Everyone Knows I Went to Okahao

I successfully slept until 8am again! Whoo-hoo! Once everyone was awake, we finished the cake and had fruit for breakfast and then we started to get ready to make our way back to our respective homes. Steve generously offered to give us (all 6 of us that were leaving) back to Oshikati. Once in Oshikati, Katie, Kathryn and Dan headed off and Cama, Jen and I went to Spar for some groceries with Steve. Steve then dropped Jen off in Ondangwa, Cama in Okatope and me in Oshikango. We all paid him for the ride, but it was great to not have to be crammed in a taxi the entire ride. I would have gladly taken a taxi from Steve’s town, which is about 10k before Oshikango, but Steve said it would be no problem for the ride to Oshikango.

He dropped me off at Omatala and waited with me to get a ride. It only took a couple of minutes, but while we were waiting Else’s friend Ina walked up and asked me how Okahoa was. She did not come in the same bakkie, but we chatted for a minute before I left for Edundja. The bakkie was headed straight down the main dirt (sand) road, so he dropped me off just before the village. As I was getting out of the bakkie, the Take Away Tate was driving by and stopped to say hi, unfortunately, he was not headed into the village. As I started walking through the village, I saw one of the elder men of the village – a former pastor and teacher – sitting and having a beer in front of one of the cuca shops and stopped to say hi. He invited me to sit with him and share a beer (one of the 40 oz). As I was sitting there Jason (I found out he has a nickname, Takataka) came by to ask how Okahao was. I also chatted with Theodore, who gave me a ride a couple of weeks ago, and he seemed to know I had been to Okahao. I also saw one of the teachers at my school, Isaac. After an hour or two in town, Jason walked me back to the homestead. And, it turns out that he lives in one of the homesteads that I walk past each day on my way to school.

As it turns out, the former pastor and teacher is the Headman of Edundja. From what I can tell, it must be like the mayor or something. Ronnie Headman is acting headman of a village very near to where I live, so I guess that one day soon I will have to pay a visit to Ronnie Headman and find out what a Headman actually does.

The Trip to Okahao

I think that I am finally starting to adjust to a more normal sleep schedule – as all week I have been using the snooze function on my alarm and this morning I was able to fall back asleep until almost 8am. Typically, I have been up before 6am and only able to toss and turn until close to 7am. As I was getting dressed and ready to go, I heard lots of commotion in front of my room. When I looked outside, it was Joe and Rosaria playing a makeshift game of soccer. They were using a filled plastic grocery bag that had been tied shut as a ball, some bricks as goal markers and lines drawn in the sand as the field and scoreboard. It was cute. Maybe one day I’ll pick up a ball in town for the kids to play with.

This morning I headed to Okahao to celebrate the birthdays of two of the year-long volunteers. Irene’s birthday is today and Dan’s is tomorrow. Since my phone was not working, I was not sure who else was going. Previously, Cama and I had discussed meeting up and going together, but I decided to go on my own because I was unable to reach her.

To get to Okahao, I have to hike to Oshikango, get a taxi to Ondangwa, then get another taxi to Oshikati and yet another taxi to Okahao. This morning Frans wanted to escort me to the village and wait with me until I got a hike. I think that he only wanted to do this because he now has a phone (I think that one of the small boys, a cousin of some sort, that arrived earlier this week to visit from Swakop brought it for him) but needs a start pack – which is a SIM card and 15 or 20 minutes of talk time. He wanted me to buy him a start pack. I told him I would think about it. Before we got to town, I heard a car coming and was able to get a hike. When we got to Oshikango, I thanked the Tate and paid him N$10 for the ride. He introduced himself to me as Ronnie Headman and wanted to know why I had not yet been by to see him. I said that I did not know of him, but now that I did, I would.

I then got a taxi to Ondangwa. It turns out that the two girls that were in the taxi with me were headed to Oshikati, so the same driver went ahead and gave us ride there. Since I was in Oshikati, I decided to go to Fruit and Veg to have bananas and ice cream before picking up beer to take to Okahao. After I picked up the beer, I was walking across the parking lot to get a taxi to the Okahao hike point and I saw a familiar tall, blonde guy. It was Monty and I stopped to chat. He was in town to use an internet café and seek out US dollars. He is planning to go to Zambia to see Victoria Falls at the end of our service and you need to pay the entry visa in US Dollars. Since I am also planning to go to Vic Falls, we discussed potentially going together (I have some US Dollars for my entry fee). His flight back to London is out of Zambia on 8/16, so it may work out for us to head there together and then I’ll come back to Namibia to continue my travels. We’ll see…

Once I got to the Okahao hike point, the taxi filled up quite quickly and we were on our way. There were 4 passengers in the backseat (2 Memes, a Tate and me) and a larger Meme and the driver in the front seat. The Meme that was next to me started asking about the bones of the leg. I was a little confused until the Meme told me that she wanted to sing “The head bone’s connected to the neck bone”, etc. She had me get out a piece of paper and pen, draw a skeleton and start labeling. It was quite funny. Then we had a discussion of the word “eye” and “ear” and how English was confusing. After a while she asked me to “help her” write a paper for a class that she is taking at UNAM. At first I was confused and then I told her that I would not be able to write her paper for her. That was the end of our conversation and she took a nap after that.

On the way to Okahao, we passed two boys with a donkey drawn cart selling what looked like catfish at the side of the road. Well, we didn’t actually pass them, the taxi driver stopped and he and two of the other passengers bought bunches of the fish. ICK! I am those fish were caught in the remains of the flood water from several months ago. We also passed some more hilariously named shebeens – one that stood out was Half Way Entertainment House.

I finally arrived at Irene’s school, Shanika Nashilonga, which is a hostel school with around 800 learners. In addition to it being Irene and Dan’s birthdays, Irene’s school was having a full day celebration and feast to raise money for air conditioners for their computer lab. There was a tent, cultural performers, several area dignitaries, including 2 Owambo kings and a traditional Owambo feast. For Irene’s party, we were planning to have dinner at the event and then hang out at Irene’s. Our group bought a table and the feast consisted of Owambo chicken, goat, braai chicken and beef, traditional mahangu porridge, potato salad, macaroni salad, slaw, pumpkin and caterpillars. We traded the caterpillars for ground nuts/beans. We were also served oshikundu, which is beer made from mahangu and a bottled beverage called Club Shandy, which is a beer and lemonade combo. I liked the Club Shandy. The oshikundu, not so much.

After the feast, we went back to Irene’s for birthday cake, to play card games and have cocktails. We played Mafia and a game called Aflac, which I was terrible at!

Fresh Goat, Anyone?

Each Monday and Friday morning there is an assembly before classes. The learners sing the Namibian anthem and recite the Lord’s Prayer at each assembly. Today the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer was particularly bad and Mr. Kavungo stated that in each class’s next Religious and Moral Studies class the teachers ensure that all of the learners know it in English. I’ll be very curious to see how assembly goes next week!

Sometimes teaching is so frustrating! Since Joolokeni has been at a workshop all week, I have been responsible for covering her classes. She just asked me to review and explain the notes. Grade 10 is studying the 4 P’s of marketing and we were discussing pricing policy decisions. I asked the class to tell me factors that they would take into account when setting the price of a product. To ensure that they understood the question, I also wrote it on the board and was prepared to write their responses on the board. Silence. I repeated the question in a different way. Silence. I asked them to look in their notes. Silence. I asked them to pretend that they were selling something and to tell me how they would set the price. Silence. This was painful. And kind of like the scene from Ferris Bueller. But I did not want to move on without having someone take a guess. Finally, a brave soul gave me something and we were able to move on. The learners at my school have been taught to memorize, not to think for themselves. There is no focus on comprehension. It makes me dread planning my lessons.

After school today I went to Oshikango with Else and several other teachers from the school. Else wanted to see a doctor about some back pain that she is having. Ester, another teacher, did some shopping and then got a taxi to head out of town for the weekend. After Else saw the doctor, we got her prescription filled, went to Pick N Pay to do our shopping and then took a taxi to the Omatala hike point to head back to the village. Omatala is similar to an open air market with lots of small vendors selling their goods. There are corrugated tin structures, makeshift tables, etc. The hike point is across the dirt road from the market. Behind the hike point there is a fence and there are always goats tethered to the fence. Today, while waiting for more people to get into the bakkie, I noticed that there was a goat hanging from a wooden structure in front of the fence. And a man was pulling the hide off of the goat. Apparently, the tethered goats are there for slaughter to use when the vendors have sold their current supply.

The bakkie that took us back to Edundja belongs to a Tate that owns the take away shop in the village. On the way to drop us at the homestead, we stopped at the take away to drop off stock for the store. A take away shop sells prepared food. This particular take away shop is also a cuca shop, which is like a mini market. You can buy beer, cool drinks, basic canned goods, bread and a few other things. This Tate told Else to let me know that his shop also has Russians (sausages) and chips (fries). This is the same shop that Frans and I ate at, so I already knew.

When Else and I arrived back at the homestead, I spent some time playing with Shangala, who still loves to laugh and giggle when she sees me. I started threatening to tickle her by wiggling my fingers at her when she comes towards me, which makes her laugh even harder. She has also started doing it back to me and she tries to sneak up on me while wiggling her fingers. It’s really cute. I also tried to teach her to play “slaps” – when one person has their hands palms down on the other person’s palms up and the palms up person tries to slap the hand of the palms down person. She does not quite get the game, but has fun playing. After a couple minutes, she started wiggling her fingers on my palms like she was tickling me.

Tonight I also realized that phone was not actually sending the SMS messages that I was sending to people. I was receiving texts, but not sending them. I figured out that this had been happening since Tuesday – and I was a little relieved, as I was feeling a bit blown off by a couple of people. I was a little stressed about my phone not working, but later was told by another volunteer (in Okahao) that I just need to power down and restart the phone to fix it. Thankfully, that worked – but I was not able to do that until Sunday because I had to find my pin number (in my room in Edundja) before powering down the phone.

YTSLA A VCIROLM aka A Small Victory

Finally, I found a way to get my classes interested in participating and thinking – as opposed to just reciting answers straight from the photocopied handouts! I am not sure what they are called, but it is similar to Boggle (one of my favorite games ever) or a word scramble. It’s too bad that it is not relevant to business management… but it will help them with their English and independent thinking.

Anyway, I wrote 5 letters on the board and challenged the class to make words out of the letters. For example, T P R A S can create the following words – Part, Parts, Strap, Rap, Tap, Sap, etc. When I finish my planned lesson early, which happens almost every day because it takes so long for me to explain the most basic business terms, I can spend the last couple of minutes with word games. It took a while for the concept to catch on the first time I did it, but 9A is very eager to participate. 9B and 9C were pretty quick to catch on. But 9D, they are going to be a challenge…

When I came home from school today, Anna and Rosaria were cleaning out their room, all their belongings were in the dirt and there was a bed and frig propped up against the bakkie. It turns out that they are moving into another concrete structure on the other side of the homestead and a Meme is moving in next door. I have not met her yet, but apparently she’ll be working at the regional office. Which makes me think that she has a car… But who knows…

From Sweets to Caterpillars

The grading system in Namibia is extremely different and much more lax compared to the US. First, grades are called symbols. And you mark papers. You don’t grade them. Also, if you are in the 9^th grade, you are grade 9. Learners don’t take a test, they write a paper. And an exam or examination is the end of year final. Oh, and an answer key is a memorandum. Below I have listed the grading (or symbol) scale:

A* = 90-100
A = 80-89
B = 70-79
C = 60-69
D = 50-59
E = 40-49
F = 30-39
G = 20-29
U = 0-19

A score of 30 is a passing grade, so an F is a passing. Only G and U are failures. I guess as a developing nation you have to start somewhere…

Anyway, the learners did not do so well on the paper they wrote. Between the four sections that I teach, no one got an A* or an A and there were only 8 B’s. I have 130 students total. And 24 of them did not even take the test and will receive a 0. At least Business Management is not one of the promotional subjects, so I guess they can fail and still move on to grade 10.

I bought candy (the learners call them “sweets”) to reward those that did well on the test and for all of the learners in 9D that actually showed for class on text day. In each class there were other learners that asked for sweets when they realized that I was not giving them to everyone. I told them that the sweets were a reward and had been earned.

In 9D, which is the worst of the 4 sections (apparently many of 9D are repeating grade 9, some not for the first or second time), when I turned to write notes on the board, one of the learners tried to sneak up to my desk and sneak some sweets out of my bag. Then, during the class activity that we were doing, he told me his name was Simon, but I figured out that it is really Oscar. By the end of class, I told him that if he kept my classroom swept each day this week that on Friday I would give him some sweets. We will see how that goes…

Maggie, the WorldTeach program director, is in the North this week and stopped by my school this morning to see how I was doing, etc. She had not previously met Mr. Kavungo or seen my school. From her reaction, it seems that my school is much more lax than many. She arrived just before 10am and thought that we were on our break – but break is at 10:40a. Nearly everyday since I have been here, there have been multiple teachers away at workshops and lots of learners wandering around all throughout the day. Not to mention that most teachers do not do any teaching during physical education and religious studies. Today there were at least 3 teachers away.

When I went back to my classroom after break, some of the 9B learners had written a note on my chalkboard that said something like “Business Management, Miss Lisa we are 9B and so glad that you are here and God bless for what you are doing for us. We hope that you stay for a long time and next year.” I thought it was very nice and hated to erase it. I thanked the learners that were in the room when I read it, but could not figure out which one wrote it. It made up for the frustration I felt earlier in the day when I walked into my classroom and saw that half of the desks were missing that there was trash and goat droppings on the floor. Sometimes goats and cattle come through the school gate to graze.

One building over from mine, where the computer lab is, the walkway in front of the rooms was covered in several patches of goat droppings. I had to ask one of the learners to get a broom to sweep it off into the sand – if I had not, I’m sure that it would have been there all day and smushed onto the walkway. For a moment, I though about the fact that the goats were probably more excited to be at the school than some of the learners.

Agriculture is one of the subjects at my school. And apparently it is a very practical class, as most learners will not be leave the village to seek higher education or professional employment. The learners that leave to seek employment will probably only be able to do odd jobs and those that stay in the village will work around their homesteads and take care of either maize or mahangu crops and/or goats and cattle. Most people in this area do not have commercial crops, they only raise what they need to support their families. Last term grade 8 planted maize at the school. Today the school secretary harvested the maize, put it into a bucket and an empty copy paper box and brought them into the staff lounge. She tried to sell each ear for N$1. No one took her up on it. I suggested that she take all the maize, prepare it and then sell it. We’ll see what happens... When I left today it was still sitting in the middle of the staff lounge on the floor. I would be willing to bet money that it will still be on the floor when I arrive at school in the morning.

This evening Else cooked dinner for me, Maria and herself. She made chicken and macaroni salad with tuna and peas. Thankfully, they do not eat traditional Namibian fare – it makes it a lot easier to get by with just a polite tasting of what is offered to my by the family. And I feel that if I had to eat what the family made or cook for myself, peanut butter sandwiches would be in much heavier rotation than the occasional breakfast and lunch. It would also be a dinner staple. Once we were done eating, I went to make hard boiled eggs to take for lunch tomorrow. I noticed that Meme was soaking something in a bowl next to the sink. It was worms. The same Fear Factor-ish ones that I could not bring myself to try in Windhoek. As my eggs boiled, the caterpillars sautéed in a pot with a bit of cooking oil…

A Couple of Photos

The photo above is a Tswana dance group that came to perform at the hostel in Windhoek during our orientation. The photos below are of me holding Smiley, one of the goat heads that we had for dinner, and me drinking 12 hour old milk that was left to curdle or ferment or whatever the process is. It tasted a little like sour yogurt. The last picture is a group photo of Pat, Laura, Me, Monty and Dana at the Herero restaurant where we had dinner.

My Second Week in Edundja

So, over the course of the week I did not write anything for my blog. The plan was to write my blog each day at school in the computer lab. That way I do not have to worry about getting to the internet café in either Oshikango or Ondangwa, getting a virus on my flash drive, spending all my time waiting for things to upload, etc. Unfortunately, with the way that my classes are scheduled and the spotty power and internet connection at school, I have not wanted to risk losing my work. So I am back to the initial plan of writing in my room at night and uploading to the blog at a later time. I’m going to try uploading from school this week, as I was able to locate USB ports on the back of the hard drives. And it looks like they will be working. Unfortunately, I do not think that I will be able to upload pictures very regularly – as it is very time consuming. But, I will try.

As I am writing this, there is no power at the homestead…

The following is a rundown of what I experienced this week:

Sunday, June 15
Getting to Ondangwa
This morning I took my first bucket bath in the basin that I bought in Oshikango. It’s not the same as a hot shower, or a warm shower, or even a cold shower… But, it is much more comfortable than standing in a cold concrete structure, wasting water while attempting to stick each body part under the spray long enough to wash. I may have to try showering in the afternoon this week.

I left the homestead at 9a to walk through the village and to the hike point to Oshikango. Frans came with me. By 9:40a I reached the hike point and waited for a car or bakki to pass by. By 10:30a, I was still waiting. Frans decided to go across the street to the housing for the primary school to see if anyone there was heading out. A couple of minutes later he came back with two guys in tow, Johnson and Theodore. As it turns out, Theodore was headed to Ondobe and was willing to give me a ride to Ondobe. He said that he would help me get a taxi from Ondobe to Onhuno and that in Onhuno I would be able to get a taxi to Ondangwa. That sounded great to me. Theodore said that he just wanted to wash his car before heading out. I was prepared to wait at the hike point until he was ready to leave – I figured that if a ride to Oshikango came by in the meantime, I would take that. But, nope, Frans insisted that we go to their house. Theodore washed his truck and Johnson did laundry. I also met another teacher from the primary school, Julia, and saw a learner from my school, Lahja – who Frans claims is his girlfriend. Finally, at 11:45 or so, we were ready to go. Welcome to Africa!

Once we were on the road, my trip went well. There are plenty of taxis in Ondobe passing by to Onhno. And in Onhuno there were plenty of taxis to Ondangwa. It was N$10 to Onhuno and N$20 to Ondangwa (although I found out that it should have only been N$15). I arrived at Heroes School, a private school where Jennifer teaches and lives, at around 1:30ish or so. Ondangwa is about 60km from Oshikango and I think that I am about 20km from Oshikango. So a 40 mile ride only costs about $5 US.

When I arrived there were a lot of summer vols, some year-longs and a couple of Namibian friends of year-longs. And tons of food. The girls had made chicken, lentils, beans, salad, hummus, fat cakes and brownies. There were chips, soda, beer and probably some stuff that I am forgetting about. It was good to be around fluent English speakers and be able to trade stories. Unfortunately, I found out that one of the summer vols was really unhappy and was leaving in a few days to go home.

It seems that quite a few are going through varying levels of culture shock and homesickness. I feel very lucky to have the placement that I have. I have a good balance of a “real African experience” with some of the comforts of home, I live with a family as well as my colleagues in an environment where everyone is respectful of privacy and where the teachers have taken an interest in making me feel at home. Cat’s school is not letting her teach because she won’t be here through the entire term (we leave a week before the end) and her school does not have an operational computer lab or internet. She lives with one other teacher who is not very warm to her. One volunteer’s Meme would not let her come to the braai because she did not want her to hike to get there. Nothing seems horrible about other people’s situations, but I definitely feel lucky. Part of it could be that I am in a much different place in my life than the majority of the summer volunteers. I do not think that I could have done this when I was 20, or even 25.

After everyone ate, we decided to play Mafia, which is a card game that I really can’t get into explaining in a blog, and then went outside to play Frisbee. In the late afternoon, most people started to head back to their villages and four of the summer vols (me, Cat, Randi, Ashley) and 3 of the year-longs crashed at Jennifer’s. Cama, Tiela, Katie and Jennifer were the year-longs. Both Cama and Tiela are relatively close to my village (about 30km away or so).

Monday, June 16
Sticking Out Like a Volunteer
This morning me, Randi, Cat and Ashley walked from Jennifer’s to the internet café and then to buy groceries before heading back home. Cat, Randi and Ashley were headed back to Jennifer’s, but I was planning to leave right after I shopped, so I took all of my things with me.

I took my backpack (rather than my daypack) to Ondangwa because I figured that I would fill the pack with groceries and be able to get everything home a little easier. I wanted to buy a towel to put under my basin while I take bucket baths, so we went into Pep. In each store that you go into, you have to check your bags. So on the way out, I got my large backpack back and when we stepped outside of Pep, I moved aside and bent down to put the towel into the pack. I heard someone behind me trying to get my attention and was startled to see that it was several uniformed Namibian police.

I was really taken aback and started to worry about why they would possibly want to speak with me. I am still a little puzzled as to what made them want to pull me aside, but they did. All they wanted was to warn me about the thieves in town and that I should be careful. I guess because I had a large backpack with me I stood out more than the average white person. Since Cat and Randi had already done their shopping the prior morning, they stayed outside with my pack while I shopped in Shop Rite with Ashley.

From the Shop Rite I took a taxi to the Oshikango hike point, then another taxi to Oshikango, then another from Omatala (in Oshikango) to Edundja. Unfortunately, the taxi would not take me all the way to my homestead. He dropped me off in the village and I had to walk about 2 miles to get home. Wow, that backpack was heavy. Probably not going to use that strategy again! Shop Rite sells several sizes of these large re-usable shopping bags, so I’ll probably invest in one of those my next shopping trip. Also, without the backpack I won’t stand out any more than the typical white volunteer in Africa…

Tuesday, June 17 and Wednesday, June 18
Chicks, Power and Money
This week has been pretty uneventful, but a couple of notes about Tuesday and Wednesday… On Tuesday I took an afternoon shower and on my way back to my room I noticed that there was a baby chick drowning in one of the wash basins that was left full of water by the ground spigot. I ran into the kitchen and got Elias (he’s in the 8^th grade) to pull him out. Unfortunately, it was too late and the chick died. I was sad.

I also found out that the way the hot water works is similar to buying and using cell minutes. Electricity is purchased by credits and it takes a lot of power to heat the water. One of the year-long volunteers suggested that if I want hot water I should offer to pay for electricity. I think that I am going to hold off and try to make due with cold showers in the afternoon, bucket baths and hair washing under the ground spigot. Cama and Tiela regularly are without water for days at a time – so I can certainly deal without a hot shower.

I have also noticed both at school and the homestead that there are regularly periods were there is no power. Similar to a brownout, I guess. In Africa, it’s okay and I am not really impacted or frustrated, just accepting. I think that my reaction would be a bit different at home.

On Wednesday morning I wrote the test that I am supposed to give tomorrow during the afternoon school study session to my learners. The secretary typed it for me and sent a couple of learners to the computer lab to have me proof read it before she made the copies. When they brought it to me, they informed me that the woman was here selling fat cakes, but I was not sure if they were asking me to get one for them, if they could get one for me or if they were asking me for money to get one for themselves. I thanked them and said something about potentially wanting a fat cake. At that point they asked for a dollar. I told them that my money was not with me and they looked disappointed.

After talking to some of the year-longs, I found out that at some schools, the person selling the food charges the learners a different price than the teachers and that the teachers give the learners enough to buy 2 fat cakes – one for themselves and one for the teacher. At first the volunteer thought that the teachers were just being cheap, but then found out that the money that the teacher was giving for the second fat cake was so that the learner could have one too.

Thursday, June 19
EFA (Education for All) and HIV/AIDS Awareness
So today there were no classes. There was no formal announcement that there was no class. Everyone just knew. Except for me.

I was supposed to give a Business Management test to Grade 9 today. I didn’t pick today to give test. It’s posted on a huge 4’x5’ calendar on the bulletin board to the school’s administrative office. Earlier in the week I confirmed with Joolokeni that I was to write and give the test as scheduled.

So, this morning Else, Maria and I were running a few minutes late. Else said not to worry, that no learners would be at school for classes today. We got to school a little before 8am and she was right. No one was there. The EFA and HIV/AIDS Awareness activities were scheduled to start at 10am and since our school is the cluster center (our cluster is 4 schools, our school and three surrounding schools) students would start arriving no earlier than 9a. The programme consisted of opening comments by Mr. Kavungo, a blessing by Patricia, a speech by a reverend about the importance of education, a drama (skit) about EFA, a performance by our school choir, a speech about HIV/AIDS by a representative from the Ministry of Health, a drama about HIV/AIDS and several traditional dance performances. Else was the master of ceremonies and wanted to use some words in English that people would not be familiar with and impressed by. I said that she could call the programme an agenda or itinerary. She liked the word itinerary and asked me how to spell it so that she could use it. I guess she got nervous, because she didn’t end up using it… She actually tried to get her co-MC to use it. He wrote it down, but didn’t use it either.

The EFA drama by our school was well done and the narrator of the skit, Lucia, spoke great English. Unfortunately, the choir was not as good as they sounded in rehearsals. The HIV/AIDS drama went on for too long. My favorite parts of the day were the 2 groups from the primary schools that performed cultural dances. I took lots of pictures and some videos.

Friday, June 20
Any Excuse to Skip Class
Since I was unable to give the learners the test yesterday as scheduled, I decided to give the test today. However, once again the best laid plans…

This morning when Maria, Else and I arrived at school, hardly any of the learners were there for assembly – which I should have taken as a sign that my day would not go as planned. I also noticed that quite a few of the chairs and desks were still outside under the big tree, left from yesterday’s EFA and HIV/AIDS Awareness celebration. Mr. Kavungo ended the morning assembly by instructing all the learners to collect the desks and chairs and return them to the classrooms before going to class.

On Fridays I only meet with three of the four grade 9 sections (A, B, D), but the section that I don’t meet with (C) has religious studies in the same classroom that I am in. I don’t believe that Joolokeni conducts class during that period anyway, so I planned to give 9C the test during their religious period.

When I arrived at my classroom, there were enough desks and an excess of chairs, but I didn’t want to cut into the test time, so I administered the test to 9A and decided to worry about the state of my classroom in the few minutes between classes. However, when it was time for the second class to start, Joolokeni had still not arrived at school. So, I had the 10A section take out the excess chairs, get brooms to sweep the classroom and sent the remaining learners out to the yard to clean up the trash and papers that were under the big tree. Once the sweeping began in the classroom it became a huge cloud of dirt and dust. I am not sure when the last time the room was swept was, but sweeping is going to become a routine in my classroom!

9C was not surprised to be receiving a Business Management test during their religious studies class, so I don’t know if they just expected it are are too timid to say anything. Joolokeni arrived during the middle of the class and saw that I was giving a test, so she went back to the staff lounge. I then had an off period and went to the computer lab, unfortunately the power was down, so I went back to the staff lounge to start grading some of the tests. I was pleased to see that of the 10 or so that I graded, 2 learners scored over 75%. Some however were closer to the 50% mark. I am interested to see how each section does and how they relate to each other overall.

During the break each section leader was given several loaves of bread and orange juice to give to the learners. It was supposed to be part of the EFA and HIV/AIDS Awareness celebration, but since we started late and ran over time, everyone had headed home. By the time the teachers got their allocation of bread and juice, headed to the classrooms and started doling it out, the break was almost over. And of course the section/teacher pairings didn’t match up with the class that the learners have after break, so it was mayhem and I knew I would not be able to give 9B their test.

There was something a little depressing about the fact that we were giving the learners 3-4 pieces of bread and juice as a treat. But then I wonder if I am taking my cultural norms and imposing them on what I’m observing. Namibia is such a confusing mix of modern Western influence and traditional African lifestyles… My family has a “modern” kitchen, but they choose to cook mahangu over a fire and keep an empty frig… They have running water and a toilet, but many people at the homestead choose to pee in the bushes…

I headed to the computer lab and got the impression that no one was teaching 5^th period. I don’t have classes during 6^th and 7^th periods, so I went to the computer lab. Frans found me and wanted me to help him get an email address. Checking my email and walking Frans through how to set-up an email address and get started took the majority of the hour and half that I had.

As I was talking Frans through setting up email, I realized that he does not know anyone with an email address, other than me and one of the other teachers. I also showed him minesweeper, so that he can practice using a mouse and getting a feel for precision in his clicking. Of course, explaining minesweeper is a bit complicated to someone that does not have a strong command of English. Try it sometime…

When I arrived at my last class, 9D – who has a reputation with the other teachers as being trouble, only half of the learners were there. There were 12 girls and 2 boys. I asked them where their classmates were and if they wanted to take the test then or wait until Monday. The majority asked to go ahead and take it, so I gave out the test. Although only half of the learners were there, I had to keep an eye on them. They were all trying to look at each other’s papers and some were even whispering. I kept making eye contact with those that were suspicious and told everyone to keep their eyes on their own papers. I was tempted to move some people around and create more space between learners, but I am sure that even if they copied it would not improve their scores. I’ll find out when I grade the tests. I think that I am going to give the same test and penalize the rest of the 9D class by making it a possible of 50 points with a max of 40 (instead of a 40 out of 40 possibility). They will also have to take it after school on Monday during their study period. 9B will also get the same test on Monday, but no point penalty. I’m planning to buy candy to reward those that do well and for those in 9D that showed up.

I think that I am the only teacher that had afternoon classes on Friday – so it makes me wonder, who is to blame for the learner’s study habits and discipline?

After school I was walking back to the homestead with Patricia and she told me that when I leave for the US that I have to leave my ring. She is referring to my LISA ring that I never take off. I told her that it says my name, not Patricia and that I’ve had it forever.

I’ve moved to taking afternoon showers this week. It’s too cold in the morning to get under the water. In the mornings I heat water for my basin and use it for washing my face. So today, after my shower, I was listening to itunes and transferring photos to my computer from the camera when I had a knock at my door. It was Joolokeni. She stopped by to say hi and asked to listen to some of my music. She requested soft music – so I introduced her to Bob Schneider, Barenaked Ladies (her American name is Jane – so I played “Jane” for her) and Billy Joel. I also showed her some of my pictures from home. Around 5ish, she started to head home, but came back to ask if I had ever pounded mahangu – as Anna and Rosaria were pounding. I joined them and gave them my camera to take a couple of pictures.

Maria and Else both went away for the weekend again. Else gave me her keys, which came in handy for making dinner and access to the TV to watch The Gardener’s Daughter with the kids. I made ramen noodles with frozen vegetables and tuna for dinner. I left some to give to the kids and I’m not sure if they had ever had canned tuna before, but Shangala used her finger to get the bits of tuna left in the can – so I guess that she liked it… Or maybe it is a change from eating mahangu every day… Or maybe she just has not had enough to eat…

Saturday, June 21
It’s All About the Food
This morning I got up to head to Ondangwa to meet some of the WT volunteers and go to Oshikati. I didn’t set an alarm, but still woke up at 5:50a. I stayed in bed until 6:15a before deciding to get my day started and get to Jennifer’s in Ondangwa. I left my homestead at 7:30am and as I started to walk down the path to Edundja village, I thought that I heard an engine. I decided to wait for a minute to see if the car or truck was coming my way. Perfect timing! A bakki came into sight and they stopped to offer me a seat in the cab. It turns out that the driver (Silas) and his fiancé (Tina) are both teachers in the area. I had not met Silas before, but I recognized Tina from the EFA and HIV/AIDS Awareness day at my school. Tina is a teacher at one of the primary schools and was sitting only one seat away from me. She and Stefanus, who I was sitting next to, work together. Fortunately, they were headed to Ondangwa and dropped me off at Heroes School (Jennifer’s place).

I arrived at Jennifer’s at around 9:30am, which was perfect. Some of the summer volunteers were headed out to the Internet café and some of the year longs were waiting for me to arrive so that we could head to Oshikati and the Fruit and Veg store that I have heard so much about. Before we could get a taxi to Oshikati, Tiela and Cama needed to deposit their checks, so we went to the bank. This guy Mike also went with us. Mike is doing a year-long study abroad program in Cape Town and is traveling for about 6 weeks during his break. He lives in a house with twelve people and Tiela’s friend lives with Mike. Tiela met Mike while traveling during her break between trimesters when she went to visit her friend in Cape Town.

Namibians get paid twice a month and on payday the lines at the banks are crazy. We’ve been warned to be particularly careful in the larger towns on payday weekends, as thieves take advantage of the throngs of people flush with money after payday. While Cama and Tiela were depositing their pay, Mike and I went to get fat cakes and something to drink. It’s funny, I am not really a fan of donuts and only like cake donuts – but fat cakes are delicious!

Once Cama and Tiela were done at the bank, we got a taxi to Oshikati. On the way to Fruit and Veg, we passed Steve, one of the year-long volunteers. Actually, he is the guy that has a car and that I emailed, as Maggie had provided his contact information and said that his site was not too far from mine. The main draw at Fruit and Veg is the fact that they have a fruit bar with fresh cut fruit with either yogurt or soft serve ice cream. We each got our fruit and ice cream and headed outside to sit and plan the rest of our day in Oshikati. Then Irene (another year-long volunteer with a car) and her boyfriend (who just graduated from West Point and is visiting for six weeks) walked past. It turns out that they were meeting Steve at the SOS Club (which is really the Sauce Club – a pizza place) later for lunch. She invited us to go and we planned to meet back up at Fruit and Veg for a ride over.

As an aside, by this point in the day it’s maybe 10:30am and I have already eaten more (a fat cake, bottle of water, fruit and ice cream) than I usually from the time that I get up until I get home from school at 4pm. And, most of our conversation for the morning has been about grocery stores, which foods are available where, whether to eat KFC or SOS Club, etc.

Cama and I headed over to Pick N Pay and Tiela headed over the Game, which is like the Namibian version of Target. On the way across the street to Pick N Pay, I bumped into Else’s friend that I met the previous Friday in Oshikango. Then, inside the Pick N Pay, I saw Johnson, one of the teachers at Edundja Primary that I met the previous Sunday while waiting for Theodore to wash his car. Once I was finished at Pick N Pay, Cama headed over to KFC to get some chicken and chips and I headed over to Game to meet Tiela and get an electric kettle to use to heat water for coffee and bucket baths, rather than always have to borrow one from someone else. When I rounded the corner to look at them, I bumped into Else, one of the teachers that I live with. Namibia is a very small world…

When Tiela and I got back to Fruit and Veg, no one else was there, so I went to look for Cama at KFC. She was sitting and eating her KFC and reading the paper (The Namibian) that I had bought. I joined her and a couple of minutes later I saw Eloise and Judy (two summer vols) and invited them to join us. KFC is the only American fast food place that I have seen in Namibia. The only other fast food place that I have seen is a place called Wimpy, that looks similar to a Burger King. I think that the appeal of KFC to the volunteers is that you don’t have to cook yourself. I opted to eat SOS Club and save KFC for another day.

At Pick N Pay I found cheddar cheese and the ground beef looked decent, so I think that I am going to make hamburgers for dinner when it is my turn to cook this week. Very American and easy to make…

When Cama was done eating, we headed over to meet Irene, her B/F, Tiela and Mike and then we went to SOS Club. Steve was there when we got there and shortly thereafter Dan and Kathryn (a married couple, also year-long vols) showed up. So we had quite the party. By this time, it was only a little bit after 1pm. Mike had passed on the fruit at Fruit and Veg and was starving. We ordered drinks and were told that they would not be serving food until after 2p because they were waiting on the ingredients. It’s a pizza place. With no ingredients to make pizza until after 2p? Strange. We placed our orders and socialized until it was pizza time.

Much of our discussion during lunch revolved around food – Steve had been at Spar and found mozzarella cheese. Apparently it’s not a common find. Kathryn seemed to really want some, so Steve offered to sell his to her and Dan and pick up some more on his way home. After we ate, Steve gave me, Cama, Tiela and Mike a ride to Jennifer’s and we dropped Dan and Kathryn off at their hike point on the way. Since Steve was going to Spar to get more cheese, we all went and picked up some more grocery items before heading to Jennifer’s.

Something I would normally never do: buy yogurt, meat and cheese and leave it in the trunk for several hours before getting it refrigerated. Welcome to Africa.

Once back at Jennifer’s we sat around and chatted and watched DVD’s on people’s computers. In Jennifer’s room we watched a couple of episodes of Lost (it was me and the year longs, Jennifer, Cama and Katie). The summer vols watched Elizabethtown and The Office. Tiela and Mike caught a ride with Steve back to Tiela’s village.

Today I found out that Randi (one of the summer vols) is going home. I was sad to hear that. Randi lives in Brooklyn, is from Alabama and has been having a hard time with the Larium that she’s taking for her anti-malarial and she has been missing her husband. She had mentioned that she was switching to doxy, which has fewer and milder side effects (if any). I was hoping that she would wait and see if being off of Larium made a difference in her state of mind, but she’s decided that it’s best to go home. And she is really the only one that can decide what is right for her, but it is disappointing for her to be leaving. We’ve talked about getting together once I am back in NYC.

I forgot to mention, I ate almost my whole pizza and didn’t have an appetite for dinner. And even though I did not eat dinner, I think that I still had more to eat today and any day since arriving in Edundja… And, most of our activities and conversations revolved around food - in just over a day I went to four different grocery stores and sat down to eat at three different places - it really is all about the food.

Sunday, June 22
A Lazy Sunday and Danger Pants Sighting
This morning I woke up (and could not go back to sleep) at around 6:15am. There were 6 of us sleeping in the living room (summer vols) and three (year longs) in the bedroom. I just laid there until everyone else started to wake up. By 9:30, four of the summer vols headed to the store to do grocery shopping. Randi, the one who is leaving, and I had breakfast – left over vegetarian chili from the night before. This is something else that I would normally NEVER do. In fact, the idea of chili for breakfast would normally make me sick to my stomach, but not here… Katie (a year long) left for her village. Jennifer, Cama and I headed to ShopRite to pick up a couple of things and then Cama and I headed to the Oshikango hike point to head home. At ShopRite I saw another teacher that I know from Edundja… I am quite the local now!

It’s also funny to notice other random white people in town and wonder what they are doing there. Obviously, some of them are Peace Corp volunteers, but some are German looking. And most white Namibians live in the south (and many are racist, from what I hear)… So it’s funny. I am sure that they wonder about me, but then I think that I am so obviously a volunteer…

One of the people that ended up in our taxi started chatting with me and Cama. As it turns out, he is one of the Namibian police officers that stopped me last Monday to warn me about pickpockets and thieves. I am not exactly sure of everything that he was saying, but he claimed that he remembered me from something at the US Embassy in 2005 and then was asking me why don’t I get Namibian citizenship. It was funny – especially because he was dressed like he could have stepped out of the movie Caddy Shack. He was wearing a horizontally striped polo-style shirt and plaid pants in a similar color palette to his shirt with white shoes. He was definitely sporting some Danger Pants!

After arriving in Oshikango at the Omatala market to catch a hike to Edundja, I was approached by a couple of small boys (see Fri, June 13 for definition of Small Boy). As it turns out, they had a bakki (truck) and offered to give me a ride home. There were two kids and a Meme that were also going in the bakki. The small boys offered me a seat in the cab of the bakki, but I let the Meme have it. While in the back of the truck, one of the small boys (Nicky) wanted my phone number. I went ahead and gave it to him, knowing that I won’t have to ever talk to him. He sent me an SMS so that I could have his number and it said:

.+””+.
I’ll keep you.

I’m not sure what the little drawing is above the text…

Once I got home, I put my groceries in the refrigerator. Anna and Rosaria came into the kitchen to see what I was doing. So I gave them each a couple of pieces of candy. They did the little Namibian bow thing and said “Thank you.” On the way back to my room, I saw Shangala and gave her a couple of pieces as well. I did my laundry, had a peanut butter sandwich and some Simba masala flavored chips and now I am catching up on blogging about my week…

Maria stopped by my room when she got home this evening and asked if I had anything for a headache. I gave her some Advil and asked if she had eaten dinner yet. She had not, so I asked her if she had ever had a grilled cheese sandwich. She said that she had not and asked what it was. I explained what it was and offered to make one for her. When I went to get ingredients out of the refrigerator, she asked why my food was not in Else’s refrigerator. I said that I did not have her key anymore, as I returned it to her when I bumped into her in Game and Maria said that I should just put my food in her refrigerator.

I had to make the sandwiches by grilling them in the bottom of a pot, as she does not have a pan here (she said that she has one at her family’s home). It was a little difficult to flip the sandwich in the bottom of a pot and without a spatula, but it worked out. When Maria saw that I was done cooking with just the sandwich, she got out another pot and some sausage. In Namibia, food is not a meal without some form of meat.

Orientation and Edundja

Thursday, June 5
Tongue Tied
Today we went to the US Embassy for a security briefing and discussed the fact that in Windhoek and in our villages we will stand out and our actions will be noticed and discussed. We discussed safety and how to not provide opportunities for thieves. Namibia is a very safe country and most crimes occur because the opportunity exists. Not because there is gang activity, not because people want to hurt others. Dave, our contact with the Embassy, talked about being careful to not put your i-pod or phone in the small outer pocket of your bag or backpack. He discussed keeping items close at hand, weaving on the sidewalk, changing our routines and not providing opportunities for thieves.

He also told us about a news story concerning a local woman who had gotten kidnapped in Windhoek and that this was unusual, but that high food and fuel prices put pressures on everyone and that crime is bound to spike. The next day a story broke in the paper about how the woman had fabricated the story because she had been caught shoplifting and paid off an officer to let her go. Unfortunately for the woman, her husband sent out an email warning others and the story spread, then got picked up by the newswires and what do you know, she made it all up. She’s currently being charged with perjury due to the police report that she filed (This added on 6/12/08).

For dinner we went to a traditional Herero restaurant and had a blast! We sat outside at several large round tables and got the chance to get to know each other a little better. Dinner was buffet style and consisted of 2 types of fish, liver, spinach, potatoes, salad and Smiley. Smiley is a goat head. We had several Smileys and quite a few people were daring enough to eat the eyeball. Some people had the brain, the cheek. I tried the tongue and it was surprisingly good. I am sure that if I did not know that it was tongue I would have wanted more. It tasted like a fatty cut of meat and looking back, I really enjoyed it. We all had beer, wine and at the end of the meal, we passed around a clay pitcher and ladel to try milk that had been milked and then left to sit for about 12 hours. I had a hard time bringing myself to try it. I’m glad that I tried it, but I did not like it. It was curdled, smelled funny and tasted like sour yogurt. I have plenty of pictures of this meal and hope to post a few.

Friday, June 6
It’s Possible That All Namibians Know Each Other
One the things that we have heard from Jocie and Maggie is that because Namibia is such a sparsely populated country, many people know each other and Namibians may assume that all Americans know each other or that we know famous Americans. For example, two of the popular Namibian rappers/singers are The Dogg and Gaza and many people in Namibia know them or one of their relatives. More on this later…

So today we took a bus tour around Windhoek and each of us had a question that we needed to get answered by interacting with local Namibians – a sort of scavenger hunt. We saw the new state house that is being constructed and is funded by the North Koreans. Interesting, right? Then we went to an up-and-coming black neighborhood (Klein Klasse), an upscale white neighborhood (Klein Windhoek) and then toured Katutura and some of the tin structure settlements in Windhoek. Katutura is definitely closer to what you think of when you think of communities in need, but the settlements are shocking. Thankfully we did not stop in any of the settlements or make a spectacle of touring through. We stopped in two different markets in Katutura. One was called Single Quarters because it used to be housing and each stall in the concrete structure was a living space. I am not sure what the other was called. But, there were local people selling a variety of things. There was butchering and cooking of all kinds of meat, fat cakes (which are similar to cake doughnuts, but a little lighter), spices, dried worms and other things. There were also lots and lots of braid shops. We all walked around and sampled some of the food items.

Maggie bought a bagful of the worms for us to pass around and try. I was all set to give it a try and when the bag made it to me and I looked down into it, I just could not bring myself to do it. They just looked too Fear Factor-ish. I did hear that the worms were not good, but I still wish I had not chickened out.

There was a group of school girls in the market and one of them touched my hair and told me that she liked it. It made me feel good, since it hadn’t been washed in a couple of days J As we wandered around the market, we bumped into one of the girls that was part of the Tswana dance group. Namibia is a Small World #1.

As we were getting onto the bus and heading to our next destination, we heard shouting, turned to see who it was and saw that it was one of the guys from the Capoiera group getting into a taxi right across from where our bus was parked! Namibia is a Small World #2.

Unfortunately, when we got off of the bus at the first market someone hadn’t closed one of the windows and the window was right above the wheel well, so someone’s backpack was stolen. Luckily it was just some personal items and her journal, and not her id, passport and money. Luckily this was a relatively painless lesson for the group and I am sure that people will be much more aware of their actions.

In addition to the markets, we went to a government run hospital for a health discussion, but it ended up being a bit of a cluster. The doctor that we were supposed to meet with had to cancel and one of the health inspectors met with us – 5 at a time in his office. When my group was in there, he tried to tell us that anti-malarials are not needed in Namibia, even in the North. Maybe so, but I’m not willing to chance it.

After dinner at the hostel, a group of us (who else, but Dana, Laura, Cat, Eric, Brian, Monty and Pat – the “drinkers” of the group) decided to go out on the town and experience Windhoek nightlife. Magge had recommended a place called El Cubano, so that’s where we went. At first, I was reluctant to go – as I don’t like clubby atmospheres that much and that’s what I thought it was. It actually was a really cool spot and I’m glad that I went. There was a good mix of local Namibians as well as people that looked to be expats, volunteers and NGO staffers. There was also a pair of drunk Scotsmen (reminded me of Desmond f/Lost) and some South Africans. While I was elsewhere in the bar, Dave from the Embassy spotted Dana on his way out of the bar and stopped to say hello. Namibia is a Small World #3. If we’ve been here for 3 days and have already crossed paths with 3 people we’ve encountered, it is possible that all Namibians might know each other.

Saturday, June 7
The Thieves Come Out on the Weekend
Today there was a noticeably different vibe on the sidewalks of downtown Windhoek. While eating a sidewalk café, a street vendor approached Cat and I, with a really great approach, and tried to sell us a palm know carved into a keychain. He opened the conversation with by greeting us and introducing himself as being from Damaraland and demonstrating the 4 clicks of his language. Although I knew that he was going to try to sell me something, I wanted to hear him speak in clicks. When the business owner, a white man, realized what was going on, he approached the guy and told him that he could not sell to his customers and that he must leave. The two continued a very polite, yet still heated exchange that ended with Cat quickly bargaining the asking price of N$30 down to N$10. She did not really want to buy anything, but I think that she was too polite to say no. The white business owner got the click man to leave, but he left his keychain carving. The white business owner collected N$10 from Cat and followed the guy to give him the money. Shortly thereafter, the click man came back upset that he had sold the keychain for so cheap and insisted on returning Cat’s money and getting his carving back. Cat gladly made the exchange.

Later Cat, Brian, Eric and I were walking down he sidewalk and I was carrying my backpack over my left shoulder with the double zipper closet to my side. I noticed a guy in a white shirt coming towards me from my left and felt a tug on the zipper of my backpack. I immediately stopped and said that someone had just tried to open my pack as I quickly zipped it back closed. I saw the guy snaking off down the sidewalk. After the incident I realized that I had been aware of what was going on as it happened and felt lucky that in all my travels abroad I have yet to be pick pocketed. Once we got to our afternoon session, I learned that another volunteer had a similar incident in which she avoided being pick pocketed.

If only it ended there. At the end of the day a group of four of us decided to walk home. Two of the other girls in our group were also walking and we invited them to join us, but they said that they wanted to go to an internet café on the way home. As we walked, it started getting dark and by the time we realized that we should have taken a cab, we were close to home and kept walking. We made it safely with no problems, but unfortunately the other girls did not.

Apparently the internet café was closed and they continued walking home. When they were literally around the corner from the hostel, a couple of guys jumped out of a car, grabbed one of the girl’s backpacks, pushed her down and then they left. The other girl was untouched. The girl that was targeting is thin, blonde, very American looking and was wearing a short denim mini. The other girl was wearing jeans and a T-shirt and not as conspicuous. Not that any of us blend in, but that reinforced the idea of not calling unnecessary attention to yourself.

Tonight at the hostel we had a Braai, which is a BBQ. It was nice to sit outside, drink a few beers and socialize – oh, wait, we’ve been doing that every night. But it was still fun. Maggie’s boyfriend and some of his friends came by to hang out and eventually the beer-drinking group ended up going over to Maggie’s to check out her place. It was a really cute condo. Two of the Namibians that were there are cousins with The Dogg and with Gaza. I only found that out after the fact, but it lends to the theory that Namibia is a very small world.

Monday, June 9
New Start Centre and More New Cuisine
Today we visited an HIV/AIDS testing and counseling facility called New Start Center. It is funded by NGOs and encourages the community to come in for free HIV testing. They conduct pre- and post- test counseling and can do up to 35 tests each day. The results are ready in 15 minutes – so people are able to come in, receiving counseling, take the test and get their results in the same day. Unfortunately, close to one-third of the people tested test positive for HIV. It is also unfortunate that they must turn away people everyday for lack of capacity and that many people do not come to get tested because they cannot afford the N$7 taxi fare (equivalent to $1).

This evening at the hostel our dinner was antelope steak. It was probably one of my favorite meals since I’ve been in Namibia and it tasted similar to chicken fried steak, except that the meat was not dipped in batter and fried.

Tuesday, June 10
Now I Know Why There is Now, Now Now and Now Now Now
This morning the 20 of us that were headed to the areas surrounding Ondangwa and Oshikati were up and ready to go (or extremely close to it) at our planned departure time of 7:30a. However, our transport was not. We were supposed to all be going on one large bus. But there was a mix-up and one bus that seats 20 people (no room for luggage) and one bakki (basically, a pick-up truck) for our luggage arrived. By 8:30a, we knew that the people dropping off the instruction manuals that we are all supposed to take to our respective schools had gone to the Ministry of Education instead of the hostel and were on their way. By 9:30a we had divvied up the manuals that had arrived (they are actually not finished being produced, so only school that have computer labs were to take 20 each of all 4 booklets) and were still waiting on a second bus. Finally, at 10:30a, we were on the road -the Ondangwa crew in a small bus with the bakki following behind with the luggage and the Oshikati crew and their luggage in a second bus.

When we reached Ondangwa, there were 10 of us that were getting rides with either our principals or regional transport. I thought that I was meeting my principal, Michael Kavungo, and then getting dropped off at my homestead. As it turns out, I had a regional transport. Nestor – he was extremely conversational – he mentioned that he wants to go to DC, he asked if I drank, and wanted my number. I would have given it to him, but when we got to the homestead it was pitch black and a little chaotic – between meeting the principal, the school admin and a handful of family members in pitch darkness and managing to unload my bags and make sure I got everything.

We had to stop to ask for directions to the village on Edundja several times and I started to get really concerned about how remote the place where I’ll be living for the next two months is. For most of the way from Windhoek, we were on the B1 highway (it goes all the way to Oshikango and into Angola), which starts out as a 4-lane road. At some point it became a two-lane road. When you turn off at Oshikango it becomes a 2-lane dirt road and then turns into more of a sand path through the brush.

When we got into Edundja village, I noticed that it is no more than 12 little concrete structures – mostly shebeens. Shebeen are shady looking bars, many with a pool table and quirky or nonsensical names. On the B1 I saw MacGyver Bar, which I thought was funny. There is also an RDP building, which I thought was odd. RDP stands for Rally for Democratic Process or something like that and is a relatively recent political party formed in opposition to Swapo, the ruling party that has been in effect since apartheid ended in 1990. In 2005, Sam Nujoma, the first President of Namibia stepped down and Pahumba took office. Anyway, Swapo is the party of the North and the North has the largest population, you get the idea. RDP was founded by someone that fell out of favor with Swapo. Namibia’s elections are a couple of years away, but it could be an interesting one…

When I arrived at my homestead at 7:30p, I was greeted by a whole group of people – the Meme (a term of respect, the woman of the homestead), Maria and Else, two of my colleagues at Edundja JSS and some of the older boys that live on the hostel. As Else and Maria gave me a tour, we went over by the fire where the children were eating. None of the younger ones would talk to me - they were too shy. There is one in particular, Shangila, that does nothing but giggle if I look at her or talk to her.

Here’s a list of the people that live in my homestead: Meme, Tate, Else, Maria, Patricia (another colleague), her sons Joe and Stephen (2 months old), Shangila, Rosaria, Elias, Anna, Victor, Jason and Peni and Franz. I am pretty sure that this is everyone.

The homestead consists of many structures – the main house has the kitchen and a sitting room and this is where Else’s room is. There is also a store room and several other bedrooms, which I have not seen. There is a structure for the toilet and shower, which has no sink or toilet paper. There is a ground pump for drinking water. And numerous other structures for the other people that live here. My room has electricity and is in concrete structure. Maria is my neighbor on the right and Rosaria is the neighbor on my left.

Mr. Kavungo, the principal, is letting me sleep in and said that someone will come get me at 11am to show me how to get to JSS – @ 800m from the homestead.

It’s 10pm as I am writing this and I think that I am hearing roosters crow. There are also chickens, goats and two dogs…

Wednesday, June 11
Color Is No Problem
This morning I slept in as long as I could and was awake before 7am. I stayed in bed until two of the teachers that live in the homestead knocked to ask if I was headed to school with them. Since I was up, I decided to go ahead a take a shower. I was expecting only cold water, as when Else gave me a tour last night she mentioned that Meme could turn the hot on if I wanted. I said that would not be necessary. Since I was able to take a hot shower, I enjoyed every second because you never know when the next one might be.

After the shower, I organized my room a little more, got dressed and left my room. Meme and Peni asked if I was cold last night and I said that I was fine. They offered me a blanket and I said that I was fine with my sleeping bag and the small blanket that I have. Lost in Translation Moment: Apparently, as I found out after dinner, they thought that I had slept in my clothes bag – one of the children was laughing and Victor told me what she was saying.

Meme took me to one of the other structures on the homestead and introduced me to Patricia, the last of the three teachers that live on the homestead. Meme picked up a tray with several canisters and plates on it and motioned for me to follow her. We went back to the main house and she set a place for me to have breakfast – it was bread, butter/peanut butter, instant coffee, tea and sugar and creamer. She would not let me do the dishes.

Since there wasn’t much else to do and it was 9:30a, I decided to head to school and Peni walked me there, since it was my first time going to the school. Mr. Kavungo was surprised to see me so early and he was excited to show me around. We chatted in his office for a while and he told me the history of the school. Edundja Junior Secondary School was started in 1997 by the parents in the area because there were no secondary schools close by for their children to attend. In fact, the circuit that my school is in is made up of Edundja JSS and 3 primary schools. Parents and corporations donated money and cleared the land and built the school structures. There is an administration building, teacher’s housing for 3 people, and 3 separate classroom structures.

Over the years it seems that the school has received many donations, but many of the things that have been donated are either underutilized due to service requirements (a printer that uses cartridges that are difficult to get) or out of date. In the computer lab, Mr. Kavungo showed me some spelling programs donated by the US that were on floppy disks (called stiffys here). Although there are about 20 computers in the lab, only 5 are operational. And one of the five is in another room and can’t be used for teaching a class. The computers are old enough that they do not have USB ports. However, Mr. Kavungo and the school admin have new computers that are Windows based (rather than the Linux in the lab) and I believe that there is one other computer in one of the offices that is not currently being utilized.

After my tour of the school, we had a brief staffing meeting in the staff lounge. They prepared a desk for me and put a computer printed welcome sign on it J I spent the rest of the school day in the computer lab checking the computers and preparing things for the beginning of the teacher training, which will start on Tuesday.

Wednesday is extracurricular day – the boys play either soccer or net ball and there is a choir that happens to be made up of all girls (probably because the boys are all doing sports). So I went to observe choir practice, as next week there is an AIDS Awareness Day and the girls will be singing. At the end of the practice, the group sang and danced around the room in a circle and the three teachers who went to watch and I joined in. We then went to watch some of the soccer game that was going on. Our school team was wearing yellow generic jerseys and the other team was wearing white Pirelli Tire jerseys. The other team was not from another school – it was a team made up of drop-outs and those that could not continue on to 11th or 12th grades for whatever reasons. I assume that they got a sponsor for the jerseys… Also, at least half of the players on both teams were without cleats (or boots as they are called) and were playing barefoot.

We left midway through the game (the dropouts won 1-0) and on the way home Else and Joolokeni, another colleague, asked about the tribes that we have in America. I explained that because America was settled by immigrants from other places, that we really do not have tribes per se. Else made dinner for me tonight – it was farmer’s sausage and rice. Else, Peni and I ate. Meme and Tate were not home and no one was cooking for the kids. So Else gave the children our leftovers. Else, Peni and I ate at a set table in the main living room of the house. The children ate our leftovers by sitting on the floor in the kitchen and sharing out of the same bowl.

While Else was cooking, I brought out the food storage containers and Connect 4. And, first, I have give Marian credit for the Connect 4 suggestion – the children, actually everyone, LOVED it. I gave them the game around 6pm or so and it did not stop until close to 11pm when everyone went to bed. It’s a great gift because I have not seen any toys around the homestead, it’s quick, it transcends the language barrier and it’s good for all ages. When I was explaining the game, I asked if anyone had heard of tic tac toe and no one, adults included, had.

The Gardener’s Daughter is a Mexican soap opera – or soapie – as they call it here – that comes on each night. It’s dubbed into English here and it is so over the top cheesy! Tonight’s episode was about a last minute wedding that was taking place and this man in a floral print shirt showed up with 4 similarly dressed colleagues to decorate the home with bouquets. Another man walked into the room and said, “oh, I didn’t know you were bringing your sisters with you.” Very funny! I didn’t see the whole episode because Tate came home and I had yet to meet him.

Although the children had taken an interest in the food storage containers, I told them that I wanted to give them to Meme and Tate. So when they came home I explained what they were for and thanked them for taking me into their home. They were both so appreciative of the gift – they were smiling and gesturing – and it made me wish that I had brought more for them. As we were communicating, Tate said, “Color is no problem” and I was not sure what he meant. He elaborated in Oshikwanyama and Else translated for me. What he was saying is that although our skin color is different, on the inside we are all the same.”

Thursday, June 12
You Can’t Get Enough of A Good Thing – Hot Water and Connect 4
Well, I knew it was too good to be true. I went to take a shower at 6:30am and there was no hot water! For now, No Hot Water = No Shampoo. On another note, as I was on the way to the toilet/shower, I heard the sound of checkers being released from a Connect 4 grid.

This morning when I got to school, I asked Mr. Kavungo, the principal, if there were any open class periods where learners didn’t have class. Since there are not, he asked one of the teachers to give me some of her course load. So, starting tomorrow I’ll be teaching Business Management to all 4 sections of Grade 9 – which is 16 class periods per week. And starting on Tuesday, we’ve decided to take half of the teachers on Monday and Wednesday and half of the teachers on Tuesday and Thursday and do 2 computer lessons per week. During my open periods, I’ll be available for one-on-one instruction with the teachers.

Tomorrow, in addition to starting my own classes, I’m covering the Grade 10 Business Management classes. Apparently, three teachers are going to be at the circuit office tomorrow – and when a teacher is out, there is no one to cover the classes. So the learners either do homework or hang around until the next class.

Two of the board members came to the school to meet me today – Meme Kristofina and another Meme whose name I have forgotten. The school board is made up of 9 members – Mr Kavungo, a student, two heads of department and 5 parents. This way the parents always have a majority vote on things. Mr. Kavungo pointed out that they are aiming for gender equality, but unfortunately, there is only one other male on the board.

The Memes do not speak English, so Mr. Kavungo was translating our conversation. I offered to show them the book of postcards that I brought with NYC landmarks and skylines. The pictures are quite a shock to Namibians – Namibia’s population is around 2 million. Windhoek, the capital, is only about 200,000. They can’t believe that such a small area is home to about 9 million people!

The Memes did not know that the US was divided into 50 states (even Mr. Kavungo asked me how many states there are). After he told them, one of the Memes was surprised that there is not a war going on in America. Although the Meme knows about Iraq and the US, she did not understand that Iraq is in the Middle East and that the US is in North America.

I just got home from school about 20 minutes ago – it’s 5:30pm. And as I was walking to my room, a small boy came out of his hut carrying Connect 4. And I still hear the sound of the checkers falling as I type…

Tonight Maria had me over to her room, along with Else, for dinner. It was pasta and some sort of meat. I was told it was turkey – what we eat at Christmas dinner – but I can assure you that it was not.

Around 8pm some of the children – Rosaria, Elias, Joe and Anna – came and knocked on the door to watch The Gardener’s Daughter. Again, there was a hilarious scene with the flamboyant decorator. He threw a snap when he referred to himself as a sister. Even while watching the Namibian newscast, I could hear the sound of falling checkers…

Friday, June 13
To Oshikongo and Back
No hot water again. So I didn’t wash my hair again. I figured that tomorrow I can shower during the afternoon and wash my hair – and today is only day 3 of not washing. Wow, that’s something I would never say at home!

Since Monday is a holiday – Day of the African Child, commemorating the memory of the children whose lives were lost in Soweto fighting for their rights during apartheid, Maria and Else are both going away for the weekend. This morning I mentioned that I wanted to go into Oshikongo, about a 30-minute hike (meaning hitchhike) from Edundja. Else said that they were going to Oshikongo right after school and invited me to come along so that I would know my way (since it was dark when I arrived).

Learners are expected to be at the school by 7:30 and classes start at 8am. Mr. Kavungo locks the gates to the school at 7:30 and does not let late-comers in – in theory. So far, each day he has let learners in. This morning was no different. Apparently on Fridays there is assembly, where @ 7:30 the learners line up by class and section in front of the administration building. They learners sing, one of the teachers says a benediction and then the principal and teachers make any announcements. Today Mr. Kavungo introduced me and let me greet the learners and say a few words, apparently I spoke too quickly for them to understand everything. It’s hard to keep in mind that although the learners speak English, that they are not comfortable using it. Today in class, one of the learners told me that my “pronun” was good, but too fast – it took me a few minutes to figure out that he meant pronunciation and not pronoun.

Anyway, when the assembly started, there were as many learners outside the gate as there were inside the gate. Mr. Kavungo was just a little too late in telling one of the learners to run to tell the teacher by the gate not to let them in to the school.

Today was the first day that I had my own classes and I also covered the grade 10 classes for Joolekeni (a grade 12 graduate that is teaching at the school because they were unable to get a qualified teacher). Since it was my first day with classes, I wanted to learners to get a chance to get to know me and I wanted to have them tell me about themselves. I put some basic questions on the board and had them answer them, then I gave them the opportunity to ask me questions. Many of the learners were too shy to ask me questions and there were a few that had tons of questions. I was asked in two different sections if there are black people in New York City. One of the questions that I had asked students was to tell me something that they knew about the US or New York. Very few students (maybe 5 total) said that they knew anything and shared. When I probed a little bit, it seems that many of them have had some exposure to American music. 2Pac, Puff Daddy (not P Diddy, it was Puff Daddy), 50 Cent, Rihanna, Chris Brown were some of the names that came up.

There are 4 class sessions before the mid-day break (the only break and it’s just 30 minutes) at 10:40a. Classes resume at 11:10. As I was headed back to staff lounge to get my things for afternoon classes, Mr. Kavungo told me that we were knocking off early because of the holiday on Monday, so classes did not resume. However, it was after noon before most of the kids started to head home. I checked my email in the lab, Mr. Kavungo was checking email in the lab (the newer computer in his office is not set up for the wireless network) and I am not sure what everyone else was doing.

Hilya, one of the teachers, gave most of the teachers a ride from school to either the Edundja village or Oshikongo – so there were 8 of us in the back of her bakki (truck). It was a very “I’m really in Africa” moment. Sadly, I also experienced something that we were warned was quite common in Namibia. Not too far from school we came across some of the learners and two of them were fighting. One of the teachers got out of the truck, broke a small limb (maybe it was a big stick, whichever sounds less horrible) and used it to hit one of the boys. It did not seem to be hard enough or violent enough to phase the boy, but I did not want to watch.

Once we were in Oshikongo, Hilya dropped off Maria, Else, Esther (another of the teachers) and me. We walked around that they helped me find the things that I needed. We also stopped and had sausage, chips (French fries) and cool drink (what they call soda). While we were sitting and finishing our cool drink, a mother and her toddler son stopped by our table. She seemed drunk and asked for money. Else and I each had cool drink left and offered our cups to her. At first she seemed disappointed that we were unwilling to give her money, but she took the cool drink. There were lots of mothers with babies on their backs and a couple of mothers that I saw were walking around town while breast feeding – literally breast feeding as they walked.

Oshikongo is literally on the Angolan border. From the Pick and Pay (the grocery store), you can see the border patrol and police station and there are officers in fatigues with rifles walking around. Many Angolans come to Oshikongo to shop and there was a mix of Oshiwambo dialects and Portuguese being spoken. There were many street boys hanging around and wanting to carry your purchases to make money. Other boys were walking around selling slices of deli meat or other food items. According to Else, many boys drop out of school and/or run away from their homes to make money this way. Oh, while in town, I saw two different people wearing burnt orange Texas Longhorn shirts – one t-shirt, one sweatshirt. Speaking of Longhorns, in Oshikongo and I saw boars, donkeys and goats. I also saw cattle and I think Kudu on the way home.

Oh, and I stand corrected on the mystery turkey that I had for dinner last night. I looked at the meat section in Pick and Pay and saw that what I had was in fact turkey. But, I think that it was a drumstick that was butchered in slices with the bone still in.

Else was meeting one of her friends in Oshikongo to stay with her for the weekend in a village that is between Edundja and Oshikongo and she knew someone else that would be driving past the homestead on his way to wherever he was going, so that is how I got back home. This bakki was even more crowded that when we left school. And, at one point, there were two breast- feeding mothers in the bakki – I can’t image breast-feeding while bumping along a dirt path (which is what the road to my homestead is). Apparently, and keep in mind that it’s possible that all Namibians know each other, the homestead where I live is well known. All I need to do is tell the local taxi drivers that I am going to Erikki’s.

Else also offered me the key to her room in case I want to watch TV while she is away.

On the way back through the Edundja village, I recognized Meme Kristofina. We stopped to let someone out of the bakki and I shouted out to her. She came over to shake my hand and say hello.

As I am writing this, one of the small boys (Namlish a small boy is a man in his early 20’s, that is immature) stopped by my room. This is the first “I’m coming to hang out in your room visit” that anyone has made. His name is Jason and he is doing something at the primary school as a facilitator of some sort while someone is out on maternity, from what I could tell from our conversation. Patricia, one of the teachers that lives here, had stopped by earlier to ask if she could make me some macaroni for dinner. I had not finished it and was thinking of eating the rest of it later or giving it to children. When Jason saw it, he asked if I made it and if he could have it, so I gave it to him.

He came to ask what I was doing tomorrow. I said that I wanted to do laundry and go into Edundja village. He asked if he could escort me there. He is going at 10am to watch a soccer game and then he is playing in one at 1pm. It will be a great opportunity for me to meet more of the local people outside my homestead. I mentioned that I needed to start running and motioned to my running shoes. We had a little more small talk and then I went back to finishing the SMS that I was typing when he arrived because it was a bit awkward. As he was leaving, he said that before I left for the US, I had to give him my running shoes. I said that I thought that they would be too small and that I was not making any promises. I sense a marriage proposal in my near future…

And, while I was typing this, I got a very nice SMS from Maria, the teacher that lives next door to me – it says “I like who u a, da way u behave, da way u talk, da way u appear, ur social interaction & thanx 4 being a gud person 2 me.”

I’ve got to run, I want to catch the news and “The Gardener’s Daughter”!

For the record, when I got back from Oshikongo, Connect 4 was in use and was being played up until I went and said that I was going into Else’s room to watch TV. After TV, we all went to bed.

Saturday, June 14
Drink a 40 and Chat with the Minister
Today I went into Edundja village with Franz and Jason. Although we were supposed to go at 10a, I had the feeling that Namibian time was different – and it was. We left a little bit after noon. And the 1pm soccer game actually started closer to 3p. While hanging out with Franz I learned a little bit more about him – apparently he grew up in Rundu and is an orphan. He said that he’s been at the homestead for 4 years now and that the family only supports his schooling. This morning before we went to town he asked if I would help him pay for a hike/food for a soccer game on June 21 in another village (I was very non-committal in my answer). And while were in the village, he said that he was hungry and asked if I wanted to get chips (fries). I bought us chips, sausage and a cool drink (Coke) and we shared it. Although he claims that he struggles, he is one of the best-dressed kids in the homestead. I also found out that he is 19. Oh, btw, he’s in my grade 9 business management class – yes, grade 9.

As it turns out, he and Vincent (one of the other kids) are in the same class. Vincent is 16. Apparently, Vincent was born in Angola and plans to return there after 12th grade. I’m not clear on if his parents still live in Angola or if just other relatives do. He said he goes there for holidays. I think that he’s been in Edundja for all of his schooling and came here when he was 6.

After I returned from the village, I sat outside with Meme while the kids were cooking mahango porridge over a fire. It was dark and getting colder, so Meme asked if I wanted to sit inside. Once we were settled inside, she sent one of the girls into her room and she came out with a cordless phone, but it did not look like what you typically think of as a cordless phone. It was like an office phone and the handset had a coiled cord connecting it to the base, which had large touchtone buttons. The reason it was cordless is that it was not attached to a phone jack. She dialed a number from her cell into the cordless phone, spoke to the male voice on the other end of the phone in Oshikwanyama and then handed to receiver to me. It turns out that it was the Honorable Erikki Nghimtina, Minister of Mining and Energy of Namibia and owner of the house that I am living in. We had a brief conversation and I thanked him for having me in his home. It’s possible that he will come for a visit while I am here, but not sure. I invited him to call me when he is in NYC next – as he sometimes goes for UN meetings, etc.

Meme also had one of the boys bring her a beer – a 40oz – and she shared a beer with me before dinner. Thankfully, Patricia had already made me dinner – fish and rice – and I had an excuse not to eat too much. They ate the porridge with some kind of really salty tasting fish. I ate enough to be polite. After dinner, Vincent and Meme were asking about the US and I went and got the map of the world that I brought with me to better explain. They were unsure if North America and America were the same thing and wanted to know which one George W. Bush is president of. I also showed them the path that I took to get to Namibia.

Tomorrow I am headed to Ondongwa for a Braai (BBQ), the original location was Ongwadiva and for some reason I got an SMS saying the location changed. I’ll be staying the night with one of the year-long volunteers and returning on Monday to Edundja. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to an internet café and upload everthing that I’ve written since I’ve been here!

4 Countries, 3 Continents, 2 Days and 1 Arrival in Namibia

Wed, June 4
Alternately Titled: Four Flights, Three Airlines, Two Red-Eyes and A Very Long Journey

Well, I finally arrived in Windhoek, Namibia and made it to the hostel that we are staying in for the duration of our orientation week. After flying from JFK to Dulles, I got my bags and headed to the international terminal to meet up with the WorldTeach group.

Around 10:45pm we took off for Doha on a red-eye and I slept for the majority of the flight. At first I was a little worried about sleeping, as there were 4 infants seated in my vicinity and they were all crying before take-off. We had a few hours to kill in the Doha airport before taking off on our next red-eye flight to Jo’berg.

Luckily, this flight was not full (like the flight to Qatar) and we had plenty of room to spread out and choose our own seats. Once the flight was underway, there were a handful of us that were well-rested from the first red-eye and after the movie we all ended up sitting together in the same row and drinking beer and wine for a couple of hours. Eventually, Dana (a 20yr old NYU student) and I kicked people out of our row so that we could get some sleep.

In Jo’berg, we had a four hour lay-over until our flight to Windhoek and by this time the entire group wanted nothing more than to be done with flying. We found an airport café to lounge in and waited for our flight. Unfortunately, when it was finally time to pull back from the runway, the captain notified us that he had good news and bad news – the good news was that we could pull away from the gate, but the bad news was that there were geese on the runway and that all flights were being diverted to another runway, resulting in a 45 minute delay. I guess we have arrived in Africa!

In addition, to having long flights, the time difference from DC to Doha was 7 hours ahead, then we fell back to 6 hours in Jo’berg and then upon arrival in Namibia we settled on a 5 hour difference. It was quite confusing for a while!

At the airport Maggie (Program Director) and Jocie (currently on an extended one-year program, will be taking over for Maggie in Sept) met us and we all got on the bus to head to our hostel. It was a bit challenging because the bus was like a school bus and there was no luggage area (or even doors) in the back. I do feel somewhat relieved, as I felt like most people had a comparable amount of luggage as I did. I guess all of us over-packed!

Once we got to our hostel, the group that I have bonded with (Dana, Laura, Eric, Brian, Cat) took charge and started an assembly line to unload the luggage from the bus. By the time that we got into the hostel, we didn’t have much choice over our beds and I ended up in a dorm style room with 11 other girls. Since there are only 6 guys, they had they own room. There was also another dorm style girl’s room and two other girls were lucky enough to have their own room with a bathroom.

We had about an hour to relax and then we started our orientation with the Name Game and finding our towns and villages on a map of Namibia. We had dinner and two different dance groups came to the hostel to perform for us. First was a Tswana Dance Group that is made up of at-risk youth and they performed traditional African dances and singing. Next we had a Capoiera group perform – it’s a cross between martial arts and dance. The guys were great and they stayed and hung out with us for a while.