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.