Hi everyone! (I say this, assuming that its more than just my parents reading my blogs...it's a lot more fun writing assuming that I have an audience, even though I think that I amuse myself most of all, just writing them, than most could get out of reading my musings on my life and times here).

I apologise for the delay in my blogging about my amazing May holiday with my dad, touring this extraordinary country. I hope to be able to piece it all together before too long. There is so much to tell, and so much that just simply can't remotely be done justice through words; it's been a challenge to try and embrace everything candidly without sounding completely spacey and allegorical. A lot of the time, in reading back to myself what I've written I laugh out loud at how mystical it all sounds, but the sights and experiences that Namibia embodies are so beyond being able to write about in simple, flat terms. So, it has been a struggle, and I hope that you've been able to at least sift through it and come to the conclusion that Namibia has to be one of the most diverse and beautiful countries in the world.

I'm currently about four weeks into the second term of the school year at my host school, Shaanika Nashilongo SS, and, as per usual, I have no recollection of where the time's gone. The term Africa time is usually used to convey the slow and indeterminate pace of life here. However, my theory is that life only seems to move more slowly because of how much faster the earth seems to be revolving. Time is a complete abstraction, and seems to adjust itself on its own accord here. There is no possible way that I am, almost exactly, at the halfway mark of my hear here. That realisation is both thrilling and absolutely terrifying. While I feel like I've been here forever, I also feel like I've hardly had the time to just barely scratched the surface of life here. Yup, I think terrified pretty well sums it up.

The second term itself has been a very smooth transition back into school, and teaching, life for me. I thought it would be a struggle because it had been almost two months since I had taught a lesson due to the extensive examination periods and then the school holiday, but everything came together really well. I started reading Hatchet with my grade 8s and 9s, something I was anxious and a little uneasy about, and it's really taken off! I'm absolutely thrilled with how well most of the kids have taken to it. What's been really exciting for me is witnessing some of my less motivated and excitable learners really get into the story and show more interest in English class as a whole-I feel so gratified! It's slow-going: I read out loud while the class follows along in their books, but I think that the improved comprehension that it allows for is worth it.

I feel like this term has a lot more going on than the first. My fantastic and (over?)ambitious Head of Department for English has developed a schedule for what she has coined to be "Massive Teach" in which the language department teachers do after school classes/coaching to the grade 10 and 12 classes in preparation for their national exams at the end of the year. It's a great concept and I'm totally on board for it, but it is going to be a lot of work, as we're scheduled to be teaching after-school classes 3 out of 5 schooldays a week. I'm also to be involved with the Debate club..allegedly..I think that the teacher currently heading that is a little bit territorial over it, which really is fine by me, I just might let him keep it! Grade 12 learners have also been coming to me, requesting extra help and tutoring sessions, which, at first I was happy to oblige them, but if they continue to proliferate I'm going to have to draw the line at the massive teach sessions. They now have an English Exams study corner in the library, so I might try and divert their attentions there for more self-directed study.

I have a small group of very talented and motivated learners who I am considering doing a reading group with, much like what last-year's volunteer did, and am thinking of doing Lord of the Flies. Controversial and challenging, the stuff that all good reading group content is made of.

I think that being on the verge of tackling all of these projects has impeded my progress in any of them, but now that the term two ball is steadily rolling I should be able to adequately divide my attentions among each of these tasks without burning myself out. This is what I'm here for, after all, and I always find that the more integrated and active I become in the school and with the learners themselves, the more joy I find. I think that it's going to be a really great term.