First REAL Post

Today is Sunday, it is bright, sunny, and warm here in Oshifo Namibia and I happy to say this is the first real update on my blog. First and foremost, I am happy. Officially, this is the beginning of week 3 and the past two weeks have flown by. My living area is getting more and more set up by the day and I am getting more comfortable with my surroundings. Let me catch all of you up on my site placement.

I am working in Ombuumbuu Junior Secondary school (grades 8-10). The school has roughly 350 learners, divided into 10 classes. The schedule works a bit differently here than in American school, instead of having a specific schedule for each learner (student), learners are divided into classes and then a schedule is made for that specific class. Therefore, the learners in a given class, say 8A, are together all day, for all classes, for all terms (of which there are 3) of the year. I cannot imagine being together with the same students all day, all year. I am anxious to see how this plays out, I am expecting students getting fed up with each other and thus misbehaving, though I am also hoping the cohesiveness of the class will be formed much quicker since they are always together. A great thing about my school that is I have my own classroom. This may not sound like a big deal, but in most school here, the teacher moves and the class remains in the same classroom all day. I cannot imagine being a student, sitting in the same room all day, watching the teachers change. So I am happy I get my own classroom, also helps for planning purposes. I am teaching all the grade 8’s, five sections, in math, then am also teaching all the grade 9s, three sections, life skills. I am happy about this work load, teaching about 27, forty minute periods a week. The biggest obstacle I have hit thus far has been the language barrier between myself and the 8^th grades learners. Their English skills are the lowest of all the grades, understandably, but combined with me accent they struggle to understand me. I am told that with time they will begin to understand more, and I believe that, but it is just tough right now.

The first week of school was interesting to say the least. Chaos would be a good word to describe the school. The time table is totally different for each class, teacher, and EACH DAY. Also, the schedule is written only one sheet of paper in the office and not displayed really to the learners, so you can imagine the confusion. I cannot even begin to tell you how difficult and complicated the schedule making process is, but lets just say its not efficient at all. Because of this confusion, I didn’t see on of my 8^th grade classes until Friday, when the first day of school was Wednesday. I just chalked it up to another learning experience.

My school has electricity, one bathroom building at each side of the main courtyard, both with flush toilets in each of the mens and womens bathrooms. We have a semi stocked library, a science lab, and the kicker, a Schoolnet Lab. I wont bore you to death (may be too late) but SchoolNet is a Namibian based nonprofit company aimed at computer education in Namibian schools. They provide a main computer that can serve 5 shell computers that comes loaded with all kinds of educational software. Math, English, science as well as basic computers skills are touched on in this software. Its really great. It comes loaded with Wikipedia so that learners can surf Wikipedia without being on the Internet. Comes loaded with over 1000 books, all in .txt form, basically all the books one would ever read in schools along with a bunch of Namibian texts. I haven't fully explored all the programs but from the surface, they look great and I am very anxious to get kids in the lab and start really teaching. And what’s best, they all have a huge drive to learn computers. I don’t know exactly what the drive is, but the interest even in the whole community, is huge on computers. I am thinking that something computer based will be my secondary project.

The staff is very supportive and very happy I am there. When I finally got the lab up and running, they were very excited. Its great to have a supportive staff.

I touched on it a bit, but I must reiterate how driven to learn the students are here. They deal with many challenges, possibly to many to list here, and yet they come to school eager to learn. It is so refreshing to be in a country where the students appreciate the education they are receiving, even if its not the best. And I know its early and maybe I may see a fall in this drive, but hopefully I will be able to keep their interest and build upon it.

That’s bout it on the school. My living situation is great. I am living in a two bedroom house with one other Namibian roommate, Joseph (African name is Kadafi). I have my own bedroom, a bed, an armoire(sp?), a table and two chairs. I also indulged in a fan, cause it is wicked hot here. If I am sleeping, its on. I lucked out with my situation because the kitchen was already fully stocked when I arrived so I didn’t have to pay for that kind of stuff. I have a decent size fridge, about double a big college fridge, a two burner hotplate, and a tap of drinkable water in my kitchen. By our (PCVs) standards, its nice enough. I have been pretty much living on pasta, cereal, and tuna but am hopefully going to start branching out with the cooking. There is a sitting room, his bedroom, and a bathroom consisting of a cold shower and flush toilet. Again, pretty sweet. Joseph works on a farm most days and is usually gone until nine or ten so lately I haven't been seeing much of him. Just this past week we had two new arrivals at our place, his daughter, Reiley, and another girl, cant really figure out her relationship to….anybody…, Wilka. I am their teacher for math so it is a little weird when I my learners see me shirtless and whatnot, but, what can you do. They are very quiet and we haven't really talked much however we have had some tooth and nail battles in Uno when they first arrived.

My closest real shopping town is Outapi, where I can find most items, including apples, oranges, potatoes and onions. Fresh things other than that are hard to come by. If I want to go to a food place that more resembles an American grocery store, I must go 2 hours by public transport, and $N80 round trip to Oshakati, where I can find, basically anything. In my town I can get bread sometimes, pasta, rice, butter, shampoo, soap, dish soap, biscuits(crackers), chicken that I have yet to trust, some canned veggies, and, at the “fresh market” (basically a chopped up cow hanging on a hook from a tree) I can get beef. I have yet to try this….fresh market, but I know it will be a great cultural exchange when I do. My town has a post office, which I use frequently, and…..the school, haha. That’s bout it, no bank. But Internet, so who needs a bank, haha.

Getting to integrate into the community has been a little rough thus far. I keep telling myself that its early but I also am anxious to belong. The language barrier is my biggest set back in this thus far. I know not nearly enough language to be able to even begin to hold a conversation with the locals, so I have yet to really try to and socialize. I hope to soon get a language tutor to teach me whatever language would be most appropriate here, I think Oshikwambi, so hopefully that will help. Another problem is that just as I am shy of the locals, the locals are shy of me. I try to stay outside when I am reading and be available, but I think I need to be the one making the moves.

Just got back from a night stay in Opuwo. It was great. I was able to see two other PCV from our group and also met a VSO from the Netherlands. I cannot begin to explain how great it is to see other PCVs and here their stories and reassure yourself that everybody is going through the same things you are. Its also very interesting to see others’ sites, and how they compare to yours. One theme I have definitely understood as of late, ALL experiences differ greatly from PCV to PCV. Living setting, amenities, cultural issues (Opuwo is home to the Himba people, some of the most traditional people in Namibia, Google them). It was a great visit and I am recharged and ready for a full week of teaching, hopefully, content to the kids.

So I really apologize for the length of this, I am sure by now some that have opened the page have gone off to another much more interesting page but for those of you still tuned in thanks. There has just been much happening that I feel only those super close to me have known about. Expect, shorter, more frequent updates to follow.

I am happy, the homesickness comes and goes, the mood fluctuates, but overall I am good. Plan for the day is to upload this, plan the week of school and start my next book. By the way, already read Dark Star Safari, The Long Walk, Choke, Shutterbabe, and am about to start reading Cryptonomicon. Its got 1100 pages so I think Ill be good for a while with the books. Hope everybody is well, I have been keeping up with US news so I know that nothing too crazy is going on over there. The Skins are out so…Go Pats! I won my fantasy league, I know, wild. My hair and beard are really long, I have been called Jesus on numerous occasions. Out for now…..

Keith

p.s. I hope to get going on the blog a list of items that you can send if you are looking to send stuff….just let me know if you send something and I will take it off the list and put other items up. I have been told that if you put religious symbols and/or words on the package, it is more likely to arrive in a timely and safe manner. Also, I have been advised to always, yes always, put Used School Supplies or Used Clothing or anything Used, on the customs forms. This again to make sure whatever you send actually gets to me. Also look into M-Bags, the cheapest and most effective way to send a lot of stuff. Takes a lot of time (3 months on the boat) but apparently gets here. The address to send things is as follows.

Mr. Keith Kohr
PO BOX 45
Ruacana
Namibia
Africa

If M-Bag : PO Box 6862
Ausspannplatz
Windhoek, Namibia
Africa

p.p.s I know its expensive to send packages, so just know that letters are just as awesome to get. K, done.