This blog was made to let people see what I am doing and where I am going in the year 2010-2011. I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures and reading about what I am doing!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Moooore Pictures!
These are just some random pictures from my time here! They are mostly of the people that I live with, the Brits (who left a week ago), and the other Americans, who leave this coming Monday! Enjoy!



Pictures!! Long Overdue!!
Swakopmund, the Skydiving Town
So 2 weekends ago, thats how far behind in posts I am, we (people from the house) went to a popular beach town in Namibia called Swakopmund. Drivig there, you drive through miles and miles of desert and see nothing. Then, all of a sudden, there is an entire town in front of you. So basically, it sits in the middle of the desert, all by itself, and is something like the second most popular tourist destination in southern Africa. Crazy!! It is a gorgeous town, with loads of activities to do, including, but not limited to, skydiving, quadbiking, sandboarding, lying on the beach, etc!! I did four activities, which were amazing!! The first day, we arrived in Swakopmund around 8 am and checked into the Skydivers Lodge where we were staying. We had a dorm style room with 11 beds, and there were 6 of us sleeping in that room, so we had lots of extra space, and 2 bathrooms! So we went to breakfast then at a little place called the Village Cafe, and then, we went...SANDBOARDING!! Sandboarding is snowboarding down a sand dune, complete with boots and helmets. It was such an amazing thing to do. Everytime you went down the dune, you had to climb back up in your boots, which, let me tell you, was a feat in and of itself!! So we did that from nine to noon, and then they served us sandwiches and sodas for lunch. Yum! That afternoon we did what was one of the best things I have ever done before. We went quadbiking. Quadbiking is 4-wheeling, but it is through the sand dunes. We drove so far in that I had no idea where we were. We were in places where you could turn around and see nothing but sand. No town, no ocean, nothing but sand. It was incredible! We also got to see the sun setting from the top of a dune looking out over the ocean. Incredible! Dinner was at a seafood place (seafood is one of Swakopmund's biggest things), where I had seafood cordon bleu (hake with cheese and smoked salmon). We were all so exhausted that we went to bed right after dinner (10pm), but the next day was still ready for activities! We woke up early to try to fit in as much stuff as possible. That morning, we walked around town, shopped at the market, and layed on the beach. The shopping was amazing, it is all bartering, and we usually can get pretty good prices. The beach was warm, and the ocean wasn't as cold as it is in Maine!! We ate lunch at a little restaurant on the beach, and had fabulous milkshakes. After lunch, we all piled back into the bus and drove 15 km outside of town, to a small camel farm. Me, and two of the girls, Katie and Rachel all rode camels in the desert!! It was so much fun! We got head scarves and fancy saddles on the camels! I definitely reccommend it to everyone!! After camels, we went go-karting. Its just like in the US, so it wasn't anything special, just still more fun! We found a restaurant called The Lighthouse, right on the beach, for dinner, and I had the best chicken cordon bleu I have ever had in my life!! Sunday morning we watched our friend Adam go skydiving, and then we drove home, where it was my night to cook dinner! Yay! It went fine, and now we are back to a normal life! Next post will be on the BNC and recent developments!



Monday, July 26, 2010
And Here's the REAL Etosha National Park!
Well, I actually ended up writing about the BNC in the last post, rather than Etosha, so now I will actually write about Etosha. Our trip to Etosha was a real live safari! I never thought I would go on a safari, but I did, and it was spectacular!! We went shopping for food on Thursday morning (the 8th), and bought things like muesli, pasta, stir fry mix, and kabobs...and we sort of found smores stuff! So we worked Thursday, and then that night we went to an amazing restaurant in town called Joe's Beerhouse, which is the local game restaurant. It is an indoor/outdoor seating place, with big long tables for groups (we were 14 people), and fantastic food! I ordered one of the most popular meals at Joe's, the Bushman Kabob, which consisted of 5 types of meat and a bread type roll. The meats were: chicken, zebra, oryx, ostrich, and crocodile. By far, in my opinion, the best was ostrich, followed by zebra! Oryx tasted like beef, and crocodile was very chewy and fatty. But ostrich, I could eat everyday! We had a great time at the restaurant just hanging out, getting to know each other better, and stuffing ourselves silly! So after dinner, we headed home, because we needed to leave the house at 2:30 AM!!! It's a five hour drive to Etosha and we wanted to have the entire Friday there, to make the most out of our trip! So at 2:30, we headed out, having each taken a short nap before we left. When we finally arrived, at around 8 AM, we checked into our campsite, dropped our gear off, grabbed some coffee, and headed out on safari!! I was so excited!! My one goal for the trip (aside from work at the Center, but my own touristy fun goal), was to see a zebra! And let me tell you, we weren't even inside the park for 10 minutes when we saw first an ostrich, then...5 lionesses and 2 lions cubs!!, and then an entire herd of ZEBRA!!!! So, before we were even at our campsite, I had seen lions, ostriches, zebras, and hundreds of springbok!! So we drove around the entire day, taking pictures of animals (we saw just about everything in the first day!), including giraffes! I should explain about the campsite. We were staying in a campsite (there are 3 campgrounds in Etosha, we were in the first) called Okaukuejo. Each campground is located right on a watering hole (there are fences so the people are completely safe), and you can just sit by the holes and watch the animals come to drink water. So, lo and behold, the first time I went to the watering hole after driving around all morning, I saw an entire herd of elephants, even babies! They are such spectacular creatures, gigantic, slow, but supoer strong!! So the rest of the day consisted of me sitting by the watering hole reading and watching the animals, then more driving around watching animals! Friday night, we went to the watering hole and saw rhinos (couldn't get good pictures because of the lighting), but they were really cool too!!
Saturday, we drive around as well, and saw more giraffes, elephants, and a bunch of lions. We ended up, over the course of the weekend, seeing babies for almost every animal that we saw! On our way home on Sunday, we stopped at a crocodile farm (there aren't any crocociles in Etosha), and saw hundreds of babies, 44 adults, and a bunch of inbetweens! They were also really cool! So anyways, it was an altogether spectacular weekend, and I would love to go back! I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!




Links to even MORE pictures!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251312&id=553978956&l=55221710c2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251278&id=553978956&l=6a2db1ff18
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251268&id=553978956&l=997efb5f57
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251246&id=553978956&l=a9ac693a75
Saturday, we drive around as well, and saw more giraffes, elephants, and a bunch of lions. We ended up, over the course of the weekend, seeing babies for almost every animal that we saw! On our way home on Sunday, we stopped at a crocodile farm (there aren't any crocociles in Etosha), and saw hundreds of babies, 44 adults, and a bunch of inbetweens! They were also really cool! So anyways, it was an altogether spectacular weekend, and I would love to go back! I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!
Links to even MORE pictures!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251312&id=553978956&l=55221710c2
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251278&id=553978956&l=6a2db1ff18
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251268&id=553978956&l=997efb5f57
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=251246&id=553978956&l=a9ac693a75
Sorry It Took So Long...But Here's Etosha National Park!
Well, it has been way too long since I last posted a blog entry, and I apologize for that! So much has happened in the past couple of weeks, so I am going to do three blog posts today to make up for that! And then, I will do my best to post at least two times a week for the rest of my time in Namibia! So, I will start with the week after thefourth of July. That week, not much happened, we got to know the three new American girls, Cecily, Amy, and Brenna, and prepared for our weekend trip to Etosha National Park! That was my first week really taking charge of the remedial reading and math program at the BNC, and I really enjoyed it! There are so many kids at the Center who are in fifth, sixth, seventh grades, but they cannot read, or write clear sentences, and they can barely do basic addition and subtraction. The way the teachers in the school systems here have failed the children is remarkable. It is my understanding from talking to my boss, Marybeth, that the private schools are fine, but the public schools, where the children at the BNC go, are not up to even Namibian standards. What happens is the children are either "passed" or "transferred" from grade to grade. Passed means that they have passed the standards for that grade, and transferred means they have failed, but will still be moved into the next grade. So, many of the kids at the BNC have been transferred and are now in the seventh grade but are still at the second grade level. So I have essentially been put in charge of a remedial reading and math tutoring program for the kids. What we do is take them out for one-on-one tutoring time with different volunteers (whoever happens to be there that day), and work on phonics, simple books, and simple math, gradually advancing them into harder materials. So far (I believe we are in the third week of the program), it has been working out very well, and I am very pleased with how it is going!
This coming week is the last week that the other American girls are here, so starting next week, depending on how many volunteers we have, I may end up going back to teaching a class, rather than tutoring, which would also be fun! Next entry will be on Etosha National Park!!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Two Weeks Gone By
I have now been here for exactly two weeks, and it is amazing. Katutura is a fabulous part of the city (of course there are the usual comments that one would get in any city), but for the most part, the people are extremely nice and friendly. On the 4th of July we went on a tour of Katutura (see the pictures), and saw some shocking things. We spent most of the tour driving around the informal settlements of the city, which are basically shacks made out of scrap metal, no electricity, communal toilets, and communal water pumps which the people have to pay for. The average wage earnings of this community is N$800, which is approximately $100 USD. Most of the people never leave the settlements when they grow up, remaining there until they die (the average lifespan is only 48 years old). As horrible as it may have seemed to us (Americans and British), the people who live there are perfectly happy. The kids we saw were smiling and playing, the people in the yards waved at us, and everyone seemed generally friendly. They are very proud of what they have, even if it is just a one room shack made out of the scrap metal. This way of life is so extremely different from anything I have ever seen, but it must be admired. To be able to be happy with almost nothing is an amazing feat.
This was the poor part of town. In the other parts, the parts through which I walk on my way to work everyday, are slightly better, but not by much. These houses are made out of bricks usually, covered in a cement type substance and painted either shades of white, or bright colors. Some of them are also one room, others are a main room with one or sometimes two bedrooms. Most do not have bathrooms inside, but they onld share with one other house. These toilets do not have flushes, but instead lead into a hole in the ground into which all waste falls. There is also no toilet paper, and generally no toilet seats. At the end of the tour, we went to one of the rougher parts of town, a street called Evelinestraat, which has 63 bars on it, only 7 of which are official bars. While on the street, we went to their market and tasted some meat that the men were cooking (yummy!), and saw a cows head (picture). That was quite the experience!!
After all of this, we had a braai at the dam, a large water area about 5 minutes from our house which has picnic areas complete with braais (the bbq's themselves). We had a variety of meats again, including the chicken kabobs that I love, and the amazing garlic bread! We spent the afternoon there with the other British students that we have become friends with, their supervisor form England, and a few Namibians that we hang out with regularly. Today, it was back to work, where we were missing a few volunteers, but also gained 3 new Americans (also staying with us). I ended up teaching 3rd grade today with the help of a Finnish girl (I lost my voice on Thursday at karaoke, and it has only gotten worse over the weekend!!), which went very well.
This coming weekend, we are going to Etosha, an animal park type thing which will be amazing! The campsites (where we are staying) are all along watering holes (they do have fences to keep the animals out - doesn't work for elephants!!), and word has it that you see hundreds of animals at a time, including lions, elephants, zebras, wildebeests, etc!! So exciting! I will make sure to take tons of photos and put some up on Sunday when we get back! I will also post later this week, so stay tuned!!!






This was the poor part of town. In the other parts, the parts through which I walk on my way to work everyday, are slightly better, but not by much. These houses are made out of bricks usually, covered in a cement type substance and painted either shades of white, or bright colors. Some of them are also one room, others are a main room with one or sometimes two bedrooms. Most do not have bathrooms inside, but they onld share with one other house. These toilets do not have flushes, but instead lead into a hole in the ground into which all waste falls. There is also no toilet paper, and generally no toilet seats. At the end of the tour, we went to one of the rougher parts of town, a street called Evelinestraat, which has 63 bars on it, only 7 of which are official bars. While on the street, we went to their market and tasted some meat that the men were cooking (yummy!), and saw a cows head (picture). That was quite the experience!!
After all of this, we had a braai at the dam, a large water area about 5 minutes from our house which has picnic areas complete with braais (the bbq's themselves). We had a variety of meats again, including the chicken kabobs that I love, and the amazing garlic bread! We spent the afternoon there with the other British students that we have become friends with, their supervisor form England, and a few Namibians that we hang out with regularly. Today, it was back to work, where we were missing a few volunteers, but also gained 3 new Americans (also staying with us). I ended up teaching 3rd grade today with the help of a Finnish girl (I lost my voice on Thursday at karaoke, and it has only gotten worse over the weekend!!), which went very well.
This coming weekend, we are going to Etosha, an animal park type thing which will be amazing! The campsites (where we are staying) are all along watering holes (they do have fences to keep the animals out - doesn't work for elephants!!), and word has it that you see hundreds of animals at a time, including lions, elephants, zebras, wildebeests, etc!! So exciting! I will make sure to take tons of photos and put some up on Sunday when we get back! I will also post later this week, so stay tuned!!!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Smiley :)
Well I have now been here for almost two weeks, and it is still a great place to be! The bouse I am staying at is slowly filling up, we are up to five students now, with three more coming tomorrow! Working at the BNC is also still great. I have moved from teaching classes, I was doing 3rd grade, to dong remedial one-on-one tutoring for some of the students who really need the help. It is very sad to see how many of the students cannot read or write or do basic mathmatics. It is not their faults entirely, many of their parents cannot help them wth homework as they have no educations, and the teachers in the public schools just pass the students along even when they are not ready to move to the next grade.
The braai that we had was a traditional barbeque for this region. The braai is a type of outdoor stove where the meat and vegetables are cooked. We bought lamb chops, sausages, pork ribs, chicken kabobs and beef kabobs, as well as corn on the cob and salad fixings. The people here say that they have the best meat in the world. There is a national law that says no hormones can be given to the animals, and the meat farmers follow the law. And I must say, the meat I have eaten here has been some of the best that I have ever had! In another sense of meat, we went to a very local (around the corner in someone's hosue basically) restaurant the other day, and had a 'smiley' (spelling may be wrong). A smiley is...a sheep's head, complete with teeth, tongue, eyes, and brain!! We also had other foods at this restaurant such as potatoes, veggies, and ribs, but the smiley was the main attraction. I ate part of the tongue, and I must say, it tasted like liver, and once I put the fact that it was a tongue out of my mind, it actually tasted pretty good! The next traditional food we are going to try is a type of worm that they fry up and eat! Can't wait!! :)
This weekend, the other volunteers and I are going to help out at a soccer tournament that they British boys we live wtih are putting on. We will be reffing and keeping track of scores and other such things. It should be fun! And on Sunday, the 4th of July, we will be having a braai to celebrate America's Independence Day! More to come later this week/weekend about the houses and people who live here!!
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