The whole school is gathered. Once a year they are rewarding the best learners with a certificate of merit. Between the classes there were some dancing and of course a too long boring speech that nobody listened to.

Mr Marthinu is handing out certificates.

The three best learners in grade 3 with their proud teacher.

Scool Sport

Every wednesday whe have a school league in volleyball and soccer.

Bug attack!

Suddenly the rain came. Rain, thunder and lightning almost every night, 40°C++ in the day. With the rain the bugs came. Flying, creeping and crawling. The roads are crowded with centipedes; yesterday I saw one big as a sausage. The other night when I entered the kitchen the floor, table and sink was full of 2-5 cm long flying bugs that lost or almost lost their wings. We are talking hundreds. It looked like someone had emptied a big bucket of dead bugs. Luckily there was a broom close at hand.

I love technology

Information technology has taken a big step in Oshivelo! Internet is here! I have successfully established a dial-up connection over the phone net. It is the first time in O’s history (and maybe the last). It is slow as hell but it works. Now I don't have to pay to go Tsumeb to get slow internet - I have it at home! So now there is no excuse not to e-mail me twice a day – I will answer lightning fast…ish.

Why Oshivelo is not the vegetarian capital of the world:

1. Most (or all) people don’t think a meal without meat is a meal at all – dinner = meat + pap, period.
2. There are no vegetables in Oshivelo (and often no milk or butter either). Closest shop: 96 km
3. At least once a week Barney’s kitchen turns into butchery. You see, he has a big band saw for chopping up meat (mostly goats, but the other night one of Barney’s fathers cow got hit by a car so they had to chop her up). You can hear the saw and feel the strong smell of raw meat from outside the house. In the kitchen animal body parts are lying all over. There is blood on the floor, the walls and everywhere else for that matter. So I sneak in, dodging the bloody limbs and make my way to the gas stove preparing lentils and pasta :)

But I eat good food. I just go to Spar in Tsumeb (where the vegetarian food selection is actually bigger than in an average shop in Norway) and bring all the goodies to Oshivelo.

The girl who did not know that her mother was dead

When Lempi was born her mother didn’t survive the delivery and Lempi was brought up by her mother’s sister. She was never told that this was not her biological mother and therefore she thought so. After a few years she moved to another sister. This sister thought Lempi had been told who was her biological mother and didn’t bother to talk about it. Everybody knew and assumed Lempi also knew. One day when Lempi was 13 years old one of her friends overheard a discussion between a neighbour and another woman:

(In Oshiwambo)
- …who is that girl?
- Oh, Lempi. She is staying with a sister of her mother because her mother passed away long ago.

The girl who didn’t know about Lempi’s biological mother, and missed out the words …long ago, assumed that the sister who had first brought up Lempi had died. She told a friend who told a friend who told Lempi. Lempi was devastated and couldn’t stop crying. She cried and cried and nobody knew why. They took her to the doctor and there she managed to explain that she cried because her mother had died. Confusion was total. They asked her who had told her that and so the talked to all the friends and finally the old neighbour meme. The old meme couldn’t understand what she had said but when she remembered the conversation they all realized Lempi didn’t know the fate of her biological mother. This was how Lempi got to know who her mother was.

Lempi is the secretary on the school and a good friend of mine. She is getting married in December.

The shepherd who became a teacher

When Barney had finished 12th grade he lived with his father and mother in a homestead on the west side of the main road going through Oshivelo. He thought of becoming a mechanic. Their family had many goats and it was Barney’s task to watch them. One day when he was out grazing the goats he passed the school which is situated two kilometres north of the village. Someone shouted at him from the school:

(In Oshiwambo)
- Hey boy! Have you finished 12th grade?
- Yes.
- Good, we need a substitute for one of our teachers, who are on maternity leave, come here.

So Barney began teaching and when the regular teacher returned from her leave the principle thought Barney was such a good teacher and wanted him to stay. Barney took up distance studies to become a teacher and have now been teaching for 10 years.