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.
