before the end of August. This week I was teaching Agriculture, Maths and Science as Ken was still in Windhoek, so I had lots of lessons to prepare as well as the usual activities.

When talking to Mummy on the phone she told me how Emma had been involved in a nasty car crash, which was a massive shock. Luckily she was okay but unfortunately her parents were away, so Mummy went and rescued her. Really didn’t like being out here then as felt I was needed at home to look after my friend and nothing I could do out here apart from spend all my credit texting her! Thank goodness she is okay but I was very worried about her and just wanted to be there to give her a massive hug.

On Sunday I spent four hours copying out music for my recorder groups – I would say they’d better appreciate it but I know they won’t! I teach three groups; beginners, intermediate and advanced, and for each group I have four books which I copy music into for them to share. Luckily, I was kept entertained by Milla (one of the G7 boys who had returned early) who had captured a donkey and was galloping up and down the path outside my window before he promptly fell off, much to my amusement! Woke up the next morning to discover that in the night someone had broken our outside door handle....little creepy. Obviously someone tried to get in once we had locked the door. So once we left the house we couldn’t get back in through the kitchen door and had to revert to climbing over our garden gate again (yes the one with spikes on top). Luckily Brian came to replace the handle that day so not too much climbing occurred! All the children arrived back on Monday in dribs and drabs and it was lovely to see them again. I went over to the little boy’s hostel to see Dankie and to take him his new teddy bear, kindly sent out by Emma, and his new clothes that Mummy brought out. Sister Hendrika kept some of the clothes for him so that they wouldn’t get stolen but he loved all his new things. It makes me really happy to see him walking around in them and he has gone from one of the worst dressed to children to looking incredibly smart.

The first day back was very relaxing as we didn’t have to be at school until 8 and we finished at 11. I just spent the morning handing out all the exercise and text books to Grade 6 and then hearing a little bit about their holidays. I got all of them to tell me two interesting facts from their holidays; some were more interesting than others – 1) I went to the farm and 2) I went to the other farm! 1) I went and 2) I came back! One boy said that he had ridden a donkey so the next said he had ridden a goat and the next said he ridden a chicken and I responded with I rode an elephant! I spent the afternoon going for a long walk across the farm before doing some sewing on one of the costumes. We went to Paul and Sara’s for supper, spaghetti bolognaise, which was lovely and we had a real catch up about the holidays.

The kindergarten has now officially opened and runs from 8:00 to 12:00 Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. It is called Bushbabies which I think is really sweet. It is going really well and Sara has a class of 15 which is much more than was expected, especially at the start. We are going to do a music class with them on a Wednesday which should be interested. Lots of them are literally ‘Bushbabies’, not speaking any English and there are identical twins who don’t even know their own names so for Sara it’s pretty impossible at the moment!

Happy 21^st Birthday Cluny – when the family was happily relaxing on a beach in Norfolk I was teaching Fractions to G5 and Sex Education to G6. I know which one I’d choose to do! Actually, that’s quite unfair as all the children were beautifully behaved if a little hyperactive but it was the first proper day of school so fair enough. Sex Ed with G6 actually went really well as it was one of the girl’s, Arabella’s, birthday and she had brought a massive cake to share with everyone. I said we could have it at the end of the lesson but anyone who was misbehaving or being silly wouldn’t have any cake. Funnily enough they were all as good as gold. Sadly the next day there was no cake... In the afternoon we had a proper rehearsal for ‘Build Our Own Future’ – this is the song that was written by Howard Jones and it’s a project to connect children all over the world. Lots of schools from load of different countries are learning it and recording it and then it’s all being mashed into one to make a record which will be released in the UK at Christmas time. You can Google it and hear the song accompanied by pictures from children all over the world singing it – including mine!! I videoed them singing it and took some pictures which we then sent to him on the internet.

With G7 in science I was doing different scientific processes and on Wednesday I was focussing on Chromatography. The key to this is remembering that “the different dyes have different solubilities”, I was trying to make sure that they memorised this key phrase but I was failing miserably with Diodores. I love this boy to pieces but he isn’t very strong academically and I would come back to him time and time again asking the question in different ways trying to get him to answer with this key phrase but he always got stuck. Luckily after a couple of days with me asking him a question every time I saw him he got the phrase into his brain and hopefully he will have passed his end of unit test. It was then time for G6 science and more sex education. They had been so well behaved the day before so I wasn’t expecting any trouble, however. we moved more onto the sex side of things and away from puberty. Their text book has a lot of words in it that would NEVER appear in an English science book such as orgasm and masturbation. I got them to read a couple of pages and then said I would answer questions on anything they didn’t understand – big mistake! I had to do some very careful phrasing but then fielded difficult questions such as “How do you masturbate” to Ken on his return. He also dodged out of answering this and told them to look it up!

I can’t believe that it’s the end of May – not really sure where this month went to and now only three months left. So records for this month....I sent 22 letters and received 7 (massive win from me, keep writing people! Although not for much longer as any sent after the middle to end of July probably won’t reach me before I come home!), I read 7 books, went to two new countries and saw my parents for the second month in a row. Lots of firsts this month: went to a Bob Marley tribute concert, did a Gorge Swing, rode an elephant, went to my first proper concert this year, went up Table Mountain and got mugged! Luckily most of them were positive firsts and it was a really good month.

Friday’s teaching went without a hitch and in the afternoon we had our first rehearsal of the Button Box. Before they went away on holiday we instructed out four main parts with speech that they should come back with their words 100% learnt, this meant I expected to know roughly 75%, the most someone knew was the first two pages. Slight panic! On the plus side, Ruben who plays Uncle Jack, who had struggled all of the last term with the tune of his solo somehow miraculously managed to teach himself it over the holidays. Not sure how as he had no way of listening to the melody and he definitely didn’t know it at the end of last term but he did it. This made Chelcie and I so happy that we just jumped on him and gave him a massive hug much to the amusement of the rest of the cast!

Otjikondo now has its very own craft shop; this is so that when visitors and tourists come to Otjikondo they can buy something made by the children to take home. With my boy playgroup I am going to make sets of cards with Kudus on the front to sell. So I spent Saturday cleaning making templates for the different body parts as well as writing all the names of the children onto the mark sheets for PT and Art – that’s 468 names to copy out! As it was the first Saturday back there was no bank so instead we had a rehearsal with our four principal parts. They had all learnt scene one like we had requested and a bit more so we were very pleased with them. In the afternoon I gave Jacky a keyboard lesson who had forgotten quite a lot of what we did last term but picked it up again very quickly so that was pleasing.

Sunday morning was so windy and really not very pleasant. The priest who was coming from St Michaels was late arriving and therefore we didn’t get out of church until 11:10 having left the flat at 9:15! I then went and did Birthday Cupboard which was very exciting as it had been stocked up over the holidays which meant the cupboards were very full and the children had loads to choose from. The downside of this was they took ages to choose their three items! I came back to the flat where Chelcie was writing thank you letters to sponsors with a couple of children who had been sent a birthday cupboard. Uatuuapo who is in G5 had been sent this amazing doll complete with a change of clothes, shoes, bag, pillow, mattress and duvet. Chelcie and I then proceeded to play with this doll and had great fun getting her ready for bed as Uatuuapo wrote her letter! We then went down to have lunch with all the Stommels which was lovely as usual. The afternoon was taken up with another Button Box rehearsal; we did some more chorography and got another two dances ticked off. However, Grandma played by Aune, got into a massive strop for no apparent reason so we sent her away as she was being a hindrance. She skulked by the door for the rest of the afternoon and at the end we had a big chat with her saying that she couldn’t bring all her troubles to drama and that she has to come ready for work. However, if she ever needs to talk to either of us we were both there whenever she wanted outside of drama time! 

I can’t believe how quickly the first week back has gone and how much we have managed to pack into it. I have a feeling this is how all of this term is going to go. It’s so lovely to be back at Otjikondo although both of us suffered a bit from post holiday blues. It’s always difficult acclimatising again to being very isolated and away from everyone however lovely it is to be with the children again. Really good to spend the first week academic teaching and hopefully I will get some more opportunities this term. As usual sending love to everyone and hope that you are all well. Special love to Emma – really hope you’re okay now and just sorry I couldn’t be with you.

Lots of love

Ottilie xxxx

Part Thirty: Cape Town (14th – 24th May)

Before we went to Cape Town we spent a long time reading different travel and guide books all about Cape Town and making lists about what we wanted to see and do. Having spent just over a week there I now feel justified in writing my own list in what to do and what not to do. So here goes...

Twenty Things to do in Cape Town:

1.      Stay with Zim and Max – Best Hosts Ever. Such a comfy bed. Stunning views of Lion’s Head from the window. *****

2.      Go to a UCT concert – listen to the Woodwind Ensemble and the Cape Symphonic Choir. This was at the Baxter Theatre which is a very impressive venue with crazy, giant lightshades making up the ceiling. I found it particularly interesting to watch as the conductor was Alex who had conducted the orchestra I played in at Swakopmund Music Week. The music was really excellent and it was a great start to Cape Town (we felt very cultural!). Obviously Zim stole the show.

3.      Learn to juggle, play the trumpet and DJ – juggling is my new party trick and according to Max I am his “favourite clown” of which obviously he has many! Apparently I am naturally talented at Trumpet playing and if I learn a new instrument this should be it?! DJ-ing is hard...

4.      Go to a Karaoke night at Longstreet Cafe - though I doubt you will beat the rendition from..... (The person banned me from writing about this in my blog which is why Zim shall remain anonymous) of Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time” – need I say more??

5.      Have a tour of the Peninsula with Ali Su and Kurt – our wonderful new honeymooner friends from Zambia, who we met on an elephant, who live in Cape Town. They kindly drove us around Cape Town, which is absolutely massive, and showed us the sights including Cape Point (actually not the furthest point south but the place where the two oceans meet). We had a really great day out and it was lovely to catch up with them again after our night of Beer Pong in Fez Bar, Zambia.

6.      Walk to the V&A Waterfront - visit the Aquarium, have your photo taken with a giant red man and in a fish tank with lots of Nemos (don’t stand up though as these are built for little children and you get a very sore head), and visit the Craft Market. I got taught how to use ‘Magic Sticks’ here which is slightly similar to twirling batons but not really however it was good fun!

7.      See penguins, sharks (and a whale) – the whale was wooden but the penguins and sharks were real. We were also able to transform into a Rock hopper penguin and experience the crazy hair. Sadly all photographic evidence of his was lost.

8.      Complete your Smarties friends collection – we thought we had 14 out of the possible 16 but in a Pharmacy we managed to find four more...USA, France, Japan and Greece (at home we already have England, Jamaica, China, Peru, Netherlands, South Africa, Hawaii, Egypt, Australia, Iceland, Scotland and ....) Now we are back at Otjikondo we have sadly realised that we haven’t actually completed our Smarties collection as we don’t have Scotland and one other country – really annoying!

9.      Fish and Chips in Kalks Bay and give left overs to the homeless – there are a surprising amount of homeless people in Cape Town. We haven’t really encountered them that much before but they are everywhere which is really sad and if to be totally honest a little bit scary.

10.  Go to Mzoli’s in the Location and meet Mr Mzoli – Mzoli’s is a butcher where you can go and select your cut and type of meat and then they will braai it for you in a delicious marinade. You then go next door to a club but what is actually a car park to eat your meat and dance. Jamie Oliver visited recently and rated their meat highly.

11.  Learn how to use a lighter – a skill everyone should possess apparently and Zim and Co were very surprised that it had taken me 19 years to learn

12.  Experience your childhood dream and visit Charlie’s Bakery – this is the most amazing place ever! If you have ever watched Cake Boss on television it is just like this. We walked in to see an amazing display of bags and high heels...but they were cakes! Everything was absolutely beautiful and there was the craziest assortment of cakes and muffins. A very good breakfast was enjoyed by all – I had a carrot muffin which looked like a flower, Chelcie had a chocolate cupcake with ‘Smile’ on and Zim had a chocolate petit four with ‘Love Life’ on.

13.  Go up Table Mountain – okay so we cheated and used the Cable Car but our excuse was that we didn’t have suitable footwear. We picked an absolutely gorgeous day to go up and you could see for absolutely miles. We walked right around the top of the mountain – very weird that it is so flat!

14.  Go to Kirstenbosch Gardens - this was so stunning. When we arrived the first thing we did was to go and sprawl on the grass and soak in the sun. It felt just like an English summer day at home. There are lots of different gardens within the garden and our favourites where the Fragrance Garden and the Statue Garden where we had great fun imitating the statues, yes we are 19.

15.  Go on the Cane Train – apparently a must do as only available in South Africa and Brazil. Very, very potent alcohol.  

16.  Have Roast Chicken cooked by Richard - very delicious and welcome as we hadn’t had a proper Roast Supper in nearly nine months and this one was extra special as it was Heston Blumantile’s roast chicken. I got to have a sneaky peaky at the cookbook that is waiting for me at home as a Christmas present – very exciting. Richard had slaved for hours cooking for us and it was a really amazing last night in Cape Town.

17.  Watch the Inbetweeners series 3 – sooo funny

18.  Go to Robben Island – it’s supposed to be amazing but we never quite got there...

19.   Get two hours sleep before a 22 hour bus journey – means you sleep the whole way even when Chelcie wakes you up to tell you that she’s remembered the word for when you know that someone is mentally undressing you...

20.  Have a playlist made by Zim – very good playlist with 293 songs in so extra special (as it has both 3 and 9 in - 3s my lucky number which makes 9 my special number as 3x3=9!)

Ten Things not to do in Cape Town:

1.      Break your metatarsals while reggae dancing in a kitchen – ask Chelcie

2.      Drink coffee at the Waffle and Pancake house – apparently it wasn’t very nice!

3.      Get mugged.... – quite self explanatory

4.      Trust Flossie as a getaway car – after staying the night at one of Zim’s UCT friends house (also the Trumpet teacher) Flossie (the car) didn’t want to start for a very long time not even with a lot of coaxing. Luckily after a jump start we were off but it wasn’t a good day for Flossie as later her battery was stolen, front window broken and boot damaged.

5.      Play Ping Pong Pah with Chelcie and Zim – a horrible, horrible game especially when Chelcie and Zim are ganging up on you

6.      Let Max alter the drink penalties – Max and I decided to alter the drink penalties as we didn’t thing Chelcie and Zim had enough (Chelcie had 2 and I had 22..) alas Max didn’t understand the tally system so just added lots of lines which needless to say Chelcie noticed straight away!

7.      Keep the drink penalties in the bag which was stolen - also your phone, camera, lip gloss, beanie, nail varnish and collection of bottle caps!

8.      Stay inside all day with Chelcie... – she gets really, really hyper.

9.      Delete all the programs on your laptop – the restore button exists for a reason although it did take roughly 9 hours to get back to normal

10.  Drop a mirror and incur seven  years bad luck – luckily Chelcie not me

I had a totally awesome time in Cape Town. It’s a really international City with an amazing vibe and we both felt very at home here. It was really lovely to be in a City which actually feels like a city (Oxford if not Newbury is definitely bigger than Windhoek) however, you are also very close to Nature at all time which is also really nice. Sadly, I lost all my photos from the first half of the week when someone stole my camera but we managed to take lots in the last few days to make up for it. The sleepliner was so much more comfortable than the mainliner and I would have slept amazingly if it wasn’t for the fact that we nearly froze to death due to the crazy air conditioning and that Chelcie woke me up at various intervals in her sleep to steal the armrest and curl into my chair! Winter has truly been apparent in Cape Town which neither of us were prepared for – one jumper each was not sufficient. Luckily Zim had a really cosy purple jumper which I ended up wearing a lot!

I can’t believe that we have nearly got to the end of May and therefore nearly half way through 2012. So odd as it feels like we have only just begun. This is the last time I will have internet for a while so I want to take the chance to say to my amazing sister

“HAPPY 21^st BIRTHDAY

I hope you have a really lovely day and I only wish I could share it with you.” Also just want to say a MASSIVE thank you to Zim and Max for having us to stay – it was so kind of you to invite us and it was so lovely to stay with friends rather than in a hostel. We had a really, really incredible time and most of that was down to you so thank you.

I’m now back at Otjikondo having survived 28 hours of travelling. It’s lovely to be home and back to Namibian weather which is a great deal hotter than Cape Town. I have just bought a new mobile and camera to replace the stolen ones and hopefully Cluny will post my number on facebook so you can all get hold of me again. Three months today (25^th May) I will getting on the plane home which is totally crazy. I have no idea where the time has gone. We ended our holiday with a welcome back braai with all the Stommels. It was lovely to see them again after the break and to share the news of all our holidays.

As usual sending lots of love to everyone and I hope that the English summer is warmer than the African winter. Lots and lots of love

Me xxx

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