Friday, March 12, 2010

Day to Day

So I'm using free internet at the TRC and I'm going to suck as much as I can out of the 2 hours that I have. So I figured some of you might be interested in what my daily life is like out in the African bush. Basically, on weekdays I wake up at 6:10 to get ready for school, which literally takes me about 10 minutes since I have about 4 work outfits in Namibia and I don't even have a mirror to beautify myself. So ponytail, blouse, skirt, done. School starts at 6:50 with assembly, where kids sing the National Anthem about 6 times until they sing loudly enough, and classes start at 7. I teach until 1, when I go home to eat lunch and nap for an hour because I'm exhausted after teaching all day in the ungodly Caprivian heat which just does not seem to go away. Ever. Then it's back to school for afternoon study when I try to have extra classes to get my kids up to speed since I've been trying to teach remedial classes since my kids don't know their times tables and they're expected to know long division by now. But usually my principal decides he'd rather have the kids do manual work because, you know, it's all about having a pretty school and less about whether the learners know how to do math. I leave school around 5:30 to go for a run (I know, Namibia has forced me to start running. After fatty, oily, salty Namibian host family cooking I started worrying that the very few clothes I brought with me would stop fitting. So, running). Then I usually cook dinner, watch something on my computer and go to sleep. Are you bored yet? Yes, the life of a PCV is not very glamorous, particularly an education volunteer living in a village in Caprivi. If adventure is what you be after you will not find it here.

Weekends I usually spend doing school work, visiting my host family, and more recently watching the same kids movies I have on my laptop over and over again with my learners. They discovered that if they do stuff for me, like help me hang my laundry or fetch water, I'll let them watch movies on my laptop. Actually they don't even have to do stuff for me, I'm such a sucker. So I've watched the Lion King and Shrek about 4 times each in the last 2 weeks, Harry Potter, Fight Club which they inexplicably wanted to watch (I only let the older kids watch that). I actually kind of love my learners and I also love kids movies so it's kind of a win win situation for me.

When I start getting restless I come to town to get milkshakes and eat ice cream. So I don't really have too many complaints about life in the village. Actually with all of the lesson planning and marking I do it feels like I don't have too much free time, so when I do have some time to kick it it's pretty nice.

Well my internet time is quickly dwindling so I'll leave it at that.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Africa Law

In my grade 7 math class I'm trying to teach them about the laws governing mathematical operations (I say trying because I'm pretty sure they don't get it). I think there should be some kind of law governing life in Africa, something like the "Getting Stuff Done Law." It goes like this. Make a to do list of things you want to get done in a day. Divide that list into two. Divide it into two again. Okay, go ahead divide it into 2 again...yeah why don't you go ahead and divide it into 2 again. There's the list of stuff you can actually get done in a day. How far off were you from what you were hoping to accomplish in a day?

Case in point. Peace Corps sent a mass sms a few weeks ago kindly telling all PCVs they could either get the H1N1 vaccine or go home. Then they tried to convince us Caprivi volunteers to hike down to Windhoek to get the shot, basically meaning missing 3 to 4 days of school. No thanks. So they sent agreed to send the vaccine up here, but forgot to inform us until I called our Peace Corps medical officer last week with a different question about a prescription and she told me I was supposed to go to town 2 weeks ago to get the shot and I better go this week or else. Since the last 2 periods of my thursdays are admin periods (free) I decided to leave school early to get the shot and to get a bunch of stuff done that I haven't been able to since I live in a village in the middle of nowhere. So yesterday I dutifully made a to do list. Get shot. Meet another volunteer to get my package slip. Go to the post office to pick up a package and mail a birthday card to my brother (March 14: Happy 21st Chris!!!!!). Go to the TRC to write a blog, write emails to a billion people, look up places to stay for my holiday, download application forms for learner leadership camps, some other stuff to do on internet. Go to the stores to shop, and ask about donating food for EWA (PC run "everyone wants acceptance" leadership camp). I informed my principal on Tuesday of my plan and he said no problem. I knew I had a lot to do but figured I could swing it. But I forgot to take into account the African law of "Getting Stuff Done."

Firstly, my principal informs me this morning that there will be no school tomorrow because there's a mass meeting in Bukalo for all the schools in the area. Ummm, okay. Thanks for telling me? I love that they incessantly complain about the low performance of learners, and yet don't see a correlation between the number of days teachers miss school due to pointless meetings, and the low grades our learners receive on exams. But anyway. Okay fine, I remind him I was leaving at 11:30 today and he said no problem. So at 11:30, as I'm finishing up my math class, another teacher comes in the room to ask why I'm not at the staff meeting. What staff meeting? The one that started 15 minutes ago obviously. The way teachers are informed of staff meetings is that a notebook with the information is passed around from teacher to teacher and each teacher initials the page with the info. Someone left the book on my desk during period 6, while I was in class (I know, I know, what was a teacher in Namibia doing teaching her scheduled classes? I should probably have been sitting at my desk planning/complaining about how much work it is to plan for all the subjects I don't actually teach). So, great. So I go to the meeting which lasts until about noon, bouncing in the balls of my feet anxious to get to town while my principal reassures everyone that there will be food at the meeting tomorrow, he's just not sure if it will be just breakfast or also include lunch, but since we end at 1 we probably don't need lunch....Seriously. This is what Namibian staff meetings cover. Awesome.

So then I get out to the hike point in the pouring rain, since rainy season also follows African time and arrived 3 months late this year, or so they tell me since I don't know when rainy season usually starts. Luckily I only have to wait about 10 minutes before a car pulls over, so I hop in even though it's going to Lusese, abou 5 k down the road, before going to town. Of course, the driver then proceeds to stop for every hiker between Kabbe and Lusese, and then from Lusese to Kabbe, until there are so many people in teh car he has to tie the luggage on the top of the car. So it's about 45 minutes until we're passing Kabbe again, and I think okay finally. Hopefully this is a fast ride. But since there are so many people the car is weighed down, and the luggage starts falling off the top of the car so we have to continually stop, so what should be a 30 to 40 minute ride takes over an hour. Of course. So now it's 2 pm and I have to get all the stuff on my list done before the last cars leave at 5 from Katima, so I head to get the swine flu shot first of all, where I have to wait 40 minutes to see a nurse, and then he has to read the directions on how to give the shot to himself. So long story short, this blog is about the only thing I'm getting done on the computer today so don't be sad if I didn't send any emails. '

Well, at least I got 2 things done on my list. Sometimes the Law of Getting stuff done in Africa can be as simple as multiply by zero (and no grade 7 learners, a number multiplied by 0 is not 34.)