Independence Day!

Happy Namibian Independence Day!! I get to be the fun counselor.

This morning, we had cultural presentations by the different tribes and groups, and speeches and poems about Independence.  This is like Flag Day and the Fourth of July meet African dancing.  It was very cool to see the students getting so into their cultural stuff.  I loved it, and the rest of the staff who showed up really liked it, too.

After that presentation, I tried to play CTF with the whole school and it was a pretty epic fail.  I tried to play it where the teams hide the flag, and then go find their flag on campus.  Every member of both teams had to know where the flag was hidden or it was negative points.  However, the kids picked up quickly on the cheating factor and invaded the other teams’ meetings so they knew where the flag was hidden.  Seneca, anyone??? It was hilarious though.  I’ll try class vs class CTF on the field next time, with cheering and 7 minute games, etc. 

After lunch, all of the kids came back to the Dining Hall for dancing.  I was DJ Miss Mayer.  First, we had some groups perform.  After that, kids could go and hang out wherever they wanted.  I stayed after the official performances.  Some kids went and took naps or showers or hung out in the dorms. But about 40 kids stayed in the dining hall and danced for 2 hours.  I DJ’ed. And I love how the kids are so excited with each song I put on.  Everyone was smiling and dancing and laughing at me and having a blast. It was the free-est I’ve seen these kids since we got here.  And I get to be the fun one!

Vulnerability

14/3/13

All of the learners sent from each region are supposed to be classified as vulnerable based on family income of family life, or orphans.  Each region is supposed to send their top performing OVCs (orphans and vulnerable children) to coming to this school for free.  They don't pay for anything.  Not a cent.  And this is really great for these kids.  They are given an opportunity no one else in the country gets.  But many of them were selected because they were the top performing learners.  Not OVCs.  So there are really smart children who cannot afford school, whose places are taken here by learners who can afford school elsewhere.  It is not fair.  The way learners are selected needs to change.  The more important thing here HAS to be the OVC factor, not the learners' grades.  Otherwise, there is no point in having it be free and then the whole purpose behind the school is lost.

Preparing for the Ministry

Tomorrow, the Ministry team of people who were the masterminds behind the Vision School will be here.  So this past week, we've been teaching, meeting, getting our files ready, and I've added Life Skills to my course load.  It's been one of those highly productive weeks, where I just keep working, and finding other work to do and keep doing it and being awesome.  I feel like in the past 72 or so hours I've gotten so much done! But tomorrow, my soul will probably be ripped apart. So whatever.

I taught two Life Skills classes on Friday, and they went really really well! We were working on writing SMARTER (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound, Energizing (it's supposed to be evaluated), and Reevaluated) goals.  And we wrote with music playing.  And the kids love it.  And I love it! I was skipping around the staff room at the end of the day.

Today, I worked with a bunch of learners on getting the computers re-organized after the kids in class set up their folders and made messes of all of the icons etc.  And we set up learner accounts on the rest of the computers.

All of my files and lesson plans are as ready as they are going to be. So I say bring it on Ministry.

Field Trip!

13/3/13

                We took the grade 8 learners studying agriculture to a government run farm today to check out some of their machinery, fruit and vegetable nurseries, and the irrigation in their orchard.  I learned a lot! For example, they have a similar planter to the one at McNamara Dairy! Also, fruit plants apparently do better when sown into the ground first, and then transplanted to pots? That seemed backwards to me, but what do I know (“Not much, you?”—I miss NPR!)  The learners were very attentive! And they got to ride on the tractor and sheller around the farm. 

                One the way back (we walked because it was only like 1.25 km away), we sang songs and made jokes! I taught them Mmmp Ap Went the Little Green Frog and the Hippopotamus Song, and they LOVED them!  I also got really into their singing the song for the Kavango Region (hear that in the video below… sometimes I pretend I am a bass, but I know that I am not).

Where I'm Staying

12/3/13

                So I realized I haven’t really given you the daily schedule for the school here.

                I wake up about 5:45 am, yoga, breakfast, shower etc.

                We must be at 6:55 for our daily briefing, and taking attendance of our classes.

                Classes themselves begin at 7:15, and run until 9:55. There is a tea break until 10:35, and classes resume until 1:25. There are 8 periods per day.  I teach art and ICT, and now I will also be teaching Life Skills, which is health and career readiness. 

                We have a lunch break from 1:25 to 3:00 pm. Teachers do not have to go back to school after 1:25 if there are no meetings or they are not on duty.  If we are on duty, however, then we need to be present for the whole rest of the day.

                3:00 pm starts afternoon study period, where the kids study quietly in their classrooms until 4:30.  Then there are two hours for dinner and relaxing a bit. 

                At 6:30, we have an extra class period until 7:30 pm, which are divided amongst the teachers for the week.  Then the learners study again until 9:00 pm. 

                Lights out is at 10 pm. 

                My afternoons are mostly spent in the staff room (we don’t have our own classrooms so all work is done in the same room), planning lessons, marking papers, planning Student Council Meetings, planning Saturday activities, and dealing with bureaucratic communication between committees.  Throughout the whole day, if anyone is having a medical issue, I am there to treat them.  I go to the hospital sometimes, with them.  I will currently wait on reporting about the condition of the hospital here.

                The learners here do not have water bottles, or cups , or anything to drink from outside of the dining hall, and they do not think about drinking water throughout the way, so a lot of the health issues we have here are likely a result of dehydration.  I am working on getting water bottles donated for my learners! If anyone knows of someone with an extra 240 water bottles, send them my way!

You need a committee to do anything here.  A committee to get snacks for tea break for the teachers, a committee to beautify the school, a committee to make sure that the cleaners are doing their jobs, a committee to follow up on the workings of the other committees which are in charge of planning the activities of the follow through committee. But I am on the committee in charge of the student council, school beautification (making sure it looks good here for the official opening with the President), and the Saturday evening activity committee.  I am looking forward to helping the student council set up clubs for drama, academics, and culture.  I’m curious how that will work—like if each of those learner clubs will need a committee of teachers. 

                Overall, I am loving it here, and so I’m staying the whole year! If anyone wants to come visit, I am so game!

Peace Corps Weekend in Rundu

This Friday, I left school (which somewhat left me in a minor panic mode all weekend thinking about how things were going at school, but that's because I'm a control freak!), to visit a whole bunch of the Kavango Region Peace Corps Volunteers (PVCs for those in the know) as they said goodbye to Group 33.  Those volunteers have been here in Nam for 2+ years, doing all sorts of health projects for their communities and the country, and it was really nice to meet so many volunteers who love Namibia and their experiences so much!

This weekend was basically the weekend of gluttony  On Friday night, we went out for pizza, and Nathan (the PVC in Divundu) stayed in because he wasn't feeling well. I was going to bring back some of my pizza for him, but I housed the whole thing instead! It was delicious.  Sorry Nathan. Saturday morning, I went to the bank, got there at 8:20, it opened at 8:30, and I was done with deposits by 8:45.  Bam! So I went to Forget Me Not Cafe and ate for the whole rest of the morning.  Not solid eating for 3 hours, as I was also grading art books and planning the rest of this term, but still.  Omelet, toast, 2 cups of coffee (real, yummy coffee), and 2 milk shakes. Whatever. Went to a braai after that and had some coleslaw, sausage, baked goods and wine.  Also the most delicious Doritos I've ever had! Sweet Chili something-or-other. Yum. And today, I had Hungry Lion chicken and ice cream (caramel dip, obviously!).

But the important thing is that I did not have any fat cakes (fried dough that women sell on the streets and someone brought to the braai), so I'm there for going to continue my weight loss trend.  That's how it works, you know.

Other than the food, the weekend was amazing! Peace Corps people were really welcoming at the party, and I bonded with Steph, a newer PCV who is teaching in the region, about Taxoplasma gondii and dread locks; I might take Geo's cat; we're planning an Easter get together in Divundu.  This morning, we went to the Teacher Resource Center/PVC office in Rundu, and we helped Nathan and Andre (who looks just like Andre from The League for anyone who watches that show) discover Pinterest, and I tapped into their book and media supplies.  Altogether, this weekend was awesome!

This coming week, I'm having students teach some lessons on using files and folders to the grade 8 ICT classes. I'm really excited to see what they come up with!  And I'll let you all know how those lessons go for sure!

Drama-rama at RVS

3/3/2013

These kids are super talented and motivated and wonderful and happy.  They adlib, project and put a play together in 5 days. They performed their play last night, about how to take advantage of the opportunity they have to learn at the school. They wrote 4 songs about leaving home, coming to school, being hopeful, and how to best use this opportunity.  The plot followed 4 students, 2 two who took the opportunity and 2 who did not.  I wrote a bare-bones script based on the plot and characters outlined by a team of four writers, including the boy, Immanuel, who had the idea for the play in the first place. 

The actors got very into their characters, and added lines and pieces that made the whole thing so heartfelt and authentic.  Immanuel also suggested that to transition scenes, we have two lines on each side of the stage with the whole cast. The two lines crossed, and those in the previous scene joined the lines and those in the next scene stayed on stage.  It worked super well!

                …The government is looking upon you

You are the leaders of tomorrow

Take it in your hands

You have all the right

To brighten your future

This is your chance.

Dear learners, we are here for school…

                (I apologize for the poor video quality-my battery died right before the play, so I got this from a teacher who took it with his phone.)

           Our dining hall/school hall is very big with terrible acoustics, so projection was a major issue we worked on in rehearsals.  One girl, who often brings an “I can’t” attitude to things was struggling with being loud enough.  I took her to the window and had her get her friend’s attention from 100 yards away.  She aced it on the first try and during the play, was super audible.  Get it girl!

            

            Before and after the show, we had boys dancing kwaito, girls dancing cultural dances and hip hop.  All of the dancers just killed it!

             The whole night left me feeling high as a kite, and the kids feeling super proud and accomplished.  It’s moments like that which remind me how awesome kids are.