Home in Aroab

Spoke To Lisa This Morning

Lisa got back to Aroab Thursday Night. That was a very long vacation! - she was away for 15 days!  After catching the overnight train to Keetmanshoop Tuesday she spent Wednesday night there and spent Thursday arranging for a ride to Aroab. Erna thought she had arranged a ride for Lisa and told her to go to the Police Station and wait.  Lisa has spent more time in Police Stations in Africa than she ever would have believed - they seem like community centers where people meet up all the time. Or at least it seems that way (GRIN).

Anyhow - that ride fell through and eventually Lisa got a ride in with a Town Councilman. Waiting she's gotten used to - but the biggest disappointment  was she had planned to do a lot of shopping for food before heading back to Aroab and she didn't end up having the time to do so. Oh well. It's just that she hardly ever gets to Keetmanshoop. But she is living in Africa so such things occur.

Speaking of food - she's discovering the growing seasons in Namibia - the local store has changed over from having lots of carrots to having lots of green peppers. Local seasonal eating is the normal routine there! It's amazing how "Green" you can be and how "Local" you can eat when you have no other options! (GRIN)

 

Quiet Time

After her busy exciting vacation in Livingstone, the quiet of Aroab is a great contrast. The Hostel is closed down (I'm just grateful she still has electricity in her place over the break) and is locked and the fence around the Hostel is also locked so Lisa has to hop the fence to get to her place since she couldn't get keys for either from the powers that be. I guess the fence is low at some places so it isn't too bad. The Mommy in me is disappointed - I was hoping she could get a key so she could get in and watch some TV over the break - just as a distraction. But it wasn't to be.

But folks have been keeping an eye on her place for her - just after she got back and she had opened some windows and turned on her one light she heard a voice call from outside "Lisa? Lisa? Are you home?" They were just checking! Didn't want anyone breaking in. Now that makes a Mommy feel a bit more secure! It's nice to know others are looking out for your kid.

 

School

The school is also locked down so she can't get in to get her classroom set up for next term (Assuming she has the same classroom) or use their TV either. Ahh well.

Lisa heard some statistics about the final exams - not very good ones at that. 11 out of 31 passed 10th grade. - Erna's son was one that passed! He's on to High School in January! From her Hostel among the 6th through 10th graders only 2 passed. I guess the other Hostels had more who passed.

Lisa is hoping that next term she's able to continue teaching her Life Science learners as they move up from 9th to 10th grade. Life Science was a real problem for this years 10th grade learners since as Lisa understands it they had a new curriculum and the teachers had no idea what was going to be on the test. (Sound familiar?) And it turns out that the material from 8th, 9th, and 10th grade was included. Would have been nice to warn the teachers.

Some of her current learners saw the test (I'm not going there) and said they thought it was easy - that she had taught them most of the stuff on it. So Lisa felt she was doing something right. She mentioned she wanted to teach that group next year but all the class assignments are up in the air and won't be finalized till right before the next term starts. Of course that's when Lisa will be in Windhoek for Peace Corps training so she'll find out what she's teaching when she gets back. Isn't that often the way things work out. (Sigh)

 

Time

So Lisa has about 2 and a half weeks before she has to return to Windhoek for training. She's not really supposed to be leaving her site during that time unless she takes more formal vacation time. But as she says it's almost impossible to get from Aroab to anywhere easily so she won't worry about it till she has to return for PC training.

She's decorated her place with Christmas stuff  and will spend the time cleaning, organizing, and finishing the paperwork from last term on the curriculum for each of her classes that she didn't complete before taking off on her vacation. She also has books to read, and journal's to fill, as well as a story she started to write to work on.

There isn't much Christmas music on the few radio stations she can pull in and she only has a few Christmas cassettes. She misses Christmas music 24/7 at this time of year - she can't download any on her cell phone - it just freezes up on her. Namibian cell service keeps us in touch with her but doesn't allow many of the other perks we're used to in our "Can you hear me now?" universe. But she's managing. There are are lot of things going on at the local Churches so her Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be busy.

 

Presents

It was lovely for her when she arrived in Aroab to find gifts from so many people at the Post Office - some Birthday (which she opened immediately -GRIN -) and some Christmas ones which she's saving to open on Christmas day.

Thank you's go out to :

Grandma Rothman - all the goodies are wonderful! as are the stickers, the book The Color of Water, and the book "Have a Green Christmas";

Laurie and Steven - the battery operated fan in particular is wonderful since it's so hot right now! And all the National Geographic magazines were a delight, as was the Magazine about elections around the world - it should be great for school! The book and edibles were lovely etc.- the Christmas gift she's saving;

Alice M - the 2 envelopes were a delight - with books, loose leaf paper for her learners, great music (she loves your taste in music! and yummy stuff;

and Mom and Dad - hey that's us! (GRIN) with magazines etc.

 

Odds And Ends

Thank you all for holding Lisa in your thoughts and prayers - it's an amazing time in her life and knowing you are all back home pulling for her helps her get through the rough patches. May your Holidays be bright ones and may Peace fill your New Year!

 

Susan Rothman