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.

Happy New Year!

Hello family and friends!

I just got back to site two weeks ago from a wonderful month of travel!  The whole trip started with a stop in Tses.  I left site on Friday (Nov. 30^th) with my supervisor and headed to Tses (pronounced like the game chess) for the night to see my friend Sachi’s site.  We had a great time hanging out and I really enjoyed getting to see where she works and lives.  Tses is only an hour north of Keetmans just off the B1, so I hope to visit again.  Our afternoon was spent with me cutting her hair!  She’s a brave girl b/c I have only really cut my hair once and had NEVER cut someone else’s before.  Later on we climbed some sand dunes near her school, cooked dinner, hung out with some of her learners (what they call students here), and enjoyed some of the homemade chocolate chip cookies I received in a package from the states (Thanks Aunt Di!).

Saturday morning we headed up to Windhoek.  We got a free ride with a very nice man driving a combi (a minivan used like a bus for transport).  He offered us cool drinks (which is usually soda, but can be any beverage that is cold) and dropped us off right at the door to the PC office where we were staying the night.  After getting caught in my first downpour in Africa, hail included, we checked out the Namibian National Museum.  We always take advantage of the nice restaurants when we go and that night we had sushi!  I was also fortunate enough to see a movie in theaters on Sunday, which is something I never expected to do while in Africa.

Week 1:

Me as Anwar

On Sunday afternoon we headed, out of the city center about 25km, to Greiters the hotel/conference center where reconnect was held.  Reconnect takes place after your first two to three months at site.  It is like training, but has more volunteer participation in the sessions.  During sessions we had the opportunity to hear about everyone’s challenges at site, the work they did and plan to do, and general day to day integration approaches... Outside of sessions we heard many stories about hut living, snake encounters, power outages, and more!  It was really great to see everyone again.  Evenings were spent playing games, enjoying the pool, and watching movies.  We also had a doppelganger party and did superlatives.  My superlative was ‘best doppelganger.'

Week 2:

We left reconnect and headed up to Khorixas with Steve for a collaboration week.  For a couple of nights we stayed with Grace, a health volunteer, at the hospital and enjoyed seeing the benefits of living in a town!  They have a petrol station, a nice store with about 10 more aisles than Bronco (the store in Aroab), a post office, a Pep (like a teeny-tiny Wal-Mart), a bank, and at least two lodges.  On our first day we went out to Sorri-Sorris (100 or so Km outside of Khorixas) one of the many conservancies Steve gets to work with.  The name came from a Khoekhoe phrase ‘abundance of sunlight.’  Conservancies are developed to support and promote public awareness, community involvement, natural resource preservation, and more.  This office, among other things, monitors the wildlife count and offers licenses for all hunting in the area.  They had a viewing platform with information about the area’s history and are also in the process of setting up some stalls for SMEs to come and sell their products or services to visitors.  That evening we went to dinner at a nearby lodge and got to meet another volunteer and her parents.  It was really neat to hear their perspective of Namibia and their daughters work… and of course their accents!  It’s a treat to hear a real American accent that has not been corrupted by Namlish :)

Us with our wonderful host!  (Laurel, Me, Steve, and Sachi)

The second half of our week with Steve was spent camping in the Aba Hauab Valley.  The highlight of the trip was the Damara Living Museum.  When you enter the (outdoor) museum you are met by a guide who takes you through and describes everything.  We heard about the different types of plants they collect and what they use them for.  They played a game (similar to Mancala) that the chiefs would play to see who was right when there was a disagreement and showed us how they make beads from ostrich shells.  Then we saw how they light fires.  Apparently you are not allowed to marry until you can hunt and start a fire.  Once a fire is lit you dance and sing to celebrate.  I was very impressed by this museum because it was developed and is mostly run by a local from the nearby village.

The chiefs game

Ostrich egg shell beads and the tool used to create the whole in the center

Some of the other sites we saw were Burnt Mountain, the Organ Pipes, the Petrified Forest, and Twyfelfontein.  Burnt mountain gets its name from the volcanic rock at its base.  The organ pipes were pretty interesting and I know that I would not do it justice telling you how they were formed so here is what I got online (http://www.namibia-1on1.com/organ-pipes.html):

‘As the molten rock pushed up through the earth’s surface it began to cool from the outer edges of the intrusion – inwards.  The movement of the remaining innermost magma was restricted to ‘vertical movement only.’  As it cooled and contracted the rock split vertically forming columns that have polygonal cross sections in accordance with geometric law.  The resulting formation leaves no voids between the columns.’

Organ Pipes

Twyfelfontein has rock engravings dating back at least 6,000 years.  They have found over 2,500 engravings in the area.  Most of the engravings (if not all of the ones that we saw) were of animals that could be found in the area at that time.  They were used as hunting guides and indicators of which animals were dangerous.  At the Petrified Forest you could see the bark on the trees and where the branches broke off.  It’s interesting to see such large trees in the middle of the dessert.  They are believed to have come down during a flood about 260 million years ago.

Rock engravings

Petrified Forest

Unfortunately, the closest I got to seeing a dessert elephant were the many road signs for elephant crossings and several knocked over fences that were the product of an elephant passing through.

Week 3:

During this week we rented a car and travelled to the Naukluft Mountains and Sossusvlei.  It was definitely a fun and interesting week.  The trip started off with us seeing zebras on our way to Naukluft park then realizing we had gotten a flat tire on the dirt road (that was my first flat tire experience!).  We were in Naukluft for two days for hiking.  On our first day we hiked the Olive tree trail and saw kudu, zebras, springbok, and oryx (gemsbok).  When we woke up the second day our campsite was surrounded by a group of curious baboons looking for food.  They ended up snagging our bread sometime during the day even though Ian was close by.  The hike this day was very different from the day before because we were going along a river.  There were a couple of pools that we swam in, lots of baboons hanging out, and towards the end it started to rain (that was the 3^rd time I’ve seen it rain in Africa… and it’s supposed to be rainy season!).  The next couple of days were spent in the sand dunes!  We ended up climbing what might be the biggest dune in the world, Big Daddy, by accident.  The climb was tough, but the views and the run down made it totally worth it.  As you run down you sank into the sand up to your knees!

Mom and baby at Naukluft Mountains

Oryx (Gemsbok) in Sossusvlei

At the top of Big Daddy!

After climbing the dunes and seeing Deadvlei

Heading back to WHK we saw two giraffes !!!

Week 4:

Penguins in Luderitz

Laurel and I hung out in Windhoek for the night and saw The Hobbit at the theatre with a group of other volunteers before heading down to the coastal town of Luderitz.  I have to say, for having to spend Christmas away from home and family, I could not have asked for a better group of people to spend the holidays with.  Luckily Chris and Mayank (the PCVs from our group located in Luderitz) had a rather large flat for a Peace Corps volunteer because we filled it with 18 people!  Most of our time was spent hanging out eating, catching up, eating, playing cards, sightseeing, and eating.  Just how the holidays should be spent!  The weather was amazing the whole time we were there and even though the water was freezing cold we went swimming almost every day.  Mayank hooked us up with a boat tour on a catamaran (minus the sails) where we saw penguins, dolphins, flamingos, seals, and jellyfish.  Another day we went to visit Kolmanskop, a now ghost town where the houses and buildings are being taken over by the dunes.  It used to be a hub for diamond mining until they discovered larger diamonds in larger quantities down in Oranjemund.

The group on Christmas morning

 

Christmas tree with presents

On Christmas Eve while some of us were swimming others created and decorated a palm frond Christmas tree and later that evening we watched the movie Elf with spiced wine.  Christmas morning we did a white elephant gift exchange.  I gave an ice cream bar and received a winter hat (which unfortunately I will definitely need come June/July!).  Everyone was in charge of cooking something so we had a ton of food, but surprisingly all the leftovers were gone by the next day.  The power went out the day before New Year’s Eve and stayed off until about 3:00pm New Year’s Eve day.  We were prepared to go to a neighboring pizzeria that got power back earlier if needed and got candles and marshmallows to make s'mores.  The evening was great and full of dancing :)

It truly was an amazing trip.  I can’t wait for the next one, but am very happy to be back at site.  I hope everyone back home had a very merry Christmas and a happy new year!