Summer Fun in the Cape!

We've been traveling through Namibia & South Africa for just over a week now and are having an amazing time whilst eating summer fruit (peaches, watermelon, plums, corn)...and we've just entered the Western Cape and are seeing something we haven't in a long time...green! It's amazing and today, after a year hiatus, we hope to see the ocean. So cool!

Leaving the village was sad as so many kids came by and were obviously upset that this was it as we had been their playmates for the last year. We gave away some of our stuff & clothes and decks of cards and harmonica lessons were taught successfully by Eve and were a hit!

Then off to Etosha where we saw the most spectacular lightning ever as well as Leopard, a lion family with cubs & kill and many new creatures for us (Cape Fox, etc.)

Then off to our favourite mountain Spitzkoppe, through Windhoek and down through the desert. Yesterday we had a day of hiking in the Cedarburg Mountains which was great after some long days. Tonight fish & the sea, tomorrow Cape Town!

Looking forward to seeing and hearing from many of you...we'll be home the 22nd and there are plans for a few gatherings. Looking forward to Double Chocolate Porter, Tofu, black beans, mexican food and some beautiful cold weather!

The Learning Centre

Thanks to your support through your donations, the tireless work of a few teachers at my school, and speedy reimbursement & communication with WorldTeach, the learning centre at Omugwelume J.S.S is up and running and looks terrific! Even as our school year closes I’ve had learners in there every day trying it out and they love it!

The funds flew in during October and once I was sure that this was going to happen, we started cleaning out the room. I found the electricity in working order, but the room ugly, with a large termite hole in one corner. So drywall patching equipment was bought, and paint & termite killer to start us off.

Next was a journey to the local big city of Oshakati with my principal and Mr. Haindobo, who fortunately happens to be a part-time builder in addition to his teaching job. We bought many items for the infrastructure of the centre: boards & cement supports for shelves, a large metal security door, benches, etc. Once those were installed, we brought in spare metal tables & we were ready to begin with the audio equipment.

Now we have 4 CD players, some which play MP3s and some with Cassette players. We added security cables to keep them from being stolen, a lockbox to store all the items. I added a few beauty items like curtains (also for security) and tablecloths. Now in our cupboard we have more than 100 CD’s and cassettes and capacity for 13 headsets & splitters to be used. The kids have been in it and have listened to short stories, novels & music for hours at a time. I am so happy, and glad that John & Eve (Chris’ family) could bring over so much of your donations when they came to visit us.

I ended the year with a teacher training for all teachers interested and had a fun scavenger hunt of the room to learn about it. They had a fun time even though they originally thought they were too busy with marking. And I’ve created a schedule & system and put some teachers and learners in charge of it so that it will run next year.

Looking Forward, Looking Back

"From the day we arrived on this planet,
And blinking steppped into the sun
There's more to see, than can ever be seen
More to do than can ever be done.

There's far to much to take in here,
More to find than can ever be found.
But the sun rollin' high, in the sapphire sky
It's way too small, on the endless bound" --Elton John (The Lion King)

I can't describe how it feels these days, and perhaps the lion king can do it best with the description of the red African sunset like outside our home each night that seems to be counting down the days. The feeling that we're almost done, and that its been a terrific journey is certainly there. We can't do everything that can be done here and although I can see ways that I could continue to make a huge difference here, more than I could in many ways than at home, what we've managed to accomplish this year is, I think, as much as we could have. I've put in place some programs that will enhance the learning experiences at my school after I'm gone, have sided with the administration when it was clear we needed to crack down ondiscipline of teachers and learners, and confronted him when it was clear his own behavior was unhealthy for the school. I've created a sustainable library program that will now run for the next 2 years without much effort from the teachers. And I've shown a few hundred learners and my fellow teachers some extremely different teaching methods to what they are used to. Now its up to my fellow Namibians to use what they find the most beneficial, and to improve their country's education system.

My school's learning centre is almost complete except for a few items that John and Eve will be bringing in just over a week. It looks amazing and I hope to have pics up here before I go. Thank you everyone. I even had extra money to purchase a dvd player, so now my school can show educational programs....when the power is on, of course!

We're marking exams and invigilating...and that consumes most of our time these days. I find myself trying to plan for what's next and counting down. Here are the countdowns:

-30 days left in Africa
-9 school days left
-9 days until John and Eve arrive in Omungwelume

It's really unbelievable!

This week was marked by being a complete reversal of my experience at Omungwelume JSS this term. Leaving me at the end of term feeling like I've really made a difference, that I'm going to be missed, that I'm still creating changes and I'll leave something positive long after I'm gone.
As other teachers stop teaching or do tests, and too much review, I've been still actively engaging my classes. Now that teachers are being cajoled into the classrooms, the discipline problems are much reduced. So I tried something a little different. We learned about renewable energy in Geography so we built and cooked on solar ovens. This may sound simple, but it blew their minds that the sun could cook food (albeit slowly). The idea of doing it cheaply is cool too and now most of my learners are vying to "win" the solar ovens in a draw next week. We cooked porridge (in Owambo, porridge or Oshifiima is made of mahangu or maize)...this "Jungle Oat" porridge they think is hilarious--- the Oshiloombu "white person's" porridge. So even though it only half cooked they fought like wolfhounds over ever last morsal...(of course they're not all fully nourished so they'd eat anything...even chalk). We heated up our solar shower and they thought that was amazing too...the whole school was flocking to see this "phenomenon". One learner put it real nice... "Oh, miss, you are so knowledgeable...you bring us new ideas, new technology!" I'd love work on a project how solar could be better utilized cheaply in places with ample sun....it really just seems so logical. Sounds like a masters maybe? :) Hahahaha....
Today was the last Friday of class so I held a library "party". All my library helpers came and all I had to do was announce it and feed them a cookie and some juice, let them listen to music for a few hours and they worked worked worked. Our library is well-labeled, ship shape and ready for next year. Together, Chris and I found two of his book-aholics going into Grade 12 at his school to run my library next year in case there is no volunteer or super-human teacher to run it and teach a full load. So they have been coming and training with me. I'm pretty proud about that. Sustainability of these things is key. So we had an amazing time hanging out with my favourite learners. I miss them already and will remember today forever.
Whilst that was going on, I was feeding Mr. Haindobo while he laboured on my new Learning Listening Centre room. He's patched the hole and today he scraped and painted it a light blue, and fixed the door handle. We're well on our way now. Once the shelves are up I'll be home free. Hooray! I don't think I'll ever be able to this easily feel like superwoman with such simple ideas. It's fantastic!
Oh, one more day highlight...teaching my 8D's the double meaning of "ass" and how to insult each other. I'm not sure which one they think is ruder...being called a bum or a donkey? There's about equal numbers of both here so its a real toss up...donkeys can be real dumb. Thanks Helen for a great story from Brothers Grimm which kicked this discussion off! :)))))

From Hell to Hope

Two weeks ago I had one of the most difficult weeks of my life...and certainly the most difficult school-days ever. Those who have read my previous blog may have noticed that my term was spirally down a difficult and frightening path. It got a lot worse, in ways that I hope even my fellow Canadian teachers will never experience. From October 19-23 two events plagued my week: public displays of corporal punishment and mass hysteria.

Corporal punishment in Namibia is illegal but until independence was the encouraged method of discipline so its still around to varying degrees at most schools (although it seems Chris' school has completely done away with it). It exists through a few teachers at my school and usually manifests itself when teachers get angry from blatant disrespect by learners or mass-bad behavior (when most of a class starts running around and fighting, which is a regular part of my day these days). I've intervened a few times which is frightening but so many things are surprising and new here that I accept that as one of my jobs. However, on Monday I witnessed learners being forced to beat each other so that my school could get around the corporal punishment law (a learner a few weeks ago went to the police about it). Something inside me just snapped and I realized that I had to confront the principal. I developed over the rest of the week an action plan and I'm happy to say I think, due to the positive efforts of my principal, it's going to work. Anyway, that way my Monday.

Wednesday my week went from awful to what I refer to as "Hell on Earth". My school came down with a disease that Chris' school contracted last term which we call "The Eengedjo Disease" (after the school's name) and can only be best understood as being Mass Hysteria. Mass hysteria is when physical changes occur to someone that appear to have a physical cause yet no known cause can be found. I'm stil finding this hard to wrap my head around as it really seems like an illness. Our disease manifests itself only in girls, usually, but not exclusively the hard-working ones, and is a nervous tick in the head, a violent jerking of an arm or leg or a twitching of the whole body. On Monday, one of my best, most favorite learners came down with it really bad to the point that she had to be restrained and was hallucinating saying she was being attached (think schitsophrenia symptoms). I held her between blocks while she fought us and cried and we could do nothing for her except try to keep her calm and warm. This is a girl who gets top marks in school, who is a fantastic in the classroom and who I have rational conversations with all the time so it was extremely difficult to watch her go through this. The administration wouldn't take her home-- a parent had to be found and both her parents are ill and one's deaf and were very difficult to reach.

The end result is that eventually the whole school saw this and pandemonium broke out. Bored, deprived village learners keen on seeing something interesting gawked, left class or ran and screamed...which added pressure and fear to more learners. By break more than 10 girls had the disease and by the end of the day more than 20. Some went home, and some stayed it out as technically mental illness in Namibia is not deemed an illness and learners are not to be excused...which is bullshit and didn't help with my already spiralling day. We were supposed to continue teaching, which I did, as I figured trying to normalize the classroom for my learners was the best way to prevent further outbreaks. But let me tell you it wasn't easy. I cannot remember ever feeling so emmotionally drained and being so tense as when I came home that day.

Fortunately, after a weekend with my fellow WorldTeach volunteers at our end of service conference I came back energized and to a school that had basically returned to normal. Most of my learners seem completely fine this week...a few are still suffering minorly and can be set off, but the school is dealing with the problem. I confronted my principal about teacher absenses, lateness to school and class, lack of a good discipline plan in the school and corporal punishment and this week I have seen him taking on teachers who are late or absent, heard his words of encouragement at a staff meeting, and seen him working on the learners to behave in a non-violent way. All encouraging signs as well as him carrying around the documents on corporal punishment that I distributed to him. I want my school to take it a little further than than, but for now its a promising start. What a week, what a month!

Still learning more than I thought possible and with only 5 weeks left to go! This week's task: patching a termite hole and building shelves for my learning centre. Wish me luck!!

3rd Term Madness!

Yesterday was the prime example of how orderly schooling can descend into chaos. Third term is generally viewed as a "free" term, where academics aren't as important, you can be lazier and generally its to hot to teach or learn. This strikes us as odd as it culminates in final exams which can be anywhere from 50% to 100% of the learner's grade. Why not stop learning and teaching and erupt into general chaos?

Fridays are the worst because after a week of half-assed learning, you need a break, and that break might as well start on Friday at block 3 of 8. There also seems to be a large number of non-promotionals (art, lifeskills, PE classes, etc.) on this day which most teachers have not taught all year (because they don't need to give the learners a mark). Those of us teaching fridays 3rd term, therefore, get a little taste of hell. I teach 7 classes out of 8 this day, making it my busiest.

This Friday 2 blocks went fine. Then in the third, after going over the instructions I had an open fistfight between 3 boys (all speaking in Oshikwanyama...so who's at fault? who knows). Then one boy openly defied my instructions, refused to give me back my print out when I told him he was to get zero, and in the end was suspended.
I walk out of this class to see my school having an early break (we have break after 4th period)...2 teachers out of 13 classes are teaching that I can see. I march around trying to get learners in their class while dragging my suspension boy with me....where are the teachers? I bounce into the principals office and warn him that chaos is erupting. 10 minutes later a fight breaks out on the school ground and the entire school evacuates their classes to watch. Um, did I call that?

Things settle down for a bit but end with my best class trying to fight me to leave. They were being noisy so I insisted we had to stay until they were quiet and had heard the comments from their peers. 20 minutes later we were still their and kids were still yelling and refusing to be quiet. There is definitely more of a "get up and fight authority" atmosphere here than a reason and follow instruction. Part of the rebellion side has served them well...it helped end the apartheid teachings in South Africa. But, there needs to be some reasoning on when to fight and when to submit. An interesting but frustrating cultural experience.
Anyway, I am enjoying most things about teaching, but I'm counting the number of Friday's I have left to teach....2!

The Ondangwa 10K

This morning we ran in the Ondangwa 5km/10km Fun Race sponsored by Beaver Canoe Canada (that's actually an exclusive clothing store in Namibia!). There were several hundred people running, most of them school children running the 5km fun run. Many of these kids, having no idea how far 5km was, sprinted the first 200 metres and then slowed to a walk for the rest of the race. The race was free for them and they got a free hat, T-shirt, and a coke. They were thrilled.

In the 10km race, there were only about 20 of us. They ranged from dedicated athletes to teenage boys in good shape to two white foreigners (that would be us). The elite athletes sprinted off ahead of us and probably would compete very well in the TC 10K at home. One of the girls had no shoes and still finished in under 40 minutes. Chloe and I plodded along near the back. We passed a few people near the end but they then disappeared and did not finish the race, so we continued to pull up the rear. However, I now have my souvenir T-shirt from a race that cost less than 1 Canadian dollar.

We talked to the race coordinator afterwards and told him we were from Canada. He mentioned that he went to Victoria for the Commonwealth Games in 1994. It was the first time that Namibia competed as a nation. Cool!

Help Namibian Youth-Support my 'Learning Centre Project'

I've really been enjoying my year of teaching. It's brought a lot of challenges, but more rewards than I can count. The teenagers at my school, Omungwelume Junior Secondary, may be culturally different but their hearts are essentially the same as teenagers at home--they are struggling to be noticed, to learn about the world around them and to remove themselves from poverty. You get the trouble-makers but you also get those students who you fall in love with and want to everything you can for them.

This is why I hope to create a small Learning Centre at my school-- with a few CD players and short stories on tape, encyclopoedias, dictionaries and other research material so students can actually do projects and practicing hearing proper English. Right now we have a small library, loaded with books which has been a huge hit this year, but is severely overcrowded (its the size of an overgrown closet). So I hope to move things around and create two learning spaces that teachers and students can use. I want a centre where teachers can bring in their learners to practice English, research a project or look up a word (we only have 5 dictionaries currently for the whole school).

A few good reasons for doing this:

-For Ndahafa (first photo), who after reading with me Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" found every hidden Dahl book in the library, and has moved through "James and the Giant Peach" and is on to "The BFG". When asked how "James" was she exclaimed, "Oh much nicer than Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"

-For Johannes (second photo, front left), who is child #13 in his family (the "last born") but who listens to everything I say and just absorbs it. I often find him secretly cleaning the library when I'm not around.
-For Toivo,(3rd photo,holding map on right) a grade 8 learner of brilliance, who really could be a doctor/lawyer/engineer, but who has such little access to things that challenge his mind (ie. no research books, computers, internet) that he is usually bored with school and displays that by acting up. He is also living in a child-headed family.

If you think these are reasons enough or want to learn more, please email me (chloe_faught@yahoo.ca) and cc Charis Faught (charis.faught@gmail.com) (I do not have regular email access) and we'll send you more information about the project and how you can donate online or by cheque through my organization World Teach--tax deductable. All monetary donations (preferred) must complete the "Donor Designation Form" that we will send you. Materials like posters and stories on CD can also be sent, if done soon. Email for mailing details.
Thank you for being such supportive friends and family this year!

Chloe & Chris

Games

Term 3 is in full swing and the computer lab has become incredibly popular afterschool. In particular, kids are using Wikipedia (we have a version downloaded on our server because we don't have internet access) and playing Othello. Since I showed them how to play Othello (aka Reversi or Lagno), many kids have become obsessed. They needed something more challenging than Connect Four and some of them are getting quite good. I remain undefeated so far but several games have been close.

When the tables are turned, however, the results are not so good for me. I've learned how to play Namibian chess with my grade 11s. My record in that game is equally perfect since I have lost every game so far.

What better way to share culture than with games (especially for me!)

Another Kick-Ass Vacation: The Fish River Canyon & other Adventures

We're back in school starting our third and final term of the Namibian school year. But just before we launched into this term we had a 12 day holiday.
Our main mission: to hike the steep, wide & adventure-loaded Fish River Canyon from the Hobas viewpoint until Ais-Ais Hot Springs, a mere 85km as the river flows. All in 4 nights, 5 days. Recommended by a teacher at Stelly's (thank you Kevin Smyth!) before we left, it was a goal we have had in mind since we decided to come to Namibia.

Our first adventure occured before we hit the canyon. After driving for 2 days (we live near Angola, the canyon is very close to Namibia's South African border) our car wheel started making a terrible noise. I correctly ID'd it as a busted wheel bearing, a common problem of bicycle wheels. Fortunately, we were just outside Keetmanshoop, which houses the most petrol stations per capita and we found a mechanic. One wheel axle and a night in Keetmanshoop Caravan Park & we managed to make it to the canyon...only about 5 or so hours behind schedule.
The trail starts at the most majestic part of the canyon--long U-bends and steep steep cliffs (see photos). The first few kilometres involve basically climbing down the cliff-side using metal chains and all 4 limbs. Your packs are fully loaded at this point too so after a few hundred metres of vertical decending your legs are pretty quakey. Luckily the descent only lasts about 1h 45min and then you're on "flat" canyon floor.

Once we got to the bottom, we only did a few kilometres of hiking before we set up camp, as we were told that due to our youth we would probably make it to our second day destination (about 15km) down the river, by maybe noon. WRONG!!!! Day 2 was a LONG slow day. The first 7-8km were slow trudges along steep cliffsides, hopping large rocks, with some boulder & sand trudging for good measure. And boy that sun is hot at mid-day. At one point we chose the "wrong" side of the river and had some pretty angled walking to do and had to take off our packs and pass them at a few locations. Eventually that fun stuff ended and our last few kilometres went quickly. We made it to the Palms & Hotsprings of "Palm Springs" just as I was about to give up & set up camp rather than hop another boulder field. We spent the evening limping around camp and trying to enjoy the way too hot hotsprings.

Day 3 the terrain became "easier" and we increased our daily speed to about 25km. What easier means is that you no longer have to scramble or climb but find the terrain starts to follow a familiar pattern....Deep Sand Walking for 2km, Rock/dirt walking for 2-3km, then 1-3km of large boulder hopping, then repeat. The dirt walking allows you to forget momentarily how awful you felt hopping boulders or trudging in the sand. This day allowed us to look up a little more and we saw many new creatures-- really awesome scorpions, baboons galore, klipspringer (cliff jumping antelope),wild horses and Chris even spied a rare Cape River Otter. The end of the day ended with what the map called "the boulder field"--which terrified me as I thought we'd already passed about 10 of these already, none which got a title on the map. Yup, another couple kms of boulder hopping...not as bad as imagined, but enough to make me force the group to call it quits for the night.

Nights on the trail were all that you hoped for--warm winds, wandering animals, star & moon-filled skies and lots of silence. We were lucky to have water the whole way (sometimes the river is dry at the end) and we treated the water the same you would at home--except we doubled the dosage of chlorine drops. Southern Namibia is fortunate to not have as many of the scary water-borne diseases that tropical Africa has, so we took advantage of this.

Day 4--Lots of hiking just like day 3 except we got to do 2 short cuts to save time and distance. Took a short visit to Von Trotha's grave where he died while fighting the Nama with the Afrikaaners around the turn of the century (or fighting them off their land basically). Another nice night with more baboons and howling jackals and then a quick 18km and we were at Ais Ais--which is a just redeveloped hotspring resort. So we ended up camping in paradise and had a luxurious dinner out and spend a few hours in their hotspring pools. Not a bad way to end a hike, eh?

The rest of our vacation was spent meandering our way up north. It included some time in Windhoek to buy some luxury foods (ex. tortillas & sprouts), a night at our favourite mountain, Spitzkoppe, a visit with a friend, a petrified forest & the San rock engravings at Twyflefontein (which are awesome!) and some cheetah petting time. Our last night camping was in Damaraland in which we had the Planet Earth "desert elephant" walk into our campground as we were checking in. Awesome! We also had to evacuate to the car in the middle of the night as I awoke to the trees nearby being torn down... in the morning we had elephant footprints about 6m from our tent. Cool.

I must admit, it seems pretty easy in Africa to have a really kick-ass vacation! For more photos of our trip go to our flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/31870881@N06/

Ending on a high

Term 2 is over and it is with optimism that Chris & I head off on our hiking adventure and two week holiday before Term 3 begins. There are some things to be positive about:

-We successfully raised our puppies and have sent them off into their new lives.

-Namibia is desert and while everything else is dying, it is also blooming. It is dry but smells wonderful because the trees have decided to give it a go as the temperatures start to climb and have attracted us, birds and bees to the area. It's lovely.

-Exam results are finished and I optimistically look at my learner's grades and think--"You know, I think they are improving" which is an encouraging thought.

-I had two very cute learners who when asked to write about "the most important person in their life" wrote about me. Sure, maybe its sucking up a bit, but it is always nice to see yourself praised on paper with things like, "Even though she is of white complexion, she likes black people" :), and "if there is a problem, I ask Ms. Faught and she always solves it quickly".

We are happy and healthy, and we hope you are too! Off we go to September!

In Memory of Bingo Cowpie Name-o, 2008-2009

You can't help but notice that this term has, outide of our school life, been dominated by the joys, triumphs and tragedies of our dogs. It was only 2 weeks ago that we were amazingly stating, "Do you realize we have 8 dogs!" And now with Diablo, the last of our puppies, gone, we are sadly down to one.

And with that we relate with sadness how a vibrant, bad-ass and precocious young dog met his end. Even now, it seems unbelievable that he will no longer chase cars while I run, no longer bring his smelly head against our laps. I sometimes still think I hear his bark at night but I know it is just one of his dog-relatives. Poor Bingo who was jealous of the pups, fell ill for unknown reasons and stopped eating. Then, 2 days later he simply disappeared....off to meet his end in some quiet cow pasture. We will miss him but know that he lived life to the fullest and had a short but happy life. We're told by our neighbours that he's probably been eaten by some family (yes, they do eat dogs here, when they're bad and misbehave), but hopefully either way he had a gentle end.

The puppies brought us more and more joys as they grew and in the end caused lots of trouble once they got control of their teeth, legs and bark. Most of the village wanted one because (get this) we fed them so they were fat & healthy! In the end one mysteriously went "missing" one afternoon and for days, Chris & I scaled the school fence (we're locked in at night) in search of a yelping puppy--we even found one, but it wasn't ours! The other 5 puppies went to teachers and a volunteer and we believe they will be well cared for. Of course, there's no denying that a few tears weren't shed as I watched OUR puppies be taken away, one by one. But in a country which doesn't "love" dogs like us North Americans, I think we did our best at giving them good homes.

So we are left with Percy--who continues to be a delightful and unusual dog. 2 weeks ago we paid the big bucks and she went under the knife. We enjoyed having puppies but we don't want it to happen again. And now we know that she can live a better and healthier life, in case her future owners are not so generous with the food. Spaying her also astounded people here and she's probably the only spayed dog this village has ever seen. If only they could understand that it is cheaper in the long term. But of course, it's only cheaper if you actually feed your dogs...
So ends our winter term of dogs.

Exams again

Exams are upon us once again. While invigilating a two hour exam today, I calculated that our students will write a total of 8000 exam papers in the next couple weeks. That's more than 13 different exams per kid. Does that seem a little extravagant? I think so, especially since these exams, and the last set in April, don't actually mean anything (except increased sales of paper and red pens). They are just preparation for the end of year exams which, for some reason, start almost immediately after these mock exams finish.

There is some strange illness in our school hostel which seems to be having strange psychological and possibly psychosomatic effects on our girls. As a result, our kids are being sent home for four days. So, it's another quiet weekend at the school where we can safely take our puppies for a walk without having them distracted by hundreds of gawking kids who all ask if they can have one. The answer is no. We have decided that a six-year-old boy is not responsible enough to take one of our puppies. We are a little concerned about the rumours that people are planning to steal our puppies. They are highly visible in the town but we hope these are only idle threats from kids.

Chris

Living Without Water --not an oxymoron but reality

(this one goes out to you Adria & Blake :) )

This week, all week, our village was without fresh running water. Starting either Saturday or Sunday, the houses and buildings that have taps (which of course is not all by any means) suddenly found that they no longer functioned...they became air taps. This happens regularly of course..perhaps for a day every two weeks, but a week is a LONG time to go without a fresh supply. It meant we had to take water conservation to a whole new level as by Monday evening our 30L or so of stored water was getting pretty low (do you realize how much water a toilet takes when you only have 30L stored? About 1/5 for every flush.

Thus you might have seen this scenario..no bathing, no dishes, no flushing, no laundry. We set up a wash bowl for washing hands and tried to use the good water only for cooking and drinking. Part way through Tuesday I was starting to get angry at the puppies for wasting water as they always spill their water bowl over!

At school we have 2 taps and two flush toilets, those had to be shut and locked. The learners were complaining that they wanted to go home because they were thirsty...but of course that is against the rules! Chris' school was serviced by a large water truck because it is a hostel school and the kids eat and sleep here.

Luckily on Wednesday the tap in the backyard started to run again so we could fill up our solar shower and our bottles from nearby at least and that was heaven. And today (fingers crossed) there is still fabulous running water with pressure in our house! Ah, luxury, you don't know what you have North America. You live in another world, really, truly!

PS- We just found out it wasn't just our village but the whole region or more because of a major pipe break!

Do you want to win a pig?

Our school is currently selling raffle tickets for a draw next month. First prize is a pig and second prize (definitely considered less worthy) is a cell phone. Does that seem like a strange colliding of worlds to anyone else? If you are interested in buying a ticket for 10 Namibian dollars (roughly $1.50 Canadian), let me know and I'll put your name in. You can buy me a coke next year. Of course, if you actually win a pig, that will certainly make it interesting. You may become the only person in the world to own livestock 20,000km away from themselves. I have seen the prize pig and if Charlotte the spider was here, her web would say things like "Delicious" and "Good Eatin'"

PS - Puppies getting bigger!

A week of school in July

Monday - Our puppies are almost three weeks old now and we've been following the development stages. They are now walking around exploring the enclosure which I've built from old cardboard boxes and outdated math textbooks. It's only 50cm high but that's high enough. They are super cute and are becoming more vocal and active every day.

Tuesday - last week, my Grade 11's finished reading Charlie & the Chocolate Factory. For many of them, this was the first English novel they had read (it took us four weeks). The treat today was watching the movie on the projector. They were so thrilled to be able to see a movie that they had struggled to understand as a book. They'll be less excited to write their comparative essays.

Wednesday - As I returned from playing basketball with some learners, I noticed a large gathering around the classrooms and many teary-eyed children holding their arms. Curious, I approached and asked what was going on. "We're getting injected, sir." Ah...vaccinations. What are you being protected from? A group of crying girls stopped and stared at each other for a second. "We don't know, sir." Turns out their was a meningitis outbreak in Angola and the local hospital is being strangely proactive.

Thursday - just before the sun went down, we watched a local man get beaten by a group of guys with sticks just outside our gate. Since it was within view of all the students, hundreds of kids swarmed our yard to watch. I started to head out to intercede but our principal called me back. The assailants escaped through the graveyard and the police arrived but the mob of kids didn't disperse for about an hour.

Friday - this is a home weekend for our school meaning that everyone in the hostel will be leaving on Friday afternoon for the entire weekend. Sweet tranquility! So we're going to have a small party here. Chloe and I will race to Oshakati to get to the bank during business hours and we'll need to buy more dog food.

For the past month or so, we've known that one of our dogs, Percy, was pregnant. The question was how many puppies would there be? Most guesses were between 3 and 5. Last week, it became clear that she was in labour and she dug a huge hole in our yard. The next morning, there were SIX little balls of fur inside the hole. Percy's apetite is staggering now that she's nursing six puppies. Luckily, the puppies are inside our compound at school, so the students don't get too close. Percy definitely gets very protective when anyone other than me or Chloe goes near her hole.

Two fellow teachers of mine have shown interest in taking a puppy, so that only leaves four more homes to find. It seems to be harder to find people to take the girls (since boys don't have any direct puppy responsibilities!) They are currently 10 days old and have yet to open their eyes but they all look healthy enough. Since none of the puppies are white, we are hopeful that our other dog, Bingo, is not the father. He is still a bad teenager dog who chases chickens, pigs, and even donkeys (see photo). Although exuberant, I see no value in him breeding.

Bizarre Baazar

Last weekend was our major school fundraiser for the year, the bazaar. There had been rumours about it for months but no planning (and I'd know as I'm on the fundraising comittee). Anyway 2 weeks before its to happen, the principal announces that the bazaar is coming and every learner household must bring a chicken to school. Compliance wasn't great and there was a day when we sent most of the school home to go get their chicken (which we got reprimanded for because doing that is illegal and the inspectors found out somehow).

Anyway, in the mornings the chickens started arriving and turning our school into well....a poultry farm basically. One assembly was majorly disrupted by a rooster crowing along to our anthem!

Then during afternoon study our school became the slaughterhouse. Teachers on duty and a select group of learners (I was excused from this fortunately) took a large machete behind a bush and slit their throats. Then they were left in a bucket till the stopped twitching. Then thrown in a bucket of water which I think was to make it easier to pluck. Heads and feet were removed and hens and cocks were plucked. Wood was gathered and a small fire lit and the remaining feather bits burned off. Then hens were gutted--the good guts separated to sell, the others probably went home with learners to eat. Everytime I asked what they were going to do "with that part of the chicken" the answer was always "we eat it Miss. Its delicious!" I must say I was flabergasted and impressed by the true use of all the animal. Damn North Americans are wasteful!--why don't we eat chicken tongues!

Now we have chickens. But what is going to happen at the bazaar? Eating apparently from sun up Friday till Sundown on Sunday. Nothing else was arranged until about 3 days before it was to happen...then suddenly we had a tent, a tv for watching movies, beer, wine, pop etc. There was a suggested Chicken draw which was something I could help with, and then I added a sweets guessing jar which went over very well with the kids.

On Saturday, just for fun I decided to invite 5 of my female learners over to my house to make "Oshiloombo cake" (aka Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies). It was a ball--the girls are all fantastic and that kind of baking is such a strange novelty. Plus extra food we had along the way (most came without eating which is usual for here). Then we sold them for N$2 ($0.30CAN) which was almost an exuberant price.

Sunday was my day to be there all day but I was sick so I periodically went home as I found that no one spoke to me in English and I was almost no use---

But in the end we made $N10 000 which is significant since our school's balance was basically 0. And I'll leave next year's bazaar to someone else! For more photos see my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/31870881@N06/

HIV/AIDS Week

This week was HIV/AIDS week and it was culminated with a two-hour assembly in the dining room (which is consistently spelled "dinning" here despite all my efforts). There were speechs, a PowerPoint presentation (revolutionary!), and poems. The statistics for sub-Saharan Africa are staggering. Unfortunately, 700 people in a concrete room speaking softly in a second-language does not result in good acoustics. Some students also put on a short play which was very well performed (and audible too!). The kids loved seeing their fellow students perform since that is not common here.

All assemblies open and close with the Namibian national anthem. "Land of the Brave" requires a large vocal range well beyond the abilities of any foreign volunteers I know - Namibians seem to have no difficulty hitting the high notes but I have to drop an octave at least once in the song.

We recently had a four-day weekend where we drove out to Epupa Falls and went hiking along the river. Namibia only has rivers along its borders but it was absolutely gorgeous!

Term Two

Just because it's second term doesn't mean that many logistical changes can't occur at the school. The departure of one teacher and the arrival of two others means that many teachers were moved around to teach different classes. I'm now teaching Grade 11 math instead of Grade 9. Also,despite numerous discussions about teaching extra classes in the afternoons and evenings, the daily schedule has been reduced from 8 classes to 7. This means the students will no longer have two blocks per week in the library, which I find extremely frustrating.

I was teaching in the computer lab this week when I noticed a large insect, roughly 15cm (that's 6 inches for you Imperialists!) on the back of one of my students. For a second, I thought it was plastic but it was definitely a real preying mantis. I mentioned it to the girl who was a little startled and then flicked it on to the ground and kicked it out the door. No one else in the class seemed to care. I've really enjoyed teaching in the computer lab this term. Even introducing them to a basic paint program amazes and captivates them for hours. The look of sheer joy on their faces when they manage to click-and-drag to draw a straight line is priceless.

Reflecting, Reconciling, and Remembering

This week, our first back at school, I started the term by asking each of my students to write about one interesting or weird thing that happened to them during the May holiday. I got what you might expect a typical teenager response: travel to neighbouring villages, Angola, some who's highlight was eating at KFC or going to the pool in Oshakati or getting new clothes.

But what I didn't expect were the stories of tragedy. About 6 students reported a death in their family of either their mother or father, some of several relatives including cousins and grandparents. One of my top grade 8 students lost 5 family members in 2 weeks! It is overwhelming to comprehend what these kids are dealing with and I feel powerless as their teacher to not be able to offer more than my condolences. I even have a new student who has moved here because his last parent died in the village he was in and he has moved to live with other relatives. :(

The tragedy facing these kids brings to the forefront the loss that my family was dealt over the May holiday when we heard my little cousin Keely Jayde Faught Bruinsma, who was nearly 2, passed away in Vancouver from Meningitis. My condolences go out to Emily, Kody, Jaiden, Ray & Megan. I wish I could be home and give you all a big hug.

It seems that life these days is out to test many of my family members as much as it is testing the strength and endurance of my learners. I wish you all much love. Please take care of yourselves. Chloe

Ideal Prize

By the way, I entered a fundraising draw today. First prize is a goat! Keep your fingers crossed!

Pass or Fail

Term 2 started this week. We had a great break in May and now it's back to work.
On the last day before break, learners (the Namibian word for students) came in to pick up their report cards. I had just finished putting in two grueling days in the computer lab where I used spreadsheets and a mail merge to print off 700 report cards. At first, it looked like a simple task since the mail merge had already been created by a volunteer last year. What I didn't realize is that it had not actually been used. Through trial and error, I discovered that every course was using a different grading scheme (for example, in Grade 11 English classes, even a score of 100% will only earn you a C!)

The real difficulty came with a box called Pass/Fail where I was to indicate whether or not the learner was currently in a passing or failing position. Sounds simple, right? Unfortunately, every teacher had a different definition of what was required for a Pass. Despite the fact that Pass/Fail statistics are gathered each term and used to compare schools within the country, there is not a standard method of evaluation. After several spontaneous staff meetings and support from my department head, I implemented a common system for the school. Apparently my requirements were a lot stricter than previously. Both teachers and learners were shocked to discover that obtaining an E in every course (that's generally 40-50%) would be considered a fail. When implemented school wide, our pass rate dropped from 75% to 52%. It's important to note here that this statistic has no actual value since we still have two more terms this year. Hopefully, our learners will consider this a kick in the butt and they'll work harder next term.

I'm happy that we're raising the bar a little. We've attached a letter along with our statistics so that the Ministry of Education will understand why our school seems to have performed so terribly this term. I hope we don't get intimidated into dropping our standards back to improve the perceived results.

Sleeping With Elephants

We've just returned from a 3 day Mokoro safari inot the Okavango Deelta in NW Botswana. The delta- a huge inland one that never flows to the sea-is the result of the pristine Kavango River which starts in Angola, flows through Namibia and into Botswana where it meets the Kalahari Desert and spreads out creating a lush wetland. Although we could not go to "really see the delta" (aka a bush plane over to a luxury lodge) we opted to boat in by makoro- a canoe like dugout which is poled up rivers and channels by guides- and camp for a few nights nights. Although sadly most of the delta is not protected (Namibia and Angola see it as wasted water which they would like to have) it is not developed and is a wilderness of abundant wildlife which moves freely without fencing. A place where elephants, giraffe, hyaena's, jackals and potentially even lions and leopareds roam while campers sleep :).

To get there, we had a 45min trip up river to Boro village where the poling station is and the guides and makoro's await you. Then you sit royally as our two polers Jo and Ratsini poled us for 2hrs. to our campsite. We had 3 guided walks while we were there, the first which revealed an elephant only a few hundred metres from our camp!

That night, we built up a huge fire and nodded off. I was awakened in the night by many sounds - jackals barking, several hyaena's near by yipping and most alarming, a loud splashing and chewing coming from the river which went on for about 3 hours. This could only mean one thing to me - elephants. You would be surprised to know that one of the sounds an elephants makes sounds alarmingly like the low growl of a lion! Definitely a hair-raising night in which mom interupted Dad's constant and louder-than-elephant snoring to tell him, "Brian, something's out there!" In which my dad replied "That's nice" and promptly fell back to sleep.

The next day my night sound interpretation was verified when two bull elephants walked within 100m of camp and trumpteted, drank and ate grass. When asked to go see the elephants my mom replied "I have seen enough elephants. They are too big and are no longer my favourite animal." The guides reassured us that no animals like fire and elephants don't want to come near you unless provoked.

We put that theory to the test the next night as the elephants arrived to splash about while we were still sitting around the campfire. And while I truly and logically belived they wouldn't come near us, it is another thing to hear the thrashing of a 6000kg or so beast a few metres away but be unable to see it! However, it is also a fantastic adrenalin rush and hugely satisfying to know that it is still possible to spend time in Africa in a way people have lived for 1000's of years-- with respect and caution for the natural world. Botswana it seems, has done a decent job, more than other southern African countries, at protecting wildlife, as it has protected the savannah and limited fences, That being said, recent years have led to cattle land expansion and fencing which killed ~99% of the Wildebeest and Zebra populations from dehydration because they could no longer migrate during droughts.

Botswana has been an overland safari dream but my heart still lies in Namibia.

The Lunar Rainbow

We have been travelling with my parents for a week and a half now, hitting up a number of southern countries including Zambia and Botswana. Last night, we went to Victoria falls at night to see the lunar rainbow...an amazing event that happens once a month when the full moon is bright enough to cause a rainbow to go over the falls. From one angle the rainbow starts at the top of the falls and plumets all the way down to the river bottom. Or, as in this picture we have, it goes sideways and crosses over a bridge. This picture was taken at night with a 15second exposure. Don't believe me? Look at our headlamps and the star in the upper left hand side. It was an amazing experience, and so is the falls by day right now with record high water it is extremely powerful. Matched with some amazing elephant and rhino displays in some national parks and its been a pretty amazing holiday thus far.

tomorrow we head off to the Kalahari through Botswana to see what's out there!

Making somethin' out of Nothin'

I had an amazing week a few weeks ago where I really felt like I was some kind of ridiculous fairy making wonderful things appear to kids. Both of these thing I'd say may be slightly laughable out of context but to me, a world of difference in my classroom. Both of my magical feats stemmed from annoyances.

Annoyance #1: No rulers in a class (or perhaps maybe 2 out of 30), and kids need them for Geography and Math. Solution: I got kids to make their own out of old juice and milk boxes. I cut them out and made a demo and then took them to my class expecting some, but more lukewarm response. What I got was over the top craziness---the kids all had to have one---I ended up making some for each of my grade 8 classes and I saw some examples that were even better than mine. The response can be summed up by a quote from one kid in my 8c class, "Are these for free?" The amazing Oshilombo brings gifts. LOL.

Annoyance #2: There is never a class that goes by where every kid has a function pen or pencil. This one drives me nuts! How can you do a test or say "take notes" or anything, if the kid only had one pen, and it died this morning and there family won't get another one until next week. I tried a pen loaning program, which I will continue but it is a hassle and kids have stolen the ink from inside, etc. etc. One day a kid asked to buy my pen and I said no. I surveyed the kids and found out that $N2.50 is the standard going rate in town for pens. Went to town and found a nice Indian wholesale that sells cheap Chinese pens, 50 for $N20. (That's $N0.40 a pen or roughly CDN 5cents per pen). So I go back to school and charge $N1 per pen (that's ~13cents) and the kids think its a joke I'm selling them so cheap (they think that I'm getting ripped off). Yet I'm making a $N0.60 profit (that's 8cents) on each pen making mark-up a grand 250%. That may seem like pitiful pennies to you, but really it accomplishes two things--piece of mind in my classroom (or a little more at least), and allows me to do a mini-fundraiser for something small but needed at school (I'm thinking about an exam feeding program so that the kids don't have to write exams on empty stomachs), but we'll see.

Anyway, just another week in Omungwelume.

Dogs dogs dogs

Percephany, our mutt who looks more like a goat than a dog, is in heat. I have never really been around a dog that was in heat. Most pets in North America are spayed or neutered....of course, most dogs in North America have homes. Most dogs in Namibia are strays. We have learned from our weekly internet visit that Percy will be in heat for three weeks. Since we do NOT want any puppies, it is a constant battle between us and the motley crew of canine suitors that are literally crashing through our fence to make their case (or just make whoopee). Some of them whimper outside the fence, others dig holes or try to gnaw their way through the chain link fence. We have since repaired several holes and are currently without a broom or mop since they were ideal fence-mending materials. The fights between the dogs (there were ten of them outside our gate this morning) are getting louder and more brutal each day, too.The real problem is when Percy escapes from our compound. She has done this twice and it attracts every male dog in the community. Since she has no interest in returning to solitary confinement, we have to catch her. She does not have a collar or leash (both are completely unknown concepts in this country) and she's slippery. Fortunately, she stops frequently to pee on every second bush that she passed. It is during these vulnerable times that we try to grab her front paws, usually without success. Chloe caught her the first time and I managed to grab her the second time by paying lots of attention to our other dog until she got jealous and came too close. Once caught, she acts like a deadweight and we have to carry her back home (last time she'd already run several kms). The locals think we're crazy since we're the only people in town who carry a perfectly healthy dog halfway across town while a half dozen other dogs nip at our her (and our) heels.It's highly entertaining to watch the dogs try to break into the compound but at the same time, we need to be vigilant to keep them from succeeding. 10 more days and hopefully we can return to a "normal" life.

The tournament

Last weekend, our soccer, volleyball and netball (similar to basketball but for girls only) teams went to Okalongo for the regional tournament. Twenty different schools were represented there which each school spending two nights sleeping on the floor of their assigned classroom. I chose to day-trip it since it was only 50km away. The soccer tournament took two full days since they needed to play all 19 games on only one field. There was also only one netball court and one volleyball court but games were shorter and there were fewer teams represented so each team got to play multiple times.
Our teams did alright winning some and losing some. I had to argue with the volleyball umpires because I've coached our team to set from the left instead of the middle. One of the umpires didn't think this was legal but, luckily, another official had heard of other teams that did that. Apparently, it's not common in Namibia since it requires a skill level slightly higher than most highschool teams reach.
However, the highlight of the tournament for me was watching our 50+ kids travel the 50km dirt road to the tournament. The "bus" that was supposed to take them turned out to be an open-backed cattle truck. No problem. High railing ensure the safety of learners. This definitely keeps transportation costs down but I'm not sure Canadian parents would trust it on the Malahat. Check out the video!

The English Department

As Subject Head for English at my school, I am responsible for acquiring resources for our department, specifically literature that has been prescribed by the Ministry of Education as appropriate for Grade 11 and 12. A new list came out today featuring the poetry and dramatic works that are recommended this school year. I was a little surprised to see that King Lear was on the list. Remember that this is English as a Second Language. Although I like Shakespeare, I am certain that many of my students would not even recognize it as English, let alone understand any deeper meaning. I have a simplified version of Hamlet that I'm considering trying in the last term but Chloe and I are both planning to do "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" first.

Also, the first term finishes this week and exam period begins. We are one third through the school year. However, we are still short an English teacher. That means that two grade 10 and two grade 11 classes have had no English teacher so far this year. I started teaching some of the Grade 11s during my spare blocks but they've missed weeks of instruction. That doesn't mean they are excused from the exam, though. They will still write them. No one has said who will be marking the extra 160 papers but I've got a bad feeling that I already know the answer to that question.

My class was also interrupted today by a small posse of science teachers who wanted me to pronounce the word "buoyancy".

Daylight Savings

Haiku
Daylight savings is
Tomorrow and we go back
School now starts at 7.

(Our school is suspended daylight savings for 3 weeks so as to not confuse the learners....right.)

Running With the Village

A kind of tradition has developed with me and my exercise routine here in Omungwelume. Not that I run too often or do it on particular days, really, but I can count on one thing... the "village" almost always comes with me. As I exit the gates of Eegedjo, the Oshilumbu in her jogging attire is spotted. This creates an ammassing of children around me as I jog down the street--usually in short skirts and always bare feet. And they run with me- girls and boys of anywhere between 7 and 17..and amazingly enough, the almost always make it the whole distance with me..regardless of how far I go. More often the kids are younger so we do a variety of songs and games to keep them going and distracted. Its pretty typical to see us jogging along the gravel road singing "There was a great big moose" or "Bingo" or "If you're happy and you know it". Or doing races or other such things. Often our dogs accompany me as well, or find me en route, and charge after us, tripping me as I go (yesterday was dogs and kids).

Sundays sometimes I can get out without them noticing. I thought I was to have a run to myself and got almost half way when I realized the whole time, 4 girls were charging up behind me at full speed, trying to catch me. They reached me pretty exhausted and realized that they still had to run all the way back.

Either way, its great fun, and its an amusing way to take part in the life of the village.

Waterberg

Last weekend was Independance Day and we had our first long weekend of the year. We took off right after school and met up with our friend Aleks and a couple of Peace Corps volunteers who live near him. Then we drove a few hours down to Otjiwarongo. After a night of camping in a caravan park, we discovered that there was our camp site was only metres away from a construction site. The amazing part is that work continued on the holiday and began at around 6:30 AM. On most days, almost nothing gets done, but on this particular day (a holiday!) they decided to start work before dawn.
We spent half the day at the Cheetah Conservation Fund, an organization which raises awareness about cheetahs and takes in orphaned animals. Since I have yet to see a cheetah in the wild, we decided to come and see them here. The animals that we saw are used to humans and can't be released but they have another 30 or so cheetahs out of side that will be released. They have some sort of program for teaching them to hunt (which I think is incredible!) and have successfully released some back into the wild.

From here, it was off to the post office! Chloe's English classes had written 120 pen pal letters which we were sending to Adria and Jessie back in Canada. The first post office wouldn't send them, the second post office quoted us about 750 Namibian dollars ($90 Canadian - it's only a couple envelopes filled with paper) but the third one send them for only 360 Namibian dollars which I considered a bargain by this point. Unfortunately, the largest stamp available is only 4 Namibian dollars. Since we now had 7 packages (don't ask), getting the right postage on each package required about 130 stamps.

Next destination: Waterberg National Park. The camping and hiking here were a good break from our routines and allowed to see hills again. We live in the middle of a small prairie so this was quite exciting for me! We stopped for a night in Tsumeb on our way home to visit with some other WorldTeach volunteers and then made it back home to Omungwelume in time for dinner. A fast-paced weekend but a great change of pace and scenery!
This afternoon, I'm off to a large sports tournament which includes soccer, volleyball and netball (a form of basketball for girls). Our volleyball team has been training every day (except for the few days when the ball was missing) and I'm excited to see how they will perform against another school.

The Computer Lab

I ran into an interesting situation today though. One of our school computers kept restarting and I suspected another power supply problem. When I opened up the case, I found something unexpected..... a nest. It does not seem to be occupied anymore but it was probably the home of a family of mud wasps or something similar. It is cemented to the network card which suggests to me that they were trying to access the internet. Please excuse the puns, but this was definitely a system bug and it's been a while since I've seen a computer with a bee drive!

I have been spending an increasing amount of time in the computer lab recently. Since I have very few actual classes in there, I open it up in the afternoons to anyone who wants to come in. I'm starting to recognize the faces of the regulars now, and they are helpful because during regular classes, they can use their increased mouse and keyboard skills to help out other kids (for example, the kid who can't double click or otherwise struggles with the mouse). Although I have components for 12 complete computers, I only have enough working parts for 9. We seem to have a problem with blowing out CRT monitors and I suspect the inconsistent electricity might have something to do with it. Two of my machines have blown power supplies. Last year we had a dial-up internet connection but it's not currently working since the school has 0.5 phone lines, meaning that we can receive calls but not make any of our own.

We are running a form of Linux on our computers and I'm quite impressed by it. StarOffice (free!) seems as good as Microsoft Office. There is also a basic paint program, typing tutors, and lots of small games. These are particularly good for developing mouse/keyboard skills in the kids. Many of the kids are using a computer for the first time, so my lessons are painfully slow. In 40 minutes, on 9 computers, with up to 42 kids who have never used a computer, creating a folder or saving a file is a lesson plan for me. Most of them can now navigate the menu system which means I can give them verbal instructions rather than physically moving their hand on the mouse.

Teacher or Social Worker?

Some of the duties associated with having a registered (home room) class seem a little unusual. Last week, we were asked to determine how many of our students are orphans or have only one living parent. Later that day, I was horrified during my one of my math classes when their registered teacher popped in and surveyed the class. "Stand up if both your parents are dead. Now what are your names?" I tried to be a little subtle about my attempts for personal information. I collected secret survey responses with such questions as "A)What is your name? B)What is your favourite subject? C)What is your favourite sport? D)How many living parents do you have?" One student was away that day, but the following day, he showed up at my desk with his survey responses: "A)Ndamonoghenda Ndalikuvala B)Biology C)Soccer D)One"

This week, a new procedure was implemented. If any of our registered class students wants to drop out of school, they must find us and we will complete the paperwork with them. Teachers are to ask why they wish to drop out. Seems logical...but here's the kicker: if a girl is dropping out due to pregnancy, we are required to determine who the father is and bring them both to the principal (even if the father is not a student at our school). One would think that these tasks would be better left to a social worker rather than to me. The problem, though, is the extreme shortage of social workers in Namibia. In fact, last night I met the ONLY social worker in our region of 100,000 people. Ironically, she is a VSO volunteer from Victoria, BC.

By the way, here are some of my students with their Science textbooks from Stelly's and Parkland.

Flooding

The Efundja

This week was one of disaster & amazement for several regions in the North of Namibia....and our little village managed to make headlines for NBC (Namibian Broadcasting Corp) on Tuesday. The reason was the rain and the efundja. On Monday night we barely slept as the rain pounded our little home, the wind beat the trees & the lightning and thunder crashed & banged. Honestly, living in Victoria you usually don't even see rain like this...rivers and lakes (or Oshana's as you call them here) formed overnight and the rising waters beside our village tumbled and turned into a raging river---right through 1/2 the town and over our main exit route to the glimmer of the big city of Oshakati.

Tuesday morning found me fully clothed in plastic, and wading through rivers and Oshanas with frogs & fish! Just to get to school...and my walk is only 10 minutes from home. Needless to say, many learners were late---we only learned later that many are now homeless or have their homes surrounded by water. About half our stores in the village had to evacuate their wares and our road was essentially cut off for several days. Over 119 schools closed that day, some for several weeks, although all those in Omungwelume remained resolutely open with regular hours, study periods, etc. It was quite a spectacle after school to go wade through the streets and watch fish & other creatures scurry past---for more photos go to our flickr page!

The Efundja isn't really just the rain...its the flooding that occurs from Angola every year as rivers in the north overflow and flood our flat land...as mentioned in one description "The north of Namibia would be a big murky swamp if it wasn't a desert climate." So the waters flow in & stay for awhile and the local rain augments the flooding.

Most years aren't, of course, like this...however last years flooding was as bad (or worse depending) and this one has turned out to be as predicted. Exciting for us, although devestating for some families & it makes for 2 very stinky dogs in our house & a LOT of mosquitoes. But such is how things go. Think of us fording our river to leave town in our little VW!

---and an update: So Wednesday this week, a week after the flood a helicopter landed in our village---with the President of Namibia! He had come to see how the flooding damage really was. This caused absolute chaos in our village--all the kids and most teachers took off towards his helicopter in a mad dash--many of them had never seen a helicopter let alone the president! Several classes were spontaneously cancelled for this educational experience. Ah, Namibia!

The Parents Meeting (aka my crazy week)

On Wednesday my Principal came into the staff room at 7:45am to announce that there will be a parents meeting tomorrow at 1pm. That means that suddenly, half of our classes will be cancelled that next day--with 1 day of notice. My week, has already been pretty crazy for my learners because I've been sick--and on Monday I missed school and there are no subs of course--so that meant my students for my 7 classes just sat alone with no class when I was supposed to teach.

Anyway--Thursday has arrived and I teach 2 classes and then at break I learn the learners will be "released" after break so that they have time to walk home and tell their parents that there is a parent's meeting (the learners seem to have no idea until this point).

And where does this great meeting take place? Why, under our large fig tree next to the staff building! (Schools here consist of a staff building and then several classroom buildings which exit into a courtyard (no halls, no multi-storey buildings--and of course no gym or meeting hall!). It is lucky it stopped raining just in time.

So here we are, sitting under the fig tree...at 1pm there was a smattering of brightly dressed ladies (imagine typical African women's clothes and you will be right on track), and a few men...it seems mostly grandmothers and grandfathers. We start on time (1:15pmish) and eventually more and more people show up till there are about 80 parents/guardians.

Of course, the whole thing is in Oshikwanyama--which is necessary for the parents but useless for me--but it is pleasant enough to sit under the tree in the middle of the afternoon. Mr. Kafidi occaisionally translates so I get the gist of what's going on and stand and introduce myself at the appropriate times of course.

The meeting starts of course by singing our school anthem, the National anthem (in English!) and then proceeds though a hymn, a prayer by a teacher and then the lengthy welcome and introductions. Then we talk about fairly normal school things for awhile (mostly finances and school fundraising, uniforms and a little bit on new curriculum this year (entrepreneurship).

Then a mid-session hymn, just for fun and some more stuff I don't understand. Then, after only 2hrs45min, we begin "question period" by the parents in which more $$ stuff is discussed. We spend an ENTIRE HOUR discussing who's goats broke into class 8E (the one with the goat-sized holes if you remember) and ATE THEIR BOOKS!! And who will be the one to pay? This is the most amazing discussion I have ever witnessed at school, and its length is also astounding. Anyway, in the end, it is decided that the goat-owner should pay, and everyone gets busy as Mr. Kafidi shows them the photos of the goats and people try to decide who's goats they are...................................

Overall, not a terrible way to spend an afternoon in Namibia, and in the end it only took 4 hours! :)

A typical day

Finds us waking to Chris' cellphone alarm at 6:00am...on Mondays, Chris needs to be at school at 6:25 for morning devotion and I have to be at school for 7:45 for assembly Monday & Fridays. We crawl out of our mosquito net & stumble around in our concrete house getting ready. Our house is fairly large for Namibia---2 bedrooms (only 1 bed), a toilet room, a shower room, a kitchen with a few cupboards and a small counter top oven & stovetop, and a "living area" which houses a bookshelf and our patio furniture table & chairs. We also have a mini-fridge...we've been promised a real fridge and a real oven & stove (the other volunteers had these things but they were removed)...but we'll let you know if that EVER happens.

Anyway, too early to eat for me, I usually start my day with some yoga, a little bit of prep work for school, and feed our two dogs, which are always super hyper at 6:30am for some reason.

Eventually I trundle off to school...a whole 12min walk, usually with the dogs tripping me as I go. Since its the rainy season, sometimes its pouring, and other times large murky puddles await me to walk through and around. Children from the Primary & my school (Junior secondary) are always around to greet me and to walk with me...occaisionally so are other teachers and memes (women).

I enter our staff room with my stuff...all teachers here have all their class stuff in the staffroom, which is invariably a clutter of tables stacked with papers, books and chalk. I have heard supposedly true rumours from the principal that some of the spaces haven't been cleaned in a long time...and last year they found a scorpion in one!

Then its off to dodge puddles and Bingo to my classes...on Monday that means 7 classes and one break of 30min plus one spare (40min).
After class, study begins for 2hours and kids usually work quietly at their desks...or sometimes play Netball or tend to their agriculture class maize crops. I've started trying to get a library program running, so last week study period meant tours of the library and interviews of potential assistants. Thursdays in study I teach the staff how to use computers (but that is a separate story).

Then I run home, die on the bed for a bit, mark, plan & perhaps wander around the village for a bit or run (another interesting story to come).

On days we go to Oshakati, this is a special adventure which usually is not an easy feat...maybe one day (yes we saw progress this weekend) the road will be paved all the way, but right now 11km or so are not. Trouble is, they are leveling it, so they put rocks on the road to avoid traffic...and cars drive in the ditch...Problem is, the ditches are full of water and so you must drive around the rocks or move them and use the road. Last Saturday was definitely the worst day...the slurry of mud-sand almost stopped our little 2WD a couple of times, and definitely caked over our headlights and splattered the windshield. Exciting, but scary, usually meaning we're hot and sweaty by the time we reach Oshakati...maybe by April this will no longer be an issue (no rain, more pavement), but perhaps it won't be a problem for future volunteers.

Back at home our evening usually means enjoying the gorgeous colourful sunsets, listening to the kids sing & finish their 7-9pm study session, watching the goats get led home, and finishing our prep. Lights out usually sometime just after 9pm so we can manage to do it all again tomorrow.

We seem to be the proud owners of, not one, but two dogs. We started with only one. His name is Bingo (the one in the water in the photo) and he came with the house. Since we are living at the school and are only 50 metres from the classrooms, all the students know him. He's only six months old but is quite well behaved. We set him free to roam the neighbourhood during the day but he sleeps at our feet for the rest of the day. He will occasionally wander into my classroom much to the delight of the students and I have to take a 2-minute break to return him home. Interestingly, the kids here have never heard of the game Bingo (which are now playing to teach the difference between the letter R and the letter L). The other dog was frequently hiding in our yard. She is very skittish and it took us several days before she would even accept food from us...but now that we're feeding her and it's a big, bad world out there, Percy sees no reason to ever leave our yard.

Taking attendance is a difficult process. I am responsible each day for taking attendance in class 10B. However, there is no actual homeroom time and I don't ever teach that class. So, at some point in the day, I need to pop my head into the class and ask if everyone is there that day. If the response is no, I ask who is away and have to determine why. Invariably, the name they give me will not be on my hand-written list for the class. After all, this is the list from last year. I asked if new lists were available yet and the response was "soon". The result is that for each of my classes, I've had to create my own list of students and hope that they give me the correct names (Bruce Lee and Pele seem like surprisingly popular names in this African country)

Hello Mr. Chris

My name at the school is "Mr. Chris". No other teachers go by their first name but I was never given a choice. I'm not sure if they just didn't know my surname but my official listing in the computer is "Chris, Mr." and many of the students were looking forward to the arrival of Mr. Chris and Miss Chloe. Children in the street point at us and yell our names....hey, it worked for Mr. T, didn't it?

I estimated today that students are currently spending approximately 4 hours a day in classrooms with no teachers. This includes the 2 hour afternoon session (2pm-4pm) and the mandatory evening study block (7pm-9pm). This would be utter mayhem at home but most of the students here just sleep at their desks until the air horn (blown a dozen times a day by the secretary to indicate the beginning/end of class) goes. If the secretary forgets, which is common because he does not have a watch, class simply continues indefinitely. Standing outside the secretary's door is generally something to be avoided if you value your hearing.

Week one

Well, we've just finished three days at school and there are definitely some major differences from school in North America.
Organisation seems to be lacking. Officially, students have been in class for six days now but many of them have not yet met all their teachers. That assumes they actually have teachers. It was discovered only yesterday that there was no one scheduled to teach math to our two Grade 9 classes. They checked with me and I agreed to teach them (I'm excited to have math classes again!) but they need to completely revamp the entire school's timetable to make this happen. Since they are hesitant to do this until other problems are also identified, those classes will continue to go without math for a few more days.
Giving the chaos of the timetabling system, the students are never informed of what classes they will be receiving. When I walk into a classroom for the first time, I need to tell them what class I'll be teaching them. Many of them are quite excited to be taking a computers class since 40% have never used a desktop computer.
However, I am the only Computers teacher at the school. Only the Grade 12's are scheduled to have a computer classes and they only get one 40-minute block every seven days. There are 42 students in the class and only 11 working computers (actually none of them are working right now because no one knows the password but hopefully I'll get an email about that by next week). I've estimated that this means the average student will, at graduation, have spent only four hours individually using a computer, roughly equivalent to 3-4 blocks of any InfoTech class at home. Tomorrow, we'll begin learning to type on our homemade paper keyboards.
The age range in some classes is rather large. Chloe's grade 8 class has students as young as 13 and as old as 22. One of my Grade 11's is 22 and I haven't checked with my Grade 12's.

I am also playing in the hostel soccer tournament this weekend (I'm the only one who's not a student!) and we won our first game!