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Published: October 2nd 2013
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Two of my 8th graders in traditional Herero dress. Hey, everyone,
I just made a carrot salad with a veggie peeler. I threw in some apples, too. Not bad.
My cohort, Lucia, is officially on maternity leave. We did finally manage to have her shower, but it didn't look like we would. So the night before she was leaving, I took my apple crisp over to her flat, and we sat there and chatted and ate apple crisp by hand, because I forgot utensils and hers were all packed up. It was actually a lovely time. The next day she was going to leave at one, but one of the other teachers got her a ride, so she stayed until after our meeting when we gave her the gifts and drank juice and ate chocolates (you'd think we were all pregnant). The really amusing part of this is that she was genuinely having cravings for ice cream. That one is a hard one to fulfill here, especially if you have to walk to the store.
Our weather has been HOT! HOT! I think Colin and Alba may be the only ones who can understand. Although it is not humid here. However, so much sweat makes it sort
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Some are my learners. They are in Kavango dance costume. They are very good, and the drummers (3 11th grade boys who started at their grandfather's knees) are marvelous. I love when they practice, you can hear them all over campus. I tried once, but there is a particular way to hit the drum, you don't just hit it. of humid. The last few days there has been a breeze for much of the day, and it has been cooling off at night. About three days ago the breeze became a gale. I had to walk over to the school. Between hostel buildings I just had to guard my eyes, but as soon as I got into the open, it was incredibly painful. There is so much dust and sand. Fortunately, my roomy thought to close the windows on the windy side. I ran to the school, but now can understand why sandstorms are so dangerous.
Last night it got so cool I had to use my fleece blanket that Nicki brought me. Mind you, I had my fan on. It is too hot to sleep under the mosquito net, so I use the fan both against the heat and against the bugs. So far, pretty good. I also take a malaria pill and wear mosquito repellant especially made for sleeping in. I really hope to get home malaria free. I haven't really seen any mosquitoes, and everything is so dry, maybe it prevented them from breeding.
I am teaching Religious and Moral Education. I thought they
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I think early morning on the way to Rundu. I got the clouds for once. This is Africa!! were kidding, but last week at our faculty meeting, I heard them say that I had volunteered to teach it. I started this week, but fortunately Lucia had left a quiz for them to take. Next week I take on the Qu'ran.
I now have Lucia's computer, so access to the SMART board. My 8th graders are teaching me to use it. I was in class today, telling them that I was learning so much here, and that I would go home knowing how to use the SMART board. I noticed that you can do the same thing on the SMART board as on a regular board, but you get a lot more volunteers for the SMART board. I am sure that many of you have used one, but just in case, you can erase a whole board by making a circle around all the writing with the eraser, then just tapping the middle and it all disappears. My favorite part. So I have reserved the erasing in class for myself.
I am feeling so much better today, than I have been. Last week I was on study duty. I was supposed to have a partner, but he
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My kitchen. I have a stool for the table now. I "borrowed" it from a classroom. left Wednesday to go to his uncle's funeral on Saturday. We have school from 7:00 a.m. until 1:10 p.m.. Study is from 3:00 - 4:30 (they study in their classrooms) and from 6:30 - 9:00. The one on duty is supposed to keep them quiet and studying. But they all come out with questions or problems which I have to solve. Sometimes we end up chatting a while. During the same week I had to finish everything for my Certificate in TEFL by Sept. 30th. I had to do a lesson plan with "reflections;" two modules (read an article then critique a teacher in a case study); I had to get filmed teaching a class, then send the lesson plan for that class with reflections on how it went, what was good, bad, what was I going to work on. Then I had to find an article and write my own case study. Rachel filmed me with my iphone and it came out amazingly well. Although I haven't heard if they got everything, I am finished. Sent the case study Monday, the 30th, then went to bed at 8:00 p.m. and slept until 5:50 the next morning. Today I am having fun marking hysterical papers. There was a vocabulary section on this test, and many did not study the vocab. They have to write sentences using the words or phrases. Some of them were idioms. They love idioms, but they don't always understand. Then they have trouble with short i, and ee. They had the word "deem" but thought it meant dim. The results were pretty funny. Another was to "act as a guinea pig," and one wrote, "He was acting as a guinea pig when his mother told him to go somewhere else."
Thank you all for your book suggestions. I'm going to do one more order from Amazon and try to get a variety. The thing is that you can only order from Amazon itself, as all the other bookstores don't ship internationally. Amazon, from the postmark, appears to have an office in Germany. I'll let you know what I order.
I am getting excited to come home, but there is some hard work in between. However, this Saturday is "Teachers' Day" (Oct. 5th). If it weren't Saturday, we'd get a day off. But we are going to have a braai. Since we are on campus, no wine or beer, but barbecue will be nice. Late enough that it will hopefully cool off.
Well, so much for a short note. Keep the comments coming, I love getting them. Better than email!
Love, Wendy
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NANCY B-E
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THE HEAT
Hi Wendy. When I was in So. Africa in the heat at night, we wet a towel and put it right on us as we went to bed. The evaporation cooled us nicely. Try it. We, on the other hand, are having cooler weather, but beautiful Fall golds and reds. Four days without rain last week was delightful--wish it could last for a month! Look forward to seeing you when you return. Best wishes--Nancy