Week 2- It gets hot

So at one point I thought last week would never end, but it did, and now I am already in my second week of teaching. The weekend was very nice, Sinead and I went to Oshakati on Friday to go to the internet cafe to put photos on our blogs (you can see them below), and then we had an excellent birthday party for Sinead at our friend Loren's house in Oshikuku (of course these town names mean nothing to most of you.) Then it was back to Oshakati on Saturday for shopping at Game (the Namibian equivalent of Target), Pick-n-Pay (an excellent supermarket), and lunch at Wimpy's (typical fast food, but at least they wait on you). There we had a banana milkshake that was blue, it was really amazing, stay tuned for pictures. Sunday we were busy make teaching plans for the year, which was not so fun, but we also had time to go for a very hot run.

So last week was nice and cool because it had been raining so much, but now the sky is clear and it is nastily hot. I would say Atlanta in August is a good comparison, and you might say oh that's not so bad, but remember there isn't any air conditioning within 90 km. And in September it is suppoused to be even hotter, like in the 100s on a regular basis. So for the time being I don't really mind that I don't get hot water at my house, and doing my laundry by hand is kind of nice because I get all wet. I am looking forward to winter though, when everyone says it is very cold but really it is just pleasant (like 70s during the day, upper 40s to 50s at night).

Teaching is maybe getting better, though I really can't tell. My students are all very well behaved, but they also hate to speak in class, and don't ask questions when they don't understand me. Math is going a little better than English, where I am struggling with years of bad grammar instruction. Students love to say "I used to work" or "I used to pound mahangu" (mahangu is millet, and it is pounded so you can make bread with it), instead of "I worked" or "I pounded mahangu". I'm trying to break them of the habit, but I'm not sure how long it will take. Everyone is getting a little more used to me- I miss how they used to all stand up and say good morning when I walked in, but I'm glad that they stop covering their faces when I ask them to speak in class.

So its getting a bit easier, I'm sure there are many challenges left to come, but I'm beginning to see how I could do this for a year.