„A single step forward“ is the motto under which Otjikondo School Village provides children with a well-rounded education for a successful future. As the name suggests, the farm Otjikondo, located in the northwest of Namibia, about 400km from the capital Windhoek, is not only a primary school, but also a small village. Approximately 240 children between the ages of 6 and 15 years live there in four different boarding houses. They come from different ethnic tribes, such as the Herero, Damara or Ovambo. The teachers also live on the school grounds, which leads to a much closer relationship between teachers and students than one is used to in Germany: The teachers send children to their homes to get things for them and let them braid their hair. Also the volunteers have their own home, the so called “GAP flat”, where I lived. In addition to the classrooms, the small village also has a hall with a television, a separate building for the kitchen and dining room, as well as a sick bay, workshops, playgrounds and sports fields.
Picture 1: Otjikondo from above
Having a picture of Otjikondo in mind I can give you a brief description of a typical weekday during my internship from July to September 2023:
Even though it is hard to believe, I got up at 6am almost every morning during my summer holidays. Theoretically at 6:45 in the morning there is morning assembly in front of the school entrance. Theoretically, because I arrived in the Namibian winter, and it was therefore so cold in the mornings that even armed with two jumpers, I longed to go back to bed with a hot water bottle. So since it was so cold, the assembly was skipped for the first month. But the second month I could join the singing, praying as well as birthday congratulations and listen to important announcements.
Afterwards at 7 am, the school day begins. I arrived in Otjikondo for the second school term with two other German girls. Together we had the task of teaching arts and PE to all seven grades.
The art lessons begin by picking up the younger classes from their classrooms and taking them to the “Art Room” or by waiting for the older ones in the Art Room. The children must then line up in a boys’ and a girls’ row and only when they are quiet are the girls allowed to enter the classroom first, then the boys. This was unusual, especially at the beginning, because it seems very strict for primary school children. However, over time it has proven to be extremely useful to bring calm into the classes of about 35 people, at least at the beginning of the lessons. And besides, they are so used to it that it led to confusion when it was not handled this way. We always planned both the arts and the PE lessons at the weekend and on Monday morning we then gave the plan to the principal so that she could approve it. This meant that during the week we only had to prepare the Art Room, which meant putting out papers, pens, glue sticks and scissors, depending on what we had planned.
Picture 2: Art with Grade 1 in the Art Room
At the beginning of the lesson, we then explained to everyone what they had to do. The focus was not only on the artistic programme, but also on the language. Many of the children who come to Otjikondo do not speak English beforehand and only learn it there, as it is the language of instruction. So we always tried to introduce a few new words, such as “scissors”, which was certainly helpful not only for their English, but also for mine. We did different project in arts with a focus on paper and cutting. For example, we taught Grades 1 and 2 how to hold a pair of scissors correctly, how to cut with them in the right way and how to handle them safe. I have to admit that I underestimated this task at first and it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought to teach the children to hold the scissors correctly, as I struggled to put myself in the shoes of a 6-year-old at the beginning. But after I realised that it is a fifty-fifty chance for me to hold the scissors correctly as well and after a few more lessons on experience, it became easier for me to assess the children’s abilities. The most beautiful thing about the art lessons was actually seeing how much the students develop their skills over their seven years in Otjikondo. While the little ones have difficulties drawing a straight line, the big ones are already drawing real masterpieces that put any of my artistic works in the shade. It is a real joy to see this development.
We also had all classes in PE lessons. As you can imagine, this tend to offer the opportunity to get out of hand, although this is very class-dependent. In any case, our assertiveness skills were definitely put to the test here. We introduced the children to handball, a new ball sport for them, and played e.g. netball, football, volleyball, burning ball or did gymnastics with them. They just went to the sports lessons in their school outfit, which at that time was only their tracksuit in school colour green anyway, because it was still too cold to wear their school uniform, i.e. dress and shorts with shirt.
It was also very refreshing to see some of them trying to avoid PE lessons. Once when we were playing handball, some children tried to convince us that in their tribe they are not allowed to make the triangle that you have to form with your hands when you catch the ball in front of your eye, because that is the Illuminati sign and otherwise their parents would die. To this day I don’t know if this is really true, but in any case they did catch the balls in the end.
Picture 3: One weekend I was also allowed to go to a football and netball match against another school.
School runs until 12:50 pm for most children and after that there is lunch, then siesta and remedial classes. For the volunteers, the day continues at 4 pm with afternoon activities, this time with smaller groups of students. For example, I had activities with the smaller children like “playgroup” and “games” where they can play Lego and board games, do puzzles or play group games and thereby have fun, express their creativity and develop social skills. There are a lot of activities related to craft. It was fun to get creative and come up with solutions to problems like missing straws, etc.. In addition, the children all have a lot of fun doing crafts and painting and always infect you with their enthusiasm. I especially had a lot of activities with the older children. In Christmas Craft I made Christmas cards with some of the children for their sponsors back in August, which felt a bit strange due to the lack of Christmas spirit, but was still a lot of fun. With the 6th and 7th graders I also had three German activities, where the idea was to teach them some German phrases and words in a playful way, which could be helpful if they were to work in tourism later on. In “Leathercraft” we made leather wallets, bracelets and key chains. All the afternoon activities were incredibly fun, challenging and creative. Especially with the older children, as you feel like you are already dealing with real adults who can make their own decisions. At the same time, it was a bit strange because I was sometimes only two to three years older, but they still treated me with respect and addressed me as “Miss”. It was somehow a friendly as well as an authoritarian relationship, which took some getting used to, because it also meant that you had to treat the sometimes already teenagers with a certain authority.
Picture 4: Puzzles at afternoon activity
A long-term project was also the Christmas drama that we had to organise with Grade 3. We have already distributed the roles and started rehearsing, but as I had to leave already the other volunteers have to continue without me. This musical required a lot of assertiveness and patience to get the often very restless group to join in, even though they were all very motivated to sing.
Normally we always cooked ourselves in the GAP flat with the food that we got once a week. I have never looked forward to a purchase as much as to a delivery with food in Otjikondo, because you just never knew what exactly of what you ordered really comes, so it was always a surprise.
On Friday evening, we always had dinner together with the children. It has to be said that the children are not allowed to talk at all, which is partly due to the fact that the staff wants to keep order during the meal and partly because in Africa you don’t talk while you are eating anyway, because it is impolite and should be done afterwards.
After that we did the TV evening in the Hans-Seidel-Hall. It was always a challenge to find a movie that everyone was happy with, but one lesson I learned was that you should try your best, but you can never make everyone happy, so you should just be happy with those who are happy.
On Saturday the children got their pocket money from the other two volunteers, while I helped in the Zebra Pan Shop, where the children can buy sweets with their money and learn how to handle money. The store is also open to farm workers and staff.
Picture 5: The Church of the Holy Cross
The highlight of the weekend is church on Sunday in the Church of the Holy Cross at Otjikondo school ground, when all the children dress up and sing together with gusto in the service. It’s hard to describe the atmosphere and I think you have to experience it yourself, but it’s definitely something special.
I can’t summarize everything I experienced in Otjikondo. In any case, I have perceived Otjikondo not only as a place to work and gain new experiences, but as my home for two months and that from second one on. From the moment we arrived, we were welcomed with an incredible amount of love and openness by both the children and the founder of Otjikondo, Gillian Stommel.
Helpful Hints:
- Unfortunately, going to Otjikondo does not make sense in the context of a school internship, my time there was much too short and also for the school itself it does not make sense to have someone there only for such a short time. Nevertheless, Otjikondo is an absolutely great opportunity for a gap year after school.
- Both the use of the Gap Flat and the food supply are free as long as they do not involve luxury products such as chocolate.
- Church in Otjikondo is a must have, so pack your nice Sunday clothes.
- Clothes are always dusty anyway, so it’s better to take practical things with you.
- If you have ideas about what you would like to do with the children, you can also bring materials with you from Germany. Gillian Stommel can get you almost anything, but it takes a while.
- Otjikondo is 80km away from the next smaller village, so you can’t really get away from there even in your free time. But if you get a day off, you should take the opportunity and take a trip to Etosha National Park.
- You don’t really get Nam Dollars in Germany, so just take South African Rand with you, they do accept it there as well.
Marie-Louise Neumann