The bustling town of Divundu

29/1/2013

I’m making friends! (That sounds like a third grader. Whatever.) Scott Karrell, a previous WorldTeach volunteer in Divundu was here, and introduced me to some people who live in Divundu.  Other people in Divundu got my phone number from his hand when he didn’t have a paper or his phone to put it in.  Either way, my phone is blowin’ up! There is also a guy from Chicago doing PeaceCorps less than 10 k away, who is really great! I’m trying to set up a movie night for the learners with his projector and movies.  That could give them a nice break! The teachers are all getting along pretty nicely (brought together by short water and electrical outages), and there is a lot of joking as well as effective work done in the staff room. 

I found a spot.  It’s in the middle of the bridge crossing the Kavango River, and it’s only ½ kilometer away, and it is beautiful.  I went there the other day for sunset over the river.  Unreal.  This place is breathtaking. I think at some point I will go there so that I can think about some of the bigger issues.  I find myself getting lost in some frivolous, day-to-day drama or annoyances so I don’t think about what really matters—the children’s education and emotional resiliency. My own, too.  I didn’t bring my camera the other night, so to tide you over, here is a picture from the Kavango River at Davava Lodge and Spa.

 

Being in a new structure and school comes with its own set of trials.  Water pumps don’t always work quite right; fuse boxes are overly sensitive at times; air conditioning units leak; furniture and teaching materials are slow in arriving.  But this school is built around two things: providing a free, safe education to vulnerable children, and teaching the best and the brightest of Namibian children.  I think the combination of these two attributes in one set of students leads to a very interesting group of learners.  They are super driven to succeed, but they need a lot of support in their struggle to make their dreams attainable.  It’s super rewarding to see achievement in these students.  As this school gets onto its feet, I think these learners are going to soar, if given the chance.  Soon, the student leadership will be elected, and I am curious to see how they are given powers in the school, and what will fall under their domain. 

These students are curious and creative.  I have taken over the Art-in-Culture classes, in addition to supporting the Information and Communication Technologies/Computer Studies classes.  For the first day, we talked about two things: culture and identity.  I stole a lesson from the practicum teaching at Eengadjo from Jessie and Jamie.  First, I went around the room and had everyone share a word that describes them to emphasize ourselves as individuals. Art is self expression.  Then, we began applying the cultural aspects of art, and we compared Namibian culture to American culture, starting with food, then values, then art expression.  The coolest part was that since the Grade 8 students come from all over Namibia, and are from different regions that have different tribal backgrounds, their own internal cultures sometimes differed.  I’m really excited to see where this class goes—I’m going to give a lot of it to the learners to decide and direct. They don’t get enough of that in their school day, so I’m excited to see how they use it.  And I will never grade their work with red pen. 

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!