Help Namibian Youth-Support my 'Learning Centre Project'

I've really been enjoying my year of teaching. It's brought a lot of challenges, but more rewards than I can count. The teenagers at my school, Omungwelume Junior Secondary, may be culturally different but their hearts are essentially the same as teenagers at home--they are struggling to be noticed, to learn about the world around them and to remove themselves from poverty. You get the trouble-makers but you also get those students who you fall in love with and want to everything you can for them.

This is why I hope to create a small Learning Centre at my school-- with a few CD players and short stories on tape, encyclopoedias, dictionaries and other research material so students can actually do projects and practicing hearing proper English. Right now we have a small library, loaded with books which has been a huge hit this year, but is severely overcrowded (its the size of an overgrown closet). So I hope to move things around and create two learning spaces that teachers and students can use. I want a centre where teachers can bring in their learners to practice English, research a project or look up a word (we only have 5 dictionaries currently for the whole school).

A few good reasons for doing this:

-For Ndahafa (first photo), who after reading with me Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" found every hidden Dahl book in the library, and has moved through "James and the Giant Peach" and is on to "The BFG". When asked how "James" was she exclaimed, "Oh much nicer than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

-For Johannes (second photo, front left), who is child #13 in his family (the "last born") but who listens to everything I say and just absorbs it. I often find him secretly cleaning the library when I'm not around.
-For Toivo,(3rd photo,holding map on right) a grade 8 learner of brilliance, who really could be a doctor/lawyer/engineer, but who has such little access to things that challenge his mind (ie. no research books, computers, internet) that he is usually bored with school and displays that by acting up. He is also living in a child-headed family.

If you think these are reasons enough or want to learn more, please email me (chloe_faught@yahoo.ca) and cc Charis Faught (charis.faught@gmail.com) (I do not have regular email access) and we'll send you more information about the project and how you can donate online or by cheque through my organization World Teach--tax deductable. All monetary donations (preferred) must complete the "Donor Designation Form" that we will send you. Materials like posters and stories on CD can also be sent, if done soon. Email for mailing details.
Thank you for being such supportive friends and family this year!

Chloe & Chris

Games

Term 3 is in full swing and the computer lab has become incredibly popular afterschool. In particular, kids are using Wikipedia (we have a version downloaded on our server because we don't have internet access) and playing Othello. Since I showed them how to play Othello (aka Reversi or Lagno), many kids have become obsessed. They needed something more challenging than Connect Four and some of them are getting quite good. I remain undefeated so far but several games have been close.

When the tables are turned, however, the results are not so good for me. I've learned how to play Namibian chess with my grade 11s. My record in that game is equally perfect since I have lost every game so far.

What better way to share culture than with games (especially for me!)

Another Kick-Ass Vacation: The Fish River Canyon & other Adventures

We're back in school starting our third and final term of the Namibian school year. But just before we launched into this term we had a 12 day holiday.
Our main mission: to hike the steep, wide & adventure-loaded Fish River Canyon from the Hobas viewpoint until Ais-Ais Hot Springs, a mere 85km as the river flows. All in 4 nights, 5 days. Recommended by a teacher at Stelly's (thank you Kevin Smyth!) before we left, it was a goal we have had in mind since we decided to come to Namibia.

Our first adventure occured before we hit the canyon. After driving for 2 days (we live near Angola, the canyon is very close to Namibia's South African border) our car wheel started making a terrible noise. I correctly ID'd it as a busted wheel bearing, a common problem of bicycle wheels. Fortunately, we were just outside Keetmanshoop, which houses the most petrol stations per capita and we found a mechanic. One wheel axle and a night in Keetmanshoop Caravan Park & we managed to make it to the canyon...only about 5 or so hours behind schedule.
The trail starts at the most majestic part of the canyon--long U-bends and steep steep cliffs (see photos). The first few kilometres involve basically climbing down the cliff-side using metal chains and all 4 limbs. Your packs are fully loaded at this point too so after a few hundred metres of vertical decending your legs are pretty quakey. Luckily the descent only lasts about 1h 45min and then you're on "flat" canyon floor.

Once we got to the bottom, we only did a few kilometres of hiking before we set up camp, as we were told that due to our youth we would probably make it to our second day destination (about 15km) down the river, by maybe noon. WRONG!!!! Day 2 was a LONG slow day. The first 7-8km were slow trudges along steep cliffsides, hopping large rocks, with some boulder & sand trudging for good measure. And boy that sun is hot at mid-day. At one point we chose the "wrong" side of the river and had some pretty angled walking to do and had to take off our packs and pass them at a few locations. Eventually that fun stuff ended and our last few kilometres went quickly. We made it to the Palms & Hotsprings of "Palm Springs" just as I was about to give up & set up camp rather than hop another boulder field. We spent the evening limping around camp and trying to enjoy the way too hot hotsprings.

Day 3 the terrain became "easier" and we increased our daily speed to about 25km. What easier means is that you no longer have to scramble or climb but find the terrain starts to follow a familiar pattern....Deep Sand Walking for 2km, Rock/dirt walking for 2-3km, then 1-3km of large boulder hopping, then repeat. The dirt walking allows you to forget momentarily how awful you felt hopping boulders or trudging in the sand. This day allowed us to look up a little more and we saw many new creatures-- really awesome scorpions, baboons galore, klipspringer (cliff jumping antelope),wild horses and Chris even spied a rare Cape River Otter. The end of the day ended with what the map called "the boulder field"--which terrified me as I thought we'd already passed about 10 of these already, none which got a title on the map. Yup, another couple kms of boulder hopping...not as bad as imagined, but enough to make me force the group to call it quits for the night.

Nights on the trail were all that you hoped for--warm winds, wandering animals, star & moon-filled skies and lots of silence. We were lucky to have water the whole way (sometimes the river is dry at the end) and we treated the water the same you would at home--except we doubled the dosage of chlorine drops. Southern Namibia is fortunate to not have as many of the scary water-borne diseases that tropical Africa has, so we took advantage of this.

Day 4--Lots of hiking just like day 3 except we got to do 2 short cuts to save time and distance. Took a short visit to Von Trotha's grave where he died while fighting the Nama with the Afrikaaners around the turn of the century (or fighting them off their land basically). Another nice night with more baboons and howling jackals and then a quick 18km and we were at Ais Ais--which is a just redeveloped hotspring resort. So we ended up camping in paradise and had a luxurious dinner out and spend a few hours in their hotspring pools. Not a bad way to end a hike, eh?

The rest of our vacation was spent meandering our way up north. It included some time in Windhoek to buy some luxury foods (ex. tortillas & sprouts), a night at our favourite mountain, Spitzkoppe, a visit with a friend, a petrified forest & the San rock engravings at Twyflefontein (which are awesome!) and some cheetah petting time. Our last night camping was in Damaraland in which we had the Planet Earth "desert elephant" walk into our campground as we were checking in. Awesome! We also had to evacuate to the car in the middle of the night as I awoke to the trees nearby being torn down... in the morning we had elephant footprints about 6m from our tent. Cool.

I must admit, it seems pretty easy in Africa to have a really kick-ass vacation! For more photos of our trip go to our flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31870881@N06/