Holiday Numero Dos

I will give you a quick run down of what I did over holiday 2 because it was hilarious and actually very educational. It was completely different than my first vacation which was luxurious; this trip I camped and slept outside. The last day of school was report card day. Except this was no normal report card day; I was traumatized. I ended up having to act as a homeroom teacher to a grade 9 class because their teacher left at the the beginning of the term and no one replaced him. I had to do all of the calculations and create all the report cards, which was fine. The horrible part is on the last day we had assembly to hand out the report cards. I had to announce the top five learners in the class and the BOTTOM five learners of the class. They forced the bottom five learners to walk in front of the entire student population and all of the teachers to come get their report cards. If they did not come fast enough, the teachers continually repeated their name until they came to the front. Being a homeroom teacher, I was horrified because I had to announce the names in my class. They think that humiliation will teach the learners that they need to study harder. Which may be true, but is damaging. And then on top of it, the bottom five learners from each class get kicked out of the hostel.
Then vacation began. I spent the weekend with Bernie and Bret and our friend from the south Samiyah. On Monday we picked up a rental car and headed out to Opuwo. I loved it there. It was so beautiful and so culturally diverse. I honestly forgot I was in Namibia. I wont bore anyone with the details of each tribes that live there. But long story short when the Afrikaaner people (the whites) and the Germans arrived in Namibia they moved majority of the tribes native to Namibia above the red line (which is where I live). It basically is a racial divider. I live among the Oshiwambo people who are a Bantu tribe (meaning that they migrated from the North, more than likely Angola). In Opuwo, there are four main tribes the Himba, the Themba (sp?), the Herero, and the Damara. Most of these groups migrated from South Africa at one point and the Himba are native to Namibia. All in all, this area has become a safe haven for the traditional tribes of Namibia. People are free to dress (or not dress lol) as they please. Some people have adapted to modern ways and no longer where the traditional clothes, though. It felt like I took a trip back to traditional Africa with huts and naked people included. lol.
When we arrived we stop at a Country Lodge Hotel for a sundowner which is pretty much targeted for white tourists. It was gorgeous, so luxurious. It had a pool overlooking the mountains. It was great. We proceeded to go to a local bar to mingle with the locals which is where we met our Himba friends...visit my profile picture on facebook. It was so cool!! They wear paint made of ochre butter and herbs all over their bodies to protect their skin from the sun. The paint has a distinct smell and turns their skin a shade of burnt red. It is very hard to get out of clothes. They painted my face and arms. They grabbed the boys' butts and the girls' boobs. We taught them how to take pictures. They stole our beers and even got a little tipsy. They were a hoot. They wear a ton of different jewelry and each piece symbolically means something i.e. you take a necklace off when your father dies or you add a different necklace when your mother dies. We spent a day there and then moved onto Epupa Falls.
Epupa Falls is a waterfall that starts in the Angolan mountains and then eventually flows out into the Atlantic Ocean. The river is the border between Namibia and Angola. This was gorgeous and very scary. It was huge. One misstep and you could easily be dead. One day we went rafting down the river. I made it to ANGOLA! Part of the rafting trip was stopping on an island in Angola. I was pretty pumped about that. We saw two crocodiles in the river. That was a bit freaky. One was one four meters long and the other was two meters long. I don't know how to convert that but they were huge! Our instructor even got scared by one of them because as soon as we passed, the crocodile slid right into the water meaning that was easily only a few feet away. Apparently you have to make noise on the water to scare them away so the instructor slapped paddles against the boat to scare him. I paddled a little bit faster to get away from that creature.
I actually got to eat in one or two restaurants which was such a treat because there is only one in town. I was supposed to attend a wedding, but at last minute it got moved to the day before. Wedding dates change often, so I wasn't able to make it. It is wedding season though so I am sure I will make it to one before I leave.
I am leaving tomorrow for a last trip to Swakopmund and then on to Windhoek for our End of Service...so crazy!