Geography in full colour

I have come to know and really like the junior geography teacher at Himarwa.  His name is Lasco Sachuma.  He has been teaching for only a few years but it was obvious to me that he had a real desire for his learners to succeed and for his already successful teaching practice to progress.  He had risen against all odds as a child – having never met his father and losing his mother in grade 10.  He was then in charge of his two younger siblings with the help of an uncle.  They squeaked out a very difficult and  basic living but all worked VERY hard, and each succeeded in their grade 12 years.  Lasco went on to become a teacher; the next sibling won a scholarship to Cuba, and the youngest is off next year on a full scholarship to Russia.

I asked him what the next unit was that he’d be teaching in his grade 10 class.  Grade 10 is a very important year, because the national exams must be passed in order to continue to grade 11.  He was about to launch into the Regional Geography of Namibia, which included physiographic regions, mountains, rivers, vegetation, tourism and resources.  When I looked at the text book the learners had, I was so disappointed – the STUNNINGLY beautiful country had been reduced to small black and white photos.  It’s no wonder this is the most poorly done unit on the exam.  I suggested we try a different approach – use powerpoint to bring the maps and places to life, and get the learners outside using their hands.  Lasco quietly agreed to this, with his understated enthusiasm.  And things just took off from there.

I started working on the powerpoint – created a base map from google earth, and mapped out the physiographic regions.  Fortunatel,y our family adventures had taken us clear across the country and back so I had lots of good images to pull representative samples from.  I then worked up interactive pages to cover the mountains and rivers.  Namibia has only a few perennial rivers – the rest are ephemeral.  While I was in Rundu for a few days fixing computers, I arrived back to find a fabulous 3-D Namibia outside Lasco’s classroom.  As per our earlier discussions, he had assigned his learners to collect clay from the valley and use the plentiful sand around to model the mountains, rivers and physiographic regions.  The map was about 5m x 4m in size.  All mountains and been labelled with sticks and paper.  It was phenomenal.  What I most appreciated was that he hadn’t waited around for me to help – he just dove in with his learners.  He gave them a surprise quiz the next day and was thrilled with the results.

At about the same time we started creating base maps of Namibia on his classroom walls.  I was the map/projector consultant, Lasco was the content consultant, and Kaia and Jake were the chief painters.  Many other learners would come to watch, then join in.  But they were blown away when they realized how much Kaia and Jake knew about Namibian Geography.  These two clearly had been paying close attention on all our journeys!  The point of the maps was to allow the learners to test their knowledge by pasting laminated labels on to the correct positions (regions, tourism/cities, vegetation, resources and physiographic regions with mountains and rivers).

One day as we worked on this, the regional-level geography advisory teacher happened upon our school and became quite excited about what we were doing.  And that gave birth to a region-wide geography workshop that I was to lead with Lasco’s help.  With only 2 weeks lead time, I clearly had my work cut out in terms of completing the powerpoint.  I would not want to guess how many hours were spent on the approximately 200 slides – full of photos, text and animations.  The tourism section took the longest – it highlighted 28 sites the learners had to know – their significance, location, and appearance.  While at a friend’s in Rundu, I put the very final touches to the presentation at about 3:00 AM the night before the workshop (those who know me will be SO surprised to hear it ended up getting completed like this :) )  The workshop was at a high school in Rundu, and 18 geography teachers from all surrounding areas showed up.  Thankfully for me I’d asked my good friend and computer consultant Alex (a Peace Corps volunteer) to check out the lab to make sure computers would run my programs – he had worked all afternoon and had arrived early in the morning to complete the set-up – literally moments before I wanted to start. Thanks Alex!

We started the workshop by having fun with a geo map quiz game that I showed them.  It’s called “Seterra” and is a free download – check on google – its great fun!  It was clear that most of these teachers had not really had time on computer or reason to explore world, European or even wider African geography before.  I then introduced them to my favourite learning resource here – it’s called Learnthings Africa – and has hundreds of excellent and comprehensive lesson plans in math, physics, chemistry, biology, English and geography.  But it’s best feature is its fantastic colour animations for things like volcanoes, earthquakes, magnetic fields, glaciers etc etc.  So I demoed this and became an instant hero – they were thrilled.  They had never had anything more than a piece of chalk or a black and white text book, and now a possibility for colourful animated explanations.  That of course led to a discussion about computer availability, but many of them as it turns out had this program in their lab but just didn’t know about it.  But that said, some of them worked in the bush with no computers in the school.  Sadly they will have to wait until technology and electricity catches up to them.  I had prepared a sheet that mapped their units in the syllabus to specific sections in Learnthings, because that resource was developed for the UK syllabus (OK, then why is it called Learnthings Africa???).  Lasco then took them through the work he’d done with his 3D modelled Namibia and his wall maps.  They were keen.  And then I “unveiled” my powerpoint resource that met with much enthusiasm – they LOVED looking at pictures of their country, and quickly were calling out that their learners now had no reason to fail that unit, which as you can imagine, made me feel much better about my many late nights preparing it.  I finished the workshop demoing the many geography documentaries that I either brought with me or received from a past volunteer.  Many had never seen a geo documentary so were enthralled to see real life earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis.  I left the library of videos at the Teachers Resource Center in Rundu, and put all the powerpoint, Seterra game and Learnthings on CD to distribute to them.  All of this has transpired in the past 5 weeks, and has been one of the most rewarding activities I’ve done here.  Kaia was especially helpful throughout the powerpoint creation, because she knew the material inside and out and would often correct my content or spelling.  My presentation is now making its way through schools in the Caprivi Strip thanks to another VSO, and will now be given to all new VSOs as they enter the country.  And I can’t go into our computer lab at Himarwa without finding at least one learner working through the slides.  I assumed that only the grade 10 learners would be interested but have found grades 8 to 12 enjoying it.  Upon reflection though, this is understandable – these learners have NEVER seen their country!  For most of them, the big trip is to Rundu 2 hrs away.  Only one of my learners in grades 11 and 12 had ever been to Etosha National Park.

I never felt like I was doing “work” as I created that powerpoint – because it allowed me to reflect on all aspects of Namibian geography – which has completely captured my imagination through the year.  About 90% of the photos were our own – the rest I shamelessly stole from the internet – not much of an example to set for these teachers – but I think they are a few years away from seriously considering intellectual property issues!

The geo map mural initiatve spawned some other similar projects.  The four of us finally finished a Namibian Map mural in our house that had been sketched in pencil by previous volunteers.  Kaia, Jake & Yvonne helped grade 6 social studies teacher Mr Shenyangana create large unlabelled maps of Africa and Namibia to quiz his learners.  They did a similar map and a labelled human body mural for their teacher Mr Handiba.  And I got my grade 11s to create a large periodic table in our classroom.  They said they would create another one in the other science classroom.  Whether they do or not will likely provide a good idea of how “sustainable” our efforts have been.

Lasco tracing out the road network, cities and tourism sites

Namibia’s political regions map mural

Jake being quizzed about Namibian political regions

tracing the tourism sites map mural

Lasco, Kaia & Jake painting the physiographic regions map mural

physiographic regions, mountains and rivers mural

Jake & Kaia in their element (an in Lasco’s geo classroom)

creating the vegetation regions map mural

Lasco with his 3-D Namibia creation

my geography workshop participants

geography teachers using my powerpoint resource at the workshop

powerpoint main page

Kunene River page

vegetation regions main page

Auas mountains page

resources main page

resource of cattle farming

tourism benefits

tourism photo icon ID page

tourism at fish river canyon

Kaia working on Mr Shenyangana’s Africa map

almost finished our Namibian flag mural!

early stages of the periodic table mural

the pre-colour painting periodic table

If you want to be happy, plant a garden!

You might recall an earlier blog I did entitled “Longing for big box Home Depot” where I’d purchased materials for the new garden at Mpungu Primary School.  We had watched over months the agriculture teacher and learners there try to erect little wooden “goat guards” in tiny shaded plots.  Not much grew, and what did was consumed by either a) the chickens that could get in or b) the goats that broke down the sticks or c) the thieves who raided the gardens just before the little bit of harvest was picked.  We pitched a fence project to Kaia and Jake’s school in Canada who then raised an fabulous $1200Cdn in a few short weeks.  Mpungu Primary was thrilled and in early June I purchased the materials and we got to work later that week.

I worked primarily with the grade 7 teacher and agriculture teacher Mr Sambaka.  He is, from all we see, the hardest working teacher at the school who is interested in going the extra mile for his learners.  Before I was able to purchase the fence materials, he had the learners clear out the trees that were shading the area.  We didn’t like to see the shade go, but it was not actually doing any useful shading.  Administrators in Canada would have winced to see how the trees came down.  Imagine grade 5 boys, high up in the branches, swinging a big axe … in bare feet !!!  Within a week the 15 trees were gone, and over the next month the roots were dug out.  I found out later that these roots were dug by boys serving punishments for coming late to or “dodging” classes (but how do teachers know who dodged if they weren’t in class themselves?)

We surveyed the 75m fence line then the learners started digging the holes 80 cm deep for the fence posts.  The gate went in, and one by one the other 7 larger steel posts, each set in concrete.  The learners came to be experts in finding the sand and gravel and mixing in correct proportions with water.  They were amazing to work with – anxious to help however they could, not complaining about the difficult digging jobs, and happy to learn.  The 15 smaller posts were the dug and poured, the school gate’s posts dug out and new ones put in and gate re-hung.  Sambaka and Mr Haindongo then strung the strong wire along the fence (4 rows of it) in my absence to prepare for the final and most rewarding step – hanging the actual fence.  We had a large team working and within two afternoons had 90% of it done.  We had some fence left over to replace some falling apart sections along the fence line our house shared with the school.

This was all very rewarding to watch/help come together.  But even more rewarding was watching the learners flood into the now-fenced garden in droves over the next two weeks, busily levelling the ground, outlining their group’s plot with rocks, digging/tilling the ground, adding manure and water, then planting.  I have never seen so much activity at that school!  What was most telling for me was to see them working after school was out — tinkering with their plots, and watering etc.  They REALLY cared about this.  And just days before we left we saw the 1^st little seedlings coming up!  I think this enthusiasm is a manifestation of the immense need for hands-on learning in these parts.  Learners struggle to understand the English, let alone concepts they sit through in class.  Nothing seems real to them, so interest understandably wanes.  This project was the practical half of their agriculture class.  I suspect Mr Sambaka will notice a renewed interest in the classroom.

A month earlier I had asked my friend Fanuel what community members made of the white family in town.  The school compound is set  a bit apart from the actual village, and we did not actually get to know too many community members.  He told us that they didn’t know what to make of us, because they didn’t really know why we were there or what we were doing (clearly they didn’t talk much to the other teachers either!).  But after the fence was finished, he came over to tell us that we were now the heroes in town, because the community was so impressed with the new fence/garden and happy to see their children farming. They were also eagerly anticipating the harvest because most do not have easy enough access to water to have their own gardens, and what little produce is brought to town for sale is over-priced and not always fresh.  This garden is very large, and with the plentiful and easily available manure around Mpungu, I have no doubt that there will be much to harvest!

So, Ecole Catholique Monseigneur Jamot in Peterborough, Ontario should be very proud of their fund-raising efforts.  The expression “even a little bit can make a difference” is perhaps a bit over-used.  But they really DID make a difference in this case.

For me, it gave me a chance to work closely with 2 of the male Mpungu Primary teachers, and we got to be quite good friends through this project, and they ended up helping with tools for my solar projects (see previous blog entry).

On the Wednesday before we departed, we did the official opening of the garden.  I climbed onto our roof while all the teachers and learners and superintendent assembled in the garden for a photo (see below).  We did a ribbon-cutting (OK, no red ribbons for sale in Mpungu … so how bout a little piece of nylon rope?), a few speeches and lots of clapping.  We mounted a little laminated paper plaque on the gate to remind everyone where the money for the fence came from.  We are really looking forward to receiving photos of the blossoming garden from our VSO replacement Luisa who will arrive in late October.

a truck full-o-fence

of course, safety comes 1st! (I can count 5 toes)

serving detention with a smile – digging out tree root

pouring concrete around small fence post

yup, it’s straight

Mr Sambaka & learner mixing concrete

Mr Sambaka leveling the post

gate without a fence!

younger boys helping Cam remove old concrete footing

Principal Kalipa helps Cam re-install main school gate post

Mr Sambaka fastening fence to wires

fence goes into ground 20cm

garden plot prep

loosening the soil

nothin’ like a good dose of manure!

mixing in the manure with water

all Mpungu Primary learners & teachers with their new garden

Haininga, Kaia, Joseph, Jake & Sikongo in front of garden gate

this laminated plaque is now mounted on the garden gate

Solar-powered enthusiasm

[we arrived in Toronto yesterday PM after a long trip back and are at my brother Craig's in Bracebridge right now.  We squished all and everything into mom's small car. We make our way to our cottage in a moment, then back to Peterborough on Sunday.  We will be completing the blog over the next # of days.  The last # of weeks in Mpugu were such a blur that we did not have a chance to write about what was happening - and lots did!.  Cam]

Our house in Mpungu does not have hot water.  The thermostat has been broken for years, so we’d have to turn on then remember to turn off the heater before it boiled over.  Then about 6 weeks ago the element burned out so we’ve been doing bucket baths with the kettle since then (’cause it is actually cool in the mornings!).

In early June I purchased materials to build a solar oven and a solar hot water heater with my two physics classes.  I told them in class about the projects, and invited them to join with me in building.  I’d hoped that I’d have at least a half-dozen to help.  The next day (Saturday) I got the materials out at the school and some hand tools and invited the group.  Fist I had 3, then 6, then 10.  By an hour later I had about 20 of them eagerly helping!  The last time I used a hand saw to cut plywood was when I was small, with my dad.  All I had at my disposal was an old dull handsaw, and many metres of very thick plywood to cut through.  NO PROBLEM!  They jostled for position to get to use the hand-saw.  They practically lined up to take turns with the screw driver.  It then dawned on me that none of these boys (only boys at this point) had ever held a tool before!  So, imagine the excitement when I pulled out the electric drill.  And better yet, when I showed them the butane torch we would use to do the soldering.  They cut and sanded about 30 little pieces of copper pipe for the solar hot water heater, then I told them it was time to solder.  Each got to hold the torch for about 30 seconds, and each got to touch the solder to the pipe and watch it melt.  I stood back for a moment and almost cried, watching their enthusiasm and sadly what it represented – a lack of access to real hands-on projects.  By the end, though, I think their favourite tool was the angle grinder – mostly because it made lots of noise and produced even more sparks.

One afternoon while we worked I pulled out the boom box so we’d have some music.  This was a big hit, to say the least – our workforce went from about 15 to about 30 in a matter of minutes.  I have a very vivid memory of them dancing to Bob Marley – as they painted and sawed!

The projects slowly came together over the next 6 weeks.  Sometimes I would be too busy to work on weekends.  Sometimes I would be short a small part or tool – and the nearest store 2 hours away, so would have to wait for another teacher to pick up for me.

Perhaps the greatest satisfaction came one day about 3 weeks into the projects.  I was working at the house on both projects with 6 or 8 boys, when one of my female students showed up.  No girls had helped yet, despite my continuous invitations.  I actually thought she had come to ask me about something else … then realized she wanted to help!  Then another came.  And another.  And soon I had all 8 girls from my grade 11 class there.  They dove in with the hand tools.  When I invited them to use the power tools they were reticent, and the boys suggested it wouldn’t be a good idea. But I shoved the tools into their hands, and the smiles lit up and away they went.  I treasure the photos below of them with the soldering torch and the power grinder.  They were quite proud I think, and really took an interest in the projects from that point forth.

We finished the solar oven about 3 weeks ago but only 5 minutes before the final wire connector was put in place something came loose and a wing on the oven fell onto the glass plate and cracked it!  You can imagine some of my choice words. I did not want to leave the school with a cracked solar oven so bought a new piece in town last week and it is now complete.  We cooked solar bread and solar peanut butter cookies to celebrate, and have since generated quite a bit of interest from passers by, because the oven is actually quite large and shiny (see below).  This was actually one of my goals – to get people looking at and talking about low-tech solar projects.  This particular oven would be perfect for a village to share.  The oven works beautifully, though does not reach the same temp as conventional ovens, so takes twice as long at least to cook.  But we would put our dinner in at 11:00 AM and forget about it, then pull it out at 5:00 and it would be ready to eat.

The final delay came from a lack of welding-ability.  The one guy who welds in town was never around.  A Mpungu Primary teacher — Mr Haindongo (who I’d worked closely with on the fence project) had just bought an arc-welding machine, but we couldn’t get it to work.  So I ended up begging a welder who lived 55km away in Nkurenkuru to come and help us out.  He arrived only on the Monday before we left so it was down to the wire.  We mounted the collector about 1.5m up, behind our house, facing NORTH into the sun.   I unpackaged the 4ftx4ft piece of glass and was pleased to find it had survived the 180km trip (much on bumpy gravel) 6 weeks earlier.   I connected the black plastic pipe so it would feed the hot water tank (which would now act only as a hot water storage tank).  I told the learners to come by in the morning to see it come to life with the water coming on (there is almost never water in the afternoons).  Unfortunately I was up till 4:00 AM that night working on the computer lab, so I was not thrilled that about 12 of them took my offer seriously and were knocking on our door at 6:45 AM!  I struggled out of bed, opened the tap and  …. found a myriad of leaks in the black pastic connections. DRAT!  These should be the easiest connections.  I told them I’d figure out something, which ended up being to use silicone in the seals.  Next morning (now 2 days before departure) I again turned on the water and … found 4 leaks in our copper joins and leaks still in the black plastic joins.  I had WAY too much to do in my final 2 days to solve these leaks, and was immensely frustrated and disappointed.  Those of you who know me understand that I am a stubborn problem solver and I’d never had to face defeat like this before.  I was especially disappointed for the learners who had poured their hearts into these projects and were so anticipating the results.  I did fill up the system though and let it work for the day.  By days’ end … the storage tank was full of warm/hot water, so at least we know that the design of the collector worked.  The learners were actually very good about accepting the status of our heater.  And I have some small hope that the guy who helped me weld will come back to help fix the leaks. We got to be friends over the day and I’ve spoken to him several times since.  My co-physics teacher will contact him.

This project was further evidence that these learners CRAVE hands-on learning.  And learning it was, because they were perfect examples of heat transfer – solar radiation, conduction of the metal plate into the copper pipes, and convection (the hot water rises out of the collector into the tank, while cold water in the tank falls into the collector – a beautiful loop with no “pump”).  The solar oven was  a good demonstration of the greenhouse effect.  All of these topics we covered in depth in class as part of our syllabus.

I would publicly like to thank the students and staff at Peterborough Collegiate (my school) for raising $500Cdn to purchase the supplies for the oven and collector.  And also my friend Sean Flanagan, for providing the design for the hot water heater and helping me adapt the design to my Mpungu setting.  Sean is in the renewable energy business in the Peterborough area (flanaganandsun.com) and can be contacted if you are interested in building your own collector.

It is going to be hard to get excited about solar energy upon return to Canada – Namibia is a solar geek’s dream.  But I know Canadian students are as keen as Namibians to get involved in this sort of thing, so I have something to come back to!

Litwayi cutting copper pipe to length

Johannes putting final coat on steel “collector” sheet

dancing painters – Bob Marley became a bit of a distraction at this point

Mpengo sanding copper pipe (he never stops smiling!)

the copper pipe assembly is finished

soldering the copper pipe

Ms Homateni with her turn on the solering torch

fastening the copper pipe assembly to the steel collector plate

cutting out the “wings” of the solar oven

final coat of paint on hot water heater

attaching solar oven wings (reflectors)

Walter cutting the legs for the hot water heater stand

Ludviga and Esther soldering the “T” into the house plumbing system

the girls loved the torch too!

Maria making sparks fly

Steven & Marting reattaching wings after fastening replacement glass

final assembly of oven

celebrating the completion of oven

our completed oven baking bread

Veyo welding the legs of the hot water heater stand

the collector finally in place. Mr Haindongo on left, Veyo on right

Mpepo fastening the plastic hose to the storage tank

carefully putting glass into place

Ms Homateni & son Paul upon comletion (we’re smilling because we don’t know of the leaks!)

Reflections on Leaving

Nine days until we leave Himarwa Iithete and Mpungu – the school and community that have been our home for the past year.  We truly have felt “at home” here, and it has been a fabulous year.  In the last few months, we’ve found our stride and can really appreciate why VSO recommends 2-year placements.  However, that probably wouldn’t have been the best thing for Kaia and Jake, and it seems like a long time to be away. 

There is excitement about going home to Peterborough, seeing family and friends, and getting involved again in our regular fall activities.  I’m actually feeling like it will be easier to go back to work this September, having not had a long summer holiday!  I like the Namibian system of the holidays being spread out throughout the year:  a month at Christmas, a month in May, and 2 weeks in August.  There are other things I’ll miss about Namibia, as well as some that I won’t!

• I won’t miss the intense and relentless heat of September and October when it was almost impossible to sleep … but I will miss baking bread in the solar oven.
• I won’t miss the water being shut off every day at about 2pm and not having running water until 6am the next morning … but I will miss living in a community of people who know and respect the value of clean water.
• I won’t miss the sand that is everywhere – in my shoes, in my kitchen, in my bed … but I will miss having a very small house to keep clean.
• I won’t miss the long dusty drives to Rundu and grocery shopping for 3-4 weeks at a time … but I will miss the local mahangu (millet), veggies from our garden, and being able to sit down with my family for 3 meals a day.
• I won’t miss doing dishes and laundry (especially towels and bedsheets!) by hand … but I will miss my great year-round solar dryer (a.k.a. clothesline) and visits from Johanna, a young woman who often helped with the laundry, always working with her baby on her back.  She can get clothes cleaner than any machine I’ve ever used!
• I won’t miss the twice weekly staff briefings at 6:30am … but I will miss being finished teaching classes by 12:50.
• I won’t miss the timidity of learners to speak up in class … but I will miss their discipline and genuine respect for teachers.
• I won’t miss the never-ending demands on teachers’ time (for extra classes, long meetings) …but I will miss living only 200m from work and being right next door to Kaia and Jake’s school.
• I won’t miss working in a system that doesn’t include supply teachers, where learners as young as grade 1 are regularly left unsupervised for many hours … but I will miss the slower pace and lower stress of teaching here.
• I won’t miss the general lack of initiative … but I will miss the excitement of feeling like I can make a difference by following through on even a simple idea.
• I won’t miss having to take malaria pills, and I won’t miss the cockroaches in the kitchen (no redeeming qualities there!)
• I won’t miss trying to teach in classrooms that have too few basic resources (like chairs, desks, chalk, chalkboard erasers, doorknobs, and lightbulbs) … but I will miss teaching English with my best teaching aids ever:  Kaia and Jake!  (When I asked one teacher what her class thought of my first lesson, she said they told her, “We like those small ones.”  It was hard for me to compete!)
• I will miss the amazing night skies and having access to a world class game park like Etosha. 

Speaking of which, we are off for a last weekend of game-viewing (our 4^th visit to Etosha) later today.  This time, we are taking 2 grade 12 learners who have lived here all their lives and never been to the park; never seen an elephant or a lion.  Kaia and Jake are really hoping to see a rhinoceros this time to complete their “big 5” (elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhino).

sorry, no time for photos this time.

Yvonne.

Hockey night in Mpungu

The hockey sticks we brought over as a piece of luggage stayed under the bed for many months.  But when the weather got cooler, we took them out and introduced a new sport to the boys of Mpungu.  They love it and never seem to get tired of it!  An empty classroom at our school has become the floor hockey arena (“S-goat-ia Bank Place”).  We play 2 on 2 or 3 on 3, and they are high-scoring games – one got up to 64-62!  Sometimes we play with the long sticks, and sometimes with the mini-sticks.  Sometimes we play outside and the goals are the gates at our house and the one across the road at the circuit office.  It’s a bit dusty, but there’s not much traffic!  A few sticks have gotten broken, but we are having a good time!  (As long as everyone keeps their stick on the sand.)  

Jake.

empty classroom is perfect ‘rink’

sandy floor slippery as ice

fast-paced action

road is dusty, but traffic is light

hockey night in Mpungu

English workshop? More like a “play”-shop!

The idea had been brewing for quite some time:  Get primary teachers together and talk about ways to teach English as a second language…  From what I have seen in Kaia and Jake’s class, and other primary schools in the area, and judging by the level of English proficiency of the children who come to our door (as well as that of the grade 8 learners at the secondary school); there is a problem.  Or shall I say; a very big challenge!

Timing was good;

• we have a new circuit inspector (superintendent) who is keen to address challenges,
• there was a fund specifically earmarked for professional development that needed to be spent by August, and
• I was at a point where I really felt I had something to offer in terms of ideas for ESL, since I had been applying them in classrooms for several months. 

So I submitted a proposal for a workshop at the end of June, and, as policy dictates, got 3 quotes from caterers to provide food for the participants.  This is a huge expense, partly because the closest registered caterers are located in Rundu, 180km away!  However, the women I spoke to were eager to get their quotes in since these government contracts are very lucrative and it would be well worth the drive.  A week goes by and I start advertising the workshop to any primary teachers I meet.  Another week goes by and I learn that yes, the submission was approved.  I start handing out flyers and post an invitation at the circuit office for all principals to see. The secretary puts an announcement on the radio inviting all grade 3, 4, and 5 teachers to this 2-day workshop.  Another week goes by and I still don’t know who was chosen as the caterer, so I start trying to track down some information, only to discover that the quotations had been sent down to Windhoek, and no selection had been made!!  Apparently, they always choose the lowest bid, so I don’t know how that can take so long (or why it needs to be done 1000km away!)  Luckily, our new inspector is into creative problem-solving, but by the time I was having this conversation with him, it was 2 days before the workshop was to begin.  Cam was in Rundu (on a marathon computer-maintenance mission), so I figured he could bring back some food and we’d figure it out from there.  The inspector said he’d look into reimbursement.  Unfortunately, the cell phone network was out of order for about 6 hours the following day, so I couldn’t contact Cam until the afternoon!  (Landline phones have been out for several weeks, now, after being knocked down by a truck!)  For the first time, I was really feeling that Mpungu was remote, isolated, and cut off from the rest of the world.  In the end, food was bought, a local woman was hired (she owns some large pots and a variety of plates and utensils), and we were definitely going ahead with the workshop!

Several participants arrived on Wednesday evening and I had arranged for them to stay at the Himarwa Iithete hostel.  An extra obstacle was that a recently-changed door handle on one of the girls’ dormitory blocks was locked and could not be opened.  Effectively, the girls were locked in, and the female teachers who had come for the workshop were locked out!  But luckily, Cam had bought a new drill and drill-bits on our last trip to Rundu, so I was able to offer that.  The door handle was removed, and the teachers could go in (one had come with her 7-month-old baby and a baby-sitter to look after him during the day).

Cam arrived home at 10:30pm with a truckload of fixed computers and many bags of food.

Twenty-one teachers came to the workshop on Thursday morning.  Some were first-year teachers from little bush schools with no electricity, and others were acting principals.  Some have 17 learners in their class; others, 48.  Day one was focused on using the “gesture approach” and stories/drama to teach a second language.  It’s a program that I have used in Canada to teach French, and have adapted and tested it intensively in 2 classrooms here.  After introductions, I started speaking to the group in French, asking questions and acting irritated when they couldn’t respond.  I wanted them to experience how their students feel when faced with English — a language they don’t understand!  I then started speaking French with gestures, and immediately the group responded, saying “Bonjour” and “Ca va bien.” 

That morning, I also introduced the idea of setting up literacy centers in the classroom, and the teachers cycled through 12 different ones (4 minutes each – they were speed centers this time!)  A highlight for me was the presentation by Kaia and Jake’s classmates who did their play of “The 3 Little Pigs”.  I was so proud of those kids!  They spoke their lines clearly and with confidence.  One girl even switched roles at the last minute from a 1^st little pig to a 3^rd little pig because someone else was absent!  If that doesn’t show comprehension of the story, I don’t know what does.

We played games – bingo, Simon says, the chair game (one of my personal favourites – an adaptation of musical chairs in which nobody gets “out”, but if you are left without a chair, you have to say the next sentence in English), and another one that I call the “ladder game” (see photo of teachers lined up London-Bridge style).  We also did some ‘crafts’ – making mini-books out of a single piece of paper.  One of the big challenges here is lack of reading materials, so my suggestion was to make some simple books that kids can illustrate and then read over and over.

I found that Namibian teachers are very similar to Namibian learners (shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, I guess):  they are quiet and well-behaved, but they don’t ask questions or offer ideas.  It was virtually impossible to get a discussion going.  Lunch and dinner were simple, but good, and after dinner, Cam invited them all up to the computer lab where he screened “Over Canada”, a film that shows highlights of Canadian geography and historical monuments shot from a helicopter.  The next morning when I asked how everyone had slept, one man said, “We dreamed of Canada all night.” 

On Friday, we reviewed the songs I had taught the previous day, played a couple more language-based games, and then headed over to the computer lab where I naïvely thought we’d make a bunch of teaching aids to be printed out and used in the classroom.  I asked if this was anyone’s very first time on the computer, and was a bit surprised when I saw 7 hands go up.  Was I ever glad to have my computer assistants: Kaia, Jake, Cam, and our friend, Fanuel!  It is quite a privilege and a thrill to be the one to show someone how to use a computer for the first time (especially someone who lives in a grass hut with no electricity or running water and who walks 20km each month to pick up his pay cheque).  We spent about 2.5 hours in the lab (don’t worry – I gave them a tea break!) and I was impressed with their progress.  Everyone managed to print something out by the end, and several wrote on their feedback forms that they need and would like more computer training.  I really wanted to get the feedback sheets in, so I had announced that as soon as I received it, they would get a ticket for a lottery in which I’d be giving away many of my books and teaching materials.  It worked!  I got all the feedback sheets and everyone walked away with something new for their classroom.  I was actually very surprised at the order in which things were chosen.  I thought for sure that the books were the best prizes and that they’d be snatched up right away.  So, I was reminded once again that my assumptions are usually wrong – the first people to have their names drawn came to the prize table and chose things like rubber stamps, stickers, and puzzle books!  The easy readers were left to the end.  There really is not a culture of reading here.  But story-telling works.  That’s why I think this gesture approach using stories and drama can be successful in Kavango classes. 

It was a rewarding 2 days for me, and my only regret is that I won’t be around to support these teachers if they choose to implement some of the new ideas.  I’ll get out to a few schools over the next 3 weeks, but that’s it – we are beginning our “race to the finish”.  Yes, I do believe we will be racing until our departure!

thumbs up means “good”

sharing ideas

using flashcards to build vocab

putting heads together to build sentences

grade 4 pupils presented play

teachers playing the “ladder game”

Kaia helping in computer lab

Here’s the key…

first winner in “literacy lottery”

and the next winner is…

Kaia and Jake’s 2 lists

What follows is a list that Kaia and Jake made of some of their highlights and lowlights of life in Mpungu.

Good things

• Seeing the garden fence getting built at our school
• Helping mom teach English to our class
• Making props for our “3 little pigs” play
• Visiting other schools in the area
• Going to the “Check-in” for a bag of chips
• Watching Harry Potter movies after reading the books
• Not going to Rundu for a long time (avoiding the long, dusty drive)
• The cooler weather now
• Making brownies from scratch
• Playing games with some of the kids who come to our door
• Watching movies with friends (projected on our wall)
• Hearing the world cup results
• Doing MadLibs

Bad things

• The sand getting everywhere (in our shoes, in the house, in the bed…)
• It is so loud when the teacher is not in the classroom (which happens about every second day)
• Having to run errands for mom and dad (like running to the store to get more phone credit!)
• Not being able to communicate with the kids our age
• Having to go to school when everyone in Canada is on summer holidays!

piggy and hyena masks

Jake just had to know what happened next

a gatepost being installed

checking the level

the boys are keen to help

new post for an old gate

Longing for Big Box Home Depot

I knew it was going to be a challenging trip to the hardware store, but never dreamed it would take more than 24 hours!  A few weeks back I took the kids to Ngepi camp 2 hrs east of Rundu for an environmentally-themed conference weekend with other VSO volunteers, and timed it so we’d be in Rundu on a Monday to hit the stores.  I had planned to build a solar hot water heater from scratch with my grade 11 and 12 physics students (our house doesn’t really have hot water, and it’s actually quite cool in the mornings now so showers more of a challenge).  And I wanted to build a high-end solar oven.  And we were about to begin a 90m garden fence building project at Kaia and Jake’s school (funded by their school back in Peterborough, Canada).  And I was doing a preliminary plan/estimate for a pumped water system for Tuguva Combined school that now fetches water from Kavango River 800m away.  I had spent literally hours putting my materials and tool list together for the 4 projects, as we live more than 2 hrs from store and would not be back for 3 weeks at least.  A far cry from the 1km it is from our house in Peterborough to Home Depot!

 “Handy” do-it-yourself” type folks will appreciate the challenges I faced:

• Had to drive across town to all 3 building supply places to figure out the cheapest, and decided on “Build It”
• The carbon brushes on my electric drill motor had broken weeks earlier when I took it apart to show my learners in class.  Special trip to the one  “parts” store.  Closed for lunch.  Came back, find about 20 people pushing around the long counter – no sign of a que.  But I persevered and have a working drill again
• trying to re-work all my plans into the metric system after arriving at the store.  No 2x4s, or 4’x8’ plywood, or ½ inch x 6’ copper pipe.  So had to recalc everything to metric  in my head
• it was hard to find help.  I would hunt around all aisles in the store to find someone to help me.  Then they would start wandering around other parts of the store to find someone who COULD help
• similar plumbing parts were in 3 different corners of the store, and I needed lots of small parts
• I needed special metal paint and primer.  Paint guy didn’t speak much Engish – I had about 9 different cans in and out of my basket over the 15 minute deliberation
• There was only one thickness of plywood and it was thicker/more expensive than I wanted.  And they do not cut for you.  How would I get this huge thing it into the truck?
• You have to wait in a slow moving line to talk to the clerk to find out how much it costs for stuff outside in the yard (all my fencing/poles/gate/wire/cement etc).  But he doesn’t really know what I want, so he sends me out in the yard to write down product codes.  I wait in line again, and then he makes me a price list.  I take the list outside and ask the yard boys to start pulling my large order.  They tell me I have to go back inside and pay for it in full before they will assemble it.  So I get back into the long line again.  This guy rings me through, and when I hand him my Visa card, he directs me another counter/line where I can wait to have my card processed. The card system is on a very slow dial-up service, so it takes literally 5 minutes plus to do transaction.  Then I go back to the clerk to have him print out my receipt to take to the yard boys
• On Monday I trailed the kids around for hours – in and out of stores, and wandering the aisles.  After 4 hrs of shopping I realized we needed to overnight in Rundu, so next morning I left them alone at a friends place with a video and told them I’d be back in a few hours.   4 hrs later I’m getting anxious to so return to the house to check on them and have some lunch.  I was rather desperate cause I hadn’t had time to go to the one coffee shop in town (I come apart without coffee), so put the kettle on and found some instant coffee in cupboard.  Phew.  Had to rush to have lunch with kids and get back to finish shopping, pack everything in/on and get home before dark.  Poured the water in, and then  realized it was actually filter coffee instead – I needed a bodum. No bodum or perker.  OK, add some milk and drink it anyway.  Damn – the milk was sour. 
• Bid the kids farewell again and rushed to the window glass store – I’d been there already that day to place my order, but the cutting was out.  Placed my order for a 4’x4’ (OK … 1.2m x 1.2m) pane for the solar heater and smaller one for the solar oven, then back to hardware store.  They told me they didn’t have any cement (for fence posts) so would need my card back to refund the money.  I couldn’t face doing another 5 minute transaction and  I couldn’t build fence without cement so told them to look again.  I found some myself in their storage yard, but couldn’t find anyone to carry it for me
• They couldn’t find a cutting disk for their grinder to cut my sheet metal – I had no way of cutting in back in Mpungu. Eventually someone found one and cut it
• Store didn’t have some crucial plumbing parts – so had to redesign, and put a bunch of parts back and start over
• Store didn’t have any real lumber – so had to instead redesign the sides of collector and oven using the plywood – good thing I’m a math teacher
• They were out of some tools I needed, and others needed an explanation – they don’t sell propane for soldering – instead an expensive torch that fits onto a canister of butane.
• Rush back to glass store (3^rd trip now) to pay and load this huge sheet onto the roof of truck, then back to Build It
• As we start loading stuff into the truck they tell me they don’t have the little “dropper” posts for the fence – I would have to buy them somewhere else.  I would need a refund.    Back to the clerk, then back to the Visa counter to await that lovely dialing sound …
• It was a geometry puzzle getting 3 huge fencing roles in back along with 4 50kg bags of concrete, 15 fence posts, barbed wire, copper pipe etc.  And glass, plywood, sheet metal  and large gate for fence on roof in a way that glass would not break on bumpy ride back to Mpungu
• I am now a mere 15 minutes from finishing loading and they tell me they don’t have the lengths of large diameter copper pipe I needed and had paid for.  Instead I would have to get a refund for that size and then buy the larger length that they did have.  In addition to another 20 minutes at various cashiers, this would mean lots of wasted expensive pipe.  I had already spent over $1000 Cdn at the store,  and was really running out of good humour (I started shopping at 7:30 AM and it was now 3:00PM, plus I’d spent 5 hrs the day before).  I told them to just put the longer pieces in my car and let me get the heck out of there.  That wouldn’t be possible they tell me.  I asked for a manager.  He said no.  I insisted on seeing the owner.  The white Namibian owner took pains to explain how he couldn’t possibly give me the other pieces because his stock would not match the records.  I gave him quite a loud and condensed version of a “Customer Relations 101” course (“where would you like me to spend my next $1000?”) in front of many surprised customers.   I think he read the look on my face and started to back down and went to look at the pipe shelf himself.  When we arrived, the security guard who had been watching all this had already dug around and found an unopened package of exactly the length of pipe  I needed.
• 28 hours after beginning my hardware shopping, I finished tying things on the roof and finally drove out of that parking lot – ran into coffee shop for some caffeine to get me home, drove to the other hardware store to buy the missing fence post “droppers”, back to house, packed up, kids in car (I pretty much had to stuff them in  – front seat and half of back seat was full of our camping and other shopping)  then headed west into the falling sun.  Drat – a 10 km detour through a dusty suburb of Rundu.  My load was literally hanging out of the back of the truck (see photo below) and it was jiggling loose in the VERY bumpy gravel so drove at 30km/hr, stopping every 5 minutes to check and push back in. I had bought 3m long steel angle iron pieces that meant I had to open the cab window into the back section, so the dust was rather pouring into the cab.
• Last 50 km of trip again on bumpy gravel, so had to slow right down and regularly stop to push load back in.  Extremely dusty, and now dark.  Thick dust just hangs in air in cool night air, and there are cattle and donkey loose on this road, so a very tense ride back.  Never has it felt better to get home to Mpungu – a 2 hr drive had turned into 3.5.

Having said all this… I was able to gain some perspective on my “long” day as I got out of Rundu and drove past many many women with huge loads on their heads, babies on their backs, walking god-knows-how-far in bare feet , and past many others who where trying to flag me down for a ride in the dying light.  I didn’t have room for their chickens, let alone them.  But you have to wonder how long they wait into the dark before giving up.  And I didn’t bother sharing my challenging shopping experience with anyone back in Mpungu.  I think they’d be pretty happy to find themselves in a position of spending $1000.

I’ll write later on the progress of the projects, but I will happily report now they are going much better than the shopping trip did.  I realize just now as I type that I have not taken the cardboard off the pane of glass to see if it made it back in one piece!

Finally, thanks to Monseigneur Jamot Elementary School for the funds for the fence materials, and to my Peterborough Collegiate for the funds for the materials for the 2 solar energy projects.

early morning mist over the Kavango River at our Ngepi campsite

VSOers viewing the campground creator’s environmental “ablution” art

Kaia, Jake and Scottish Cameron plunging into river pool

our VSO conference group assembled under giant baobab tree in Mahango Park

the fruits of my shopping trip from hell. Will glass on roof make it?

Now I just have to stuff in the kids

some dusty riders arrived home. how can they possibly look so fresh and happy?

Makgadikgadi, Tsodilo Hills, Ngepi & home

After our time in the Okavango Delta, we had about 4 days left before having to return to work, so we squeezed a trip Makgadikgadi Pans National Park southeast of Maun.   We didn’t have enough time to get all the way to the pans where we would have apparently seen thousands of flamingos enjoying the water in the pans before it disappears.  But we did find a lovely campsite on top of a bluff overlooking the one river that actually drains from the delta.  En-route we encountered several huge elephants returning from their river baths, and some large herds of zebra at river’s edge.  Near the campground was a stash of various skulls and antlers that were becoming  covered with fungus from sitting out.  We are now the proud (and perhaps not so legal?) owners of two magnificent kudu horns – I need to find out if Canadian Customs will let me bring them back home.

When I took the kids to get fire wood, Yvonne was doing the laundry out of view from our campsite.  In our absence a troupe of Vervet monkeys descended into our campsite and started looking for their dinner.  Fortunately the other group in the campground saw this unfolding and rescued our food stash – minus a loaf of bread and a bag of apples.    We shared our campfire and thousands of stars that night with this German couple next site.  (Kaia is reminding me now that we saw some male kudu with HUGE horns and other vervet monkeys who had brilliant blue testicles).

From Makgadikgadi we returned north and followed the Okavango Delta “panhandle” north towards the Namibian border.  We were delayed by Yvonne getting a speeding ticket (going 75 in a 60 zone), and getting a flat tire just before dark!  So we had to set up camp and cook in the pitch black on the side of a gravel road – not one of our more inspired places, but the price was right.  And seeing as Yvonne had paid 200pula for the speeding fine (which was actually only half of what the officer initially asked for, but she luckily didn’t have much cash in her wallet!)  From there we drove the 40km of gravel to our final destination of the trip – Tsodilo Hills. 

This a remarkable place for 2 reasons.  First, these hills rise dramatically more than 400m above the perfectly flat plains of NW Botswana.  Secondly, these hills contain more rock paintings than any other place in southern Africa and have very deep spiritual significance for the San people.  There are 4 hills, named according to the San (“bushmen”) folklore – the  male, female, child and grandchild hills.  The had a fabulous little interpretation center set up that helped understand the significance of this site.  More than 4000 paintings have been found, and some date back 3000 years.  The San are believed to have inhabited the area for at least 30,000 years.  There are presumably older paintings that had faded/washed away.   The San believe that this is the origin of life on earth, and various rock formations/impressions represent where the 1^st man, woman and other animals were dropped to earth by the creator.   Humbukushu people settled in the area 300 years ago and also hold this area in deep reverence.  We hired a Humbukushu  guide (“KT”) whose grandfather is considered to be the foremost local expert in knowing the locations and significance of the paintings spread through this expansive area.  The 1^st afternoon he toured us through part of the female hill on the 2 hr “Rhino” trail, named for its fantastic Rhino paintings (see photo below).  The paintings were inspired, and his explanations of them and the natural surroundings excellent.  We arrived at the top of the hill at the same time as 2 other local young women.  KT explained to us that the top of the hill was the only place you could get a cell-phone signal, so the woman had hiked up the 300+ metre vertical to send an SMS!  KT excused himself for a few minutes to do the same.  Wow … talk about 2 different worlds coming together!  KT pointed out fresh leopard tracks and a puff adder snake track.   Many times along the way he talked of the lethal snakes that he often spots on these walks. We camped that evening next to the entrance to a large cavern that served as traditional living site for the San for millennia.   I was a bit ill at ease fetching firewood in the bush after KT’s focus on poisonous snakes!

I drove out to pick up KT at his village next morning at 6:30 and the two of us climbed the very rough 400 vertical meters to the top of the “male” hill, which it turns out is the highest point in Botswana.  The early morning view was fantastic, and it felt good to finally get some strenuous exercise – too much of this trip had been spent sitting in a car or just walking around.   We picked up the rest of the family and spent the rest of the morning on the 2 hr “cliff” trail of the female hill, again with KT as  guide.  There is a permanent pool of water part way up the cliff that has very sacred meaning to both San and Humbukushu.  KT asked us to wait while he went and prayed at water’s edge for safe passage through the hills.  We had earlier read accounts of white explorers who had ignored the San’s insistence of not hunting near the hills (these animals were sacred).  Their trips turned out to be one misfortune after another.  As soon as they left the hills, all returned to normal.  We saw even more paintings on the ramparts of this trail, but realized that we had barely scratched the surface.  The vast majority of paintings are (fortunately) out of reach of most tourists.  After we got back to the car we asked KT to introduce us to his grandfather – he was quite happy to do this. But when we got to the village and KT summoned him, a very old, hunched over blind man appeared.  When KT translated that we wanted to meet the man who had taught our fantastic guide so well, a huge smile appeared on his face.  KT is working towards getting a job in tourism in Namibia … Tsodilo Hills seems close to loosing its elder interpreter and its best young guide.

The drive north along the panhandle through the Namibia/Botswana border from Tsodilo was uneventful – which was a welcome change from previous border crossings.  We were disappointed to find the road through Mahango Park closed (our 1^st Namibian Game Park in October), but it felt good to arrive once again at Ngepi Camp.  This is Kaia’s favourite spot in all Namibia, and it is where Yvonne’s mom Betty spent her first days in Namibia.  We spent a very peaceful last night beside our campfire, only meters from the Okavango River, listening to loud hippo grunts once again.  I took advantage of the bathtub perched over the river – the “room” has only 3 walls, while the kids ran around the campground to see again the fantastically-creative and diverse washroom facilities.  A yummy bacon & egg breakfast, a final swim in the croc and hippo proof swimming cage in the river and we drove the 2 hours to Rundu, lunch with friends at the open market, stocked up on food, and finally home to Mpungu.  It was the end of another fabulous trip.   Botswana had been fabulous, but even after 3 weeks, we felt like we still had so much we wanted to do and see.

Makgadikgadi elephant – notice his bath marks!

they always stop and stare at you

Makgadikgadi momento? What might Canadian customs say about this?

camped road-side

gemsbok

our guide KT

erect penises are common – they signify the trance state of shaman

KT atop the Tsodilo “cell tower”

fresh leopard track

KT interpreting

the Rhino painting of the “Rhino Trail”

whale & penguin painting 1500km from ocean – evidence of early trade

an important living site for the San for millenia

Jake now has a little sister!!

Jake-o-lantern

camping adjacent to cavern – K&J at cavern entrance

early morning view of female hill from atop male hill

KT praying at edge of permanent water pool

the aptly named cliff trail

panel of paintings atop hills on the cliff trail

geometic paintings represent a decision-making process

Kaia examining the common geometric style paintings

the “Van der Post” panel of paintings

we bought jewelry from this San man at Tsodilo Hills

KT with his grandfather

ferry crossing the Okavanto river near Namib-Bots. border

chucking Kaia into the Ngepi river pool

120km/hr – I shudder at the thought of an accident

bales of thatching grass were a common site driving home in Namibia

Okavango Delta

As mentioned in the last blog entry, we coasted into the town of Maun on the last fumes in our gas tank.  We were pleased to discover that gas stations in Botswana accept credit cards! (almost unheard of in Namibia).  We also found several ATMs, coffee shops, craft stores, well-stocked grocery stores, and … an international airport!  With free wireless internet!!  Let me tell you, that is about as exciting as it gets for us slaves to technology!  We quickly discovered that Maun is a tourist hub and the official gateway to the Okavango Delta.  We were eager to see the delta from all angles, so booked a flight-seeing trip for a couple of days later, and then went to the locally-operated mokoro cooperative to see about getting out on the water again.  To our surprise, we were able to book a 2-day mokoro trip for the same price we had paid for our 2-hour trip at Mboma boat station!  Amazing what cutting out the middleman can do.

We needed to find a 5^th person for our flight-seeing trip (by filling up the plane, we would lower the cost) and saw a sign for the “Old Bridge Backpackers” which sounded like a good place to find a solo traveler who might be interested in just such a trip.  Well, the backpackers place was so reasonable, funky, and even had a swimming pool (+ it was getting quite dark by that time – the sun goes down at about 5:30pm these days) that we decided to pitch our tent on one of their sites.  We happened to be right next to a young couple from Israel who are doing a 6-month trip through southern Africa.  They were intrigued by the mokoro trip plans and followed us to the office the next morning where they signed up to join us, and we picked up a guide who would direct us to the starting point.  It definitely was a route that required a guide – no signs and multiple forks in the road.   I don’t think the mokoro paddlers were necessarily expecting clients that day, but when we showed up and said we wanted to go out overnight, it only took them about 2 minutes to pack up their stuff and hop in the truck!  Somehow the locals do just fine without all the camping equipment that we consider essential.  They had one tent, a blanket each, a bag of rice, some tea, and a fishing net.  I think that was about it.  When they caught some fish, they borrowed our knife to clean them. 

So we set off in 3 boats:  our family had the 2 fiberglass ones with paddlers Boli and “Zero”, and Oron and Lior were in a traditional wooden dugout with shockingly little freeboard (but somehow they stayed fairly dry).  We soon realized that this part of the delta is extremely reedy and there isn’t even an open channel.  We plowed through the tall reeds (and spider webs!) enjoying the tranquility, the big sky, and the birds.  As Cam said, it is not often that he is in a canoe and not paddling.  At lunch, we stopped at a ‘campsite’:  it was quite overgrown and didn’t look particularly flat, but the guides seemed committed to staying there.  I think it was their campsite from a previous year.  They whacked down the vegetation with sticks, and we were able to pitch our tents in a nice shady spot.  The afternoon was spent playing around in the mokoros and chatting with our new friends.  Both Oron and Lior recently completed their military duty in Israel (girls: 2 yrs, and boys: 3 yrs) and had then worked to save money to travel.  They are committed to living in Israel, but are not hopeful about an end to the conflict there.  I don’t think I’ve ever met a more easy-going, friendly, and positive young couple, though!

At 4pm, Boli took us on a “game walk”.  He briefed us on how to behave if we saw any of the larger animals (for example, if you are near a lion, you must stand completely still – if you run it will definitely attack, but if you are immobile, it might decide you are not a suitable prey).  However, there is so much water in the Delta this year that the animals are dispersed and difficult to see.  All we spotted was a Bateleur eagle surveying his surroundings from the top of a tree.  Dinner around the campfire was followed by some star-gazing, and then we were off to bed since Boli told us that our best chances for game-viewing would be early in the morning.  Breakfast was “scheduled” for 6am.

Next morning saw us out on the serene waters of the delta again.  We did another game walk from our lunch spot, got wet feet, and once again were avoided by all the game.

While poling the mokoro, Zero fashioned a “Delta necklace” for Kaia – expertly made from a lily pad flower and its stem (see photo).  About 1km before the end of the journey, our mokoro suddenly jerked and our poler, Boli, fell into the water – his pole had broken!  He managed to propel us the rest of the way with half a pole (or pulling on the reeds through the deeper sections when the pole no longer could reach the bottom).  I’m not too sure what he would have done had it broken further out – perhaps borrowed our knife to make a temporary one?

We stayed another night at the backpackers place and celebrated by buying hamburgers for dinner – best ones we’ve ever tasted!  Next morning, we were up early for our flightseeing trip.  An American woman joined us, so we filled the 5-seater plane.  The first 15 minutes were delightful, but then the airsickness started to kick in… first Jake, then me, then Kaia, and finally Cam who managed to hold back until after we landed!  The pilot did say that it was an especially bumpy flight.  Seeing the delta from the air gave us a good feeling for its size and variation.  We saw herds of zebra and buffalo, and smaller groups of elephants and giraffe.  The pilot would circle around for us to get a better look (or puke, whichever came first!) A few of the landing strips for remote lodges were practically under water, which meant that they are now bringing in supplies by boat.  (The extensive flooding is a real contrast to the low water levels we are hearing about in Ontario!)  All in all, a memorable flight, but Jake commented that he was glad it was only 1 hour and not the 11-hour flight from Johannesburg to London that we will be doing in August!

I’m not used to being paddled around

classic delta

my little mokoro companion

head guide Boli

Oron & Leor with guide

Boli guiding our game walk

Jake poling

Kaia learning to pole

Oron in wood mokoro

Kaia & Jake slogging through marsh on game walk

Kaia with her fresh “Delta necklace”

Queen Yvonne

traditional wood mokoro

Cam’s Delta dip

Boli after breaking pole and falling into water

pole-less Boli paddling us home

African Jakana eggs – floating nest

Detla Mokoro trip gang

our flight gang, including Suzie from USA

Okavango Delta

elephants below!

Okavango Delta