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.
Friday, March 12, 2010
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.)
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.)
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Almost 6 month anniversary!
I don't know if I'll be able to post before our real anniversary but that's right. February 21st marks my 6 month anniversary with Namibia. If this was any other relationship I could probably expect chocolates, flowers, maybe a nice dinner, but since this is Peace Corps I can probably expect to to be brutalized with either ungodly heat or a massive downpour, overrun by dung beetles and flying biting ants in my charming TRC room and to eat some delicious (?) nam food. Ah, true love. Well we only have another year and 10 months together (not that I'm counting) so I better enjoy it while I can.
Teaching has settled into something like a routine. I've gotten used to asking my learners to do something, like use rounding to solve complex problems, and then realizing they can't because they don't know their times tables or how to do long division. Or asking them to write a paragraph and realizing they don't know how to write a simple sentence. Even so we're ploughing through somehow.
Housing remains a problem. I have a beautiful traditional hut almost all built...but the ministry has to finish the last few components, such as the concrete floor, the door and the windows (somehow important nay?). Unfortunately, it appears Caprivi is broke. Broke ass broke. The ministry of works has no more money. Til April. How does this happen? Inefficiency and improper spending I'm guessing. Mawe. So I've been living in a spare office in the TRC which, as you can probably imagine, is less than ideal.
Well, I wish I had some better stories, but I just got done with a 6 hour time tabling workshop and my brain is pretty fried. The workshop was just explaining how to use a program to electronically generate timetables rather than the traditional method, to sit down wtih a piece of posterboard and last year's schedule and just change the names if teachers are doing different subjects. That's how we did it at my school and my schedule had to be changed twice the first week. It turns out the electronic program is really easy if you've ever used a computer before. If you're like the majority of the namibians who attended today it's about on the same level as rocket science. I was assisting the man sitting next to me when Scott, the Australian VSO who was running the session started explaining something and the guy next to me was obviously not paying attention. So when he turned to ask me a question about what had just been explained I asked, in the same tone of voice I use with my learners "Were you listening to Scott's instructions." "No, not so much," was the response I got. Ah tatata... i'm beginning to think the learners aren't quite at fault...
So anyway a better update is soon to come, hopefully. With pictures! Even though I always promise those...
Teaching has settled into something like a routine. I've gotten used to asking my learners to do something, like use rounding to solve complex problems, and then realizing they can't because they don't know their times tables or how to do long division. Or asking them to write a paragraph and realizing they don't know how to write a simple sentence. Even so we're ploughing through somehow.
Housing remains a problem. I have a beautiful traditional hut almost all built...but the ministry has to finish the last few components, such as the concrete floor, the door and the windows (somehow important nay?). Unfortunately, it appears Caprivi is broke. Broke ass broke. The ministry of works has no more money. Til April. How does this happen? Inefficiency and improper spending I'm guessing. Mawe. So I've been living in a spare office in the TRC which, as you can probably imagine, is less than ideal.
Well, I wish I had some better stories, but I just got done with a 6 hour time tabling workshop and my brain is pretty fried. The workshop was just explaining how to use a program to electronically generate timetables rather than the traditional method, to sit down wtih a piece of posterboard and last year's schedule and just change the names if teachers are doing different subjects. That's how we did it at my school and my schedule had to be changed twice the first week. It turns out the electronic program is really easy if you've ever used a computer before. If you're like the majority of the namibians who attended today it's about on the same level as rocket science. I was assisting the man sitting next to me when Scott, the Australian VSO who was running the session started explaining something and the guy next to me was obviously not paying attention. So when he turned to ask me a question about what had just been explained I asked, in the same tone of voice I use with my learners "Were you listening to Scott's instructions." "No, not so much," was the response I got. Ah tatata... i'm beginning to think the learners aren't quite at fault...
So anyway a better update is soon to come, hopefully. With pictures! Even though I always promise those...
Friday, January 22, 2010
First week teaching, Oy vey
Firstly, Happy Birthday Dad! Miss you!
This week was my first week actually teaching my own classes. It went pretty well considering I had no idea what I was doing most of the time. People here assume that because I'm American and their volunteer I know how to do everything, but, for one thing my teaching experience is limited to volunteer ESL classes for day laborers, and for another thing the way things are done in this country often make no sense! Like, for example, at the end of last term all teachers were told to complete their subject plans, or yearly schedules, by the time school started last week. But they hadn't allocated the subjects yet! WHAT?? Also, there's so much paperwork and bureacracy involved in teaching here. I'm supposed to make five binders. Five! I also was assigned to teach Math, even though I have absolutely no qualification to teach Math aside from the fact that I took some Math classes sometime, I think? The last Math class I took was statistics for my psych minor in college which I'm pretty sure isn't on the syllabus. As long as I'm one step ahead of the kids I should be okay though...right?
I'm also still getting used to the Nambiguity of living here. For example, every Tuesday we have morning briefings for all members of staff, which always begin at 6:40. So last week I was getting ready for school,and at 6:25 my host mom knocked and my door and said "we're late!" So I said, no we're not late, we still have 15 minutes, and it takes about 3 minutes to walk to school. So at 6:35 we left and got to the meeting at 6:38. We walked in and my acting principal started scolding us for being late. I explained that we're not late, that the meeting was supposed to start in 2 minutes, but he said we were supposed to just know to show up early. Obviously.
Two weeks ago when I was on my way back to site after reconnect I smsed my principal to let him know that I was on my way, but would only arrive in Katima the next evening, so I would miss the first day of school. About 5 minutes later I got a phone call from a man who didn't identify himself asking me where I was. Thinking it was my principal, who never identifies himself on the phone when he calls, I replied that I was in Otavi (about halfway from Windhoek to Rundu) and reiterated what I had said in my message. "Okay, let me know when you're in Katima and I'll come pick you up." Okay, great. The next day while riding in a very slow moving lorry from Rundu to Katima I got another call from another male voice asking me where I was. Assuming it was my principal again using someone else's phone I replied that I was about 250 k from Katima. He told me to let me know when I was in town and he would drive me to KAbbe. I said okay and hung up. Once I arrived in Katima, after I finished doing my shopping for the week I called my principal and told him I was in Katima. "Oh, okay" he replied, "well I'm at school now." At school, meaning Kabbe. "Oh, okay. So you're not going to pick me up?" "Oh you need to be picked up? Okay, I'll come early in the morning." Thoroughly confused by this conversation and having no idea what "I'll pick you up and drive you to Kabbe when you arrive in Katima" means in Namblish, I crashed at Kaitlin's house, and ended up getting a ride with a PC driver doing site development in the next village the following morning. Later that afternoon, while I was sitting at my desk organizing my things for school, I got a phone call from another unidentified number. A male voice: "Hello, where are you now?" Thinking it was my principal again, I said "I'm at school," (duh). "Oh okay, have you moved into your house yet?" "No." (duh). "Why not?" "It's not ready yet..." (wtf?) "Why didn't you call me when you got in yesterday? I was waiting for your phone call." "Wait...who is this?" "It's John, from the ministry!" Argh!!!!! It was this guy from the ministry who came to measure my house, and, since I'm a white lady, is obviously trying to get me to fall in love with him by forcing me to drive to the flood plains with him (another story), and offering to give me rides places. I felt pretty dumb for asking my principal to pick me up in Katima. Damn you Namibian vagueness! Didn't you have teachers to teach you phone etiquette in school? Oh wait...
So those are my stories of Nambiguity for the week. I'm sure many more will ensue over the next two years. Looking forward to it!
This week was my first week actually teaching my own classes. It went pretty well considering I had no idea what I was doing most of the time. People here assume that because I'm American and their volunteer I know how to do everything, but, for one thing my teaching experience is limited to volunteer ESL classes for day laborers, and for another thing the way things are done in this country often make no sense! Like, for example, at the end of last term all teachers were told to complete their subject plans, or yearly schedules, by the time school started last week. But they hadn't allocated the subjects yet! WHAT?? Also, there's so much paperwork and bureacracy involved in teaching here. I'm supposed to make five binders. Five! I also was assigned to teach Math, even though I have absolutely no qualification to teach Math aside from the fact that I took some Math classes sometime, I think? The last Math class I took was statistics for my psych minor in college which I'm pretty sure isn't on the syllabus. As long as I'm one step ahead of the kids I should be okay though...right?
I'm also still getting used to the Nambiguity of living here. For example, every Tuesday we have morning briefings for all members of staff, which always begin at 6:40. So last week I was getting ready for school,and at 6:25 my host mom knocked and my door and said "we're late!" So I said, no we're not late, we still have 15 minutes, and it takes about 3 minutes to walk to school. So at 6:35 we left and got to the meeting at 6:38. We walked in and my acting principal started scolding us for being late. I explained that we're not late, that the meeting was supposed to start in 2 minutes, but he said we were supposed to just know to show up early. Obviously.
Two weeks ago when I was on my way back to site after reconnect I smsed my principal to let him know that I was on my way, but would only arrive in Katima the next evening, so I would miss the first day of school. About 5 minutes later I got a phone call from a man who didn't identify himself asking me where I was. Thinking it was my principal, who never identifies himself on the phone when he calls, I replied that I was in Otavi (about halfway from Windhoek to Rundu) and reiterated what I had said in my message. "Okay, let me know when you're in Katima and I'll come pick you up." Okay, great. The next day while riding in a very slow moving lorry from Rundu to Katima I got another call from another male voice asking me where I was. Assuming it was my principal again using someone else's phone I replied that I was about 250 k from Katima. He told me to let me know when I was in town and he would drive me to KAbbe. I said okay and hung up. Once I arrived in Katima, after I finished doing my shopping for the week I called my principal and told him I was in Katima. "Oh, okay" he replied, "well I'm at school now." At school, meaning Kabbe. "Oh, okay. So you're not going to pick me up?" "Oh you need to be picked up? Okay, I'll come early in the morning." Thoroughly confused by this conversation and having no idea what "I'll pick you up and drive you to Kabbe when you arrive in Katima" means in Namblish, I crashed at Kaitlin's house, and ended up getting a ride with a PC driver doing site development in the next village the following morning. Later that afternoon, while I was sitting at my desk organizing my things for school, I got a phone call from another unidentified number. A male voice: "Hello, where are you now?" Thinking it was my principal again, I said "I'm at school," (duh). "Oh okay, have you moved into your house yet?" "No." (duh). "Why not?" "It's not ready yet..." (wtf?) "Why didn't you call me when you got in yesterday? I was waiting for your phone call." "Wait...who is this?" "It's John, from the ministry!" Argh!!!!! It was this guy from the ministry who came to measure my house, and, since I'm a white lady, is obviously trying to get me to fall in love with him by forcing me to drive to the flood plains with him (another story), and offering to give me rides places. I felt pretty dumb for asking my principal to pick me up in Katima. Damn you Namibian vagueness! Didn't you have teachers to teach you phone etiquette in school? Oh wait...
So those are my stories of Nambiguity for the week. I'm sure many more will ensue over the next two years. Looking forward to it!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
End of holidays and first days of school
Well, it's been a little while since I've posted. Hmm let's see, I spent Christmas in Kabbe with my host family which was...interesting. Definitely not the kind of Christmas I'm used to. My host mom invited me to church for Christmas eve...then told me service starts at 1 am. Namibia has turned me into an old lady, or my dad, who goes to sleep at 8 pm every night and wakes up at 5. Seriously, I can not stay up late anymore. But I agreed to go, thinking Namibian Christmas eve mass would be some kind of cultural event I should see, and figured I could take a nap before it started. But in true nambiguous fashion, at 9 pm, when we were finishing up dinner, my host mom said she was leaving now now for church. Okay, I said, but doesn't the service start at 1? Yes. She said. But why are you leaving now? Well people are already there, singing and having baptisms. I asked when Chuma, my host sister was going to church and she said maybe at 2 am. I was starting to get a little frustrated, since I don't really like church anyway, and the services are in Silozi so usually I just sit and zone out, and I definitely didn't want to get stuck at church for 6 hours in the middle of the night. But of course I got dragged with my host mom and host sister who decided to go and leave early. 4 hours of singing and dancing ensued, and then the service finally started, at around 1:30 am, when Chuma decided to leave because her 2 year old daughter was feeling sick. So that's the story of how I almost went to Christmas eve mass in Namibia.
Christmas day was mostly uneventful, until around 3 pm when people started pouring into the village to drink and braai. Christmas in Namibia is pretty much like 4th of July or a summer barbeque. Definitely not anything like what we're used to. I did get to talk to everyone in my family and Brian's family though, which was definitely the highlight of my holiday.
I spent New Year's in Rundu with some friends after our thwarted efforts to evade Peace Corps' notice and head to Otjiwarango for New Years' with some other dirty 30ers (our moniker for Peace Corps Nam/Group 30). However, the day before New Year's eve the friend we were going to stay with had a break in, so her house was on Peace Corps radar, and being sensible folks we thought flaunting to PC that we were breaking the very strict out of site policy (not allowed to leave your region for the first 3 months after swearing in! Period.) was a little stupid. So we spent New Year's eve watching movies and playing cards (while enjoying some WIndhoek Lager of course) while trying to stay awake until midnight. We then proceeded to wake up at 5 am to hike out of Rundu to enjoy some new year's day festivities in otjiwarango. So, that's the story of how I almost celebrated New Year's eve with the dirty 30 in Otjiwarango.
I then spent a week in Windhoek for reconnect, the second part of our PC training. It was in the mountains at a beautiful "resort" as we like to call it. Actually after months of living like PCVs this place was a resort, with air conditioning, hot showers and a pool! It was also great to see the rest of my group, who truly are such wonderful people I can't stand it. We also got to drop some mad Namib dollars eating in Windhoek. Ahh Windhoek. So strange, so disconcerting and so wonderful sometimes. Mostly the food. Indian, Italian, KFC...we even found a place called Joe's beer house which has a hefeweizen! After months of drinking watery Windhoek lager or the cheaper brands that have an aftertaste of soap that cloudy wheat beer was like 500 ml of heaven.
Which brings me to the present. Well, after hiking back from Windhoek, and realizing again how effing far Caprivi is from the capital (it took me 48 hours to get back to Kabbe, overnighting in Rundu and Katima), I arrived just in time for the first day of school! Actually the 3rd day technically, since teachers were supposed to be there monday and tuesday. But in Namibia that means nothing happens except maybe stuff that was supposed to happen last term, like finishing your grade symbol distribution (I don't know why that was so important, but it was), and what what. So yesterday the learners arrived, and of course our subjects hadn't been allocated and we had no timetable, so the learners ended up doing manual labor and running around for most of the day.
Today I showed up and at our brief staff meeting was told that the pre-primary teacher wasn't there, so why didn't I just watch the pre-primary class today? Putting aside the fact that I'm actually teaching grades 7 and 8 English and Math, and would have liked to spend some time talking to and getting to know them, the pre-primary students DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH. Or Silozi. And after 3 months in the village my Subia is in a sadder state than I'd like to admit. So I walk into this class of about 12 terrified looking 5 year olds (don't forget, this is their first day of school. Ever.) And proceed to hand out construction paper and crayons that they just stare at. I take out a crayon and start coloring my paper, saying "bone!" "See!" Color! Finally the secretary came in and I asked her to translate for me which got some kids coloring. When they got bored with coloring I decided to attempt to teach them "Duck Duck Goose" using my extremely limited vocabulary. I achieved this by going around and miming what they were supposed to do then when I tapped goose, saying "Iwe!" (you!) "Mata!" (Run!) then "Kale!" (Sit!) To my surprise it actually worked, and I successfully got them to play for the rest of the period. Poor kids. First day of school and they show up to a crazy white lady who doesn't speak their language. Being an African kid is hard in so many ways.
Well, that's an abridged version of my activities for the last few weeks. Now I'm on my way back to Rundu for a PC meeting. But first I'm heading over to Kaitlin's to bake cupcakes to bring for our Friday wine day in Rundu. Hey, even PCVs get to have a little fun sometimes ;)
Christmas day was mostly uneventful, until around 3 pm when people started pouring into the village to drink and braai. Christmas in Namibia is pretty much like 4th of July or a summer barbeque. Definitely not anything like what we're used to. I did get to talk to everyone in my family and Brian's family though, which was definitely the highlight of my holiday.
I spent New Year's in Rundu with some friends after our thwarted efforts to evade Peace Corps' notice and head to Otjiwarango for New Years' with some other dirty 30ers (our moniker for Peace Corps Nam/Group 30). However, the day before New Year's eve the friend we were going to stay with had a break in, so her house was on Peace Corps radar, and being sensible folks we thought flaunting to PC that we were breaking the very strict out of site policy (not allowed to leave your region for the first 3 months after swearing in! Period.) was a little stupid. So we spent New Year's eve watching movies and playing cards (while enjoying some WIndhoek Lager of course) while trying to stay awake until midnight. We then proceeded to wake up at 5 am to hike out of Rundu to enjoy some new year's day festivities in otjiwarango. So, that's the story of how I almost celebrated New Year's eve with the dirty 30 in Otjiwarango.
I then spent a week in Windhoek for reconnect, the second part of our PC training. It was in the mountains at a beautiful "resort" as we like to call it. Actually after months of living like PCVs this place was a resort, with air conditioning, hot showers and a pool! It was also great to see the rest of my group, who truly are such wonderful people I can't stand it. We also got to drop some mad Namib dollars eating in Windhoek. Ahh Windhoek. So strange, so disconcerting and so wonderful sometimes. Mostly the food. Indian, Italian, KFC...we even found a place called Joe's beer house which has a hefeweizen! After months of drinking watery Windhoek lager or the cheaper brands that have an aftertaste of soap that cloudy wheat beer was like 500 ml of heaven.
Which brings me to the present. Well, after hiking back from Windhoek, and realizing again how effing far Caprivi is from the capital (it took me 48 hours to get back to Kabbe, overnighting in Rundu and Katima), I arrived just in time for the first day of school! Actually the 3rd day technically, since teachers were supposed to be there monday and tuesday. But in Namibia that means nothing happens except maybe stuff that was supposed to happen last term, like finishing your grade symbol distribution (I don't know why that was so important, but it was), and what what. So yesterday the learners arrived, and of course our subjects hadn't been allocated and we had no timetable, so the learners ended up doing manual labor and running around for most of the day.
Today I showed up and at our brief staff meeting was told that the pre-primary teacher wasn't there, so why didn't I just watch the pre-primary class today? Putting aside the fact that I'm actually teaching grades 7 and 8 English and Math, and would have liked to spend some time talking to and getting to know them, the pre-primary students DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH. Or Silozi. And after 3 months in the village my Subia is in a sadder state than I'd like to admit. So I walk into this class of about 12 terrified looking 5 year olds (don't forget, this is their first day of school. Ever.) And proceed to hand out construction paper and crayons that they just stare at. I take out a crayon and start coloring my paper, saying "bone!" "See!" Color! Finally the secretary came in and I asked her to translate for me which got some kids coloring. When they got bored with coloring I decided to attempt to teach them "Duck Duck Goose" using my extremely limited vocabulary. I achieved this by going around and miming what they were supposed to do then when I tapped goose, saying "Iwe!" (you!) "Mata!" (Run!) then "Kale!" (Sit!) To my surprise it actually worked, and I successfully got them to play for the rest of the period. Poor kids. First day of school and they show up to a crazy white lady who doesn't speak their language. Being an African kid is hard in so many ways.
Well, that's an abridged version of my activities for the last few weeks. Now I'm on my way back to Rundu for a PC meeting. But first I'm heading over to Kaitlin's to bake cupcakes to bring for our Friday wine day in Rundu. Hey, even PCVs get to have a little fun sometimes ;)
Friday, December 18, 2009
Holidays in Kabbe
Merry almost Christmas! It doesn't feel like the holiday season at all here, probably because it's about 38 degrees celcius in the shade. They have started playing Christmas music on Silozi radio though, which is pretty incongruous/hilarious. It's pretty weird to hear Frosty the Snowman while I'm sitting in my family's courtyard eating buhobe and fish with sweat pouring off my face. I'm getting kind of into Christmas though. I bought ingredients to make no bake cookies (you just boil most of the ingredients!). I have an oven but it's a gas stove and the ministry didn't bring gas when they dropped it off 2 months ago, and even though I've asked my school to call the ministry about it about 16 times since then, still no gas. Go figure. I got my host family Christmas gifts, even though I don't think exchanging gifts is part of Christmas culture here. I absolutely adore my host family though, so I'm excited to give them something. Today is my 2 year old host niece, Monde's birthday, so I came into town yesterday to bake her a birthday cake and when I get back to the village today we're going to have a little party for her. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures. She's absolutely adorable. At first, like many children here, she was terrified of me having never seen a mukuwa, white person, before, but now she calls me Memily "wangu" (My memily)and follows me around everywhere.
Village life has been a little boring for the past week or so. School ended last Wednesday so I've been spending a majority of my time in the village. So far I've been to a neighboring village to hand out Christmas presents to orphans with a group of volunteers from another organization, learned how to build a reed fence (which we put up around my pit latrine which is FINALLY in service now!! Yay!!), followed my host mom around for a day while she did all of her normal village activities, including visiting "her orphans," who are staying on a family's homestead, so she just makes sure they're being taken care of, collecting firewood (carrying it on my head makes me feel pretty badass I have to say)and what what. I've also been taking some time to just relax for the first time in four months, meaning watching lots of movies on my laptop and reading a lot. It's also far too hot in the afternoon to even sit in the shade without getting sunburned, so I've been spending a good chunk of time in my hut, which stays somehow cool during the day. It's rained a few times, which always cools things off considerably, but the last few days have been bright blue skies. Ugh. Terrible weather. Supposedly it does get cold here in May or June, but I'll believe it when I see it.
So that's life nowadays. Pretty exciting...not. I guess the action and adventure part of this story comes later on. Happy Holidays everyone!
Village life has been a little boring for the past week or so. School ended last Wednesday so I've been spending a majority of my time in the village. So far I've been to a neighboring village to hand out Christmas presents to orphans with a group of volunteers from another organization, learned how to build a reed fence (which we put up around my pit latrine which is FINALLY in service now!! Yay!!), followed my host mom around for a day while she did all of her normal village activities, including visiting "her orphans," who are staying on a family's homestead, so she just makes sure they're being taken care of, collecting firewood (carrying it on my head makes me feel pretty badass I have to say)and what what. I've also been taking some time to just relax for the first time in four months, meaning watching lots of movies on my laptop and reading a lot. It's also far too hot in the afternoon to even sit in the shade without getting sunburned, so I've been spending a good chunk of time in my hut, which stays somehow cool during the day. It's rained a few times, which always cools things off considerably, but the last few days have been bright blue skies. Ugh. Terrible weather. Supposedly it does get cold here in May or June, but I'll believe it when I see it.
So that's life nowadays. Pretty exciting...not. I guess the action and adventure part of this story comes later on. Happy Holidays everyone!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Thanksgiving in Namibia
Well, I had a whole post typed up on my flashdrive which currently isn't working at all, probably because it now has a million viruses after being plugged into a Namibia's laptop, so this will just be a short one. I had my first Namibian Thanksgiving yesterday. It was a little sad to be away from family on the holiday, and I definitely missed eating Thanksgiving comfort food, but the Caprivi kids had a celebration of our own with black bean burgers and sweet potato fries which were pretty delicious. Kaitlin even made an apple pie!
The village has been growing on me. I spent last weekend there so I got to spend time with my host family and neighbors and the kids. I love playing games with the kids in my village becasue they're so creative about how to entertain themselves. They don't have toys so they'll use long reeds of grass to make a jumprope, metal and soda cans to make metal cars that they push around, stones and the nuts from some sort of tree to make a game kind of like jax, where you have to throw the nut into the air and scoop the stones either into our out of a hole in the ground before you catch it. And of course they love to play cards, so I constantly have kids coming over to get me to teach them new card games, or to teach me some of their cards games.
I also learned how to do things that all women in the village have to do on a daily basis. On Saturday morning I went into the bush with my host mom and sister and our old lady neighbor who always calls me mulikani, which means friend in Silozi, to collect firewood. My stack was definitely a lot smaller than anyone else's but I did carry it on my head all the way back to the village. Which was probably only about a kilometer, but it feels far when you're carrying a heavy stack of firewood on your head!
On Sunday night I learned how to make nkoko, or buhobe, also known as pap or porridge: basically most Southern African cultures' staple food. Like most villagers my host family doesn't have a stove (well actually now they have my gas stove in their hut, but in typical fashion the ministry has yet to bring gas for it), so they do all their cooking over a fire. Let me tell you, cooking over a fire is hot and it's pretty easy to burn yourself -- most village women have burn scars on their hands and arms, from cooking I'm pretty sure -- and stirring nkoko is harder than it looks. And my old lady neighbor came over while I was making it and kept yelling at me in Silozi and grabbing my arm while I was stirring to say "Ona cwalo! Ona cwalo!" wich means, "like this! like this!" But I thought I was stirring it the way she tol me to...ehh I guess it's a learned art form. My host family said it tasted good though. It tasted the same as all nkoko to me: bland and kind of sandy.
Anyway, I'm actually kind of looking forward to being in the village after school ends. I was worried about filling up my days, but I think it will be nice to have a lot of time to wander around the village getting to know people and learning how to do things the village way. I'll also be in Kabbe for Christmas so I'll get to see what a traditional village Christmas is like. I hope there are fat cakes and not too many drunk people (Christmas is apparently a big drinking holiday here, just like most days of the year). I think I might try to bring a little Americanness to Christmas too by baking Christmas cookies. A week before Christmas is my 2 year old host niece, Monde's, birthday and since she might be my favorite person in Namibia since she's the most adorable baby I've ever seen I'm baking her a birthday cake.
So this is holiday time in Namibia. No Christmas trees, no holiday consumerisn, no winter snow, no turkey or stuffing or candy canes. It's just hot and sandy, and sometimes rainy now that rainy season is fast approaching. It's not bad though, just different, like most of the Peace Corps experience.
The village has been growing on me. I spent last weekend there so I got to spend time with my host family and neighbors and the kids. I love playing games with the kids in my village becasue they're so creative about how to entertain themselves. They don't have toys so they'll use long reeds of grass to make a jumprope, metal and soda cans to make metal cars that they push around, stones and the nuts from some sort of tree to make a game kind of like jax, where you have to throw the nut into the air and scoop the stones either into our out of a hole in the ground before you catch it. And of course they love to play cards, so I constantly have kids coming over to get me to teach them new card games, or to teach me some of their cards games.
I also learned how to do things that all women in the village have to do on a daily basis. On Saturday morning I went into the bush with my host mom and sister and our old lady neighbor who always calls me mulikani, which means friend in Silozi, to collect firewood. My stack was definitely a lot smaller than anyone else's but I did carry it on my head all the way back to the village. Which was probably only about a kilometer, but it feels far when you're carrying a heavy stack of firewood on your head!
On Sunday night I learned how to make nkoko, or buhobe, also known as pap or porridge: basically most Southern African cultures' staple food. Like most villagers my host family doesn't have a stove (well actually now they have my gas stove in their hut, but in typical fashion the ministry has yet to bring gas for it), so they do all their cooking over a fire. Let me tell you, cooking over a fire is hot and it's pretty easy to burn yourself -- most village women have burn scars on their hands and arms, from cooking I'm pretty sure -- and stirring nkoko is harder than it looks. And my old lady neighbor came over while I was making it and kept yelling at me in Silozi and grabbing my arm while I was stirring to say "Ona cwalo! Ona cwalo!" wich means, "like this! like this!" But I thought I was stirring it the way she tol me to...ehh I guess it's a learned art form. My host family said it tasted good though. It tasted the same as all nkoko to me: bland and kind of sandy.
Anyway, I'm actually kind of looking forward to being in the village after school ends. I was worried about filling up my days, but I think it will be nice to have a lot of time to wander around the village getting to know people and learning how to do things the village way. I'll also be in Kabbe for Christmas so I'll get to see what a traditional village Christmas is like. I hope there are fat cakes and not too many drunk people (Christmas is apparently a big drinking holiday here, just like most days of the year). I think I might try to bring a little Americanness to Christmas too by baking Christmas cookies. A week before Christmas is my 2 year old host niece, Monde's, birthday and since she might be my favorite person in Namibia since she's the most adorable baby I've ever seen I'm baking her a birthday cake.
So this is holiday time in Namibia. No Christmas trees, no holiday consumerisn, no winter snow, no turkey or stuffing or candy canes. It's just hot and sandy, and sometimes rainy now that rainy season is fast approaching. It's not bad though, just different, like most of the Peace Corps experience.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
