Category: Peace Corps – Preservice

This was the day we had been waiting for, the day we found out our 2-year home while serving the Peace Corps. First, we were told the process of site selection and then we were prepared for the varying emotions. Some will be happy, some sad, some angry or not in agreement with their placement. Honestly, I was emotional just thinking it was a miracle that I was here at all and how much I miss Steve. I would leave today if I could just have another normal day with Steve but that is not possible, so I am happy to be here.

We were blindfolded and walked to our spot on the map of Namibia that was laid out in the yard. We were handed a packet about our site. When all the trainees were in position there was a countdown, we removed our blindfolds, looked down to see our site name, and then opened our packets.

I will teach at a secondary school in a city of @30,000 about 300 km north of the capitol, Windhoek. They need a Physical Science teacher for 8-9 graders and a Math teacher for 8-10 graders. According to all the locals, it is an exceptional school and a nice town. I will share a 3-bedroom teacher house on the school premises with 2 women and the 5-month-old son of one of the women. The women are not Peace Corps volunteers (PCV).

My packet included a letter from the PCV that I am replacing, and she says the women are terrific roommates. My packet also says it is a modern house with electricity, running water, indoor toilet, shower, refrigerator and a note saying that I am lucky to have all this, and they may not always work.

I guess I am not living in a mud hut after all!

All for now, with all my love

Here’s some photos of the day

Note: this ‘history’ is what I have picked up in the 8weeks I’ve been in country. I don’t have references.

When Western Europeans (mostly Dutch, German, British) colonized what is now Namibia, sometimes they “relocated” many indigenous tribes and ethnic groups. They usually did this because they wanted their land or some of the tribes were nomadic and they would periodically disturb the lands the colonists had cultivated. When Namibia was part of South Africa and apartheid was enforced, the blacks and coloreds (i.e. Indigenous tribes and ethnic groups) were “relocated” even more. Many towns and cities still have a “location”, the area where mostly blacks and coloreds live. Blacks and coloreds are free to live anywhere now but due to financial constraints and/or family history of generations living in the location, they are still largely populated by blacks and coloreds. Many locations are divided into sections by specific tribes or ethnic groups such as the Damara-Nama area, the Herero area, the Owambo area, etc. Unfortunately, this is also a result of apartheid when it was against the law for tribes to mix not just according to skin color.

Some sections have shacks of corrugated metal with no indoor plumbing or electricity and other sections have modern homes complete with flat screen TV and cable.

Tierra, a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) who teaches at the primary school in the Omaruru location, hosted four trainees to observe at her school and to see how she has integrated into her community. Since she only has a 1-bedroom home, we took our meals with her, but we slept across the street at her host mother’s house. This visit gave us another view of education in Namibia and an up-close, personal look at life as a PCV.

Tierra’s cute, little house

All for now, with all my love

(For some reason I can’t get captions on the other photos. Photo 2 There are roughly 1450 learners at this school, grades 0-10. There are 8 other buildings similar to what you see here. Photos 3&4 are “love” letters from my learners. We all get them. We are like celebrities on campus

I have two interesting things to share that happened at school this week. After completing the 5th grade lesson with some time to spare, I was reviewing long division with my learners and decided to “check it” using multiplication. When I completed the multiplication and added the remainder and the result was the same as what we had been dividing, the class thought it was like magic. They said, “Do another, do it again” and we did until the class was over. It was the first time they saw how to do this.

In another class, I let them ask some questions about me. They already knew that I had five children and 8 grandchildren. One boy asked if I beat my children. I said my children are grown and bigger than me now, but no, I did not beat them. He kind of laughed, so did others, and some shook their heads – kind of like they were scoffing at me. “But”, I said, “I did punish them.” I would have said “consequences” or “discipline” but “punish” was the only word I was certain they understood. He asked what I did. I said I made them go to their room, I took away privileges like TV, phone, friends. I made them do extra chores and rarely, if they were especially bad, I sent them to bed with no dinner. There was a collective gasp, nodding of heads, and they understood I was not weak.

All for now, with all my love

This past week included the first of three weeks of observing classes and co-teaching at a local school. Each of our language groups have been assigned to different schools for School Based Training (SBT). The first week included guided tour of the school, attending the morning staff meetings, observing as many classes as we could, and 2 hours of language training while at the school. Our language trainer came to the school with us and we were provided space for our lessons. I observed 7 math and science classes for grades 4-6, an 8^th grade Afrikaans class, and two 9^th grade math classes.

The next two weeks I will create lesson plans and co-teach two 5^th grade math classes per day. I will assist the regular teacher this week and next week I will be the lead teacher with the regular teacher assisting me. We will also continue a minimum of 2 hours language training during the school hours.

These are not like your typical American classrooms. The norm at this school (not all schools) is about 40 learners/class with one teacher. The learners usually share a textbook and the textbooks are not taken home. Some learners share a chair, but they don’t seem to mind.

Corporal punishment is illegal in Namibia schools, but it is a cultural norm that is slow to change. I did not witness it this week although several teachers carried 2ft lengths of garden hose or plastic pipe and would slap it on a desk or into their hand while walking around the class. Pretty intimidating to me!

The school day is 7:15am-1:05pm with a half hour break at 10. The learners do not eat lunch at school but have a snack during the break. There are vendors selling fat cakes, fruit, meat, and sweets or they bring something from home.

After our school day, we are taken to the PC Training Center for more training. We’ve had sessions on “Feedback and Error Correction”, “Teaching in Large Classrooms”, “Teaching with Minimal Resources”, and other useful teaching techniques. We also had sessions on “Domestic/Partner Violence”, “How to Deal with Unwanted Attention”, and other safety/security topics. Whew, my brain is on overload.

All for now, with all my love

 

Below:

PCT in traditional dress from host family.

Another PCT preparing pap, porridge.

Me, helping with food prep.

This week focused on the cultural differences in Namibia, Safety and Security especially in the context of living among multiple cultures, personal and mental health care, climaxing with a Cultural Cooking Day. I learned that the best way to protect myself is to integrate well into my community. The more the locals know me, the more they will look out for me and will come to my aid if needed. Peace Corps is teaching 8 different languages to my Group 48 but there are many more languages spoken in this extremely diverse country. I am learning Afrikaans but it is very beneficial to know greetings in other languages because many tribal peoples are migrating for work opportunities. Even small amounts of language will go a long way to integrate into the local community. The reason we teach in English is because the government learned early on that it would be impossible to educate their population using a dozen different languages, especially if many are moving and the languages are not localized anymore. Primary grades 0-3 are taught in the learner’s mother-tongue and from then on they are taught in English.
Peace Corps also takes our personal and mental health care very seriously. They have a counseling service, assigned medical staff, and we received our medical kits. We’ve had multiple sessions on what to do if we get sick and the medical kit is well stocked with OTC medications, chapstick, bug spray, sunscreen, saline solution, bandages, and more. In addition, we practiced how to do a pin-prick malaria test (I’m negative), we’ve had 2 out of 3 rabies shots, hepatitis B shot, typhoid booster. We’ve been prescribed a malaria prophylactic to reduce the chance of malaria or its effect. I am very impressed with the attention to detail and the thorough training. The manual is very comprehensive including prevention, symptoms, and care for just about anything that could happen to us here in Africa.
All of our host families were invited for our Cultural Cooking Day. Each of the 8 language groups prepared food with our host families helping us. Two goats were slaughtered and a number of chickens. There was donkey meat, beef, and an assortment of fish. The mohangu was prepared and made into pap. There were fat cakes, sautéed spinach, fire roasted bread, mopani worms and more. We also prepared entertainment for our host families – we sang and/or danced to a traditional song. It was fun but exhausting!