-----Teaching in Namibia-----: First Weekend

So, I thought that the weekend was going to be really calm and boring because originally we didn't have much planned for it, but that all seemed to change but for that I was glad. On Saturday, I spent my morning talking with my professors and going shopping at a much larger grocery market with them. Once back from the grocery market, we had a few minutes before we had to turn around and leave again. Through a connection that Jan has, we were invited to come to the meeting of a group here in Windhoek called Young Achievers. In short, Young Achievers is a group of young people in this area who are working towards a better future for themselves through pursuing excellence in the three areas of social, professional, and intellectual. The group meets every Saturday of the school year from 1-4pm. It was their first Saturday meeting of the year that we sat in on. When we arrived, we had time to mingle with the students, who ranged from grade 3 to university level. Once the meeting started, we sat in a large circle and had a world beach ball to pass around for the speaker to hold.

We began by taking turns introducing ourselves with saying our name, what our vision is, and what we accomplished over the holiday break. It was inspiring to listen to the students speak and tell of their visions and their accomplishments. I was surprised by the number of them who had vision to be a pilot or in the travel industry someday. Once we were done with introductions, the students took turns sharing their results of their exams from the last year of school. This was one way that they keep each other accountable academically. Next they did an ice breaker where one of our students introduced the game of continuous ultimate rock-paper-scissors. It was a great mingling game and the kids found it very fun indeed. We then listened to some announcements and heard some students talk about an outreach they had done in Okahandja the day before. Finally we ended our time there by breaking up into small groups and talking with the students about our collegiate experiences and PLU. A nice time was had by all and we left feeling very inspired.

Once back at the hotel, we decided not to go out for dinner. One thing that has been highly frustrating to me on this trip is the lack of desire of my peers to go into town for dinner. I have eaten more sandwiches in the last week than I care to discuss. I seem to be the only one willing to go out and pay for meals, so consequently since I cannot go alone, we have all been eating sandwiches and other random things out of our little grocery market for most every dinner. The difficulty is that we don't have access to a kitchen, so we can't really make anything besides sandwiches, so we must eat packaged goods which gets really old really fast. Because I am so tired of eating the same thing over and over again, I got a little bit creative this particular evening. I had boughten some spagetti noodles and pasta sauce at the store earlier in the day. We have one of those electric water heaters for heating water for tea in our rooms. I decided to try and make pasta in it and by golly it worked. I boiled the noodles in it for about 10 mins and then strained them out. I then boiled some more water and dropped the plastic baggie sauce in to warm it up. I then added it to my plate of noodles, stirred it up and added a side roll and there was dinner. The girls and my professors were quite impressed with my innovation. I was just glad to have a "real" meal to eat. Everyone else ate chips and guacamole for "dinner".

Paula has a friend named Noah who is involved in a local church here and he invited us to come to the Sunday service. So I think it was 7 of us who got up and decided to go. It was so amazing. I have been missing church and worship through song so I was so refreshed to be there. I loved the loud music and the singing and dancing. I especially liked when they sang songs which I knew the words for. During a break in songs the man who was speaking asked for all of the first time visitors to come forward and introduce themselves. That meant we got to come forward and be welcomed which was actually really great. We had to leave shortly after this time as we had another engagement for our day, but the service actually goes from 9am-Noon. We ended up having to leave at 10:30am and not getting to hear any of the message, but I want to go back next Sunday and stay for all of it.

For our afternoon engagement, we were invited by Edwin and Emmie (2 PLU Alumni) to their home for an afternoon of hanging out and dinner. It was a really great afternoon event. They have 5 children and invited over many friends who also brought their children. There was probably close to 40 people there total. We enjoyed the afternoon by playing with the kids, swimming, talking, and eating. It was super chill and very fun. My favorite one of their children is Utarera who is 6. He was so full of energy, always smiling and enjoying playing basketball with me. The food we ate was amazing! Slow bbq ribs and lamb with salads and homemade mac and cheese and homemade bread. I ate meat till my stomach was happy :) The dessert we had was amazing as well. It was some sort of sweet bread with custard on top. We were there for close to 7 hours but it was such a great time.

Tomorrow is the first day of school for which I am very excited. Then at 6:30 am on Tuesday we head for the north for 5 days where we will experience greater heat and greater authenticity. We will not be bringing computers as we will not have access to the internet. I will post tomorrow evening about the first day of school and then I will post about the trip north when I return. Below are many pictures from this weekend. The candid shots of the kids are my favorite, enjoy :)

The place where the young achievers meet