Back to School Adventure

I apologize that it's been so long since my last blog entry. This past month has been so jam-packed with action, adventure and travel that it would have been a shame to interrupt it all by pausing to blog.

I am back in Okahao at this point in time after a month of school holidays, spent with my dad touring around Namibia, and in Windhoek for WorldTeach midservice sessions.

To elaborate on all of May is too overwhelming for me right now, as I'm trying to juggle the organising of my thoughts along with marking homework that I assigned my learners over the holiday, and preparing lessons and last-minute school plans all at once. However, I promise that I will go into detail about my amazing African adventure bit-by-bit over the next week or so.

After midservice, which consisted of two days of discussion and sessions about our experiences in our host schools and sites thus far, we, the volunteers, were transported back to our sites via Ministry of Education transportation. As was the case at the beginning of the year, the "O" region-Omusati, Oshana, Ohangwena and Oshikoto- volunteers were bussed together to the north; it's about an 8-hour bus ride from Windhoek. Our ride was supposed to arrive between 8 and 8:30 Sunday morning. He arrived at 6:30. Ironically the opposite of what I have become accustomed to as "Africa time", but nonetheless just as frustrating. I slept for the majority of the drive north; I've become an expert at travel-sleeping since being here, be it on a bumpy bus, plane, van or overcrowded taxi with a baby on my lap.

After dropping off the first few volunteers our bus driver announced that he was not going to be taking the rest of us to our sites that evening, that he was instead going to drop us off at the Ongwediva College where we would spend the night and be picked up in the morning. We argued this, stating that it was in our contract to be taken to our sites and that the plan was for us to arrive on the Sunday, not Monday morning. After a series of phone calls back and forth with our field director and ministry officials and officers of our region we had essentially gotten nowhere (surprise surprise, it's not just in North America where government employees shut off completely on weekends and holidays, refusing to do work that they are not contractually obliged to). It was fully dark and we were starving, exhausted and confused when the driver pulled the bus into what I only assume is Ongwediva College. It was completely desolate, with no lights or signs of life anywhere. We drove past a few buildings and then through the bush for at least ten minutes, through trees, long grasses and empty fields, until we realised that we had come full-circle. We delved back into the bush again. "Ooohhh I am looooooost" we heard our trusty driver exclaim from the front seat. Exactly what you want to hear when you are in the backwoods of some unknown location, about to be dropped off. Eventually the bus came to a halt outside of a small scattering of dark, abandoned-looking huts. Again, no lights, no signs of life, "This is where you will be staying". No. "No sir, no it is not," was the response we gave to our driver. We told him to call his ministry contact and tell him that we most certainly not staying in some eery back-woods huts with no food and no idea of where we actually were. After about 15 minutes of deliberation our driver relented and conceded to take us to a hotel in Ongwediva for the night. We were thankful for the security of warm, safe beds, showers, and the hotel restaurant. We made arrangements with our field director and the ministry to be picked up at that site the following morning; and put our exhausted bodies to rest by 9pm. It was a long day.

Bright and early the next morning we enjoyed a buffet breakfast at the restaurant and were picked up by Otto, who transported all of us to our respective sites. Otto was also the driver who took me to Okahao in January; he is really great and reliable, and it was reassuring to have him pick us up after the disaster that was the day before. I arrived in Okahao at about 11 and immediately set about to tidying up and preparing myself for school the next day.