Our second beauty pageant

We were once again asked to judge a beauty pageant (they obviously didn't learn from their first mistake!). This time however, we were judging our own learners which made it slightly more difficult - we really didn't want moans and complaints in the classroom!





Once again some of the outfits were simply adorable, and there were a couple of girls who stood out right from the beginning. The first girl in the line (the one with the pink bow in her hair) was particularly adorable.






So we watched and judged the three rounds, while two senior boys entertained the audience with jokes and dance groups filled the empty time. Once again we ended up giving most of our food and drinks away!

The entertainment for the evening :)

The most depressed group of winners ever

So the winners were announced and to our bewilderment all four of the girls walked onto the stage blubbing her eyes out...even the girl who won! This is simply something I will never understand.

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Another week of madness

Well we have had yet another week of madness here. The creepy crawlies have begun to come out in force, meaning that there has been more than one instance where one of us run screaming from a room. We have come up with a good method of dealing with these creatures though. We trap them under a glass and then the next day we make one of the secondary boys get rid of it for us.

We've had a LOAD of marking to do this week, and since none of the children have books (they all claim they've been stolen) we always end up with hundreds of pieces of paper - very annoying. But we did manage to come up with a reasonably successful way of organising them into the different classes and subjects. However, a strong gust of wind always had the potential to cause chaos!





I also found an old picture which made me laugh. We had attended a youth group meeting and afterwards, the preacher had announced that his car wouldn't start and that we would need to give him a push start. Typical!










Daisy and I also discovered that one of the two shops here in Tses sometimes sells cupcakes - a very exciting discovery!
Daisy and I also got to watch a hostel punishment... Namibia style. Three of the secondary boys had left the yard without permission and so as a punishment they were made to sweep the entire yard. It took them a very, very long time.

Daisy made me an ankle bracelet!

We've been using our free time this week making friendship bracelets. They're a fun way to spend our time if we're just sat chatting or watching a movie, and the kids absolutely love them as prizes!

This was only the first batch!

And of course, I have to include a couple of photos of Daisy being odd. I wonder how long she'll go this time before realising? She continues to threaten to create a folder of mugshots of me but so far I appear to be safe...but I suspect it wont last forever!

The missing cast member of the Hobbit!

Keetmanshoop

Our favorite restaurant

One day this bridge will break...

My only letter....

Each Friday afternoon after school Daisy and I go to our local town called Keetmanshoop. By 'local' we mean 80 km away, that's about a 45-60 minute drive depending on who's behind the wheel. Most weeks we get a lift with our host, Mrs Kruse, but sometimes we hitch-hike instead, which is always an interesting experience.

Daisy's first letter!

They have some cool chairs as well!

In Keetmans we do our weekly food shop, collect our post (well, Daisy does, I normally just watch in jealousy!) get money out the bank and have a wander around the shops. We've also started going to a restaurant for lunch. It's nice to not have to worry about cooking once a week, and it's also our chance to eat some meat! Plus we have discovered the restaraunt does amazing milkshakes, they have quickly become part of the weekly routine! 

A very reassuring sign in the bank!

Daisy living up to her nickname

A very proud hiker!

Daisy was NOT happy in the cold!

Mug shots and singing

During World Food Day a couple of our classes were particularly well behaved and so were allowed to sing - their favorite reward EVER. While they sung I seized the opportunity to attempt to get some 'natural' photos of them (since they are pose whenever they see a camera this is rather tricky). So here are the results, enjoy...

One of our most adorable little boys!

The results when I let a learner use my camera...

Quite cute pictures really 

'I am not amused!'

The airport!

A few days ago I realised it would probably be a good idea for me to back up my photos from my iPhone onto my laptop. Scrolling through my photos I stumbled across a few photos of the airport in Windhoek from when we had first arrived in Namibia.

Two of the photos show us sat on the floor in arrivals, attempting to locate our missing bags (we were sat there for a very, very long time). The other photo shows the trailer that had been brought for our bags, and three members of our group who decided that they wanted to sit in it for the journey - surprisingly enough (when considering the lack of health and safety here) they weren't allowed to. 

It's strange looking at the photos, realising that it's been almost two months since we started out on our year away. It feels like time has gone so quickly, I can barely believe it's about to be two months! But at exactly the same time it feels like we've been here for so much longer! 

Netball girls

One day a group of girls came over to the house to have their photos taken. They were apparently a netball team and wanted to have a team photo so once again I became the paparazzi (I managed to resist asking if they had any bibs).

They ended up staying for a while, chatting to Daisy and I, learning how to make friendship bracelets and braiding our hair - they were surprisingly gentle as well, compared to some of the secondary girls who seem determined to pull my hair out from my scalp.







 The group of girls was followed, as always , by this tiny little girl who absolutely loves having her photo taken, and since she's so adorable I can never seem to say no to her!