This and That (8-7)

After I returned from the Etosha trip, the weather was the coldest it’s been here. Night temps dropped into the mid 40s, which meant that it was really cold in the morning. It’s been nice to have the third blanket. Back to heating a mug of water to use to warm my hands in the morning. It was so cold that I wore my sweater all day for a few days instead of taking it off after 8:00. Fortunately, the really cold temps lasted only a few days before night temps returned to the low 50s. It doesn’t help that my room is now in the shade. When it was really hot, the room had lots of sunshine coming in the windows. But not these days when it is needed. Oh, well. Day temps dipped to the mid 70s but are now back to the 80s. I’ve been told that it’s really hot in September; so then we can complain about how hot it is.

Last Sunday a girl came to my house dressed up in a nice dress and told me that her grandmother had said that I take photos. She wanted me to take some; so I happily obliged. Her brother was with her; so we did a photo of her alone and one with him. 

Then Helena came with a traditional dress worn by older women that she had the girl put on for a photo.

WorldTeach had an ICT (Information and Communication Technology) conference in Windhoek, which meant riding there on Tuesday, conference on Wednesday, and riding back of Thursday. All volunteers who teach ICT—not me—presented a bit about what they teach and the ICT challenges and needs of their school. Then they all thanked the same long list of people. What they said was pretty much the same; so it was rather repetitious and not all that interesting. Then there were three speakers. The first was Jerobiam from my school who had said he would talk about ICT dilemmas among schools as organizations. He didn’t talk about ICT at all and only presented the learning pyramid. So not relevant. One of the other speakers talked about education in general, and the spoke about ICT a bit. None said anything new. After an hour for lunch, which took fifteen minutes to eat, we broke into small groups to discuss a question each and then report to the large group. Since all questions were about ICT in schools, most of the discussion reports were similar; so again nothing new or interesting. In addition to the WT people, about twenty people attended the conference. I thought it was pretty much a waste of time, especially considering all the time and expense to put it on.

However, being in Windhoek had a few benefits. I got to stock up on my trail mix and nuts that aren’t available here. I enjoyed chatting with a couple of the summer volunteers, including the woman who had brought my Kindle. Her site is so cold that she was freezing the whole time she was there and spent most of her time at home in bed because that was the only warm place. I was glad to be where I am. Wednesday night we went to a culinary training school restaurant near the hostel for dinner and had sushi. Also, it was nice to return to school on Friday and be greeted with lots of smiles by teachers who missed me. And the class I invigilated an exam for was the one with the girls who like to high 5. One ran up to hug me because she hadn’t seen me for a long time.

Saturday I went to the pension day market on Saturday, which Kowmongwa came to tell me was happening that day. I tried on an Owambo dress, and all the nearby women came to take a photo. I didn’t buy it because I want the looser style, but it was fun to try it on.

My exams have all been written by the learners. Reading and writing were last week, and listening was Friday. I’ve marked two and a half classes of reading and one of listening. This is what I’ll be doing for the next week or so.

Aina had been trying for a couple weeks to teach me an Oshidonga question and response to extend our greeting. I finally answered on my own correctly last week, and she was thrilled. She had a huge grin and shook my hand hard. I was pretty pleased myself, but it was especially fun to give her such pleasure. She was more pleased the next day when I asked her the question.

The pig was in the yard one day. He’s getting big. I wonder how long he will be here before he is eaten.

I have a new thief in the kitchen. One morning I noticed that the pack of cookies had been moved and two had were missing corners.  I heard sounds that night and went to see what was there. I didn’t see anything, but the pack of cookies had been moved again. A potato and the bag of dried beans had also been nibbled. Now the potatoes are on the stove, and the foods are in containers. Food must be getting scarce outside, as these foods or similar ones have always been on the shelves and have not been disturbed before.