NAMIBIAN VISIT 2011
In September we returned from our annual visit to Namibia. After a cold and wet session the country was looking terrific. The cattle were in brilliant condition. The wildlife in the National Park and in the non park areas are thriving to the point that numbers are likely to be a challenge in the future. The economy is growing well at over 5 percent p.a. and the capital city Windhoek and the Namibian people have a fresh and positive look and attitude.
TEACHER TRAINING
Mary Green, our enthusiastic project supporter and Education Advisor, again led two important teacher training programmes.
WINDHOEK TEACHER TRAINING
She held a Windhoek Teacher training session and 70 teachers from around the city and region attended. They were very enthusiastic and we provided them with Jolly Phonics materials to assist in their teaching of English and their local language. The Ministry people attended as did several Principals and I have no doubt we will be asked to provide further opportunity in the future. These teachers are hungry to learn, willing participants and committed teachers in terms of their learners.
3 DAY TEACHER TRAINING WORKSOP AT EHOMBA
For the 3rd year in a row, Mary ran a highly successful teacher training course at Ehomab. This year we had teachers fighting to get in and in the end 4 teachers turned up with our being “accepted” they were so desperate to be included! The teachers had come from schools within a 300 km radius, some enduring real hardship and sacrifice to get there and Mr Zauana travelling all night in several different directions to collect some of the teachers.
The programme was a great success and most pleasingly the District Inspector , Miss Jagger and the Director of Education Mr Kamwi both made the trip and were very enthusiastic with the results they are now seeing out of the schools in the region where their teachers have been part of our programme. The teachers left in a very positive frame of mind with enormous amounts of support material that we had imported at no freight cost with the help of AirNZ and also South African Airlines.
ELECTRICITY
The solar energy continues to serve the school well thought the exciting news is that within the next year the school will be connected to the Nation Namibian lined electricity grid.
This will be a very big help as the solar system, while brilliant, still has its limitations with modern machinery like photocopiers and computers when we have a series of cloudy days!
OTHER PROGRESS
Sport remains a big part of these children’s lives. They are very good at it and now with the trusts support can attend the regional contests in soccer and netball. They have enjoyed recent success and mush to everyone’s delight were sporting the third place medals while we were there. We imported two ranges of soccer balls this year. Some normal balls from NZ and some indestructible balls from the USA. Time will tell if they prove more durable than the normal ones. Playing on shingle, in bare feet and with bramble bushes in the surrounding area is tough on gear!!!!
GARDEN
After a cold winter the garden was slow and Petris, the teacher who leads the gardening project was very worried. I am pleased to report that now the warm weather has arrived the garden is again producing prolific amounts of food for the children to supplement their one meal a day of pap. Tomatoes self seed and are picked by the bucket full, plots of carrots are everywhere, a banana grove is producing many hanks of bananas and the children are amazing and would never touch the food unless everyone was involved and they were in a position to share. Each class has their own plot and they have competitions to see who’s area does best. Amazingly the juniors are regular winners! They have had pumpkins, yams, silverbeet, redbeet and lots of corn all doing well and a plot of sugar cane that they propagated from the riverbed is used as a treat from time to time. We have planted some fruit trees so time will tell if they are going to make a contribution.
THE FUTURE
The Ministry of Education continues to talk about making Ehomba a secondary School for the region. The nearest one is currently about 150kms away. We have 10 children currently on scholarships so that the brightest children at least have a chance to further their education but we are very hopeful that soon that will be an option for all the students! We will keep our supporters posted as when this decision is finally confirmed there will be a whole new set of opportunities for us to provide support to see that this gets off to s flying start.
