What I call the north north

We got a couple of holiday days for Easter and the week after I was to attend a gardening workshop in Omaruru.  Since Omaruru is pretty far north I decided to take the holiday and visit some PCV friends in the north north.  I call it the north north because it is on the opposite side of the country from me, just near the border of Angola, and because I use the two words together basically to emphasize the single word.  If something is really far north it is “north north.”  If you want to know if something is here you say, “Is it here here?”  It came from me using the Namibian phrase “now now,” meaning right now.  Apparently my Namlish is improving quite well.

Anyways, I headed north on the B1 and traveled 1,340 Km to Ondangwa where my friend Ruth picked me up.  She had rented a car for the holiday to head over to Opuwo.  We stayed on her homestead the first night and I absolutely loved it.  I am very happy in my village, but I must say the homestead life is what I imagined and really wanted to have during my service.  The homestead consisted of several small cinderblock structures most with a thatched roof but her house had corrugated metal sheeting.  There is no indoor plumbing, so she collects her water from a tap in the center of the homestead and washes things in a bucket.  She has a pit latrine for a toilet and small open air structure for bucket bathing.  Many families in this area grow crops of mahangu which they store for consumption throughout the year.  The homesteads are spread out much more than the homes in my village where everyone lives in one concentrated area (similar to a neighborhood near downtown Raleigh, but not quite the same).  The north also has a much larger population, which I attribute to the sheer lack of resources in the south and the apartheid time when many of the Namibians were forced to move above what was called ‘The Red Line.’  I crossed the line in Oshivelo on my way there and back.

Crossing the red line in Oshivelo.

Walking through the mahangu to Ruth's homestead.

Ruth preparing something good!

The smaller structures in the middle are where the mahangu is stored.

Possibly way too excited about fetching water.

For some reason it rained a good bit which apparently wasn’t common, but for someone who can count the number of times it has rained in their village on one hand it was pretty awesome to see it rain three days in a row.  In Opuwo we went hiking, took a trip out to Ruacana Falls, and basically ate a lot of good food.  Ruth is an excellent cook!  The hiking was nice because they have actual mountains there.  I can see land for miles in and around Aroab, but the view doesn’t include mountains or anything green.  Ruacana was awesome!  I kept thinking… If we were in the states this definitely wouldn’t be allowed.  There were pretty much no railings or barriers.  You could go almost anywhere you wanted.  When we got there the falls were really low, but after about 20 minutes they opened the dam above and we got to see tons of water flowing down.  My favorite part was going to the bottom of the falls and getting soaking wet just watching the water come down.  Another interesting thing about Opuwo is diversity of the people.  You can see many traditional Himba people everywhere.  They’re a pretty interesting tribe.  They mostly live out in the bush herding cattle and the women rub a substance called otjize all over their body that gives their skin a burnt red coloring.  This otjize helps moisturize the skin, protects their skin from the sun, and I’ve heard (but haven’t found an official source yet) that it is also used to keep them clean.  If you’re interested in reading more check out this website. Also if you’ve seen the documentary, Babies, you’ve seen a year (his first year) in the life of a Himba baby.

Before the dam was opened...

After the dam was opened.

The Group after getting soaked at the bottom of the falls.

Himba ladies with babies in Opuwo

My biggest observation from the trip is that I’ve gotten so comfortable at site I forget sometimes that I’m in Africa, but being in the north definitely reminded me that I am and of fortunate I am to be able to have this experience.

Tses Training

Baby Bride

*** Post written March 2013 ***

This week I and three other SEED volunteers went to Tses to give a week long business training to the local youth group.  Our training went from 08h00 to 16h30 every day.  I was very impressed to see that most everyone arrived by 08h00 or earlier.  The youth (youth being classified as 18 – 35 year olds) were very enthusiastic and loved to sing so we had several breaks were we sang and did little dances just to get moving.  Our youngest attendee was a 3 week old little girl named Bride.

We started the week off doing a community map.  This basically gets the participants to map out what is in their community, where the business areas are, where the problem areas are, etc.  Then we had them do one for what they want Tses to look like in 5 years.  With that activity we lead into where they wanted to be in 5 years and said that our hope was to give them some tools throughout the week that they could use to get there.

Two ladies wanting to start a needlework business

It was a bit of a busy week having to present all day, then prepare for the next, and make sure dinner was made for the group of volunteers.  We prepared all our dinners at Sachi’s place because there are no restaurants in Tses or really any places to get take away. Lunch was prepared by someone from the village that the youth group set up, so we eat the staple Nam foods, rice, some type of salad mixed in mayonnaise, and MEAT at every meal.  It was very nice… we even got to try donkey.  Apparently it is a very cheap meat so it’s very popular.  I’m not sure how to describe the taste other than it just tasted like meat.

One business man did a very good job marketing his ice :)

During the week we did sessions on how to write a business plan, costing and pricing of products or services, registering a business, marketing, bookkeeping, budgeting, saving, and more.  With so many volunteers we were able to meet one on one with each participant to answer specific questions they had by the end of the week.  The Ministry of Trade and Industry even came out to talk about some of the programs and sponsorships they offer.

I really enjoyed the training and meeting all the youth, but I also had a great time getting to hang out with all the volunteers and stay on the hostel (where Sachi lives) when kids were actually there.  One day there was a large group of boys playing soccer.  I’m always amazed by the learners running around barefoot.  Most of them weren’t wearing shoes, some were sharing a pair of shoes (wearing one while someone else wore the other), and some were in socks.  I wish my feet were that tough!

One shoe on... One shoe shared with a friend...

 

Fun Run!

*** Post written in February 2013 ***

I had a wonderful weekend.  Friday night Laurel and I sat around a fire that we made in my braai and enjoyed some wine.  The stars are quite spectacular out here, but unfortunately I have a street light right in front of my house that really limits the visibility.  On Saturday, I participated in the 1^st annual Aroab Fun Run that was hosted by the school that I am teaching at.  It was a 6k fun run with participants falling under the categories of learners, teachers, and parents.  The turnout was a bit low because the event was scheduled on a pay weekend meaning most people headed to Keetmans to do their monthly shopping, but even with the low turnout we had about 40 learners, 8 teachers, and 4 parents.  Laurel and I were stationed at the halfway point by the campsite on the road to Koes.  We were there with three learners and were in charge of checking off the runners and giving them water, juice, or ice (I’ll tell you more about ice in the next paragraph) as they ran by.  We had a blast and at the end they gave out awards for the top three runners in each category and had sausage and cool drink to celebrate.

Getting ready for runners!

Laurel and Vincent handed out juice, water, and ice while Stephan and I marked who came by.  The flag was to let runners know of cars... Green means it's clear wh/ is what it was the whole time.

One of the first ones to arrive!

Winners from the run... Parents in the back, teachers in the middle, and learners in the front.

 

Enjoying some ice while packing everything up.

Here’s a quick description of ice because it’s such a wonderful thing...

Ice is simply frozen juice concentrate and water.  It’s very similar to the ice pops (can’t remember what they are called) you get in the states in the long plastic things, but here many people make ice at home and put it in sandwich bags to sell for 50cents.  You just cut a corner of the back and eat it as it melts.  In the summer you always see kids walking around with ice.

Some of my entrepreneurship kids.

School, Village Council, and Other Random Things

*** This post was written in February 2013 ***

My first couple of weeks back at site were very busy.  School was starting, I had a couple of requests for training sessions in the community, and some individuals came to the village council office to request help on their business plans.  I had some house hold projects to work on and, of course, had several people to visit with.  So here’s a little bit about all of that… 

School:  I can’t remember how class registration is done at the high school/middle school level in the US, but I do remember that in college we picked our classes by what was required, what was being offered that semester, and when it was available.  The schedule is already set well in advance of the next year.  In Namibia the learners might not even find out if they have passed the previous year until they come to the first day of school.  When school started they had a day where the learners found out whether or not they had passed and signed up for classes.  That afternoon and the next day are supposed to be spent working on the timetables (what the schedules are called).  This is done with a program that needs internet and the school’s internet is not strong enough to run it, so we had to send the list of classes and learners to Keetmans to be completed.  I’m pretty sure the learners just sat in their registered class (it’s a subject class but they also have announcements and check attendance for the day in this class as well) for the first two weeks of school before they started learning anything.

I am teaching entrepreneurship to grade 9 learners who are between the ages of 14 and 17.  The age differences can happen for a couple of reasons.  Sometimes learners can’t start school right away or are unable to attend one year because they cannot pay for the school fees.  Hopefully this problem will be resolved now that the government has decided (as of this year!) that grades 1-7 will be free to all learners.  The other reason is because they have not passed a grade or two.  The fail policy is kind of difficult to explain, but I’ll try.  A certain number of grade levels are separated into phases.  In each phase a learner is allowed to fail a grade once, only once.  If they fail another grade during that phase it doesn’t matter, they are automatically moved to the next grade.  This happens until grade 10.  If they do not pass the grade 10 exams they cannot go on to grade 11 and don’t usually go further.

It took a couple of weeks for the schedule and mine to finally get sorted.  I am teaching four periods three days a week and only have 9 learners in my class.  They are all pretty good kids.  On occasion they try and push my buttons, but I’ve learned very quickly over the last couple of months that all they want is a reaction and if I don’t give that to them they won’t act out.  Going into teaching with absolutely no training at all was scary, but I keep coming up with different methods of discipline and teaching ideas every day.  I was quite surprised that the school would just let me come in and teach without any type of teaching certification, but that is what PC does most of the time.  This is because there is such a shortage of teachers in Namibia.  There are very few volunteers from my group that had experience teaching or degrees in education before coming.  During my second week teaching a man in charge of the entrepreneurship curriculum came to Aroab to provide guidance on how to teach the course.  The most beneficial part for me was the day he observed me teaching and provided feedback and then the next day when he taught for me to observe.

On my way to school one day there was a man that I have met on a couple of occasions named Gert who was carrying a guitar.  It was the first time I had seen a Namibian with a guitar.  He sang me a song before I continued on to the school.  It was a great start to the day :) 

Village Council:  My first week back one of the officers from the police station requested that I come and give a session on financial literacy to the officers.  They meet once a month to discuss different topics like finances, health, HIV/AIDS, proper parenting methods, etc.  I decided to present on budgeting because that is not a common practice amongst Namibians.  I think it went pretty well.  The turnout was great (even though attendance was required) and literally everyone participated. 

Other Random Things: 

Screens! 

So far, this was the most time consuming project I have worked on in Namibia and unfortunately I don’t think I will keep them up come winter time.  I will probably take them down then use an old mosquito net for next year.  I was given a roll of wire screening by PC and told to duct tape them to the window frames.  One of the tough parts was cutting the screen out to be the right size and another was taping them on.  I didn’t think that it would work to just duct tape it onto the window, so I made a duct tape frame and taped on top of that.  After putting the first one up I realized that the duct tape frame was not going to stay stuck together with the wire in-between, so I sewed the frame of the others together with floss before putting them up.  It was quite a process, but a very necessary one.  The mosquitos were finding me even under my mosquito net at night.  I had started to leave my windows closed all the time and in the summer time that’s crazy with temperatures reaching 38 to 41 degrees Celsius during the day.  Apparently we’ve been having the hottest summer yet this year with the lack of rain.

The last thing I did with the wire screening was make a screen door.  If you remember from my house tour, I have a gate door in front of my front door.  I used pieces of the screening that came apart as twist ties around the frame of the gate to hold it in place.  This was by far the best idea I’ve had yet.  Since I put it up I have had my front door open anytime I am home, which helps immensely with the heat (during the day and especially at night).  It’s also helped people to learn where I live and has encouraged them to say hi more as they walk by, which I love. 

Sachi’s visit and athletics 

My friend Sachi, from Tses, came to visit one weekend!  I never thought in a million years that another volunteer would really visit, but she did.  She came on a Friday just after school.  It was really fun to show her around and introduce her to everyone.  Aroab has a bit more in the way of shops (we actually have aisles in our store) and other services, such as a post office and 24 hr petrol station.  This is because the village is so far away and not easily accessible.  Tses is just off the B1 and only a 50 min drive to Keetmans.

We got up early on Saturday to head to the school because they were having ‘athletics.’  I think it’s unfortunate that athletics are only held during term 1.  The children were so excited.  There were three teams (Cheetahs, Lions, and something else) and each team had learners from grade 1 to grade 10.  We stayed up until grade 4 but got to see the cheerleaders do their routines before we left. 

Electricity going out… 

Apparently the power goes out often during the rainy season due to wind (even though there is never really any rain).  One particular morning I got up and was ready to shower, but the water wasn’t turning on.  My first thought was ‘I guess I’m not showering before work today.’  Then I remembered the good old bucket bathing days of PST.  Just as a precaution, because I have several friends that live in villages where water is cut off, I had filled my water jug and was able to use that water for a bucket bath.  I will always be clean during any power outage unless of course the water is needed for drinking.  This Peace Corps experience is teaching me many practical things.