19 January 2006
(Sorry about the random text mistakes, this computer has issues)
Well, the new school y ear has finally started. I'm just out to finish up my first full week of teaching and so far it has been... different. I've been forced out of the comfort zone that I've built up with all my newly formed volunteer friends, and forced out into isolation. I haven't seen another white person in at least ten days, and english definitly isn't the popular mode of communication. So I really stick out. I'm getting used to it though, and the other teachers and students around me are very friendly. I'll give you the q ˙uick rundown on how the term started.
The official first school day for Namibia is January 11th, a wednesday. The first day of work for the teachers is January 9th, a monday. Keeping with that schedule we met bright and early at 8 am on monday the ninth. I was a little nervous the night before so I went over to my principle's house (30 yards away) to ask what time we started the following morning. He assured me that we wouldn't start until sometime after nine o'clock. So on the first meeting, of the first day, of my first year of teaching I stroll in fifteen minutes early, at 8:45 only to find out that I'm forty-five minutes late. (Note: My principal though dedicated and hardworking is not very good at noticing tiny details such as correct time, key location or information discussed at earlier times.)
The primary focus of the first meeting was what subjects everyone would be teaching. That's right, the teachers only get two days to prep for their subjects. As I found out, doing any planning before hand is utterly useless. During the first week of December all the volunteers took a trip to their final sites to meet with their principles or supervisors and make sure that the living conditions were suitable. During that time my principle, with the above mentioned character traits said that he wanted me to just teach grade nine physical science (15 forty minute periods per week) and to use the rest of my time creating after school programs such as: Science Club, English Club, Computer classes, ext. Since I was told I was doing grade nine I decided to get my unit plans worked out ahead of time. Between then and the first week of January I planned out about two months worth of teaching material. Anyway, moving back to the meeting that took place on January 9th. The principle decided because the previous year's learners didn't fair so well in English that I should teach English to all three grade ten classes. When I mentioned to them that I was in fact a Science teacher and that was the primary reason that I was sent here he said I could have one grade ten science class. There was no mention of grade nine, and he was pretty quite stern about what he wanted. So all of my lesson planning will do me no good because the grade ten material is completely different from the grade 9. My final schedule for the year is as follows: 3 grade ten english classes, 1 grade ten physical science class and 3 grade ten p.e.. classes. (I didn't find out about the p.e.. classes until the first day when I looked at the schedule five minutes b efore the first class was about to start.)
I guess that general lesson learned from the first couple days leading up to school is that it preplanning isn't really done. That was a hard lesson for me to learn and it caused me a lot of stress initially. Moving right along, let me tell you about my first day of school.
The day before a lot of the learners started to arrive and the hostels (yes this is a boarding school) were slowly but surely filling in. The student body wasn't completely present, but this is common because transportation is a little tricky and deadlines are a little softer here, so typically the learners trickle in through the first couple of weeks. For some reason though, a large percentage of them (almost 50 %) made it by the first day, which I'm told is very rare. So there was a lot of anticipation by myself, the other teachers and the new students coming up to the first day.
At 6:30 a.m. flat all of the teachers, including me arrived at the front of the school for our morning meeting. T he schedule for the school day is usually as follows: 6:30 - morning meeting with the teachers (most of them show up around 6:45), 7:00 - the first class begins. The fact that all the teachers were present at 6:30 showed that they were excited for the first day. Unfortunately we could not get into the school because the principle had not yet arrived. At 6:45 the learners started to show up and hang out in front of the school with the teachers, still no principle. At 7:00 the principle still hasn't shown up an d all the other teachers start stalling. The make the learners line up by grade, then have them sing a couple of songs (everybody in Namibia is a fantastic singer and when they sing in groups it sounds amazing). 7:15, the principle drives up (he lives 200 yards away) and climbs out of his truck, though he keeps his engine running. Then, without apologizing for his tardiness he walks to the front of the school and addresses the learners. He gives a long speech about morals, concentrating on the point that it is bad to kill people. After that he introduces me to everyone and says that we should make this an English Only school. Almost immediately after that he says something to them in Otjiherero and then tells them to go to class. All the teachers go to class , take role and then promptly leave. They are needed in the cafeteria to register the new learners that are coming in. All the other learners are left to just sit in their classrooms for a couple of hours. Apparently the reason behind this is a bit of a catch-22. The government decides what day every school in Namibia should start (this year it was Jan 11), so the learners are legally required to stay at school from 7am-1pm on the 11th. However for every school all over Namibia there is no teaching done on the first day of school because new learners are coming in and they need to be registered. It's definitely different. The next day, thursday is similar in that the learners spent most of their time unsupervised. Fortunately, by friday there was enough order a nd organization to get things going and on friday the 13th teaching began. The day actually went pretty well. Class sizes are small because the learners are still coming in. My biggest class has 25 students and my smallest has 13. It's quite manageable. They're all more or less show me proper respect and don't goof off. Education level however isn't as ideal. There is a HUGE divide between the boys and girls in the class. If at all possible they stay completely segregated. The girls all sit in the front of the class, pay very good attention and are always raising their hand anxiously to answer any question. The boys however all sit in the back, stare off into space and don't pay any attention unless I specifically point them out. It's really interesting and I 'm not exactly sure why there's such a divide. I spent the first day introducing myself and explaining why I'm here. After that I had them all make name tags on three by five note cards and then tie a string around them and wear them around their necks. I justified this activity by making them get infant of class to introduce themselves to practice their english, but really I just wanted to see their names written out because some of them a really long and really hard to pronounce. (for example: Maritjituavi or Tjijiakongua or Humbuhumbu) That more or less sums up week one. The weekend was also quite interesting.
It's the rainy season here, which is somewhat different because it's also summer. The pattern for the day typically goes: bright blue, cloudless sky in the morning, by noon it's cloudy and by 2pm it's violently pouring down rain with lightning and thunder. This cycle is pretty regular, although sometimes it gets offset by 12 hrs and the down pour comes at 2 am, which I for some reason actually prefe ˙r. The rain lasts anywhere from fifteen minutes to a couple of hours. On saturday the day started off beautiful, which should have been my first warning that trouble was coming. The sky was blue and it was quite sunny, though not too hot (I'm guessing high 80s, but I have no real idea) I had time to do all my laundry, which takes a while because it has to be hand washed and then hang dried. The rain came at two, just like clock work and was especially ferocious. A sat by my window and enjoyed the show. At about six o'clock I went to make dinner. I had already cut up all my vegetables before I noticed that I couldn't turn the stove on. Then I realized that I couldn't turn on my lights or anything else. I had no electricity. I went to my principal's house to investigate and it turned out that everyone in Aminous lost power. That's sort of an issue when you have certain foods (such as milk) that need to stay refrigerated. Also, no power means no cell phone service and most importantly no water because the town' s supply comes from an electrically operated pump. Fortunately, I have a water heater and it had probably 20 gallons of water in it. Unfortunately, I was informed by another teacher that the power wasn't set to come back on until wednesday. 20 gallons is plenty for human consumption for four days, but it isn't ideal when you think about showers and toilet flushing. So from saturday morning on into sunday I was being very cautious with my water. I didn't shower and only flushed once a day. The food was also a little bit of a sacrifice. I couldn't cook so I was mostly left to cold oatmeal, cheese and fruits. It wasn't that bad though. At night I got to use candles, which was kinda fun. On sunday night we were all treated to a surpass when the power suddenly came back on and everything went back to normal in time for teaching to start.
It's thursday night now, which means that I've just finished four consecutive days of teaching. I don't really have anything interesting to report in regards to that. I've been making the learners practice their writing skills in english by having them do journal entries and write letters. They can understand pretty well as long as I speak slow, deliberate sentences and I explain tricky words such as: fault, misbehave and grammar. In Physical Science we're going over atomic structure and the organization of the periodic table. It's not really that interesting yet, but it's the order that I'm supposed to teach in and it'll be important for them to understand other concepts.
Grade 10 is a VERY important grade to teach because at the end of the year they will take a national exam, and if they don't pass then they can't get into grade 11 and they're finished with school. Usually after that they move into unemployment and have a difficult time ever climbing back out unless they have some sort of connection. It's very important that I stay on task and make sure that the learners know their stuff. The national tests, there is one for each subject, are way too long and in my opinion badly written. The question are very confusing and often times ask for irrelevant data. So I've got my work cut out for me in preparing them. Thankfully I have copies of previous years tests for both english and physical science. I would fill overwhelmed if it weren't for the fact that I think I'm probably the best person to be teaching them after watching some of the other faculty teach. That sounds like it's a put down, but it's not meant to be. All the other teachers are really hard working, but they don't have the training that a typical American teacher would and it shows. It's true that I also don't have any technical teacher training, but I have been a part of the American school system as a student for over a decade and as I'm learning know that provides a treasure chest of knowledge. The physical science teacher is very smart and completly knowledgable in regards to his subject. However he's never had any formal training as a teacher. As a result he gives these fantastically enthusiastic lectures but does n't tell the learners to write anything down. (They will not write a single word down unless you specifically tell them to) And as a result the learners have nothing to refer in the future about the material they just went over. Also, when he writes on the chalkboard it has very little order and by the end of the class it looks like giant word scramble. The positive side of this is that I think these are both problems that can be quite easily managed assuming that he is willing to accept a little bit of critisim. Another frustrating point which can HOPEFULLY be easily resolved is with regards to the library. The school has a pretty decent library. It's got a couple hundred books neatly arranged by category and ready to be read. The only problem is that I've never actually touched any of these books because the metal door to the library is locked and NO ONE knows where the key is. I've asked every possible person and they all tell me that the principal has the key. When I go to the principal he points me towar ds another person who then points me back towards the principal. Eventually I think I'm going to have to get someone to break in.
So in conclusion I guess that I'd have to say that my first two weeks here have been filled with a lot of frustration, but also a few positive signs. I think that the school consists of a very hard working staff that could use a little bit of direction here and there. The learners are all for the most part very nice and are all friendly. I'm getting used to the isolation and so `far it hasn't really bothered me that much because I've been busy with work most of the time. I'm sure it'll be a problem at times in the future. My living situatin is okay. I have electricty (most of the time), hot and cold water, a working fridge and a bed (though the mattress is a little uncomfortable). The days are hot and I usually have to shower 2-3 times a day because I get saturated with sweat. I don't really know what else to say at the moment, so I'm going to stop typing and go make dinner. I hope that everyone is doing well and that the weather isn't too cold where you are. I miss you
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