Visiting Namibia

In November I had a chance to visit Namibia for a week. We had a story crafting workshop there in our new friendship school. The week was very interesting and Namibia is definately a country worth visiting.
This time we stayed in a hotel right outside of the city of Windhoek called Country Club Resort. Of course it was luxurious but I would have prefered staying at homes like we always did in South Africa. That way you get to know the people and the country and its culture better. Inside the hotel you felt like you could have been where ever in the world. Well, you don't get to eat crocodile in a hotel in Finland!
Namutuni School (our new friendship school) looked a lot like same our friendship school in South Africa. Classes full of enthusiastic learners with a great volume of singing. One thing was different. These learners and teachers already new a lot of from Finland. Actually the principal and two other teachers were educated by Finnish missionaries and the language they used got its written form by Finnish missionaries and Finnish Martti Ahtisaari played a very important role in Namibia's strive for independence. Many teachers and kids had Finnish names.

We had a story crafting workshop for the teachers in Namutuni School. We have used story crafting in our friendship school activity with Arethabeng school from South Africa earlier. Then we published a book Tunne kieleni - Tseba leleme la ka.

We like the simple but powerful method. It's simple: Someone tells a story and other one writes it down just like the person told it. It's a way for us to give children a voice. There were three of us from Finland and two from South Africa in the workshop and the whole staff of Namutuni School. We really had good time together and results of the workshop you are going to be able to read from our next book done with Arethabeng School, Mikkola School and Namutuni School. It will be published in next September.
The dancing group of Namutuni School performed us some traditional dances. I enjoyed that a lot!

While we were in Namibia we had to go to see some animals too. We enjoyed watching the animals and in the evening we ate rather many of those animals in a local restaurant. I didn't like the crocodile but zepra and specially the ostrich was very good!

Can you see the crocodile?
Look how close to the car the rhinos came. It was almost scary!
This is how the animals look on a plate (kudu, ostrich, sprinbok, crocodile and zepra).

In between the workshop days we had time for shopping in downtown of Windhoek. Windhoek is nice little town with modern shopping malls but Katutura the township where Namutuni School is felt more like Africa.
One evening we took a taxi to take us to the near by mountain to see the sun set.We had many beautiful moments and sights in Namibia but the most important thing we gained is new friends. Here with us two teachers, Veripi and Martha, from Namutuni School with us (me and Tuuli another teacher from Mikkola School).