I would call this "You know you're in Africa when..." but I want you, the reader, to start making a distinction between what is "African" and what is Namibian. For too long people have grouped all Africans together as one and the same. So let's start now by distinguishing that this is not about Africa, but about Namibia, a place in Africa, and the people I meet here. So this page will contain short pieces about events and people that have impacted my stay in Namibia.
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Still with the clouds
It's August and we still have clouds in the sky. Not sure what this portends for the spring and summer's rainy season. (August 25, 2009)
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Such commitment
We're in exams now, and it's great to see everyone taking it so seriously! Why just now, I saw one teacher leave his kids alone to get his car fixed. And because the car wouldn't start, he took three other teachers with him to help push-start it! So there's four teachers who left their classes unsupervised during exams. (August 5, 2009)
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Alcoholism
I'm much more aware of learner/student problems this year than last. One that I've become increasingly concerned about is kids coming to class drunk. One of them was so drunk Thursday that I couldn't help but tease him in front of the class. I was hoping that he'd be embarrassed and remember not to do it again. Friday he showed up to class perfectly sober (whites of eyes were actually white and he was chipper and alert). He had no memory whatsoever of Thursday. So much for making a point. (August 1, 2009)
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Computers or just boxes?
In theory, we got our new computers at the school. In practice, we have a pile of boxes in the computer lab. We're not allowed to open the boxes, and as every school got theirs at the same time, we're all waiting for the tech to show up to open the boxes.
At our school, we have two foreign volunteers, myself who has extensive experience with laying out computer networks and a Japanese volunteer who studied computers in university. We're not qualified to unbox these computers. So they sit and gather dust. (July 29, 2009)
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One foot out the door?
I'm getting near the end of my usefulness at the school. My long term learners, the Grade 12s, have ended their studies and are in purely review/revise mode until their exams start in the beginning of October. My one other class, a grade 11 English class is new to me and will be getting a new teacher whenever I leave.
So i've done what I can and it's time to move on. But I worry about what will happen when I leave. There is no obvious librarian to take over for me, and my best volunteers are all grade 12s and leaving soon.
Worse yet, we got satellite TV in the library now - only 4 educational channels, the BBC and Botswana TV, but already, teachers who don't want to teach are telling their learners to "go bug Mr Parks" and "let him let you watch TV today." (A) Watching TV without goals or intent is not learning, it's baby-sitting, and it's teachers ducking their responsibility to teach; (B) unsupervised learners in the library will steal books or just generally make a mess of the place. I can just imagine how destroyed the library will become after I leave. (July 28, 2009)
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Damn MTC
They changed the conditions of their internet service without telling anyone. It was, until recently, that you could use the internet for free, if you were on one of their plans, from 1am t 5am. I would do this if I happened to wake up (I pay by amount of data transfered, so news sites can be expensive for me - gmail isn't). Well, last night, they used up my internet credit without warning me. (July 20, 2009)
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Jail
Donnie Was, a record producer and half of the band Was/Not Was, made a record years ago with comedian Gilbert Gottfried. All it was was Gottfired riffing on the sentence "Hi mom, I'm in jail!" Well, one of my learners is in jail now. He's always had a temper and he's missed days before, apparently for court dates. But now he's gone. (July 17, 2009)
UPDATE: He's back (August 3, 2009)
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The committee to beat learners.
This winter, discipline is becoming a problem at our school Our strict principal is gone and the acting principal, although stricter in some cases is less consistent and is not as controlling of the teachers. As discipline breaks down, more meeting time is being taken up with arguments over what to do. We have begun expelling some students (long overdue in my books) but this is a slow process, and takes a lot of paperwork. Today, one male teacher suggested that the male teachers teach the learners who's the boss by making a roving gang that goes around disciplining (beating) suspected troublemakers. No one objected. (July 16, 2009)
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Finally! Almost....
The new computers that our school was promised last September have finally arrived. But they're sitting in their boxes because we've been told that we aren't allowed to install them ourselves. So we have them, but we sit and wait for people to come from Windhoek to open the boxes and install them. (July 16, 2009)
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Letters of Recommendation
I've had three kids I don't know approach me about writing letters of recommendation for them. Oddly, not one of my kids has approached me about the same... familiarity breeds contempt? (July 16, 2009)
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Year 2, everything is different
With the 3 classes that I've had consistently since my first day at Ponhofi, I've seen some distinct changes through the year and a half that i've been with them.
It's incredible the difference one kid can make. My least favourite class was anchored by a girl who a) was the class captain (elected by the class to represent them); b) was terribly arrogant; c) insisted on sitting in the front row of the class; and d) refused to any class work. This made for a very bad example in front of all the other learners. I hated going into that class. Well, she's gone now - pregnant apparently - and the class is slowly coming around. It's been incredible how much the participation rate has gone up in her absence. I can't help but wonder if this class wasn't permanently damaged by her. They don't have much time to go a long way in improving their knowledge before national exams.
It's incredible the difference that the student leadership makes. Last year's head boy and head girl were amazing. I knew it at the time - i wrote letters of recommendation for each as a surprise "thank you" for their hard work - but this year's leadership, even when we got the head girl we wanted, has been pathetic. Teacher absenteeism is a major problem, but it's made much worse when the kids get out of class and disrupt other classes. The student leadership is supposed to control the classes in those situations, and did last year. This year, half the time it's them causing the disruptions.
The attrition rate is incredibly high this year. I don't know if it's kids losing hope and quitting or if it's because of the harsh autumn and winter combined with the strong viruses going around (including meningitis this year, just for fun, 'cos cholera and malaria aren't hard enough - now we need an illness that will kill you in as little as a day). Maybe the attrition rate is always this high with grade 12s and I didn't notice last year as I wasn't teaching them. About 15 of my grade 12 kids are currently absent (of 130) either permanently or temporarily (and I have no way of knowing which). Even today I saw one of the girls from a grade 12 class I used to teach being escorted off campus by her family. She seemed healthy, so it's either discipline, quitting, or pregnancy. (July 15, 2009)
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Harsh Winter
We're in the middle of winter here, and frankly, I love the weather. It's dry, the high temperature is never higher than about 25c and at night it gets down to a nice sleeping temperature (about 5c).
But this all disguises from me the fact that this is winter to my learners, and that many of them are finding this particular winter to be harsh. Long rains meant that the fall crops were poor - the families don't have as much food stored as they should. The kids I teach are poor and often underfed to begin with.
I've had a few discipline problems lately, usually with students who aren't the best anyway, but it hit me the other day when one kid just shut down and gave me a "why is this happening to me?" look. To me, she was an obstacle to completing my lesson. To her, I was one more hardship when she's already down.
They're going through a hard time and are manifesting it. I'm reacting to their disruptive actions, making a vicious circle where their stress is inducing more stress on them. Damn, I don't know how to react to this one. (July 15, 2009)
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Shebeen
The word that's used everywhere in southern Africa for bar is "shebeen." It turns out that the word is Gaelic (Irish) for "illegal bar." I discovered it used on an old episode of Ballykissangel, a TV show set in a small Irish town. Sure enough, a check of Wikipedia confirms it. I don't know how it came to be used down here. (July 13, 2009)
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Arrested
Four of our students and one of the teachers went to a History competition in Windhoek this past weekend. They were supposed to be doing their presentations on Friday, so they left with more than enough time on Thursday. It should have been easy, but you never count on anything around here. Their government-supplied driver was arrested at a police check point for outstanding warrants. Our people arrived in Windhoek eventually, at 8:00 am Friday morning. (July 13, 2009)
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Unitel Days
We always know when the President or former President is visiting our area (which is happening with more and more frequency as the election approaches). Whenever they're around, all the cellphone towers are turned off for security purposes (technically emergency numbers still work). In a country where no one has a ground line, cell phones are the only means of communication. As I'm writing this in my scratch file (it'll get uploaded later) we haven't had cell phone service for 14 hours and counting (I get my internet through a 3G sim card, so that's cut off too).
Oddly enough, when the service does cut out, my cellphone tries to connect to the Angolan phone service, Unitel. The nearest Unitel tower is at best 9 km away, if it's right on the border. My MTC tower is just outside the school grounds. It'll be nice when it starts working again. (July 10, 2009)
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Meningitis
This week, our school got taken over by the local hospital. They came to inoculate all of us. Apparently there's been an outbreak of Meningitis at the Angolan border (9 km north) and there's been a few reported cases on our side (meningitis can kill you in as little as 4 hours - faster than some of the snakes here). It's winter here now, which is the dry season, but it is also the phlegm-cold season and everyone I know (including me) has a nasally cough going now. (July 10, 2009)
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Emotional phone numbers
Recently, Rob, Kirsten and Aiya left, so I had to remove their numbers from my phone. Now, Amber and Maurice & Marjon have left, again leading to deletions. But now, worst of all, my mom has moved and the phone number that I grew up with is no longer correct. Even though my mom has moved before, the phone number has stayed the same. Now, a number that I've had as "home" for at least 23 years, belongs to someone else. (July 10, 2009)
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R.I.P. Alex
While I was in Etosha last weekend a friend of mine passed away. Alex Gwala was a teacher at our school when I arrived, but he soon departed, promoted to a position at the regional office. He was one of my first friends in Namibia and a very vibrant and caring man - forever smiling. He passed away after a long, recurring illness, and he will be missed by many including me. (July 7, 2009)
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Etosha 3
I did my third trip into Etosha this past weekend. This was the first time that I've actually camped in the park. It was interesting watching (and chasing away) the jackals that invade the campsite at night, and I've never been so close to a mongoose as when a pack invaded our campsite at lunch time and tried to help themselves to our salad. Didn't see any lions, but we did see two rhinos and that's a lot rarer I guess.
Being in Africa for a long time, you see a lot of animals. Some, far too numerous to count (springbok, zebra, giraffe, ostriches, hyenas, elephants, wildebeest, oryx and most of the more common antelope). But some things you do, or try to, keep count of.
This past trip into Etosha we saw two rhinos. A lot of people have come to Africa and never seen one. Those were my fifteenth and sixteenth rhinos. I've seen six in one day, four in another in different places (Waterberg and Kruger respectively). Lions? I saw 17 one day in Ngorongoro Tanzania, and 7 the day before in the Serengeti. Add to that the 7 I saw one day in Etosha and other odd sightings here and there and the total gets around 35.
Other animals that I've seen in smaller numbers would include 4 (wild) cheetahs (and as many tame), 2 leopards (or the same one on two nights), one caracal (a rare cat), one civet (a rarer cat), a honey badger, a black mamba (killer snake), a green mamba (same) and a few roan (endangered antelope) and sables (same).
There's not a lot that I haven't seen. Although I do have my list, it's getting short (Genet [a type of cat], a leopard in daylight, meerkats and of course the great apes - but this is the wrong part of Africa for chimps or gorillas).
So when I go on a game drive now, I'm not really looking for specific animals so much as I'm looking for behaviour. I want to see interactions that I haven't seen before. I've seen elephants galavanting in a river. I've seen a cheetah chase a gazelle. I've seen a warthog chase a hyena. I have yet to see a predator making a kill (although we did see the caracal with a fresh kill in its mouth, and I've seen hyenas stalking zebra and lions stalking something we couldn't see.). This past trip to Etosha, the highlight was getting to see elephants fight. It wasn't anything too boisterous, but they were pushing each other with their heads, flapping their ears and stomping their feet. I'll put up a photo essay later, when I do the Dubai layover photos. (July 5, 2009)
UPDATE: I've posted some photos with commentary here.
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Again and again and again
For the third time since coming to Namibia, I am suffering through an attack of tonsillitis. I can't remember having had any attacks as an adult until I came here. I think it's triggered by environmental conditions, as one coworker has commented that it is very common here. (July 1, 2009)
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While I was gone
A lot can change in a short time here. I was away for two weeks, visiting Canada, attending my niece's wedding. In that time, a) our school principal quit; b) we acquired a school song; c) our school lost its internet access. (June 25, 2009)
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Rain! In June!
It rained, and not lightly, it poured like it was the heart of the rainy season. Damn it all, we should be in the middle of cloudless blue skies - from a month or so ago until at least September. Even the teachers were walking around wondering aloud what the hell is going on. Now I'm going to have to worry about mosquitoes and malaria for another month. I want the damn rain to go away so I can take a break from the anti-malarials for a few months (they're hard on your body, especially your liver). (June 21, 2009)
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Those we leave behind along the way
This term hasn't started out so well. I missed two weeks because of a trip home for my niece's wedding, so I missed a bunch of changes at our school.
By far the most important change is that our principal has left for a better job. She's very competent and in this country where so often careers are decided by familial connections, you have to take opportunities when they're offered. Unfortunately, the school may not survive her departure. Today (Friday) no teachers went to class after break (I didn't have any classes but needed to talk to my English classes and so was wondering the length of the school). Also, beating students has been offered as a serious response to discipline problems that broke out this week (this being the first week of her absence).
On a lesser note, two of my classes each lost competent learners - hard workers who participated well - due to pregnancy. The one girl was a bit of a wildchild so I'm not overly surprised by her departure, but the other was a very hard worker with a bright future. All of last term, she had been upset and quiet and I had tried twice to talk to her about what was wrong. She would only say that a dear aunt had died and that she would eventually get over it. When she didn't return this term and I mentioned her absence, one of her friends approached me after class and told me the real reason for her leaving. (June 19, 2009)
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Taxi Crimes
There's been a bad crime wave in Windhoek of late - it started about a year ago and has been building. I know any number of people who have been victims, including a number of volunteers. Just last month I was staying in town and a new arrival (tourist, not volunteer) was slashed on his inner elbow by a robber. The police are finally acknowledging what we've all known: taxi drivers are complicit in these crimes. (May 26, 2009)
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Foreboding, foreshadowing?
If you want to know how bad things could get here this year, read about the much revered Founding Father of Namibia. He spoke at a rally in my town Saturday and said that foreigners who are not respectful will face "bullets in their heads." I kid you not. (May 26, 2009)
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More later, I'm sure...
Year 2, Term 3
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