-----Teaching in Namibia-----: Happy Valentine's Day from Namibia!

So today was Valentine's Day so naturally love was in the air and pink, white, purple, and red were the colors of choice for the attire for the day. At Steenkamp, the learners got to celebrate Valentine's Day on the Friday before today because the authorities of the school thought it would be too crazy to start off the week with such an excitement. So on Friday, for N$5 (about 70 cents American) the learners could wear "civvies" to school instead of their school uniform. This was to help celebrate the holiday as well as raise money for the school. Sad though that we didn't get to witness the learners in their holiday attire, we saw the profits lined out on a chalk board and saw that the fundraising was a success.

This day began as any other day of school with a staff meeting, but this one had a special love theme to it. The principal shared some words and asked how many single people were in the house and suggested they be set up on blind dates for the evening. Though this seemed comical, it was a little awkward for everyone in the room. The staff was also given a nice Valentine's poem with a sweet stapled to it. The sweet was a delicious chocolate truffle, and the poem read:

Valentine's Poem

Valentine Treasures by Joanna Fuchs

Valentine treasures are people who have often crossed your mind, family, friends, and others, too, who in your life have shined the warmth of love or a spark of light that makes you remember them; no matter how long since you've actually met, each one is a luminous gem, who gleams and glows in your memory, bringing special pleasures, and that's why this Valentine comes to you: Your'e one of those sparkling treasures!

A few other highlights from the day:

-I have a learner whose name is Ezekiel but he spells it Esegiel which I think is really cool.

-Mrs. Emma organizes the learners into seating groups based on their maths test scores starting with the highest scoring kids to the lowest scoring kids. I don't know why she does this and I meant to ask her, but I forgot.

-I had some free time with my 7D girls, so we enjoyed a rendition of question and answer time with Miss Veronica.

-I gave my 7A kids each two stickers from PLU as a Valentine's gift and they couldn't have been more joyful and thankful. Their eyes lit up at the sight of them and they all gave me hugs as they said, "Thank You Miss" oh the simple joys of childhood :)

-We went out to dinner at Joe's for a Valentine's celebration just us girls, or so we thought. We arrived and were seated outside, but then it began to rain, so we were moved inside to a large table that had been reserved for us, but a couple had been seated there by mistake. The couple said they didn't mind sharing with us if we didn't mind sharing with them. At first it was a little awkward, but we just told them if they wanted to have a private conversation that they could just speak to each other in Afrikaans and we wouldn't understand. We ended up talking with them for a bit and a good time, and good food was had by all. On the way out of the restaurant, we were stopped by two guys who asked us where we were from. They got really excited when we said USA because they thought they had heard our American accents. Their names were AJ and Cuan. Cuan had worked for a cruise liner who had sailed out of the East coast of the United States. He said he had met many Americans and was quite fond of them. We talked to the boys for a while while we waited for our taxi to arrive.

Teachers ready for a day of pouring love into kids