Half way through August...

Half way through August the wind still blows and the morning chill is as strong as it has been this winter, yet the days have become hotter. There has not been rain in months and the oshanas are drying, both from the sun and the cattle’s thirst. The sun continues to shine, regardless of the intensity of its rays and the schedule of night and day. Naturally, however, the earth’s rotation is changing and winter is becoming summer, passing over a brief spring. Soon September will bring back the heat that is only bearable for those who watch the sun from inside the house. Even inside, though, we are experiencing changes; we are not the only ones trying to avoid the coming weather. The mosquitoes have snuck back into the house and the ants are attempting new ways to enter. They prepare as the people do. At night, the mosquitoes sing a not so melodic lullaby and, just about every morning, there is a queue of ants making their way through the sugar to the watering hole that is a sink.

Space, though, is not an issue for those who inhabit northern Namibia. People do own land, but ownership holds its own unique meaning. Those who own land can do as much as say it is theirs. They have the ability, by law, to control who comes and goes, but that is not a part of their culture. Space belongs to god, and god shares his space with everybody. Therefore, I can not deny the right of the mosquito or the ant to enter, when they are coming in the house for the same reason as I am.

Let me tell you more about space and why I write about it. It is currently the August examination period and the learners are at work studying or “reading their books.” Each learner is in a class and each class has its designated room with desks and chairs. Ideally, this is the perfect study space for the learners, kind of like how we had study space in the college library. Unlike the library where silence was enforced, and very much like college, where group study led to procrastination, forty learners studying in one room can have its disadvantages.

Luckily, though, we are located on a huge piece of land with many nooks and crannies to find the appropriate level of peace needed to reach each individual’s need. When the exam period begins, the learners spread out and stake claim to their study space. Because space can be used by anybody, even my space is up for grabs. I look out my window and there are learners sitting right outside. I go out my back door, and the yard is filled. This has its pros and cons. When I am bored, I go outside and always have somebody to talk to. When I need something from the tuk shop, I can just send a learner. If my laundry is dry, I can always find someone to help me fold. Unfortunately, though, it is almost impossible to take a nap or even escape from the loud staff room for temporary silence because of the chit chat and study conversations just outside my house. The worst is when I have to use the toilet and there are a group of young girls sitting directly outside my window. Sometimes I have to hold it until they leave for a meal or for the night, so that I can go without shame.

These nuisances are only minimal. This is my second time dealing with it, and I have learned that there is nothing I can really do about it. In reality, it is their space just as much as mine. I don’t even own my house; it is property of the Ministry of Education. They are using it in order to better their education. Sharing is the culture and I am not here to change their ways of doing things. I am here to learn how they do things. Even when I walk through the campus and pass by other teachers’ houses, they are swamped with learners and their doors are even open. The learners can pass through for a drink of water or even to use the toilet. It is funny, when I see one of my learners on the street with somebody, he/she always introduces the other person as his/her brother or sister. It is true; everybody is your brother or sister. We were all created by the same being to live and work together. As a result, if you walk by my house in the afternoon, you will see an oshilumbu sitting in his backyard with a bunch of Namibian learners, talking, eating, studying or just being, as He meant for us to be.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of my most recent struggles has been finding a way to respond to my twelfth grade learners. This term is very important for them because this report card is the one they use to apply to university. The requirements for entering university are few, but English is the one that causes the trouble. As most of you already know, most learners in senior secondary school fail English. Last term, I had 200/200 learners fail their English exam. Failing marks include E, F, G, U. The English requirement for acceptance into The University of Namibia (UNAM) is a D and for The Polytechnic is an E. These requirements are good for a country that has chosen English as its official language and that is coming closer and closer to becoming a developed country in this globalized world. The problem is how this is executed within the education system. The answer is not easy to identify, but the fact that all of these brilliant learners are being denied higher education because of English is a problem. The biggest problem that I see is their foundation at the primary level. For many, it is atrocious. There are positive steps being made to better the system, including hard work by the Minister to better primary education and programs such as NAMCOL which is a series of classes offered to prepare people to retake a failed exam beyond grade twelve. Still many learners are discouraged after constant failure and just give up.

The other night, a few learners came to my house and begged me to give them Ds so that they can apply. Unfortunately I am not able to just give any grade I think a person deserves. While their pleas were going through my mind, I remembered a part of my senior thesis that spoke about Ngugi wa’Thiongo, who argued that African literature should be written in the native language rather than English. I wrote, “[He] believes that colonialism was an attempt to control African culture by controlling the mind. Being forced to speak in a foreign language, Africans are not able to fully articulate themselves and are, therefore, subject to the colonizer.” In many ways this applies to my learners. The smartest learners can not apply to University because of English. English is preventing many of those who come from the northern regions of Namibia from entering higher education. Every day in class, I try to get my learners to think for themselves. We read a story, magazine article or newspaper clipping and I want them to tell me what they think, how they feel, how it relates to them. On the exam, they answer reading comprehension questions with direct quotes. When I ask them to write an essay about what a story means to them, they just copy parts of the plot. In reality, it is not that they can’t think, it is that they can’t articulate themselves in English. Without English, many Namibians can not articulate themselves in their own country or even to their own country because of their situation and struggle to get through English. Once again, Namibia’s steps towards development are commendable, but the process of developing in today’s world is unfortunate.

Some thoughts on a sick day

It amazes me how fast time flies. It feels like yesterday I was returning from South Africa, refreshed by the relaxation and more familiar lifestyle yet motivated to plan an affective term that would offset the trouble I had with becoming acquainted to the education system during April exams. During mid-service training, we were warned that term 2 is the longest and, usually, most difficult term for year long volunteers. The feeling that you are only half way done can make you feel impatient. Surprisingly, none of this was proven true. There are only 3.5 weeks left of classes before August exams begin and just about five months until I come home. I have noticed a significant change in the attitudes of most my learners and their performance is extremely different from what it was in January. This past week I gave a vocabulary test and my 11F class achieved a 70% average, 16/40 learners getting 80% or above. This was the first time any class of mine has had a passing average on an exam. I am hoping they stay motivated throughout the exam period and their performance mirrors this week’s achievement. Lets hope I am not jumping the gun by acknowledging their improvement [I just explained “jumping the gun” in class last week because it appeared in a story we read]. In reality, I just hope they do the best they can. I’ll be content if at least a handful of learners pass.

With only 3.5 weeks left of class, I need to figure out the most affective way to spend class time with my twelfth graders. In Namibia, grades 10 and 12 take national exams from September through October; therefore, they do not attend class during term 3. After this month, they are on their own. For many of them, these are the last classes they will ever sit in.

Aside from school, I have really adjusted to daily life and routine in the north. I think if I had my family and friends here I would be able to extend for another year. At times throughout term 1, when I would get homesick, I couldn’t wait to leave here to get home. The more I missed aspects of home, their most similar counterparts in Namibia would become extremely unappealing. I guess this was also influenced by the absence of running water, but even that eventually became a routine. Now, when I get homesick, it has become less of me impatiently anticipating December, and more of me appreciating where I come from and what I am doing here, now. I think this evolution has benefited me and I couldn’t imagine only staying for a half year. If I had stayed only through May, I would have gone home with the attitude I had after leaving China, get me the hell out of here. Maybe if I stayed in China for a little longer I would have valued certain aspects of the experience more than I do. Soon, I will only have one term left in Namibia, and I need to make the most of it because I know it will go just as fast, if not faster, as term 2.

The weather has changed the past month from mildly hot to very cold, especially during the night. Like anywhere with changing temperatures, people become sick. Lately, in class, my voice is constantly competing with coughs, sneezes and sniffles. The germs finally caught up to me and today I came home sick from school. I have had a sore throat since Sunday and last night it was really bad. I went to school this morning and stayed through three periods, but I had to come home because it hurt to much to strain my voice over the learners’ constant shuffling. A relaxing day is needed, so I am using it to my advantage.

The June issue of New African magazine featured an article entitled “The Trouble with Namibia.” It’s a good article and I am using it to teach my learners how to write a review essay. Being Namibians, I figured they would be able to form their own opinions on the writer’s argument. It is one of those assignments that will be hit or miss; I’m hoping they get it. I’m planning on spending a couple days just going over it to make sure they understand what its about. Its five pages, which is the most I have made them read. I just have to hope they don’t lose attention after talking about it for more than one day which frequently happens when discussing a reading. The exciting part about the assignment is that I told them that I would choose the best essays from each class and mail them to the magazine’s editor. I have no idea what would come of it, if anything, but I figured it would be cool just for them to know that their essays were good and on their way to England.

The article’s main argument is that Namibia is neo-colonized through the white Namibian descendants of German colonizers. The author mentions the country’s capital, Windhoek, and the coastal town, Swakopmund, which resemble places in Germany. In June, I visited Swakopmund for the second time, and, once again, I forgot that I was in Namibia. I went to German restaurants and bars, where the customers were mainly white. In one restaurant, there was not one black person eating or working. I went to a Namibian night club and I felt as if I was in Europe. They played European/American music, and the majority of the people dancing were white and all of the bartenders were black. Namibia’s apartheid inflicted past still lingers in towns like Swakopmund and Windhoek where the country’s white population resides.

Throughout the article, the author speaks about how the minority white population still controls the country’s politics and economy. Namibia is a relatively rich country, yet the poor population is so large. Statistics in the article include, “the richest 5% of the population controls 71% of GDP...[while] the poorest 55% account for merely 3%...” Furthermore, when you drive from Windhoek to the north, or to Swakopmund, or to Gobabis, in the east, or to South Africa, the land in between the scattered towns is all fenced private property owned by the country’s 6% white population. The author states that the 6% white population owns 90% of the land. When you get to the north, the majority (45%) of the country’s population lives on 7% of the country’s land, which, for the most part, is not surveyed. These statistics are a sad reality. Most people in Namibia are farmers, yet the country’s commercial farming is controlled by the white minority. So is the mining of diamonds and uranium. Namibia sees almost none of the profit from it’s country large diamond export. It is all controlled by Western multinational companies.

I recommend you get your hands on a copy of the magazine so you can read more into it. You will learn some things about the government, and its major political party, SWAPO. Namibia has come a long way and has a lot to show for its success, but the black majority benefits from only a small portion of the country’s wealth and achievement, which they fought for during their struggle for independence.

The Holiday

The first week of term two is almost over and I have already been confronted with obstacles to get through, though I have yet to let myself get overwhelmed.

Upon returning from an amazing holiday which I will tell you about later in this post, I was welcomed with empty taps and wall spiders back to my Namibian home. The surprises came when I went into the bathroom and I found a three week old poop in the toilet. I fetched water in order to flush the toilet and, when I did so, little bugs flew out. Bret and I had a lot of cleaning to do.

At school, on Monday, we were told that a new English teacher had been hired but our Head of Department is going to be out for the entire term on maternity leave. This meant that I no longer had to teach the grade 12s but I had to take on three of my H.O.D.’s classes. I really like one of the grade 12s, though, so I insisted that I keep that class and then only take on two of my H.O.D.’s grade 11s. Then, the new teacher would take three classes of his own and then cover for her other two classes. This was agreed on and I was given the task to make a completely new time table for the school. I spent the entire day Tuesday working on this project and completed it for Wednesday. Then, on Wednesday, the principal told us that the ministry just put out a rule that teachers can not transfer during the school year and that it was in affect now, which meant that we wouldn’t get the new teacher and the four classes would be left without one. This was ridiculous because we would not be getting the teacher back who transferred in the middle of last term. Today, we received word that there is negotiating going on so, now, we have no idea what is going to happen. I have only been teaching three classes that I know will definitely be mine. Otherwise, I have no idea who I will be teaching this term. I guess we will hear word tomorrow.

Despite the confusion, I have maintained a positive attitude. I am excited and motivated to really get my learners to work hard so they can improve their scores in August. I put together a good routine lesson plan, which is what I wanted, and I am excited to see how it goes.

On Monday, I had my learners write me letters telling and asking me whatever they wanted. I have been reading them throughout the week and writing responses. Most of them tell me about their holidays and a lot tell me how they were disappointed that they failed (everybody failed) and that they want to work hard so that they can pass. Many asked me to help them with specific things and asked me my opinion on what they have to do to improve. Today, I read three letters that kind of disappointed me. Two of them were from my brightest learners.

This is one of the letters I received:

Dear Mr. Bernie

I guess you are fine. I too am fine...I’m requesting you to help us, sir, because you, yourself, know what happened. So, I think you would actually change this 2nd term if you guys don’t want failure and disappointment at the end of the day.

I’m really happy about my performance because I gave it everything I got. So, I guess we all need to change. The fact that we failed does not mean that the failure we had would repeat itself. No! The learners feel that it’s the teachers’ fault. Just to ask them...no answer! We learners feel that teachers really have some explanations to give to learners. That’s why my questions is, what’s your excuse, Mr. Bernie?

Yours
X

Feeling the way I do about that test and the education system, it is hard to get a letter like this from a learner who you respect and have high expectations of. The hardest part about receiving this letter is that I have to respond to it. How am I supposed to do that when I feel the way I feel? What I really want to do is say, yes! It is your teacher’s fault, your teachers who still use Oshikwayama even though they are supposed to teach you in English. Or, your teachers who did a horrible job giving you a foundation in English. I want to tell them that the education system is against them and that they are getting their way by having all these learners fail. How would they respond if I told them that they are meant to fail? That the majority of them are done after they fail their grade twelve exam? I envision this motivating them. I know that if my teacher told me that, I would work as hard as I possibly could to prove them wrong. And I think that some of them would feel that way and that they would try ten times harder then they already are. But I can’t go against the education system. I have to say: “Dear X, Nobody is responsible for your mark but you.” [when, in fact, this learner was passing until my H.O.D. remarked his exam so that he was a few points short of doing so]. Being a teacher, I am a representative of this crooked system. I guess there are things to say that will motivate but, I want to say so much more, how it annoys the heck out of me that they associate me as one of them, part of the system. The only thing I can do to prove everybody wrong is get them to pass. I will probably end up saying something along the lines of: “Dear X, Things in life are unfair. You can not blame others for your misfortunes. The only thing you can do is work that much harder to prove to yourself that you can do it. I believe that, if we work together as a class, we can improve our marks a lot. It will take dedication but, if you are motivated, I think we can do it.” Wish me luck.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Holiday

My holiday was great. It will be really difficult for me to bring you through it completely so I will talk about some of the highlights. The first two nights we spent in Windhoek because we had mid-service training. It was really nice to see all the other volunteers and talk about our experiences. It is amazing how we all are having very different experiences. On Easter Sunday, our field director and her husband prepared a big brunch for us. There was a lot of fruit, cup cakes, mimosas and omelets. That night we went to a restaurant where we had awesome burgers and German beer. As an appetizer, Bridget, Bret, Hannah and I shared a game platter. We had kudu, zebra, alligator and ostrich. The zebra was really good and ostrich was the second best. On Monday, we went to the movies and saw Water for Elephants. It was good. That night we took the Intercape bus to Cape Town. It was really cool because it was two stories and we were on the top floor. It was a sleep liner which meant there was a lot of leg room, a leg rest and the seat reclined far back. The trip took 22 hours.

Cape Town is beautiful. Imagine New York City on a California beach and at the foot of a beautiful mountain. Our hostel was really nice and had a great view of the mountain. We ate a lot of good food while we were there. We had Mexican, Ethiopian, Chinese, Indian, Turkish, South African, Italian, McDonalds and Subway!!! A couple nights we cooked at the hostel and played cards which was nice and relaxing. We went to the District 6 Museum, the Slave Lodge Museum, the Jewish and Holocaust Museum and the National Library. We also saw parliament and an old fort. Our hostel was near a street that was kind of like their “Greenwich Village.” There were really nice cafes and restaurants and awesome book stores. One day, we took a trip to the University of Cape Town. It is on the other side of Table Mountain. It is beautiful. There are three campuses, all different levels on the mountain. We visited different areas in Cape Town like Bo Kaap which is the Muslim section and it is really pretty. The houses are all different colors. It is the only section of Cape Town that people were not evicted during apartheid. We also went to the bay where all the surfers are and I saw the Indian Ocean for the first time. We saw an independent film at an artsie theater called Labia. The craziest thing we did was we went paragliding off of a mountain called Lion’s Head. It was crazy, very scary when we had to run off the mountain but relaxing once we were in flight. We flew over the really rich area on the coast and over the ocean and landed on a soccer field.

One day, we went on a bicycle tour of the vineyards in Stellenbosch. We did wine tasting at two vineyards and one brandy distillery. We tasted different aged brandy and it was amazing how easy it was to tell the difference. The town was beautiful and we even stopped at a cheetah sanctuary. Ironically, there was a couple on our tour from Long Island and the wife was a Fordham Law graduate.

After Cape Town, we went to Bloemfontein and stayed at this really nice and comfortable self catering bed and breakfast. It was run by a really nice South African family and was about a half an hour out of the town on a farm. It was the family’s home and they were really accommodating. We arrived at 8 AM when check in was at 1 PM. We lied in bed all day and watched tv. It was great because they had DSTV so we got to watch American tv and movies.

The next day we left for Lesotho. When we got to the border we were stamped out of South Africa and had to walk across a bridge of “nowhere land” to Lesotho. We got a taxi to take us to the lodge which was about a two hour drive through mountains and dirt roads. Lesotho is called “Kingdom in the Sky” because it is entirely mountains. The lodge was very nice but not busy at all because it was the start of the winter season. Our nights there were freezing cold. We slept with six blankets. The food was really good. For breakfast, they made eggs, bacon and toast and we could have cereal, granola, yoghurt, fruit, coffee and tea. We skipped lunch because we were always too full and then dinner was amazing. It was a bunch of Besotho (Lesotho people) women who worked all day preparing dinner. It was all you can eat but it was like home cooked comfort food. One night we had pea soup in big mugs, lamb stew, yellow rice, butternut squash, spinach and apple pie with warm custard for dessert. That’s how we ate for three nights. On our first full day in Lesotho, we went on a six hour horseback ride through the mountains. At the lodge they said it was ok for beginners to do the trek, but I wonder if a similar establishment in the US would agree. I am afraid of heights and we had to horse back ride on cliffs that I would not normally climb myself. The mountain scenery was absolutely breath taking, though, and we saw a waterfall and 27,000 year old bush paintings. The adventure started getting really scary because our horses were not getting along. If one would try to pass another they would bite each other, barely missing our knees. At one point, my horse and Bridge’s horse went the wrong way and got stuck on a small cliff. They were fighting to turn around and eventually mine just spun around and threw me off and I tumbled off the cliff. It was really scary and I was kind of confused by what was going. I popped right up when I stopped tumbling because I was afraid the horse was going to fall on me. I ended up being ok, with just a few cuts and a bruised wrist which lasted a few days. The worst part about the entire experience was that the Besotho man who was guiding us made me get right back on the horse. When we got back we visited a Besotho shaman who told us our fortunes by throwing bones on the floor. That was kind of cool. The next day it rained all day. We took a walk and had a traditional lunch in some old man’s house. It was really nice. He showed us around his compound.

After the third night, we went back to Bloemfontein to spend the last two nights of our holiday. It was extremely relaxing and the perfect way to finish the holiday before coming back to the north. Our bathroom had a huge bathtub so I got to take two bathes. We just ate and watched tv all day. We watched shows like Modern Family, the Middle, Desperate Housewives and saw the South African version of Survivor. They were down to the final four at the end of the episode. We also watched a lot of good American movies.

It took us two whole days to travel from Bloemfontein to the north of Namibia and we were really tired when we returned. It was quite an adventure. Now, its back to work and lets hope for a great term.

Wrapping Up Term 1

Today was the last day of term one. I can not believe I am already 1/3 through the year. The learners had their last exam on Friday and, this week, the teachers finished marking and compiling their grades. Today the learners came back to pick up their report cards. The teachers announced the top three learners in each class and the statistics for the term. Unfortunately, 237/237 11^th graders failed because of their English mark. In order to pass, they must receive a D in English. Out of my 81 11^th graders, I had 4 E’s, 18 F’s, 45 G’s and 14 U’s. E = 55-64%, F = 45-54%, G = 35-44%, U = 0-34%. My 12^th graders did much worse. Out of 117 learners, I had 2 E’s, 9 F’s, 39 G’s and 67 U’s.

Even though my learners performed so poorly, I have to give them credit. After having the experience of teaching for one term, giving an exam and marking, I must argue that the education system is not very fair. During the first 2/3 of the term I taught my 11^th graders grammar, reading comprehension and writing. We would do fun activities and exercises, read fun passages and play fun games. I worked really hard on preparing lessons and I think they learned a lot. When it came time for them to begin to prepare for their exam, they started asking me why we haven’t been spending time writing a formal letter, an article, a report, a diary entry and filling a form. After speaking to my colleagues and learning about these things, I realized that I was supposed to be teaching these kids how to take this test and, instead, I had been teaching them English.

After I spent a week marking all of my exams, my Head of Department had to “moderate” my marking. This means that she had to go through my exams and make sure I marked them correctly. It just so happened that I didn’t [I in no way blame my H.O.D. for what I consider ridiculous]. The Ministry of Education basically wants all of these learners to fail. The marking scheme is absurd. For example, when filling a form, many times they are asked to write in all capital letters. If they don’t write in capital letters they don’t receive any points. They even go to the extreme where if a Y goes a millimeter below the line it is considered lower case and they don’t receive any points even if the answer is correct. Also, if they write a capital “I” without the lines on top and bottom, it is considered a lower case “L” = “l” and they get the answer completely wrong. It is things like this that we are expected to spend time drilling into their heads rather than teaching them how to think, read and write. Also, when doing reading comprehension and listening comprehension, the learners are expected to give the answer that is on the answer key. If they answer the question correctly but they leave out one word that the test maker considered “important,” they would receive no credit for the answer. This is really hard especially on the listening exam. It is extremely difficult. When I gave the test, I took it with them and I did not even score 100%. Most learners scored a 5-7/30 on this part of the test. Even if we wanted to mark the learners by our standards, they would suffer in the end. We have to mark as if it was the end of 12^th grade and we were members of the ministry.

11^th and 12^th grade English is basically one class. They spend the two years preparing for their 12^th grade December exam which is marked by the Ministry of Education. At the end of each term for these two years, their exam is a mock Ministry exam. In order for the learners to be accepted into University, they must score at least a D on this exam. This term, 6 people out of about 500 learners scored a D in English. This means that, if they are able to obtain this mark in December, they will be able to attend University. Even if someone scores A in all of their subjects and a G in English, they are basically screwed. This is horrible because there are a lot of really intelligent people in my classes. Regardless of how intelligent they are, they are denied the opportunity to go to University because they are expected to do all of their schooling in a foreign language and pass a test that is made for them to fail.

When Namibia gained independence in 1990, they established English as its official language. The country than decided that people would be taught in English beginning in grade 4. This is difficult to do when the teachers don’t even speak good English. 21 years later, many teachers continue to teach in their native languages because they, themselves, are not comfortable enough with English to use it while teaching. Fortunately, this is not a huge problem at my school. During training, we were warned that many teachers are not very committed to their work and do not put much effort in teaching. Luckily, I have not had this experience. The teachers at my school are all very qualified and extremely committed to teaching. They enjoy it. After speaking to many other volunteers, this is not the case at their schools. Even last night, there were teachers in the staff room doing work until late at night and one teacher got to school at 4AM this morning to work on the report cards. Their dedication is commendable. Regardless of the quality of teachers at my school, many learners come to the Senior Secondary School (11-12) from other schools where they are not taught in English or their teachers are not as dedicated. Therefore, they are screwed because of their situation. In order to pass the 12^th grade exam, these learners are expected to learn as much English in two years that they should have since they began schooling. So many learners try so hard to improve their English, but the exam is so impossible that they end up suffering.

I want to share an experience of mine that is a good example of how the learners suffer because of English. There are many learners in my class who score very poorly on their compositions. As most teachers do, I, in my head, set my learners apart from one another based on their performance in my class. One of my classes has a free period on day 5’s after we have English and I also have that period free. I made it a routine to bring candy to class and during the free period I ask them trivia questions and those who get them correct get candy. Most of the questions I ask have to do with history, geography and politics. After asking questions for a bit, I was shocked at who knew the answers. One learner, in particular, knew practically all the answers to the geography questions and American politics (Many Namibians have not even heard of New York). This kid turned out to be extremely bright and I would have never known because his English is so bad. He ended up getting a U on his exam.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I know I haven’t blogged in a while, so I am going to back track so that I can fill you in on what has been going on. In March, we had a long weekend, Thursday-Monday off. So, Bridge and I decided to travel to Swakopmund to visit another volunteer who is placed there. It was amazing. We had such a great time.

Swakopmund is a city on the central coast of Namibia. It is about an 11 hour car ride from Oshakati and is an old colonial German town. We were shocked when we arrived. I couldn’t believe that I was still in Namibia. It is really unique because it is on the ocean but surrounded by desert. When you are walking through the town it feels like you are in any European or American beach town. The streets are in a grid and when you look south you can see huge sand dunes in the distance. It’s bazaar that this little colonial beach town is located in a desert in Namibia. You also feel like you are taken back to the times of colonialism. The center of town predominantly consists of white, rich, old people. Most of these old people came to Namibia with their parents during colonial times. Now, their children are moving back to South Africa and Europe because there is not much of a “young white” lifestyle in Swakopmund. Outside of the town are the locations which are where most of the black Namibians live. These locations resemble towns and villages in the north. The blacks and whites are still segregated in Swakopmund. This separation is extremely noticeable in restaurants and cafes. Most of the people eating at the restaurants were old white people and the majority of the servers were black.

The town was beautiful. There are huge houses that sit on the beach with huge windows facing the ocean. We peaked in a couple of the houses and they were amazing inside. Even the apartments in the town were beautifully decorated.

Being in Swakopmund was a really nice treat because, in a way, we escaped to something a little more familiar. We had great food and got to go to so many book stores and shops. We had a lot of sea food, pastries, good bread, lattes, and wine. The food stores were huge and had food imported from all over the world. They even had Fanta Zero!

The volunteer who lives in Swakopmund, Samiyah, lives in the center of town in a nice two story apartment. She teaches at a school in one of the locations outside of town which is nice because she is able to experience both worlds. Every morning, we woke up and walked through town. We ate at nice cafes and had good breakfast: croissants, omelets, toast, cappuccinos, lattes, etc. Then we would go sit on the beach, sometimes with our breakfast, and just read or watch the waves. Two days we spent the entire day at the beach. It was very relaxing. Two nights we had great seafood, one night we had Italian and the last night we had Thai, very different from the lifestyle we are used to in the north. On the last night, after Thai, we went to the Swakopmund casino. It was a fail for everybody.

We already planned our next trip to Swakopmund for June and can’t wait!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It rained a lot in the north while we were in Swakopmund. When we arrived much of the land was flooded and thousands of people were displaced because their homes were destroyed. The rain continued and was considered the worst floods the country has experienced in a long time. The road from Omungwelume to Oshakati was destroyed by the floods so we were stranded for about two weeks in our village. This meant we had to adapt to the culture and live off the local foods. Although the flooding was tragic, I learned a lot from the experience. At home, in America, we have expectations that things will be done or measures will be taken. If our expectations are not met, we raise hell. For a week, the majority of the school was flooded so we all had to walk through water to get from class to class. Learners who do not live at the school had to travel through waist deep water with smaller children on their shoulders in order to get to school. Many primary schools closed because some small children drowned on their way to school. The rain really affected the local people. Many crops were destroyed which will affect the food supply for an entire year. People’s home were destroyed and many are living in tents on dry land.

After the biggest rain, our village water pipe broke which left us without water. The government knew that the pipe was broken but was unable to access it because it was under flood water. Then, after the water dried up and they accessed the pipe, they realized that it was the wrong spot. Still, to this day, they have not found where the pipe is broken. The first four or five days, the government was trying to figure things out and the entire village was without water. On the fourth and the fifth days, the school’s stored water supply was used up so there was no water for the learners. For two days, the learners ate bread because the staff could not cook and they had nothing to drink. Finally, the government started supplying water to the school. They come just about every day and fill up our tanks. The water problem is still not fixed, so we are still without running water. It has been about a month. At first it was difficult but we have gotten used to walking across campus with basins to fetch water.

The couple of days before we were supplied with water, we would run outside whenever it began to rain so that we could wash ourselves and collect rain water to cook, wash the dishes and flush the toilet. If it rained during class, I would let my learners go outside and get a drink.

After experiencing the floods, I really have a lot of respect for these kids. They deal with whatever obstacle is put in front of them. Compared to people who grew up like me, they are so much stronger. After teaching these kids, I don’t think I could ever teach at a school like the ones I attended just because I couldn’t deal with students’ silly problems and parents calling with ridiculous complaints. At home, parents expect their children to be treated like kings and queens. They expect teachers to be parents to their students and are always ready to blame the school for treating their children unfairly. If only people knew the shit these kids go through over here. If only they had an idea. Many people don’t. I give these kids a lot of credit.

I will definitely miss my learners at the end of the year. I like teaching older kids because you can be real with them and you don’t have to parent them. A couple of weeks ago I was hanging out with one of my classes during study and one learner told me that in December they are going to tie me to the big tree so that I can’t leave them because they will miss me. It made me feel really good. Things like this make me happy to be here. A few times this week when I was frustrated with the marking, I questioned why I was here if I was only needed to teach my learners how to take a test that I don’t even really know how to take. I mean a lot to them though, and they mean a lot to me. I think about what this learner said a lot and it makes me want to try really hard to help them pass, even if odds are against them.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are two funny things that have happened in the past month:

1. The most popular traditional food here is mahangu porridge. Everybody eats it for just about every meal. I made a few learners come over my house and teach me how to make it. It was really funny but I did a good job and have made it a couple more times since. Well, Bret, Bridget and I looked up mahangu on wikipedia a couple of nights ago to see if they have it in the states. Mahangu ends up being another name for millet which is used in America in bird seed and for feeding cattle. We started cracking up. Also, whenever we eat the porridge it always is a little grainy. We learned that in order to get the grain from the plant, they pound it on termite hills. That explained the grainy texture.

2. A few weeks ago, the school had a circumcision assembly for all of the male learners and teachers. The principal told the learners that they had to meet in the dinning hall at a certain time for an assembly but didn’t tell them what it was about. They all had no idea why only the boys had to attend. I went to the meeting with a bunch of learners and we waited for the assembly to start. Everybody was anxious and rumors were going around that they were getting castrated. Finally, one of the male H.O.D.s came in and addressed the learners. He told them that all of the learners and teachers who were not already circumcised had to get circumcised that day. At this point the hall got quiet and some of the learners looked like they were going to cry. He told them that the doctors were on their way and that, in order for him to know who was circumcised and who wasn’t, everybody needed to line up in grade order, beginning with the 8^th graders and ending with the teachers and show him their penises so that he would know that nobody was lying. At this point, the assembly went into an uproar and they started freaking out, some walked out in amazement of what was going on. Finally, the H.O.D. told them that he was just kidding but that the people from the hospital were coming to talk to them about getting circumcisions. Many were relieved and began to laugh. Some were still in shock and had no words.

When the nurses came they spoke to the learners about circumcision and how it prevents the spread of HIV. Namibia has one of the highest HIV rates in the world. In the north, where the majority of the population is, only 1% of men are circumcised. The government has been given money by the U.S. and Canada to perform as many free circumcisions from 2010-2015. Their goal is to have 80% of the men in Namibia circumcised by 2015.

This is a serious matter, but a lot of the details were quite humorous and kept the learners entertained. I will try to keep my details PG-13 but can’t promise that my standards are the same as yours. First off, the nurses had a fake erect penis that they waved around and it had a foreskin that you could push up and down and then remove it to show what its like to have a circumcision. The learners were disgusted by this yet they could not keep in their laughter every time the male nurse played with it. Also, their description of things humored the learners a lot. For example, after circumcision, you have a plaster cast on your penis that naturally falls off after a couple of days. Then, you have to wear a belt around your waist that keeps your penis pointing up for two weeks. The female nurse than told them that if they got a circumcision they could not do those things they like to do when they wake up in the morning because eruption will be bad for the surgery. In the attempt to try and convince the learners to have a circumcision they told them they were going to speak to the girls about it too. They said that they will tell the girls that if a boy asks a girl to have sex, she should ask the boy if he is circumcised. If he is not than she should tell him to come back when he is.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry for being so delayed with the blog update. I hope everybody is well at home. I miss you all and can’t wait to see you in December. Tomorrow, I am leaving for Windhoek, where we have mid-service training for the weekend. On Sunday, they are bringing us to an Easter brunch which should be nice. On Monday, five of us are going to Cape Town, South Africa for a while and then traveling to Lesotho, which is a country completely surrounded by South Africa. I am really excited and can’t wait to share my experience and post pictures on facebook!

While it was snowing in New York...

Hello! I am sorry that it has been a while since my last post! I will try to catch you up on what has been going on in Omungwelume!

A couple of weekends ago, I played my first and last soccer game. It was on a Friday. During the school day a couple of learners that had recruited me found me and told me that we had a game. I had a problem, though, because I had scheduled to show the learners a movie in the dinning hall. I decided to put the movie on and then go to the game. I was a little late and it had already started. I stayed on the sideline and watched with the other learners. One kid came up to me and gave me a jersey. It was an extra small green long sleeved jersey that was drenched in sweat because it was used in the game before. I decided to put it over my shoulder and continue watching hoping they wouldn’t notice me. Anyway, a couple minutes go by and one of the kids on the field got kicked off because they wanted me on. I had to squeeze the wet jersey onto my body and run out on the field. They put me at center midfield. I told them that I wasn’t good but I think they got the picture only after I touched the ball once. I went to stop the ball and instead kicked it across the field and into the bush. I didn’t score at all that game but I made a lot of learners laugh. Coincidentally, I was playing against a team made up of boys from my two English classes so I had to try really hard not to foul them. Anyway, that was the last time the learners reminded me about a game, so now I am off the hook.

The learners here are fascinated by movies and music videos. I show a movie to one of my twelfth grade classes at least once a week during study period. I have also been putting on movies in the dinning hall with the schools projector and speakers. They really like music and they really like action. So far, I have showed them: The Dark Knight, Rocky, Dream Girls, The Ring, Four Brothers and Rocky. I also showed my two English classes The Wizard of Oz and they thought it was bazaar. They were astounded by little things like the trees throwing apples or the tin man dancing. They all started cracking up when the Munchkins came out and started singing. I gave them questions to answer while they were watching and they all took it so seriously. They would write down every little thing that they understood. Also, when “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” came on, the girls started singing along. At first, I was excited because I thought they knew it but, then, I realized that they were reading the subtitles because they liked the song, which was just as exciting. After the movie, the learners always ask to watch music videos. I only have a handful on my computer so we went through them pretty quickly. I decided to download more from itunes but I can only download them from 1 – 5 AM because that’s when we have free internet and downloading things takes a lot of megabytes. I stayed up one night to do it so I chose Rihanna’s new song “S&M” because they like Rihanna. I have been out of the loop with music and hadn’t heard it before. The video took three nights of waking to download it. I would set my alarm clock to 1 AM, turn the download on, go back to sleep, wake up at 5 AM to turn it off and go back to sleep. After three nights of downloading and finally seeing the video I can’t even show it to the learners because it is too inappropriate!

I never know what to expect to come out of the learners’ mouths. One day, one boy came in with a bandage on his hand. He made it a point to show me and I asked what happened. His response was, “A cat scratched me when I was castrating it.” Not a response you would expect coming from New York. I didn’t know what to do but laugh. The learners also have great things to say when I have them write sentence. One learner wrote that he impregnated a girl; another wrote that his mom shot his dad when she was drunk. Another learner wrote an essay about how he got drunk and went driving with his friends even though he was too young and got in an accident and his friend broke his ribs. Sometimes they use me in their sentences and will write how I gave them sweets or a new computer. Today, I had a learner write that I beat them if they are bad. 90% of the time they make this stuff up to get a rise out of me.

I like to tease them too. It’s easier than getting mad when they are disruptive. Today, one girl kept on turning around and talking to the two boys behind her. I told her about four times to stop talking and copy the notes. After the fifth time I went up to her and asked her if she was in love because I noticed that she couldn’t keep her eyes off the boys. The class started cracking up and she told me no, that she was going to beat them because they were teasing her. (They use beat for hit) I told her to just ignore them and, that, in America, when boys tease girls, it means they like them. I got another rise out of the class. Also, whenever the learners need your attention they snap their finger at you and say “Sir.” At first I was taken aback by them snapping their fingers at me but then I realized that this is how they do it here. Another thing that cracks the learners up is whenever they say “Sir,” I always respond “Sir” or “Mam.” This is unheard of here. At first, I was doing it to be sarcastic but now I do it just to make them laugh.

It is very weird but being here has made me really consider being a teacher. I know I have my goals and I will make sure I reach them but, I could see myself teaching in the meantime. I really like being in the classroom and I really like teaching 11^th and 12^th grade. I also really enjoy teaching English. Being an English teacher allows you to teach a lot, not just language and grammar but, history, theology, philosophy, social sciences, creativity and more. It’s definitely something that I will be thinking about when I get home.

I realized that I have yet to speak about my dog, Maggie. Bret and I have sort of adopted a village dog. Actually, it is more like she adopted us. Whenever we go into town she walks besides us and if another dog or animal comes near us she growls at it. She is very protective over us. Also, whenever I go running, she comes with me. She runs with me the entire way, its crazy. I feel bad. Sometimes I try and tell her to stay and wait for me because her breathing makes her sound like she is going to die but she refuses. The little kids still love to see me run. I had another girl run with me the entire way with no shoes on. I was so impressed. There are a bunch of little kids that live in houses outside the school gate and when I get close to the school they all try and race me. It is really funny.

Two weekends ago, myself, Bret, Hannah, and three other volunteers, Mary, Brett and Karen went to Okalongo to visit Bridget. We made Mexican food and it was delicious. Being here, we make everything from scratch, so we made tortillas which were, honestly, the closest thing I have had to the ones in Mexico. Everybody ate a lot and then had upset stomachs. It was kind of funny. We stayed up late playing drinking games and listening to music. We also got to explore her town which was really nice.

The next weekend was my birthday. Five of us were planning on going to Raucana falls (a waterfall in Namibia) but I ended up getting sick so Bridge and I stayed home. It ended up being a nice weekend, very relaxing. We watched twelve episodes of Modern Family and did a lot of reading. She got me a big coffee mug that I really wanted and a jump rope for my birthday.

We had heard that there was a Chinese restaurant in a town not too far away so we decided to go try it out that Saturday. The town is called Oshikongo and is on the Namibia-Angola border. When we arrived in town we got dropped off at this big gate that said “Dragon City.” The Chinese people have their own little city within this town. It was crazy. We couldn’t believe it. A huge gated in complex. There were markets and big factories where I guess their business are headquartered. We knew the Chinese were here but we didn’t know to this extent. When we found the restaurant we went inside and were once again in shock. A person visiting this restaurant could literally forget they are in Africa and assume that they were in China. It looked like the Chinese restaurants and the weirdest thing was, it smelled like China. It was very bazaar to take in. The only difference was the two waitresses were Namibian. They were really nice, though, and didn’t take any of the Chinese people’s crap. When one served us our rice, the Chinese lady wanted her to give us a spoon but she didn’t think we needed one. The Chinese lady insisted and pushed her away with the spoon. When she got to the table she took the spoon and put it down somewhere else right in front of the Chinese lady just so she got her way. It was really funny. In the end, though, the food was very good.

The Monday after my birthday I had to go into Oshakati to send a fax at the post office to the WorldTeach office in Windhoek. While I was there I went to a store called Game which is like their Walmart. I ended up buying myself a birthday present. I bought a set of weights: a barbell, two dumbbells and some plates. Of course when I spend a lot of money and say to myself that I won’t spend any more, I get home and realize I left my phone in the cab. I had to go all the way back to Oshakati the next day to buy a new phone and a new sim card. I had to go to five stores to find the cheapest phone (of course none of them were as cheap as the one I got in Windhoek). Finally, I found one that was only N$50 more than my other one (US$8). Not a big deal in the end.

I do have a weight lifting partner. One of my twelfth grade learners, Lee, was at the gate when I got dropped off with the weights. He was the only one there so I made him carry some of them back to my house (in Namibia, you make your learners carry everything). After he brought them to my house he asked if he could train. I said yes and he has come every weekday since.

This past weekend, Hannah and Bridget came to Omungwelume and we ate and relaxed. We made pizza on Friday and I made chicken rolls on Saturday. We make our own pizza dough here and it comes out really nice. On Friday we went to the Shabeen and stayed until closing. The Namibians get a kick out of us. They think it is hilarious when we take shots or “tots” in Namlish (Namibian English). One shot of Whisky is the equivalent of US$1.25. Not bad. (Don’t worry; we don’t take too many tots).

A typical weekday in the life of Bernie goes like this:

6:00 AM – wake up, eat breakfast (cereal, yogurt or a peanut butter sandwich), and brush my teeth

6:35 AM – leave for school

6:37 AM – arrive at school and go to the staff room (The school is directly outside my house. Refer to pictures on facebook)

6:40 AM – brief staff meeting (On Mondays there is prayer and announcements with the learners from 6:20- 6:40 and they sing the school song and national anthem)

7:00 – 10:00 AM – 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th periods (schedules change every day)

10:00 – 10:30 AM – break, I usually go back to the house and eat something (usually whatever I didn’t eat for breakfast)

10:30 – 12:45 PM – 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th periods

12:45 – 2:00 PM – lunch break, I usually go back to the house and eat something and maybe read or check email.

2:00 – 4:00 PM – the learners have afternoon study and the teachers sit in the staff room and do work, either lesson plan or mark papers/homework. On Wednesdays the learners have to clean the property during study so they usually are weeding part of the lawn.

4:00 AM – Lee comes over and we exercise

4:45 – 6:00 PM – check email, read, write

6:00 – 7:00 PM – cook and eat dinner, we usually take turns cooking and whoever doesn’t cook usually washes the dishes.

7:00 – 9:00 PM – shower, read, internet, watch tv shows on my computer

9:00 – 10:00 PM – read, go to bed (sometime within the hour)

I hope you are all enjoying the snow. Luckily, it has been pretty cool here the past couple of days. We have been having thunderstorms in the morning. It has been some of the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my life.

I miss you all and want to hear from you!

If you are interested:

Beers we drink here:

Windhoek Lager

Black Label

Tafel Lager

Castle/ Castle Light

Hunters

Savannah/Savannah Light

Wine: Tassleberg

Hard Stuff (Liquor):

Bell’s

Cool drinks (soda):

Coke

Coke Light

Sprite

Fanta

Fanta Pineapple

In Oshakati you can find Sprite Zero, Mountain Dew and more Fanta flavors

Books I have read here so far:

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Stranger by Albert Camus

Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone by James Baldwin

Currently reading: The Green House by Mario Vargas Llosa

Adjusting to Life in Namibia

So, let me just say that I have completely adjusted to cold showers. I just took one and I am able to dive right in. No pain, no shivers, it actually feels good at the end of the day.

The past two and a half weeks of teaching have been challenging yet rewarding. It will be a struggle to get my 11^th grade English learners to pass their exams but I promised them that we will do it. They are probably at a 6^th grade writing level. It is sad. I had to grade essays they wrote and they were miserable. I told them, though, that by the end of the year they will all be perfect writers. When I handed back their essays I gave them sweats so that they wouldn’t feel as bad when they looked at their grade.

Pronouncing my learners’ names has probably been the biggest challenge so far. Some have easy names like David or John, some have remixes to familiar names like Priskilla instead of Priscilla or Wilhelm instead of William, some have the same first and last name and others have names that you can try and pronounce but you will most likely struggle and have the entire class laugh at you when you try and pronounce it, for example: Ndapendoola.

Because the learners are so behind where they are supposed to be at and expected to be at by the Namibian government, you never know what they do or do not know. Today, they were reading about marriage in their text book and they had to answer a question about arranged marriage. I had them come to the bored and write the pros and cons of arranged marriage in two columns. A bunch of learners came to the board and wrote in each column. After a while, I noticed that what I expected to be in one column was in the other. I realized that I never explained to them what arranged marriage was. I assumed that they knew because it was in their textbook (made specifically for Namibian 11^th graders). Sure enough, when I asked them what it meant, they told me an arranged marriage is when two people arrange a marriage. After I told them what it really meant, they were all like ohhhhh... This may sound stupid, but I am going to have to be extra careful to make sure I explain each and every thing as clearly as possible.

As you know, I am teaching computers to seven 12^th grade classes. I still haven’t been able to figure out how to get the computers to work. There are about ten computers in the lab. One is an administrative computer and the rest are connected through a network. I have been able to get the administrator to work but none of the others. After two weeks of trying to figure it out, I finally asked for help and nobody knows how to fix them. When I asked what I should do, I was told to write a letter to my high school and ask them to send us computers. LOL. I think we are going to write a letter to the ministry of education and ask for some. A school nearby just got 20 new computers, why shouldn’t we?

On Saturday morning at around 9:00 AM I got a knock on my door. I was in bed so I pretended not to hear it. The knock continued so I looked out the window. It was two learners. After another minute, they started to knock on the window. Finally, I answered the door. They asked me what I was doing so I told them that I was sleeping. They looked at me like I had five eyes and said that it was nearly 11:30. Anyway, we ended up sitting on the porch for about 45 minutes listening to music and they asked me 101 questions.

Today, those same learners, along with several more, approached me after school and asked me to sign a list. When I asked them what it was for they told me that I was on their soccer time. I felt like somehow I was signing my life away but I did it and we have practice on Friday.

Also, after school today, two girls asked me if they could play games on the one working computer. I said yes so I sat in the lab with them. While I was in the lab, two more learners came in and asked me if I could help them with their record label. They were Kwaito rappers and they wanted to show me their tracks so that I could tell them if they were good or not. They were actually pretty good but I didn’t understand a word they said so they are going to write the lyrics in a book for me. They also told me that I have to help them find a sponsor and some musicians so that they can get a record label. This was my second new commitment in like 20 minutes.

After they left, some more kids asked me to teach them French so I taught them the basics. In return, they taught me some Oshakwayama.

I decided to finally go for a run this afternoon. It was the best decision I could have made. It was such a nice run with such amazing surroundings. The sky is always great to look at and the people working in the fields and the grazing cattle add to the pleasure of the run. Whenever you walk in town it is a requirement to say hello to every single person. The same stands when you are running. I was stopped by people of all ages and asked how I was and if I was exercising. Eventually, I learned how to have an entire conversation without losing my pace. After about 1/5 of my run, two girls stopped me who were walking home from school. Their names were Launa and Wilma and they were in 9^th grade at Omungwelume Secondary School, the school that my housemate, Bret, works at. He is actually their Life Skills teacher. They asked me if I was exercising and then decided to join me. They ran (in flip flops) the entire way until I turned around. It was nice to have two people to talk to. They asked me a bunch of questions and when we passed people they would be asked what they were talking to me about. I was amazed that they were able to keep up but I guess when you walk so far to and from school everyday you would be in pretty good shape.

This weekend was really nice. On Friday, after school, the learners asked me if we could watch a scary movie. I brought my computer to a classroom and we watched the Ring. I don’t think many of them understood what was going on but most of them lasted through the entire movie.

When I got home, Bret asked me if I wanted to walk into town and check out the local shabeens (bars). We went to the first shabeen and got a drink with two of Bret’s colleagues. They ended up buying us a couple of rounds. Bridget met us there and we stayed there for a while until we went to the next shabeen where we were able to get some fish and chips. The fish was a full fried fish and the chips were seasoned with spices and white vinegar. It was really good. People ended up following us to the next shabeen and we were there much later than we expected. The owner bought us a round in thanks for supporting his business. We also had conversations with some elders in Oshakwayama. I made friends with the village drug addict. He would come up to me and ask me my name and then just start laughing at me. He was smoking pure newspaper. The other people told us that he was the local crazy person but that he was harmless.

On Saturday, the three of us went to Ogongo to visit Hannah, another volunteer. Her village is extremely rural and in the middle of nowhere. We took a walk and her area is beautiful. We watched the sun set over this big open field. We got to see a lot of donkeys. I don’t know if anybody has been graced with the presence of a donkey but they make the most ridiculous noises you can imagine. Out of nowhere, they just start crying/screaming for about a minute. It is the most bazaar animal sound I have ever heard. Our stay was nice. We played games and had good food. Hannah made brownies from scratch which was a nice treat.

I know I wrote a lot, but I had to catch up on the past week. I hope everybody is enjoying the snow at home and I would love to hear from you!

A few things from this weekend

I know my last blog post was not too long ago but I wanted to share this weekend with you and I know that if I wait until the end of the week I will probably forget most of it.

1. My mailing address is:

Private Bag 5528

Oshakati, Namibia

2. Yesterday was really nice. A few volunteers met up in a nearby city and had lunch and did some grocery shopping. After, Bridget and another volunteer, Hannah, came back to Omungwelume with me and Bret. We boiled sausages in beer and made sandwiches with them, sauerkraut and onions. We also had baked beans and corn. We drank wine and listened to music. It was really nice. After dinner we took a walk in the cemetery which is right outside the school gate. The weather was nice and there were not many bugs out. When it got completely dark, we sat under the stars and were amazed at how many there were and how bright they are.

3. This morning, Bridge and I were sitting outside and all of the sudden we heard MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and a cow came running down the street. She was frazzled; we think she was lost. It was really funny. She looked like she needed to be milked too.

4. This entire week has been cool with a lot of rain. Our house has been infested with bugs and we finally got some bug powder yesterday which actually worked. There was no rain last night and today it is really hot. We probably should not have been out in the sun this morning because we are all exhausted by the heat. We think Bridget has sun poisoning because she was throwing up earlier. (She is ok. Nothing to worry about). She is going to spend another night here and go back to her village tomorrow.

5. Sometimes we feel lost without our cell phone or internet access. Well today, we haven’t had water. I was told that occasionally the village doesn’t have water but I always overlooked how annoying that would be. It is extremely hot; a cold shower would be nice; we can’t wash any dishes, do laundry, clean up or flush the toilet. Hopefully we will get it back tonight so we can shower and clean up before we start the school week.

I am probably going to spend the rest of the day relaxing, reading and lesson planning. School starts at 6:25 tomorrow for Monday assembly/prayer service. I can’t wait to here the learners sing the school song and national anthem; it is really amazing when they do.

I survived the first week!

I survived my first week of teaching and have begun adjusting to a new lifestyle. Despite being unorganized and having a bumpy start to the school year, Eengedjo Secondary School is a good school. Last year, the school had a 92% passing rate for 10th grade standardized tests. These tests determine a learner’s advancement to 11th grade. The country’s average passing rate is between 40 – 50%. With this statistic, Eengedjo is ranked #27 in the country and #2 in the region. This is a big accomplishment; the school is working to pass 100% of its students this year.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the staff worked to create a time table, distribute books and place the learners into classes. Even with all of this work to do, many teachers just sat around and watched soap operas in the staff room.

Eengedjo is a hostel school. 400/700 learners live on the campus in dormitories. The learners have to remain on their best behavior because, if they do not, they have to forfeit their place in the hostel. Such a strict code of conduct is caused by the high demand for space in the hostel. Literally, the consequence for almost every broken rule is loosing your place in the hostel. Already, there has been a learner kicked out for being drunk.

I was introduced to my two English classes on Tuesday and, on Wednesday, I visited their classrooms and played some get to know you games so that we could get straight to lessons when we were finally given a time table. I forgot to mention that even though there was no time table Monday through Wednesday, the learners still had to sit in their classrooms all day with no teacher and nothing to do.

Finally, on Thursday, the time table was complete and I was given two English 11 classes and all seven 12th grade computer classes (only 12th graders take computer; just about none of my students have ever used a computer before). The school runs on a 7 day schedule. Each class meets twice for computers within those seven days. 11th and 12th grade English classes meet for ten periods within the seven days; therefore, the learners are scheduled for English twice a day three times out of the seven.

The schedule looks like this (As you will see, there is no time allotted for switching classes) :

Period 1: 7:00-7:45 AM
Period 2: 7:45-8:30 AM
Period 3: 8:30-9:15 AM
Period 4: 9:15-10:00 AM
Tea Break: 10:00-10:30 AM
Period 5: 10:30-11:15 AM
Period 6: 11:15 – 12:00 PM
Period 7: 12:00 – 12:45 PM
Only on Day 7: Period 8: 12:45 – 1:30 PM (Luckily, I don’t have a class that period)

On Mondays, school starts at 6:25 AM for a weekly prayer service.
On Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, the learners have a study period from 2:00 – 4:00 PM. At this time, the teachers either stay in the staff room and do lesson planning/marking or they monitor the study hall. Even though this is required of the teachers, many of them just go home. The learners who stay at the hostel also have a study period at night.
On Wednesday and Friday afternoons, the teachers have off. Wednesday is cleaning day and the learners are given tasks to do around the campus. This week, they had to cut the grass in front of the school.
They eat breakfast at 10 AM during their tea break. They have lunch at 12:50 PM and dinner at 5:30 PM.

Omungwelume is considered a village/small town. There are two “bigger” mini-markets, a few churches and barber shops, a primary school, a junior secondary school and my school. Also, there are several shabeens (informal bars). These are the center of attention in the village, especially when there is not much else to do. One of our WorldTeach rules is that we are not aloud to get in a cab once it is dark out because of the serious drunk driving problem here in Namibia.

Omungwelume is located on a paved road that takes you to Oshakati, the largest city in the region (about 27 kilometers away). On Wednesday, my roommate, Bret, and I went to Oshakati to get a few groceries. In order to get around in Namibia, one must hitch rides. We walked to the main road and hitched a ride with two other people. Once in Oshakati, one has to get another taxi to whatever destination. Coming home from Oshakati, one has to take a cab to “Apollo 11” where, then, one would find a ride to his/her respective village. Our experience was interesting and lived up to what we heard from previous volunteers. When we got to Apollo 11, without the taxi even stopping, a stampede of drivers came rushing at us. One person opened our door, took our groceries and put them in his taxi so that we would have to ride with him. After we followed him to his cab, all of the other drivers came and tried to convince us to go with them. Our driver told us that we had to wait until two more people came for a ride so that he could fill his cab. After THREE more people smushed into the cab, we took off for Omungwelume.

I have adapted to an after school routine. I usually have a snack, write my emails, do some exercise (I still haven’t gone running yet because people don’t run here. I have to prepare for all the staring that will come my way). When Bret comes home, we make dinner and then I watch tv shows on my computer. Bed time has found itself at around 9:30 – 10.

Tomorrow, we are meeting a couple of volunteers in Oshakati for shopping/lunch and then they are coming to Omungwelume for the night. We should have fun.

I hope everything is great at home and would love to hear from you!

The beginning of an adventure

I arrived yesterday in Omungwelume, where I will be living for the next year. The drive took about 8 hours from Windhoek and when we arrived, my housemate, Bret, and I were greeted by our principles. We are living at my school in teacher housing. Bret’s school is about a 10 minute walk from our house. My principle, Mr. Johannes, gave me a tour of the school. When you enter the gate a security booth is on the left, our house is on the right (a short walk) and the administrative building is directly ahead. Beyond the administrative building are 2 rows of classrooms, each row having 3 buildings with 3 classrooms in each building. To the left of the classrooms is the technology and design building and beyond that are the school garden and its pig farm. Beyond the classrooms is the cafeteria and assembly hall and to the right are the hostels (the dorms for the learners). To the right of the classrooms is more teacher housing.

After the tour, Bret and I settled into our new home. The house is a good size with beds, dressers, table and chairs, a bathroom, kitchen and a living room (with no furniture). Unfortunately, though, it was extremely dirty and we spent the entire night cleaning and sanitizing and will be finishing tonight. I think I could have swept out my garage, back patio and front walkway at home and have accumulated less dirt than we did last night.

This morning I had to wake up at 5:45 to be at school for morning assembly at 6:25. The assembly lasted about three hours (1/3 of which was a religious ceremony conducted in Oshikwayama). After the assembly the teachers just sat in the staff room for the remainder of the school day while the administration put class lists together. This wasn’t so bad because we were warned during training that the Namibian schools are very unorganized and that we probably wouldn’t get much accomplished during the first week of school. At about 1 pm, one of the teachers took me into Oshikati (the larger town in my region) so that I could get my tax ID number so that I can get paid.

With a lot of time to think today my mind was going everywhere. At points I was homesick and wondering what the heck I was doing here while other times I was really excited for the year ahead. I think God heard my doubts and knew that I needed something to make my day because guess who was in Oshakati doing the same exact thing without me knowing: Bridget! That was a fantastic surprise that we both appreciated very much.

I am currently waiting for Bret to arrive home from school, so I decided to make sauce. I found canned tomatoes but they aren’t as good as at home. The entire sauce making process/dirty counters is making me homesick; I guess I’ll just have to look forward to December.

Going back to last week, the Safari at Etosha was awesome. We saw zebras (In Namibia, the e is pronounced as it is in “bed”), giraffes, springboks, wildebeests, jackals, muskrats, a lion and an elephant. We got to witness a springbok give birth which was really interesting. My favorite was seeing the lone elephant standing in the middle of a gigantic open field.

On Monday, we went back to Windhoek for our last week of training. We ate some good food and had a lot of bonding time. It was really nice to get to know the other volunteers because now we have a big support system for the rest of the year.

On Tuesday, we were given a tour of Windhoek’s neighborhoods so that we could witness the disparities between the rich and the poor. Regardless of economic situation there was much more life in the poorer neighborhoods. We went to a couple of markets and spoke to the local people.

Throughout the week we had language lessons and on Thursday, the field directors’ husbands and my language teacher prepared a traditional Namibian dinner. It consisted of two porridges, chicken and a couple different sauces to eat with the porridge. Two spinach sauces, a tomato sauce with onions and peppers and a bean sauce.

Friday night, we were treated to a really nice “African Fusion” dinner where I had a fish with coconut sauce and rice. It was very good and worth the long time it took to be prepared.

We spent Saturday doing last minute shopping and all hung out because it was our last night together.

In Namibia!

I finally arrived in Namibia on January 2^nd after missing my first flight due to the weather in New York. Although I missed a few days of orientation and getting to know the other volunteers, I adjusted quickly and it feels like I have been here for weeks.

All of my flights went smoothly. I traveled from Newburgh to Detroit to Washington D.C. to Senegal to South Africa to Namibia. Traveling was long and tiresome but on my last flight from Johannesburg to Windhoek, I was blessed with a grand finale of beautiful weather and an inspiring presentation of clouds, like nothing I have ever seen before. Looking out the window and ignoring everything inside the plane I felt as if I was floating in an imaginary dreamland. The transition from day to night caused further astonishment. By the time I landed in Windhoek, outside was completely black, different from landing in a city like New York where you can see the bright city lights. Descending into Windhoek was like being on an amusement park ride where you are moving but can not see where you are going or anything around you. Of course, the trip couldn’t be perfect. My luggage stayed in Johannesburg while I left for Windhoek. I received my luggage two days later and, with Johannesburg being notorious for theft, my running sneakers and bed sheets were missing. I got over this quickly after acknowledging that there are more important things to focus on.

I stayed in Windhoek for one night and the next morning we left for our teaching practicum in Tsumeb. I was amazed at the wildlife I saw on the road. We had to stop several times for passing baboon-like monkeys and other “exotic” animals.

The hostel that we have been at this week is very nice with beautiful trees and landscaping. There is a swimming pool that we have used several times, a common room, a kitchen and a place to buy beer and soft drinks 24/7. This is all in an outside courtyard that is surrounded by all of the bedrooms. Our schedule this week has been: preparing lessons 9-10 AM, teaching 10AM-12PM, lunch/break 12-1:30PM, a debrief session 1:30-2:30, training sessions 2:30-5, and after 5, one group prepares dinner while everybody else does whatever (swims, plays cards, explores the town...). So far we have had Chicken Parm, bobotie (A South African dish that our group made), hamburgers and baked mac and cheese, prepare your own baked potato, and chili with cornbread. Tomorrow night we are having a braai which is a Namibian bbq. Yesterday, I went running during my break and got to explore the town. After dinner we have been doing something called “spotlight” where we all come together and each person speaks about his/herself. Usually 2-3 people go each night and it usually lasts for about an hour. I am going tonight. Last night, we stayed up late playing cards. We all stayed up late because we were free this morning and from 1-4AM we have access to free internet.

With the morning free today, Bridge and I decided to take a walk to visit the local cemetery. It was neat to see their way of Christian burial. After, we went swimming and I got sunburn. Tomorrow we are leaving at 6AM for Etosha, a national game reserve.

I hope everything is well with everybody and I would love to hear from you!

I will try and put pictures up next week