Practicum Teaching, Etosha, and Tsumeb

I am currently in Tsumeb - a medium size town in the north. I spent the last week in a small village north of here. We did our practicum teaching in a hostel school there. For four days, I taught a group of students for two periods each day. Since learners have a break from school, they had children from the village come in for our classes. It was quite interesting because there was a huge range of ages! Since I am one of the few to be teaching grade 5-7 this year, I got the youngest learners. I had a class of learners that ranged from 2 years old to 8 years old! The oldest student was in grade 2. This was quite a struggle because only a few of them knew English! In Namibia, learners have classes in their native language for the first few years of school and then in grade 3 or 4, all of their classes are conducted in English. It was also a struggle trying to teach this class with toddlers in the group! I spent half the time teaching with a baby on my hip! It was a great experience though. The children are amazing! There were 7 and 8 year olds taking care of their 2 year old siblings. I did not see a single parent the entire time we were there. When asked what they did the night before, most learners said they plowed the fields, cooked dinner, worked outside, or took care of younger siblings. They LOVE to get their pictures taken. Everytime I took out my camera I had 10 or more kids posing and begging me to take their picture. I really want to post pictures on here, but I still haven't found a computer with USB access.

To reward ourselves and take a break, we have a few days off. Yesterday we drove through Etosha National Wildlife Park. It was unbelievable! I saw a ton of zebras, springboks and wildabeests. We also saw a male lion! Apparently it is very rare to see one in Etosha - we were very lucky! He was just chilling in the shade. The most amazing part was seeing an African elephant! It was walking next to our bus and then walked down the road right in front of the bus for a ways. We also saw a giraffe from a distance, wild dik-diks, warthogs, and a handful of African birds. I will definitely be making a trip back to Etosha in the next year! Today, we have the whole day free in Tsumeb, which is a nice town. Since it is Sunday, we struggled finding anything that was open. After a long trek, we found a gas station with one computer! The hostel we are staying in is great. There is a pool and very nice rooms. There are birds all over the hostel, including a beautiful peacock!

We drive back to Windhoek tomorrow (Monday) and spend the rest of the week in the same hostel as before. I am very excited for my language training this week. I will have daily lessons in Oshivambo. Friday we are having a braii (traditional BBQ) with live music to celebrate the end of orientation. On Saturday we all travel to our placements and then I start teaching on Monday (19th). I am very anxious and excited to get to Ogongo, get settled in, and start teaching!