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!