Dream Jobs

On paper, this should be my dream job.  In reality, however, I dread going to school most mornings, I'm mentally exhausted, in a negative way, all the time, and I get pissier and pissier as the weeks go by.

It should be my dream job.  I have started teaching content I am passionate about, I deliver first aid to learners, I am on the front line of counseling staff, and I've been asked to lead staff development workshops across many areas.  Technically, these are all of the things I dream about doing.  And the kids are amazing.  They are smart, dedicated and developing.

I toyed with the idea of extending for a whole extra year.  But professionally, that's a poor choice.  Communication breaks down every other second. There is not a lot of freedom in any of my teaching, since I'm co-teaching both ICT and Life Skills, and I report to the other teacher.  There is a definitive lack of personal space both in my flat and at school. I don't have my own desk.  I sometimes get my own chair, but until last week, I perched on a corner on top of a stack of books in the staff room.  Men are demeaning. Not about big stuff, but they definitely expect women to wait on them.  I am constantly pulled away from teaching and other things I love doing by bureaucratic nonsense at the last minute.

I want this job in a place where the community is so strong and supportive that the staff finish each others' sentences, even when they disagree with each other.

Easter Touring

This weekend was a holiday weekend.  For a school where children don't leave, this was an interesting prospect. Which teachers would have to stay with the learners? Which teachers would be allowed to leave? What would the children do while all of their friends are at home celebrating?

To help with most of these questions on Friday and Saturday, at least, the Ministry approved our request for buses, and we toured around the Divundu area.  The Grade 8 learners and 5 teachers went out on Friday, and the Grade 11 learners and 5 different teachers went on Saturday.  So these two days have something for the learners to do, and an insurance that teachers will be around.  Perfect! Problems solved!

And it was a lot of fun! Outside of the afternoon that agriculture students spent at a farm across the river, this was the first time that learners left all term.

I went with the Grade 11s on their tour around.

First, we went to the Mahangu Game Park, which is about 10 km down the road towards Botswana.  We saw lots of wildlife! Antelopes, kudu, springbok, water buffalo, one zebra, tons of birds, warthogs and moneys!

The kids were very excited, but unfortunately, we didn't get to see a lion.  The grade 8s saw two lions.  But apparently, it's very rare there.  The woman we spoke to at the park said she has only seen a lion 3 times in her 14 years working there!

Next on our stop was the Botswana border! We briefly left Namibia, and crossed in Bots for a few minutes, to speak to the customs officials and take lots of pictures at the border.  These kids LOVE getting their pictures taken!

Once back in Namibia, we went to the Ministry of Fisheries ponds and tanks.  The whole facility reminded me of the fisheries which I think might be near Powder Mill Park.  For some reason, I have those two places associated in my head.  The facilities also have tanks of pretty fish!

Again, the learners wanted their pictures taken.

The last stop before lunch was a beautiful youth center near the Andara Hospital.  It has a training facility for Information, Communication Technologies jobs, and it right on the river.  Junior was getting clingy and starting to get tired, but he hid it well!

We went back to school for lunch, then it was back on the road.  We traveled to an army base from the time of colonization (1980s) which hasn't been used a base since, but is now a small village. There were old army trucks around rusting, and an old air strip.  It was really interesting to go out so far into nowhere and find a village of people sustaining themselves. And there were many trees.  It almost felt like a camp or a museum village (think Genesee County Village and Museum), but people were living there.  It was their lives.  I forgot my camera in the bus.

On our way back toward Popa Falls, we saw this.

No big deal. Just crossing the road.

We got to Popa "Falls" which are rapids on the Kavango.  Not super awe inspiring, but nice.  The sand was really pleasant! To get to the river, we had to drive down a really small path, really... not so much a road, and then get back out. That was an adventure all on its own. And our driver was getting really pissed because he had to get back to Windhoek that evening.  So he started driving a little bit crazily. Slightly terrifying going back up the hill.

We found berries that tasted like raspberries right before they are completely ripe. Just a little bit sour but in a really yummy way! I love that these kids know what is good to eat wherever they go.

On each of the days when the grade was in school, they had study hours in the morning and afternoon and movies at night. One night we watched the Gospel of Luke, and the other night we watched Star Trek (a deviation from the themes of Easter, but whatever).

Sunday we had study in the morning and evening, and in the afternoon, my student council officers and other more religious students planned and pulled off a very nice service, reading scripture of the Easter Story, prayers of thanks and hope and songs of thanks to Jesus.  It was really nice to see them embracing their spirituality.  Many of the learners I think struggle with the lack of availability of communal prayer here most Sundays.

Monday was a shit-show.  At first, it was said that the learners would be in classes like a normal Monday, but then we switched to a Saturday schedule.  So I thought I would be able to teach like all day because most teachers weren't going to be there.  But then that didn't happen.  I did get to a bunch of the classes, which was nice, but man.

Moving into two weeks of exams now.  And I'm still going to try and organize the grade 8's to get a performance evening going next weekend.  We're going to videotape the scripts, and then have singing and dancing and fun.  It is going to be a mess, but I think it should be fun! Next term, we'll start with the visual arts, and using many supplies on their way here from America, thanks to many of you! I'm hoping to get a competition going for getting their artwork hung in the reception here, in Ministry offices, the Dining Hall, the dorms, and maybe even in schools in America! If anyone is interested, let me know.

Life Skills this week was fun--to review for exams, I had the learners write songs, and to get credit, they have to come up to me and sing them.  They had a lot of fun with that, though! It was really nice to see them working together, being creative and learning course materials.  I'm really excited to be able to work more activities into my classes next term!

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!