Return From Swakopmund

We have returned from our quick trip to Swakopmund, located four hours west of Windhoek on the Atlantic Coast.  Rayno drove us in the school truck and we were able to stay the night at the Principal's vacation home there.  Three highlights: riding up front in the cab having a great conversation with Rayno over many driving hours about Namibia's geography, culture, politics, economy and education system, climbing Dune 7 in the Namib Desert (home to the world's largest sand dunes) and enjoying a delicious and beautifully presented seafood lunch at a restaurant suspended over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean at the end of a jetty.  We arrived back in Windhoek VERY SANDY and sweaty to see the last few minutes of the "Miss Van Rhyn" contest in which the 6th grade girls were competing.

Liza and Sarah are returning to the U.S. today and our new teammate Gale will join us for the remaining two weeks.  So, much of today will be spent at the airport dropping off and picking up.  Tomorrow Ian, Gale and I will travel east via kombi to Gobabis where we will be picked up and transported further by a local U.S. Peace Corps volunteer to the village of Aminuis for our time at Mokaleng Combined School (both primary and secondary).

As compared to Ghana, Namibia has great infrastructure.  You can drink the tap water (!), litter is minimal, roads are good, and power is reliable. Its independent status is relatively new (1990), and many years as a German colony and then subsequent control by South Africa (unfortunately including the imposition of apartheid) meant there was significant foreign investment.

About 94% of Namibians are black Africans, with the largest of 10 or so ethnic groups being the Ovambo.  Because of the German influence as well as that of the British and Dutch who colonized South Africa, Namibia feels like a multi-racial, multi-ethnic society.  Many of the toponyms (hey Geography students - geoword alert! ) are German, Afrikaans serves as the lingua franca for speakers of many native languages and since independence, English is Namibia's official language.  All school instruction is conducted in English.

On a logistical note, our only Internet access is here at the Chameleon Guesthouse and we spend very little time here.  Thus, not so many blog entries.  I am jotting down ideas, and will most likely be adding things in bursts over the next couple of weeks as we will be travelling to schools in remote areas in the east, west and north, circling back through Windhoek a couple of times.  My camera seems to have literally "bit the dust" in the Namib desert as the lens got a little sandy and will no longer go in and out.  I do have a small Bloggie flip camera that takes both video and still pictures as well as my phone that I can use for photos.  Fortunately we have Ian, the official photographer for One World Classrooms as part of our team.  He has great cameras, takes beautiful photos with an artistic touch, and I will have access to his photos upon my return.  Short of the short, this blog will come in fits and starts and most likely won't have pics until April!

Dune 7

The One World Classrooms Team

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

Google Earth Tours

Students in my 9th Grade AP Human Geography classes have created Google Earth Tours comparing and contrasting a handful of physical or human features in the U.S., Namibia and/or Africa. I'm proud of their work - put together in just a couple of class days. (And for you persistent students who focused on lakes, I am going to try my hardest to get a GPS reading at Dragon's Breath Cave!)

To view a tour, right click on a .kmz file to download it to your computer.  Then, double click on the .kmz file and it will open in Google Earth.  If you do not have Google Earth, it is a free download HERE.  

Four Days Until Departure

Four days until departure for Namibia!  I now have some details about our itinerary.  Our journey will begin in Windhoek, Namibia's capital city, where we will spend four days working with students at  Van Rhyn Primary School, facilitating exchanges with U.S. classrooms and working together with students to create a large outdoor mural.  We will then travel east into the Kalahari Desert to Aminuis, where we will spend two days at Mokaleng Combined School.  Then it's west to the coast, where we will explore Swakopmund and interact with students at Vrede Rede Primary School.  Our final week will be spent in northern Namibia learning from and with students at Oikango Combined School in Oshakati.  A highlight of our visit to this region will be a safari at Etosha National Park.

Jewel of Namibia from National Geographic Live.

OneWorld Classrooms Namibia 2013

Join me March 10-31, 2013 as I travel to the southwest African country of Namibia as a member of a volunteer teacher team working with OneWorld Classrooms.  Our task will be to:

• take photos, create educational videos, PowerPoints and Google Earth tours
• facilitate the exchange of art, music, dance and video between U.S. and Namibian classrooms
• create multimedia responses to U.S. student questions by interviewing African students, teachers and experts
• facilitate Skype sessions between Namibian and U.S. classrooms
• work with students and community members on a school mural project
• participate in whatever collaborative opportunities come our way!