Safe Arrival In Namibia

Arrived safely in Namibia on Monday evening after a 20 hour or so journey from Minneapolis - Washington, DC - Dakar, Senegal - Johannesburg, South Africa - Windhoek.  Our trip leader Ian met me at the Windhoek airport and we took a taxi to rendezvous with our two other team members, Liza and Sarah, at our home away from home in Windhoek, the Chameleon Guesthouse.  It's a hostel filled with other international tourists as well as expats involved in research, internships, etc. in Namibia.

We've spent the past two days at Van Rhyn Primary School.  Liza and Sarah have led the students in a three day outdoor mural painting project which was finished today (and is beautiful!) Ian has been capturing lots of pictures and video and I'm the "helping hand" doing whatever else needs doing.

The exchanges that we are facilitating with U.S. classrooms involve artwork, videos, Q & A and Skype.  Yesterday Ian and I visited several classrooms, shared artwork from U.S. students that we brought from the U.S., then asked Namibian students to create a work of art to be shared with U.S. students.  Today, several groups of students came to the School Hall where they watched videos created by U.S. students and we fielded lots of questions about the U.S. and U.S. students.  Ian then filmed the Namibian students drumming, dancing and even creating their own version of the "Harlem Shake".  Soon, photos of the Namibian student art and the videos will be uploaded to the OneWorld Classrooms site for U.S. students to view.  At the end of the school day we facilitated two Skype calls between Namibian and U.S. classrooms, one to a school in Boston and the other to Liza's school in New York state.

For you weather buffs, it's been in the low 90's each day, with blue skies and no rain!  It's a dry heat, so it's feeling pretty good to me after our Minnesota winter.

Tonight we are invited to our host teacher Rayno's home for a brai, which is Namibian/South African slang for a barbeque. As they say, Namibia is not a country for vegetarians. Will it be kudu, oryx, springboek or ???

Tomorrow is our last day at Van Rhyn and in the evening we are off on a road trip to Swakopmund.  I may not have Internet access until I return to Windhoek on Friday evening.  Here's an Afrikaans goodbye ... tootsiens!

Van Rhyn Primary School

Rayno Hosting Us For a Brai

Rayno and His Wife Tessa, a 2nd Grade Teacher at Van Rhyn

Working On The Mural

Kids Will Be Kids!

Waiting For Permission From The Teacher To Enter The Classroom

Grade 1 Working On Drawings For Art Exchange

Beautiful Faces

Skype Call With Liza's School

One World Classrooms Team