Lisa Chee - MYO Board Member and Australasia Regional Coordinator

“The air of one’s home smells sweet after one has been away”
   –quoted from Nelson Mandela’s book ‘Long Walk to Freedom’.

I can certainly relate to these words each time I return to Africa. Although I live in Australia, Namibia is becoming like a second home to me.

I recently returned from five weeks in Swakopmund, immersing myself with the MYO team (Beverly, Shannon, Julian, Pam, Vera, and Clifford). This time of year is always busy at MYO but this year we have an additional challenge to consider –the transition from our current team to the new team in 2007. It is a very exciting and busy time but we will be leveraging the help of Rob, Julian, and Pam to make the transition successful.

The evaluation process for 2007’s new grade 4 students is well underway. Beverly and Julian have been working every day with grade 3 students from each of the five primary schools in Mondesa. Shannon will also be running academic workshops with the same groups during the term. Our evaluation process is a collaborative effort with school principals, teachers, parents, and kids. Once the school results are released, the final selection will be made in early 2007.

After three years of operation, MYO’s reputation is well established as an important program. The grade 3 kids are desperate to be noticed and very wishful to be selected to the MYO family.

A further accolade to MYO is that in the short time that I have been here, two interested parties have called or personally come by our office to find out how their child can also receive the opportunity of attending our academic support and youth development program. It is obvious that MYO’s programs are also making a positive impact on the parents as well as the students.

We have also received national recognition for our talented young tennis players that MYO is producing. Six of our kids received a privileged invitation to play in the Masters Tennis Tournament in September and in spite of several challenges they performed very well in the competition. These remarkable results are a tribute to both our tennis coaches and to the commitment displayed by our kids. The coaches have done an incredible job to produce such great results given our limited resources. To put this into perspective, for a typical tennis training session, MYO will have 13 kids on court at a time. For most other Master Tournament players, training will comprise of a singles or doubles court with a maximum of 2-4 players. Again, we are making the most of the limited resources we do have.

As a board member, I feel responsible for ensuring that we continue to provide programs that help our kids become successful academically, emotionally, and physically. One factor that is critical to the success of MYO is having the right facilities. Each year we add 30 new students and we are quickly outgrowing our current rental facility. MYO is at a critical juncture so we are working hard to develop a plan to build our own facility beginning in 2007. Vera, Clifford, and I have been lobbying municipality councilors to approve our land application for 10,000 meters of land in the heart of Mondesa. The feedback has been extremely positive as the councilors acknowledged MYO’s unique and successful program. Once again, our reputation is filtering at all levels through the greater community. The next significant milestone will be raising enough capital to build the facility. Building our facility was a major topic during our MYO Board of Directors meeting in October. If you can assist MYO with raising funds for our new facility please email Rob Myres.

Board member Lisa Chee teaching the MYO kids how to make pinatas.
Their favorite activity was painting the pinatas … then breaking them!

The most rewarding part of my visit was spending time with our MYO kids –each day I looked forward to the afternoon when the kids arrived at MYO. I really enjoyed teaching the grade 6 students how to make and paint piñatas and I noticed they were very competitive with their painting and designing of the piñatas. I also had the opportunity to attend the music lessons and it was wonderful to hear their beautiful African voices and see how much they enjoyed playing the new musical instruments. I am always asked by the kids ‘When will Miss Lisa come back?’

How can I stay away?!

I would like to personally thank the team in Namibia for continuing to make MYO a unique success story and an exceptional development program. Well done to Beverly, Shannon, Julian, Pam, Vera, and Clifford. I am sure 2007’s MYO staff will continue to build on your fine work.

Lisa

Barvely Von Luttichou - Field Operations Manager/Tennis Program Manager

Evaluation

We are in the third week of grade 3 evaluations for the new students. The children have seen the MYO participants going on field trips, to tennis tournaments, winning medals, etc..., so this year we have experienced the reality that the majority of the children from the schools are aware of the MYO program. And it is also clear that the presence and prestige of MYO in the community is still growing. It is great marketing for MYO because the new children are motivated to work hard in order to be selected in the MYO program.

Two MYO participants, Placido and Ndeshipanda, recently helped out coaching the new grade 3 students and their past experience in our program provided a great perspective for the new students. We have received the following remarks from the kids after an evaluation lesson:

- “Miss you must write down my name, you must write down my name. My name is…”
- “Miss I got it right, look!” and so it goes….

Julian and I are enjoying working with the schools –it is amazing how much talent we have already recognized.

MYO Tennis

Because we made the transition from mini-tennis to full-court tennis it has been a challenge for the grade 4 students over the past few weeks. However, thanks to Victor Da Motta (from Dubai) who came down to help out for a few days, we received excellent guidance in overcoming some obstacles. Victor is an energetic and enthusiastic coach and loved working with the MYO kids. Both Julian and I learned a great deal from him and the grade 4 students are starting to show improvements with their strokes and, at the same time, having a lot of fun on the court. This week will be their first MYO full-court tennis tournament, and needless to say, they are all very excited and up for the challenge!

Ndeshipanda David proudly displaying her girls doubles runner-up medal
in the Namibia Nationals

The Junior National Championships were held two weekends ago and ten MYO players participated in the tournament. MYO’s Ndeshipanda David, together with another ranked player, was the doubles runners-up in this tournament.

Six MYO players were invited to play in the Namibian Masters. The Masters is an “invitation only” tournament for the top eight players in each age group in Namibia. For the kids selected this was a big honor and reward for all their hard work. Paulina Shikongo reached the semi finals and is now ranked 4th in her age group, followed by Frieda Mukufa 5th, Elton Araeb 6th, Ndeshipanda David 7th, Warren Rooi 7th and Mary Aribes in the 8th position.

Shannon Taylor – Academic Program Manager

MYO is abuzz with spelling bee excitement!

The final term of the academic year is off to a great start and it has already proven to be action packed. We have implemented a new component to the grade 5 and 6 English classes --Writer’s Workshop. The focus of the Writer’s Workshop is to prepare the kids in our program with the necessary writing skills to advance to upper primary and secondary school. Each lesson spotlights a different style of writing while reviewing basic writing and grammar skills.

In addition to the usual academic lessons, MYO hosted an academic challenge for the five primary schools in the Mondesa area. Teams of twelve students from each school, including MYO participants, competed against each other in a spelling bee. The event served to engage the schools in an exciting day that highlighted their school’s academic potential. The buzz of the spelling bee was heard for weeks prior, and during the event everyone had a great time. It was a good way for MYO to closely interact with the schools and a great way to indirectly extend our reach to those students who are not apart of our program.

Frieda and Mauna (in grade 6) in the homework study sessions at MYO

As we begin to wind down for the year we also look forward to the future generation of MYO kids. In addition to the tennis evaluations for new participants this year, we have taken the grade 3 evaluations into the classroom. We will be visiting each grade 3 class in Mondesa (approximately 450 students) and evaluating their potential to excel in our program through hands-on English lessons.

♫ Musical Notes from Miss Pam ♫

There has been a lot going on in the music program over the last two months. I am happy to report we finally received our instruments in early August. We are now playing guiros, triangles, a casaba, claves, and bass bars. We also have 2 new drums that were made by myself, Mr. Dollar, and Miss Shannon –the drums sound great! We are also looking forward to making more drums with the kids in the next few weeks.

The MYO kids are experimenting with the different instruments through jam sessions, singing games, and illustrating stories and poems with their music. We are focusing on the beloved story Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain, about a boy Ki-Pat who helps bring rain to the dry plains. The kids are having a blast as they discover different ways to use and express themselves through the instruments.

In addition to receiving our instruments, selected children went on a field trip back in August to hear the Orchestra Swakopmund. For most of them it was their first time seeing and hearing live instruments such as trumpets, violins, cellos, and recorders. It was a joy to watch their faces light up as they watched musicians play these instruments. A very special thanks to Mrs. Fahrbach and Miss Shannon for helping me organize the trip.

Last but certainly not least, the MYO children have been invited by the Mascato Coastal Youth Choir to join them on their 10th anniversary concert celebration in early December. We have been practicing a very special song to conclude the performance on December 2nd in Swakopmund. I am very excited about this opportunity and know it will be a special evening for the kids, the choir, and those attending the concert. What a fantastic way to conclude our year!

With all the great things happening, I am even more excited about teaching music to MYO students in 2007.

~ Pamela Lowry
MYO music teacher.

• The Lyners family for covering costs of Swakopmund accommodation during Victor Motto’s visit.
• The Kalahari Sands Hotel for providing two nights accommodation during Victor Motto’s visit.
• Immersion for assisting with maintaining the MYO laptops and also donating a USB hard drive for back-ups
• Mr Brusley and the Ministry of Works for authorizing the usage of Vinetta tennis courts and also for donating new tennis nets.
• Uschi Farbach for her ongoing support and inviting MYO kids to stay at her farm.