Teachers...

Below are pictures of the teachers at Omulunga Primary School, the school that I am working out. If you have the time, take a minute to pray for them. Pray that they have a love and passion for the children and also that they can grow in their walk with the Lord, wherever they currently may be. There are a lot of challenges at this school and the teachers and staff could really use all the prayers they can get.

(first pic) - Simataa is the grade 6 teacher.

(second pic) - Paliso teaches grade 4 in the afternoon.

(first pic) - Salom is one of the grade 5 teachers.

(second pic) - Prisco is also one of the grade 5 teachers.

(first pic) -Elfriede teaches grade 2.

(second pic) - Natalia teaches grade 3.

(third pic) - Milka is one of the grade 5 teachers. She is absolutely hilarious!

(first pic) - Lelany teaches grade 1.

(second pic) - Deffnie is the grade 3 relief teacher.

(third pic) - On the left is Christina, the principal of the School. On the right is Eva the other grade 1 teacher.

Students

Here are some students from the class 3b, a picture of break time and a picture of class 1b.

(first pic)-The girl on the left is Rauna. She was quite the girl; she would laugh at me whenever I told her to do something. She could be very sweet when she wants to be.

(second pic)-Here are Robert and Laurencias. The most common phrase from these two was "Teacher, do you have any sweets?"

(third pic)-Little Lukas. This boy is so tiny and adorbale but quite the handful. He was up from his seat every chance he could get and got out of trouble often with just a smile.

(fourth pic)-Break Time. The students have a thirty minute break in the morning. During this time they visit the soup kitchen for something to eat and then run around for a bit. The teachers take the time to have a tea break in the staff room.

(fifth pic)-Grade 1 singing a morning song with there teacher, Lelany. There are approx. 38 students in this grade 1 class with one teacher. Lelany does a great job.

The School

The outside of our school looks quite nice. It was built by the government in 2002, so it is pretty new. It goes from grade 1 to grade 6. There are two classes in each grade except grade 5 has three classes and grade 6 has only one. My first week at the school, I spent the first four days teaching grade 3b. I have added a bunch of pics of my students in that class.

(First pic)-This is the outside of the school.

(Second pic)-Ronaldo and Ronny were a fun pair although they tried my patience quite a bit. I can't even count the times I had to tell them to stay in there seat. Despite the frusteration, these two are quite a pair and very fun!

(Third pic)-This is Tomas, I absolutely adore him. Whenever he sees me he always has the best smile. The only problem is that Tomas doesn't speak any english, only oshivambo. He tries really hard in class to do what everyone is doing. The other kids try and translate for him.

(Fourth pic)-Here is Gideon, probably one of the sweetest kids I have ever met. He is one of the oldest kids in the grade 3 class, he is 13 years old.

(Fifth pic)-Awwww....Naftalie and Browny. Naftalie is in the striped shirt and he is deaf. He is a super smart kid when I could get him to sit and understand what we were doing. He is hilarious and loves it when I tease him. His partner in crime is Browny who is also very smart. He helped a lot to try and help Naftalie understand what was going on.

Youth Kids

Here are some kids from the youth at my church. They participate in the Wednesday Bible Study. I have been able to really connect with these guys in the last two weeks and I am looking forward to building the relationship.

(First pic)- From left to right; Petrus, Josh, Suama, and Sippe. Petrus, Josh and Suama are brother and sister. Suama and Petrus are twins. These three are in the youth group at church and also live in our neighborhood. Sippe goes to another church but is a regular at our house.

(second pic)-Josh and Given

(Third pic)-A group shot of me with the youth kids. I have really connected with this family. They are super fun to hang out with. All three are involved in the bible study at church and Suama also comes over for help with her homework.

Neighborhood Ministry

All the kids in the neighborhood love to spend time at our house. We have a swing set and a climbing structure in our backyard, grass in the front, and the cartoon channel on tv. This has been a great opportunity to get to know the neighbors and give the kids here a place to feel safe and a place that they can stop worrying and just enjoy being kids. The other night we had a great time with about seven teens in the neighborhood playing hide-and-seek and sardines in the dark, we made brownies, listened to music and just had a great time together.

(First Pic)-Neighborhood boys playing on the swings.

(Second pic)-Given and Noshka, two adorable kids who are always at the house!

(Third pic)-The teen girls who hang out and are a blast. They are Sippe, Suisse (Sissy), and Bina.

(Fourth pic)-Some of our "regulars."

(Fifth pic)-Lightening hit the tree in the front of our house during a storm. All the kids where here when it happened. It was quite exciting.

I AM AN AUNTIE!

My sister, Angela, had a baby girl on Friday, February 23, 2006! Her name is Abigail. Isn't she just the most beautiful thing! Congratulations little sister!

"Mine!"

Check out the new pictures under this post. There are only four this time but I will post more of my new surroundings next week.

School Update...

So, I arrived in Grootfontein on Sunday, February 11th, and started work on Monday morning at 7am. I was just going to go to visit the school with Linda and check things out. We havd to leave the house at 6:10am in the morning and walk 1 km to the outskirts of "town" where we are picked up by the school principal. I arrived at the school and on Monday there is an assembly. I introduced myself and was supposed to just visit the office and see how things went. At 9:45 the children have a break, but at 8:30 the principal asked me to "observe" the grade 3B class until break. We sang some songs and they told me their names and it was fine. After break I was put into the classroom for the rest of the afternoon to teach. It was a little crazy but it went okay. I thought it was a one day thing and I ended up teaching through Thursday. By Tuesday night I was wise enough to know that I needed to prepare. We had our ups and downs, the kids and I had to "adjust" to one another but it was an interesting opportunity and I will definately have some memories. By Thursday I knew about half of th 43 students names. That's right, 43 students, one teacher with no preperation! Despite some difficult times, the kids have already stolen my hearts. During break I serve at the soup kitchen and it is great to greet each child and the ones that were in the class are greeting me with smiles on their faces. I feel like God has placed me in the perfect place....

Children of Grootfontein that cannot afford school come to Umulunga Primary School every day for a meal. Many of these children will only eat this meal during the day. Some of these children are as young as one year. Some of the youngest children, one or two years old, walk alone with their bowls to get a hot meal.

(Below) Here are the kids from the school waiting to recieve their meal at morning break. (farther below) The woman who work every day to provide meals for the school and street children.

(below) I apologize for the picture but this is an example of poor abreviation. The sign is indicating assorted comforters and assorted bale sets. I thought it was pretty funny though. (farther below) We are standing in front of a fountain at this little shopping area. Sarah and I were picking up some supplies to take with us before we headed north to our respective towns. This little square was really cute.

(Below) Here we are at YWAP (Youth With A Purpose), I think this is what it means. I went with Sarah to the youth group on Friday night. We played some games, sang some songs, and heard a talk. Pretty standard....These are some of the girls in the group. We had a blast. (farther below) This is a picture of Windhoek. Not exactly what you picture when you think of Africa. It is very modern here due to the heavy European influence and the dominance of the Aparthied. A lot different than I thought it would be. It is really growing on me!

(Below) This is some of the family of our language helpers. The girl to the far right is Gissy, she was Sarah's language helper. Sarah is in orientation with me. Check out her picture farther down. Anyway, we did practice language learning for three days. (farther below) This is a picture of Sarah and I with Sera and Gissy our language helpers. They were really patient as we butchered the language (Oshiwambo). We had a lot of fun though and a lot of laughs!

(Below) These are some older Herero woman. They just looked really cute. They were super nice and we talked with them for a few minutes. (farther below) This is Sarah. She has been in orientation with me for the past couple of weeks. We have been having a great time and she has helped keep me sane. She is also a great bug killer! Praise the Lord for that. Sarah is moving to Rundu, a town two hours north of me, to be a nurse in the state hospital. In this picture she is doing an interperative dance. ;-) Ha ha...

This is me in a coffee shop called "Mug and Bean." It is my version of a frappacino from Starbucks. It caused a lot of drama though. Our waiter came out twice to make sure I wanted this and then the manager came out as well but it was worth it. So tasty!

So, I am in Windhoek , Namibia this week. I have been here for about six days. I will be leaving for Grootfontein, my new home, on Sunday, Feb. 11th. I am getting super excited. This week we have been doing Namibian orientation which included a Namibian history lesson and a tour of Windhoek. There are pictures from the tour below. I also learned about the AIDS/HIV situation here and it is heartbreaking. I had the chance to here a woman 's story that was a reality of life here. I have been to several missionary families for dinner which has been really nice. Today I went for an HIV test. It was a great opportunity to really know what people go through in that situation and is helpful for encouraging people to get tested. I am negative by the way! I was also able to go and visit an after school program today. I read some books and taught the kids some songs. They taught me some hand claping games. Then I took it down and all order was lost. I have never had so many hands in my hair pulling and yanking it this way and that. It was actually quite painful but fun at the same time. It was a great afternoon with the kids. Hope you are enjoying the blog, feel free to leave comments!
I thought this was a great picture because this is a real town!

These are pictures from the shanty town that is on the outskirts of Windhoek. We drove through here and it was really heartbreaking. The top picture is of a typical house. The one below it is a picture of a group of houses. Below is a group of children playing in the dirt in the shade of a tin house. The bottom picture is of a toilet that is shared by a group of houses. There is no indoor plumbing.

No explanation needed! ;-)






















See the baboon?