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!!