Category: Peace Corps-year1

Since January, I committed to using a phone app, 1 Second Everyday (1se.co) to produce a short video for each month. Today, I am including a compiled video from January 1 to June 30. Historically, I am not much of a photographer, let alone a videographer, so this is a very big commitment for me. As challenging as it is for me to remember to take photos and videos, looking at these monthly videos and now this 6month video has made it well worth the effort. I see things that I had already forgotten and it brings back memories in that one second, actually 1.5 seconds.

June 30 also marks six months as a secondary school teacher. I came to my school in October but my actual teaching status started with the new year. It’s been a huge learning curve, with much still to learn, as I strive to be an effective teacher for my learners. As much as they can drive me crazy with their incessant talking, taking forever to get settled into their seats with their required textbooks, workbooks, pens (“Miss, can I borrow me a pen”, “Miss, my textbook is in my bag outside”, “Miss, I didn’t think I need my textbook today”), they are good hearted, smart, and they seem to like me. Liking me is not my top priority, it is similar to parenting in that my job is not to be their friend or buddy, my job is to teach them and for them to master the syllabus objectives. However, this is done best when the learners (or your own children) trust and respect you, know that you want what is best for them, and that you are there to help and guide them. I think I am succeeding at this with most of my learners and will continue working at it.

Update: I must have angered the internet gods since I can’t download video or photos. I will try again later in the week.

Update 2: here is january to june 2019, one second a day

Oshiwambo girls and a multi-culture choirIt is Sunday and I slept in to 7:30am. I usually wake up between 5:30-6:00 with my alarm set for 6:30 on school days. During the winter, now, I am expected in the staff room by 7:30. The rest of the year, teachers report at 7:00. My body clock makes me earlier and so it is especially nice when it allows me to sleep in. I guess my body was saying, ‘rest’, due to this busy week.

Tuesday was filled with many events combined into one day of celebration with no classes. It was Entrepreneurship Day where the learners set up tents to sell food/drink, one group brought in a pool table and another set up a Photo Booth. The money goes to the school clubs/groups that raise the money. All during the day, there was a powerful art exhibit about emotions made available from the local German organization.

After break, and there is always a tea break, we all moved to the Hall for the Day of the African Child celebrations. This included music and dance and short skits from the various cultures , including Oshiwambo, Otjiherero, Nama/Damara, Afrikaans, and German. The learners out did themselves with fun and laughter.

We returned in the evening for a professional pianist concert who then played/conducted our Brass Band. This was followed by a multi-choir event which included an Internationally awarded German school choir that we were hosting. Our school choir performed as well as several local youth choirs that also include some of our learners. The finale included a couple songs with all the combined choirs. It was awesome!

Wednesday found me watching the girls’ win the Netball Classic Clash against Etosha for the 4th consecutive year. Thursday, I had dinner with PCV Sam and his parents who are visiting from Chamblee, GA. It felt somewhat like a visit from home. Sam’s mom is a Returned PCV, she served in Lesotho about 30 years ago. It was especially interesting to hear her positive perspectives on our country and service.

This weekend has been dedicated to preparing for the end of the term, making sure that I am covering all the required syllabi. I still manage to play with the babies, go for my daily walk, and I am finally rewatching/watching Stars Wars since I only watched the original 3 episodes back in the day. This is a multi-week task.

I am expecting an overnight PCV visitor today. I will prepare dinner, something that is not time sensitive since travel times are very unpredictable, especially coming from a rural village.

All for now with all my love

A couple months ago I met young Pastor Gerson thru a mutual friend. He said he would be in touch to tell me about a youth camp he was organizing for September. As promised, he invited me for coffee last week. His youth camp will be a career counseling camp and he would like me to do a presentation on my career in technology and now as a Peace Corps Volunteer. The camp is geared for 10-12 graders and it is real camping. He would like me to stay the whole weekend if possible. They will also discuss goal setting, time management, tips for studying, and other life skills to set them up for success. It sounds like Peace Corps’ Camp GLOW – Guys and Girls Leading Our World. I am honored and humbled that he reached out to me and I committed to helping.

You may recall from an earlier post that I went to a wine tasting with colleagues and we danced the night away. A couple weeks ago Ha Lin, one of our group, prepared a Vietnamese dinner for us and this week was my turn to prepare dinner. I made a  cheese/olive/cured meat platter as our antipasto, lasagna for the main dish with a cucumber/onion salad, and garlic bread. Claudia made waffles with blueberry cream for dessert. It was another night of fun and laughter. Unfortunately, our group is coming to an end since Ha Lin and Anna, another German volunteer, will move back to Germany in July. Claudia and I will miss these young women, but we look forward to welcoming the next set of German volunteers for their 6 months of service.

Note, I haven’t found ricotta cheese here, not even in Theo’s Super Spar which is one of the largest grocery stores in Namibia. However, the Mali Peace Corps Cookbook, which I downloaded from our Peace Corps resource website, has a homemade ricotta cheese recipe that is easy and decent. I do love Peace Corps ingenuity.

All for now with all my love  

Whew, I’ve been busy and let this blog post get behind. Last week’s excitement was arranging for 3 cyclists to do a presentation at our school about their world travels.

Manu and Magda, both 28 years old, left Germany in April 2018 to bicycle through Austria and Italy, then through parts of Eastern Europe, over to Iran, Dubai, Oman and finally into Africa, riding through Tansania, Zambia, Botswana, and now Namibia.  Jack,  19 and a British citizen, recently joined Manu and Magda until they reach Windhoek.  He’s been cycling for a couple months through Africa and enjoys having cycling companions now.

They shared their stories about why they are cycling, how they pay for it, and some of their adventures while traveling. Manu and Magda believe that everyone should follow their dream, even if others think they are crazy. They like telling young people, school children, to pursue their own dreams, so they try to arrange school presentations in the places they visit.

If you want to know more about Manu and Magda, their travels and their school project, check out their website https://manuandmagda.com or search google for piggybackriders.

I ‘met’ Manu and Magda via https://warmshowers.org a website that connects cyclists with hosts throughout the world. I signed up to be a host and these are my first guests. They did not spend the night with me since I can only accommodate 2 but they came to my house for a nice meal. It was delightful to be with them.

All for now with all my love  

Ascension Thursday is the fortieth day after Easter, believed by Christians as the day Jesus ascended to heaven. Over 90% of Namibians are Christian so Ascension Thursday is a national holiday. The schools then take Friday as a holiday. Since last Thursday was Ascension Thursday, I had a long weekend holiday. Yay!

I purposely did not plan any travel or other activities, so I could just relax and do whatever I wanted. I was industrious but also made plenty of time to read, lay in my hammock, go for long walks, and simply relax. My most industrious activity was making myself a cross-the-body hobo bag. I had to sew it by hand, so I hope my stitches will hold. I must say that I love my finished product and it is just what I wanted.

I also found a YouTube channel (Rob Plevin) with some nice tips and training for classroom management. I watched several each day in hopes of being a more effective teacher.

My housemate, Blessing’s nanny, expressed an interest in joining me on my daily walks. Her mother-tongue is Oshiwambo and even though she knows English, our conversations are often very confusing. It’s usually over pronunciations. As we were walking one day, she asked “way is lail lay’ or something like that. I tried and tried to understand but no luck. The next day, we were walking by the rail road tracks and she said, “lail lay, this I was looking”. She wanted to know where the railway was in town. We both laughed.

One day, I had coffee with a young, local pastor. I met him a couple months ago thru a mutual friend. He mentioned that his church runs a weekend camp in September for 10^th-12^th graders to help them plan for career/vocations. He asked if I would be interested in attending the camp as a mentor and talking about my career in technology and now as a Peace Corps volunteer. I said sure and gave him my contact info. Now he is following up on it and we are planning on my participation. I am looking forward to it and hope it all works out.

I got a call late Sunday morning from Ginny saying she was at our Super Spar, killing time while waiting for Lyndsey to arrive from Khorixas. They were going to stay at a local lodge and travel on to Rundu the next day. Ginny and Lyndsey are PCVs from my group and they serve way up North. I met up with Ginny and ultimately invited her and Lyndsey to stay with me if they wanted to save their money. Long story, short, we wound up having a slumber party with Ginny, Lyndsey, also Maggie and Nikki who were traveling with Lyndsey and are also PCVs from my group. Ginny and I prepared dinner for the travelers since they had such a long, hard day getting a hike from Khorixas.

My holiday weekend was relaxing, busy, and with some surprises. Good times!

All for now with all my love  

I am feeling pretty good about Term 2. I am far from being a seasoned teacher, but I keep learning and steadily improving. I am trying some different techniques that we learned in our training. I implemented daily “Do Now!” for my 8^th and 9^th grade classes in hopes that they transition into my classroom quicker, with less talking, and with their mind more focused on the current subject. For all you non-teachers, Do Now is a technique where the teacher writes a question or activity in the same place every day. The learners know to check the Do Now and start working on it immediately, without waiting for everyone to be seated. It is short, so it can be finished quickly, and the teacher can use it to start the day’s lesson. This is working well but they still need practice on starting it quietly, independently, and without any reminder from me. Practice, practice, practice!

Another new technique I am trying is instead of giving a transgression for talking or other misbehavior (3 transgressions=detention), I am making them write a 100-word essay with topics such as “Why is the teacher upset with me and what can I do about it?” or “Why is talking without permission disrespectful to my teacher, to my classmates, and to myself?”. Apparently, this was lost in translation because the first offenders simply wrote the topic question ten times, so it exceeded the 100-word requirement. They did not understand that they were supposed to actually answer the question and use their own words!

All for now with all my love  

PS – I recently discovered a path through a veld, a small field, from town to the location. It looks pretty rural but it’s not. There are garbage piles, old tires, and all kinds of debris. I still like it.

My week had a rocky start since I was sick and missed the first day of school on Monday. They say it’s just a matter of time before you have an intestinal infection in Namibia. After 9 months in country, I finally had my turn and it was not fun. Fortunately, it was short lived, and I was back in school on Tuesday with no further issues. I think it helped by maintaining a BRAT (banana, rice, apple, toast) diet for three days so my stomach could really rest.

During PST (pre-service training), they prepared us for the roller-coaster of emotions we would experience during our service and how it is normal to have highs and lows. They even gave us timelines based on previous Peace Corps volunteers’ experiences of when to expect the highs and lows and to prepare ourselves for these times. At 9 months some people may feel extreme highs and others extreme lows. We’ve been here long enough to either feel like things are going great and we are soaring or just the opposite.

I wouldn’t say I am soaring, but I have more good days than bad. A better description may be that I have more good moments than bad because my days are filled with a range of emotions. I am committed to completing my service but there are times when I remind myself of the reasons and think about the vow I made. My doubts, if that is the right term, are never based on what is going on here, they are based on what is going on with my large, loving family. What wedding am I missing, what Baptism will I miss, what baseball games, music recitals, and all the other events of my children, grandchildren, siblings, and friends? These moments will be gone without me in them and it makes me sad.

However, I am serving where I was sent. I may not be changing the world, but my housemate told me and the other PCVs who stayed with me this weekend that she loves Americans. She said we do things and we have fun. One of my learners said she loved me because I came to her netball game. I am fulfilling a lifelong dream, I am teaching, and it feels right to be here.

All for now with all my love  

Teachers reported to school on Thursday and Friday and the learners report tomorrow. Vacation is over and it’s back to what I am here for, teaching. I’ve done some preparation but not near as much as I hoped to do. All the experienced teachers tell me this is normal, and I will be fine. I can do this! I will take charge of my classes, I will be prepared for the days lesson plans, I will do my best to help my learners learn. In other words, I will fake it ‘til I make it.

Instead of lesson planning, reviewing and learning classroom management techniques, I was learning, planning, and creating a perma-garden. Peace Corps has adopted this method of gardening for individual households and/or community gardens. The techniques use locally resourced materials, shared manual labor, and “maximize the minimum”, and “minimize the maximum” which means the techniques maximize the use of minimal water and minimize the damage that can be caused by extreme rainfall or other natural hazards.

I just have a small double-dig plot about 1m x 4m with single-dig protective berms and holes and swales for collecting and directing water. We amended the soil with egg shells, coffee grounds, manure, ash, and charcoal. “We” includes me, my housemate Martha (Blessing’s nanny), Hermine (the matrone), and Uncle (the hostel handyman). They all helped by supplying materials, tools, or labor.

As of today, it is ready for planting. I will divide it into four 1m sections with green beans, beets, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. I will plant perennials such as herbs and other local plants on the berms.

All for now with all my love