The staff meeting was conducted in Oshiwambo, which means I got about as much out of it as I do faculty meetings at home! I was welcomed by the faculty, and they all seem eager to begin ICT training.
When I arrived back at the family compound, I found the family had gone shopping for me since Mr. Kulumbu had evidently told them I didn’t want to take all my meals with them. They are so kind and welcoming. I feel uncomfortable because I don’t know if I offend them when I offer to pay for things, or if I’m not paying enough, etc. They bought me an odd assortment of groceries, I guess what they think Americans eat. A lot of onions and carrots. I had enough of a charge on my laptop to watch part of a South African DVD about a boy and his cheetah before it went dead and I slept off and on all night.
This morning Mr. Albin (the grandfather) brought me an Oshiwambu/English dictionary and told me that starting tomorrow I have to speak Oshiwambu! I have been trying, but so many of the words sound the same to me that I haven’t been quite successful. But the grandfather has told me I must learn, so learn I must…. And who thought after all those years of watching Johnny Weismueller as Tarzan every Saturday morning that I’d actually be saying Ngawa and knowing what it means! (how are you, by the way). He also brought me my own gas camp stove to keep in my hut and a cabinet to store food. So nice. I’m hoping the family will invite me to eat with them frequently, but I’m glad I have the independence to cook on my own.
Mr Kulumbu, looking quite like James Earl Jones, came to pick me up. One of hardest things about my situation is being so far from the school – and everything else. Once I get here in the afternoon it gets dark fast and I’m sitting in the dark till sunrise. If I was close to the school I could go use the electricity there and then walk back. Oh, well. I spent the day still trying to work out the kinks with the satellite (there are a lot of them) and looking at the 7th grade English curriculum which I will begin to teach on Monday. Not enough books to go around, so I will have to get creative on teaching them the skills, which are very similar to what would be taught to the same level at home…. Figurative language, poetry, comprehension of content material, etc.
Got home earlier today so I walked to the well to get some water to do laundry and got my dinner (chicken and cup-a-soup) cooked on my little stove. There is a toilet here and a shower (cold water only), but I have to walk to the other side to get it, along with any water I need for cooking or washing. Spent some time playing with the children (two toddlers and a 9 year old) outside the fence with a Frisbee type toy I’d brought to them. Then, back to my hut to see a giant iguana type thing on the wall. Eek. A call to Ilena brought one of her brothers or cousins who smushed it for me…. It was kinda funny. He used a mop handle but he stalked it and used the handle just like a spear. I’m in Africa! Now I have to forget that there’s iguana guts on my floor and hope that he doesn’t have any friends as I’m typing this in pitch darkness and I’m sure the battery will be dead soon. “I asked for this” is a phrase I find myself repeating often. I think Paul Theroux said, “Travel is only glamorous in retrospect”. Hmmmm….
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Thursday, June 14, 2007
In Which I Feel Like I'm Playing out a Scene from "The King and I"
Did you ever watch the movie "The King and I" when the teacher Mrs. Anna shows up in Siam only to find the house which was promised to her didn't exist? Instead she had to live inside the compound of the king…. Well, this came to mind as I arrived in Uukwiyuushona to find out that they’d give my government house away to a Peace Corps volunteer. Let me explain…
After a week of tedious training in the capital, I had an 8 hour drive to Ondangwa in the far north of Namibia. As we drove down the highway we had the Kalahari desert to the east. It isn’t a desert as one normally thinks of dunes and white sands…. Rather an seemingly endless flat area which actually does receive some rainfall and thus is covered with some scrub vegetation. But I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever seen the horizon like I saw it as we drove along a plateau looking down on the Kalahari. It was getting late when I arrived at the school (I was being driven by two Ministry of Education employees who surprisingly spoke little English), only to find it deserted. Calls from my Namibian cell phone to Mr. Kalumbu, the principal, went unanswered. Suddenly a pick up truck drove up and two rather intoxicated men told me I was being taken to a family’s home where I would be staying! “No, I’m supposed to have a government house of my own”, I protested. I actually could see a house that I think was supposed to be mine next to the clinic. No one seemed to know anything other than I was supposed to go with these guys in the truck, so I went (one of them was a teacher from the school).
I was taken to a “traditional” African home, which is actually a compound where a large extended family lives together. It was about 3 miles from the school. The daughter of the house speaks beautiful English and has trained to become a teacher. She showed me to my part of the “house”. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures with this entry…. But this might become a problem because of the (lack of) electricity, which I’ll explain in a moment. The house is surrounded by a high fence made of sticks. Instead of one building, the house is a series of huts… some made of mud plaster, some of sticks, some with thatched roofs, others with corrugated iron roofs. I was shown to two adjacent rooms which have a cement floor and a thatched roof lined with corrugated iron. There was a table, two chairs, a mattress on the floor, and no electricity. “This is where you will stay”, the daughter, Elina, said. “Holy crap”, Sarah thought. I called the WorldTeach office in Windhoek, who assured me that I had been promised a house and there must be a mistake. As it was now dark, however, it was too late to do anything but make the best of it. Elina gave me a tour of the place….. a toilet and cold shower on the opposite side of the compound, huge baskets (bigger than I am) to store millet and sorghum….the huts belonging to the adult sons. There is a small kitchen with a gas stove, but the family was cooking in what they call the “traditional kitchen” outdoors. There was beef strung out between the huts to dry into “biltong” – African jerky. At the time I was pretty freaked…. My whole plan in coming alone to Africa was to spend the evenings writing – but with no electricity my laptop is useless (holds a charge for about 1 hour if I’m lucky). I’d brought French DVDs to spend the evenings on self-improvement – that’s gone down the drain - and I’d brought some movies to play on the laptop to get me through bouts of insomnia – think again, Sarah. It gets dark before 6:00 here (it’s winter). So, I called Jeff, got out my sleeping bag (by this time I’d been brought a bed frame, and lay down in my clothes… I didn’t know what I was supposed to do about eating, but luckily I had some granola bars and a bottle of water with me. Elina was very nice and after a while her mother Meme Freda (Meme – pronounced “Maymay” is the formal term for a married woman, comparable to “Mrs.”), who owns a small shop by the school, came in and introduced herself and brought me a battery powered lantern which died out after the first hour. There are two toddlers in the family (may be Elina’s kids) – one of whom is petrified of white people and starting screaming every time he saw me. Oi. I felt like crying myself.
But as I lay in the dark I started realizing how absolutely cool this was. I was in the heart of Africa, lying in a hut with nothing but my imagination for entertainment. I felt perfectly safe. I could hear the sounds of the family preparing their evening meal over the fire. I could hear them greeting the men as they came in with the cattle from the grain fields. Looking out of my window, I could see the round thatched roof huts of other family members. Gradually the family went to sleep and I could hear an occasional dog howling and the family’s poultry settling down for the night (roosters crow all night long, by the way). I began to make a plan. If only I could get my laptop to work, I could still write, practice French, and watch the occasional Cary Grant DVD at night. So, hopefully, Jeff will procure another battery for the laptop this week and get it to me ASAP. I can charge the spare battery every day, as well as the laptop at school, and have something to do in the evenings. The room itself provides privacy (the shower thing is going to be a challenge though) and I feel secure there. The only other challenge will be that this small extended family village is far from school…. two of the little boys attend the school, but they normally walk. If I can make friends with the dogs that guard the compound, I guess I can walk, too.
This morning I was awakened by the family having their morning prayer with song. They were singing in Oshiwambo, but the tune was to “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today” – one of my favorite hymns! I was served tea and bread by Mme Freda, and was surprised by the father, Mister Albin, walking in in a towel after his morning shower! The Namibians are very formal and polite, and I’m trying out my rudimentary Oshiwambo – greetings are very important, almost a ritual which everyone must complete before conversation can ensue. But I skipped the traditional greeting with Mister Albin in his towel.
At school this morning I met Mr. Kalumbu, the principal, who doesn’t yet seem to know what to do with me. So I headed to the “library” to start setting up their technical equipment which was installed a month go but hasn’t been used because nobody knows what to do with it. It has taken me most of the morning to set up theTV, satellite box, and VCR and get them functioning. The computer is currently broken and has been sent out to be fixed – not really counting on ever seeing that happen, but I can train teachers who want to know Word, Powerpoint, etc. on my laptop in hopes that eventually their computer will be reinstalled. I talked to Mr. Kalumbu about setting up some staff development sessions where I can implement the plan given to me by the Ministry of Education to integrate the technology – which right now will mean the VCR. My goal is to create a video library for them by teaching them how to record educational programming off the satellite (we get Discovery, Nat’l Geographic, BBC, etc), and then using the Ministry manual to teach them how to implement videos with before, during and after viewing activities. They also need to understand that sometimes they might want to use a segment of the video to meet their objectives, and that since most of this programming is spoken in American English, they will need to stop tape frequently to monitor comprehension. Hmmmm…
The principal did seem to be interested in this and I guess I’ve already proven my value by getting the stuff to work. I think he is going to give me a 6th grade class to teach. There are 500 “learners” at this school who come from outlying areas miles around. A lot of them are AIDS orphans, but I haven’t really figured out where these kids live yet. A Peace Corps volunteer ( the one who’s in my house) came around and introduced herself. The locals call her Ombili, which means peace in Oshiwambo. She works at the clinic close to the school and does AIDS education/testing/counseling. She’s from St. Petersburg but is a native Israeli. She offered to let me use her electricity on the weekends (if I want to walk 3 miles with my laptop to the clinic).
OK, I’d better get back to my taping… I’ll report on the staff meeting later.
After a week of tedious training in the capital, I had an 8 hour drive to Ondangwa in the far north of Namibia. As we drove down the highway we had the Kalahari desert to the east. It isn’t a desert as one normally thinks of dunes and white sands…. Rather an seemingly endless flat area which actually does receive some rainfall and thus is covered with some scrub vegetation. But I can honestly say I don’t think I’ve ever seen the horizon like I saw it as we drove along a plateau looking down on the Kalahari. It was getting late when I arrived at the school (I was being driven by two Ministry of Education employees who surprisingly spoke little English), only to find it deserted. Calls from my Namibian cell phone to Mr. Kalumbu, the principal, went unanswered. Suddenly a pick up truck drove up and two rather intoxicated men told me I was being taken to a family’s home where I would be staying! “No, I’m supposed to have a government house of my own”, I protested. I actually could see a house that I think was supposed to be mine next to the clinic. No one seemed to know anything other than I was supposed to go with these guys in the truck, so I went (one of them was a teacher from the school).
I was taken to a “traditional” African home, which is actually a compound where a large extended family lives together. It was about 3 miles from the school. The daughter of the house speaks beautiful English and has trained to become a teacher. She showed me to my part of the “house”. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures with this entry…. But this might become a problem because of the (lack of) electricity, which I’ll explain in a moment. The house is surrounded by a high fence made of sticks. Instead of one building, the house is a series of huts… some made of mud plaster, some of sticks, some with thatched roofs, others with corrugated iron roofs. I was shown to two adjacent rooms which have a cement floor and a thatched roof lined with corrugated iron. There was a table, two chairs, a mattress on the floor, and no electricity. “This is where you will stay”, the daughter, Elina, said. “Holy crap”, Sarah thought. I called the WorldTeach office in Windhoek, who assured me that I had been promised a house and there must be a mistake. As it was now dark, however, it was too late to do anything but make the best of it. Elina gave me a tour of the place….. a toilet and cold shower on the opposite side of the compound, huge baskets (bigger than I am) to store millet and sorghum….the huts belonging to the adult sons. There is a small kitchen with a gas stove, but the family was cooking in what they call the “traditional kitchen” outdoors. There was beef strung out between the huts to dry into “biltong” – African jerky. At the time I was pretty freaked…. My whole plan in coming alone to Africa was to spend the evenings writing – but with no electricity my laptop is useless (holds a charge for about 1 hour if I’m lucky). I’d brought French DVDs to spend the evenings on self-improvement – that’s gone down the drain - and I’d brought some movies to play on the laptop to get me through bouts of insomnia – think again, Sarah. It gets dark before 6:00 here (it’s winter). So, I called Jeff, got out my sleeping bag (by this time I’d been brought a bed frame, and lay down in my clothes… I didn’t know what I was supposed to do about eating, but luckily I had some granola bars and a bottle of water with me. Elina was very nice and after a while her mother Meme Freda (Meme – pronounced “Maymay” is the formal term for a married woman, comparable to “Mrs.”), who owns a small shop by the school, came in and introduced herself and brought me a battery powered lantern which died out after the first hour. There are two toddlers in the family (may be Elina’s kids) – one of whom is petrified of white people and starting screaming every time he saw me. Oi. I felt like crying myself.
But as I lay in the dark I started realizing how absolutely cool this was. I was in the heart of Africa, lying in a hut with nothing but my imagination for entertainment. I felt perfectly safe. I could hear the sounds of the family preparing their evening meal over the fire. I could hear them greeting the men as they came in with the cattle from the grain fields. Looking out of my window, I could see the round thatched roof huts of other family members. Gradually the family went to sleep and I could hear an occasional dog howling and the family’s poultry settling down for the night (roosters crow all night long, by the way). I began to make a plan. If only I could get my laptop to work, I could still write, practice French, and watch the occasional Cary Grant DVD at night. So, hopefully, Jeff will procure another battery for the laptop this week and get it to me ASAP. I can charge the spare battery every day, as well as the laptop at school, and have something to do in the evenings. The room itself provides privacy (the shower thing is going to be a challenge though) and I feel secure there. The only other challenge will be that this small extended family village is far from school…. two of the little boys attend the school, but they normally walk. If I can make friends with the dogs that guard the compound, I guess I can walk, too.
This morning I was awakened by the family having their morning prayer with song. They were singing in Oshiwambo, but the tune was to “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today” – one of my favorite hymns! I was served tea and bread by Mme Freda, and was surprised by the father, Mister Albin, walking in in a towel after his morning shower! The Namibians are very formal and polite, and I’m trying out my rudimentary Oshiwambo – greetings are very important, almost a ritual which everyone must complete before conversation can ensue. But I skipped the traditional greeting with Mister Albin in his towel.
At school this morning I met Mr. Kalumbu, the principal, who doesn’t yet seem to know what to do with me. So I headed to the “library” to start setting up their technical equipment which was installed a month go but hasn’t been used because nobody knows what to do with it. It has taken me most of the morning to set up theTV, satellite box, and VCR and get them functioning. The computer is currently broken and has been sent out to be fixed – not really counting on ever seeing that happen, but I can train teachers who want to know Word, Powerpoint, etc. on my laptop in hopes that eventually their computer will be reinstalled. I talked to Mr. Kalumbu about setting up some staff development sessions where I can implement the plan given to me by the Ministry of Education to integrate the technology – which right now will mean the VCR. My goal is to create a video library for them by teaching them how to record educational programming off the satellite (we get Discovery, Nat’l Geographic, BBC, etc), and then using the Ministry manual to teach them how to implement videos with before, during and after viewing activities. They also need to understand that sometimes they might want to use a segment of the video to meet their objectives, and that since most of this programming is spoken in American English, they will need to stop tape frequently to monitor comprehension. Hmmmm…
The principal did seem to be interested in this and I guess I’ve already proven my value by getting the stuff to work. I think he is going to give me a 6th grade class to teach. There are 500 “learners” at this school who come from outlying areas miles around. A lot of them are AIDS orphans, but I haven’t really figured out where these kids live yet. A Peace Corps volunteer ( the one who’s in my house) came around and introduced herself. The locals call her Ombili, which means peace in Oshiwambo. She works at the clinic close to the school and does AIDS education/testing/counseling. She’s from St. Petersburg but is a native Israeli. She offered to let me use her electricity on the weekends (if I want to walk 3 miles with my laptop to the clinic).
OK, I’d better get back to my taping… I’ll report on the staff meeting later.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Training Continues
Yesterday (Sunday) we had free time in the morning so I got up early and walked downtown by myself. My destination was Christuskirche (church) which was built by the Germans 100 years ago and dominates the city scene, being built on a pretty hill above Zoo Park. The church wasn’t open yet (was only about 8 a.m.) so I didn’t see the inside, but the architecture outside is beautiful. I think it’s a Lutheran church. I also visited a monument in a nearby park which was placed by the Germans to memorialize German soldiers who died in wars in the early 20th century against the Himba and Herero tribes. I thought it was striking that the memorial (a big equestrian statue) still stood and is cared for since the Germans are long gone and so many Africans were slaughtered. I walked down Independence Avenue and also saw the Namibian National Museum (closed) and Windhoek high school…. looking quite similar to DHS.
Going the opposite way down Independence I got some shopping done at ShopRite, which is like a Big K-Mart with groceries and about anything else you might want to buy. I bought a stack of CD-Rs, two VHS tapes, a candy bar and a drink for N$67, which is about 9 bucks. I went into some posh malls that have leather stores, fur stores, book stores very similar to Walden, espresso bars, etc. and the lobby of the Kalihari Sands hotel, which has a casino. Then to the internet café to send e-mails. I cried when I read Breezy’s…. I keep questioning if my going here was a good idea…. Not that I’m expecting it to be a bad experience… but how many months more will I have the kids at home? Is this some kind of selfish joy trip (or worse yet, ego trip) that I’m taking? Sometimes during training it sounds depressing and frustrating and I begin to question if I can make a difference. And will I be appreciated? It’s wrong for me to come here expecting appreciation… it shouldn’t be about that – but will I feel unfulfilled and cheated if I’m not valued at my school? Just what were my objectives in coming here, and if I figure them out and they’re not met, how will I react?
Upon return to the hostel, I had a Oshiwambo lesson. The language is very phonetic, but for some reason I’m not picking it up with my usual ease. I’m not going to stress about that (I hope) because when I get to Uukwiiushona I’ll have lots of nights to practice and the kids will help me learn. After the language lesson and lunch we had a rather depressing session about our role in Namibia. We had to role play situations in which the people in Namibia took advantage of us, gossiped about us, came to us with AIDS related problems, declared that Osama Bin Laden was a hero and that 9/11 was a good thing, etc. Then we were given a rather startling paper about the effects of imperialism on native cultures which basically brought into question why we would even be here and suggested that we were forcing native speakers to learn English and devaluing their own culture in so doing. I found this pretentious and disturbing. Two of the readings had to do with other countries pre-independence; the other was from a former WorldTeach volunteer who was on a white man’s guilt trip about asking students in his English class to speak English in class. The readings totally disregarded the fact that Namibians chose English as their national language when they wrote their constitution which was adopted by a democratically elected government (which, by the way, is anti-American). It also appeared to be oblivious that in foreign language classes at home students are not allowed to speak English in the class. Or that a cornerstone of American ESOL education is respect for the native culture. The over-intellectualized pre-conclusion seemed to be an assumption that we were all neocolonialists who were here to disrespect the children and their culture by pushing our imperialist language upon them. Hello? Was it not the Ministry of Education that asked us to do this? I am at a loss to explain why WorldTeach thought this literature was something we should read… I resent the assumption that I’m an ethnocentric bully with an agenda. And of course it led to a pointless discussion which grew a little uncomfortable with the Harvard kids posturing and showing off what they learned in International Relations 101 - and some of the college students who are international making some rather ignorant (OK, naïve) comments about the place of English in today’s global society (basically trashing the English language in English.. a language which, if they couldn’t speak, they wouldn’t have been in the financial or practical position to be admitted to Harvard or go on this trip. Irony?) At this point I wasn’t only wondering what I was doing here…. I was wondering what the hell they, with these attitudes, were doing here!
The night ended on a high note as we went to a jazz club and heard some African jazz and I even danced with one of the kids for a couple minutes. Had a couple of Tafel beers and so slept well.
Today we went to the Namibian College of Teacher Education for a presentation/workshop by MultiChoice on how to integrate television into our curriculum. I’m happy (or sad) to report that workshops in Namibia can be just as pointless, ill-conducted, and boring as workshops in the U.S. The presenter wasn’t well-planned and she was arrogant. A lot of Namibian teachers had driven hundreds of miles to come to this workshop and the first three hours were just redundant brainstorming… and the Namibians were pretty ticked about the waste of time. Then she read the manual to us for a while, talked down to the volunteer kids for a while. Then she had us watch a video on math and develop a 7 step lesson plan using the video. This was a useful exercise but she chose the wrong video and a lot of the Namibian teachers were not getting the fact that you can use parts of the video and not show others and that teachers are to supplement any shortcomings of the video, which ensued in some arguments, lack of understanding of expectations, and disgust on the part of the Namibian teachers. I think there was also some tension going on there because the presenter was South African and was condescending to the Namibians, who, given the history of the two countries, were understandably resentful. So much time was wasted on this that when we finally got to the technical aspects of the equipment (the part most people wanted to know) it was hurried and people had lost interest. I met a teacher from my school – can’t pronounce his whole name but he said “Call me Saki”. He teaches geography and doesn’t speak/understand English as well as the other teachers I’ve met. He seemed very surprised that I was going to his school, which made me a little nervous, and he didn’t seem to know where I was going to live… but he was nice and said the teachers are nice. The kids, he said, can be nice or not so nice. Hmmm….
We left the workshop a little disgusted (the kids more so than Kaci, Katie, and myself – Kaci and Katie are the other teachers on the trip, both 33, and are used to pointless workshops). We had lasagna back in the hostel. Tomorrow is the last day of training, and then off to the schools
Friday, June 8, 2007
Teacher Talk
Today we spent all day with representatives from the University of Namibia Teacher Education department who gave us the lowdown on what to expect in our classrooms. Maybe it’s wrong of me to be surprised that 95% of what they were teaching us is exactly the same as you would learn in a U.S. school of education. Bloom’s Taxonomy, learner centered lesson plans, constructionist theory of learning, etc. etc. etc. Then we were shown the Namibian national standards for learning which look amazingly (in format at least) like the Sunshine State Standards. I learned that Namibian teachers were expected to complete long range unit plans, including instructional objectives and learning objectives, and then weekly plans. Finally, they presented us with a daily lesson plan template which was almost exactly the same as the ones used at Stetson for teacher training! I hope I’m not being patronizing by being so surprised, but it was certainly nice to discover that I won’t have to reinvent myself to teach in Namibia. Having said that, they next gave us the not-so-good news that many of the teachers in the village schools we’ll be going to haven’t had any formal training and therefore (disappointingly) my primary role when I get to Uukwiyuushona will be more teacher training than working with students. Having said that, I can only conduct staff development after school when the teachers are free; therefore, I will have plenty of opportunity to work with the learners (in Namibia, school children are referred to as “learners” rather than “students” – the term “student” denotes someone at university).
Oh, yes, we also went through training on our emergency evacuation plan, which would be through the Peace Corps if anything actually every happened necessitating us getting out of here fast. We got a secret code and everything.
Sorry that there are no exciting adventures to pass on so far. I still have several days of training in the capital city and the real interesting stuff will come once I get to the village…. Unfortunately I probably won’t be able to update this as often then.
Training
June 8
Today we had a meeting in the morning – a little redundant – more about the expectations we have for ourselves and for what WorldTeach has for us. Then, we went to the U.S. Embassy in Windhoek for a scary presentation on safety issues. The State Department evidently has levels of concern about various things like crime. Well, guess what? Namibia is rated at the highest level for crime that they have. It was actually a little disconcerting to hear him speak, but Maggie (the WorldTeach field director) said that in the 2 ½ years she’s been here there’s only been one instance of crime against a volunteer – this involved a knife but the volunteer wasn’t hurt. I figure that in our village we’ll have to worry less because everyone knows everyone (?).
Fortunately I was able to apply for more pages to add to my passport while there because with less than brilliant planning I find that I’ve used up my whole passport. I spent a day in Germany on the way over, had to transit through South Africa to get here and their visa takes an entire page, and my work permit for Namibia took another entire page. I have to go back through South Africa to leave using more space so extra pages I must have.
Next we had a session about “Namlish” which is the way Namibians speak English. A lot of it is actually Brit-speak (like “rubber” for “eraser”) but a lot of it is unique to Namibia (such as “shabeen” for bar, or the concept of time. Evidently, “now” means in a while, "now now" means I'll get to it, but if you want some thing right NOW, you have to say “now, now, now”.
Next, I walked into town with a group of the students where I updated my Livejournal at an internet cafe and changed some money. In the afternoon we had more culture shock therapy, and then a doctor came and talked to us about health issues in Namibia. We’re kept pretty busy, so no time to really be homesick (that comes later). I was able to talk to Jeff, Breezy and Garrett for a while last night – Jeff bought a calling card so he can phone me much more inexpensively than I can him…. I’ve already used up half my minutes I purchased. I spent $295 Namibian dollars, which is about $US45 on a minutes card for my cell phone.
Today we had a meeting in the morning – a little redundant – more about the expectations we have for ourselves and for what WorldTeach has for us. Then, we went to the U.S. Embassy in Windhoek for a scary presentation on safety issues. The State Department evidently has levels of concern about various things like crime. Well, guess what? Namibia is rated at the highest level for crime that they have. It was actually a little disconcerting to hear him speak, but Maggie (the WorldTeach field director) said that in the 2 ½ years she’s been here there’s only been one instance of crime against a volunteer – this involved a knife but the volunteer wasn’t hurt. I figure that in our village we’ll have to worry less because everyone knows everyone (?).
Fortunately I was able to apply for more pages to add to my passport while there because with less than brilliant planning I find that I’ve used up my whole passport. I spent a day in Germany on the way over, had to transit through South Africa to get here and their visa takes an entire page, and my work permit for Namibia took another entire page. I have to go back through South Africa to leave using more space so extra pages I must have.
Next we had a session about “Namlish” which is the way Namibians speak English. A lot of it is actually Brit-speak (like “rubber” for “eraser”) but a lot of it is unique to Namibia (such as “shabeen” for bar, or the concept of time. Evidently, “now” means in a while, "now now" means I'll get to it, but if you want some thing right NOW, you have to say “now, now, now”.
Next, I walked into town with a group of the students where I updated my Livejournal at an internet cafe and changed some money. In the afternoon we had more culture shock therapy, and then a doctor came and talked to us about health issues in Namibia. We’re kept pretty busy, so no time to really be homesick (that comes later). I was able to talk to Jeff, Breezy and Garrett for a while last night – Jeff bought a calling card so he can phone me much more inexpensively than I can him…. I’ve already used up half my minutes I purchased. I spent $295 Namibian dollars, which is about $US45 on a minutes card for my cell phone.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Windhoek
So, I arrived in Windhoek on Wednesday. This is the capital city of Namibia, which was started by the Germans who colonized here in the late 1800s. They lost control of Namibia during WWI, but it’s amazing how the German influence has survived. Many of the buildings are chalet-style, and there are plenty of German restaurants and German-named businesses. So far, my only glimpse of the countryside has been on the 24 mile ride into Windhoek from the airport. Looks a lot like South Dakota! Some rolling hillside, fairly barren with some scrub brush and few trees. Beautiful. In the city there are lots of palm trees – landscaping is definitely a part of life in this capital city.
The picture is of some local dancers who came to our hostel last night. They are actually Tswana, so very similar to what Jeff and I saw in Botswana. Very talented singers as well, with three part harmony. They also explained the meanings of some of their folksongs and encouraged participation. I’m sorry to say I was so tired after two days in airports and on planes that I didn’t participate as much as I should have. Had a good night’s sleep – but it’s COLD here – down in the 40s and no heat. All but my feet managed to stay fairly comfortable, though.
Haven’t had much time to explore, however, because I’ve been kept fairly busy with training. A lot of it has been cultural expectations, how the teachers and students at our schools will react to us, etc. Then we got more into the technical aspects – such as how much and what kind of equipment we can expect when we get to our schools and how we can train teachers not only to use the equipment, but to integrate technology into their lessons. The Deputy Minister of Education spoke to us about Namibia’s fantastic “roadmap” in which education will be used to become an industrialized nation by 2030 and what part we are playing in this plan. I say “we” because there are other volunteers who are here. We are training together, but in a few days will be sent to our respective schools on our own. Most of the other volunteers are Harvard students. Even though there are a few teachers like me, I am definitely the old lady of the group – but they’re very accepting and many of them have traveled and had other amazing experiences – in other words, they are very mature for their age and I don’t feel like I’m a fish out of water…. Plus I know my age and experience will be an advantage when I arrive at my school.
Training later in the week will be about AIDS education and what we can do in our villages to help, and some basic classes in learning the predominant language of our region.
Later.... So, tonight the training coordinator took us to a Herero restaurant outside of town. Well, I say it’s a restaurant, but actually it was like a house with tables set up outside in tents. The woman proprietress – something like Wamamboomelba greeted us in full Herero dress…. The Herero people still dress the way the German missionaries imposed upon them during their colonial days of the late 1800s; therefore, they wear long dresses with puffed sleeves and high necklines. We were served delicious bread – all the bread I’ve had here is awesome – then some traditional rice and chicken dishes and something called “pap” (?) – which was kind of grit-like. I think it's porridge made out of ground millet. Just when we thought the meal was done, the cooks brought out four entire sheep heads! Yes. The sheep’s head, cut off at the neck, roasted in its entirety. So we ate parts of the head that we could cut off of the skull (taste just like any other mutton) and we’re thinking we’re pretty cool and adventuresome for doing so. Then, “Melba” comes out and asks if we’ve eaten the best part – the tongue! Well, I thought, “WWJD?” (what would Jeff do) and I reached in with my fork and pried the sheep’s tongue right out of its mouth. Yes, I had to pry the jaws open to do so, and yes, the mouth was full of some nasty looking teeth, but I ate it. I offered the tip to one of the students, Elias, who ate it and then I ate my piece. (tastes like rubbery mutton). Well, after awhile she comes by and says “Did anyone eat the eyeballs?” So, this time Elias scooped out one eyeball and ate it, and then scooped out the other one and offered it to me (tastes like mutton – but a little slimier). There were about 6 other volunteers sitting around marveling at our nerve – and possibly jealous that there weren’t enough eyeballs to go around. Well, after awhile we notice some activity going on at another table and we walk over to see Melba scooping out the brains and offering spoonfuls to those willing. Brains do NOT taste like mutton…. But I did have a spoonful. It was a fantastic night and I know my husband is going to be green with envy when he calls me tonight and I tell him about it. (By the way, I did buy a Namibian cell phone… mine won’t work here, but I can use the Namibian one to call home and text messages and they can call me).
The picture is of some local dancers who came to our hostel last night. They are actually Tswana, so very similar to what Jeff and I saw in Botswana. Very talented singers as well, with three part harmony. They also explained the meanings of some of their folksongs and encouraged participation. I’m sorry to say I was so tired after two days in airports and on planes that I didn’t participate as much as I should have. Had a good night’s sleep – but it’s COLD here – down in the 40s and no heat. All but my feet managed to stay fairly comfortable, though.
Haven’t had much time to explore, however, because I’ve been kept fairly busy with training. A lot of it has been cultural expectations, how the teachers and students at our schools will react to us, etc. Then we got more into the technical aspects – such as how much and what kind of equipment we can expect when we get to our schools and how we can train teachers not only to use the equipment, but to integrate technology into their lessons. The Deputy Minister of Education spoke to us about Namibia’s fantastic “roadmap” in which education will be used to become an industrialized nation by 2030 and what part we are playing in this plan. I say “we” because there are other volunteers who are here. We are training together, but in a few days will be sent to our respective schools on our own. Most of the other volunteers are Harvard students. Even though there are a few teachers like me, I am definitely the old lady of the group – but they’re very accepting and many of them have traveled and had other amazing experiences – in other words, they are very mature for their age and I don’t feel like I’m a fish out of water…. Plus I know my age and experience will be an advantage when I arrive at my school.
Training later in the week will be about AIDS education and what we can do in our villages to help, and some basic classes in learning the predominant language of our region.
Later.... So, tonight the training coordinator took us to a Herero restaurant outside of town. Well, I say it’s a restaurant, but actually it was like a house with tables set up outside in tents. The woman proprietress – something like Wamamboomelba greeted us in full Herero dress…. The Herero people still dress the way the German missionaries imposed upon them during their colonial days of the late 1800s; therefore, they wear long dresses with puffed sleeves and high necklines. We were served delicious bread – all the bread I’ve had here is awesome – then some traditional rice and chicken dishes and something called “pap” (?) – which was kind of grit-like. I think it's porridge made out of ground millet. Just when we thought the meal was done, the cooks brought out four entire sheep heads! Yes. The sheep’s head, cut off at the neck, roasted in its entirety. So we ate parts of the head that we could cut off of the skull (taste just like any other mutton) and we’re thinking we’re pretty cool and adventuresome for doing so. Then, “Melba” comes out and asks if we’ve eaten the best part – the tongue! Well, I thought, “WWJD?” (what would Jeff do) and I reached in with my fork and pried the sheep’s tongue right out of its mouth. Yes, I had to pry the jaws open to do so, and yes, the mouth was full of some nasty looking teeth, but I ate it. I offered the tip to one of the students, Elias, who ate it and then I ate my piece. (tastes like rubbery mutton). Well, after awhile she comes by and says “Did anyone eat the eyeballs?” So, this time Elias scooped out one eyeball and ate it, and then scooped out the other one and offered it to me (tastes like mutton – but a little slimier). There were about 6 other volunteers sitting around marveling at our nerve – and possibly jealous that there weren’t enough eyeballs to go around. Well, after awhile we notice some activity going on at another table and we walk over to see Melba scooping out the brains and offering spoonfuls to those willing. Brains do NOT taste like mutton…. But I did have a spoonful. It was a fantastic night and I know my husband is going to be green with envy when he calls me tonight and I tell him about it. (By the way, I did buy a Namibian cell phone… mine won’t work here, but I can use the Namibian one to call home and text messages and they can call me).
Arrival
I arrived in Windhoek, Namibia yesterday and have spent the time training - learning about Namibia's culture, the expectations of the Ministry of Education, and what the learner's preconceptions about me and how they will react to having an American volunteer in the midst. I won't be at my actual school until next week -- but the word is that they are anxiously expecting me as they have never had an "outsider" at their school before. Everyone is very welcoming... Windhoek is a beautiful city right in the center of the country. It's cold! Winter is underway here and I froze last night. However, since we are below the equator, the further north one goes the warmer it will be, and my school is in the far north of Namibia. No pictures to post yet. It will be a day or so before I can get back to post photos and more information about my training! Thanks for reading!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)