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