Back to school in Namibia

Namibia facts:

Namibia is the 41st largest country in the world.
Life expectancy at birth: 51.24. It is ranked
205 in the world, it is due to HIV/AIDS.

Hello Kazakhstan;

Greetings to everybody and it's nice that you
are interested in chatting with us here in Namibia.
We are just beginning 10th grade and it is the
time of year where we will do some athletics, we
train some then we compete and if we do good we
go on to compete and keep going till we lose.
Our independence day is on the 21st of March.
We won our freedom from South Africa in 1990.

Some questions
- What sports do you do in your school?
- What music is popular there?
- Have you ever heard of Namibia before?

Rosemary and Martha

Hi Switzerland;

This is Nduva Ester and I was very glad to receive
your joyful response from our friends in
Switzerland. While me and my friends haven't
seen your country yet, I hope with the blessing of
God that one day we will meet either in Namibia
or Switzerland.
I saw the pictures of your school and I am sending
you one (above) off our buildings. Hopefully they
will finish painting it this year.
I was writing my exams before Christmas and was
panicked for the result but got excited when I saw
that I passed. It is a struggle to stay in school for me
because my parents left me when I was in grade 5.

I learned somethings about your culture while there
are differences between yours and mine.
In the olden days men married at the age of 15 - 20
but not only specifically. In those years some of the
men were engaged to a young girl of 12 years old
and at that time started supporting and feeding her
while not having intercourse until the time of the girl's
menstruation. Then the whole process began when
the man would go out to hunt then marry that girl.
This has changed as you were saying for now
"women marry someone of their choice" but the
main reason why they did that in the olden days was
to recognize a strong man who will feed his family
after marriage.
When you are 'bad' at your first menstruation you
go and hide in the bush or any safe place without
telling your friends. You will be missing in the area
and the adults will realize it and ask your friends
then look and find you and prepare a shelter and
put you in that shelter without anything much to eat
or drink. You stay 4 to 6 weeks in the house
drinking dirty water and eat dirty food until the
day of coming out. They will prepare special oil
and decorate you with beads and give you
medicine. They also prepare the man and then
put you two together and give an encouraging
speech.
In the olden days you got only get a child after
marriage but things changed so you can get a
child before marriage now. So the cultural
practices of the menstruation time of a girl
is no more.
In the olden days if a girl was not engaged at
the menstruation time they would go through the
process using a log as a husband symbol. Then
you get a man later and marry. This was a
training process for women to be strong so
that she cannot be greedy but feed the whole
family.
I have a boyfriend but I did not follow the olden
day tradition and the adults were not happy
with me because I didn't tell them when my
day came. They are of the generation that still
went through the old process.
I spent my Christmas vacation out of this village
and I was doing a little work like ploughing and
gathering veld fruit and foods. Us San people
were hunter gatherers for centuries and that
changed some sometime around the 60's.
My dream is I want to finish school and get a
job and fight for the development of the poor
San marginalized community, also for my own
family too.
We don't have the internet in our school but
I hope that soon they do so that I can get email
and we can communicate easily

Waiting to hear from you
Yours
Nduva

* As of now I have been doing the posting for
the school but one of the goals is to get the
students to learn to do it themselves. I have
seen a result of this project as that it is
creating a situation so that the learners themselves
are going to force the issue.

Namibia,
Hi from Switzerland. We’re really intrigued about what you said about your culture especially because it is so different from ours. In Switzerland, most girls menstruate around ages of 11-13, but life goes on as normal. There is no ritual and unless you tell people no one would know. In Switzerland, it is a very private matter. We also don’t get married until we leave schooling which is in your 20’s. Most women get married late 20’s, but it is not mandatory to get married, and many women choose not to. You also decide who you are going to marry regardless of the skills he has and his achievements. It is acceptable for women to have more than partner throughout their life, but not at the same time.
We have some questions about your marriages?
How old are the men that you marry?
What happens if you are ‘bad’ during your first menstruation?
When do you usually have children?
Can you have children outside of marriage?
We are writing during our last week of school, as we are about to go on Christmas vacation and everybody is really excited. We have vacation for three weeks and many people travel or go skiing. During Christmas, which is on the 24th and 25th of December, which is families come together to open present s and enjoy a big dinner which includes a turkey. Each household has a Christmas tree, which is decorated by the family and which where ‘Santa Claus’ leaves his presents. Santa Claus is a big fat man, who comes down the chimney with presents.
We look forward to hearing from you all soon!

Photos from around Zurich International School - Winter 2010

This is a collection of our artwork in an open area used for painting and drawing.

This is our fitness room, where many older students spend time working out.

This is our school's new triple gym. We can leave it like it is now and have one big gym or seperate it into three different gyms. Students have physical education classes three times a week.

This is another picture of our school field.

This is the front of our school. Currently we have lots of snow, and it just keeps snowing! Students often play in the snow at lunchtime. In Switzerland, we are able to go skiing, snowboarding and sledding from novemeber to about april!

This is our cafeteria, where all students eat lunch at 12.30. Students in Grades 9-11 must stay in school to eat, but students in grade 12 are allowed outside of school when they dont have class. Our new cafeteria can accomadate all students, and provides hot food as well as sandwiches.

This is our entrance to our school. It is Winter here now, and very snowy, so the floors get very wet and slippery.

Greetings to the Kazakh School

Hey people,

We are happy to have this opportunity to communicate with you. You know, in Switzerland all we know about Kazakhstan, is from the movie Borat. Obviously this movie is misleading when it comes to you culture. However, we would be happy if you could further educate us on how life is like there. Do you go to school everyday? And what do you do in your freetime? Here we play a lot of sports, but as it is winter now, we ski. There is a lot of snow outside and it is very cold. Our typical food is mostly with meat and cheese. What do you guys eat over there?

We will be glad to hear from you,

The Foster Advisory Students