Ok first SUPER exciting thing: I finally after a year and a half got to see my family!! Not on skype not through pictures but IN PERSON! I finally got to show my family all that I love about Namibia. They saw the coast and the desert, my village, all the exotic animals we've only seen in Zoos, and they got to climb rocks and look at sunsets, but they also got to meet the people who have made this experience so great (Even getting to experience putting my brother on the roof to get a wooden airplane!). And it included riding in a Combi! Much more spacious than the ones I take but still everyone together for long car trips!
Literally right after my parents left I went back to the village for a week and then it was off to Windhoek again for Camp GLOW with the theme of Dinosaurs! Camp this year was AMAZING! We had 75 learners from all around Namibia come and we did a bunch of different activities for the whole week. Two of my learners from my village went and my team, the Golden Eggs, got second place in the Race against Extinction! We did a stereotype wall, which is boxes with phrases like All owanbos are... all town people are..., and the kids had to write all the stereotypes. and then we form a wall of the boxes and it shows home stereotypes distance us form each other even though you may not know it. My favorite stereotype? One learner wrote All Damaras like fighting with materials. materials meaning beer bottles etc. I laughed for a little while on that one since it hits close to home!
I ran the whole health day which was SUPER exhausting but I really felt like the kids were engaged and learned a lot. It was cool to take a subject like HIV/AIDS that can be boring to learners and turn it into something that they really were interested in. we did a bunch of different activities to show how HIV/AIDS is transmitted. One of my favorite activities was one called My Partner My Choice where the learners all had a card on their back that no one could read: like 'biggest player in Namibia' or 'faithful father of 2' 'HIV Positive' etc. The learners, without knowing what the cards said, picked a partner. Once they had a partner we looked at the cards and I asked them if the cards made them feel better or worse about their choice. It was an activity to show that you should get to know a person before deciding to have sex or get into a relationship.
Until next time!
