Goodbyes...

Recently we have had to say "Goodbye" to three of the team from Rehoboth: Steph (from Canada) and Cathi and Alli (from USA). "Goodbyes" are always hard but little did we realise that we would be saying our own "Goodbyes" just a few weeks later.

After just over five weeks back in the UK, everyone felt that as Katie was making such good progress, Ruth should return to be with us in Namibia. However less than a week after Ruth's return we heard the news that Katie was back in hospital. It is difficult to put in to words how we are feeling right now - whilst we are convinced that we are right in coming home we also feel that God has used us in Rehoboth and that the work is unfinished. We have formed deep relationships with people in such a short space of time and are sad to think we might not see them again.

Before we returned we had the opportunity to spend three nights in Etosha National Park. It wasn't the best time to visit as the rainy season had started. This meant the animals no longer had to stay close to the water holes but we all enjoyed seeing many different birds and animals:

The Rehoboth team were involved in running a summer holiday club at one of the state orphanages in Windhoek during the week in which we left Namibia and Ruth was able to help for the first two days of this:

Before we left the team went out for a farewell meal together in Windhoek:

I am planning to return to Namibia in January to finish off some computer work I have started at the theological seminary (NETS) and also to try to hand over what I have done at the school in such a way that it can be sustained after I have left.

Please continue to pray for us as we go through this transition. We need to decide what our next steps will be - we are convinced that I will not return to teaching full time in the UK. If possible I would like to find a job where I can combine an IT support role with teaching mathematics. Ruth hopes that she might be able to find a role outside of the home for a few hours each week.

We want to thank all of you who have supported us prayerfully and practically (this is probably the only way that we can thank those who have supported us anonymously!) If any of you want to continue supporting the work of AIM in Namibia after the end of January we will send the funds to Mick & Suzanne Rineer.

When it rains...

We had a very impressive storm tonight - it was amazing to see how quickly the ground turned from being a dust bowl to being completely flooded. The photo below is taken from our front door looking across the yard to the girl's hostel. There isn't the drainage system so although the house has gutters and downpipes they discharge straight on to the ground a small distance from the house. Thankfully the floor of the house is a couple of feet higher!

E3L or English as a third language...

I have been busy marking the exam papers today. I can really see the impact of the fact that for many of our learners English is their third language. Khoekhoegowab or Nama is their mother tongue, then they learn Afrikaans at primary school, and in grade 4 they start to learn English - which is the official language of Namibia. It was hard enough for my learners in the UK to learn all the names of the quadrilaterals but in your third language... it wasn't surprising to see that one learner when asked to name a shape forgot that I has said a parallelogram was LIKE a squashed rectangle and wrote "squashed rectangle" as their answer!
Evenings have been busy this week with last minute revision classes - the photo below shows some of the grade 8 girls earlier this week.

Store in a cool dry place...

I made some soup this week (it is alright we haven't been living just on soup!) the instructions on the packet amused me "Store in a cool dry place" Well dry we can certainly do here in Namibia but cool! The temperatures are getting steadily hotter as we approach summer - mornings and evenings are definately the best times of the day!

We realised we hadn't posted pictures of the girls in their school uniforms - it has been wonderful to see how they have settled at Ruimte Primary School. Courtney heard this week that she is being promoted to grade 5 in January.

Thanksgiving & Powercuts

I became a traitor yesterday when as a team we celebrated Thanksgiving, I'm still not quite sure I understand exactly the history of the day but it was a good excuse to eat too much and enjoy a relaxed time together as a team. The team has been added to again with the arrival of Bernie from Ireland.

Just as we wound up the celebrations we had a complete blackout (again) taking folks home with no streetlights was quite an interesting experience!

Powercuts are quite a feature of the rainy season but it does make for a frustrating experience as the UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) that is supposed to keep our main server going doesn't and so even a short outage takes several minutes to recover from.

This week will be the third week with Ruth back in the UK - it certainly made my birthday this week different from any other I have celebrated and it is the longest time we have been apart in our 27 years of marriage.

I received an email on my birthday from a colleague from Tile Hill Wood - my old school in the UK she took over my tutor group. It was good to hear that they are still the great bunch of kids that they were and that they have been following this blog too - so Hi 8B!

The girls are getting impatient to go back to our flat - I've been quite encouraged at how they have managed without TV here. BUT they do pester to watch movies on the laptop!

Hair Braiding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__31m9Z-bPg

Rehoboth High School (RHS)

I have settled in to school well - the learners at the moment are suffering from lack of consistent lessons. To explain: we are coming to the end of the academic year here - with it being southern hemisphere the summer is in December/January - and the Grade 10's and Grade12's (our Y11 & 13) are doing their external exams. This means that teachers have to supervise the exams and in addition some teachers are called away to Windhoek to mark the papers, thus leaving some classes without teachers. Whilst their behaviour is amazingly good, they do end up getting more and more boisterous as the day goes on and they have more and more lessons with little or no supervision.
The computers are now in good shape - the virus protection is at last updating each day and currently I think we are virus free. In my computer room I have 20 student computers connected to a main server. The learners had a nasty shock this week as they weren't aware that I could see all of their screens on my screen - it makes it easy to spot who is playing games and take appropriate action! I'm Mr Bad Guy at the moment as I have also removed their access to the Internet - they are now only allowed on if it is appropriate for them to do so! There was an announcement this morning that 20 staff (out of 30) needed to be trained to Level 1 of the International Computer Driving License (ICDL) by April next year - I think I know what I might be asked to do next!
The one area that I struggle with most is the timing of the school day - you have to go by the bell not by your watch and this makes any attempt at doing a plenary a hit and mostly miss affair. Assembly day (Weds) is the worst as we sometimes have two lessons rather than three before the first break, then sometimes we squeeze in the remaining lessons or we miss out one of the lessons - the question is which one?
Everyone is much more physical here, and I'm going to have a shock when I come back to the hands off culture in the UK. This week I had two girls touch my arms - they are fascinated by the difference between their smooth skin and my hairy skin! When I asked them whether they would be uncomfortable if I was to pat their heads they both said not at all, and they were quite shocked when I said that it had made me feel uncomfortable. They are physical with each other too - often arriving to the lesson with cuts and bruises from fights. How should I put it? The sanctions are physical too, I have told all of my classes that I will not being using corporal punishment (- I just use my tongue instead!) and in return for my respect I expect them to show me respect! I discovered recently that when you send a learner out of your class you risk not seeing them again as they disappear off to the toilets so that they won't get punished by other teachers - it makes sending them out to speak to them quietly a bit difficult - they are not used to the idea that they might be let back in to the class after they have been spoken to. I guess in time they will get used to my way of doing things.
At the end of the school day the learners "pray"/chant "Now that school is over, Father hear our prayers, Take us safely homewards, In thy loving care, Amen" Normally at this point they would then stampede for the door, however they are now beginning to get used to my routine of me dismissing them a row at a time. I noticed the other day that another teacher who had seen my routines do the same thing - what have I done?!