Youth filled country

Namibia is a super young country, population wise. Something like 50% or some ridiculous number are younger than 30. The life expectancy here is around 50 years old, so leadership turns over quickly.  It's sort of like a summer camp, on a country-wide scale, where leadership ages-out soon after they reach the point of understanding the system well enough to really make a difference. 

And babies are everywhere. It will be interesting to see what happens here as life expectancy (hopefully) increases. I hope birth control becomes more normalized. And we need to get rid of hospitals that don’t give it out. That’s just not OK here. When health risks associated with pregnancy are so high, and socially, girls often feel the need to have sex with sugar daddies. At least socially, it’s not completely ostracizing to have a baby out of wedlock. Many of the teachers here had children when they were very young, but are not married.  They even found ways to finish school and become highly qualified teachers, which is really cool.  

I was talking to one of the teachers, who is from Zimbabwe, and he said that single parenting is not as common there.  I was hoping that it was because Zimbabwe is more up-to-date with their birth control methods, but it is more due to social pressure from families to marry once you have created a pregnancy. Parents of the baby-daddy strongly encourage him to marry the mother in Zim, because “she is someone else's child, and doing that to someone else’s child means you need to help her.” I kind of like it because it doesn't put all of the "blame" for the pregnancy on the mother, but the forced marriage thing is not ideal in my mind.  But I’m glad the dads and their families are involved and supporting the child’s life.  I'm often impressed at how many single dads I meet, and how well they look after and care about their children, here in Namibia. 

Sunrise

I wake up every day at 5:30, work out, shower, then have coffee and watch the sunrise. 

A trip to Rundu

                Getting anywhere (Rundu) takes ~4 hours each way. And a lot of patience. Thank goodness I can sleep in kombis. The back gravel roads, where we stop to pick people up and drop them off takes forever, and the drivers sometimes stop to chat with friends etc. You do meet some fun people though! And we stopped at a ferry launch which crosses the Okavango River to Angola, where you can look right across. That was pretty cool!

We got to Rundu and finished our banking business-I have an ATM card now! And then we got milkshakes! Yum!! AAAAAND there were women selling MANGOS! And plums! Gonna be a great week!

                We watched the Jungle Book as a school tonight. The kids laughed a lot, and the speakers were much more functional than last week, when we watched Pirates of the Caribbean. Afterwards, as per instructions of the principal, girls went back to the hostel first, and the boys, characteristically, complained.  But then I played some PDK (a Namibian band) for them, and they danced and had fun. Then I sent them home.  I try not to make it feel like I am punishing them for being born boys.

                Hopefully next week, other teachers will be prepared not to have a movie night on Saturday evening, but instead do something more interactive, fun and educational.  I think one teacher wanted to plan a debate night.  I’m planning a play night for the grade 8s to present their term’s work from Arts in Culture for the end of the term.  And at some point, I want to get together with Nathan, a Peace Corps volunteer from Chicago who is stationed 7 k away, and have a leadership workshop with the grade 11s.

                Teaching is going well, and Mr. Fungo and I are working out the logistics of the term and who will be teaching what.  I think we need to function a bit more as a team, and I want to work more student centered/cooperative learning strategies into both of our teaching.  Technology installation began this week, so hopefully computers will be here, and school wide wireless internet will be up and running very soon! 

Study Duty Week Has Drawn to a Close!

3/2/2013

This week, I was on supervisory duty for study sessions in the afternoons, evenings, and on weekends.  Every week day, the learners study from 3:00-4:30 and from 6:30-8, then on Saturday from 10-12, 3-5, and 6:30-8 and on Sundays from 10-12 and 6:30-8.  They work very hard at homework and studying for exams. And I have to be on campus for all of those times in addition to class times from 7:15-1:25 Monday to Friday.  Today is my last day!! YAY! And last night, we watched Pirates of the Caribbean instead of having study.  The kids (and some teachers) laughed so much, and it was really relaxed and refreshing.  Even though our speakers weren’t very loud, and the English was often old fashioned and fast, that movie is hilarious in any language! The kids deserved a break, and I’m happy I could give it to them.  Now I just hope they don’t expect a movie night every week.  I think in two weeks, we are having a Valentine’s Day Pageant or something or other. Mr. Fungo is organizing that one. 

I got the movie from Nathan at the malaria control research camp down the road.  Man that place is so cool! It was set up as a research facility, with bungalows for people to stay in, a gym, pool and dining facilities, but it has been left unkempt for almost 15 years.  It’s sort of Great Expectations-esque going in there.  Like the old lady Haversham (or whatever)’s house.  But Nathan is setting up a garden, and there are a lot of boys that go there as sort of a community center, so he’s getting life back into the place.  It’s pretty awesome.  And he has two dogs as pets (American style), so that was really nice to love up on some puppy dawgs for a bit!

Mr. Kapisi teaches agriculture, and he and I have gotten to be really good friends! I am really hoping that he starts a garden soon, and that I could help with that at school.  I feel like that would be a really worthwhile project.  Plus I just want to be doing something physical.  His (Mr. Kapisi’s) family came to visit this weekend, and he took us to Divava Lodge.  Before a light lunch, I taught his daughter some swimming basics in their pool.  Holy Goodness Gracious, that was unbelievably awesome.  I snuck in a number of laps and it felt so, so, so (so so so so so so so so so) good.  And his daughter, who is six, just had an absolute blast.  And I got to teach through play, which is my all-time favorite way of teaching anything ever. 

I’m struggling with the teaching style here.  I am a firm believer in “I hear (or read once), and I forget. I see, and I remember.  I do, and I understand.” That is not so much the general educational practice here.  I try to work it into my teaching as much as I can, though.  It’s especially hard in computer classes, because we don’t have computers yet. Right now, I’m doing a lot of having the kids pretend to be different parts of the computer.  This works best when I can show them, at least on the projector, different programs etc.  At least we have the projector.  But I don’t want to rely on it too heavily. 

I also want to get extracurriculars started—like the garden, and a drama club.  One Saturday evening toward the end of the term, I want to have the Grade 8 art classes perform plays, and maybe a Grade 11 drama club or something also perform.  Or maybe that’s two separate Saturdays.  Spreading it over two weeks means that they have two weeks of Saturday evening events.  Two Saturdays it is.  Thanks for helping me settle that one!!

Namibian Cooking 103

31/1/2013

Since we don’t have a refrigerator, we eat mostly dried goods of some kind.  We did buy some gouda cheese, though, and yesterday I made pasta with canned peas, carrots and corn, with some onion and gouda cheese.  Mac and Cheese plus veggies, basically.  It was pretty yummy.  And there are leftovers today for lunch.  Mostly, we’ve just been eating pb&j. I’ll come back to this topic once we get a fridge! It should be this week.  Then we can make other things, like chicken! And beef. And I can make real portions to save for later.  Soup! Great. Now I’m excited to cook. Oh! Nathan, a guy in PeaceCorps nearby, says it’s pear season! I love pears! I’ll have to get some. 

Democracy, a general rant and thoughts on the matter

30/1/2013

Democracy is hard.  It is hard to implement in an effective, balanced way.  The balance between discussion, and taking the opinion of everyone, and making decisions that get things done is very sensitive.  Americans are often more on the side of getting things done quickly, rather than discussing small issues for days on end.  And this can be our downfall sometimes.  Rash action can get us into tough situations.  And efficiency can hurt peoples’ feelings.  Sometimes, the decision which is come to is not going to be liked by everyone.  But at some point, that will always be the case, and a continued discussion about this is not going to go anywhere. 

On the other hand, democracy is taught from a very young age.  How we make rules for schools and classrooms in the US often involve the students (or at least pretend to let the students feel some power and input).  This helps them learn how to deliberately deliberate about what is needed in a classroom or social structure, critically think about necessary guidelines, and effectively implement the rules and consequences for infractions.  In actuality, by involving students in the rule making and writing process, they are learning how to operate in a democratic society in a thoughtful way.

Teaching a class on Art and Culture is interesting, because it makes me think critically about what Americans value. Like when we are in school, we are taught to ask why things are the way they are.  In fact, and maybe this is just a personal learning technique, when I know more about why things happen the way do, and there is justification for the reasons, I know them better. I like knowing the background.  But here, what the teacher says should be believed and not questioned. Holy major cultural differences, batman!

Democracy, a general rant and thoughts on the matter

30/1/2013

Democracy is hard.  It is hard to implement in an effective, balanced way.  The balance between discussion, and taking the opinion of everyone, and making decisions that get things done is very sensitive.  Americans are often more on the side of getting things done quickly, rather than discussing small issues for days on end.  And this can be our downfall sometimes.  Rash action can get us into tough situations.  And efficiency can hurt peoples’ feelings.  Sometimes, the decision which is come to is not going to be liked by everyone.  But at some point, that will always be the case, and a continued discussion about this is not going to go anywhere. 

On the other hand, democracy is taught from a very young age.  How we make rules for schools and classrooms in the US often involve the students (or at least pretend to let the students feel some power and input).  This helps them learn how to deliberately deliberate about what is needed in a classroom or social structure, critically think about necessary guidelines, and effectively implement the rules and consequences for infractions.  In actuality, by involving students in the rule making and writing process, they are learning how to operate in a democratic society in a thoughtful way.

Teaching a class on Art and Culture is interesting, because it makes me think critically about what Americans value. Like when we are in school, we are taught to ask why things are the way they are.  In fact, and maybe this is just a personal learning technique, when I know more about why things happen the way do, and there is justification for the reasons, I know them better. I like knowing the background.  But here, what the teacher says should be believed and not questioned. Holy major cultural differences, batman!