Antici.......pation ( aka site announcements)

   Today was the day I've been looking towards for a very long time.  Today we finally found out where in Namibia we are going to be placed.  During model school today I had a very hard time focusing because all I could think about was where I got placed.  After a quick medical session ( first aid: minor wounds) we were given "blind folds". In reality they were just black trash bags that were cut up.  We walked to the back yard of the training center and told to put our blind folds on.  Once they were on our trainers started calling our names and guiding us to our location in Namibia. A map of Namibia was outlined in string and rocks and each town where people were placed was a stone with the town name underneath it.  Once everyone was placed on the map we took off our blind folds to see where everyone was located.
     I will be going to the town of Otjinene in the region of Omahake. I am about 4 hours east of Windhoek and I am very close to Botswana.  I am not alone though. Ironically my partner for model school is also in the same town as me.  We were given a packet of papers that has all of our site information in it.  I will be teaching grades 8-10 math and possibly 8-10 english and science.  My school has 3 female teachers and 15 male teachers.  When I first read this my eyes got real big, but then I quickly calmed myself.  I get along better with guys and I am not afraid to assert myself when approached in a manner that I don't like.  There are 190 girls and 168 boys at my school (that's 358 students total).  Thankfully my school speaks both english and the language I'm learning.  The town I'm living in is 2000 people.  So beyond teaching classes we are expected to have a secondary project as well.  My school would like to start an exchange program with schools overseas.  This was one of the reasons this site was one of my top 3 choices.  I was really happy when I realized that they gave me one of my preferences.
    I will be living by myself in an apartment.  This apartment is part of a hostel for the kids who go to this school.  I will have electricity, running water, the whole shebang.  I'm really excited to be living by myself. I've never been by myself and I' eager to live my own life instead of having to abide by my host family rules.  However I'm not really sure what to think of the whole living in a hostel full of kids situation. I have no ideas if the hostel will be really loud at nights.  I'm a really light sleeper and if it is really loud all the time I might have to invest in some ear plugs.  My apartment is 100 meters from the school and is owned by the government.  My shopping town is 2 hours away but my town is on a major road so it will probably be pretty easy to get there.  Besides Brittany in my town my friend Adam is going to be in the shopping town Gobabis.  Besides us three though there is no one around.  It is expected of me to live with a host family for the first 3 months.  I have already been given their name and the set up there. I will be living in a modern home similar to my future apartment.
    It was really interesting seeing where everyone got placed and how close together we all are.  A lot of people are going to be in the north and they'll be relatively close to each other.  Thankfully since I'm not in the north I won't have to take my malaria medicine everyday like them.  It seems like everyone got what they pretty much wanted.  Those who wanted a mud hut got one, and those who wanted a house got a house.  We are pretty much going to be all across the country.  I'm really looking forward to service now that I know where I'm going to be and where all my friends are going to be.  And in case anyone was wondering, I am very happy with my placement!

I love how these two dogs sit like that 

Lizard!!

My neighbor Luna with her new doll courtesy of the Sibley-Jett's and co.

Me with my town sign

A map of Namibia

Lessons and food ( model school)

    Last Thursday my partner (Brittany) and I were given a class of 22 8th graders.  We then began our individual teaching while being observed by a Namibian teacher or a different volunteer.  I started my model school teaching multiplication to a class of 7th graders. I started by making sure they could visualize what multiplication is.  To demonstrate this I did 2 x 5 and drew 2 groups of 5 and 5 groups of 2.  The kids were very good at this.  Once this was done I taught them the 9's trick.  I didn't learn this trick until college and I think it is awesome. Pretty much you hold up all 10 fingers.  For a problem like 4 x 9 you would start from the left and count four fingers.  When you get to the fourth one you put it down.  The answer is then the number of fingers on the left for the 10s digit ( in this case 3) and the number to the right of the finger is the 1s digit (6).  The kids absolutely loved this, but they kept trying to use it for doing multiples of 8s and what not.  So we then went outside as a class and did a game called around the world.  Pretty much the kids line up in 2 lines and I hold up a flashcard to the first 2.  The one to get it right goes to the back of the line and the one who gets it wrong (or doesn't shout it out first) stands with me and watches.  The kids did really well with this activity especially since we were outside.  Many had to count on their fingers in order to try to get the correct answer. Many got them wrong or it took them a long time to get it right.  They especially struggled with 7s, and 8s.
      My next math lesson with my 8th graders was one on order of operations.  Here they call it BODMAS.  It stands for Brackets (parenthesis) Of ( exponents) Division Multiplication Addition and Subtraction.  Since my class was 8th grade I included variables like 2a and 5m.  They could get the order down however they really struggled with like terms.  They would tell me that 2a+5b=7ab.  I tried to relate it to the idea that if you have 2 apples and 5 bananas you don't have 7 apples.  They still really struggled with it.  My morning class was able to move beyond this (eventually) and do problems like 15y^4 / 3y^3 with a lot of help. In my afternoon class we were unable to move past addition and subtraction with like terms.  It was really interesting seeing such a gap in levels with my 2 classes.
    Since I saw that my kids had a really hard time with negative numbers in regards to BODMAS  I decided to do a lesson on negative numbers.  This concept is very abstract and they really struggled to even add and subtract negative numbers.  I started off by having them draw a number line in order to gauge what they actually knew.  From there we talked about how to add and subtract negative numbers. I really stressed how -3+ (-2) is the same as -3 -2.  They would continuously tell me that they were different problems because one has a + and the other doesn't.  When it came to subtracting negatives I told them to turn 2 negatives signs into a plus in order to remember what to do.  I had my kids repeat this multiple times to get it.  Again my morning class was able to multiply and divide negative numbers where as my afternoon class couldn't move past subtraction and addition.
   I'm doing Jeopardy tomorrow as my last math lesson.  My categories are negative numbers, fractions, BODMAS, like terms, and multiplication.
    We also had to teach non promotionals (electives). I have done 2 creative writing classes.  The first I had the kids create an I am poem and the second I had them write about who they are and who they want to be.   I have also done a drama lesson that went alright.  I had one group that was really excited to present a skit and one that was less than thrilled.
    In general my kids are pretty well behaved.  Their lack of knowledge in some subjects scares me and what scares me even more is the fact that Okahandja kids are known to be above average in knowledge.  When it comes to class management I give my kids one warning and if they continue to misbehave I talk to them or take something away ( 5 minutes of their break or a piece of fruit).  My kids respect me, I think, and they have a healthy fear of me as well.  My partner and I use a star system for rewards.  The class starts off with 5 stars and if they all misbehave we take stars away.  At the end of the class the number of stars represent the number of questions they can ask about us.  The questions can be about anything, my life in the states, the Illuminati ( a huge fascination over here) or anything else.
    My classroom has enough chairs and desks for everyone.  This is something that doesn't usually happen for most schools.  For some of the kids the desks are so small that the desks rest on the students knees and kind of hover off of the ground.  I have a chalk board that never seems to be clean.  I have 17 kids in my class which again is unusual.  Generally most classes are 40 kids or more.  When it is time for tea break one of the Namibian teachers ring a bell to let us know.  The kids then go outside and run around for 20 minutes or buy something to eat from the memes ( women selling sweets and snacks).  The trainees and teachers then go to the staff lounge where we usually have rolls with jam or cookies as well as tea, coffee, and hot chocolate (my love).

Ups and Downs (month review)

I figured I would break this up into two posts because it would a lot of info otherwise. I wanted to use this post to talk about my emotional state while here and what not.
   Positives about my time here so far:
               People
                     Everyone here is really nice and friendly. I get along really well with my host family, so far. It's a small household so it is really quiet. I can pretty much go about my day without having to worry too much about offending them.  The locals here are also quite nice.  Everyone is curious to know who you are and where you come from.  I also love my training group. I get along really well with everyone and I know I have someone to talk to.
           Training
                    Training has kept me really busy which I like.  Some topics are dull like the medical topics but for the most part all of the sessions are interesting.  We have reached the point in the training where we apply our technical training. So for me that means practicing my teaching skills.  I really like that I am no longer at the training center just listening about how to teach, I get to apply that knowledge.  For the most part our training staff knows their stuff.
            The weather
                    I love the weather here. It is warm enough where I don't need a jacket but can get away with wearing long pants.  I am really comfortable wearing a short sleeved shirt.  It is sunny almost everyday.  It has rained maybe twice since I've been here. And what I mean by rain is drizzle for 5 minutes.  In the evening there is usually a light breeze to cool you down.
           Health
                  The food here is generally really fresh since there aren't that many preservatives used.  This means that it is generally healthier than what I'm used to.  I don't eat as much food here mainly because I don't have anytime to snack.  I live in town which means that I'm expected to walk to the training center everyday (except while model school).  I have been losing weight ( I think) because of how much I walk and all the unintentional exercise I've been getting.  We also play games like ultimate frisbee and what not on our off time so I'm getting exercise there as well.  I really want to lose weight so I'm trying hard to get in shape.
   
Negatives about my time here
      People
             Everyone is really curious about me.  This means I get questions such as where I'm from, if I'm single, do I have any kids and what not.  The locals here think that everyone knows celebrities like Beyonce and One Direction.  They also think that everyone is part of the Illuminati.  My host brother told me that Disney was conspiring because 666 could be found in the Disney logo.  He also told me that Washington D.C stands for Washington Devil's Child.  While I sigh inwardly and cringe at their stereotypes I use these moments to teach them a little more about my culture.  Everyone has a different image of what an American is and it is a little hard changing their minds.  My host family now feels entitled to my hard drive and my makeup.  I am now constantly asked to download a movie for them (at which point I explain that I took all the movies and stuff I have from other trainees, I don't download stuff myself), or how to watch something online.
   Flies
          There are flies EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't believe I need to say anything more
   Food
             There is a lot of starch involved in a meal here. Salads for dinner don't exist.  If I want a salad I buy one for lunch.  I get maybe a spoonful of some sort of vegetable.  I miss green veggies so much. I also really don't like the taste of game meat.
   Dust
           There is a beach in my shoes by the time I get home everyday.  My pants are always dusty, to the point that the water that I use to wash my clothes is dark brown.  My feet are perpetually black.
Communication
       It's hard to stay in contact with people back home


I'm going to take a moment to talk about one of the most important people in my life that claims I don't talk about him enough. I love my boyfriend TJ with all my heart.  It has been really hard being so far away from him.  Back home whenever I was having a bad day I could just open the door to the apartment and talk to him.  Now I have use Viber and hope he checks that app.  If I want to see his face I need to organize a time to face time.  This past weekend was especially rough for me ( the usual stuff...what am I doing here? I can't do this. I was crazy to come here...yada yada yada) and what made it worse was that I thought I wasn't going to be able to talk to him.  In the end the amazing man managed to get my message and talked me out of my sobbing fit.  While I am here because everyone supports me, he is my rock. I know that sounds really cliche but I wouldn't be able to do this knowing he didn't want me to be here.  He understands why I want to be here, and when I need to be reminded of that he tells me.  I believe that my situation highlights what I think every relationship should be like ( if maybe to the extreme). I do not believe that when in a relationship the person's world should only be the other person.  We each need to live our own life and be part of the others.  And that is exactly what is happening right now.  While I am in a relationship I am doing something that is very important to me that doesn't include my boyfriend.  We share a life while living our own.

Too few Sandwiches (aka Model School)

     So it's been a month,tentatively (it depends on who you ask) since I've gotten here.  My life outside of training is very much on a schedule. I could predict what I will do tomorrow after training because it is very similar to what I did today.  However my life during training has changed and will be the same for this week and next week.
      All the SUPEP people (if you don't remember what that means read my previous blog)  started model school.  The first day was simply observing.  So the day went something like this. I woke up at 6:00 am and was picked up around 6:30 (again tentatively) and brought to school Aurora Primary in Nau Aib.  The kids were lined up according to their grade.  One of the Namibian teacher started off the morning assembly by having them sing songs, both of which were religious. We then sang the Namibian national anthem and the American anthem, followed by If You're Happy and You Know It led by one of the trainees.  Then he went on to read from the bible for around 10 minutes, summarizing each sentence.  The last thing said was the lord's prayer.  The students then walked to their classrooms or what they thought their classrooms were.  Since a bunch of people still had to be registered it was up to us, the trainees to entertain the kids.  Not only this, but take attendance as well.  My classroom had 70 kids in it.  While I slowly took attendance using their registration slips my partners led them in a name game and then a round of seven up.  I would have taken them outside but I was busy with attendance so I didn't really do anything else.  At 9:05 we broke for tea time.  For the kids it meant running around for 20 minutes and for the trainees it meant sipping hot chocolate hoping for some sort of food to be brought out.
      After tea time the trainees simply observed one of the teacher's teach.  The teacher in my classroom was Julia a current volunteer who is a teacher. I really liked watching her because she was closest to the kind of situation I would be in (white female).  I picked up on a lot of the stuff that did for classroom management and I have made it mine.  While this was going on we had to count our kids to see how many we had for lunch.  The only kids that were suppose to be in our classroom were the one on the roster.  However this was not the case since some kids got registered day of.  One of the volunteers kept coming in and yelling at me and my partner for having too many kids but we couldn't do anything about it.  So when we distributed lunch we didn't have enough food and 8 kids weren't able to get a sandwich or a juice.This happened only the first day though.  We have had plenty of food the rest of the days.  Usually there are some extras for the trainees.
    Yesterday (Tuesday) was the first day the trainees got to teach.  We were suppose to co teach and use the Namibian teacher if we wanted to, but I taught by myself.  I taught multiplication to my 7th graders with an emphasis on mental math.  My kids were really well behaved. I was amazed at how attentive and well behaved they were.  I started off by having them solve 2 word problems on the board as I checked homework.  Then I had them work on visualizing what multiplication.  This meant showing that 2 x 5 could mean 2 groups of 5 or 5 groups of 2.  From there we went over how to read the multiplication table and then we went outside and played around the world.  My kids loved this game and they did really well outside.  Since we had 51 kids I split them up into 2 groups and had one with me and one with my partner.
    In the afternoon my partner and I taught 5th graders and my partner taught them the wobble, and the cupid shuffle.  The kids loved getting up and dancing around.
    Today I taught a creative writing class. I started off by having my kids think about what a poem was and we went over their answers.  Then we talked about imagery, what it was, and why it was important for poems.  I read a poem called "I am".  We talked about the imagery that was in my poem.  Then I had them create their own poems.  A few of my kids followed the correct format but a bunch didn't understand it.  For those I focused on making sure they had at least 2 of the proper lines and then anything else written down.  At the end we shared our poems. A bunch of the boys wrote about being a famous soccer player.  One even wrote all about Messi.
   Monday through Wednesday we had 4 trainees in a classroom.  Each one taught one lesson and the class size was around 50.  The purpose of this was to watch each other and pick up some skills.  Tomorrow (Thursday) until next Friday we will have our partner in the classroom but we will be teaching individually.  We have 2 groups of kids.  One group in the morning before tea time, and another after tea time.  My class is grade 8.  I'm planning on doing the same poetry lesson.  Then I have to do 2 more math lessons, 2 drama lessons, and 1 more creative writing lesson.  For math I want one of my lessons to be on order of operation and the activity will be a relay race.  For drama one class will be on comedies, and the other on tragedies.  I don't know what my other math lesson or creative lesson will be yet.

Kids...Kids Everywhere (aka Fun Day and Model School Preparation)

So for the next two weeks all the SUPEP people ( the education sector is called SUPEP) will be teaching during model school.  All the schools are out for vacation so the kids are going to be attending holiday school and we get to practice teaching.
     In order to register kids for model school we threw a fun day for them.  Pretty much we came up with a list of activities that we could do yesterday and then today we went to a soccer stadium and played with the kids.  It wasn't really planned out too much but it all worked out.  There were a ton of kids there (over 400) and they were really happy to just have a place to play.  Some trainees brought Frisbees with them that they threw around with the kids while others thew a football or did jump rope.  One of my friends who is really into yoga led a yoga class.  I don't think the kids really understood the purpose but they seemed to be having fun trying out all the different poses.  My partner Brittany and I started off by playing Big Booty with the kids.  Big Booty is a rhythm/counting game, and it was surprisingly difficult to teach the kids how to play.  So we then went on to play duck duck goose and the kids really seemed to enjoy that.  Eventually we made our way over to the netball court and we watched a bunch of girls play.  Netball, to me, is a mixture between basketball and ultimate frisbee.  You throw a ball to each other and once you have the ball you can't move from that spot until you pass it to someone.  Then you throw the ball throw a metal hoop that is attached to a pole. It was really interesting to watch.  While soccer is considered a "boys game" netball is considered to be a girls sport.  After this everyone was called over to the stadium seats where we did a sort of talent show.  Anyone could perform for the group.  Eventually all the trainees did the chacha slide for the group of kids.  They loved watching it and once we were done a bunch came down and we taught them the dance.  Then as the kids left we gave them lunch which included a sandwich, a soda, and an orange.  The whole thing lasted 3 hours and by the end of it we had 450 kids registered for the model school.
     So model school is going to last 2 weeks. We each choose a partner.  So in each group someone is teaching math and the other is teaching science. I am going to be teaching math, but one day I'll do a science lesson.  The first day we are simply watching a Namibian or Peace Corps. teacher do a lesson.  Then the second day 2 groups (4 people) will be in a classroom and we will help co teach.  The third day is the same way.  But after that we are teaching on our own.  We are also expected to teach non promotional classes (electives).  The last two days of model school is used to give awards and do a talent show.  So for the next two weeks I'm teaching 2 math lessons, and 1 science lesson.  For my non promotional lessons I will be teaching 2 creative writing lessons, and 2 drama lessons.  The challenging part about this is that we don't find out what grade were teaching until half way through the first day. So we were told to prepare lessons that everyone generally needs to know.  That being said my first day I'm doing a multiplication lesson. I'm going to make sure the kids can visualize multiplication and understand what it is.  Then we're going to play around the world.  For my other math lesson I plan on teaching order of operations though I'm not quite sure on the specific activities yet.  For my science lesson I'm going to do the differences between solid, liquid, and gas.  Again I'm not sure what I'll do with it but I might see if there is a Bill Nye video.  For creative writing the first day we're going to focus on poems. I want to find a short but inspirational poem and then have them write about what they want to be when they grow up.  Then we'll do a short story lesson.  For drama I'm going to focus on comedy and tragedy.  So I'll probably have the kids create a 5 minute sketch for each.

Duck Duck Goose

My partner Brittany and I

Netball

The soccer stadium where fun day was

A bunch of the kids

A group dance

That's right...I can balance crap on my head

Feed Me (aka the cultural lunch)

This post is going to be about the cultural meal we had today.  If you are a vegetarian or you don't want kids to know about this then DON'T READ IT!!!! I'm not going into gory details (ok maybe just a little bit) but I don't want anybody to be upset or freaked out by what I'm going to to say.  Decide now if you want to read it....

       Ok I'm guessing you're with me and that you want to know more.  Today we had a cultural lunch where each of the different regions made food.  Yesterday chickens and goats were brought and today we slaughtered them.  First the goat was killed.  I thought it was just going to be a quick slice across the throat to kill it, but this was not the case.  One of the trainers stabbed it in the neck and left the knife in.  Others held it's legs so that the goat couldn't move.  As the goat slowly, yes it was slow, died its tail would twitch occasionally or it's legs would move. I'm told this happens because the muscles aren't getting any air.I had a hard time watching this. I thought that I could watch and be fine, but when it started twitching and the death wasn't instantaneous I had to look away. And unfortunately it looked similar to one of my pet goats back home.  So once the goat was killed people began to skin and gut it. 

        Since I'm learning Otjiherero I consider myself to be part of the Herero tribe (ish).  So I quickly found out that Herero's eat really weird foods.  We were given cow intestines, the goats lungs, liver, heart and intestines.  The first thing cooked was the tripe.  It was thrown in a pot and then placed over a fire to cook.  Then we moved on to cooking the rest.  In order to make the goat intestines edible the poop had to be removed first.  Someone took a knife and just kind of cut it out.  This was also thrown into a pot to cook.  The strangest part that we cooked of the goat was the actual head.  Cooking goat head is considered a delicacy and the meal is called smiley.  This is because when the goat head is cooked the lips pull back and it looks like it is smiling.  People eat everything on the head, but the cheek meat is considered to be the best.  The head was wrapped in tin foil and placed in the fire.  The last thing that my tribe made was bread.  It was made by hand.  Most of the ingredients used are the same in the states, however they add cow fat to the bread.  The dough was placed in a pot and left in the sun so that it could rise.  Once this was done, the pot was placed on coals, and coals were placed on top of the pot as well.  People also killed  chickens.  Now I have definitely heard the expression "running around like a chicken with its head cut off", but it is a completely different thing to actually witness that.  The chicken would be flapping its wings and trying to run around...without a head.  

     Each of the regions made slightly different foods.  The Zambezi region (speaking Silozi) made a lot of fish and pumpkin.  The Wambo region (speaking Oshiwaynama and Oshidonga) made chicken.  The KKG group ( the click language) made pigs feet and a lot of pork.  The Africaans group made chicken, beef and fat cakes.  Fat cakes are like donuts, but much more filling and less sugary. I forgot what the Rukwangali group made, I think it made chicken.   Each of the regions had their own breads.  My favorite bread was definitely the Herero bread because it was really soft and you could easily tear it apart with your hands.  I tried some Smiley and it wasn't too bad.  It definitely tasted like goat and it was a little slimy but it was good.  The one Herero food I didn't eat was their sour milk.  They enjoy drinking milk that has started to curdle, and they might even squeeze some lemon into it.  That is something I don't think I'll ever try.  One of the regions made the mopane worm.  The mopane worm is a caterpillar like grub and most of southern africa eats it. I had my first one when I was in Botswana 2 years ago and that one was more than enough for me. 

Girls in traditional Rukwangali cloth

Girls in traditional Silozi cloth

Girls in traditional Oshi dresses with their teacher.  The men wore shirts with similar material

The pots used to cook everything

Cutting up tripe to be cooked

Holding a goats head with my language teacher

My friend in a traditional Herero dress. Usually you wear 6 layers underneath, but she's only wearing 2.

Chicken and Carrots (aka it's been 2 weeks)

      I've been in Namibia for 2 weeks and honestly it feels like its been longer.  I've have fallen into a pattern.  I wake up around 6:30 get dressed, put on my face (make up), pack my bag, grab a banana for breakfast, lock my room and lock the house when I leave. By 7 am I'm at the graveyard waiting for the rest of my group to come and then we walk around 20 minutes to training.  Training generally starts at 8 and goes until 4:30.  We have language training in the morning until tea time and then sessions as a group in the afternoon.  Then I walk back to my house where I settle down for the evening.  My meals are generally a piece of fruit for breakfast since I'm not much of a morning person but I need to eat something I suppose, last nights leftovers for lunch, and a heaping plate of food for dinner.  Dinner is always already made and on a plate waiting for me by the time I get back to my place around 5 pm.  Most of the family has already eaten and I'll usually eat around 5:30 6 ish.
     Dinner is generally rice with sauce, some form of meat (not chicken)and a tiny amount of vegetables (usually potatoes, carrots, squash or beets).  I have no idea what type of meat I've been eating.  I hope it's either beef or pork but you don't really know.  Game meat (wild boar and what not) has a very distinctive taste to it, so I can almost always narrow it down to either beef, pork or game meat.  I have only had chicken twice since getting to Namibia.  Chicken is really expensive here so it's not usually made for dinner. Chicken was for dinner last night and my eyes legitimately closed with each bite because it was so good.  I'm really glad that no one was eating with me or else I would've received some really weird faces.  I am really starting to miss fresh veggies.  We eat potatoes a lot but I really miss salads and celery.  Rather I really miss any green veggies and tomatoes.  The juice here is awesome though.  It is so  fresh that you have to use it within 5 days of opening it.
     I have been wearing the same pair of shoes everyday.  They're Keens and they're amazing.  They're closed  toe but not like sneakers.  The front consists mainly of straps, so for people like me who love flip flops but aren't allowed to wear them they're perfect.  They are also dust colored which is perfect.  I walk through so much sand everyday that clumps of it form dirt in my shoes.  I get so much sand on my feet but that is to be expected.
      In training we started the technical aspect of it.  So for me that means teaching training.  There are 32 of us education volunteers.  We started first by looking at a syllabus for math grades 5-7.  Then we created our own year plans based on that syllabus.  Schools here function on trimesters so we broke up the year plan into three parts.  From there we narrowed our focus to create a scheme of work.  A scheme of work outlines all the topics that will be covered in each week and how long you think each will take.  Lastly we used that to create a single lesson plan.  It was really hard to create a year plan because I wanted the order of topics to make sense and I wasn't sure if my order actually made sense to anyone besides me.  These sessions were really boring but really informative so overall I think the sessions were very useful.
     Today went and observed high school classes.  In the classroom I was in each wall was written on.  Each student had their own desk and chair but not everyone had paper.  Since it was the end of the term the teacher just kind of taught whatever they wanted. The purpose wasn't to teach the kids anything new, it was for the volunteers to experience a class.  The kids in my class were really rambunctious. They didn't necessarily misbehave they just had a hard time paying attention. They had a volunteer who had been in Namibia teaching for a while teaching a lesson.  It was really interesting seeing his style and I definitely took notes.  From the second he walked into the classroom he demanded the kids attention and he dominated the room.  He had the kind of presence that forced the kids to respect him and pay attention (most of the time).
     I know a lot of you are wondering how proficient I am in my language. Well, I'm going to type the next paragraph in my language.  Then I will translate it for you and you can judge my language skills for yourself.
           Ene randje owami Lynn.  Mba za ko America mo Connecticut.  Mbina ozombura vivari nbari. Owami omuriyandjere morupa romahongero.  Me kara ozombur mbari muno.  Mbi kara mo Okahandja. Ami me suvera okupuratena ko mzumbi. Me vanga okurihonga Otjiherero.Mbi nomuzandu.  Mbe mu suvera tjinene.
           My name is Lynn. I am from America in Connecticut. I am 22 years old. I am a volunteer in the education department. I will be staying for 2 years.  I stay in Okahandja.  I like to listen to music.  I want to learn Otjiherero.  I have a boyfriend. I love him very much.
    I could go on to say things about other people and use different tenses but you get the message.  Right now I can really only do simple sentences. We just worked on likes/dislikes and we have worked on possessives like my book and his bread.  I have flash cards for nouns and a list for verbs. I should study more than I do.

Cell phones and meat (aka a trip to Windhoek)

          Yesterday we took a trip to Windhoek, the capitol of Namibia.  We first went to the Heroes Acre which honors the people who died fighting for Namibia's freedom.  The monument was really cool.  We got a little tour about it and learned some cool facts like all the materials that made up the monument come from Namibia and none of them were imported.  Or that there are 174 graves with only a few of them being either real or symbolic graves.    The back panel portrays the story of Namibia's struggle for independence ending with them carrying a flag in freedom.  On either side of the steps leading up to the monument are graves that hold peoples names. This monument went up in 2002 and the first person to be buried there died 13 days after inauguration of the monument.
         After this we divided our group and went to 2 separate malls.  Most of the people myself included used this time to buy a phone.  I got the cheapest phone there was which cost me $169 Namibian Dollars o r rather $17 US Dollars.  I'm really just using this cheap thing to talk to my fellow Namibians. I've been using imessage and facetime to talk to my people back home and it's been working pretty well.  When we were at the mall I was reminded of my time in Namibia for there were places like Mugg and Bean, and a pizza place that we used to go to all the time.  It was interesting seeing the different types of stores that exist here and not in Botswana.
      We continued our journey to a market place located at Singles Quarter.  Apparently  this where all the single men used to live but nowadays anyone can live there.  The market place was small and most people sold apples and other fruits and vegetables.  There was a section where you could buy a slab of raw meat.  They didn't really advertised what type of meat but some looked like cow.  Then there was a place where people were cooking meat on a grill.  You could grab a sample of the meat and if you liked it you could give the chef some money and he'd give you meat in a newspaper.
    The last thing we did in Windhoek was go to an expo.  Most people in tents around the rims were selling meat, sodas, and icecream.  There was a cattle auction going on in the middle and off to the sides were different types of livestock like goats and sheep.  There was a big tent next to the auction where you could buy clothing and other things.  Outside there were also some inflatables for the kids to play on.
    Below are some pictures from the trip.  I don't have any pictures of the market place because I was told to leave everything on the bus.

An Intense day (aka the history of Namibia)

         Today was a rough day, for multiple reasons.  I've been learning my language in leaps and bounds so it's only natural that I hit a rough day.  We started learning about the irregular verbs and how to conjugate them.  Not only that but we started forming our own sentences using multiple tenses.  Otjiherero has 1 past tense, 1 present, and 2 future. Or at least those are the tenses I know. Anyways you only use the present tense if you are habitually in that state. For example if you are married you'd use the present tense. if you were currently in the process of drinking water you wouldn't use the present tense unless you were doing it everyday without breaking to do anything else. What you WOULD use to say i'm drinking water is the future tense. I like to think of it kind as I will continue to do this, as in the immediate future.  Then I think the other future tense is for if you are going to do something in a days. Of course this is my understanding of the language thus far.  I struggled conjugating the verb the right way and using the right prefix. However, I look over my notes every night so hopefully I'll understand it a little better looking at it on my own.
     In the afternoon we started with a diversity walk to show what kind of diversity we had in our training group.  Then we got a crash course on the history of Namibia.  First we learned about all the different tribes and how they function. It was cool hearing about how some tribes have a king and how that king would interact with the President of Namibia.  We also heard about the regions that each of these tribes were in and the reasoning behind their clothing.  Then we did an activity where each group got a passage about the apartheid.  Our group had a passage about the German administration.  It talked about how the Africans weren't allowed to own cattle and in order to avoid the very strict laws against them they would run away from their farms to either try to live off the land or into town to get a job.  Then diamonds were discovered and the Germans struggled to find a work force to create the railroads that would connect the diamond mines.  So they began to use migrant workers and even pulled people from South Africa to work for them.  Then the German force created a deal with local village chiefs that would provide a work force of natives in exchange for presents from the Germans.  Once this was done we watched a video about the genocide in Namibia.
    I have never learned that the first concentration and deaths camps were in Namibia years before Hitler came to power.  After Germany gained control of Namibia they decided to try and colonize the country because Germany was running out of space for its people.  They came to Namibia and at first things were ok. Soon though, a rift was created between the two people who inhabited this land and the Germans began to degrade the natives.  Then it became more extreme.  The Germans would rape the women and kill.  So one of the tribes the Herero's decided to fight back.  And that's when it began. I don't remember a lot that happened before this next event but it was pretty much a one sided war.  The Herero withdrew and hid out at a watering hole hoping that negotiations would soon be coming.  The German force then attacked the Hereros and chased into the Kalahari desert. Once the people were in the desert a barbed fence was placed around the people so that they couldn't escape.  Many died then.  The Germans then built concentration camps and rounded up all the Herero's and brought them to the camps.  I think you all know what happens at a concentration camp so I won't go into that. Another tribe, the Nam ( I think...) heard of the Herero's pain and decided to fight back as well.  This landed them in the first death camp on an island that is now ironically a camping site.  This lasted until early 1900's (1909 I think). In 2004 a German Representative came to Namibia to apologize for what happened and to acknowledge that some of the events (not all of them ) were in fact genocide. I'm pretty sure that is an issue that is still being delegated to this day.
    I was surprised not to hear of this.  Even more that one of the major riots took place in Okahandja ( where I'm staying at). I hate to be one of those people who get's all offended without knowing all the facts but still.  This shouldn't have happened, and I can't believe I haven't heard of this until now.