Experience wins

Uahe Timmy Kahiha
“There is more to books than meets the eye!” This phrase made sense to Elizabeth Reinholdt, Kuazemburukua Muikute, Junior Kapofi, Helena Paulus and Michelle Kauamii, who represented the school at this year’s National Book fair, which took place from the 15th September to the 17th.
The fair was organised by former pageant queen, Paulina Malulu and Helvi Wheeler. Academia was one of the invited schools alongside Windhoek Technical School and People’s Primary School. The three daylong event was themed “An indigenous treasure” and participants were asked to write poems and read aloud books in the content of the theme. It was a only think quick, talk fast competition as participants only had ten minutes to put together a 4 stanza poem.
One of our representatives, Junior Kapofi excelled in the story telling and won N$500 for our school for our school. The book fair offered a lot of information on not only books, but skills to penning down great pieces and more on how one can be a good reader. Our media prefects got to sit in a hall with Dr. Tjama Tjivukua, the vice-chancellor of Namibia University of Namibia (NUST) and ambassador Tonata Ithenge-Emvula, who also served as patrons of the event.
“The book fair was more of a workshop for me and the other media center prefects. I learned so much more about books, how to handle them and even how to write one,” said Kuazemburukua Muikute, when asked about the experience. Junior Kapofi’s perception on the event was, “reading and writing is much more important than we make it to be. I was very happy I won, but I am thankful for the experience.” That clearly explains how experience can be better than success at times. The group used their attained skills, when they hosted a poem writing competition at the school which was a success. “I really want to attend more of these events, because we can use the knowledge to improve our media centre and empower the rest of the school about books and readings.”
“We plan on hosting a reading and spelling Bee competition before the start of the examination,” said Michelle Kauamii, head of the media centre. One can notice how much of an effect the book fair had on the Academia representatives as for they have been calling in meetings to discuss the way forward. It is important to get inspired, especially when the inspiration is easily available.
I asked the rest of the participants about their experience and this is what they had to say. “I was really honoured to have met great people like Dr. Tjama Tjivikua, I also really enjoyed the ‘read-a-loud’ competition. I did not win, but I took a lot of new skills with,” said Elizabeth Reinholdt. Helena Paulus said she had fun browsing through all the books and enjoyed the opportunity of meeting Paulina Malulu.
Not all of us can be best at everything, not all of us can win at all times, but there is one thing we can all take back home with us and that is experience. It is evidently the key to unlocking doors for yourself and you should take it.
The book fair helped the learners find the key to opening doors for our school. They each got an eight gigabyte memory stick, two reading books and a certificate to take home. Though the road was challenging, they all agree that the exposure to new things beats all.