Moral Dilemmas II - girls and boys

Growing up in the US, I was the generation after Title IX. I spent hours in front of the TV watching Mia Hamm and the US women’s soccer team as they took on the world in the World Cup. I played on all-girls’ soccer teams, I participated in every season of sports at my school, and I did everything the boys did.

Here in Namibia, it’s a little different. I’m lucky to be working and living in the south, which is at least a bit more similar to home. Women are more accepted as equals here, and at least some of the schools have girls’ teams and support girls’ activities. But we have limited resources, just like every school in Namibia, and I have been struggling with the issue of equality lately.

Because when it comes down to it, my boys are more motivated than my girls in most areas. They practice soccer on their own, they fundraise by themselves to earn money to travel with their soccer team to have matches in other villages, they come and ask “when is practice” and run away from class to come and tell me to call the other schools to request a game this weekend. So at the end of the day, I am more likely to take the boys for practice than the girls. I am more likely to funnel funds towards the boys’ teams, because they practice more and show me that they really care.

I’m not sure this is right. I grew up in a family that was very encouraging, and I was NEVER given the impression that girls and boys should be treated differently. I think the only difference between my brother and me was that I wore dresses sometimes – and heck, I wore his clothes half the time too.

The girls here are probably less motivated for several reasons. The big #1 is that they’ve never been given these opportunities before, and they don’t really know how to train on their own! They probably don’t know what opportunities are even there, so how should they know to come and ask me to schedule games for them? They are usually kicked out of the boys’ games, or they are afraid to play because the boys are so rough and so much better already, so they have fewer opportunities to practice.

#2, girls are still expected to fulfill different roles than boys in our society. The girls in the hostel wash WAY more often than the boys, and they usually wash the boys’ clothes for them, too. They are busier, and it is harder for them to find time to practice.

So what should I do? I am the only Sport Teacher, and I want to give my attention to the kids who really want it. But at the same time, how can I be here, and be given this opportunity to do whatever I want with the sports teams (and I am a female sports teacher, which is rare!) and not take advantage of it to give girls the chance? No, my girls will probably never be great, and maybe it won’t make much difference in the end. But I think I gained a lot of confidence and grew a lot from participating in team sports and “doing everything the boys did” growing up, and my girls could use that even more.

Moral Dilemmas I - Fish vs. Fishing

How do you know how much help to give?

I could empty my savings account helping the learners at my school, and it would still not be enough.

I could spend much, much more than the 12 hours/day I ALREADY spend at my school, and it would still not be enough.

I could spend the rest of my life fundraising, applying for grants, and sending aid to my school and my village, and it would still not be enough.

But how much is enough?

No child deserves to grow up in a place without enough food, worrying about buying the next pair of school shoes because the current ones are breaking, begging for money when they want to participate in a school event like a sports team. No child. I have given kids lunch, bought school shoes, and paid for their trips when things like this happen.

But – here’s the catch – how can it be SO MANY children?

Namibia had a GDP of $13 billion (USD) in 2012 and a Gini coefficient of 0.60 in 2010, according to the World Bank. So the thing is, Namibia actually has enough money to feed all of its children. That wealth is just distributed in a really, pardon my French, fucked up way. Big companies like diamond or uranium mines are pulling in millions, if not billions, of dollars. (Excuse my lack of research, I don’t have internet access as I’m writing this.) So the problem is actually not a lack of funds with which to provide basic things to the population, it is the location and distribution of those funds.

I know that this problem is not unique to Namibia, and many great development thinkers have been addressing it for years. But it is still something that rankles, when I stop and think about it.

Do you, in this case, give a man a fish? Or do you, as the saying goes, teach him how to fish?

It’s a poor analogy, but bear with me. If I give a man a fish, at least he will eat today. If I don’t give my kids food, or money, or whatever it is, they’re not going to get it anywhere else. Meaning that these children will suffer for the poor planning of their elders. I definitely don’t think that’s right.

On the other hand, as Tevye and my mother would say, there are also disadvantages. Giving a man a fish is not a sustainable solution. Maybe if more of us stopped feeding men for the day, they would find a way to feed themselves. Namibia needs to learn to spend its resources in a more equitable way, and to care for those who need it. Obviously the issue of scale comes into question, but for example, if I stopped helping my school to pay for transport for sport events, and to pay for copy paper that we run out of every year – if everyone did this – would more large-scale solution be reached? Or would we simply be causing more children to suffer for our laziness?

My gut is that children are children. It’s not their fault that the adults didn’t get their acts together, and they shouldn’t be the ones to suffer for it. But you have to wonder, if you looked at the whole issue from a purely utilitarian standpoint, what is the best solution? What would allow the economy and administration to develop in a way that is fair to those who are working hard, but still provides for those who need it? We can’t rely on foreign aid forever.

How Namibia is winning the development game

Anyone who’s ever taken a class in global development, or maybe even economics (not like I would know, ha), will read this post and say “duh, Sachi, that’s exactly how it’s supposed to go.” But how will anyone ever know if it goes how it’s supposed to unless they check for themselves? Here’s my confirmation that yes, development in the global world is a crazy and interesting thing.

1.     Phones. Everybody in Namibia has a cell phone. And by that, I mean everybody. There are basically no landlines, with the exceptions of governmental institutions (Village/Town Councils, schools, Ministry offices), but everybody has a phone. Many working adults have 2 or 3, and even most of my schoolchildren have their own phones. With this comes interesting consequences. The phone system here is pay-as-you-go. You can buy “credit” for your phone in amounts as small as N$5 (50 cents in the US). You can send 100 SMSes for 40c (4 cents in the US) and you are charged per minute for phone calls that you make. There are also plans you can pay for, by the week, if you know that you will make many phone calls, etc. It’s easy, accessible, and allows people to pay for/use what they can afford.

Phone access and low prices also lead to the result that everybody is online! I paid something like 50USD for my phone, and it has Facebook and Twitter apps, internet access, a qwerty keyboard, and a battery that STILL lasts for 4+ days! I noticed that Facebook relatively recently started allowing you to sign up for an account using a phone number instead of an email. Most Namibians don’t have a computer, don’t know how to use a computer, don’t have an email address. But they have Facebook, which they use from their phones as a means of communication and staying in touch with friends who stay far away. Data is also WAY cheaper here than in the US!

2.     Technology in general. Other technologies are the same! My school has a great computer lab with about 25 computers, which the learners are all learning to type on. The adults I know are also trying hard to progress with technology. Within the last 10 years, they have introduced computers to the schools. All of my teachers can type (if not well) their own tests and question papers on the computer. Even if some of the parts are still coming, it is a far cry from the handwritten test papers that our school used only 10 years ago.

Just for fun.. yes, we do still "cut and paste" in the literal way sometimes! But still, look at those nice photocopied papers.

3.     Solar/power. No, most Namibians are not aware of where their electricity comes from; and in fact, as far as I can tell, a lot of it actually comes from South Africa. In towns. Powering towns in a sustainable way is an issue all over the world, and Namibia is no different. But we do win out on small scales. In the South, most farms use solar power for their houses, bore holes (pumping water), etc. They are too far to get power from the grid, and solar is the easiest alternative. In the North, even though there are more clouds, many villages rely on solar power for things like charging cell phones. The north tends to be less “developed” in terms of infrastructure. When I visited a friend’s village, one of the only buildings with power (aside from government buildings!) was a mud hut with a solar panel, where locals could go to charge their phones or electronics.

4.     Banking. Banking is a hassle anywhere. But it really has gotten easier here… Of course, it depends on your bank. But most banks allow you to sign up for “cell phone banking”. You are SMSed anytime your account balance changes (so you know if you have been paid, or if someone steals your card). You can buy cell phone credit using your phone, if there is not a vendor nearby. You can even SEND money to someone having the same bank using your phone! In a country where towns are far apart and travel is relatively expensive, this has really allowed more universal access to basic banking.

I guess what I’m saying is that no, Namibia is not a first world country (although our GDP might indicate otherwise… stupid mines). But people here have done a great job taking existing technologies and slightly modifying them to fit our unique needs. The country is really growing and developing. And, as you will have learned from that development class, we are not starting from ground 0. Using ideas and technologies from other developed countries is really helping progress to occur rapidly and to alleviate a lot of the hassle and suffering that might otherwise exist.

A Universal Language in Sports

Sorry! Tried to post this about 2 months ago, but forgot that the photos couldn't load at that time. So.. better late than never, I hope?


Due to unforeseen circumstances, this year I have become the “Sport Teacher” at St. Therese J.S.S. Although this means lots of extra work (and an unfortunate amount of time spent with kids when they are full of energy and more likely to get in trouble…), I have been loving it so far because of the amount of time I’ve gotten to spend with my learners outside of the classroom environment!

Term 1 in Namibia means athletics (track and field). However, we also took some boys for rugby got the soccer teams started, and began to train the marathon runners! (One thing many people here don’t seem to get is that procrastination with long distance running just doesn’t work well.)

One of my favourite parts about getting to coach sports is that it lets some of our less academic kids be successful at something. I have learners who are absolutely brilliant in playing games, but they can’t perform well in the classroom. It is a chance for them to succeed, and for them to show their friends and teachers that yes, they ARE skilled in something.

Athletics

Our school hosted our Zonal Trials for athletics – which meant that first, my school assisted our sister primary school to host the primary school zonals … and then we did it all over again the next weekend for the secondary schools. Luckily there are only 2 secondary schools in our zone, so it wasn’t too huge of a meet. It’s the first time I’ve had to organize something so big by myself though, so it was definitely a learning experience!

Hosting a track meet is more than just that, here… you first have to measure out a track, rake all of the thorns and rocks off of it, and lay down the lines!

I have never been so proud of my kids as when I had more than 20 qualify for our Regional Trials, which is almost unheard of. They worked hard all season and actually trained and listened to my coaching, which is a huge improvement from last year =) I’m not sure if it’s because I’m more of an established teacher now, or if it’s because they’ve seen me running so much that they decided I might actually know what I’m talking about.. but either way, we got on great this year.

At regionals, I had many kids set personal records, win races (awesome when we are coming from a small farm school and competing against all of the town kids from Luderitz and Keetmanshoop!), and really try their hardest. My distance runners won the boys Under/17 3k, boys U/19 5k, boys U/19 800, girls U/17 1500. I was pretty proud! One of the funniest things though – one girl fell out of the 1500 because she cramped up. When I got to her, basically all of her muscles were tensed up and she was having trouble getting them relaxed. Once she finished crying “Oh, Miss! Oh, Miss! Oh, MISS!!”, the first thing she said? “Miss, I always thought the boys were lying. But this hurts.” Awesome. Granted, probably wouldn’t have happened if she had come to practice every day… but still.

One of the nationals qualifiers

A grade 10 high jumper

I got coerced into working at Regionals, but the bar was consistently over my head!

Athletics ended during the last weekend of the term, when I accompanied 3 of our boys to the National Trials. I had a U/17 3000, U/19 400, and U/19 100m. A pretty good distribution. They had a pretty rough time with the level of competition at nationals, but it was a great experience for them and they were so proud just to have the opportunity to go.

Rugby

Do I look like I understand rugby? No? You’re right. But due to popular demand, I am coaching rugby again this year at our school! Luckily for me, I have a few boys who have played for years and are actually very good at rugby. I have taken them and they help me coach the others – I do my best to get them fit and make them stay on task, but they do all the technical work. I tell myself that it’s a good learning experience for them to practice coaching and teaching others, but it’s also the only way it could work with a sport that I totally don’t understand!

We went to town to participate in Zonal Trials for rugby, and one boy was selected for the Regional Trials! It’s not a great selection rate, but still a first for our school!

Soccer

The soccer season will officially start now during term 2, but we tried to get practices started last term since soccer is by far the most popular sport around here. Boys and girls alike love to play around during their free time. The worst problem that I’ve faced is that soccer kids seem to be the same the world around – we have the same problems with cliques and meanness as I remember many high school soccer teams having in the states. One fight between my boys culminated in one stabbing the other in the face with a glass shard. I’m now treading a thin line of trying to keep the kids in line (including suspending those with outstandingly poor behaviour from the team), but also giving them the opportunity to practice and play. Because we actually do have a really skilled team this year that could make a good showing!

Marathon

I have to put it in here, because I don’t know where else… Not only have all of my learners started training for the 4x10k “marathon” they run in the spring (American fall, sometime like September or October), but I have also been training for long distance races! A few of the volunteers went to Cape Town during our April holiday to compete in an5 6k ultramarathon. Called the Two Oceans, we ran between the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, up two mountains, and through a lot of different suburbs and areas around Cape Town. It was the most beautiful place I have ever run, and also the farthest (and potentially slowest) I have ever run. I’m proud to have come in within the top 150 women in the 20-40 year old age bracket, since there were more than 11,000 people participating in the ultramarathon! I think my practicing (and the fact that I came home with a medal) have won me a few respect points with my kids, which is always good too ; )