*** 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.
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.
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