Attempts At Creative Writing

During the beginning of the school year I had some free time, so I checked out pinterest teaching boards and found SO many awesome ideas, it was actually a little overwhelming. I decided to use one that I found as a creative writing assignment. Creative Writing in itself is difficult to explain to the learners, as using their imaginations and making things up was a hard concept for some [correction: most] of them to understand. The topic was “My Teacher’s Secret Life.” After reading through a number of their assignments, it is clear that most people did not get it, and so now I just have a lot of learners who have written what they have observed about me or what they know about our rules and procedures in class. Lots of nice things at least [one boy wrote that even though I'm very strict he knows I love their class the most, because he sees me smile when they come in haha]! This is my favorite of them - I corrected the English just so it's easier to read:

Ms. Nowlin is a very nice teacher! She gives us English and she also gives us Fun Friday. Ms Nowlin likes reading, and she has her own laptop. She gives girl’s group. I think she likes eating ice-cream! She comes from America and she likes having fun. She likes watching movies and walking! She also wants to go all over the world one day. And she likes exploring and learning new things. She like taking pictures of us or places.

For some reason, at least 4 learners so far who understood the assignment have said that my secret life is being a waitress, because I need more money to feed my children. I don’t know what I really envisioned as the result of this topic, but another one of their answers was definitely not it. Memory is the smartest learner in her class, and this is what she wrote:

“My teacher usually sneak away from school to find her evil friend. My teacher was good before but now she learned to be evil like her friends. She also have a other friend named Lucky, but he is not lucky at all. Mrs. N always follow them every where they go and they sometimes give her drugs and alcohol to drink. One day when she went to visit her friends after school, she was very terrified. They were smoking and drink alcohol and using drugs, then she joined them. Then she drank and later on she was drunk! The next day she went to a private job. She was a drug deliverer. She always acted strange when she was with people in town. So, I decided to find out about her secret life! One afternoon in town, she was so drunk and decided to cause a scene in front of a lot of people. Suddenly she decides to begin a fight with another women, but someone stopped the fight. This is my teacher secret life!”

WHOAH! I did not expect that my secret life would be an alcoholic drug dealer!!!

That was definitely one of the more creative of the pieces. It was also accompanied by a picture of me holding a bottle in front of a shebeen [informal bar]. After I saw her assignment I made more of an effort to tell the other classes to write fun and exciting stories, rather than sad ones, which are easier for the kids to come up with after all the lifeskills kinds of stories they read. 

The Bucht

View From My Backyard, After Sunset

All of the School Happenings!

The weeks are seriously flying by these days, I can't believe it's already the middle of February!

So while I was at home someone mentioned to me that I never really said what ended up happening with that pesky teacher strike. It did finish after a week of striking, and I think a few of the demands were met. Teachers received an 8% raise [not 40% as they demanded... but still a definite raise] which was backtracked from their April 2012 paychecks, then this year they are renegotiating salaries, and next year another raise is scheduled to occur. Unsure what else happened with regards to their other demands, everything was kind of up in the air and unknown, as usual.

Welcome to my classroom, which I actually decorated for 2013!

Over at DPS, things are in a bit of a state of flux. The principal that I started with/who applied for a PCV has now left the school, and is the principal of the newly opened secondary school – Luderitz has so many school-aged kids now that they needed two venues. Because of this, after a couple of years of planning, now Grade 8-10 is at the old secondary school, and Grade 11-12 is in town at what once used to be another primary school that had been empty for a couple of years to my best knowledge. Sooooo he’s gone and one of the HODs was assigned to be the acting principal, despite her numerous other commitments within the community. Hopefully we will have a new principal by Term 2. I think we’re still short on a teacher too, but I’m not asking questions. *Update [because I wrote this forever ago]: we have a newly chosen principal, but I think it's causing A LOT of drama because he used to work here years back as a teacher and people don't want him here/are writing letters to the regional office... more to come once he arrives beginning of Term 2, whew! 

The Green Monster Box, for tattles/venting

My Classroom!

And to add onto that, big changes were finally implemented this year, with the complete elimination of school fees. While in theory I think this is good, practically this is not going to end well for the schools. The fees at my school were 220 NAD per learner [1 NAD = 9 USD] so not the hugest of amounts, but it really adds up when every learner is paying them. Without the school fees, I’m very confused and concerned as to how our school is going to continue to function. The Ministry of Education is supposedly going to be compensating… but this promise doesn't make me less worried. When schools start running out of supplies then we’ll really see what happens. Anyway, a few months ago all the learners paid the school fees for 2013 when they re-registered, so that meant that for the first three days of school there was a massive line of parents outside the office, waiting to get their money back. Mayhem!

I got some Valentine's Day Cards this year!

In terms of actual classes, not too much going on to report. My kids are way better behaved this year, probably due to the fact that I have more of a handle on how to do things and have been a lot stricter from the start. We are just wrapping up athletics, so we will finally start to have full days of classes this week! All the other secondary projects are going somewhat smoothly so far - more on those later! To end for now, the note on my Valentine's Day card from the smartest learner in Grade 7 now: "Happy Valentine's Day. May the Lord bless you in this day. Enjoy the day Miss. Thank u miss for giving/teaching me english. I can now really write proper English like the Americans cause inside my heart I'm a black american." So cute!

It’s Windy Season Julle!

So I think I have ranted about the wind in Luderitz too many times to count, but I have not yet brought up one of the cool things about this windy little town. Every November thru mid-December there is an international windsurfing/kitesurfing competition here, called the Luderitz Speed Challenge! Since 2007 over 40 world records have been broken here!

The Windsurfing Channel in Second Lagoon

I was lucky enough to get to see a bunch of the windsurfing this year because my neighbor and I drove out there on several occasions. Last year the Challenge introduced a new man-made channel in the Second Lagoon area, and this year was the big year for everyone to come and experience it! I once thought it would be cool to try out windsurfing – but after seeing how very narrow that channel is, I realized that narrow channel + rockscape + extreme wind would probably end badly for me when I inevitably fell over. So we stayed a good distance away and watched from the car. It’s pretty crazy how fast these people are going. Unfortunately windsurfing isn’t much of a spectator sport because of, well, the serious wind, so really very few people from the Luderitz community went out to watch it, at least when I was there. Maybe with time and more sponsors some kind of structure can be built to shield spectators from being blown away. In any case, when we went I got to see lots of windsurfing and one fluke kitesurfer – unfortunately I was out of town by the time kitesurfing officially began, because that looked way more fun and exciting to watch!

more pictures like this here: www.luderitz-speed.com/

Anyway, this year it appears that 2 more world records were broken, in addition to 12 different national records – which is pretty crazy since there were windsurfers from 13 different countries competing! From what I’ve seen, it looks like the windsurfer Sebastien Cattelan had the best run [is that the right term? i know nothing about windsurfing] with the speed of 53.27 knots – which, to convert into non-nautical terms, is him windsurfing at a speed of 61 miles per hour, or just under 100 kilometers/hour, SO FAST!  

If you find anything I’ve said so far about speed windsurfing intriguing, and want to hear more check out this interview with one of the windsurfers. Just a disclaimer I’ve actually not seen this video, because my internet is too slow to load it!!! Hopefully it’s interesting! Interview at the Luderitz Speed Challenge

PS fun fact – one of the world records set prior to this event was in Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer [one of the most memorable places I had ever been to until Africa] in Provence, France, where I studied abroad. Living in windy places is becoming my thing!

December Holiday: AmericaStyle!

Really there isn’t anything extraordinary to write about my trip to America. It was pretty standard America, which is to say, amazing. Wonderfully cold winter weather, Mexican food, Target, bagels, comfortable couches, driving, cable TV, snow on Christmas Eve, movie theaters, good friends, and my family, what more can you ask for? It was a perfect and much-needed break from Namibia. In the days/couple weeks before my flight home I really reached my limit in terms of African time, customer service [or rather the lack thereof that often exists here], and the exhaustion of traveling without a private car, both public transportation and hiking. Going home was the best thing I could have done to prepare for another [almost] year of service. And, after three weeks, I was really refreshed and totally ready to return. I am re-energized for my upcoming projects, and so excited to start off 2013 at Diaz Primary School. It was great getting back - my principal happened to be at the airport when I got to Luderitz [yay lift home!], and the day after that when I went to the grocery I ran into 5 people I knew, then saw three of my learners in town. I love feeling like a part of this town! And I still say this, even after I went yesterday to get a few pictures printed in town, and the lady helping me laid all of them out for the large group of other customers to see and marvel at!

New Years Eve stateside!

Anyway, this year I am looking forward to continuing the battle of teaching in trying out some new ideas, activities with my girls’ group, facilitating a new and exciting life skills/HIV education program that incorporates soccer, a promising community recycling project, the end of my Peace Corps service, a trip around the world with a some fellow PCVs, and a return home to America just in time for another Christmas. Let’s do this 2013!

December Holiday NamStyle

Mo's host family's homestead

Yikes two months since the last post… oops. Much to update on, but I think I’ll start with the holidays before going even further back in time, since some cool stuff did actually happen in Luderitz in November! Time really is flying by! So at the beginning of December when school let out I decided to use my limited window of time before America to see some more of Namibia. To make the most of our time we moved real fast! I started by visiting my friend Mo, who lives in probably the most remote village around. She met me in the shopping town for most Volunteers in central Namibia, Otjiwarongo, and along with our friend Alex, we made the trek to her site, Okahitua. This involved traveling 30k south on the B1, then getting out and waiting for a lift another 100k to the tiny town Okakarara, then getting out again and waiting for another lift 30k to her village. The last 30k was a journey, as our first lift dropped us on the side of the road after we encountered a really bad accident [he decided to act and take the two seriously injured men to the hospital 10k back in Okakarara, unlike the 3 police cars and officers/various people, who were just standing around the accident scene doing nothing], so then we got another lift to a nearby village, and finally a third lift to Mo’s village, during which the muffler of the car fell off… always an adventure traveling. Mo’s village could not be more different than my site – she lives 5 feet from the gate to the school, her host family, and all the other families really, stay on homesteads scattered around the area, and there are probably (definitely) more goats than people. Plus there are no stores. None. From what I saw her village is the school, homesteads, farming land, and a soccer field. It was really cool to walk around and get a sense of what life is like this isolated from everything – it would definitely be an adjustment living there/having to travel that much every time I wanted any kind of groceries, I fully realize how spoiled I am living in a town. My favorite thing about her site – the complete peaceful silence at night and the sunsets. Thing I enjoyed the least – the thousands of fire-ants that bite your feet almost everywhere, it was a pretty painful experience for Alex and I walking around in sandals. 

The view we got after our mini-hike

Waterberg Plateau!

After a couple of days hiding from the sun in Okahitua it was time to move. We dropped Alex off in Okakarara to go catch her flight in Windhoek, and Mo and I headed to Waterberg National Park, where her staff party was occurring. Oh, forgot to mention – Mo has fewer learners in her school than I had in my Grade 6 class [of 150] this year, so there are 5 teachers [while I will repeat that my school has about 970 learners and 32 teachers]. So with our small group we managed to travel in a single bakkie to our braai. For the next two hours we drank lots of cooldrink and ate the most delicious boerwors I’ve ever had. We also hiked up to a lodge’s pool area in order to get a better view of Waterberg Plateau. After taking some good pictures we walked down the steps and saw an oddly placed bridge into the woods, on which a baboon was perched. Mo, thinking this was a moment that had to be captured [“in America bridges have trolls, but here we have baboons!”] paused to take a picture. Unfortunately, at the same time the unfriendly German tourists up at the pool decided to chase another baboon away from their area, directly towards us. So then we were chased by a baboon for a quick minute. Luckily the baboon got bored of our frantic screams/running and went back to his friends on the bridge, but we had a brisk walk back to her colleagues after that. As the afternoon came around it was time to move again, so with some extreme luck we soon made it back to Otjiwarango, and then up to Tsumeb to stay with our friend Allison for the night. As we rode further and further north the difference in landscape was incredible – so much grass and tons of trees, all of it just so GREEN! A massive contrast from the south, much less the rock/moonscape of Luderitz.

 

Attempting to pound mahangu with Sydney in her village

A few of my citenges... I may have bought 12 more at the market.

Anyway, the next day we made our way up to the Kavango region of Namibia, which is in the northeast of the country, and another area that I had not yet visited. We went to the town Rundu, which is actually the second biggest town in Namibia after Windhoek – we were surprised to learn this, but it made more sense after realizing that it’s really the sole hub for the whole region, which is almost entirely comprised of villages. Many of these villages are within view of the main road, we saw traditional hut after hut on our way into town. My first impression of this area was how blazingly hot it was. Thank God for trees and shady areas. We stayed with our friend Sydney in her village, Mavanze, which is about 20k outside of Rundu and really easy to get to by taxi. She works primarily at an OVC [orphans and vulnerable children] Center, which is a really unique primary project for an Education Volunteer, and that is also where her housing is. My favorite thing about her village/the whole region maybe, was the midday pouring rainstorm. I miss the rain so much! The most unpleasant thing about her village was having to use a latrine, which you had to walk a distance to from her room and then unlock before being able to use. I don’t think I would fare well with using a latrine for two years - again, things we take for granted [toilets!]. Our visit to Kavango was spent having evening dinners and sundowners by the river in surrounding lodges, and a really fun kayaking trip on the Kavango river, organized by another PCV in our group, Gio. The other side of the river is Angola, so we kayaked between two countries! That morning was mostly great, except for when I made the unfortunate discovery that it is possible to get badly sunburned on the tops of my hands… ouch. So much for SPF 70. While we were there we also had dresses made for us at the open market out of citenges, which Sydney told us are actually called Ehekes by people in Mavanze. These are long pieces of brightly colored and printed fabrics that are worn/used by a lot of people in this region. Just over the break alone I used one of my citenges [that someone brought down to me last year] as a pillowcase, sheet, scarf/headwrap, and general cover from the sun - it's uses are endless!

Our time eventually came to a close in Kavango, and we headed back to Windhoek for our upcoming trips. A great sprint of a trip, and just to give another show of how huge Namibia is, Luderitz is about 1545 kilometers from Rundu. The next undiscovered piece of Nam - the Caprivi Strip! Hopefully I will get there in May. To finish up here, a little moment that I wish I'd had my camera for - did you know that goats hate the rain? While in Mo's village we [tried to] help bring the goats into their enclosure for the night. As Mo and Alex waited patiently for me to finish being so amused by the goats [the only animals in Luderitz are street dogs... not as interesting] it began to rain, so we turned to head back to her flat. All of a sudden, all the goats had run out of their enclosure, we thought after us, but to our surprise, they were all running for cover under a tiny porch-type thing. The goats were fleeing the rain!