Start of the “up to 14 yrs class” Ameb (the genitor) and Iiyambo is watching.

World AIDS Day

We marked the World AIDS Day (1st December) with an event on Wednesday. The event started with a race early in the morning followed by soccer and volleyball games. The army base provided tents, drinks and bread. It was a success and many happy faces during the day! Even if we tried to involve many people, the event was mainly organized by me and Iiyambo with help from some of the teachers and community volunteers. Condoms were of course available for everyone.

The lioness slowly drags the meat into hiding, but the jackals follow close after.

Tate Hans

Yesterday they found old Tate Hans dead in the bush. He left the location in the morning on Sunday and was found in the afternoon the day after. He was one of the Hai║om elders and was present when we had a traditional gathering and spent the night at the school – singing and dancing together with around 20 school kids. May he rest in peace.

It's not always easy to stand in a row.

Fabiola (one of my Youth Leaders) teaching P.E.

After skydiving we had to celebrate! Lena, Terje, Me, Raviv and our cool skydiver/snakecatcher/lionstarer friend making cool hand signs.

Two determined skydivers.

Weekend of fun!

This weekend five of us Namibian volunteers met up in Swakopmund by the coast to come together and have some fun. Swakopmund is the tourist capital of Namibia and also the most German-influenced city in the country. It is actually like coming to Germany; even the weather is cold and windy. We had a great time with an action packed schedule including skydiving, sand boarding, quad biking and tequila drinking! I was rather exhausted when I came back to Oshivelo on Sunday evening (I’m getting older). The skydiving was indescribable so I won’t even try. I know I have to do it again.

Vicky diggin' it.

In short

I don’t know how many 7 cm spiders I’ve killed in my room the last couple of weeks – no wonder it rains.

A couple of days ago, after I played volleyball in the rain, thunder and lightning, I actually felt cold. It was nice. But then I started sweating again.

We had a whole gecko family living under our TV set, but Barney killed them with a broom; first the kid and the mother and then the father. Then we found an old uncle or something, but he had been dead a long time.

The kids here can dance! I wish everybody could learn to move their hips like that in an early age.

Party!

I could hear the singing and chanting from my room for two days and two nights. The Hai║om celebrated two girls who had their first period and therefore had become women. The fiest took place at the Hai║om chief’s house which is close to mine. There where fires, food, singing and traditional dancing continuously for the two full days - a nice party in other words.

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.

Returning home.

Hofni svinging the axe.

My house!

Ongeipi! (Dialect of “ongini”)

Work in school has started and it’s fantastic! There are some challenges though;

• We have 45 minutes (which always becomes less because they have no brake between classes) per class in a 7 day period.
• There is no changing room and no showers or facilities to wash (no toilet).
• The kids play in their school uniform, some in their black leather shoes and some barefoot.
• Some classes are 60 kids.
• All of our balls (which are very few) get flat in no time because of all the thorns and glass lying around.
• The youngest learners don’t know English (and I’m not that good (yet) in Oshiwambo and Damara (Etanga = ball)).
• The women teachers wear blouse, skirt and high heels in the sand!
  It’s 100°C, and the sun is always shining. (This is spring, I can’t wait until summer!)
• There is no evaluation of the students in P.E.
• The teachers actually don’t want to teach P.E. (or they wish I could just take the kids and leave them alone (not doing that though :))

Despite all of the above:

• We are having so much fun!
• The kids love me and I love them!
• The teachers love me (and hit on me) and I love them!
• I, the kids and the teachers learn a lot!

I have also a program in school where some of the older learners (grade 7-10) teach the younger learners (grade 1-4) P.E. It is working very well and they are very professional in their work.

The art exhibition on Namutoni Lodge was a success! Many of the children sold paintings for 300-500 N$ each! They also went for a game drive in the park. Many children continue making paintings to sell at the lodge. Some of the money will go to the school and some to the painter.

Today is “pay day” so many of the teachers jumped up in the back of Barney’s car and went to Tsumeb to burn some money. The teachers here have a quite high salary, around 4800 N$/month.

Kaliipo nawa! (Goodbye, see you later)

My friend John (right)

Art workshop under the tree at the school.

View from the hostel.

Well deserved brake.

The men i charge; Vumisa and Raymond.

Groupwork at 01.00.

NAM-VIP, art workshop and Cape Town

Ongeipi!

I am right now in Cape Town at Western Cape University studying for a week together with six of the other Norwegians. It is so good to see them again and to hear how their life is in South Africa and Zambia.

Two weeks ago we had a workshop in Windhoek together with the other Namibian SCORE volunteers and community volunteers from around Namibia. It was an intense workshop with late working hours – but also a lot of fun!

Beatrice has led the art workshop and when I was leaving them Thursday morning a lot of good work had been done. When I am writing this the exhibition at the Namotoni Lodge in Etosha is already over. I hope it went well!

I have so much I want to tell you but not enough time!

Here some facts (kind of):

The most common car manufacture by far is Toyota (everybody I have spoken to is very satisfied with their Toyota and means it is a very reliable car made for this harsh conditions), pickup model so the can load equipment and people – they always stop for hitchhikers and the hitchhikers always pay (this is actually making it possible for people to afford a car when petrol is a very big expense in Namibia because of the great distances between cities). Average speed on the straight roads is 120 km/h with a crappy car and 160-170 km/h with a good car.

In Oshivelo there are very few cars, not including the police and the army maybe only 3.

Pap - porridge from maize- or omahangumeal is THE food in Namibia (as in many other African countries). Most people eat it with meat (Namibia is known to be a country with a lot of good meat) but some who can’t afford meat eat only Pap (can be eaten with milk as well). Everybody eats with their hands. My fiend John is of the Hai║om (║ is a click sound) people who are counted as a part of the San community (The San people are the indigenous people of Namibia). They have been driven from their land and discriminated for a long time, now receiving compensation from the government. The Hai║om people in Oshivelo live in huts and shacks without electricity or running water. When I saw John sharing a bowl of food with his friend I asked him if it was macaroni and he replied: - Ha, ha, we only eat that on Christmas!

Tomorrow I am going back to Namibia, looking forward to it!

Take care!

Greater Kudu

Two Common giraffes and a Gemsbok.

I found a good cycling track.

This is the bush. For miles and miles and miles...

The road to Oshivelo is...hm...straight.

Oshili Ngini?
How are you?

I am starting to feel at home here in Oshivelo now! I will tell you some of the things I have done so far.

The other day I, Hofni and Kakweya was going out in the bush, collecting firewood. We hitched two donkeys to the cart and slowly (or actually quite fast when the donkeys were running) moved into the bush on the sandy tracks. Hofni is very skilled getting the donkeys were he wants and it was a quite relaxing ride. He uses the ropes to steer and a plastic pipe to hit the donkey’s behind to speed it up. After approximately a thirty minute ride we stopped looking for a good tree. We found a good one and used a big chopping axe to get it down. After about 2 hours of chopping (and me hanging in the tree swinging it back and forth) in the hot sun it finally fell. I insisted on helping with the chopping but it was clear my Namibian friends had swung an axe a few more times than me. The trees are very hard and dry and you often hit it by its length trying to split it up. Although I had not been chopping that much, I was very tired (and thirsty!) when we returned to the homestead with a full cart, after four hours in the sun.

Sometimes the cultural differences create funny situations, like the other day when I showed Kakweya pictures of my family. When I showed him a picture of my wonderful sister Freja (telling him this was my only sister) he said: oh, a fat one. (!) He did not mean to offend me or my sister but it is surely not the way we put it at home! (…and you are not fat Freja!)
Regarding the “African laziness” it differs widely. My friends Hofni and Kakweya for example; they work almost all the time and are saying that if a man don’t know how to work, he will probably get a woman that also don’t know how to work. On the other hand I have tried to gather the “SCORE-committee” two times already without anyone showing up! It is also quite funny how the police are just sitting around (they don’t even pretend to work).

There is lots of good music here! Some of the most popular names are The Dog, Gazza and Sunny boy and they all mix English, Afrikaans and oshiwambo in their lyrics. I will try to buy a CD in Windhoek.

On Thursday Beatrice moved in with us. She is a Mexican painter who is going to have a 3 week art workshop with kids from school here in Oshivelo. We went to Etosha National park to get approval and help from the Namutoni Lodge. I will tell you more about the project later. When Beatrice and the principal had a meeting with the director I and Barney took a drive in the park. It is a truly amazing wildlife there! It is a very big park but you could see lots and lots of animals from the car. It was a great experience!

Next weekend I will go to Windhoek for a planning meeting. I write to you then!

Vicky aka Mama (She is named after both Barneys and Consettas mothers)

She is the cutest girl and always up to something. Favorite dish: Sand.

My family dressed up for church.

Me, Consetta Ralda Buruxa Marthinu, Elias Barney Kainda Marthinu, Brandon Barney Natangwe Marthinu and Charlette Vicky Mucy Marthinu

Oshivelo First Report

Ongepi!
Now I have been in Oshivelo for 7 days. I live in Mr. Marthinu’s (Barney) house; he is a teacher at the only school here. His wife and children live in Grootfontain, about 150 km from here so he often goes there in the weekends. He has one of the finest houses in Oshivelo, with electricity, TV, video, gas stove and running water (only cold). Barney speaks Oshivambo, the most common language in this region and the largest tribe language in Namibia. The other language in Oshivelo is Damara, recognized for its four different click sounds. Oshivelo is very poor and many people live in small huts made of trees or sheet metal. The people here are very friendly and there are lots of kids who want to play with me. The other day I went to the playing field with my equipment (2 soccer balls, 2 volleyballs, 2 basketballs, 1 netball, 1 freesbie, 1 volleyball net, 4 tennis balls, 15 cones and 1 skipping rope.) and many kids came and played. In school they are having an examination period followed by a holiday (18 aug – 4 sep) so the PE won’t start until the 5th of September. I am going to Cape Town for university 1 – 10 sep so my work in school will start after that. I have met with some in the local “SCORE-committee” (witch was formed two month ago) and I will have formal meeting with all of them on Thursday. On Friday I was introduced to all the students at the school (more tan 600). They were singing for me and they all laughed when I told them my surname; it is very hard for them to pronounce “Rosengren”.

The landscape here in Ovamboland is very special; totally flat with small trees and bushes on a floor of red sand. From Tsumeb, the nearest town, it is 96 km straight road with nothing but bush to see. After 96 km there is a control station with a few houses and huts surrounding it – welcome to Oshivelo. The road continues straight ahead towards Angola.
Yesterday we were going to get some Omahangu, the kind of corn they crush to meal and then cook to a hard porridge. Barney had traded a bed that he welded for 5 big bags of Omahangu. We tied the bed to his pickup and off we went – two in the seats and me and three other boys in the back standing with the wind in our faces. After going north on a totally straight road we turned right on what first looked like a road but soon became a 20 m wide strip of sand, also this totally straight. We drove on that sand strip for about 40 minutes, sometimes stopping so Barney could try to shoot some birds! We left the wide sand strip for some smaller tracks and soon arrived at the homestead. This was truly “The bush”. The homestead consisted of 5 huts surrounded by a fence made of branches. One of the boys (who go to school in Oshivelo) showed me his room, his hut. The Omahangu was kept in a giant basket large enough to stand in. When we later returned to the car with our filled bags the big red sun was already setting over the vast landscape.

Over the weekend I went with Barney to visit his family in Grootfontain. He has two wonderful children; Brandon (6) and Vicky (2). His wife Consetta is Damara-speaking but at home they mostly speak Afrikaans. (They all know all the four languages Afrikaans, Oshiwambo, Damara-nama and English.) The family is very important (and very big!) here in Namibia. Before Barney and Consetta were married she used to live with her family in “the location”, a township a couple of kilometres from their house. It is easy to see the connection between small material assets and a strong family. Consetta told me that she was bored in her house and went down to the location almost every day. Here they often don’t make a distinction between brothers or sisters and cousins; they are all brothers and sisters. A big part of everyday life here is visiting family and friends. I have said hallo to many mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins and friends the last couple of days.

I tell you more soon! Internet is 96 km away so I’m not online every day :) Have a wonderful day!

To Oshivelo!

Today we are leaving for our placements! I am going to live in Oshivelo, a very small village in the north, next to the big Etosha national park. It is approx 5-6 hours from Windhoek. Tonight I will meet the host family that I am going to live with for 1 year. I will connect to internet in the closest town Tsumeb, approx 1 hour from Oshivelo, so you hear from me in a week or so.

Our host at the resturant (and also her home) wearing a traditional Herero dress.

Raviv (CA), hungry for more!

Shadrack knows how to handle a sheephead!

Local food

We were served traditional food at a local restaurant. Among the dishes you could find stomach and head from the sheep.

Windhoek

After 18 hours on the bus we finally arrived to Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. Windhoek is a westernized town with many white people and German is a common language. We are here for 4 days for specific orientation.

Cape town

After some hectic days we went to Cape town to be tourists for a day. We took the boat out to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison. Our guide was an ex convict who had spent 7 years on the island. It was a fascinating and quite emotional tour and it is strange to think about that they where held prisoners there when I was out playing as a kid.
Read more at http://www.freedom.co.za/

World Cup!

On sunday we went to the local pub to watch the World Cup. The atmosphere were so good that it didn't do that much that France lost the game. We also tasted the two south african beers Castle and Black Label, a little bit darker than norwegian beer and really good! (10 rand (9 nok) for a bottle )

Nico (CA), Me and Lusanda (SA)

Paarl

Morning climb

We were free between 9-11 this morning so we went for a little mountain climb. The path soon disappeard so we had to fight us through the bushes. We got a little short of time so we ran down (singing).

Lusanda (SA), Nico (CA), Terje (NO) and Mathew (SA)

Me and Lena after the swedish show.

Show!

After many serious sessions we had a good time and a lot of laughs with a country-show, where all participants did a small performace with typical scenes from their home country. I was alone from Sweden so I did a little one man show (with help from Lena). Here we can see Betty and Mandla (both part of the staff) play "Didgeridoo" and Shadrak dressed as a beautiful housewhife!

First day with SCORE

We have arrived and was met with song and dance by the other SCORE volunteers and the staff at the airport. Even though we didn't get all of our luggage we left in the minibus who'd take us to Paarl, about 45 minutes from Capetown with smiles on our faces. Tired but too exhilarated to notice it! We had introduction and some exercises before we could go to bed in the hotel. I share room with Mathew, a white guy from Capetown. He is only 40 minutes by car from home, I'm 13 hours with airplane :)

Departure!

July 4th, we are leaving!
From the top and from left: Anders,Terje, Carina, Tonje, Lena, Randi, Jonatan, Madelaine, Laila and Britt. Happy (but with tears in our eyes) and excited! Our plane leaves at 1700, we arrive in Capetown early in the morning on July 5th.