Hula hoop

Patches discovered the joys of a hula hoop, along with my learners during PE.  They love saying the word, always giddily asking me to repeat its pronunciation.

The learners also found watching Patches to be quite amusing!  But it was when Patches retrieved the hula hoop like this that one learner and friend of Patches said, "That is not a dog, Teacher... That is a person."  It was easy to see that Patches had cleverly learned a way to skillfully pick up and carry the hula hoop in a balanced, graceful, and confident way, with the back of the hoop resting on the root of his tail!

Our camera just can't handle Patches' lightning speed, but here are some action shots for fun anyway:

Red fish, blue fish

Kevin: I'm looking for John Dawid. Have you seen him?
Manfred: Hmmm. Is he the white one?
Kevin: He's not white!
Manfred: Well, he's brown.
Kevin: And what color are you?
Manfred: I'm dark brown... And he's light brown.
Kevin: And what color am I?
Manfred: You're white.
Kevin (holds arm against white t-shirt): But this shirt is white.
Manfred: Then you're light light brown.

Kids here are always openly making reference to their skin color!  (Usually, but unfortunately not always, in a neutral to positive way.)  It's funny though because from what we've noticed, it's almost as if everyone refers to themselves as brown, to kids darker than them as black, and to kids lighter than them as white! Always makes us chuckle a bit.

School Photo Day

Kevin and I had the idea of holding a School Photo Day as a fundraiser where learners could get their photos taken and printed, so last Sunday was our first shot.  It was pretty successful, but we think this first Photo Day may have already generated more interest in another for the learners who didn’t partake this time. 

Anyway, here are some of the photos we took, and you can again observe some cultural norms of Namibian youth “catching” their photos.  (For example, Americans tend to smile, while other cultures may tend to be more serious.)  Most of the larger group photos were soccer or Qwaito (dance) teams, although a couple were “Kung Fu groups!”

A young soccer team, featuring the Dogg's newest hip hop CD:

A young Qwaito group:

Guy friends:

Another young soccer team:

Friends from Grades 5-7, featuring some of my faves!  (I mean, I don't have favorites..!)

 

I like this one because Patches was invited in!

Friends from Grades 6 and 7:

BFFs from high school:

Friends from high school:

Friends from Grades 5-7:

A "Kung Fu" group, learners from Grades 4 or 5 and the girl on the top from Grade 7:

High school friends:

Next 3 are high school girls:

This is one of the register class (homeroom) of a teacher who just left our school since he was only temporarily filling in for a teacher who was on Maternity Leave.  He told the kids to borrow school uniforms from other learners to make the photo really nice… and then, well, look at what he wears!  It’s just another cultural thing, I guess.

Photos from Athletics

Here are some photos taken at and after the Athletics Regional competition, which was last Thursday, on the 8^th.

In some of those you can see how the kids like to really get into the plants when they “catch photos!”  Just a random, cultural-sort of observation.

Athletics

Athletics (Track & Field) is finally over- Hallelujah!  After our two schools held their Interhouse  ompetitions to select our best learners, Kevin's school hosted the Zonal competition (think of a league competition) for the high schools in the area, and then my school hosted the Omaheke Regional competition.  So Kevin and I really got a good glimpse into the inner workings of these types of events.  (The schools rotate hosting these competitions so they only do it once every 5-7 years, so lucky us..!)  Those 2 days turned out to be less disorganized than we anticipated, perhaps partially as a result of our contribution, so that was a relief.  Still many hours went into being prepared for all this, so now that we're finished, we have more time and energy for other commitments again.

After the Regional competitions comes the big National competition in Windhoek at the end of this month for athletes from all of Namibia's 13 regions to compete in.  And we just heard that 1 learner from each of our schools will compete!  That's not a lot, but still it's something.

As for the actual running by the athletes, Kevin and I were pretty disappointed at the lack of effort and heart.  Many of the kids would not finish, either by not showing up to compete, dropping out in the middle of the race, or allowing themselves to collapse on the track.  Many would slow down before even crossing the finish line, especially if there was no other runner nearby or they were not in first or second place.  And many, many of the girls who finished would do so in tears and refuse to walk, resulting in friends or family or officials basically carrying them to the nearby ambulance for medical attention.  And if you ask us, it was exactly that that the girls wanted: attention.  Pretty sure girls from the States are tougher than that!  Anyway, we realize that it's complicated and the learners are not to blame for this kind of behavior so much as wider cultural norms.

Camp GLOW

Camp GLOW is a Peace Corps Volunteer-run, week-long leadership camp for 13- to 18-year old Namibian learners.  GLOW stands for "Girls and Boys Leading Our World." Originally it was just for girls, but now 40
girls and 40 boys attend the camp each year. Kevin and I both nominated some of our learners and 3 for each of us were accepted and plan to attend this April holiday! It is very exciting for them (and their proud teachers of course) because it is quite a unique experience for learners who have never been to such an event. And it
is a great opportunity for these learners to develop themselves so they can shine even brighter than they already do! 

If you would like to make a donation of any amount, big or small, you can do so here.  Needless to say, it is appreciated by us Peace Corps Volunteers, the learners who attend, and those whose lives the learners are empowered to make a difference in!

Kevin and I will not be there, but we hope to hear about it from the kids and from the volunteers who are running this year's Camp.

Cooking worms with boys

We unexpectedly spent a recent evening with some boys cooking worms "meat" (aka: worms or something?) in cans on the fire where we were burning our trash.  Guess you could say they are opportunists!  And it was really their lucky day because we even 'donated' some spices to the cause.

We didn't partake in the delicacy this time... if for no other reason, because it was the most unsanitary culinary process ever...  Fetching worms from dung-invested areas.  Not washing them.  Using the lids of cans to cut the worms open and squeezing the guts and poop out with one's hands.  Not washing any of that.  And lastly, well, putting worms into our bodies.

They really got those cans boiling!  Also you can see the green leafy stuff the boys found and put in there for some extra flavor.

Patches also wanted to get in on the fun and continues to love licking the faces off of anyone who will let him...  Which wasn't exactly this particular boy, per say!

They were having a ball and making jokes and teasing each other the whole time, so a fun and funny time was had by all!

Beauty Pageant

The high school held a beauty pageant the other week and somehow we ended up judging!  (Haha.)  Here are some photos of the contestants and the action.

Summer wear:

 Own style:

 Evening wear:

The final girls:

The girl in the pink dress won (a younger "freshman"), who in the next photo appears to be about to receive her award in the form of a plastic yellow chair... but fear not, even amidst the chaos, no one got hurt.  The kids just got so excited and couldn't help but onto the stage at the end to congratulate "Miss Unique 2012!"  To be expected of course...  Beauty pageants are kind of a big deal here.

Important to so many youthful Namibian events are a few musical interludes to break things up.  Hopefully this video works so you can finally see the loved and adored (.. understatement) Qwaito-style dancing.  There's a part of me that beams with pride a little bit to see "my" younger Grade 5-7 boys tearing it up in the front row of these mixed-age dance groups. 

And here you can see how close the dancers got to the audience... as well as vice versa!

Here are some more of my Grade 5 to 7 boys in the audience (which you can see is like an ocean), and there are a couple of them I'm coming to really want to bring home to the States (what would be a dream-come-true for almost all of these kids).  They're pretty adorable and a lot of fun:

 

*PS- Mom, the learner you talked to briefly on the phone the other day was Manfred, the darker boy on the right.  Just to put a face to the voice!  :-)

For more on Namibian school Beauty Pageants, you can check out my friend and fellow PCV, Sarah's, recent and very interesting/entertaining blog post on the subject!