Happy Halloween!

Halloween is not celebrated here in Namibia, but the girls club asked me about it a while ago, so I planned a girls club around it. I shared stories of dressing up in costumes, trick or treating, carving pumkins, and going to parades. Then the girls made their own little masks out of paper plates and we went out trick or treating to some of the offices of my colleagues at the Ministry og Education (people that I had prearranged with), and also bobbed for apples to round out the Halloween party activities. It was a fun way to share a bit of my culture/traditions as an American with the girls club here in Namibia.

Hope that all of you enjoy your Halloween with trick or treaters and making jack-o-lanterns! :-)

PHENOMENAL GIRLS OF MARIENTAL

THANK YOU for your support of this project. Special thanks to Diane Rydel-Milanowski, and Martha Rydel for donation that helped with purchasing supplies for the conference!! The Peace Corps Gender Awareness In Namibia (GAIN) Committee also helped out and everything was covered! It was a fantastic day with good participation from all of the girls!! See the article below for more details. Again, thanks for supporting projects like this!!

:-) beth

PHENOMENAL GIRLS OF MARIENTAL
I am a woman phenomenally, phenomenal woman that’s me.

These words from Maya Angelou’s poem, Phenomenal Woman which served as the theme for the day, kicked off the first ever Mariental Girls Conference early Saturday morning (13 October 2007) at Danie Joubert School Hall. The purpose of the conference was to imbue a sense of empowerment in the girls and to encourage each one to make healthy life choices that will enable them to reach their goals.

About 30 girls from Danie Joubert, Empelheim JSS, and Mariental High School came together for this special one-day event. The idea for the conference started in June with a small group of girls who attended the Southern Girls Conference (SGC) in Keetmanshoop and wanted to share what they gained there with more girls in their community. These girls generated a list of the most important sessions and a list of possible guest speakers for this one day event. The conference was then organized by local Peace Corps Volunteers and funded by the Peace Corps Gender Awareness In Namibia (GAIN) Committee as well as private donations. Some of the SGC participants played active roles in this one day conference. Charisma, from Danie Joubert, gave the opening remarks and purpose. Patricia, from Empelheim JSS, lead one of the energizer games along with Franzinia and Rachel also from her school. In addition, a teacher working with girls club activities from each of the three schools assisted in the event. The following three teachers deserve a thank you for taking up a whole Saturday to invest in the lives of girls from the Mariental community: Ms. Sonia Cloete from Danie Joubert High School, Ms. Elsibe Beukes from Empelheim J.S.S., and Ms. Denise Bock from Mariental High School.

The schedule of the day was jam packed with informative, enjoyable, beneficial, and some just plain fun activities! A team of Peace Corps Volunteers lead sessions about teenage pregnancy, self-esteem, appropriate relationships, and women’s health. Each participant received a journal that they used to record important thoughts and lessons learned throughout the day. After lunch, the girls listened to four phenomenal women discuss strategies for how young women can achieve their goals. The panel included Hannah Baldwin, Peace Corps Country Director, Ms. Louw, Principal of Empelheim J.S.S., Ms. Patricia Beukes, Mayor of Mariental, and Ms. Katrina Hanse-Himarwa, Governor of Hardap region. The speeches certainly made impressions on the young women and highlighted the importance of knowing where you come from in order to look forward and determine where you want to go.

Smiles and laughter throughout the day confirmed that the girls were having fun. Exchanging of phone numbers in a rush before leaving at the end of the day showed that the girls made new friends from other schools in Mariental that they would not have had an opportunity to get to know otherwise. In addition to having fun and making new friends, the girls also learned a lot. To wrap up the conference these young women were asked what they will take away from the conference. Besides receiving certificates of completion and t-shirts, the girls had very insightful responses about what they would take with them from the conference: new friends, self-confidence, self-respect and the power of being a phenomenal woman! For all involved, it truly was a phenomenal day!

what i get to wake up to...

Isn't this amazing?!?!?! Normally there aren't any clouds, but I enjoy the sunrise nonetheless as I sit on the counter by the window and drink my coffee with the cool morning air coming in the window. This moring, because of the clouds, I had to run outside and get some photos! Hopefully soon more clouds will come and clump together so that Namibia can get some much needed rain!!!

Enjoy the photo! I will miss these sunrises, the sky is just so HUGE here!

Lekker naweek vir julle! (Have a great weekend everyone!)

Reminder about Mtal Girls Conf $

Mariental Girls Conference is just around the corner on Saturday 13 October!
Thank you to those of you who have already sent gifts to my mom for Mariental Girls Conf!! I may have confused some of you a bit, please make the check out to me (Beth Dixon) or my mom (Jill Dixon) and put "Mariental Girls Conference" in the "memo"line. We still do need donations, so if you are thinking about it and want to help out with this conference, please send your check to my mom at:
Jill Dixon
W5380 Jolly Ave
Medford, WI 54451
We have confirmed the governor of the Hardap Region and a member of the regional council as well as a local principal and a teacher to speak on a panel highlighting women role models in the community! This afternoon Megan and I are meeting with the other teachers involved to finalize the plans and confirm the number of girls who will attend. Thank you for your support of this project!!!

Readathon in Namibia

Each year in the end of September Namibian schools have a national readathon or at least they are supposed to.  One school that does participate is Danie Joubert Combined School.  

This year I was invited to read to the grade four classes that I taught during the first term.  While I was their substitute teacher I read them Click Clack Moo: Cows That Type as part of a unit on communication.  It was great fun and they kids LOVED the book.  Not only did it have many different examples of communication in it, it was highly entertaining with cows typing letters to the farmer demanding electric blankets because the barn is cold.  I promised the classes that I would look for the next books when I was home in the US.  Thanks to my generous mom Danie Joubert Combined School now has a nice hardcover copy of Click Clack Moo, Giggle Giggle Quack, and Duck for President.  During readathon week I got to present the books to the school and read Giggle Giggle Quack to both grade four classes.  It was really fun for the kids and also for me since I miss being in the classroom and really enjoy sharing books with kids to get them more interested in reading!  

In addition to reading with the grade fours, I was also asked to be a judge for a costume contest.  On Friday of the readathon week kids could come to school dressed as their favourite character from a book.  There were so very good costumes demonstrating the creativity of the kids and their interest in reading!  It was such a fun competition and a nice way to promote reading in the school.  

The readathon week ended with a school wide 30 minute period of reading.  I brought books for the grade fours since they do not have a classroom reading corner and they read the whole time exchanging books quietly when they had finished one.  Even the ones who can't really read were trying and looking at the pictures.  It was such a nice scene.  Also this week, the second of two boxes of donated books from Dani, a former volunteer in Mariental, arrived for the school library.  This school library is actually functioning and utilized by the learners at the school!

If you would like to donate books to the Danie Joubert school library, here is the website for it: http://www.thelibraryproject.org/volunteer_display.cfm?VID=1003  If you do send books, please do include a note and a return address because they like to be able to send a thank you and know where the books came from.  Thanks!

If only ALL Namibian schools valued reading enough to have school wide reading periods and use them, to promote library use, to share the nice books in their libraries with their classes!  If only...well, at least for this week there was some emphasis placed on reading :-)  

a project you can help with: Mariental Girls Conference

In June Megan and I took nine girls and one Namibian counterpart to
the Southern Girls Conference (SGC) in Keetmanshoop. We helped
organize and facilitate this three-day girls conference. The overall
goal of the conference was HIV prevention through the empowerment and
education of girls in grades 7-10. One of the objectives in
achieving that goal was strengthening existing girls clubs. During
the community planning time the Mariental girls came up with a plan
to share the best parts of SGC with other girls in their community.

The nine girls from Megan's and my girls' clubs came up with a plan
to host a smaller, one day, version of SGC here in Mariental for
other girls at their schools and two other schools who did not get to
attend. The sessions that they felt should be in a one-day "mini"
girls conference were women's health, appropriate relationships, HIV
and AIDS info session, self esteem poems and collages, and the
phenomenal women panel. The theme of SGC was based off of Maya
Angelou's "Phenomenal Woman". The girls want that to be the theme
again and also want to invite some phenomenal women from the
community to share their stories of how they got to where they are.
They came up with a list of eight women including the governor, the
mayor, a principal, a teacher, and some local business women. We
only need about four for the panel, so hopefully from there list at
least that many will be willing and able to come and speak as
phenomenal women and inspire these girls on that same path! We hope
to have ten girls from each of four schools come together for this
event to not only empower and strengthen the girls who attend, but
the girls clubs and the schools that they go back to. In addition,
we hope that this mini girls conference will promote interaction and
collaboration between schools in Mariental, specifically between
girls clubs in Mariental.

Now the time has come to take these ideas and make them into a
reality. We now have a schedule, a plan, a budget, and a date
(Saturday 13 October). Last week I applied to the PC HIV and AIDS
committee for funding. This morning I am meeting with some of the
SGC participants from the Danie Joubert girls club to make
invitations for the women they want to invite for the panel.
Tomorrow Megan and I are going to meet with the teachers who lead
girls clubs at two other schools to go through the schedule and see
how they can also be involved in the day. Plans are in motion.
However, if you are interested in this project you can help from the
US. While we have already received one donation from a gracious
RPCV's mom and have applied to the HIV committee, we still do not
have all of the funds secured for this day. The total cost of the
day including supplies and meals is US$350. So far we have received
US$100. If you would like to help us get a little closer to making
this happen by contributing financially, please send your check to
the following address with "Mariental Girls Conference" in the
subject line:
Beth Dixon
c/o Jill Dixon
W5380 Jolly Ave.
Medford, WI 54451

Thanks for your interest in my work here in Namibia. Over the past
two years, the girls club has been a highlight for me!

Today is the day

Dad and Mom had their combined going-away party at the hospital with Gary & Sherry and Dave (all people they've gotten to know at Craig). Gary & Sherry (Gary was Dad's first roommate) and Dave (another patient at Craig) are all leaving this week so they combined their party. I imagine that it went well and that all are excited and maybe also a bit nervous about going home. Gary & Sherry are the folks that Dad & Mom played cribbage and dominoes with, shared stories and struggles with, and sometimes got take away dinners with. They are at a similar place in life as Mom and Dad and became friends through the course of their time together at the hospital. They will also return in six months at the same time as Dad and Mom for the six month check-up. I am very glad for all of them that they found friends in each other right there at Craig who are fabulous, quality people and going through the same thing. Dad and Mom are not the only ones making the transition home this week, but new friends in similar situations are as well. All the best to Gary & Sherry and to Dave as they travel their paths home this week!

Finally, after over twelve weeks Dad and Mom are returning home to Medford. Uncle Michael is driving their car to the Minneapolis airport from Denver where they will fly in today (Thursday, 30 August 2007). He is then returning to Denver and Dad and Mom will drive themselves home. Those of you who are praying people, please pray for all of these aspects to be smooth, hassle free, and safe! There are SO many more things that they need to consider and deal with than they ever did flying before. This is their first longer trip in the car (nearly three hours). It would just be really great if some guardian angels guided them smoothly from Craig Hospital to their home on Jolly Ave!!

At this stage I cannot imagine the mixture of emotions that they must be experiencing. Probably loads of relief and excitement about finally going home, but at the same time maybe some anxiety about how it will all work out. I know that there is an overwelming appreciation and gratitude for all of the people who have reached out to them in so many wonderful ways!

Those of you in Medford or planning to visit in the future, enjoy your time with Dad and Mom! I wish that I could be there to welcome them home and to see their reactions to all of the changes that you al made! What they have been through this summer has changed the rest of their lives. There will be so much more, I imagine, to adjust to once they are home in their own surroundings. However, what has been really special about the whole thing is the response from friends and family, from near and far! All of those positive, encouraging, helping, practical responses combined with their own attitudes and determination has made a world of difference!!

Much love and appreciation to you all!
Beth (on behalf of the Dixons)