Farewell in Namibia

 

I put a little video together of my Rugby training sessions with the school team as well as some extra clips.

 

     
         As my volunteering year in Namibia is nearing an end, I ponder about the last 2 weeks that are left before my flight back. I think about what I can still get done, or how the day will be when I see the kids at school for the very last time. Of course, the highlights of the past 46 weeks spent here have also started running through my mind; the rugby sessions and daily kickabouts at school, the cricket tournaments, my Garden Route trip, the holiday in Zambia with other volunteers and etc.. I just wanted to say thanks to my parents for their support in good times as well as bad times. I owe a big thank you to my organisation ASC Göttingen and Weltwärts for having given me this opportunity of a lifetime. Also many thanks to the Berliner-Rugby-Club and individuals for the financial support they've offered as well as the T-shirts and Rugby balls. It's crazy to think about the difference these small donations have made and will continue to make. A special thank you to Mark Temme, Luis Zeller and Family Blume of the Berliner-Rugby-Club. These pictures and the video are dedicated to everyone back home.

Within our first few weeks at school here, I was getting interest
from a good number of boys and a few girls for Rugby whilst just kicking the odd-shaped oval ball around during lunch breaks. Soon enough I had spread the message to all the smaller boys that I'd be giving Rugby training after school once a week. The turn out during the first practice was phenomenal, but also far too big to be able to train properly. With distractions like Cricket or Football training, the amount of boys that showed up lessened gradually, but this meant that I eventually had a group with the perfect size of kids whom I could really work with efficiently. The sort of motivation that these kids have for a sport (Rugby) that is usually really only accesible by well-to-do families in Namibia is incredible, it makes me think about the talent that could be achieved if they would have just any enthusiastic Rugby player guide them from 1st grade all the way up highschool during lunch breaks and even just training once a week. To say the least I was surprised seeing so many kids leave behind the football for this odd-shaped egg of a ball from a sport they've pretty much only seen boys in town play.

I have to focus a lot on passing drills during training due to the fact that many haven't ever been taught the technique of a spin pass. There are a good amount of kids who have perfected most of the basic skills, yet after long holidays or breaks from training I have to basically reteach it to the newcomers, the kids that show up vary and I see many kids come and go. I look at it positively in the sense that I'm glad for there at least always constantly being good turnout no matter how inexperienced some of them are; and I am pleased that there are always new kids coming to look to try out a new sport. By the end of training, I do some exercises that consist of running with the ball and finally finish off with a game on on a small field. I learnt a lot myself through taking responsibility as a coach, I was very frustrated the first few training sessions when some of the kids didn't grasp the concept that they aren't allowed to pass forwards in the game of Rugby; even after having explained it countless times. The problem was the following: I didn't even realize it at first, but for many of the kids, English wasn't their mother tongue. Instead, it was either Afrikaans (old dutch) or Oshiwambu. When the problem became visible, I realized I just had to be more patient and repeat instructions as well as demonstrations more than I had previously. One rule I'm glad they grasped faster than others was that they weren't allowed to tackle above the chest into the next and head area. This ensured that there wouldn't and hasn't been any bad injuries. What was quite funny in the beginning was that these kids were pinching each other in the scrums and mauls, it was just odd to see something like that.

What I admire most about these kids are that they're tough as nails and always happy no matter what. When I mean tough, I can tell you that I've seen some big crunching tackles on the schoolyard when they're all running after the rugby ball during lunch, PE or training. I am amazed by how much these kids but their body on the line to bring down the the opponent with the ball. You can often see kids diving left and right or multiple boys grappling onto one trying to regain the ball.

With our kids from !Nara Primary School, the beginning wasn't easy. It was hard for us to get the kids to respect our authority. When I look back, it's no big wonder. We were just a couple of strangers that had come one day, then stopped the boys from playing soccer during PE and also forced the girls to replace the usual rope jumping games with warm ups and different sports. Through the past months, we've played every ball game we've ever known from when we were kids, tried all sports we had equipment for, had a successful athletic's day, we even did ballroom dancing. I can't remember a day these hyperactive yet also incredibly sweet kids weren't swooping through me or Mona's hair with their hands, jumping on our backs, asking me to kick the Rugby ball in the sky for them or some days just being a pain in the butt when you were having a bad day.. No matter how frustrated and annoyed we've been sometimes, the feeling you get when tonnes of kids greet you everyday and constantly ask you how you're doing or when there would be Rugby training outweighs it by a factor much much bigger. I'm also very thankful towards my organisation ASC Göttingen for having chosen to send me to Namibia. It's really given me the opportunity to grow mentally and see a whole different part of the world. Hopefully I will find time one day to come back and visit this beautiful country and the kind people that made the stay unforgettable.

What happens in Namibia..

    

                                                              This post has taken me slightly longer than expected, slight two month delay. Plenty has happened, I don't even know where to begin. We visited Windhoek at least 4 times in September and October. Nowadays I pretty much go every 2nd weekend. We finally felt settled into the country once we received our visas. We literally would have had to take an extra trip to Windhoek if we weren't lucky enough to have managed to spark a little compassion in an employee at Home Affairs.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            He surely felt sorry enough for us two foreigners who had been told the local catchphrase of "come back tomorrow and it might be done" several times. Taking advantage of our earliest trip, we met up with fellow volunteers at a restaurant on top of a mountain to enjoy the sunset. Windhoek is rather mountainous and hilly, whereas Walvis Bay is just completely flat except for the big sand dunes. 

One thing that I admire most about Namibia is that the sunsets and sunrises are for whatever reason just incomparable to anything you'll get to see in Germany.. Here are some pictures of the trip we took whilst we were off supervising the U19 cricket team. I think it was the first sport team I had ever encountered where chainsmoking in the team bus was granted. But hey, it's cricket, not quite the sport where you'd need that much stamina anyway.

This is Gerhard by the way, many Namibians funnily enough have old traditional German names, as they have survived from the colonial period. Can't say I haven't had a terribly hard time trying not to laugh after being introduced to teenagers called Herrman, Siegfried, Bertha and so forth. Anyways, I just wanted to give Gerhard an honorary mention, not only because he is a legendary cricket player, but also because he conciously fails to succumb to society's norms and Toyota's designated seat-placement. #Rebel




Now getting to our work at !Nara Primary and Tutaleni School, you can see the schoolyard we usually give P.E lessons at. I can say after 2 months of volunteering here that the schoolyard is without a doubt always the liveliest place of all, you will always find several hundred kids running about in the break. It gets hectic.

 
 My personal favourite breaktime activity is to play Rugby with all the young boys. The procedure to let every boy on the schoolyard know you're about to start a game is:

1. Appear on the schoolyard with a Rugby ball

2. Try to catch eye-contact with at least 3-4 boys

3. Kick the ball as high as you can

4. Just wait and you'll soon find one boy running with the ball whilst being chased by 20 others

If you find the kids to be in a mass scrum or piled ontop of each other (shown in the picture on the left) leaving the ball stuck between 20 kids, step 5 can be implemented, which mainly consists of trying to steal the ball and then running away before eventually you realize the kids who are chasing you have better stamina than you, and that you should probably kick the ball up in the air again before you have all these kids around your neck, who could potentially embarrass you if they managed to get you to the ground.                                                            

Above is another picture of our P.E lessons at !Nara Primary School. Here, we are doing our best to try and organize a game of Handball with kids that really only want to kick the ball. After 2 months of volunteering at !Nara and Tutaleni Primary School, I can inform on our successful mission of inspiring kids to play something other than soccer. They have now adapted to the game of Handball, which for motivational purposes, we introduced as "Hand-soccer" in the early days.

Being confined to living and having to listen to our female volunteer partners 24/7, me and Benedikt (a volunteer from the German Red Cross) went on a short daytrip to successfully avoid all the drama, including complaints about how much peanut butter I put on my toasts, or accusations about me eating 2/3 tuna-mayo and 1/3 actual bread in my sandwiches. Haha jk, you're awesome Mona :P

Quadbiking through the desert between Swakopmund and Walvis Bay was the best thing I had done for years. The feeling of pulling the throttle all the way and speeding up and down dunes that went on forever past the horizon. The constant adrenaline you get, from when you drop off ledges that go down about 70 degrees, almost as though you're driving off a cliff.

On a different weekend, we made our way to the close by Dune 7 for a not-so-short ascent that took about 5 breaks, it was after reaching the top that I had started to question the advice I had received on the bottom before the climb, from my colleague Quinton, who said a beer would make the climb much easier. Now at the top, it funnily occured to me that I never gave a second thought to advice that was in hindsight, rather thick. Life is sometimes harder when you're not the brightest tool in the shed.

Well anyhow, after my intestines had recovered somewhat and I no longer felt the need to single-handedly ruin one of namibia's beautiful landmarks with an avalanche of the liver sausage sandwich I had for lunch and beer, it really was quite beautiful!

Our first proper travelling adventure in Namibia was our 5-day trip to the south. We visited Naukluft National Park, Sossusvlei (home to some of the biggest sand dunes in the world) and other ghost towns that consisted usually of one gas station and a cafe. Our trip came to an early setback when we had a flat tyre on the first day. We probably wouldn't have noticed the flat tyre if it weren't for the farmers that shouted something whilst we drove by, in their minds, they probably were thinking something like: "dumb german tourists who have been driving the past kilometre with a flat". Being the valuable company that I am, I of course immediately made myself useful... and took pictures of everyone whilst they were trying to fix the tyre :p nah just kidding, I helped.

  First night wasn't "the bomb", the original idea was much more fantastic than the night that it actually turned out to be. I shared the back of the 4x4 with Tim. Let's sleep in the bakkie we thought, let's sleep with the back open so we can see the night sky we thought, it's going to be nice we thought...well we thought wrong. Awoken by mosquitoes sometime around 2am, and then several times more, nothing could have really made the night worse, well for me at least. Tim had to deal with my snoring ontop of everything haha.

We did some hiking around Naukluft on one of the popular trails for a total of 4 hours. It was a wonderful sight when we made it ontop of the mountain.

We also went through a sort of canyon, only thing was that it was dry season. Which was too bad, as we happened to pass by a small waterfall that we would have been able to swim in during raining season.

The following evening we made it to our next camp in Sesriem, just at the entrance and a good 30 minutes from Sossusvlei. We decided to quickly leave the campsite for a lovely sunset around the dunes.

The next morning we woke up around 5am to quickly prepare before we headed for Sossusvlei. We made our way early and with the tip of a tour guide, we quickly made our way onto 'Big Daddy' the world's 2nd biggest dune. Dune 7 was nothing compared to this, it probably took us around 2 hours to make it to the top. It was such a view! We made it up there early enough before all the other tourists also started piling up to the summit. Something I'll definitely remember for the rest of my life.

A few weeks ago I found myself in Windhoek once again. It was a terrific weekend, the highlight being the Colour Festival. Went with some of the nice people from the German School in Windhoek. It was good fun, the music wasn't the best, but with the evening moving on you eventually just don't notice anymore.

Next post I will be dedicating to my U11 Rugby Team from !Nara Primary School and my club, Berliner Rugby Club, without them all the rugby projects here in Namibia wouldn't have been possible. Hopefully it won't take another 2 months :)

                                                                                   fin

(in Namibia)

   
  After a 11 hour flight to Johannesburg, another 2 hours to Windhoek, a night spent on a mattress in the German School volunteers' hostel, and another 5 hour bus ride, we've finally arrived in Walvis Bay, Namibia. Having to transport 51kgs of clothing and donated sport equipment was a pain, but nothing got lost. #jackpot

I'm sitting in 10 degree temperature in the garden since the WiFi will not cooperate. 3 layers of clothing on & a blanket later, it's fair to say that I maybe should've listened to people who told me that it gets cold here. Maybe then I would've packed more than 1 pair of long pants for the coming 12 months. That's just one of the many things I've forgotten though..

  



We're staying in a pretty awesome shed in the backyard of a simple house close to the centre of Walvis Bay. I mean we've got our own rooms with bed and shower. We've even got hot water, at least during the afternoon, sometimes you just have to appreciate the little things.

                                                                                                                                                                           


 Today we went to support the U11s boys and U13s girls cricket team of Nara Primary school along with our friend and sport teacher Quinton. It takes getting used to, but the typical way of transport around here is 3 in the front of a pick up truck, and up to anything like 15 kids in the back, it's windy, but so much more entertaining. 

It was nice to get to know some of the kids that we'll be giving sports lessons to for the next 12 months already. My fears vanquished within the first minutes after being asked to help the U13 girls warm up before their game against the U13 Girl's Namibian National Team, none of the kids questioned why a half-chinese guy was trying to tell them what to do with a cricket ball. Not sure if Hongkong has a cricket national team :s..

 

More pictures of the warm up..

The game actually went surprisingly well for the girls, the first announcement by one of the score-keepers was that the other team had won, later Quinton came running saying that the umpire had miscounted and that our girls had actually won, which was celebrated with a mass-squealing and then a dance. It's not exactly a confidence boost when you see that 13 year olds can dance better than you. Anyhow, then 3 minutes later we were told that the national team had won afterall. The girls didn't seem to care too much as they were all busy singing along to the modern pop classic "Fancy" by Iggy Azalea. I told them I knew the song but when asked to perform, all the lyrics that came up were: First things first I'm the realest.. (something, something) giving lessons in physics. At least my hand gestures were impressive. That's that, having a good time here, hope it gets warmer soon. Here are some more pictures.