Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Last Week in Namibia

This is a bit late coming, but I wanted to make sure I documented my last week in Namibia. It went by so fast and things have been so crazy since. Mainly we got everything ready for us to leave with the students at the Poly and then we also delivered the stuff we brought from home. We had two pallets of shoes, clothes, sanitary kits, school supplies, books, etc. that were donated from the good folks at home. We took one day and just spent delivering goodies. It felt like Christmas to us and to those we were bringing gifts too!

The picture above is of a little girl at the first primary school we went to. It was called Dinosaur land and it had 144 kids and 3 teachers. It was pretty hard to take in, but these women are phenomenal. They are guardian angels to these kids.


They sang us some of their favorite songs and were so excited to see us! Wonderful kids!


There were three rooms and in one of the rooms was where the babies were. They were about 9 months to 2 years old. This little girl was face down and crying on the floor when I walked by. I grabbed her and had her on my lap. Both of us weren't quite sure what to think of each other. She was a cutie though!


This was at the Center that MaryBeth Gallagher runs. She is a saint and has been in Namibia for 3 years working with these people. She set up this center for the kids to come and get food and to continue learning. She makes games out of "rubbish" and teaches other teachers how to do the same. Above is a picture of two brothers sharing their food. The bigger one ate all of his and the smaller one is sharing.


Brittney and I found a couple of "shadows". They loved hugs and we were sure to give them plenty! They loved to feel my hair, so I would let them play with it.



This is Patricia. She was one of my favorites!


One of the books that was donated was a pop-up book. This is me reading them a story. They were fascinated by the "pop up" part!


This was one of our last stops. This lady, we called her Oma (means grandmother), had an orphanage and also a primary school. Her two daughters helped her run it. There was so much love in this place and you could see the difference in the kids! They were very well behaved! This is them waving goodbye after we came for a visit. We left them with a lot of clothes and stuffed animals.


The Rector had us all over to the Hotel School for dinner. It was fun to get all of the Poly students and UVU students together one last time!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Marianne, You are such a cutie; your pictures of the children and yourself are adorable, and very touching. You set a magnanimous example for us all.