Posing with the toys that were donated - we brought them to FHS and the kids loved them!
Going out for dinner!
Four wheeling in the Namib Desert - right off the ocean
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Pictures finally!
Our huts at Penduka
Posing with the toys that were donated - we brought them to FHS and the kids loved them!
Going out for dinner!
Four wheeling in the Namib Desert - right off the ocean
Posing with the toys that were donated - we brought them to FHS and the kids loved them!
Going out for dinner!
Four wheeling in the Namib Desert - right off the ocean
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Easter Party!
Wa lele po?
This is the beginning to the traditional Oshiwambo greeting, one we’ve all been practicing and are finally feeling comfortable enough to actually use. We sometimes mess up the series of phrases used in the greeting, and the people we are talking to think it’s incredibly funny, but they love that we try.
We spent last night making more peanut butter and jam sandwiches (none of us will be eating a PB&J sandwich again anytime soon) and putting candy in the 30 dozen Easter eggs we brought. Once the eggs were all filled, we still had a ton of candy left. So we filled another 100 plastic bags with candy, and still had a little to spare. We made sure to leave some for the staff members of Penduka to bring home to their families. The Easter party today was a huge success. We got to FHS around 9:00am and began preparing. First we made all of the children who were already there go and wait outside the gate. Two of the teachers from FHS brought them into the community to play games and pass the time until the start time at 10:00am. We got to work mixing up hot chocolate and getting the sandwiches ready to hand out. We hid all of the Easter eggs, a feat that surprisingly only took about 5 minutes. Then we put the extra candy out all around the school. Annie went to go get the kids and tell them we were ready. Everyone else stood at the gates, ready to attempt to control chaos.
We waited and waited, and the kids still hadn’t come back. We were beginning to worry when we heard the sound of singing. We looked up, and coming down the hill were the teachers, Annie, and about 200 children from the local communities. Once Annie had gotten to them, they all decided to walk around the community singing in celebration of the holiday, and to gather more children for the egg hunt. They got to the gate and we made the older kids stand back so the young ones could get through and start the hunt. The main goal was to get the little ones out of the way, so they wouldn’t be trampled. After we got the younger kids through the gate and into the school, we opened up the gate and all the rest of the kids came running through. It was a bit of a stampede, and more than one of us walked into the school carrying a crying child who missed out on getting an egg. But we had plenty of leftover candy, and once they got their hands on some chocolate, the tears stopped and they were all smiles.
We passed out the food and hot chocolate and all the kids sat down around the school to eat. The school is not that large, and we could barely fit all 200 kids into it. It was extremely funny to watch them drink the hot chocolate. They had never had it before, and they would start to drink with wary expressions. After the first taste, they gulped it down and were soon back, asking for more. Luckily, we had just enough food to go around, and everyone got a sandwich and plenty of hot chocolate. After a prayer and more candy handouts, the younger children left the school to walk home. Queen handed out some bags she had gotten from the Census to all the older kids, and we have never seen more faces light up with joy. She got the bags for free, and it’s amazing how simple things mean so much to these kids. They have so little, and even the smallest present is an occasion for celebration. The older kids had a lesson from the teachers about what Easter means, while the rest of us sat down for the first time in what felt like hours. But before long we were back on our feet, playing soccer with the kids and handing out yet more candy. But despite the incredible heat and trying to keep order with only one adult for every 20 kids, the day felt like it was over before it had a chance to begin. We cleaned up the school and sent the last few kids on their way home. We got back to Penduka and took a little time to clean ourselves up, before heading over to dinner at one of the teacher’s houses. We spent a lot of time there, learning more about the school and the new programs they had implemented since Annie and Mary’s last visit. After good food and good conversation, we now find ourselves back at Penduka, very much ready for bed.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and some of us are trying to devise a way to get to church in the morning. Lacking a car and a guide makes it slightly difficult. We are also preparing to say goodbye to Queen and Nicole. It seems like their time here passed much too quickly, and they are already anxiously awaiting a return trip next year. Annie, Mary, Linda, and I are working out our plans for the next two weeks. Having done so much of our work in the first two weeks means that we find ourselves with a lot of free time. We are hoping to take a trip for two or three days and go on a game drive. Since the school is closed for Easter break next week, we will probably take our trip in the next few days, so that we can be back in time to help out again at the school the following week. We will also spend much of that time preparing for next year and making plans based on what went well and what we can do better next time. We are so excited about what we have already accomplished, and are very much looking forward to making this work something that can be continued in the future.
Thanks for following us so far, more to come in the next few days. Happy Easter and Passover to everyone!!! If I knew how to say “goodbye” in Oshiwambo, I would. However, we’re not quite there yet. ;-) Good wishes from Africa.
~Annie, Mary, Linda, Queen, Nicole, and Genny
P.S. - One a side note, it's daylight savings time tonight in Namibia. Since their "winter" is beginning, we will be setting our clocks BACK one hour. Yay for an unexpected extra hour of sleep!
(Easter party pictures will be up soon)
This is the beginning to the traditional Oshiwambo greeting, one we’ve all been practicing and are finally feeling comfortable enough to actually use. We sometimes mess up the series of phrases used in the greeting, and the people we are talking to think it’s incredibly funny, but they love that we try.
We spent last night making more peanut butter and jam sandwiches (none of us will be eating a PB&J sandwich again anytime soon) and putting candy in the 30 dozen Easter eggs we brought. Once the eggs were all filled, we still had a ton of candy left. So we filled another 100 plastic bags with candy, and still had a little to spare. We made sure to leave some for the staff members of Penduka to bring home to their families. The Easter party today was a huge success. We got to FHS around 9:00am and began preparing. First we made all of the children who were already there go and wait outside the gate. Two of the teachers from FHS brought them into the community to play games and pass the time until the start time at 10:00am. We got to work mixing up hot chocolate and getting the sandwiches ready to hand out. We hid all of the Easter eggs, a feat that surprisingly only took about 5 minutes. Then we put the extra candy out all around the school. Annie went to go get the kids and tell them we were ready. Everyone else stood at the gates, ready to attempt to control chaos.
We waited and waited, and the kids still hadn’t come back. We were beginning to worry when we heard the sound of singing. We looked up, and coming down the hill were the teachers, Annie, and about 200 children from the local communities. Once Annie had gotten to them, they all decided to walk around the community singing in celebration of the holiday, and to gather more children for the egg hunt. They got to the gate and we made the older kids stand back so the young ones could get through and start the hunt. The main goal was to get the little ones out of the way, so they wouldn’t be trampled. After we got the younger kids through the gate and into the school, we opened up the gate and all the rest of the kids came running through. It was a bit of a stampede, and more than one of us walked into the school carrying a crying child who missed out on getting an egg. But we had plenty of leftover candy, and once they got their hands on some chocolate, the tears stopped and they were all smiles.
We passed out the food and hot chocolate and all the kids sat down around the school to eat. The school is not that large, and we could barely fit all 200 kids into it. It was extremely funny to watch them drink the hot chocolate. They had never had it before, and they would start to drink with wary expressions. After the first taste, they gulped it down and were soon back, asking for more. Luckily, we had just enough food to go around, and everyone got a sandwich and plenty of hot chocolate. After a prayer and more candy handouts, the younger children left the school to walk home. Queen handed out some bags she had gotten from the Census to all the older kids, and we have never seen more faces light up with joy. She got the bags for free, and it’s amazing how simple things mean so much to these kids. They have so little, and even the smallest present is an occasion for celebration. The older kids had a lesson from the teachers about what Easter means, while the rest of us sat down for the first time in what felt like hours. But before long we were back on our feet, playing soccer with the kids and handing out yet more candy. But despite the incredible heat and trying to keep order with only one adult for every 20 kids, the day felt like it was over before it had a chance to begin. We cleaned up the school and sent the last few kids on their way home. We got back to Penduka and took a little time to clean ourselves up, before heading over to dinner at one of the teacher’s houses. We spent a lot of time there, learning more about the school and the new programs they had implemented since Annie and Mary’s last visit. After good food and good conversation, we now find ourselves back at Penduka, very much ready for bed.
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and some of us are trying to devise a way to get to church in the morning. Lacking a car and a guide makes it slightly difficult. We are also preparing to say goodbye to Queen and Nicole. It seems like their time here passed much too quickly, and they are already anxiously awaiting a return trip next year. Annie, Mary, Linda, and I are working out our plans for the next two weeks. Having done so much of our work in the first two weeks means that we find ourselves with a lot of free time. We are hoping to take a trip for two or three days and go on a game drive. Since the school is closed for Easter break next week, we will probably take our trip in the next few days, so that we can be back in time to help out again at the school the following week. We will also spend much of that time preparing for next year and making plans based on what went well and what we can do better next time. We are so excited about what we have already accomplished, and are very much looking forward to making this work something that can be continued in the future.
Thanks for following us so far, more to come in the next few days. Happy Easter and Passover to everyone!!! If I knew how to say “goodbye” in Oshiwambo, I would. However, we’re not quite there yet. ;-) Good wishes from Africa.
~Annie, Mary, Linda, Queen, Nicole, and Genny
P.S. - One a side note, it's daylight savings time tonight in Namibia. Since their "winter" is beginning, we will be setting our clocks BACK one hour. Yay for an unexpected extra hour of sleep!
(Easter party pictures will be up soon)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Clinics, blood pressure, and peanut butter and jam sandwiches
01/04/2010
Hello from Namibia!
We have been busy! Yesterday, Nicole and Genny spent the morning at FHS again, helping out the overworked teachers. We spent time working one-on-one with kids who were having trouble with counting. There are 3 teachers and between 80-100 kids, depending on the day. They are barely able to keep control of the whole class, let alone have time to work one-on-one with kids who need extra attention. Once the hard work was done, each of the kids made an Easter basket out of a paper plate and pipe cleaner. The teachers brought candy, and each child got two pieces to go in their basket. They were extremely excited to decorate their baskets and write their names on them. School is out next week for the Easter holiday. This might seem like a nice break for the kids, but it means that many of them will go without the two meals they get every day at school. But the teachers will definitely need the week off, after dealing with energetic kids all day. Easter is a huge holiday in Namibia. Everything is closed from Good Friday through Easter Sunday and there are people everywhere preparing for the holiday. We are preparing for our Easter party on Saturday. We’re expecting around 200 children from the local communities. We’ll be doing a huge Easter egg hunt at FHS and serving lunch to all the kids. We’re expecting mass chaos, and looking forward to it! The kids here are wonderful, and we’ve all fallen in love with them. We are excited to do an event that is just for them.
Yesterday afternoon we all went into the community and did a short clinic afternoon. We were there for about 2 hours and checked blood pressure for about 150 people. We handed out sandwiches and played with the kids. It was a good test run for today. Today we went into a different community and did more blood pressure checks. We gave out vitamins and sandwiches. We had prenatal and children’s vitamins, vitamin C and calcium. We had limited supplies, so we gave the calcium and prenatal vitamins just to the women and the vitamin C mostly to the men. We ran out much too fast. It was sad to know that we were only giving one-month supplies of vitamins, and that they would be gone long before we could come back next year with more. We also gave out about 100 shaving razors to the men in the community. We ran out in about 3 minutes and added razors to our long list of things we will definitely bring here in the future. Today we checked around 200 people for high blood pressure and things went much smoother. Between the 200 people checked today, and the 150 checked yesterday, we had around 50 that had high blood pressure. There was one man who tested so high that we had to put him in a taxi and send him to the nearest clinic to get immediate treatment. We were able to provide everyone else with a referral to the clinic. We will be giving the blood pressure medication to one of the doctors from the community hospital, and he will ensure that the medications get to those who were referred, at no cost to them.
We will most likely relax tomorrow, since there is very little going on in the communities. We move from Rivendell into Penduka tomorrow, and have a lot of work to pack everything up and get it organized. We all got a little too comfortable at Rivendell, and have been living like slobs! Tonight many of us hand washed clothes and packed up everything we had lying around to get ready to move tomorrow. Penduka isn’t as nice as Rivendell, or as centrally located, but we all want the experience of living closer to the rural communities of Namibia. It is easy to ignore the poverty that goes on just on the outskirts of the city, when we are surrounded with only the city life. Life in the rural communities is hard. Very often there is little to no running water close by. They live in tin houses, with rocks that hold the roofs in place so they do not blow away. There are communal bathrooms that are essentially latrines with tin walls for privacy. With dirt floors and leaky roofs, it is hard to imagine anyone living every day of their life in this setting. There are fences with barbed wire everywhere in Namibia, except in these communities where the tin houses are side by side, and generally only consist of one or two rooms. At times we feel like the work we are doing is only a single drop in a very large bucket, but we hope the ripple we make will be felt even by those we are not able to directly help. Hopefully our presence shows them that someone does care, even when it feels like their own country and government does not. We tell them all that we hope to come again next year, and every year after that, and that we will not forget them. They shake our hands, and thank us, and walk back to their tin houses, vitamins in hand.
Until next time, say hello to MN for us!
~Annie, Mary, Linda, Queen, Nicole, and Genny
Hello from Namibia!
We have been busy! Yesterday, Nicole and Genny spent the morning at FHS again, helping out the overworked teachers. We spent time working one-on-one with kids who were having trouble with counting. There are 3 teachers and between 80-100 kids, depending on the day. They are barely able to keep control of the whole class, let alone have time to work one-on-one with kids who need extra attention. Once the hard work was done, each of the kids made an Easter basket out of a paper plate and pipe cleaner. The teachers brought candy, and each child got two pieces to go in their basket. They were extremely excited to decorate their baskets and write their names on them. School is out next week for the Easter holiday. This might seem like a nice break for the kids, but it means that many of them will go without the two meals they get every day at school. But the teachers will definitely need the week off, after dealing with energetic kids all day. Easter is a huge holiday in Namibia. Everything is closed from Good Friday through Easter Sunday and there are people everywhere preparing for the holiday. We are preparing for our Easter party on Saturday. We’re expecting around 200 children from the local communities. We’ll be doing a huge Easter egg hunt at FHS and serving lunch to all the kids. We’re expecting mass chaos, and looking forward to it! The kids here are wonderful, and we’ve all fallen in love with them. We are excited to do an event that is just for them.
Yesterday afternoon we all went into the community and did a short clinic afternoon. We were there for about 2 hours and checked blood pressure for about 150 people. We handed out sandwiches and played with the kids. It was a good test run for today. Today we went into a different community and did more blood pressure checks. We gave out vitamins and sandwiches. We had prenatal and children’s vitamins, vitamin C and calcium. We had limited supplies, so we gave the calcium and prenatal vitamins just to the women and the vitamin C mostly to the men. We ran out much too fast. It was sad to know that we were only giving one-month supplies of vitamins, and that they would be gone long before we could come back next year with more. We also gave out about 100 shaving razors to the men in the community. We ran out in about 3 minutes and added razors to our long list of things we will definitely bring here in the future. Today we checked around 200 people for high blood pressure and things went much smoother. Between the 200 people checked today, and the 150 checked yesterday, we had around 50 that had high blood pressure. There was one man who tested so high that we had to put him in a taxi and send him to the nearest clinic to get immediate treatment. We were able to provide everyone else with a referral to the clinic. We will be giving the blood pressure medication to one of the doctors from the community hospital, and he will ensure that the medications get to those who were referred, at no cost to them.
We will most likely relax tomorrow, since there is very little going on in the communities. We move from Rivendell into Penduka tomorrow, and have a lot of work to pack everything up and get it organized. We all got a little too comfortable at Rivendell, and have been living like slobs! Tonight many of us hand washed clothes and packed up everything we had lying around to get ready to move tomorrow. Penduka isn’t as nice as Rivendell, or as centrally located, but we all want the experience of living closer to the rural communities of Namibia. It is easy to ignore the poverty that goes on just on the outskirts of the city, when we are surrounded with only the city life. Life in the rural communities is hard. Very often there is little to no running water close by. They live in tin houses, with rocks that hold the roofs in place so they do not blow away. There are communal bathrooms that are essentially latrines with tin walls for privacy. With dirt floors and leaky roofs, it is hard to imagine anyone living every day of their life in this setting. There are fences with barbed wire everywhere in Namibia, except in these communities where the tin houses are side by side, and generally only consist of one or two rooms. At times we feel like the work we are doing is only a single drop in a very large bucket, but we hope the ripple we make will be felt even by those we are not able to directly help. Hopefully our presence shows them that someone does care, even when it feels like their own country and government does not. We tell them all that we hope to come again next year, and every year after that, and that we will not forget them. They shake our hands, and thank us, and walk back to their tin houses, vitamins in hand.
Until next time, say hello to MN for us!
~Annie, Mary, Linda, Queen, Nicole, and Genny
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Mount Sinai Day
27/03/2010
Hello again!
We have had a busy last two days. Yesterday, Nicole and Genny spent the morning at Family Hope Sanctuary (FHS) helping out with the school activities. The kids were wild and energetic since it was the last day of school before the weekend. There were about 30 kids, and since it was our third day there, they had gotten to know us pretty well. They would climb into our arms and on our backs and everywhere we turned there was another child who wanted a hug. They knew we usually had treats with us, so they would search our pockets for candy. We had a busy morning at the school, but before we knew it, the morning class was over and had left to walk home. Annie, Mary, Linda, and Queen spent the morning running errands and getting ready for Mount Sinai Day. They picked up $1,300 worth of formula to be handed out to the HIV+ mothers registered with Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai provides formula for HIV+ mothers who have HIV- infants, so that they will not breastfeed and risk passing the virus onto their babies. The Center provides formula to the mothers until their children turn one year-old, then they provide food parcels until the children turn two. Though we are excited about our ability to donate formula, we know that the amount we gave to the Center will only last for one month. We all spent the afternoon putting together food parcels with the food we bought on Wednesday. We made 300 food parcels for the mothers registered at the Center. It was extremely hot and sweaty work, but we had 7 of the mothers from the Center helping us do the work, so we were done very quickly. Everyone here is extremely helpful, and wants to lend a hand in any way they can. Solomon and Danny (two of Mary’s friends) have given us rides, picked up last minute supplies, and even helped us count and bag vitamins for Mount Sinai Day. We went to bed tired and ready for the next day.
Mount Sinai Day started for us at 6:00am. We got to the Center and got to work. We set up tents and chairs, starting making peanut butter and jam sandwiches for breakfast, and organized the clinic area. Before we knew it, the women began to arrive. Mount Sinai does a pick-up day once a month, where the mothers come to get formula and food parcels, weigh-in themselves and their babies, and receive ongoing education. The Center is run by Christa, though she always says that her mothers do all the work. She works night-shift as a nurse and can only spend mornings at the Center, since she is not paid to run Mount Sinai. Christa welcomed us to join in on the pick-up day., so we could run our women’s clinic. We checked blood pressure and blood sugars, made and served breakfast and lunch, brought in a social worker to talk about rape and domestic violence, and handed out the food parcels and vitamins. Most of the women were registered with Mount Sinai, but some of them were from the community and had come to the Center just to visit the clinic and get a meal. It was amazing to see all the women and children that came to be a part of this day. What was even more amazing was looking at the large group of women, and knowing that most of them were HIV+, and then looking at all the children running around and knowing that they were HIV- thanks to the work that Mount Sinai has done. After a long day we arrived back at Rivendell around 2:30pm and chose to relax for the rest of the day. We all took our first swim in the little pool near our rooms. It was extremely cold and felt amazing on our sunburns. We ordered pizza (African style - a.k.a. - no tomato sauce) and sat in the shade, reading and relaxing.
We’ll go to bed soon and tomorrow we leave to spend 2 days on the coast in Swacopmund. We’ll spend that time strictly as tourists, before getting back to work preparing for our next two medical clinics taking place next week, and for our Easter party for the kids at FHS. We’re all looking forward to a few days break, since we packed a week’s worth of activity into four days. Everyone has something they want to do in Swacopmund. Though Linda would love to be going skydiving, Nicole is actually the one who will be jumping from the plane. Linda instead is looking forward to walking on the beach, feeling the ocean breeze. Annie is excited to see the Namib Desert again, which is the largest desert in the world. Mary will be watching the sunset on Dune 7 and cannot wait to see the ocean again. Queen is looking forward to having a weekend to just kick back and relax. I will be four-wheeling in the sand dunes and buying more souvenirs than I can fit in my suitcase. And we’re all looking forward to seeing the local crafts and visiting the wood market as well.
Check out the pictures! We will update again soon. Thank you again to everyone who has helped to make this work possible. Food is hope to the Namibian people and you are present in every outstretched hand that we are able to fill. Keep us in your thoughts, there are many more days ahead.
~Annie, Mary, Linda, Queen, Nicole, Genny
Hello again!
We have had a busy last two days. Yesterday, Nicole and Genny spent the morning at Family Hope Sanctuary (FHS) helping out with the school activities. The kids were wild and energetic since it was the last day of school before the weekend. There were about 30 kids, and since it was our third day there, they had gotten to know us pretty well. They would climb into our arms and on our backs and everywhere we turned there was another child who wanted a hug. They knew we usually had treats with us, so they would search our pockets for candy. We had a busy morning at the school, but before we knew it, the morning class was over and had left to walk home. Annie, Mary, Linda, and Queen spent the morning running errands and getting ready for Mount Sinai Day. They picked up $1,300 worth of formula to be handed out to the HIV+ mothers registered with Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai provides formula for HIV+ mothers who have HIV- infants, so that they will not breastfeed and risk passing the virus onto their babies. The Center provides formula to the mothers until their children turn one year-old, then they provide food parcels until the children turn two. Though we are excited about our ability to donate formula, we know that the amount we gave to the Center will only last for one month. We all spent the afternoon putting together food parcels with the food we bought on Wednesday. We made 300 food parcels for the mothers registered at the Center. It was extremely hot and sweaty work, but we had 7 of the mothers from the Center helping us do the work, so we were done very quickly. Everyone here is extremely helpful, and wants to lend a hand in any way they can. Solomon and Danny (two of Mary’s friends) have given us rides, picked up last minute supplies, and even helped us count and bag vitamins for Mount Sinai Day. We went to bed tired and ready for the next day.
Mount Sinai Day started for us at 6:00am. We got to the Center and got to work. We set up tents and chairs, starting making peanut butter and jam sandwiches for breakfast, and organized the clinic area. Before we knew it, the women began to arrive. Mount Sinai does a pick-up day once a month, where the mothers come to get formula and food parcels, weigh-in themselves and their babies, and receive ongoing education. The Center is run by Christa, though she always says that her mothers do all the work. She works night-shift as a nurse and can only spend mornings at the Center, since she is not paid to run Mount Sinai. Christa welcomed us to join in on the pick-up day., so we could run our women’s clinic. We checked blood pressure and blood sugars, made and served breakfast and lunch, brought in a social worker to talk about rape and domestic violence, and handed out the food parcels and vitamins. Most of the women were registered with Mount Sinai, but some of them were from the community and had come to the Center just to visit the clinic and get a meal. It was amazing to see all the women and children that came to be a part of this day. What was even more amazing was looking at the large group of women, and knowing that most of them were HIV+, and then looking at all the children running around and knowing that they were HIV- thanks to the work that Mount Sinai has done. After a long day we arrived back at Rivendell around 2:30pm and chose to relax for the rest of the day. We all took our first swim in the little pool near our rooms. It was extremely cold and felt amazing on our sunburns. We ordered pizza (African style - a.k.a. - no tomato sauce) and sat in the shade, reading and relaxing.
We’ll go to bed soon and tomorrow we leave to spend 2 days on the coast in Swacopmund. We’ll spend that time strictly as tourists, before getting back to work preparing for our next two medical clinics taking place next week, and for our Easter party for the kids at FHS. We’re all looking forward to a few days break, since we packed a week’s worth of activity into four days. Everyone has something they want to do in Swacopmund. Though Linda would love to be going skydiving, Nicole is actually the one who will be jumping from the plane. Linda instead is looking forward to walking on the beach, feeling the ocean breeze. Annie is excited to see the Namib Desert again, which is the largest desert in the world. Mary will be watching the sunset on Dune 7 and cannot wait to see the ocean again. Queen is looking forward to having a weekend to just kick back and relax. I will be four-wheeling in the sand dunes and buying more souvenirs than I can fit in my suitcase. And we’re all looking forward to seeing the local crafts and visiting the wood market as well.
Check out the pictures! We will update again soon. Thank you again to everyone who has helped to make this work possible. Food is hope to the Namibian people and you are present in every outstretched hand that we are able to fill. Keep us in your thoughts, there are many more days ahead.
~Annie, Mary, Linda, Queen, Nicole, Genny
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