Settling in an Rukonga Vision School

23/1/2013

We’ve been here for five full days now.  Two days of teaching, two days of weekend, and the first day was a hodgepodge of moving in and getting settled.  This school is unreal! It feels like a school or camp in the States or something.  Once the Ministry has finished shipping everything here (we’re pretty far out, and operating under African time… so…), it is really going to be very, very state-of-the-art.

Wendy and I are in a two bedroom flat, with our own bathroom (with a shower!) and kitchen for the two of us.  The staff flats are on the ends of the hostel buildings, and we are on the last girls’ hostel before the fence. This means that our back balcony (yeah-we have a balcony) overlooks a field and a few homesteads towards the village of Divundu.  We got chairs today at the store! Such a good find.  We were a little overly excited for the two little plastic chairs.  We ate grilled cheese and tomato for dinner, in our chairs, on our balcony.  We also cut out a bunch of pictures from a “Tree Houses from Around the World” calendar, and are bosticking them around the apartment.  Building in some feng-shui (yeah zero clue how to spell that).  We found curtains at a China shop next to the grocery shop at the corner of our road and the main road, so it’s really starting to feel like a real home, rather than an institutionalized grey mass of concrete and tile. 

And I planned a lesson for tomorrow, which I’m delivering to the grade 8 C and D classes.  I’m pretty excited about it.  Since we don’t have computers, we are going to act out how the different hardware and software work together. Each learner will be a different part of the computer, and the goal is to open, finish, save and print a letter.  The learners with computer experience will be the Control Units and Users, so they can help the others figure out how things work together.  There will be two teams, and it’s a race.  Lessons like this are just not done here, so I’m excited to see how this goes.  I feel like this could have worked during the practical, so I’m really excited to see how the kids here take to it, now that they know me a little.  I think one of my favorite things is hearing kids say “Hello Teacher Miss” walking to classes.  Everyone in Africa (yeah, I’ve met everyone by now) thinks my name is just Mayer.  But it’s said like Maahyaer. Hilarious.

Today was a good day, even though the bureaucracy and clearance of things really gets on my nerves!  I will give you just one textbook example of what I mean. Grading in black pen is an absolute no-no. I did it yesterday (outside on a bench, instead of in the staff room, no less), and that was really pushing the envelope.  So today, I brought a purple pen to the staff room for grading, and “no-no-no-Maaahyaer.  You need a red pen. I will get you a red pen.” Seriously? The kids only have blue pens anyway, so as long as I don’t use blue, it really shouldn’t make a difference. Silly things that can take up so much time and effort that just aren’t that big of a deal.  But they’re a big deal here, so I have to just suck it up and get used to it.  

Thank goodness I have Wendy, who lets me just vent to her! We’ll see how this lesson goes over with the teachers tomorrow! I’ll have to just stress to them that this is how the Ministry is asking us to teach.

Leaving School for the Night

21/1/2013

Scott Kerrel, a WorldTeach volunteer placed in Divundu two years ago, Unlock Foundation founder, and African/Namibian studies guru, took us out for dinner last night while he is here visiting this week.  He kind of showed us around the village, and let us know the shabeens to go to, as well as who in town it is really important to meet. We drove down the main road, past a bunch of homesteads, and then we turned down a dirt road.  Bushman kids ran up to the car, sticking their hands in the window.  He says we’re far enough out that these kids probably don’t go to school.  We passed a Malaria treatment testing camp (???), where I think there is a Peace Corps member stationed, and then we suddenly entered a freaking resort.  Divava Lodge, right on the Kavango River.  Out of freaking nowhere.  It was beautiful! Bungalows, a pool, a boat tour, safari trucks, a spectacular deck overlooking the river, and food to die for.  How do people find this place in the middle of the bush?! What???  I guess tourists/safari trips going from Namibia to Botswana (15 k down the road) or Vic Falls pretty much need to go through here, so that’s who stays there. 

There are about five lodges like that right here, in the same town where the ceiling is falling down on learners heads at the local school, in the same town where learners are supplied with everything they will need from sheets to pencils, from food to internet until they pass grade 12.  It is such a weird mix and clash of cultures, incomes and access here in Divundu. 

I do want to make sure and leave school a few times a week to remind myself of where I am, and where these learners are coming from.  My grade 11s all come from this region, but the grade 8s come from all over the country.  All of them are vulnerable/orphaned children.  I want to get involved in the counseling process.

Idealism, Part 1: Being Helpful to versus Helping People

19/1/13

                One of the biggest questions I have been dealing with since deciding to come here is-What do I want to do with my life?  Broad question for sure. 

                So far in my life, I have thrived on being helpful to people.  Doing the dishes, being proactive when things need to be done, scraping shit without being asked, and generally being helpful to any processes going on around me.  I really love this part about me, and I try to be helpful.

                But there is a difference between being helpful to and really, truly helping people.  Helping people is a much more interactive process.  What I really like about WorldTeach is that we are partnered with the Namibian Ministry of Education.  We have asked them what their goals are for their education system, and have worked out, in partnership with the government, steps that we can take to help them achieve these goals in their schools.  As teachers in the schools here, we are advocates and musclemen helping these goals become a reality.  We are not coming in here and just spouting our own ideas about how things should be run, but instead are listening, and working with everyone here to help them set up their vision for education in Namibia. 

                Helping also pans out on the individual level.  I have adopted a favorite question when I meet new learners: Why are you here? I have gotten some pretty amazing answers. Students want to do their best, to become engineers, doctors, geologists, to help their families, to get good grades, to be part of something bigger than themselves.  I want to help them achieve these goals—get them the academic education they need, impart computer skills they need to be a part of the global society, empower them to not get pregnant, and keep them healthy so that these goals can be followed through on to the end. 

                Well don’t I just sound all idealistic. Ah to be young and doing service for others.  Oh wait.  That’s me. I know I’ll get jaded, but I hope I don’t lose sight of that goal to truly help others. 

First Day of School, Namibia Style

18/1/2013  

              Since the learners do not rotate to different teachers, the teachers rotate to the students.  In the first few days of classes, when the time table is being set up, this means a bit of chaos.  The time table changes daily, class length is variable, and teachers don’t always know where they need to be.  I am partnering with Mr. Fungo, the Information and Communication Technology/Computers teacher, and splitting the classes.  We have not yet decided if we will split it such that I get a few whole classes, or if we will split each class in half when we go to the labs, so that each of us is teaching 15 learners at a time.  I think I would prefer the second option, but half the number of classes of thirty or the whole number of classes of fifteen learners seems to be sort of a wash at some point.  Plus if we just split the classes to 15, it might be easier for him to transition back to the full load once I leave. We shall see.

                Right now, teaching computers is difficult.  There are none here. Nor is there internet set up yet. Mr. Fungo is hopeful that the computers and internet hardware will arrive next week. This, along with everything else that is missing, is frustrating to many teachers.  There are just barely enough chairs and desks for all of the learners. The staff room has just enough chairs for almost all of us to sit during staff meetings (if we take all of the chairs from every room in the administrative wing).  There are no tables or chairs in the dining hall.  Text books are here, but not yet distributed to learners or teachers.  I think this was my biggest fear/negative expectation: that the school would not be ready yet.  I just hope that stuffs will be here before I leave, so that I can hopefully make use of them, and help set up good practices with learners and staff.

                The learners and staff are very excited to be here.  There is almost a camp like feel amongst the girls in the hostel next to my flat.  Most of the grade eight learners are from all over the country, so new friendships are being forged here.  The grade eleven girls are mostly from the surrounding Kavango region—some know each other, some do not.  All of the children I’ve talked to are very proud to be here. They definitely get that this school is going to be a big deal, and they want to be a successful part of it. 

                I want to do three major things while I am here, beyond teaching computers. First, I would like to set up some sort of careers/college counseling and fair.  Learners here have very lofty goals, which could be attainable, but don’t know what it takes to get from here to there.  I would like to help bridge that gap in knowledge, perhaps through working with the school counselor.  Right now, though, he seems caught up in dealing with homesick children.  The kids will not leave here until the school year is over, so some are very overwhelmed. 

                Second, I would like to help teachers integrate technology into their classrooms.  I would like to work with the biology teachers to use the internet to look up information about HIV/AIDS and other health related topics, geography teachers to use Googlemaps and other online mapping tools, history teachers to make interactive timelines, and English teachers to incorporate word processing into their writing curricula.  Right now, the teachers try to make their classes interactive and more student-centered, but haven't had much opportunity to practice asking good leading questions or design activities that directly engage students with the material.  But I think the drive and effort is there on the part of the teachers. 

                Third, I would like to involve students in some sort of theater group talking about teen pregnancy and HIV/AIDS—especially the grade 11’s.  The Kavango region has a super high rate of teen pregnancy, and the HIV/AIDS rate is 25%.  Involving students in getting the message of goal-driven safe sex, abstinence, and faithfulness out there would be great for this community.  Part of me wishes I were in the community more than this more secluded school.  On the other hand, we’ve been given a lot of really bright students, and I get to help them find their potential and figure out how to make it a reality.  

Americans in Namibia

Over the past few days, we have visited the American Embassy twice.  We've met with the programs director of USAID, the development arm of the international action of the American Government. They give money to communities and organizations to support educational, environmental, economic, health and human rights initiatives all over the world, and through PEPFAR (Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief or something like that) donate tons of money to community health centers and the prevention of the spread of HIV.  Ms. Washington, the woman we met with, was super chill and down to Earth, and very willing to help us.  Since they work a lot with Peace Corps, the have resources all over the country to use and collaborate with, so it's awesome that WorldTeach is reaching out to the American Embassy.

Today, we met with the American Cultural Center and Library, and learned more about grants and scholarships that send students from Namibia to American Universities. They have book donations all over the country, and are excited to be connected with us.  WorldTeach is amazing because we are directly employed by the Namibian Ministry of Education.  This means that we are directly supporting the Ministry, so no one can really say we are just here to push an American agenda or something.  One thing we haven't really worked on doing is collaborating with Namibian and foreign organizations with similar missions.  So it will be nice to branch out and work together with other organizations.  We are also meeting with the Namibian Library tomorrow, and apparently they will mail books out to any school that requests them, which is awesome!

Two other things:
1. We head to our site at ~6 am on Thursday!

2. Mom, you were right.  I am getting the Yellow Fever vaccine tomorrow, so that I can go to Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe! Then, for Easter, we are going to try and go to Victoria Falls from every which way!

Cooking in Namibia 102

So Jenn ROCKED OUT some Mexican food tonight.  We made a taco bar with rice, beans and ground beef with chili peppers and pari pari spice.  Jenn made a tomato, chili and onion salad and queso dip (to Kristin's extreme delight), and Mariella and Wendy mashed up a guacamole. Since tortilla chips are hard to come by here, we made chips out of the tortillas we bought, by frying them in some sunflower oil.  Overall, it was a super delicious Tex-Mex home made meal. Omnomnom comfort food!

Single Quarter Market and Panduka

This morning we explored Windhoek more; it was unbelievable.  Our first stop was the Single Quarter Market.  It is an open air market, with some three walled and roofed shops, as well.  They sell traditional Ovambo and Herero dresses, millet, meat (being cut on site), fat cakes (fried dough) and these traditional fried mupane worms.  I wasn't quite brave enough to stomach the worms, but some of the other teachers did! Braver souls than I! We did have some traditional cooked up beef, which was delicious, and some nuts that tasted like figs. 

After the market, we went to a craft co-op called Panduka. This place was absolutely amazing.  First thing that I think made is so great for me, was that it was on a lake.  I didn't really realize how much I had missed water, but it had this profound effect on my mood.  I just felt so relaxed there.  It made me really, really happy about having a school near a river up in Divundu. 

Second of all, this co-op does everything! They have a bunch of crafting buildings, blow their own glass beads and embroider everything you can imagine.  I  will definitely have to go back there before I leave so that I can get souvenirs.  They also have a TB clinic, a child care center, and a tea house that serves pie.  Yum.  Everything there was so delicately beautiful.  They also build sustainably.  For example, they were building walls out of old bottles and cement.  Super cool!  

 

Picture taken from Google

  

After we left Panduka, we drove through Havana, a neighborhood of Windhoek.  This was really powerful.  Right next to downtown Windhoek, with its first world mall, air conditioning and tall buildings, there are miles of tin huts with no electricity or running water. Some families need to walk miles for a pump.  But everyone we saw was smiling and welcoming.  Just so excited to see us, even though we weren't even really stopping the van. Dusty, hot, poor and happy.  The juxtaposition of the two cultures and incomes was shocking.

 The rest of our day was full of sessions on washing laundry, teaching with audio/visual aids, testing and assessments, and working within the bureaucratic system.  The morning was distinctly more exciting than the afternoon.

Living in Northern Namibia 101

11/1/2013

Last night, we went to the homestead of Brett’s girlfriend’s (Angelina) family outside of Oshekati.  Many families live on homesteads, which are basically farms.  Other families living in town have small plots to grow millet (muhangu) and beans, mangos or squash in their yard.  Everyone works very hard to make the farm function.  At Angelina’s homestead, they have a lot of land that they cultivate, harvest and shell using tractors, and then they pound the muhango into flour by hand with large wooden poles in holes in the ground inside a hut. Then they send the course flour to a machine to be finely pounded.  Smaller, less well off families do all of this by hand, from hoeing the land to the final pounding.  Within the homestead walls, there are many huts and buildings. Basically, each hut is a room in a house.  There is a kitchen hut, bedrooms, a shower hut, and living spaces, as well as storage huts.  All around the outside of these buildings, food plants grow to feed the family.  We saw hot peppers ripening, squash, sweet potato, corn and sorghum.  In the evenings, small boys drive the cattle into pens closer to the stead, after they have been grazing all over.  The land is communal, and over feeding is kept in check by the farmers, who have a very good, deep knowledge of their land.  Pigs live in a small clay structure just outside the homestead; chickens have a coop; dogs have a lean to for shade just outside the front door.  Angelina’s homestead and family are very wholesome and picturesque.  Everyone works hard to make the farm work effectively.

For dinner, we had Oshivambo chicken (slaughtered that morning), which was boiled with onions, tomatoes, spices and marula oil into a sort of stew. Hands were washed; grace was said. To eat the stew, we pinched off pieces of muhangu porridge patties, and dipped the porridge into the oil and vegetables.  We ripped the chicken and ate with our hands.  Kristin really enjoyed this, and she made a big mess!

Overall, it made me feel a little bit like the farming families I know in the States.  Chickens sound like chickens.  Cattle sound like cattle.  Corn grows.  Seasons pass. People are welcomed.  Family is loved. Work is done.  Work is begun again.  

Teaching at Eengadjo

8/1/2013

We have been here for two days-teaching, cooking, meeting teachers, meeting learners, and finding bugs.  The learners think deeply about life goals and worldly differences. I am impressed by the students’ ability to vocalize and critique opinions about Americans and Namibians. 

Students are often stopping by our house for a visit and cool drink (soda).  Yesterday, my group was cooking dinner and a student stood in the corner of the kitchen watching us cook. She was almost silent for almost an hour.  Namibian children are raised to be seen and not heard, and this plays out at school as well. 

Our speed of teaching is much slower and more patient, and the students are receptive to speaking in class when they are given examples, time and encouragement. I feel that slowing down in my teaching is going to be valuable, but I also need to balance that pacing with my generally SUPER EXCITED teaching personality. Figuring out how not to feel as though I am rushed will be beneficial in the classroom, handling “Africa Time” and general relaxing. 

Students here often get by through rote memorization and copying, so critical and higher order thinking in science is often difficult for them. Yesterday, we were teaching about mixtures. One student said that ethanol was a mixture.  She knew it is made of different things, but when asked to go further, said it was oil and salt, and was pretty clearly making up her answer. 

Tomorrow, we are talking about the parts of an experiment.  Yesterday, one boy said he knew science was about performing experiments.  My teaching partner, Ted, and I are hopeful that they will be familiar with experimental designs, and can identify parts that are missing from experimental procedures written out.  We also are going to perform an experiment with controls, constants, independent and dependent variables,  and making hypotheses.  I am curious how much choice they have had in their experiments in the past.

UPDATE, 9/1/2013: Students’ experience with designing experiments was impressive, but with lots of room for growth. They know what a hypothesis is, but had a difficult time determining independent versus dependent variables.  We talked about using a hypothesis to identify the variables, and that seemed to help somewhat.  I think we should have focused on constants rather than controls more, and that may have made it easier.  Tomorrow, we are writing/planning an experiment and identifying variables. Then we are putting candy into coke so that students can make a reaction. 

Students also work well in groups with roles.  We had leaders, writers, readers and spokespeople. I was really impressed with how quickly they applied spokesperson asking another group before asking the teacher if the group had a question.

UPDATE 10/1/2013: The follow up went well! However, the coke didn’t react. The learners were good sports about it.

Living in the North-Eengedjo, a Hostel School

7/1/2013

Eengedjo has a lot of bugs! Since the first night, though, we are getting better at handling 2” beetles in the sink, and cooking dinner by cande light at Ted and Jessie’s apartment.

When we arrived, everyone was taken aback by the messiness of their apartment—the stove is just now looking clean, thanks to hours of work scrubbing and soaking by Jamie.  But we all worked together to help Jessie and Ted to make their home feel/be home-y.

We have been teaching every morning, and in the afternoon, we talk about teaching theory. Yesterday, two of the learners, Rauna and Endwing came and sat in on our lessons. They were very sweet. Rauna wants to be an agriculture teacher! We were able to engage in lots of conversation about what that entails here.  They study business, cattle breeds and sowing/harvesting (no floral arranging, though).  Since most families live on subsistence farming, it all seemed very applicable.

We see cows, pigs, goats, and donkeys all over town, since land here is all communal.  This makes me miss Rosie.  I haven’t made any deep connections with livestock yet, but babies have been coming to school with older siblings, so we get to play! We had a huge circle of learners and teachers passing a soccer ball around, and that helped everyone relax a lot. 

It has been very hot and buggy here so far, so I just washed and hung some dresses during our lunch break.  It is now POURING rain, and thundering and lightning. While beautiful, cooling and refreshing… really?! Crappy timing! On the plus side, it is so much cooler now! I might even bust out a long-sleeved shirt.  It’s like 70 degrees F. Brrrrr!

An additional amazing thing today: It is MANGO SEASON! Some learners returned to school this afternoon to sell them for N$4 (less that US $1)! And. They. Were. Delicious. Note the past tense. They were gone FAST! Omnomnom! Welcome to Africa! 

Cooking in Namibia 101

7/1/2013

First, I will say that cooking for 18 people in a kitchen designed to cook for 4 requires cooking in batches.  Our group, Wendy, Mariella, Jenn and I, made chili, rice and roasted veggies on a stove with one small pot, one large pot, a small frying pan and an oven that fits one pan.

Things that are different in Namibia, part 1:

                #1 The tomato puree is awkwardly sweet/acidic/awkward. Steer clear.

                #2 This can be solved with lots of chili and pari-pari spice.

                #3 Pari-pari spice is used to spice all sorts of meats, and is really hot and super delicious.

    #4 Meats are cooked over wood fires and braiis (barbeques) that often turn into all night parties.

We cooked the chili using dried beans, soaking and boiling them (beans are totally available in the can—but we decided to go old school).  We found red speckled beans, and they grew to be excellent chili beans. Sautéed onions, garlic and pepper for the vegetarians,  then made more onions, pepper and garlic with the meat. Once the sautéing was finished, we added the beans and start spicing! Go crazy! Chili and garlic spice mix and pari-pari. Add canned, diced tomatoes (ok, we got lazy), and tomato puree.  Salt, pepper, chili-garlic, pari-pari. Boil, then let simmer. Serve over a gallon and a half of rice. We had tons of rice left! Oops!

                Ingredients:

                                ½ kg red speckled beans

                                4 green peppers

                                3 onions

                                4 cloves of garlic

                                ½ kg minced beef

                                3 cans diced tomatoes

                                2 cans tomato puree

                                ½ Tbsp salt

                                ~3 Tbsp chili-garlic mixed spice

                                ~2 Tbsp pari-pari

                                -7 cups dried rice (way too much!)

We also added 4 round spaghetti squash to the chili because they didn’t fit with the roasted veggies.

For the veggies, we got:

                4 butternut squash

                5-6 potatoes (chopped, country style aka however you want)

                2-3 onions (also chopped, country style)

                ~4 cloves of garlic

                Olive oil

                Salt

Since we had room for one pan, we softened the squashes (butternut and spaghetti) in 2 batches.  Once they were scoopable, we scooped out the inside and added the squash to the potatoes, onion and garlic. Schmear with oil and sprinkle with salt. Again, two shifts for this one! Roasted on 2 (1 is the hottest, 5 the coolest) for about 40 minutes. Could have gone longer, but dinner was ready!

We’re heading to Angelina’s (a teacher at a school near Eengedjo) family’s homestead on Thursday, so expect Cooking in Namibia 102 and Namibian Family Living 101 soon!

Heading North

6/1/2013

Well I was going to blog last night, but I got really caught up with helping Brett, my field director, and his girlfriend Angelina make salads for our braai, which got started a little earlier than I anticipated.  A few Tafels later, and it was 2:30am, and I had to be up at 7 for an eight hour car ride up North. (this morning was rough!) There is a breaking news story at the end, but you have to read all of my babble before I get to the good part!

Training has been going really well so far.  We’ve talked about the practicalities of teaching, such as lesson planning, classroom management, and handling large class sizes with multiple levels of English ability. Some of this is super repetitive for me, but it’s nice to be able to help teach and support the others in our group.  We’ve also been talking a lot about Namibian culture and how culture shock sets in and is recovered, as well as how to cope with culture shock and loneliness. The last main chunk of our training so far has been language learning.  Nicholas, our Rukwangali instructor was very helpful and patient with me, since our sessions were usually around 4:00.  I get really hyper/spastic around 4:00 (preceded by intense sassiness from 2-4). Apparently, many taxi drivers, bar tenders, men in general propose marriage to women a lot, so I asked him how he would propose to someone.  He got really awkward (not in a deeply uncomfortable culturally awkward way, just a cute “I’m teaching a woman who is older than me this stuff… how awkward” blushing way), but he taught us, and also how to say no!

We are on our way up North to Eengedjo Secondary School for a week of practical training in front of students who are volunteering to be in our classes.  The drive is spectacular! You look out the window, and there is just nothing for miles and miles, except 10-20 ft tall brush, and termite hills taller than me (insert joke here about how Rachel is short, Mike Mayer).  We’ll be teaching one 45 minute lesson each day this week.  I am partnered with Ted, who is actually placed at Eengadjo for the year, and we have a science themed week of plans.  We’re looking at what happens when things mix together, and then running an experiment with controls, an independent variable (type of candy) and dependent variable (how high the geyser goes when that candy is put in Coke).

It will be really helpful to be at a Namibian school, teaching Namibian students, who are really different from American students, and are used to classes structured very differently than I structure my own classrooms. We’re partnered with the Namibian government to help bring a more student-centered approach to education to the schools here, but most of the teachers use a very teacher-centered approach, where the children are expected to be silent, not ask questions and memorize facts, not to make connections or think critically about the world.  I am hoping that I can break my students out of their shells somewhat, and help them develop more concrete reasons to go school beyond “because I have to.”  More to come on this later, but I’m realizing how important fostering connections between all subjects in school and facets of life is to me, and I want to make that a bigger part of my life’s trajectory. 

BREAKING NEWS: I will be meeting the President of Namibia!  Since my school is the first of the Vision 2030 Schools, he is coming to the inauguration in late January, early February.  Namibia is such a small country that people all know each other, which is cool-government isn’t this like totally distant entity.  The leadership are tangible people.  When the whole country has only 2,000,000 people, it’s hard not to know someone involved in national politics at some level.  And I get to meet the President!! I’ll need to buy a new dress!