Victoria Falls (8-20)

Thursday night I took the bus to Windhoek, arriving early Friday. Leokadia had invited me to stay at her house; so I did. Since she lives out of the city center, I had a quiet day reading and relaxing in her house, which was good.

Saturday morning at 4:45, I was picked up to go to the airport. Not my time of day, but it was necessary. I was surprised how busy the airport was at that hour. Check in took forever. Then the plane left 50 minutes late. The pilot apologized, saying that as far as he understood, the delay was due to a new reservation system that they are getting used to and that has some kinks causing it to take a long time. Because the flight arrived in Johannesburg 40 minutes late, I had an overlay of 45 minutes instead of 1.5 hours. I figured that this meant my checked bag wouldn’t make it to the connecting flight, but I was glad that I was going to make it. This plane left and arrived 40 minutes late. Since my bag didn’t make it, I was in the office for half an hour waiting and reporting my missing bag. The man said it wasn’t missing, just delayed, and was confident that it would arrive on Sunday.

Because I had to wait so long, my pickup driver had to leave with his other passengers, and I had to wait another half hour for the next driver. This meant that there wasn’t time to check in at the guesthouse before my sunset river cruise. So the driver took me directly to the cruise and informed the guesthouse that I’d arrive afterwards. And all was good.

At the dock we were greeted with a group of Zulu singers and dancers. Since I was one of the first passengers to arrive, I got a seat on the top, which I prefer. As the boat filled, I heard a woman comment to her friend that all the tables were taken. So I invited them to sit at my table. They were a group of three women and a man who were taking the cruise before a conference that began on Sunday. It was enjoyable to share the experience with them. 

The cruise included beverages and a snack that became my dinner. 

The boat went slowly up the river toward the falls. We saw an elephant eating on the shore 

and a small crocodile that was so camouflaged that it was barely visible. 

In the distance on a side branch there was a group of elephants in the water. 

Toward the end of that branch we could see spray from Victoria Falls that made it hazy. 

We also saw a number of hippos in the water in that area. They would pop the top of their head up for a very short time and then disappear; so seeing them was a fun challenge. 

In the area with rocks in the river, the hippo heads blended in quite well.

On the way down the river we had a good view of a bushbuck near the shore. 

And then more hippos that kept the top of their heads up longer. 

The sunset was lovely. I had hoped for a sunset and hippos and got both plus elephants and bushbucks. It was a perfect ending for the day.

End of the term (8-18)

The second term is over, and the week-long break is about to begin.

Last weekend I spent a lot of time reading in my yard since my marking was finished and I didn’t have lesson planning to do on Sunday. I enjoyed the quiet time, and I enjoyed watching the hens and chicks running about. I’ve gotten quite fond of watching them. The chicks are growing and look like young chickens, not little balls of fluff. They often precede the hens in their running about, and the hens hang back watching them. They have taken to wandering through my open door and checking out the house.

Saturday Kowmongwa’s son came to give me a light switch. I don’t know what brought that on after all these months, but I was pretty excited to be able to control when the lights go out. After not having control, it’s a luxury. He cut the wire from their house to my room and added another piece to lengthen it so I could reach it. Thus, the switch is on the line from the window to the bulb, not on the wall. But I can reach it and it worked. However, when I turned on the switch that evening, the light flickered and went out. So, instead of more time with lights on, I ended out with no time with lights on. When I talked to Kowmongwa about the problem on Sunday, he didn’t know when the local man who fixes such things could come since he had gone to visit a friend. Oh, well.

Wednesday morning Helena came to ask if I have lights. When I said “No,” she called Kowmongwa to come and remove the duct tape on the wires near the bulb that his son had added to replace the tape that was there. The son hadn’t changed the connections; he only added the stronger tape to hold them together. Then she had him reconnect the wires differently, which didn’t make a difference. So I still have no light.

Last month there was a fundraiser for cancer at schools in Namibia. If you donate N$5, you get an apple. The principal kept reminding learners to buy their apple. Friday the apples finally came and were distributed. Some of the learners were given ten or twelve apples, but most received one.

When we went to town on Friday, I did my shopping quickly and then Wilhelmina took Teopolina and me to a culture festival at the university. It turned out to be not interesting—only lots of braii stalls. Teopolina said that they have different events on different days. We did see two girls dressed in Owanbo dresses and took photos with them. Wilhelmina and Teopolina took some photos posing in front of trees. Although it was disappointing, it was good to have checked it out so we knew that we hadn’t missed anything interesting.

After a couple months of not special sunsets, they have become colorful in a muted way. This is the transition from winter to spring. Night temps have moved to the upper 50s, and I’m down to one blanket with a second for the last few hours. Day temps are in the upper 80s and have hit 90.

I haven’t had much to do at school this week since I finished my work last week. I’ve caught up on some online things and typed a few articles that can be made into reading tasks for next term. Tuesday and Wednesday I helped enter marks for grades 4-7 into the computer Excel spreadsheet so they can be transformed to the reports. Thursday the learners came to get their reports/marks. 

And Thursday evening I will leave for the break!

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.

Etosha Day 3 (7-24)

Sunday morning I went to the waterhole on the way to breakfast. Two springboks came to drink. 

Then I saw the most red-breasted bird I’ve ever seen. It certainly showed that “robin red breast” doesn’t have a red breast.

After breakfast we started on our return journey out of the park and back to town. We took the alternate route that we hadn’t taken Saturday. After forty minutes, we saw a bunch of cars parked, which means something exciting is happening, and there was space for us to park right up front facing inward so that we all had a great view. Two lions were lying about fifteen feet from the road. I was surprised that they were lying there exposed in the middle of the flat, treeless, grassless land. Morne pointed out that they were keeping warm in the sun. And I realized that they didn’t need to worry about cover to protect them from predators because they are the predators. 

In our fifteen minutes watching them, they got up 

and walked a short distance. 

Then he humped her, 

and they laid down again. Pretty exciting!

The first waterhole had an abundance of springboks, kudus, impalas, red hartebeests, and zebras.

It seemed to be zebra gathering time at the next waterhole, as lines of them were arriving in great numbers from three directions.

Next we drove along the Etosha salt pan with its eerie mirages.

We came to two cheetahs resting under a bush while guarding their freshly killed springbok. 

Some of the people in other cars must have seen the killing, which would have been exciting. Clearly, nothing was going to happen soon, and we were on a schedule to get Kate to the airport on time. So on we drove.

We had lunch at the Namutoni restaurant before heading out of the park. On the way, we stopped at the last waterhole before the exit. We hadn’t seen any animals there on the way in, but now there were many zebras and giraffes and some gemsboks in the distance. 

After several minutes, Morne noticed that the animals were on alert as a lion had come around the wall. 

All activity stopped as they stood still and watched her. 

She walked in front of the wall and then back to a ditch where she was joined by three other lions, one male. 

They all walked down into the ditch and settled to rest. 

Then the other animals relaxed and started drinking and moving again. As Morne said, something was going to be killed later in the day. But now it was rest time. When we exited, he told the guards about the lions, and the car behind us turned back. It would have been difficult to see them without knowing exactly where they were, as the heads that were visible blended in with the rocks from the distance.

We got Kate to the airport on time, and Morne delivered me home. The safari was over all too quickly. It was like being in another world. We saw a huge number and variety of animals: 7 lions, 2 cheetahs. 5 rhinos, 1 hyena, 2 jackals, 1 fox, 1 honey badger, a group of banded mongoose, and uncountable elephants, zebras, giraffes, gemboks/oryx, springboks, red hartebeests, wildebeests, kudus, impalas, and elands. A huge success!!