Greetings from Omungwelume!
I arrived here yesterday (Friday) around noon and took a small tour of Eengedjo Senior Secondary School. My principal was out at a meeting, so the head of the English department (HOD) introduced me to my fellow teachers and my two English classes- There are a lot of them- like 35 kids in each class. And on top of that I'm teaching all the grade 12 IT classes. This is going to be fairly challenging.
Madam Armas (my English HOD) told me one of the biggest challenges to the learners as far as English is concerned is grammar- specifically the use of periods at the end of every sentence and also capitalizing the first letter of a sentence. I'm wondering how much of this is reinforced by texting or talking online.
I'm living in a house on school grounds with another WorldTeach volunteer named Brett McSpadden who is beginning his second year as a WorldTeach volunteer at the other high school in town. Today we went into Oshakati, the nearest city a mere 30km away, to get groceries and other things (I bought 3G device for my computer so I can access the internet) You can really buy anything you need there.
Omungwelume is a small town that runs about a half mile down this road that heads north/northwest. It has a couple of smaller shops, shebeens (bars) and other small businesses. My Oshiwambo is coming along quite nicely, I think I have all of the greetings down for the different times of day.
Last night Brett and I spent most of the evening with Mr. George, the principal of Brett's school. Mr. George's wife is one of the head nurses at the clinic in Omungwelume. Apparently the doctor comes to the clinic once a month. I'm thinking about maybe helping out in whatever way possible there. I haven't even seen the place so no real ideas yet other than assisting the nurses.
Last night Brett and I spent most of the evening with Mr. George, the principal of Brett's school. Mr. George's wife is one of the head nurses at the clinic in Omungwelume. Apparently the doctor comes to the clinic once a month. I'm thinking about maybe helping out in whatever way possible there. I haven't even seen the place so no real ideas yet other than assisting the nurses.
It was surreal walking back through Omungwelume to my house, thinking “Wow I actually live here now.” This will take some getting used to. But I'm excited! Excited to be part of this community, to be trying to improve the chances of any learner getting into university.
But I'm tired now and there's a couple of steaks waiting for me. Hope everyone is well and stay tuned for further updates!
Jason
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