AUGUST 17, 2005

Dear Family and Friends, Greetings from COLD Namibia! I know when you think AFRICA you think HOT! Well, winter here is not for sissies! The houses are built to stay cool in the summer, so they are ice boxes in the winter! There is no heating, and last night it went down to minus two degrees Celsius.

I kept thinking of all the little children with bare feet walking around on the cold ground, and many of them sleeping on it, too. Shoes and blankets have been distributed by many organizations, and I am happy to see most of the kids with some sort of sweater or jacket. Needless to say we are all looking forward to longer days and warmer nights in the upcoming months!

Working with the children has been very rewarding. I am quite pleased with the progress they have made, especially in the after-school program at the Bernhard Nordkamp Center. Six months ago they were like wild maniacs and the place was in total pandemonium. Now I can honestly say the kids have changed one hundred percent and are polite, kind and adhere to the “NO FIGHTING” policy.

The norm is to respect one another and to play nicely with the games and puzzles. I explained to them that the games, books and everything in the center is THEIRS, and that if they steal it they are NOT stealing from me, they are stealing from one another. Since then nothing has disappeared and the kids have taken more responsibility for THEIR stuff. It is a wonderful accomplishment. We have not been able to get many Namibian volunteers to come, which is a disappointment, but we are hoping that with the hiring of a new social worker we can do more recruiting in the local high schools, universities and churches.

Thanks to so many of you who sent donations to cover the cost of transporting volunteers to the center. I am holding onto that money, and will use it in the future. (I am optimistic about getting volunteers, some day!) We have been BLESSED with the arrival of Steve Miscone, who comes 3 days a week and is a HUGE help in managing the after-school activities. I also had visits from my dear friend Freddy in May, and Tom and Margaret Staudter in July. Sarah and Adam, two recent college graduates, took a detour from their three month backpacking trip through Africa to help with the children AND Sarah spent endless nights drawing pictures and making educational games that the kids LOVE!! Ellen Pensegrau, a retired school teacher from Germany was here for six months and did marvelous work with a small group of young girls at the center. They actually worked on reading, writing and math skills, which was a first for those kids!

It was my goal to have ALL the children in the after-school program doing school work for one hour every afternoon, but that was completely unrealistic. I am satisfied now to simply have the children engrossed in educational games which build their social skills and problem solving abilities. It is a happy, comfortable environment for the children, where they are safe and secure. Six months ago when I reached out to pat the children on the shoulder, they would flinch and jump away. The only physical contact they ever received was a smack or a punch, or inappropriate sexual contact. Every teacher they knew only raised their hand to beat them. Now they know that my hands will only be used to hug them, to affirm their good work with a “high five” or a pat on the shoulders. I have earned their love, respect and trust, and it is worth more to me than all the gold in the world.

In the mornings, I am no longer working with the children in Okhandja Park community, but have switched to a similar school readiness program in Hakahana. The latter program was being supported by some wonderful students from the USA who were studying for one semester in Windhoek, but they had to return to the states and recruited me to keep the program afloat. I am happy to say that the volunteer teachers have been very receptive to some training and we do lesson plans every Friday for the following week. It is certainly not the Waldorf School, but the kids keep coming and I believe they are learning SOMETHING, so we are headed in the right direction. Just the fact that these kids come on their own says a lot. How many kids in the USA would walk 45 minutes to school every day if they didn’t have to? I give these kids a lot of credit. These morning programs have also benefited GREATLY from the service of Sarah and Katherine, two high school students from California who spent a month here as volunteer teachers. Along with Nancy, Sarah’s mom, they hauled over 300 pounds of educational materials in their luggage. They generously gave most of it to me to use with the children, and it was like Christmas in July!! I just kept “oohing” and “aahing” as I pulled magnetic letters, wipe boards, counting blocks, sharpies and oodles of educational delicacies out of the big hefty bags. That stuff will make learning fun for EVERYBODY!!

One morning a week I go to a kindergarten called the “Pink House”. It is run by a fabulous woman named Veronica. I really give her credit, she has great vision and has built a five classroom school house even though she is up to her ears in debt. She has veggies growing all over the school grounds and has dreams of having an enrollment of 200 children in the future. Martha and Cecelia, her two “teachers” have not had any formal training in early childhood education. BUT, the one MAGNIFICENT THING, is that they do not beat the children! They are very patient and kind and will come to my home any hour of any day to receive help with managing the children and developing a curriculum. I am so impressed with them and even though I have no experience with preschool age kids, we are all doing our best to come up with ways to manage 65 wild little kids!! THAT is a HUGE challenge!

I will be in the USA the months of September and October and I hope to spend LOTS of my time observing in early childhood centers and gathering TONS of ideas to bring back here! (Please let me know if you can help me in any way! I would be MOST grateful!) And, speaking of Grateful, I am ETERNALLY GRATEFUL to all of you for your financial donations and all the educational materials you have collected for me. The lego and duplo blocks are FABULOUS and I can ALWAYS use more! The kids play for HOURS and you can hear a pin drop, they are so fascinated with them! Same goes for the puzzles, dominoes, connect 4 and scrabble games. I encourage you to come to Namibia so you can see the kids playing with all this AWESOME stuff!

In the afternoons and weekends it is all about SOCCER! I have been organizing a group of little girls at the center who play every Thursday afternoon under my supervision and coaching. Two weeks ago they played their first game. It was against a group of young girls all three to four times their sizes. They played on a gravel field, strewn with broken glass and stones. They were so excited to play their first “real” game that they didn’t even care that the opposing team was bigger and stronger than they were. When we got to the field, they asked me if they were going to wear the yellow pinnies that we always use. “No”, I told them, “Today I have a special treat for you. You are going to wear REAL uniforms!” They squealed with glee. “The shirts are orange, so maybe we should call you the pumpkins,” I said jokingly. They loved the idea, but one girl piped up, “No! We are not JUST pumpkins. We are BEAUTIFUL pumpkins!!!” So, that is the name of our first little girls soccer team: The Beautiful Pumpkins! They lost 3-0, but they played like champions, and went over to the other girls to shake their hands after the game. Their sportsmanship and enthusiasm were touching. They really are my Beautiful pumpkins, and I am so proud of them. Their orange uniforms were donated by little girls in the Briarcliff AYSO program, and I was so touched that many of them not only gave up their uniforms, but their shin guards, socks and cleats too!

Now I dream about bringing all those little girls in Briarcliff over here to Namibia to play a friendly match against the beautiful pumpkins! Guess I should start playing the California Lottery to make that dream come true! The team of older girls that I have been coaching is sporting beautiful maroon and white uniforms donated by the Ossining AYSO program. My mom was wondering if we were going to call them the “beautiful eggplants.” I don’t think so! On Sundays I still play fun, “pick up” soccer with a bunch of men at UNAM. (the University of Namibia). I really enjoy getting out, running around and developing friendships with the guys. They respect me as a woman and as a player, and I am very appreciative of that. In my free time, which is not too much, I make educational games for the children in the various places I am working and supporting.

So, please forgive me for not being a better correspondent. If you have made a donation and have not received a thank you note, please accept my apologies. My Dad and Mom have been so good about bringing your donations up to Maryknoll, and I have been HORRIBLE about acknowledging your generous gifts. PLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEASE forgive me! I will be in the USA for the months of September and October. I think this is where I will be:

Sept 1 to Sept 13: New York

Sept 13 to October 13: California

Oct 13 to Oct 17: Iowa

Oct 17 to Oct 28: New York

My brother’s wedding is September 17, (on my dad’s birthday), my cousin is getting married October 15th, my mother is having a special birthday and my parents are celebrating 45 years of marriage all during those two months. (Not to mention MY Birthday!!)

Amidst all the celebrating I plan on doing MANY talks and presentations about Africa, so PLEASE let me know if you would like me to come to your school, place of worship, sporting events or service clubs. (I am a Rotarian and will be looking for weekly meetings to attend!) One of my new housemates, an exchange student from Austria, has offered to put together a power point presentation with hundreds of photos of the children, the landscape and wildlife of Namibia. I am very excited about this technological upgrade!

But most of all I am excited about reconnecting with many of you and keeping in touch. I am looking forward to bringing the faces and the stories of the children in Namibia into your homes and your hearts, and carrying your stories back to them. I enjoy being the “bridge” between these two amazingly different cultures, and hope that many of you will be able to cross that bridge and come to Namibia to see this amazing country with your own eyes. More importantly, you will be able to see the children and fall in love with them, and they will give you an entirely new perspective on life. I guarantee it, and if you don’t believe me, just ask anyone who has come here! Please keep in touch!

You can always email me:

Marybeth_gallagher@yahoo.com or call my parent’s home (914) 941-4686, leave a message, and I will call you back. (well, I will do so in September and October!) For those of you who have been asking what we need, we can ALWAYS use lego and duplo blocks and jigsaw puzzles of 100 pieces or less. (especially wooden ones with 4 to 10 pieces for the little kids!) Soccer uniforms and soccer gear would also be VERY welcome! Children’s picture books we can ship over, so thanks for collecting them, too! But what I would MOST like to have in Africa is YOU, so save up your dollars and come on over!

A million thanks to all of you for your love, prayers and support. Your kindness and generosity have brought a lot of happiness and joy into the lives of the children here, and into my life, too! Big Hugs and tons of love from the other side of the world! Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo MaryBeth :)