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!