just an update

What?!?! It's been over a month since I have posted anything here.
For those of you who check this from time to time, I apologize. Life
has been quite busy.

As far as supporting teachers goes, I've been to ten primary schools
with Heidie in the past month. It's been rewarding and refreshing
for me to be in classrooms with teachers and learners. We do
classroom observations, offer feedback and support to teachers, and
answer any further questions they have regarding the new lower
primary curriculum, continuous assessment, learner-centred education,
etc. At each school we have a meeting after school with all the
lower primary teachers where I explain some more about learner-
centred education and give them some resources/ideas for promoting
reading development and Heidie explains the expectations for their
files, etc. At each school the teachers are so appreciative of our
visit and welcome the feedback, support, and ideas that we bring.
The plan for next week is to visit five more schools in rural areas
outside of Rehoboth.

Girls Club has also been going quite well. In the past month we
tackled the following: teamwork, parents, families, nutrition,
women's health, making pinatas, making t-shirts, another sleepover
party, and the movie "Remember the Titans" followed by some
interesting discussion about the parallels between the movie and
their lives here in Namibia. Today we have another PVC coming to do
a session on the basics of self-defense. All of the topics addressed
have come from the girls telling us what they want to learn more
about or discuss at Girls Club. They really have gained a lot this
year!

Security update: Peace Corps had another burglar bar door/gate put
on the back section of our house so that one can even access our
windows. Megan and I sometimes feel like we live in a fortress, but
it is for the best. It just feels strange to live in a flat with
bars on all of the windows and huge metal gates on the doors, but
that's normal here.

Upcoming events for me include: assisting with the training for the
next group of volunteers, helping plan a World AIDS Day celebration,
and the mid-service conference for Peace Corps (can't believe I've
already been here for nearly a year).

Thanks for reading this and checking up on me! :-)