Ending on a high

Term 2 is over and it is with optimism that Chris & I head off on our hiking adventure and two week holiday before Term 3 begins. There are some things to be positive about:

-We successfully raised our puppies and have sent them off into their new lives.

-Namibia is desert and while everything else is dying, it is also blooming. It is dry but smells wonderful because the trees have decided to give it a go as the temperatures start to climb and have attracted us, birds and bees to the area. It's lovely.

-Exam results are finished and I optimistically look at my learner's grades and think--"You know, I think they are improving" which is an encouraging thought.

-I had two very cute learners who when asked to write about "the most important person in their life" wrote about me. Sure, maybe its sucking up a bit, but it is always nice to see yourself praised on paper with things like, "Even though she is of white complexion, she likes black people" :), and "if there is a problem, I ask Ms. Faught and she always solves it quickly".

We are happy and healthy, and we hope you are too! Off we go to September!

In Memory of Bingo Cowpie Name-o, 2008-2009

You can't help but notice that this term has, outide of our school life, been dominated by the joys, triumphs and tragedies of our dogs. It was only 2 weeks ago that we were amazingly stating, "Do you realize we have 8 dogs!" And now with Diablo, the last of our puppies, gone, we are sadly down to one.

And with that we relate with sadness how a vibrant, bad-ass and precocious young dog met his end. Even now, it seems unbelievable that he will no longer chase cars while I run, no longer bring his smelly head against our laps. I sometimes still think I hear his bark at night but I know it is just one of his dog-relatives. Poor Bingo who was jealous of the pups, fell ill for unknown reasons and stopped eating. Then, 2 days later he simply disappeared....off to meet his end in some quiet cow pasture. We will miss him but know that he lived life to the fullest and had a short but happy life. We're told by our neighbours that he's probably been eaten by some family (yes, they do eat dogs here, when they're bad and misbehave), but hopefully either way he had a gentle end.

The puppies brought us more and more joys as they grew and in the end caused lots of trouble once they got control of their teeth, legs and bark. Most of the village wanted one because (get this) we fed them so they were fat & healthy! In the end one mysteriously went "missing" one afternoon and for days, Chris & I scaled the school fence (we're locked in at night) in search of a yelping puppy--we even found one, but it wasn't ours! The other 5 puppies went to teachers and a volunteer and we believe they will be well cared for. Of course, there's no denying that a few tears weren't shed as I watched OUR puppies be taken away, one by one. But in a country which doesn't "love" dogs like us North Americans, I think we did our best at giving them good homes.

So we are left with Percy--who continues to be a delightful and unusual dog. 2 weeks ago we paid the big bucks and she went under the knife. We enjoyed having puppies but we don't want it to happen again. And now we know that she can live a better and healthier life, in case her future owners are not so generous with the food. Spaying her also astounded people here and she's probably the only spayed dog this village has ever seen. If only they could understand that it is cheaper in the long term. But of course, it's only cheaper if you actually feed your dogs...
So ends our winter term of dogs.

Exams again

Exams are upon us once again. While invigilating a two hour exam today, I calculated that our students will write a total of 8000 exam papers in the next couple weeks. That's more than 13 different exams per kid. Does that seem a little extravagant? I think so, especially since these exams, and the last set in April, don't actually mean anything (except increased sales of paper and red pens). They are just preparation for the end of year exams which, for some reason, start almost immediately after these mock exams finish.

There is some strange illness in our school hostel which seems to be having strange psychological and possibly psychosomatic effects on our girls. As a result, our kids are being sent home for four days. So, it's another quiet weekend at the school where we can safely take our puppies for a walk without having them distracted by hundreds of gawking kids who all ask if they can have one. The answer is no. We have decided that a six-year-old boy is not responsible enough to take one of our puppies. We are a little concerned about the rumours that people are planning to steal our puppies. They are highly visible in the town but we hope these are only idle threats from kids.

Chris

Living Without Water --not an oxymoron but reality

(this one goes out to you Adria & Blake :) )

This week, all week, our village was without fresh running water. Starting either Saturday or Sunday, the houses and buildings that have taps (which of course is not all by any means) suddenly found that they no longer functioned...they became air taps. This happens regularly of course..perhaps for a day every two weeks, but a week is a LONG time to go without a fresh supply. It meant we had to take water conservation to a whole new level as by Monday evening our 30L or so of stored water was getting pretty low (do you realize how much water a toilet takes when you only have 30L stored? About 1/5 for every flush.

Thus you might have seen this scenario..no bathing, no dishes, no flushing, no laundry. We set up a wash bowl for washing hands and tried to use the good water only for cooking and drinking. Part way through Tuesday I was starting to get angry at the puppies for wasting water as they always spill their water bowl over!

At school we have 2 taps and two flush toilets, those had to be shut and locked. The learners were complaining that they wanted to go home because they were thirsty...but of course that is against the rules! Chris' school was serviced by a large water truck because it is a hostel school and the kids eat and sleep here.

Luckily on Wednesday the tap in the backyard started to run again so we could fill up our solar shower and our bottles from nearby at least and that was heaven. And today (fingers crossed) there is still fabulous running water with pressure in our house! Ah, luxury, you don't know what you have North America. You live in another world, really, truly!

PS- We just found out it wasn't just our village but the whole region or more because of a major pipe break!

Do you want to win a pig?

Our school is currently selling raffle tickets for a draw next month. First prize is a pig and second prize (definitely considered less worthy) is a cell phone. Does that seem like a strange colliding of worlds to anyone else? If you are interested in buying a ticket for 10 Namibian dollars (roughly $1.50 Canadian), let me know and I'll put your name in. You can buy me a coke next year. Of course, if you actually win a pig, that will certainly make it interesting. You may become the only person in the world to own livestock 20,000km away from themselves. I have seen the prize pig and if Charlotte the spider was here, her web would say things like "Delicious" and "Good Eatin'"

PS - Puppies getting bigger!