Well I now have one week and three days left in Namibia! How time has flown. I think I last left you the night before I had to teach grade four arts...something like that. Well that whole day we taught, the children have not changed, still as misbehaving as ever! It was a very fast two weeks at Otjikondo, we had so much that we wanted to do. Two weeks is nothing in comparison to the year that we spent there. I wanted to get my three violinists back on track and I managed to. I left having taught then each a few scales (basically finger exercises) and each one a new tune. Waldrhaut played 'London Bridge', Desvino played 'Skye Boat Song' and Paulus played 'Leaving Lismore', which is a slow Scottish song that I got taught when I was younger. I accompanied him with the piano and near the end of our two weeks, we put on a small concert for Gilly and Reiner. I was so proud of then, they progressed a lot in only two weeks. They were my main goal and I spent the majority of my time with them, getting them to practise and teaching them new things. I hope that they keep it up!
I am not sure if you have heard of it - Gary Barlow and Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a song called 'Sing' in celebration for the jubilee. It is a beautiful song, and has people from all over the world singing in it. Catherine and Myself decided that we would pick a small group of girls and try to teach them it. They sang it beautifuly, and before long, the majority of the school was singing it! They also sang for Gilly and Reiner in our concert. Gilly has decided that it will be their Grade seven farewell song this year!
Catherine also started a girl called Vanessa on flute. We were both very impressed with her progress. I lived with Catherine for a year and still can't blow a note on the flute. Vanessa got it on her first day.
So these were out music projects. We had a lot of progress with these and got them all to a stage where we were happy to leave them. Success!

I am not sure if I mentioned this in any other blogs, but Catherine and myself started a new backdrop for the nativity play that the gaps put on every Christmas with the younger children. We started this in our last term, so we did not get it finished. So this was a big aim of ours, to get the dreaded backdrop finished. We did. We spent every night down in the metal workshop, painiting and dancing to our Otjikondo Playlist on spotify and by the final night, we got it finished. It feels like such a relief and it looks amazing!

I never knew that so much could be done in two weeks! It was certainly the most fulfilling weeks that I have had in a long time.

During our stay at Otjikondo, we met some Swiss ladies, who just so happened to be going to Etosha ( Namibia's national park). Now, Catherine and myself shamefully did not make it to this Namibian highlight during our year living here, so we thought we should probably go. The only problem was, tours were about 300 pounds, rather beyond budget, and also an months rent for my flat! But we were very lucky and these ladies gave us a lift and we camped. Rather pittyful tent, resulting in a cold, uncomfortable sleep, BUT much cheaper and all part of the experience I would say. I am extremely glad that we finally got to Etosha. We stayed two nights, so we had the whole of Saturday there. This was also a good opportunity for us to work on our non-existant tans. I have given up on the thought of a tan now, as apparently it hasn't stopped raining in Scotland, meaning that within about a week, any existing tan will vanish! So on Saturday morning we went and sat by the watering hole, only to find an elephant standing right infront of us. It was so tranquil, we sat there for a good hour before going on a drive out into the park. On this drive we saw zebra, lions, giraffe, rhino, antelope, elephant. We saw lot's of animals that weekend. We were very lucky - on the Sunday morning, whilst driving to the exit, a group of four elephants crossed the road right beside the car. A wonderful end to our trip!

After Etosha, we had two days left in Otjikondo to quickly finish off and say our goodbyes. A very fast , worthwhile and rewarding two weeks up North. Yet again, I cried saying goodbye! Standard really.

So now we are back in Windhoek, and have been so for about a week and a half! On our first weekend back we went back to the dam in Okahandja, where Steph and her family have a caravan and a boat. I have to say, when I am on this particular boat, I feel rather posh, cruising around, listening to music! Just chillin.
I was determinted to go in the water. I said to myself I would, despite the freezing temperatures (it wasn't actually that bad) I did it, after a cider on the boat to warm the blood. That didn't work. I jumped in and wanted to jump straight back out again, but once my legs had gone numb due to the cold, I was okay and ready to give knee boarding ago. I am sure you have all seem the amusing photographs of myself on facebook, thanks to Catherine. I found it really hard to pull myself up, so I just lay for a good while, getting dragged along by the speed boat (nobody could hear my shouting 'Stop!" Even when I attempted to put my thumbs down to show that I wanted to stop, I was ignored. Finally the boat stopped, Steph told me what to do again and it then started to go again. This time I managed to get my bum up in the air, that was all for a good few minutes, then with lot's of shouting from Steph, I managed to slowly move my knees one at a time, so that I could sit up. It was all worth it, until the water got bumpy and a fell off again. No, I really enjoyed it. Next onto the wake board - I made it into the water, I got the board on my feet, my fingers felt like they had been jammed in a door due to the cold water, but there I was, bobbing up and down, scrunched up in a ball ready for the boat to go. Three attempts I had at this, each time the rope was yanked out of my hand. We are going to the dam next Saturday, so I shall have another go and let you know how that goes...
I had a great time at the dam, and even got a gift of chocolate bars from some Afrikaaners who were staying near by. As I was coming out of the bathroom they shouted "Scottish Girl" and handed me some chocolates. Again, a great end. AND I caught some sun!

The next few days we didn't really do too much, as on the Tuesday we were going to Sossusvlei, a surprise organised by Steph and her parents. These trips would usually cost around one thousand pounds, but we got it for free. I wish there was a way that we could repay Steph and her parents, because we had such a fantastic experience. Sossusvlei was formed from the Orange river (which is on the border between Namibia and South Africa) pushing the sand ,and then the wind carrying it onwards. It is 30 - 50 Million years old and is a sight that you must see in Namibia. Again, something that Catherine and myself failed to do on our gap year! We woke up at half past five on the Tuesday, expecting a six our drive down to the coast. But the car stopped in a car park about ten minuted from Steph's house at a small airport.... We flew in a very small plane, while the sun was rising over Namibia - the flight took an hour! It was so amazing. Namibia is definitely a country that should be seen from the sky, it is so vast, and there is so much land that you cannot drive too. As we got closer to Sossusvlei, the dunes began to emerge, ahhh it was amazing! The photographs are up on facebook. We landed on a small airstrip in the middle of the desert, with a toliet. Here we got picked up and driven to the 'Kulala Desert Lodge" A beautiful lodge in the middle of the desert. We had a room, with very comfortable beds and a view of the red dunes. We got all inclusive food and drive into the desert each day we were there. Everyone looked after us, and the Staff were so friendly. They made it a very special day - each night after dinner, they sang to all the guests!
So we arrived and had breakfast and then slept for the morning! In the afternoon, Stephs mum had booked quadbiking for us! We met our tour guide, Edward, who was going to be with us for the rest of the trip. He was extremely knowledgable and friendly, we had a lot of fun with him! Quadbiking was amazing. Okay, I was a little slow to start off with, Catherine fell off and I nearly went straight into a tree. Other than that, everything was great, until my bike broke! Luckliy Edward got it started again! Then it broke, so we swapped bikes. I was going full pelt at the end, it feels amazing ,such an idrenaline rush!
That evening we were shattered, and had to have an early night because we were to be at breakfast for quarter to six the next morning. We made it, as we were in bed for ten to nine! The next morning we watched the sunrise, to be honest, I was still half asleep, but what I saw of it was beautiful, watching the shadows forming on the dunes. Then we went on to climb 'Big Daddy' - A 250 metre high Dune - my legs are still sore. I am really glad we did it, we got a view of sossusvlei, and of dead vlei (look them up) Stunning, I even ran some of it!
We then drove to Sesreem canyon and went down into it. This was nearing the end of our morning and we drove back for lunch, to then go out again at four for sundowners at the dunes. again, spectucular. We were not meant to be doing anything the next morning as we were to be flying back at eleven. BUT I thought, what the hell, one more early mornig cannot kill us! So we asked Edward if he could take us out in the mornign to climb Dune 45 - 120 metres! Rather hard in the morning, when it isn't even 8am! Still, very worth it when we got to the top. Oh I forgot to say, we ran down the dunes. There are some rather amusing videos of us! One of me managing to make it down, stopping, and then falling over! "Standard"- as Phil would say. :P
We sat on the roof of the truck and had some drinks and chatted before we were to head back to camp to get ready to fly back.

The plane back was yuck! I thought I was going to be sick, or that it was going to crash. Luckily neither happened, but both thoughts did pass my mind as I was listening to Sean Paul.....

Anyway, it has all been amazing. I cannot write about it all, as I don't want you to get bogg eyed looking at the screen, then again, most probably won't have even read to this point.

I am off Go - Karting now, which should be interesting. This shall feature in my next entry, along with the wake boarding. I imagine that it may be a good read.

Sorry for spelling and grammer mistakes, never really been my strong point!

Tot Siens! (Goodbye!)

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