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.