photos

***more pictures will be arriving sporadically on my photo site,
follow the link on the right***

I am sad to have missed the opening weekend of March Madness, but I
still had a fun time. I didn't sleep enough, got too many mosquito
bites, dealt with allergies the whole time and it was wonderful. The
four day weekend gave us time to travel, hang out and rest up before
school starts again on Wednesday. We played some games, but mostly
when you get PCVs together its more about sharing stories and trying
to figure out how to deal with everything that is different here. In a
lot of ways we're just beginning to understand how the schools work so
it is very helpful to talk about the similarities and differences
between schools across the country to figure out how to work most
effectively in that environment. Tomorrow is the 16th anniversary of
Namibia's independence. I think I might be going to another village
nearby to watch an under 15 soccer match and supposedly there are some
other activities arranged there. We'll see, I kind of feel like taking
it easy for a day and getting exams ready for next week. Even now I
don't feel like writing much because I am tired.

I have always been a faithful consumer of Crest orginal flavor
toothpaste. The one with the red triangle, none of the whitening,
plaque fighting whatever. Give me a good cavity preventing Crest
original and I'm happy. But, being in the Peace Corps is all about
adapting to new situations, so when I didn't see my Crest original on
the shelf I wasn't too disappointed. I settled on Colgate and realized
something pretty incredible. Crest uses a twist off cap that is prone
to dropping in the sink or on the floor, generally an unnecessary
nuisance. Colgate uses a pop off top that stays attached to the tube.
Its simple to squeeze out that pea-sized amount and replace the cap
with one hand, leaving the other to start brushing. Crest was always a
two hand affair. Sometimes its hard to face change, but I'm kind of
liking this new Colgate toothpaste.

gmail chat & shocker basketball

Now that the Internet is working in the library I also have access to instant messaging. I am talking to AJ right now on gmail chat which is my preferred communication for all of you on gmail. I don't know about other messaging services but will investigate that soon. Congratulations to all of you in Wichita, I saw that the Shockers are dancing this year., does TUrgeon have a new job yet? I just got word that WSU annhilated Seton Hall, watch out because that team could make a  serious run.

My wonderful little flat

The tree in the picture broke and is only partly there now and most of the grass has been removed so as not to attract snakes. More pictures will follow pending the quality of the Internet connection I can get. Requests?

INTERNET IN THE LIBRARY!!!

So it seems that my isolation might be over, although we shouldn't get our hopes up. I think I posted erroneous information about calling me, leave out the 0 on the 067, you only need that if you are calling within Namibia. I have to give a huge shout out to the TU women's basketball team. I'm going to hang in the library until 10:30 tonight in case anyone sees this and has been trying to call. I will try to be back by 6:00 tomorrow morning with coffee. I haven't been able to buy bread all week, the bakery has been closed all week and I don't know why. Don't forget to celebrate Independence Day on the 21st.

The rest of this is what I had been writing this evening while the modem dialed for an hour.

One more day before the long weekend, I admit I have been counting down. Twice this week I've missed phone calls in the library. A few days ago a teacher answered the phone, but I didn't find out there was a call until several hours later and no one knew who it was. I'm still mad about that. Just now I was standing outside the library and heard the phone ringing. I ran as fast as I could but was too late.

When I decided to keep a blog during my Peace Corps service my goal was to communicate with family and friends and completely neglect my duty to provide concise and useful information to prospective PCVs. However my sense of responsibility has caught up with me so this post is dedicated to all of you trolling the blogosphere for information about Peace Corps.

One of the hardest things about Peace Corps is figuring out what to pack. This is my contribution towards packing advice and in-country purchases. Welcome to the Broscar Award Ceremony. I apologize for that, here we go. The award for:

Best Pre-service Clothing Purchase goes to...

comfortable dress shoes – My feet are my primary and most reliable transport and I have to dress nicely for work. Durability remains a question but my black Timberland dress shoes have been magnificent so far. A close second is wrinkle-free shirts and slacks, the female teachers still comment on my ties, but the real stir is when the men realize that I do my own laundry and don't iron. My pants don't have sharp creases but they don't have wrinkles.

Best Pre-Service Gift goes to...

digital camera – You have to have pictures of all the unusual things that happen and I know I will treasure all of the photographs I have of the children. Eventually you all will benefit from the wonderful combination of the digital camera and the Internet. Also, with rapid development available in my shopping town I can get prints made of any photo I want at a reasonable rate.

Best Pre-Service Gear Purchase goes to...

backpacks – Hands down, I haven't had to use my large pack much, but when I have it has been indispensable. I put backpacks in the plural because I also got a daypack that I have used extensively for 1 night situations.

Most Ingenious Pre-Service Purchase goes to...

dice – I bought 30 dice of various colors that have been used for a variety of games and are instant entertainment when my classes have earned game days. I have also used them for lessons in my science classes when we talk about observation.

Couldn't survive without it goes to...

Ipod with speakers – I am very honored to receive this award but I have to thank the rest of the cast who was so vital to this entire production. All of the music and expertly designed playlists raised the level of my performance to this exceptional level. I also have to give credit to the ingenious design of the speakers that doesn't require batteries. I recharge my battery on electricity paid for by the ministry.

Glad I have it, but I don't use it much goes to...

headlamp & multi-tool – Both have proved their value but now that I am settled in my house they have been relegated to a lower position. I still take them with me when I travel but day to day they stay on the shelf.

Most important In-country purchase goes to...

fan – The weather has been nice for the my three months at site, but even the couple times it has been hot the fan has eased a lot of discomfort. The fan also drowns out the noise from the nearby hostel when I want to nap in the afternoon or go to sleep early (8pm) which happens more often than you would think.

Best splurge with settling-in allowance goes to...

guitar – Being generally disconnected from the other PCVs, Cora has been an essential companion. My guitar also qualifies as the best impulse buy, but I'm glad I did. No buyers remorse here. I already get sad when I think about leaving her behind when I go back to the States. Considering that I would have to pay more for a nice case than I did for the guitar I think I'll be unloading it to a responsible and loving owner with a nice fenced backyard where she can run around and play.

Wish I would have brought it goes to...

flash drive (aka pen drive, usb drive, memory stick, etc) – I debated and decided to save the money because I wasn't sure if I would use it. I might not need it later but during these first few months without internet in the library I really wish I had a flash drive. I bought one here but so far it hasn't worked on the linux machines even though they run kernel 2.4 and the drive is supposed to work on that kernel. I almost put my capo but the Academy thought that a guitar accessory was a little too frivolous to receive such a prestigious award.

Most useful item from Peace Corps goes to...

cookbook – Most of the stuff we got from the health officer wasn't essential but I have made good use of the cookbook. I cook more and better food here than I did in Tulsa.

I'm bringing this home goes to...

? - I haven't identified the perfect souvenir yet. I have my Coke bottles with Arabic script from my last time on the other side of Africa, but I don't know what will find its way into my bags this time. I get to leave household goods for the next PCV and my guitar has to stay; the only nominee is my Herero man stick which has been indicted on charges of arachnidcide but I am hoping for something smaller more paperweightish like a coke bottle.

This concludes the first and last Broscar Awards unless you have other categories that I should dole out honors for.

I have been negligent and have not written about the biggest news from the weekend. I missed our first soccer match because they started early and I had been talking to my family and starting my laundry. The second game of the day on Sunday was played sometime when it was raining and I had decided to make cookies. When the third match of the day came around I was placed at the striker position where I couldn't weaken our defense. We were playing a very potent offensive team captained by the other teacher who is involved in the weekend soccer league. I had a couple chances to score in the first half but didn't connect and we went the second half in a scoreless tie. Halftime was nice and long because the dinner bell sounded so the boys that stay in the hostel went quickly to eat some bread before we finished the match. The second half started well as our midfield was keeping position of the ball well and threatening to get the ball behind the opposing defense. Then the magic started. The sweeper had the better angle as another seemingly harmless pass came across the middle of the field and he gave chase as the keeper came up to take the ball. They underestimated me. I accelerated past the sweeper and tapped the ball with my right foot just over the outstretched arms of the sliding goalkeeper. I watched anxiously as the ball skipped along the uneven sand and rolled just inside of the left post. I think the collective reaction was more shock and surprise than anything else but there was a lot of excitement as well.

March 15

I'm not in the mood to type much because I just finished embellishing a lot to finish a donation request for some computers. We are trying to get a few more so that we could have a computer class in the weekly schedule. Yesterday and today we had visitors from Raleigh International who will be building a playground at my school during this term break. The two people (1 American and 1 Brit) who will lead the group came for a visit to check out the camp site and nail down a few more particulars before the other 13 people arrive to help with the final design and construction. Of course there was a little excitement, nothing can go as smoothly as I would like. They were supposed to arrive today after lunch, have some meetings, overnight here and drive back to their base camp tomorrow. Yesterday morning I got a ready or not call, they are ahead of schedule and will be there this evening. No problem, I told all the people affected that they would arrive early, we can still meet the next day and we'll be fine. Except that the hostel superintendent who assured me that he had accommodation for them left town and didn't return until very late. I greeted our guests around 6pm, gave them a quick tour of the school and sent kids to check on the accommodations. I convinced them not to set up their tents since the mosquitoes are bad right now, we've had rain the last couple nights, and I was assured that there was accommodation arranged for them. By 8pm we had eaten dinner but no sign of the hostel superintendent who had everything arranged. Finally I got another teacher to help me track down the head matron who was slightly intoxicated celebrating her finishing school and being a newly qualified teacher. The rooms were ok but the bathrooms were non functional and there weren't any mattresses. Everything worked out and I got to spoil them with some cookies, coffee and a shower. All luxuries on their 3 month camping excursion with Raleigh. Over dinner we both got our questions answered and had a nice conversation at the pace of native English speakers. I really enjoyed hosting them and they were wonderful guests; they even swept my kitchen after tracking in a bunch of sand. Six more days of class before exams start. But, with a 4 day weekend in the middle and exams starting on a Tuesday, I've basically stopped with new material and am trying to give the kids some good review work. All of that sort of thing I have to make up myself because the book doesn't have more than 10 questions per chapter and half of them are irrelevant. I've got a chalkboard with lots of yellow and orange chalk. Yes, yellow (Golden Hurricane) is better than orange (OSU) and just to be thorough, red is impossible to read on the chalkboard, sorry Sooners. Try getting that graduation rate out of the cellar.

March 11

Another trip to town with new adventures. After school on Friday I piled in the car with 4 other teachers to head to town and the driver announced that we were going to the next village for petrol because the car was on empty. We got to the service station and they were also empty. Luckily one of the teachers was going to town to see her last born child so she pressed pretty hard and we got another teacher to bring some spare petrol that we siphoned to get enough to make it to town. I can't imagine letting a car drop below a quarter tank when you're 70 km from a reliable service station but most people run on empty around here. The other news on gas is that it will be illegal to sell leaded petrol starting in July so everyone has to get switched over. The change to unleaded has been in the works and started in January but I'm guessing there will be some headaches come July.

So we got to town about an hour late, we drove fast to make up time which was less than comfortable in a compact car that was supposed to get new shocks that day. We made it by 3:30 which left me an hour of business hours for most establishments. I darted to the ATM, went to get some pictures printed and headed for the Internet cafe. The spot with the better computers is usually closed on Friday afternoons so I made a turn by there to check then headed down the road to a little tourist shop that has an old computer. I had planned to upload a couple pictures but on the older computer it wasn't possible. I had to prioritize and scan through my new emails, get a few things sent, and then I set to copying the older stuff that I couldn't get last weekend. I made it partway and then the connection died so I didn't get all the way through everything. By the time I got some business done on the Internet the post office was closed along with every other shop with the exception of the grocery store. I had hoped to get a hair cut and swing by the stationary store but the time just ran out. I had a hot dog at the grocery store's restaurant because that is the only thing they had, with a milkshake and talked with the PCV that lives in town before I had to buy my groceries and get back in the car for the bumpy ride home. It was a whirlwind trip to town but it was still nice to get a few things sent on the Internet and I left some mail with my friend because I didn't have postage. The worst part of the trip wasn't the road this time. The spot covered with water is half mud now so we did some sliding around but made it just fine. On the way home the other four teachers had a rousing conversation in Otjiherero. I didn't understand I single word except common exclamations and they didn't make a single effort to include me in the conversation. I was tired and wouldn't have minded a quiet ride home but the worst is that they are either clueless about how they are excluding me or they just don't care. With the kids I know most of them have a hard time communicating in English but these have all been teaching in English for the last 15 years and 3 of the 4 teach English to grades 7-10 so if anyone in the school should be able to communicate well it is these teachers. Whatever.

Saturday morning was the first chance I have had all month to sleep in so I took advantage all the way to 7AM and it felt nice. I woke up and stayed in bed another hour reading Dr. Zhivago before I put on some Jack Johnson and made banana pancakes and coffee for breakfast. I had planned to make my pancakes partly with cornmeal but my cornmeal was infested with weevils so I opted for banana pancakes in honor of the music I was listening to. I had never made banana pancakes before but these were the best I've ever made. Before coming here I always used a mix, but I'm getting pretty good at pancakes from scratch and this way I can customize them any way I want.

On Thursday I was talking with one of my grade 10 classes about soccer because there had been a match on Wednesday afternoon and I mentioned that I want to start playing some soccer. One of the boys in class immediately said I could play on his team and I didn't think much of it but they said they were playing Saturday morning around 11. After I had my pancakes and read the newspaper I went out to the soccer field to see what was going on. I've seen them play on Sunday's but this was the real deal. There are teams of boys from the different villages that feed to the secondary school at Coblenz. They play every weekend, but this Saturday and Sunday is a round robin tournament between all six teams. Every single kid I walked by on the way to the field asked me if I was playing, there was a general excitement in the air. Once I learned about the weekend games I wanted to get on a team, but I really didn't want to straight up ask someone to be on their team because there is no way they could say to me as their teacher. This way was so much better because I just said I was interested in playing and they liked the novelty of having me play with them. The worst part of the situation is that I'm taking playing time from a kid that is better than me, but I subbed out a few minutes into the second half. Our first game went pretty well, I had pre-medicated with some ibuprofen and I didn't get as tired as I expected. It was a little hard to figure out where I was supposed to be playing because none of the positions are defined very well except for one striker, the sweeper and the keeper. I was a little bit all over the place but I did all right. I decided before the game that I had to play aggressive and act like I belong on the field even if I actually need a lot of practice to be effective against these older boys. I ran a guy off the ball straight to the ground early on just to make a point and had some good touches on the ball. It was pretty obvious my team didn't have a lot of confidence in me because I didn't receive many passes but I occupied a lot of passing lanes defensively and didn't have any bad turnovers. I had one good scoring chance in the second half but with two guys running beside me I didn't hit the ball well. All that to say I had fun playing and we won the game 3-0. Our second game started well, the 6'4" guy on the team scored with his head and then we got hit with a downpour. The rainstorm came from nowhere and the game got put off until tomorrow. I had fun, the kids were complementary and I'm building some report with the older boys. Now I just need to buy some cleats.

At this point I am very happy with the switch from grade 8 to grade 10. The younger kids were fun sometimes but some of them were just awful and would have been a struggle all year. The grade 10 aren't kids anymore which causes some problems but I can talk with them on a different level. Even from grade 9 to grade 10 there is a marked difference in maturity and conversational ability that makes the older ones enjoyable. They have been working hard on a project for me, doing research for the first time and now making posters. It remains to be seen how good the posters are but I like the process they are going through to read about their topics and synthesize some of the information. I plan to do more projects like this with both grades because it also gives them something to do when they have periods that the teachers don't show up. Its pretty common for teachers to not be in their classes because they just don't come and a lot of school business (major discipline issues with parents in the office) is taken care of during classtime. And people still wonder why the kids don't do well. When the teacher isn't there the kids don't do anything, they don't even have enough resources to fall back on to just say read the chapter and answer the questions at the end. We have two weeks of teaching less two days for the independence day weekend (March 21 is independence day) and then we'll take almost 3 weeks for exams and wrapping up the term. At least that is what I heard from the principal. And you wonder why the kids don't do well at the end of the year when you lose 3 weeks of class time to have them write one exam a day for two weeks and then waste the last few days. I am looking forward to exams though because I will have more time to get the library organized and get some more long range planning done. My grade 10 classes will write an exam with 5 other schools in August so I want them to be ready and then their big tests are shortly after that in October.

On the topic of donations coming from America to my school. I am extremely grateful for all of you who have expressed interest in helping out. However, the one thing I want to avoid is generating a Santa Claus mentality. There is also the question of priorities. I could write a treatise on sustainable development, but that has already been done far too many times by many others. My perspective in a nutshell, there are challenges in Coblenz and many of them can be solved locally. There are resources available that need to be shifted from satellite tv and other luxuries to address the fundamental problems that this community faces. As long as donations come in from outside then there is no pressure to use what resources are available here. People here are shameless about asking for things so I doubt there is any shame in receiving superfluous donations either. That said, many of the kids here are disadvantaged and would benefit from some outside assistance. Then the question is what sorts of things do they need most and what will make the biggest impact. The bare essentials and consumable goods must come locally because they will be needed again soon. There is a new program from the US Embassy to help poor schools buy textbooks, that makes sense because the textbooks will last for several years. Like library books the impact is long term. This kind of goes against principles of sustainability but its a lasting improvement for the school that it didn't have resources to obtain otherwise. The other big issue is feasibility, some things are too expensive, big, heavy, or just not available. My dilemma is that I want the good runners to have shoes and I know that they are available at no cost but its hard to justify having a bunch of track spikes when we don't have enough textbooks. I'm interested in your thoughts on this question because I'm still wrestling with it. One thing you all could think about sending is pens. The pens here are lousy and most kids don't have a back up. I'm mostly thinking of simple ballpoint pens that have built up over the years, even the sort that some company had made and never gave away. I asked a couple departments at TU if they had pens before I left but I didn't get any positive responses from them. I have never seen Bic style pens running out of ink before I came to Namibia. We all use one for a little while and never get close to finishing it. Novelty pens would also be great for prizes, but not at any significant expense. This year is the 50^th anniversary celebration for the school so some teachers will be soliciting donations from Namibian companies so I'm going to keep an ear out for what they are asking for besides cash. There will never be money for some things like track spikes but lots of boys have soccer cleats, old and new. What is most important, what is possible locally, and what is is justifiable from outside.

The chase scene in Terminator 3 is pretty good. The rest of the movie is fine but that chase scene is entertaining. I can't believe I just wrote 4 pages, I guess there is a lot to say.

7 March

The last few days have been a roller coaster. I had a great time at
the regional track meet watching Bianca win the 1500 in a blazing 5:27
and she is only 11 years old. She is the next anti-Frankie Fredericks
as a female trackstar in the longer races. We woke up at 4AM to get to
the track meet on time so Saturday night I crashed hard around 8PM and
didn't move until morning. Sunday morning I got to talk to my folks
again, which has been very nice, but they shared the sad news that Ed
Overton (the dad of my best friend from high school) died of a heart
attack. Regardless of the circumstances new like that would have been
hard to deal with but in this situation is has been difficult. The
rest of Sunday was melancholy, but it ended well with a nice loaf of
banana bread.

Monday went well. I introduced a new unit on chemical change to the
grade 9 classes and after an average lesson I shifted my examples
around a bit. For the second class we talked about tearing, folding,
burning, eating paper and some other changes then I had them describe
how you make bread. I had several learners highly engaged in
explaining the process and I stopped them at key points to talk about
the differences between chemical and physical changes. Then I hit a
home run, no really this one was a grand slam in the top of the 5th.
After we talked about bread, I asked them how you make omaere. Omaere
is a traditional drink for Hereros that is extremely popular despite
the fact that it is nothing more than sour milk. When I asked this
question all of the kids who normally sit passive in class were
jumping out of their seats to explain how you make the stuff. I think
it also helped solidify the idea of chemical changes for a lot of
them. The other interesting thing on Monday was that some of the boys
that were at the regional track meet were more attentive, especially
one named Albert who I consider a borderline student who could do
really well if he applies himself but could easily fall short. That
alone justifies waking up before the sun on a Saturday. The third
positive thing was that one of the grade 9 classes earned a game day.
Monday was the last day in the cycle and they were close so I reminded
them at the beginning of class what was at stake. It was debatable
whether they really earned it or not, but I felt like it was time for
some class to earn a game day as incentive to the others. And they
gave themselves an impromtu ovation when I put up the final marks at
the end of the period. My favorite reaction was from a girl named
Edla, she is one of the smartest in the class with the best verbal
skills, but just the smile of satisfaction told me that they felt like
they had accomplished something. So then today during their Life
Skills period we played cards, dice, Set, and MasterMind and the other
classes saw that I had games with me today and heard about how another
class got to play. Hopefully they will all work hard to earn a game
day of their own. I don't know if its the system or the fact that I
run a really tight ship or that I can come across as a fairly
intimidating man even without beating the kids but I haven't had any
serious discipline issues this year unlike several PCVs that I have
talked to. Whatever it is I'm thankful. The rest of Tuesday wasn't as
smooth. One grade 10 class was driving me nuts with their general
incompetence and around 5pm I hit the wall. I wanted to sleep but knew
it wasn't a wise idea so I read some of Dr. Zhivago and made some
tortillas to go with my leftover taco meat from Monday's fabulous
dinner. Hold on, think about that one, an American living in Namibia
eating Mexican food reading a Russian novel. As I was eating my dinner
I was inspired to play a little Garth Brooks, What She's Doing Now.
Still not sure why I thought of that song but it was fun to play and
sing. What key does Garth sing it in though? I played it in G and the
melody gets pretty high. Between dinner and Garth I got to thinking
about Mr. Overton again and being tired already I was getting pretty
sad. So, I decided I ought to call a friend. I bought another phone
card (I have quite a collection building up), went to the library and
helped the grade 10 kids do some research and then kicked them out so
I could talk on the phone and write this. I may live a long ways from
most people but phones can work some amazing miracles. I can receive
calls in the library if you dial me at 264 (country code for Namibia)
067-231-637. My office hours are 2-4 PM Namibian time Monday through
Thursday and by appointment. Once I have a cell phone I will be easier
to reach because you can ring me at home but that won't happen until
the end of the month. Also at the end of the month we'll hit daylight
savings time but I don't know how that affects the time differences.
We fall back but you spring forward right? I don't even want to try to
think about that right now. I'm going to rock out to a little Garth
and hit the sack.

2 March

Another month is gone and I'm afraid the next couple will fly by. I am
going to the regional athletics competition tomorrow. Another weekend
without enough rest. I am glad to be working hard, but it is wearing
on me a little bit. I really want to get out and play soccer a couple
times a week except that I'm working in the library all afternoon
everyday getting it organized and preparing my lessons.

My grade 9 classes wrote a test on Wednesday. My objective with this
test was to give them all a shot in the arm. Too many learners here
think physical science too hard for them to do well so they don't try.
I set the test a little bit on the easy side to encourage them that
maybe over the next two years they can figure this stuff out. There is
already some naive optimism just because the new guy is their teacher
so why not feed that fantasy right? Really though, I figure if they
think they can learn the subject then they will study it more and
learn the subject better. A lot of the teachers don't teach much so if
I'm working hard for them then I want them to work hard for me too.
The average was a 52%. The kids were excited with their scores.

The other objective I had going into this assessment was to force them
to do test corrections. I wanted them to write the test, get instant
feedback and then fill in the gaps of their understanding. They
finished writing the test at 4pm so I worked from then until 10pm
marking the test with a short break for a little dinner and a little
guitar playing. I'm trying to learn this song call Top Down Holiday
that I have on a random compilation but its tough. The song is in D, I
think, but the chord progression is giving me fits. I'm not sure if it
will help but I might try it in drop D tuning if I can remember how
that works. Still though I think they're using mostly bar chords on
the song, there might be a capo involved too which would be a slight
problem. The other song I want to learn is Cocoon by Jack Johnson but
I'll spare you the details of that one.

Back to the test, I marked it Wednesday night and returned on
Thursday. In class on Thursday I made them do corrections, after the
excitement died down, by working with each other. Every class had a 42
out of 50 so the answers were available with their classmates. I'm
sure some were just copying answers down but generally the kids seemed
to catch on to the idea of working together and I overheard some good
explanations. That is when I could understand the explanation, I still
remind my classes several times a day to speak English in class. After
school I was talking with two boys that were both beaming with their
good results and spouting out some lofty goals for the rest of the
year. My primary objective was met, and I'm getting emotional just
writing about it. Too many of these kids have too low of expectations,
hopefully now they'll strive for a 50 out of 50 instead of just not
failing. Don't worry, I won't enlighten any of these with the 93% rule
that guided me through college.

28 Feb

Flexibility and patience. I wrote a bunch yesterday, saved it to a
floppy and was ready to post it today in town but the internet was not
working at all anywhere in town. Just my luck. The drive to town was
interesting though, think Oregon Trail. I was lobbying to caulk the
wagon and float the river, but the driver decided to ford it and we
actually made it through an 80 meter stretch of water on the road that
was up to three feet deep. Really it was more like crossing a pond
than a river. Nobody remembers there being water at that spot before
and the water is stagnant with nowhere to flow. On the way home I
counted six different places where the water had covered the road and
left the rocky remains of erosion. Strangely enough, the water
situation in my region is very under control compared with the rest of
the country. The sluices were opened on the biggest dam in Namibia
flooding half of decent sized town situated downstream. Also, the
northern regions are experiencing some serious flood threats that
could actually cut off whole villages because the roads are
impassible.

I decided my grade 10 classes will be making posters and presenting
them for the rest of the semester. We have a fairly important unit on
materials (building, clothing, cleaning, etc.) that comes down to
memorization. They have to know how different metals are extracted
from their ores, what the ore is called and where it is mined in
Namibia along with the properties of wood, glass, cotton, nylon,
plastic, and several other materials. We can talk about the molecular
structures and the types of bonds some, but I'm betting that they will
end up trying to memorize the stuff anyway. I figure, if the kids will
try to memorize it in the end, why not provide a decent way to
effectively memorize everything. I'm splitting them into groups of
three to research and make a poster about a couple materials. Then
they'll present their poster to the class and I'll hang it on the wall
of my classroom. While they make posters I'm going to work on a cheat
sheet and a couple games they can play to help them memorize. I think
I will work on a little Jeopardy sans the categories on Opera and
Musicals and Concentration with the name of a material and its common
uses as pairs. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. And, if we can finish
this unit during this term we'll have plenty of time to study
electricity which is easier to demo and hopefully easier to understand
instead of memorize.

27 Feb

I just set a new high score in Snake. I also found the fault in the
game. It only goes to level 25 so I just repeated level 25 about 15
times before I finally died. The distraction was a bunch of kids
finished their dinner and came in the library to watch over my
shoulder. I didn't say anything because they weren't hurting anything
until one knocked over the white board, another went to try to mess up
the freshly alphabetized fiction section and another smelled so bad I
could barely stay in my seat. I really thought I would be used to it
by now, but almost every day a kid stands next to me that smells so
bad I have to turn away. Its only the younger ones but wow.

Today I witnessed blatant corporal punishment for the first time. I'm
not going to go into the details of what happened, but needless to say
it was awkward. I was standing outside the classrooms talking to
another teacher with an entire class queued up outside a locked
teacherless room right beside us. A couple girls were messing around
in another classroom and they got more than a tongue lashing. The
hardest thing about the situation was that it happened so fast that I
was mostly in shock, yet trying not to let it show on my face in front
of the teacher and the queued class. The odd thing was that about an
hour later the teacher was explaining why what he did was ok to me and
the father of one of the girls, who is also a teacher at the school.

That was the strangest event of the day, but the whole day had a weird
feel to it. There were several kids not back from the out weekend and
some that were back had brought their parents because they were in
trouble with the school. Nothing felt right today.

Last week passed very quickly and had several high points. On Monday I
found sweet corn while I was grocery shopping so I enjoyed hamburgers
and corn on the cob. I also cooked up some brownies because I didn't
have any oats to make some oatmeal raisin cookies. When I didn't think
I was going to get a hike back home last weekend I started reading The
Color Purple, so I borrowed it and read it during last week as well. I
enjoyed the book, but am cautious to recommend it too widely. It was a
Pulitzer prize winner and made into a movie by Spielberg though. The
title comes up in the dialog several times. The most memorable goes
something like, "I think God gets pissed when you're walking in a
field somewhere and pass the color purple and don't notice." Its an
interesting novel that addresses sexism, racism, colonialism, religion
and other isms that I'm not remembering right now. I appreciated how
the book lambasted racism while it cast the problem as a human one,
not just a white/black issue. Nettie faces discrimination from whites
in America and from blacks in Africa. The Color Purple isn't for
everybody, but it will make you think. Maybe its not for everybody
because it will make you think.

I have to retract some of my previous statements about the impressive
performances on the track. The kid that ran the 1500 in 5:00 in the
under 13 ran again this weekend, 4:54 in the under 15 division. Still
pretty good but the same. The best from the track meet the last two
weekends will run this coming weekend in the regional meet. It is held
in the biggest town in the region which boasts a cinder track. I spoke
with the zonal sports coordinator and he told me the third tartan
track in the country is under construction right now, but none are
close to us. Its probably better though, considering the kids are used
to barefoot on sand, I can't imagine running a 3000 barefoot on a
tartan track and I don't know if there are any decent shoes for them
to wear. My school will be well represented at the regional meet. Our
boys turned in several quality performances the most notable I think
was a 56 second 400 in under 17 and a 2:22 800 meter in under 15. I
didn't see the times on most of the other races though because I was
in charge of discus. It was fun to run off an event. Unfortunately,
half the kids have decent set throw but without a cage no one even
attempts to teach the kids to spin. Maybe next year I'll work with the
field events more. We already dominate on the track.

Àthletics success

I again failed to get my stuff from the library to the internet so more will be building up again. Today we are at regional track and some of our kids have qualified for the national meet which will be sometime soon. I got away during all the hurdle races b/c none of our kids hurdle, we don't even have any hurdles. Thats an interesting statement. hmm...

 

The internet cafe was closed when we got here so I read most of my new emails but I don't even have time to finish reading let alone write much. Starting with the grade 10 kids went ok, they''re not kids. I found out that the headboy at the school is 22 years old in grade 10. Wow.

 

My favorite race of the day was the girls U/13 1500, the girl that ran a great 800 a couple weeks ago won the 1500 in 5:27 which should qualify her to go to Windhoek for nationals. If I"m lucky I'm going to go back for the end of the meet and get a picture of the kids from the towns running in their nice jerseys and spikes next to my kids running in makeshift jerseys barefoot. We might have to do something about the situation of spikes. I know there are a lot of spikes not being used in several closets.