Sunday Bugs

This morning I woke up and went to church with my host sister Celeste and her daughter Zia. We walked to the church and were running a bit late – or so we thought. The service was supposed to start at 9:00am, but when we get there, it wasn’t near ready to start. We heard that the preacher might be sick, so it might not start until closer to 10am. So we sit outside and wait. We greet others as they arrive and enjoy the coolness of the morning. Once church begins, we sing some songs, say some prayers and then it’s time for the sermon. Because the service is in Nama-tongue, the preacher asked one of my colleagues from the school to stand at the pulpit next to him so that he could translate the sermon for me. It was really nice to be able to hear what the sermon was about, but a little weird to have a sermon spoken directly to me the whole time. It still is strange to me that I am singled out so often – it’s nice to be recognized but it is strange to feel like there’s a spot light on me. I stand out anyway…

Then on the walk back home, a bug flew into my eye! It was small, but it irritated my eye. Then later this evening, Celeste asks me what is in the corner of my eye. She gets it out with her nail and it’s the bug from earlier in the day! UGH! That’s gross – but my eye is just fine, no problems at all.

Tonight it is cold outside – really just cool, but after months of ridiculous heat, anything below 80 feels cold right now. The sky looked like it was going to be a huge storm coming. We’ll see if it actually comes into the village. It seems like all the surrounding villages get rain, and we just get a little. But even a little is nice because it really cools things off.

I’m not sure if it’s the rain or what, but there are so many new bugs around. And they are all HUGE! I took a picture of this one because I had never seen it before. Then one day it just pops up and they are everywhere! I’m not sure if it bites or not – nor do I care to find out. I stay away from bugs as much as I can (until they decide to fly into my eye!)

Deep in the Heart of Namibia

I end up teaching my Art lessons (as well as my BIS (library)) 14 times over two weeks. I have 7 classes of girls for week one and then 7 classes of boys for the second week. This makes life very easy when it comes to making lesson plans which is super nice! These past two weeks for Art have been about singing. Luckily there are some music books in our library – and they are from the states, so I was able to find some music to teach them and let them teach me some of their music. It’s so interesting how each class reacts differently to an assignment. At the beginning of each class, I played for them the Star Spangled Banner (because it’s a difficult one for me to sing alone) and then taught them Deep in the Heart of Texas. Some loved it – others I think just amused me by singing along. Some classes sang the WHOLE class with different songs and it was so enjoyable! Then some classes wanted to dance while I played music from my computer – music which I got from one of my learners. As soon as they would enter the classroom for art they asked if we were singing and were so happy when I said yes. It was so entertaining and really made these last two weeks memorable.

I am now known in the community for having a camera. This is good and bad – good because I get invited to fun events – bad because it can be a burden sometimes. But this week it was a good thing. I was invited to come take pictures for the Miss Sweetheart pageant. This was a pageant for the pre-primary girls who are girls that are 4 and 5 years old. They were SOO cute! I ended up being a judge because one of the judges was not able to come. I sent for one of my learners, Johannes, who has become the photographer for most events. It’s so nice to be able to just hand my camera over to him because I was able to enjoy the pageant and do a better job of judging. We had to judge each girl on smile, confidence, outfit, walk and crowd reaction. At first we debated if we should judge them on confidence – but let me tell you – these girls had a ton of confidence. And their walks – some were just too much! The first round was swimsuit, the second round was casual and the last round was formal. I just can’t stop saying how cute they all were. Each one would walk up to the stage and then down the catwalk to do a pose at the end for camera and judges, and then would walk back off stage. I know that as you read this you might be thinking of the scary pageants for toddlers that we see in the states – but this was nothing like that. It was so innocent and cute! I hated having to judge each one and wanted all of them to win, but there was one girl who EVERY time she came out would have a huge smile on her face and really played it up to the judges. Of course we voted her as the winner. We also picked a 1^st princess, 2^nd princess, and Miss Personality. Thankfully all three of us judges agreed easily on who each one should be. I got to be on stage as the winners were announced and was able to give out the goody bags to the girls who did not win the crowns. It was such a fun evening!