All the MYO kids playing in the baby pool. What a blast! 

peek a boo! 

2 elephants! 

Zebras! 

Hemsbok and a Jackel 

An elephant at the watering hole, up close and personal! 

A watering hole in Etosha 

Etosha!

A few weeks ago, I went with MYO on their grade 5 field trip to Etosha National Park. It was really beautiful, and a lot of fun to be with the kids as they see many of these animals for the first time. It's interesting how these kids live here in Namibia and most of them have never seen an elephant, zebra, or a giraffe.

We stayed at an educational bungalow camp where we cooked all our own meals. The kids were SUPER excited....most of them didn't go to sleep until after 1am, and they were all up again at 5am ready to go on our game drive. My friend Shannon and I stayed together in the Lion bungalow with 2 other learners. At around 6:15am, we were greeted by almost all the other learners "Miss, I am awake now," while Shannon and I were trying really hard to stay put in our sleeping bags....it was extremely cold in the morning!

Our game drive felt a bit rushed, as the driver just plowed on through the park. We had to beg and plead for him to stop. I was lucky enough to snap a few photos of zebra, 2 elephants, and a giraffe. Oh, by the way, we saw a 5 legged elephant (ok, not really, turns out it was just a male). The kids were really confused.

That night we had a braai (a Namibian barbeque) and a talent show. Boy can these kids move!!! There is a style of dancing called Kweto (not sure of the spelling...sorry!) it looks like a mixture of breakdancing with a little early Michael Jackson thrown in. It's really cool, especially when 10 year olds are doing it! All the girls performed at least twice either a song or a dance. My favorite part was a group of boys who insisted on performing their dance to Shakira's "Hips Don't Lie". They don't discriminate here.

Our 8 1/2 hour drive home was relatively quiet, probably because most of the kids lost their voices from screaming all weekend. Shannon and I enjoyed the calm...she also enjoyed her biltong from Usakos.

There are 2 1/2 weeks left of the term. Time is flying here! 4 more months, then I'm home in VA for 1 full month!

Please write when you get a chance...I haven't heard from many of you in a while and I've been feeling a little homesick lately :( Send me some love!

These are traditional houses you see in Owamboland. I was there 2 weeks ago with my friend Shannon visiting other Peace Corps Volunteers. My how contrasting Namibia is!! 

My trip to Owamboland

Sorry I haven't posted in a while...there's a lot happening here with me in Namibia! 2 weekends ago, my friend Shannon and I went up north to Owamboland. This is where the majority of the population live, the Owambo people. The land is very vast and flat, quite different to the rolling hills of sand here in Swakopmund. I was amazed at how green everything still is, as we are well into the dry season. This past rainy season was intense, so I'm sure the greenery will be around for a little while longer.

First we stayed at my friend Jeremy's house. He is 1 hour north of what they call the "red line." It's a stop just north of Tsumeb where they check to see if you have meat in your vehicle or not. (No one is allowed to bring meat from the north to the south without a permit. ) Jeremy welcomed us in his home and invited a few other volunteers over from Canada and Germany. We spent the evening huddled around the campfire, because it's REALLY cold at night here in the Winter. The next morning, as promised by Jeremy the previous day, we got to ride on a donkey cart! (pics to come later....) then we headed up to Oshakati to meet up with our friends Kassandra and Eric.

We met them at the hike point - where everyone goes to catch a ride to the villages outside of Oshakati. We found E&K pretty quickly considering the mass chaos of cars and people. There are men coming up to you, quite persistant in trying to get you to ride with them. However, E&K had already secured a hike for us, so we hopped into the back of the bakkie and were on our way.

I was amazed how different the landscape was even from what I'd seen up to this point. I can't wait to post pictures, even though I'm sure they won't do justice to how beautiful it is up there!

We spent the night at Eric's homestead. It was a maze of concrete houses mixed with the traditional huts. His Meme (the Oshiwambo word for mother) was so happy we were there, and was quick to give us the grand tour. There is no electricity or running water, so we saw everything from the tap, to the outdoor kitchen, to the pit latrine. There is also a place where they pound mahango, which is the traditional mealie meal they sell. They usually start the pounding process at 3am.

Eric's flat is really cute, consisting of a good sized kitchen and a bedroom. It was great to relax a bit and catch up after the days of traveling.

The next day we headed over to Eric's school where they were having a bazaar. We all weren't really sure what that meant, but we knew somewhere in there was going to be lots of meat and beer. That pretty much sums up our afternoon. After we went around and greeted everyone, it was time to eat. I decided to claim vegetarian for the day and ate only the fat cakes while a few others ate the meat. I just wasn't feeling it.

The rest of the trip was smooth sailing. We caught our combi in Ondangwa and headed out around 9am, stopping for the occasional pit stop or bag of mahango. Shannon and I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions of our new favorite song "I'm married" which the combi driver put on repeat at least 4 times for us. This was followed by a full on laughing/crying fit by Shannon and I. All the Owambo's in the combi thought we were crazy! You should have seen the looks we were given!

I'll post some pictures soon enough...be patient though, as my camera is broken, so I'm relying on others to give me copies of their pictures.

Hope you all are well and are enjoying the summer. It's freezing here!