A Lion Tale

   Our most stunning moment in Etosha Park came just after lunch on Friday.  Our trailer had gotten a flat tire so we stopped into the petrol station to fix it.  During that time, another friend of Uanee strolled by.  Uanee had been a Park guide for 4 years so he know many, many of the employees.  This fellow was named Isaskar Uahoo and he was a Park Ranger.

Isaskar Uahoo

He asked if we were enjoying the park and if we had seen lots of animals.  We said yes and yes, except we hadn't seen any lions yet.  He said that there was a  pride of lions only 6 km. up the road, but that they were hard to see as they were resting several 100 yards off the road.   So we kindly asked him if he would show us and that if he did, he would be his be our best friend forever.  And we made him an honorary PLU alumn by giving him a PLU pin and pen and we smiled and laughed.  Then Uanee said something to him in Otjiherero.  He said OK, I will go along.
   So we drove down the road a ways with Isaskar following in his pick-up.  Isaskar passes us then pulls off to the side and gets out (which is illegal in the park unless you're a ranger).
   He asks, "Who would like to get close to a lion?" and we all raise our hands.
   "Get into my truck."

Paula, Jan and the girls crawl into the back making sure not to sick on the elephant dung or dung beetles that he has in the back.  I get in the front with him (African etiquette).  :-)
   We drive another kilometer and there is car parked alongside the road.  It has some German tourists looking out into the field with binoculars.  He rolls down the window and says, "We are going to examine this situation.  You must not follow us."   And he begins to drive out into the bust where the pride of lions are resting.  He drives right up to the male, maybe 10 yards away.

On the other side of us are six other lions, a large female, a young male and four young females.

 I look in the back of the truck and everyone's mouth is open.  I asked why the lion wasn't annoyed with us being between him and his pride.  He said that they had just killed and eaten a zebra a day and a half ago and we're hungry at the time.
   Then the male gave a loud roar.

Actually, that would make for a great story, but he was just yawning and showing off his teeth!

The young male didn't seemed too pleased to have us around.  Stuck his tongue out.

 

We moved away from the big male and drove closer to the mom, who didn't seem too pleased.

"When she gets on her honches like that, she's ready to pounce."

Yikes, my ride is here so I'll have to finish this story and others when I return.

See you Tuesday!

Other Opuwo Highlights

Here are some other quick highlights of our two days in Opuwo (my time is running out as my ride to the airport will come in a bit).  Three other Opuwo highlights:

1)  Some of the teachers may recognize Mr. Kavari.  He visited Minter Creek about 8 or so years ago along with Mr. Tjivikua, when they were with the Ondao project.   While visiting, his daughter was born back in Opuwo.  He named her, Paula, and she is Paula's god-daughter.  We hadn't seen her since she was 1.  Kavari went and pulled them out of school so we could see her before we left.  Here's Paula and Paula, Mr. Kavari and his youngest daughter, Penny.

2) We gave the letters from Mrs. Stone's class to Karla, the Opowu lodge manager's daughter.  She is in 4th grade.  We've known the manager, Chino, since 2003 and since he has access to internet, we thought we'd be able to find out how the kids liked the letters.   Karla took them to school the next day.

 Here's Karla off to school.

 3) The students enjoyed buying Himba bracelets and necklaces.

Revisiting the Ondao Mobile Schools

   It took us most all of Tuesday to drive up to Opuwo.  On Wednesday we met with the Ondao Mobile Schools principal, Mr. Kapi (a cousin of Uanee's :-)  and three Head of Departments (or cluster heads responsible for administering a dozen schools or so).  Mr. Kapi talked with the students about the Ondao project and we talked with him about presenting at the conference.  Their computers have been down so we have been unable to communicate with him via e-mail in the last few months.  

   One of the HoDs, Ben, was a former teacher we worked with 6+ years ago and he took us out to two schools.

   Stopping along the way to talk with three boys watching their goats.  Unaee asking them about their school and if their teacher was there for them.  The boys came up to ask for "sweets" (which tourists often hand out - not a particularly good thing).  Unaee answered, "These people only eat salt.  They have no sweets."  To which the boys sadly walked away.

   At the first school, Orotjitombo Combined School, was were thrilled to meet two of our Ondao teacher friends, Festus and Ella.  Their school has now met all the requirements to become a government school, water point, permanent structures, hostel rooms for boys and girls who walk a long way, etc.  Thus the uniforms.

   They held an impromptu assembly for us.   Some songs, some dances.  Great fun.   I have some videos so you can hear the singing, but it takes way too long to upload them here (the photos alone take 5-10 minutes apiece to upload!)

   The assembly ended with the oldest boys doing a traditional warrior song and dance which everyone enjoyed immensely.

   Too soon, we had to leave and headed to a new village, Ohungumure.  

This is where we had first met Festus, but now another teacher who we had worked with, Rudolphine, was there.  This is a one tent school site. Dr. Weiss brought school materials that her book club had donated and the learners were much interested in trying the materials out.

Drawing, coloring, writing and doing math problems on the chalk board.

  After some time, we had to say goodbye to the learners.

   They loaded the maize and sugar we had brought into their warehouse.

   And we headed out of the village back to Opuwo

Back Safely

Sunday, 7:00am

Made it back to Windhoek safely yesterday afternoon.  Will try to post a few of the most memorable moments and pictures before heading to the airport for the journey home.
   Newspaper headlines last Tuesday as we headed north were "City issues weather warning" and "Floods expected in the north".  Fortunately, though, we just missed the worse rains and had unseasonably cool weather.  The only weather related consequence was that two of the short cut roads we were going to take to get from Opuwo to the east side of the Etosha Park were washed out.  So we had to drive up to the Angolan border and around through Owamboland instead adding about two hours of driving.
    This was the first time I was able to sit and enjoy the scenery as we had a driver/guide, Uanee Karuuombe, at the wheel.  We have selected Uanee, who started the Ombaue Tours company, to be the tour guide for organizing extended tours for the conference.  He was born in a Himba village just outside Opuwo and has been guiding for over 12 years.

 For example, I would have never stopped by the side of the road (this is the B1, the main freeway through Namibia!) to buy mushrooms from this mushroom guy.  We bought 4 and had the cooks at our Opuwo lodge cook them up for dinner.  Yummmmmmmm....

   In and around Opuwo, Uanee with his 160+ cousins and family members, knew just about everyone we came across.  We'd often stop by the road and talk with folks, like this Himba lady outside Opuwo.

So now some of the highlights of the trip (next post).

First Day of School

We dropped off the students for opening day of school. Quite the chaotic scene with parents registering learners, teachers moving classrooms (desks and all supplies).

Getting into first grade.

 

Some of the PLU students were assigned a kindergarten class.  this is the first year they have offered kindergarten in the public schools.  They were quite an attraction.

 

May be out of touch

We're off to the north, Kaokoland, tomorrow.  We are meeting up with colleagues working in the Ondao Mobile Schools Project and seeing if they can attend the conference.  I'm unsure about the availability of internet, so it may be until Saturday when we return to Windhoek before I can post again.


Wishing you a pleasant Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  Some thoughtful quotes from Dr. King:

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."  

"The time is always right to do what is right."

Take care...... 

Meeting with the Minister

Monday, 1/17/11

Had our final important meeting today.  Got to meet with the Minister of Education, Dr. Abraham Iyambo.  Pictured here from left to right is: the fellow in charge of finance for the Education Ministry, Paula, Dr. Iyambo, Edwin and me.  The minister had just returned from England two days ago and was headed out to Cuba and the US this coming weekend, so it was good to get a few minutes with him.  He agreed to open the conference for us with a welcome to all the delegates.  Additionally, we discussed the proposal to have the ministry support 120 Namibian teachers to attend the conference.

   Next we met with Dr. Inaani Lisony Kahikuata-Kariko, Chief Educational Officer for Special Programmes and Schools.   She will follow the Minister in giving an opening address to the delegates.   Here is me, Dr. Kahikuata-Kariko, Edwin and Paula.

Between Meetings

Monday, 1/17/11

Happy Birthday Aaron.

Most of Thursday and Friday were taken up with conference planning meetings at the university and with establishments around the city.  We did get a call late in the week from a new lodge, River Crossing, and they invited us to take a game drive on their 6.500 hectare (25 square miles) property.  This lodge is less than a year old and they thought this might be a good activity for the conference delegates.  So since our Friday meeting with the university was in the afternoon, we got up at 6:00 am and went up to the lodge.   JACKPOT!   What a fabulous place.  After a five minute drive from the lodge, we never saw another sign of human life for the next four hours.  Absolutely beautiful scenery.  Unlike Okapuka, the game here is not acclimate to human interaction so they are relatively skiddish.  Most of the viewing was across valleys or gulleys.

Beautiful open terrain.

This is mile high country (like Denver)!

Our guide was Albertus Dosh and the Land Rover could cover most any terrain.

   A steenbok in the grass.

 

Kudu crossing the gulley.

A herd of black wildebeest across the valley

Hartemann's mountain zebra

Zebra, blue wildebeest and springbok watching our approach.

Off they go.