Kids Say the Darnedest Things

Sorry it's been so long between posts. I had end of term testing at the end of April, which was challenging, then I went on vacation for a month- highlights were bungee jumping in Victoria Falls, a midnight train through Zimbabwe, hitch hiking up the Sani Pass into Lesotho, the general badass-ness that is the coast of South Africa from Durban to Cape Town. And then meeting my parents in Capetown for a week. Sweet life. No pics though.

It was nice to have a break for a while, and even more so seeing my parents but I was glad to be back in Omungwelume at the end of May. The past month has been fairly uneventful- a few new volunteers from WorldTeach are now placed near me for the next month or so and we had a fun braai last weekend.

Teaching is still going fairly well, definitely keeping me on my toes. English has been going pretty well so far but computer science has been a headache. The computer lab at my school is in disrepair with only a few functioning units left. So I've been teaching Life Skills instead or showing them movies (which they love). Up until this week I thought this was the best thing that I could do with the time I was given.

We have a group of prefects who are mostly grade 12 learners- the Head Girl is in one of my ICT courses, and on Wednesday she complained that those of them who were lucky enough to get into university were kind of screwed because they have literally no knowledge of how to use a computer. I had no idea what to say, I've tried to explain time after time about how our lab situation warrants me to find alternative uses for our time. Point is she's absolutely right and I need to find a way to get these kids time on computers, even if it's for like 15 minutes a week. A little info is better than none.

It's weird to think that I'm more than halfway done with my service here. I'm in the process of booking my flight home right now actually. Do I have any kind of solid plan for when I get back?

Nope.

Swakopmund

I don't typically write about the mini-vacations I take on the weekends, but this one was pretty special. On Wednesday I traveled to Swakopmund which is on the coast and met up with quite a few other WorldTeach volunteers. Damaris and Samiyah are placed in Swakopmund so most of us ended up staying there.

Swakopmund has some of the most interesting geography and architecture I have ever seen. It's situated right on the ocean and the Dunes of the Namib desert. Needless to say there were some pretty nice views.

Activities ranged from eating some of the best calamari in the world (allegedly), going to the beach, having my first Heifeweizen in months, putting my feet in the ocean, drinking das Boot, getting my haircut, and undoubtedly the most exciting part: SAND SKIING.

When I was still deciding if I wanted to come to Namibia back in November, I did a little research on the country. Among other things I found was a website about a German guy who takes tourists out into the steepest dunes to ski down them. Needless to say I was sold.

So on Saturday I donned my Fire on the Mountain t-shirt, grabbed some water and met Henrik outside. He drove me to his flat to get fitted for boots, we picked up his friend Wolfgang who was very interested to see people ski on sand and off we went.

Henrik is one of the most amazing individuals I've ever met. He grew up in Eastern Germany training to be an Olympic skier. Ten years after the wall went down he emigrated to Namibia with his family. A few years later he started dune skiing and since 2009 has been doing it exclusively. He also holds the world record for fastest sand skiing speed and was the one who taught Matt Lauer how to do it.

We ended up at a dune named Matterhorn. We set up a few chairs, fitted ourselves up and hiked up the dune. Six or seven runs later, I could barely move I was so tired. I won't try to describe the feeling that a ski fanatic experiences when he skis on sand for the first time. Insurmountable joy maybe. After a round of sausages and Amarula, we headed back to Swakopmund where the other volunteers and I had a delicious braii (bbq). It was a great day.

The following day we went to Dune 7, one of the highest dunes in...Africa? I don't know, but it's pretty high. Most of the volunteers went quad-biking on 4x4s while Bret and I ended up hiking up and down the dune and then having chilah time with some South Africans. 

The only disheartening part of the trip was coming back to the north, which took a little bit longer than expected. Hopefully I'll be seeing Swakopmund again soon though. If you have a chance, check out Henrik's homepage http://ski-namibia.com/. Enjoy the photos!

Henrik in his garage





Matt Lauer used these!





No brakes





FOTM in Namibia!



Tele-skiing pretty much in the dark and after I was out of energy. I was pretty happy to be out of the bindings

Return to Etosha

So I have had some pretty cool weekends the past two weeks or so. This weekend I decided to just hangout in Omungwelume and watch the grass grow. Also, there was a cultural festival at my school  where all of the classes from Eengedjo sang traditional songs and danced to drums. It was fun to see some of my learners (and teachers!) in traditional Namibian dress. I'll be sure to put up some pictures.

Two weekends ago I went back to Etosha with some other volunteers and a few new Akrikaaner friends from outside Opuwo, a town where there are a lot of Himba- I won't go into details about the Himba and will just tell you to google it. Like right now. See? So even though we spent maybe a half hour there, there was a fair amount of culture shock for me. 

Anyways, I was on the lookout for lions but unfortunately we didn't see any. We did see more elephants, lots of zebra, oryx, a rhino! And the highlight of the trip was undoubtedly the sighting of three honey badgers. If you don't know what a honey badger is, go to youtube and search it, there's a pretty hilarious video on there that accurately depicts these wonderful creatures. Unfortunately they were too quick to be very photogenic.

We were bombing around in the back of this bakkie (pickup truck) with a tarp tied down. There was also a huge storm and one of us didn't bring a rain jacket. Obviously being from New England I was prepared, but was still pretty miserable. When it rains in Namibia, it never just sprinkles, always pours. Despite the downpour, it was a really great weekend. I'd like to thank Gary, Mosie and Andre for taking me around and being so awesome.

Teaching is getting a little easier. Each day/week presents new challenges but I feel like I'm starting to roll with the punches. I've also picked up the title of school nurse and have been seeing learners when they are hurt/sick. So far we've had a few sprained ankles, a dislocated shoulder...and actually quite a few psychotic episodes. The latter is becoming more commonplace than I think is normal, even for teenagers, and I'm starting to become slightly concerned that there's something in the water that is making these kids lose their minds. Keeping an eye on it....

North By North by North

History Lesson!

For those of you who don't know, I'm in the very far north of Namibia. Like...15 km from Angola. The area is known as Owamboland- home of the Owambo people who inhabit northern Namibia and southern Angola and the most populous ethnic group in the country. From the 1960's-1980's Owamboland was the main area of the then rebel movement known as SWAPO (South West African People's Organization) and their military wing PLAN (People's Liberation Army of Namibia) formed in the mid 1960's in response to South Africa's continued (and according to the UN, illegal) possession of South West Africa (Namibia).

The South African Defense Force operated from a number of bases on the Angolan border to try and curb the influence of SWAPO and PLAN and the apartheid government cracked down on any sort of political activism from the Owambo people. It's interesting to live in an area with so much recent history.

A few weeks ago I met an Angolan in a bar. He asked me something in Portuguese and I told him in English that I didn't speak Portuguese. He then informed me that he didn't speak English. I asked if he by chance spoke Spanish, and he replied that he did. I spent the rest of the night talking with him, he was from Luanda and on vacation in Namibia.

One of my favorite parts about being here is the people that you randomly meet. I'm sure being white plays a big role but everyone is so eager to meet and talk with you. When I was in Windhoek I had the privilege to meet the first Namibian ambassador to both the UN and US. He is currently serving as the chief of mission to Tanzania. We talked about education in southern Africa for close to an hour. And I just met him one night because he asked for a light.

I think it's the same no matter where you travel, you're bound to meet some pretty cool people

"Why did you want to be a teacher?"

I have heard this question probably a hundred times. It usually follows after I tell someone that I majored in international affairs and not education. If you had asked me before I left, I probably would have said that education is an integral part of development which I want to be a part of. Or maybe I said I needed a job that I could do that would get me working on the ground in Africa.

Now...I'm not so sure. Teaching is by far the most difficult thing I've ever had to do in my entire life. Running calls on an ambulance? No problem. Getting 40 teenagers to listen to you while you drone on about grammar rules? Forget about it.

This job has so many different aspects to it that it would take me a few hours to write about. You're a counselor, mediator, representative, manager, and so many more things, all at the same time. Sometimes it seems like it's too much.

I'm not sure if I've talked about the learners I have the privilege to teach. They're amazing! Granted, I am at one of the best schools in Namibia, they are so motivated to learn. Well, most of them are. In grade 11, you almost always will pass to grade 12 unless you really screw up on examinations. But that's not going to happen, because they're brilliant. Well not really, but they put so much effort in that I can't even compare it to home. Over the year I'm sure I'll write more specifically about some of them.

Rewarding doesn't even begin to describe my feelings of this new job. Hell, it's more like a lifestyle. But the point is...I really like it. I think coming here, specifically to Namibia, to work specifically as a teacher, is one of the best decisions I have ever made (let's hope this feeling lasts).

Now you'll have to excuse me, the herd of pigs owned by my school has invaded my yard for the third time today and I have to go route them with a stick.

Jason  

I'm here!

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.

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

Ongwediva, Etosha, Tsumeb

What a week...I keep telling people I've only been here two weeks but it feels more like two months because the days are so full.

Last Sunday our group drove 8(ish) hours north to the city of Ongwediva, about 30 km south of my placement, where we taught classes to learners who volunteered to come during the last week of their summer break. Driven kids right? Right. It was so inspiring to see these 16 year-old kids walk hours to come to a class they didn't have to just to learn. I taught almost all grammar- anything from different pronouns and their uses to poetry. The learners were much more advanced than I was prepared for, but I think they enjoyed it none the less.

Before I left the US, a couple of people told me how great being a teacher was. I only half believed them until  I taught my first class a few days ago. It's an incredibly rewarding experience that is incredibly humbling. And I only taught four half-hour sessions. This year is going to be great.

After our four days in Ongwediva we headed south to the city of Tsumeb and went on a self guided safari in Etosha National Park. Saw so many different animals! Hope you enjoy the pictures below, in the future I'll try to put some where I'm actually in them.

On Thursday of this week I'll head north again to Omungwelume to begin teaching. Our field director told us we'd be itching to go by the end of orientation, which is certainly the case for me.

Ka nanga le po nawa!

You can find it ANYWHERE