Constrassen

I have decided that I'm not leaving this school without teaching my classes
the ACTUAL words to the Namibian national anthem. The song is really pretty
simple, but it wasn't until I looked it up that I actually figured out what
many of the words were.

Here's the song:

Namibia land of the brave
Freedom fight we have won
Glory to their bravery
Whose blood waters our freedom

We give our love and loyalty
Together in unity
Contrasting beautiful Namibia
Namibia our country

Beloved land of savannahs
Hold high the banner of liberty
Namibia our country
Namibia motherland we love thee!

---

Here's pieces of what I would here:

..."Whose blood <muffle> our freedom"...

..."Constrassen beautiful"... (i.e. contrasting)

"Be love land sav<muffle>
<muffle muffle> of liberty"...

Friday was another wash of a day teaching actual lessons wise, so I decided
to start the Anthem Quest. I started with "Contrasting Beautiful". I wrote
it on the board, pronounced it, got them pronouncing it correctly, and
explained what it meant. Man, ALL EYES were fully engaged. They were SO
THANKFUL that someone was finally telling them the actual words!

By the time I get done with them, grades 8 and 9 will be leading the school,
including the teachers, who also don't have a clue what most of the words
are.

Interestingly, both classes I did this with asked about the American
national anthem. I said that it was much longer, with quite a few more
words. I sang the first verse for them; they humoured me and seemed
impressed :-)

Next week we will tackle the "savannahs" and the "blood waters"...