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.