Hmm

Last Wednesday we invited parents to come visit the school and inspect the work their children are doing. I was pleasantly surprised to have about a dozen parents come in to see me (more than I saw at my HS in VT last year). They spoke a mixture of English and Otjiherero, so I had another teacher interpret sometimes.
An older gentleman came in with his daughter who is in one of my classes. Through another teacher, he asked how she was doing. I said fine, and added that she sometimes talks a wee bit much in class. He then encouraged her to follow my directions and obey all the teachers. He then told me that he wanted a good education for his daughter for when he passes away. As easy as that, I was reminded, as I too often am, of how frequent death is here, especially to what I consider young people. It is hard to schedule activities for weekends, because there are funerals almost every weekend. It is a tough life for most people here, and HIV certainly has not helped things.
All in all I was impressed with the level of involvement and caring shown by the parents/guardians that came in. Many people here truly see education as their key to escaping a life of poverty and uninspiring work. This frustrated me last year in the US, as I often encountered an attitude of entitlement rather than appreciation.
Of course, this was followed on Thursday by a parents' meeting where only 4 showed up, but hey you can't win them all.

Woke up, got out of bed...

5:20 am – Wake up, hit snooze on my amazing Nokia phone that includes a built-in flashlight. Very handy here.

5:30 am – Roll out of bed, get dressed and walk the 1200m or so to my school. Accompaniment: rosters crowing, despite no sun yet.

6:00 am – Eat cereal, juice, wonder if I have actually planned for the day. Begin boiling water for instant coffee.

6:45 am – Wander over to the school grounds. At this point I know that school will be disrupted by the following: morning assembly (every Friday), some sort of assembly on AIDS/HIV, planned the day before, and the school tournament happening this weekend. Don’t know yet what time school will let out. Wonder if I will actually give test in life science. School “bell” rings (picture air-raid siren).

6:55 am – Morning assembly begins. Sun rises over plateau behind all the learners, singing gospel sings and the national anthem. Handful of teachers stand behind me and SMS the whole time.

7:02 am – Reflect on the interesting difference between the US and Namibia regarding separation of church and state. Not really existent here.

7:17 am – Morning assembly ends. We still don’t know when school will let out today. Principal suggests a short meeting to talk about it. Said meeting never occurs, and I head to my classroom.

7:20 am – Take attendance, then tell my kids to go to class. Class of 31 8th grade girls comes my classroom. I brace myself.

7:20 – 9:20 am – Fake my way through three periods. Turns out I won’t give my test today. I am informed five minutes beforehand that school will let out.

10:00 am – Head with 10 boys and two teachers over to the athletic field to prepare the soccer field for the tournament. This involves raking weeds out of the dust (no grass here), putting nets up in the goals, and painting lines that we judge by eye.

2:00 pm – Head home, eat a late lunch. Take malaria pill.

3:00 pm – Walk to Carmen’s place. Begin watching bootleg copy of Watchmen on her computer. It briefly switches into German. Strange.

6:30 pm – Walk back to my school to help with tournament events. These include Overitje dancing and a beauty contest, both involving the learners. Beauty contests are big here. Also highly inappropriate.

6:57 pm – Discover my help is not needed. I am told to show up at 6 am tomorrow to help draw the tournament matchups. I would later find out that this was done without me. Oh well.

7:06 pm – Walk back over to Carmen’s. Finish watching Watchmen, and eat delicious dinner prepared by Ayoola. Watch the news. Worry about the fact that the water is supposed to be out for three days.

9:30 pm – Bed time. It is difficult at this point to stay up beyond 10:15 on any given night. Set alarm for 5:20 again, little do I know this is not necessary. Read The Two Towers for a while, and fall asleep.

Ocean to Ocean Vol. II

From Swakopmund, we went on an epic 4 day combi/bus journey to Mozambique, with a day layover in Johannesburg. The northern section of South Africa is apparently modeled after Iowa:

Here is Carmen, Ayoola and Nathan, as we relax on the beach in Tofo. We are probably playing hearts, euchre, or spades:

A frog that decided to make its home in Carmen's shoe:

And the lovely beach in Tofo:

Maybe not as epic as going to Vic Falls, but relaxing. It was great to see lots of southern Africa by bus as well.

Ocean to Ocean Vol. I

Our first big stop for the May holiday, Swakopmund, a city on the Namibian coast with a strong German flavor to it:
Carmen, showing that she is all about the Witbooi's. He's the guy on the currency. Yeah.


I like the whole German architecture/palm tree contrast. You can see the Atlantic in the background. It's super cold due to a current from Antarctica.


Next stop: South Africa and Mozambique.

Update

Just so everyone knows I am still alive, here is a quick update: I've been on the road for the last couple weeks, visiting Swakopmund in Namibia then traveling by bus to the lovely beaches of Mozambique. Full pics and stories to follow when I return to Opuwo, which won't be for another week.

Journey to the middle of nowhere

Last weekend was Easter, thus we had a four day weekend. Awesome. Carmen, Aleks and I embarked on a journey to the highest point in Namibia. While nothing went as planned (as usual here), it was good fun.

Our destination was Brandberg, a mountain rising alone out of the plains south of Khorixas, in Damaraland. At 2573m, it is by far the tallest point in the country, though Spitzkoppe, further south, is perhaps more photographed. We departed Carmen’s place early on Friday morning, arriving at the hike point before 8. We soon realized we should have left Thursday, as the hike point was deserted. We ended up getting a ride finally, though not exactly to our destination, more like a ride to a place where we can get another ride to another place that we want. Yeah. This ride consisted of an old Toyota truck (ubiquitous here), with eight of us crammed into the bed with our bags. Let me repeat that, there were eight of us in the back. Fun times.

We finally arrived in Khorixas in the afternoon, and determined that it was too late to get to Branberg, another 100km. We were fortunate that our friend Tamara lives there, and we bummed some sleeping areas. She had space, cable tv, and ice cream. It was like Eden. I got my BBC fix, and the next morning we were on our way.

We made a deal with a local guy to drive us to the campsite and pick us up the next morning. We proceeded to drive his tiny 2WD car through sand that would probably stymie a Panzer. It was hilarious/terrifying. Damaraland is pretty bare, and it was impressive to see Brandberg in the distance as we approached. It was a bit hazy, but still cool. We stayed at a wilderness camp, which had running water and great views.

Saturday afternoon we were driven over to Brandberg itself. Now, our reliable guide book, which I normally love, has this to say about hiking the mountain: “No special equipment required, bring lots of water,” or something to that effect. We soon found out that climbing the mountain itself was a three day venture, something we did not have time for. We settled for a guided tour to see some San rock paintings, the most famous of which is the White Lady. The paintings are between two and five thousand years old. It was interesting to try picturing people thousands of years ago holding ceremonies and sheltering from the sun in these very rock overhangs.

On Easter Sunday, before our ride arrived, some local kids walked with us about a kilometer to see some more rock paintings nearer to the campsite. Our ride arrived, we bid farewell to the manager of the camp, and we were on our way again. We eventually made it back to Khorixas, where again it was too late to get a hike back home to Opuwo. We again crashed at Tamara’s place, and were treated to two English Premier League games.

The next day we successfully hiked to Kamandjab, where we sat for a few hours wating for a ride further north. During this time we had a random conversation with this teacher from Germany (Bavaria area), who had happened to live in Vermont at one point. Weird. Finally Aleks approached a nice SUV, and after brief confusion, we found ourselves getting a ride from two French tourists who have recently moved to Zimbabwe.
That night, we reached Opuwo, and were pleasantly surprised when our chauffeurs declined our offers of cash (thanks again!). Aleks ended up missing an extra day of school, we never made it to the top of Namibia, but there were so many good things that happened that it was still a success. Obviously we need to do more research next time…
It is exam time for the learners, so we are busy marking tests. This week is the last of the term, which means a big holiday; very exciting. Current plan is Swakopmund then Cape Town, so I will try to update when I can. I may be unreachable for a time, but I promise to return emails whenever possible.

Visual Evidence

1. Some of my learners taking part in a debate
2. Me slicing some delicious banana bread on my floor
3. The fort Carmen made at the Peace Corps house
4. My clever clothes-line that allows me to hang things any time inside, so they won't be stolen.