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!

Happy New Year from Namibia

Disclaimer: all of the opinions and views expressed in this blog belong strictly to the writer and are not officially associated with WorldTeach in any way!

The flights over to Africa and to Windhoek, Namibia were wonderful! South African Airlines were so hospitable! We even got a full meal on the 3 hour flight from Jo’berg to Windhoek.  And even though the flights were long and that kinda stunk, we had no problems with passports, visas, tickets or lost luggage, which was super lucky! Everything with that trip went pretty seamlessly.

The first half of the group of teachers this year met up and got to know each other over ice breakers then dinner.  Everyone is really great! And the rest of the group arrived this afternoon.  Overall, the group is really positive, excited and realistic about this experience! We have a lot of experienced service people and travelers, as well as a number of certified and experienced teachers. 

Our training over the next two weeks is going to be super comprehensive, I think.  Brett, our field director is very on top of things, so we’ll be covering a lot of culture, lesson planning, working within the Namibian education system, and language.  Whirlwind, for sure, but should be great!

We don’t have phones, yet, but there is internet at our hostel (Back Packer Unite), which is REALLY awesome! Both having the internet, and the hostel itself. So far everyone here has been really nice, the food has been delicious (pizza is a little different than the States, but easy and yummy!), the water has been totally potable, and there is a small swimming pool to keep cool!

One shocker moment was that when were flying into the airport, which is pretty far out, we literally couldn’t see anything, and kind of thought we were just landing on the plain of Namibia.  Windhoek was hidden by some mountains, and there was just. nothing. This is definitely an indicator of what life in the village will be like. That will be interesting. 

Once we got into the city, though, Windhoek is a very small city, with gated communities and business along the roads outside of the center of town.  Walking the streets of the center of town was a lot like walking around in a small city in the States.  People dressed pretty much the same, there was a huge, really green park, and businesses and shops, with people trying to sell you newspapers and hand you fliers.  It was definitely a familiar feeling! Even a five minute walk out of the center, though, there is a lot more sand and the roads narrow, and you walk along the side between the walls and the road (usually like a five-ten foot gap). We did go into the city of Windhoek this morning to try and buy phones, and holy-first-world-Batman, there was a mall!! Like a full on, air-conditioned, cleaner than Eastview Mall! That was almost reverse culture shock, right off the bat, but it was also nice not to have to transition completely to village life right away.  

We’re having a braai for New Years Eve tonight.  Braai are barbeques (ours will be chicken and sausage) that are very common all around Namibia.  We’ll also have lettuce salad (not very common here), pasta salad (basically the Namibian definition of salads are this style—think lots of mayo on noodles, potatoes or… anything. It’s not a salad without mayo!), and corn on the cob.  Plus Hunter’s hard cider, of COURSE!

The party’s getting started! Happy New Year everyone! I love you all very much, and miss you like crazy, but so far, I think 2013 is going to be a WONDERFUL year, full of life-changing events and interactions, lots of teachable moments, lots of teaching, lots of assimilating, hopefully effecting some changes, and lots of helping others.

Cheers! 

Flight Tomorrow

I am at the hotel, checked in, and waiting in my room to meet my roommate, who is around here somewhere.  We have a pre-departure meeting in an hour downstairs.  I have had four glasses of water.  Either I am starting to get antsy or I'm trying to over-hydrate before I get there.

The drive down to NYC was pretty seamless.  Zach now has my car, which I think is making me more nervous than the fact that I am flying to Africa tomorrow.  Perhaps I am redirecting my nerves. Whatever the case, please drive carefully!

Tonight is the start the first, of what will hopefully be many, trips to developing countries to help fight against poverty, corruption, oppression, sexism, racism and illness.  Lofty.  But it works.  According to Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn in Half the Sky (the book that inspired this adventure and introduced me to WorldTeach in the first place), educating women and poverty stricken families is proven to be the most effective way of raising a country's status, and that country's citizens' quality of life.  I am being given the opportunity to help access to technology, and apply the technologies in business ownership, personal and community health, personal and community advancement, and environmental protection.  AND I'll be continuing to hone and develop my own teaching style, so that I can come back with more skills, applications and connections to educating and helping people.

So. Here goes nothing!

Divundu, Kavango Region, Namibia

Morokeni. Muna zuhwara po! (Hello. Good afternoon!) I received my official placement yesterday! I will be working at the Divundu Vision School in the Kavango Region of Namibia.  The people of this region speak Rukwangali, but classes will be taught in English. This region is along the Okavango River, between Angola and Botswana, in Safari country!! Cool!!

The Vision Schools are part of the Namibian government's Vision 2030, to "join the ranks of high-income countries and afford all its citizens a quality of life that is comparable to that of the developed world." This school is the very first of the vision schools, and will hopefully be a model for all Namibian schools in the next 18 years.  All students and teachers will live on school grounds, which should function to foster a sense of community, and alleviate the burden of feeding, clothing and housing the children of poor parents and orphans, allowing for more access to education by all! (Run on! Sorry, I got excited!) The website by the government about this school has a lot more information and pictures!

Our group of 14 teachers leaves for training in 15 days and 23 hours! We will be in Windhoek for two and a half weeks, at Back Packer Unite (which has a pool! Thank goodness I won't have to stop swimming!) for cultural, curricular and practicum teaching training. Another volunteer and I will be departing for Divundu on the 17th of January to open the brand new school with its teachers. Ntaantani ni ka tengure! (I will be back!)

T minus 22 days

This week, it has struck me that not only will I be teaching in Namibia, a country whose culture will be altogether new to me, but that I will also be running my very own classroom for the first time.  I will get two weeks of training to prepare for a new curriculum for a new country in a new school.  But at least one thing will remain the same; I will make sure to dedicate time in the beginning of my semester to setting up routines and classroom procedures to help the students know what my expectations are of them every day and every class.  We will work together to develop goals and expections of everyone in the class.  Because I believe that mutual love and respect between teachers-students is the pulse that drives success in a classroom. So at least my first day of school is sort of planned.