Left Gqaina this morning with one of the teachers husbands and got to Gobabis. From there we got a taxi, just as crazy as last time (110mph with no seatbelts, crazy driving), to Windhoek for N$100. I am now at the cardboard box hostel with Jamie and Fran who we unexpextedly met. Walking the streets of Windhoek, and we bumped into Rob, our overseas rep.. It's a small world!
So we set off for a bank to change money. After waiting for an hour to get served, the cashier says he cannot change our money because he needs our flight details to prove we are leaving the country! All we want is 100US$ for Zimbabwe Visa we told him, we're hitching there! He didn't understand. Luckily the guy behind us in the queue had some US$ and he said he'd take us back to his house to get some if we waited for him. We decided to wait and go with him and see where he'd take us. His car was the latest Ford Ranger with ALL the latest gadgets, computer parking, massive speakers, huge exhausts, raised suspension, 10000" tyres etc. etc. pretty cool! He took us to his house, we exhanged our Namibian $ for US$ at a rate of 9.00 which was great and without commission! Feels odd having 4 different currencies in my wallet, Namibian $, Rand, US$ and pounds.
Anyway, we're getting a combi from Katatura tomorrow up to Rundu at 7am so I need to get some rest
Night
Friday 19 April 2013
Thursday 18 April 2013
On the road again...
I found a tent.
This whole time we've been here, there's been a little 2 man tent hiding inside a dark space in my cupboard. I found the tent a week ago, with much frustration - we could have used it during the christmas holidays to save on costs etc. But, better late then never! It's great news, because we can sleep at hostels in the camping area now (instead of a dorm) or even in the bush or in the middle of a field or village. Cheap cheap cheap.
We set off tomorrow and are heading for Windhoek. From there, we'll get a combi up to Rundu maybe in the Caprivi area. Spend a few days exploring this region, visit Katima. After then we are headed for Victoria Falls, where we might meet up with other volunteers. Then explore Zimbabwe all over, visiting Harare. After that we are headed back through Botswana, stopping off at the Okovango Delta for a bit of canoeing and then arriving safely back at Gqaina for the 21st May.
Just like the last holidays, we have not booked any accomodation, transport or activities. Not even for tomorrow. I can't wait.
I may not be in contact with anyone for a while so.. hopefully I'll be alright hitching around, and I hope everyone back home is all well!
Bye for now! = ]
This whole time we've been here, there's been a little 2 man tent hiding inside a dark space in my cupboard. I found the tent a week ago, with much frustration - we could have used it during the christmas holidays to save on costs etc. But, better late then never! It's great news, because we can sleep at hostels in the camping area now (instead of a dorm) or even in the bush or in the middle of a field or village. Cheap cheap cheap.
We set off tomorrow and are heading for Windhoek. From there, we'll get a combi up to Rundu maybe in the Caprivi area. Spend a few days exploring this region, visit Katima. After then we are headed for Victoria Falls, where we might meet up with other volunteers. Then explore Zimbabwe all over, visiting Harare. After that we are headed back through Botswana, stopping off at the Okovango Delta for a bit of canoeing and then arriving safely back at Gqaina for the 21st May.
Just like the last holidays, we have not booked any accomodation, transport or activities. Not even for tomorrow. I can't wait.
I may not be in contact with anyone for a while so.. hopefully I'll be alright hitching around, and I hope everyone back home is all well!
Bye for now! = ]
Wednesday 3 April 2013
An egg-cellent Easter!
A crackin' joke right there.
So, John Fraser came to visit us last week from Project Trust. He pulled up in his Corolla rent-a-car last tuesday (8 days ago). Once here, he unpacked, bringing steaks, sausages, beer and chocolate; we knew we were in for a nice couple of days. We chatted about Namibia and England and news and all the other things I've missed out on. He told us he had to leave earlier than planned. We only had his company until the next day at 1pm. We Braai'd that night and had a great night just talking.
The next day me and Jamie went to school, John still asleep. After the morning briefing, I went to wake up John, the snoring log. He said he'll be up for 1st break and then come around, look at some lessons, have a talk with us etc. I went out to my first lesson - painting the bins with the learners (it was environment week, and i'd chosen to repaint the bins to encourage not littering). John tagged along unexpectedly and was very pleased the way I handled the lesson. He said he had seen other volunteers do it, and it had not gone well! I was very relieved! He came again later in the day to another bin painting session and was just as pleased. We had a chat about things - everything was fine, principal happy lalalalalala. All good. We said our goodbyes, and just as quickly as he had arrived, he left. Leaving us with creme eggs all the way from england :))))))))
On thursday we went to Van Zyl's farm for Easter (the principal). I had a VERY nice time, watching TV, exploring the farm, eating LOTS of nice food and braai-ing. I ate my creme egg in my room so I would'nt have to share it on Easter Sunday and was very pleased. We also went hunting with Mrs. Van Zyl's son (henkie), who is also 19. He showed us the gun and on my first shot, I obliterated the stone he had put on the ground to shoot. He was impressed.
Next we went out hunting for meerkats and birds. Unfortunately we all missed, except Jamie who shot a meerkat. The next day we went out again. My first shot again, 60yds away with an old .22 rifle, I hit the smallest bird bang on in the chest. I went over the moon! The next 2 bullets brought down a further 2 birds to their doom. 3/3 Henkie was impressed and bet I couldn't get a 4th bird with the 4th bullet... I tried... and failed :(. All in all though it was very fun! After we gave the birds to the workers who apparantly eat them.
We stayed at the farm until Tuesday morning, which was when we returned to the school. I also got a lot of music from Van Zyl's daughter which, after losing my iPod in South Africa made me happy. One song in particular though... Gagnam Style. Yes it has come to Africa too, I didn't miss out reminds me of one of those travelling memories:
So I was in South Africa, Cape Town to be precise. Hitting long street with a couple of drinks in me, enjoying life. The group of us (volunteers) headed to an Irish pub named 'The Dubliner' which was slightly surreal, situated in Cape Town. Anyway, we entered, surround by tourists and people from all over the globe. There was a Karaoke going on at the moment and it was entertaining to watch. The next song that came on, was this famous Gagnam Style song. One of the tourists, a Japanese, got up onto the stage and started screaming the lyrics to this songs, along with the crowd of other Japanese tourists he was with. It was very entertaining to watch. The slightly overweight, nerdy looking tourist was loving the attention he was getting and we were loving him.
So, John Fraser came to visit us last week from Project Trust. He pulled up in his Corolla rent-a-car last tuesday (8 days ago). Once here, he unpacked, bringing steaks, sausages, beer and chocolate; we knew we were in for a nice couple of days. We chatted about Namibia and England and news and all the other things I've missed out on. He told us he had to leave earlier than planned. We only had his company until the next day at 1pm. We Braai'd that night and had a great night just talking.
The next day me and Jamie went to school, John still asleep. After the morning briefing, I went to wake up John, the snoring log. He said he'll be up for 1st break and then come around, look at some lessons, have a talk with us etc. I went out to my first lesson - painting the bins with the learners (it was environment week, and i'd chosen to repaint the bins to encourage not littering). John tagged along unexpectedly and was very pleased the way I handled the lesson. He said he had seen other volunteers do it, and it had not gone well! I was very relieved! He came again later in the day to another bin painting session and was just as pleased. We had a chat about things - everything was fine, principal happy lalalalalala. All good. We said our goodbyes, and just as quickly as he had arrived, he left. Leaving us with creme eggs all the way from england :))))))))
On thursday we went to Van Zyl's farm for Easter (the principal). I had a VERY nice time, watching TV, exploring the farm, eating LOTS of nice food and braai-ing. I ate my creme egg in my room so I would'nt have to share it on Easter Sunday and was very pleased. We also went hunting with Mrs. Van Zyl's son (henkie), who is also 19. He showed us the gun and on my first shot, I obliterated the stone he had put on the ground to shoot. He was impressed.
Next we went out hunting for meerkats and birds. Unfortunately we all missed, except Jamie who shot a meerkat. The next day we went out again. My first shot again, 60yds away with an old .22 rifle, I hit the smallest bird bang on in the chest. I went over the moon! The next 2 bullets brought down a further 2 birds to their doom. 3/3 Henkie was impressed and bet I couldn't get a 4th bird with the 4th bullet... I tried... and failed :(. All in all though it was very fun! After we gave the birds to the workers who apparantly eat them.
We stayed at the farm until Tuesday morning, which was when we returned to the school. I also got a lot of music from Van Zyl's daughter which, after losing my iPod in South Africa made me happy. One song in particular though... Gagnam Style. Yes it has come to Africa too, I didn't miss out reminds me of one of those travelling memories:
So I was in South Africa, Cape Town to be precise. Hitting long street with a couple of drinks in me, enjoying life. The group of us (volunteers) headed to an Irish pub named 'The Dubliner' which was slightly surreal, situated in Cape Town. Anyway, we entered, surround by tourists and people from all over the globe. There was a Karaoke going on at the moment and it was entertaining to watch. The next song that came on, was this famous Gagnam Style song. One of the tourists, a Japanese, got up onto the stage and started screaming the lyrics to this songs, along with the crowd of other Japanese tourists he was with. It was very entertaining to watch. The slightly overweight, nerdy looking tourist was loving the attention he was getting and we were loving him.
Tuesday 19 February 2013
4 months later...
Yes, it's been almost 4 months since my last post and I'm sorry. I've been veryyy busy and have just never had the time to update this.
Well, we broke up from gqaina on the 30th November and headed north to Opuwo. From there we hitched south to Sesfontein and then Twiffelfontein and the Brandberg area. We then went to Swakopmund and Walvis Bay and then hitched to Sossusvlei with a tourist. After we went down to Luderitz and met the other volunteers. Then I hitched straight down all the way to Cape Town for the 14th December (birthday) and I met up with all the other volunteers. We stayed until the 27th December and then me and Jamie hitched along the garden route to Durban, in time for a bus back to Windhoek lasting 30 hours!
There's my travelling route, brief, but there for all to see. To hear about the gritty, fun, bad, extreme, exciting experiences you'll just have to speak to me personally about it. After all, my parents can see this blog.
Back at Gqaina
So its now over half way through February and it's also over half way through my time overseas. I have not gotten homesick at all which is a great thing, but sometimes I do think of home and miss certain things.. mainly the food!
Since I've been back, we've killed many snakes (including the mamba's) and even a kudu. I've just been settling back into the teaching routine and talking about the holidays with all the learners.
I have started up a 'Topic Class' where the learners get to chose what they want to learn about, just to help them gain some general knowledge. Most of them can't even tell the time at 14 / 15 years old and don't know where Namibia or England are on a map. I have also started up an arts class and bought drawing books and pencils for the keen ones.
The learners are really starting to grow on me and I care more about them than going back. I will probably never see them again or contact them as they have no internet, or money to afford stamps to England. I'm trying really hard to teach them everything I know and help them to get on in life.
This post may seem a bit detached at parts, but it's break time so I'm rushing and I really have to go back and teach now!!
All is well (=
Well, we broke up from gqaina on the 30th November and headed north to Opuwo. From there we hitched south to Sesfontein and then Twiffelfontein and the Brandberg area. We then went to Swakopmund and Walvis Bay and then hitched to Sossusvlei with a tourist. After we went down to Luderitz and met the other volunteers. Then I hitched straight down all the way to Cape Town for the 14th December (birthday) and I met up with all the other volunteers. We stayed until the 27th December and then me and Jamie hitched along the garden route to Durban, in time for a bus back to Windhoek lasting 30 hours!
There's my travelling route, brief, but there for all to see. To hear about the gritty, fun, bad, extreme, exciting experiences you'll just have to speak to me personally about it. After all, my parents can see this blog.
Back at Gqaina
So its now over half way through February and it's also over half way through my time overseas. I have not gotten homesick at all which is a great thing, but sometimes I do think of home and miss certain things.. mainly the food!
Since I've been back, we've killed many snakes (including the mamba's) and even a kudu. I've just been settling back into the teaching routine and talking about the holidays with all the learners.
I have started up a 'Topic Class' where the learners get to chose what they want to learn about, just to help them gain some general knowledge. Most of them can't even tell the time at 14 / 15 years old and don't know where Namibia or England are on a map. I have also started up an arts class and bought drawing books and pencils for the keen ones.
The learners are really starting to grow on me and I care more about them than going back. I will probably never see them again or contact them as they have no internet, or money to afford stamps to England. I'm trying really hard to teach them everything I know and help them to get on in life.
This post may seem a bit detached at parts, but it's break time so I'm rushing and I really have to go back and teach now!!
All is well (=
Saturday 27 October 2012
The Ups and Downs
The agricultural show was great, I saw many HUGE cows and traditional farming equipment. It was a lot of fun with the grade 7's too. After this me and Jamie stayed overnight in Windhoek at the cardboard box hostel and the school went home. The next day we got up at 6 and got a taxi to a combi meeting place. Once here we got a lift straight away to Swakopmund for a reasonably cheap price. It was a long journey and very cramped, but 4 hours later we arrived in Swakop! Wow! It was windy and cool, very similar to England! We walked around a bit and found some accommodation, Desert Sky Backpackers. Funnily enough this was where Mary and Fran were staying (otjikondo volunteers) and we booked into the same dorm. We went out again and walked to the sea, it was very choppy and freezing cold so I decided not to swim. We got a surprised call from the others and went back to meet them. It was very good to finally meet some other English people again and talk! We went out for a pizza altogether that night. Something about 4 volunteers in the middle of Namibia just chilling and eating a pizza gave me that warm glow inside.
The next day we said our goodbyes to the others (they left) and me and Jamie went on a desert tour for 6 hours. It was very interesting and we saw some amazing views of the famous moon landscape and the towering sand dunes of Namibia. We also drove through a current film set for Mad Max 4 being filmed in Namibia so those people in England, watch mad max 4 when it comes out! After a tiring day we headed back and walked to the pier at night. It was nice to get that sea breeze on my face - nothing like this at gqaina. The next day we booked some sand boarding... Wow was that fun! The dunes were beautiful and perfectly golden. The boarding was very thrilling even if i fell over a lot and I reached 74km p/h when lying down. One thing that wasn't so good was getting a mouth full of sand after facepalming the dune after a jump!
Then that night we got an old steamtrain back to Windhoek. It took 10 hours; it was sooo slow and uncomfortable - ill never complain about British rail again! Eventually we arrived and hitched back to gqaina via gobabis, just in time for bed on Tuesday. Altogether it was a great mini holiday!
After all that excitement there was bound to be a down... And it came. My famous ingrowing toenail decided to make a guest appearance and eat my toe. After much re arranging appointments I finally got the operation booked. It was very bloody and I have stiches in my toe now which are most uncomfortable! The op was on Thursday and I still can't walk. I won't go into details but I had to change the bandage myself today and well , the toe was... Er... A mess. And to make matters worse one of the teachers invited us to go to their farm this weekend to go horse riding and hunting and braai-ing. But I couldn't go :( so we stayed!
My chin is up though and should be limping tomorrow!
One of the teachers is away next week so me and Jamie will take the grade 2 ourselves all week! That's something to look forward too!!
Apart from this I'm all okay! Hope you are all well!
x
The next day we said our goodbyes to the others (they left) and me and Jamie went on a desert tour for 6 hours. It was very interesting and we saw some amazing views of the famous moon landscape and the towering sand dunes of Namibia. We also drove through a current film set for Mad Max 4 being filmed in Namibia so those people in England, watch mad max 4 when it comes out! After a tiring day we headed back and walked to the pier at night. It was nice to get that sea breeze on my face - nothing like this at gqaina. The next day we booked some sand boarding... Wow was that fun! The dunes were beautiful and perfectly golden. The boarding was very thrilling even if i fell over a lot and I reached 74km p/h when lying down. One thing that wasn't so good was getting a mouth full of sand after facepalming the dune after a jump!
Then that night we got an old steamtrain back to Windhoek. It took 10 hours; it was sooo slow and uncomfortable - ill never complain about British rail again! Eventually we arrived and hitched back to gqaina via gobabis, just in time for bed on Tuesday. Altogether it was a great mini holiday!
After all that excitement there was bound to be a down... And it came. My famous ingrowing toenail decided to make a guest appearance and eat my toe. After much re arranging appointments I finally got the operation booked. It was very bloody and I have stiches in my toe now which are most uncomfortable! The op was on Thursday and I still can't walk. I won't go into details but I had to change the bandage myself today and well , the toe was... Er... A mess. And to make matters worse one of the teachers invited us to go to their farm this weekend to go horse riding and hunting and braai-ing. But I couldn't go :( so we stayed!
My chin is up though and should be limping tomorrow!
One of the teachers is away next week so me and Jamie will take the grade 2 ourselves all week! That's something to look forward too!!
Apart from this I'm all okay! Hope you are all well!
x
Thursday 4 October 2012
Long Weeekend!
Today is my first long weekend: I get Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off!! Ahah more like a week off!
Tomorrow we are going with the grade 7s to Windhoek for an agricultural show - which is meant to be a great event! Then we are staying overnight in Windhoek and hitching to swakopmund on Saturday. Really looking forward to it as it is known as the 'adventure capital' of Namibia. Might go for a skydive or water skiing!
Then we're going to get a train back on Monday night to Windhoek and then return home on Tuesday!
We managed to contact other volunteers in otjikondo and will hopefully meet them in swakop!
Can't wait for this weekend, it's going to be very fun! Will take lots of pics!
Hope all is well in England!
Tomorrow we are going with the grade 7s to Windhoek for an agricultural show - which is meant to be a great event! Then we are staying overnight in Windhoek and hitching to swakopmund on Saturday. Really looking forward to it as it is known as the 'adventure capital' of Namibia. Might go for a skydive or water skiing!
Then we're going to get a train back on Monday night to Windhoek and then return home on Tuesday!
We managed to contact other volunteers in otjikondo and will hopefully meet them in swakop!
Can't wait for this weekend, it's going to be very fun! Will take lots of pics!
Hope all is well in England!
Friday 21 September 2012
Home sweet home
F
I'm having a great time and getting along with everyone!
If you want to try some food that I'm cooking here:
1.boil some curly macoroni pasta with salt.
2. When it's nearly done, fry some cut up chicken rolled in herbs and pepper in a pan of oil.
3. Take out the pasta when done and leave to drain, use same saucepan and heat gently: 1 tin of cherry tomatoes in sauce, pepper, herbs, and a splash of milk.
4. When chicken is white (not brown yet) add a whole chopped onion and fry with the chicken.
5. When onion is done and sauce is warm.. Serve up!
6.
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