Starting my last week in Africa LAll I could think about today were the kids at the orphanage.I hope I can find time to go back and visit them again before I leave, but I'm running out of time.

I started new topics with all the kids today because they took tests last week.8th grade is doing area.9th grade is doing volume of cubes and cuboids and other prisms.Does anyone know the difference because their book really doesn't explain and they keep asking me?We don't use that term in the US.10th grade is doing nets and transformations.It was a good day.The 11th grade extra maths class was pretty well behaved today.I pretty much captured their attention with all of the NASA stuff.They were excited to ask questions about all of it.They're supposed to learn about it in 8th grade, but they still had a lot of holes!Some of the students asked if I could teach their geography class sometime this week because I taught so well today.LolGeography is not the same here as it in the US.There's a lot more science in their geography classes here.The Universe and other programs about space are currently playing on the History Channel here so some of them ask questions about what they learn from the TV shows.I would not say that TV is very normal here though.We do not have one and none of my students in Katutura have one.I'm not really sure about those in between.

After 8th period, my last class, I left for PAY.Patrick came home over the weekend and had mentioned something about a 4 hour meeting.Fortunately, I have a longer day teaching on Monday's so I only had to listen to about 90 minutes of it. Lol They were talking about all sorts of things before I got there mostly having to do with leadership opportunities for the students and fundraising.Once I got there we talked about disciplinary plans, possible quarterly tests in the different content areas to make sure that the students are on the right track in each grade and so that we can pull them out into smaller classes if they need more help or if they need more challenging material, growing our own garden to provide hot meals a couple of times each week, and using surrounding and established organizations in our area to provide career and leadership skills for our students as well as to provide more of an active outlet for the life skills sessions.The life skills sessions have gotten to the point where if the students have been around at PAY for awhile, they're tired of hearing the same things.They want the students to take more responsibility and leadership in the way things are run and to give more input.PAY runs the Kicking AIDS Out program and they train students to go speak and run the activities in other areas of Namibia, but some of the programmers were complaining that they really haven't let them go on their own yet.Instead of actually letting them do the leading, the volunteers and programmers are doing too much.They basically want the student leaders to try without our help and see where they fail and where they need to know more or how they can make changes and ask us the questions to get to that point.This is why I love PAY.They're putting so much into the kids' hands and trusting that they can do it.Maybe they'll need support in how to implement their ideas and how to get to certain areas, but they know that these kids, no matter the fact that a lot of them live in tin huts, can make a difference.It will be interesting to see the changes PAY makes over the next few years as it is still pretty new right now.They're currently making the shift over to more student responsibility, ownership, and leadership.I hope I will be around to see some of those changes.I know that I'll be working on some projects for them from home this year. J

Some of the kids at PAY are extremely bright considering they have no resources compared to the resources we have in America.One of them just got a 4 year Fulbright scholarship in New York City.Several are already away on scholarships.Another girl is awaiting, with a lot of confidence, an Alan Grey Scholarship here that will pay for her education in the US and then give her capital to start her own business in Namibia.They have such wonderful opportunities if pointed in the right direction.PAY is really good about putting the students in the right situations with the right people to get some amazing scholarships if they want.

I was mostly helping with math today.I got pretty irritated when I was looking at one of the student's math "project" for school.It was a worksheet that asked her to measure the angles on a line and then find the sum.Then using what she found (a straight line has 180 degrees) she was supposed to find the unknown angles in 3 questions.I couldn't believe that their teacher considered it a project.Projects are supposed to be hands-on and fun!Not doing a worksheet that they don't understand at all.Maybe it would've been a good, in-class discovery activity, but a project…really?

I was also helping someone study for their 12th grade math exam.The 12th grade is getting really anxious and nervous right about now.They have to sit for their exams next week which will determine their career paths and whether or not they will be able to go to the university.They were given their own room to study and I couldn't believe the silence when I walked in.I've never heard PAY that quiet.The student that I was helping was very good.I like when they don't want me to just give them the answer, which I won't anyway.He wanted to reason through it and make sure he was on the right path and when he finished, he wanted to go through it step by step again to make sure he would remember it if it came up on his exam.

During sports, the girls and boys were separated.The girls were on one side of the arena playing soccer and the boys got the basketball court.Some of the girls weren't as tentative playing soccer as they are when they play with the boys so it was good.Meanwhile, Lot was taking his role as basketball ref/coach to a new level…he found a whistle somewhere and kept stopping the game every 2 minutes at first.Half of the time he just wanted the ball so that he could take a shot.JAfter PAY was dismissed, the volunteers played basketball for about an hour.The car reeked on the way home. :/lol

For dinner we went to Mary Seeley's house.Mary Seeley was a colleague of my granddad's brother Cliff.My uncle Cliff used to work in Gobabeb, Namibia in the 80s (I think) doing research on insects in the desert.Gobabeb is south of Windhoek.He worked there for about 5 years.Mary now lives in Windhoek, right across the street from us.JWe had spaghetti.HahaIt satiated my need for good pasta for a little.She also introduced me to gluvine, which I guess is a German tradition.It's warm wine with spices basically.Not my favorite, but she did admit she forgot to add the sugar.We had very nice conversation mostly talking about the education and government here in Namibia as well as the different projects each of us are working on. Namibia seems to avoid student-centered learning in a lot of cases.The pre-service teachers are taught it in the schools of education, but once they get a job, the principals and other teachers don't really let them implement it.NEAD which is the Namibian Educational something or other doesn't really let many of the really ingenious ideas for education get very far either.In my own opinion, this is common in Namibia.If they don't feel they had enough of a hand in the research or development, they won't accept or support it.That part of Namibia hasn't changed in years.It is really hard to get my mind around the fact that a lot of the people I've met have lived here during at least part of the apartheid.And so many changes have been made…I hope that changes continue to be made in the coming years.

Well, I am off because it is getting late and I have a long day of teaching and planning tests for PAY tomorrow.Just as a note, I do not know how much I will be online after Thursday night.Friday morning through Monday morning we will be in Zimbabwe.Monday and Tuesday we will be in Jo'burg and Pretoria, South Africa.And then Wednesday, of course, we will be home.

Again, I hope everything is well at home.I love you all.

Miss you,

<3 Shannon