lyrics + disclaimer

Life is short, so let's go live it.

**all opinions expressed here are my own and do not reflect those of the Peace Corps or any official US or Namibian organization.**

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Help Please!

Next week I am going to Keetmans to work with 2 other volunteers for the whole week, planning a remedial English curriculum for next year.

Basically we are making up our own job descriptions. My plan is to spend most of my time working with the kids who are really behind (which is a lot of them), mostly doing English reading and comp but maybe also some basic math? Then I’d also like to have at least one “gifted” class per week to take the kids who are actually ON grade level and do some more advanced work with them. A lot of our smart kids get bored and give up in school. I’ll also be moving over to the science lab to try (again!) to get it up and running.

Here are my questions.

Do you focus on quantity or quality?
If I try to reach the most learners, I can have bigger classes. I can meet with more classes per week, and give each group only one 40-minute period per week. But obviously this will impact the effectiveness of the program.

But if I focus on ‘quality’ (say, classes of only 5 learners which meet 2-3 times per week), then I would work with fewer learners. If that is the case, do I choose the very severe cases who are in grade 9 but on a grade 6 reading level? Or do I take the learners who are only a little bit behind but need an extra push to get them where they need to be?

Is it more sensible to spend more time with the remedial kids who really need help, or try to push the ones who can be successful and need some extra attention?


Help! Anyone who knows anything about these things… advice???


Here are some totally unrelated photos for you! Some of my pen pal kids came in on Sunday to do a project... they mde maps of the US and Indiana and a venn diagram comparing the US and Namibia. (top priorities... president, date of independence, unemployment rate, birth/death rates.)

work in progress


Thursday, November 20, 2014

Our Pen Pal Project

learners at St. Therese typing letters to their pen pals

Peace Corps recently matched me up with a school in Indiana (shoutout to Elwood High students!), via the WorldWise Schools program. They pair volunteers with US schools to start a pen pal program and try to reach those 1st and 2nd PC goals - informing Americans about our host countries, and informing our host countries about Americans.

I was reluctant to get started because, let's be honest, it sounds like lots of work. I was afraid I would be chasing my learners all the time and it would be a huge nightmare.

Instead, it's been totally fantastic. I feel so productive. I have never been asked so many questions about Namibia by Americans, nor so many questions about America by Namibians. My learners have come several times a day begging me to check my email to see if their new friends have written, and to open up the computer lab so that they can reply.

2 of my grade 8s working in the lab

In addition, I'm pretty psyched about the consequences of this project. My learners are practicing their English reading/writing - by choice! They ask me to edit their papers (although I don't always have time to check 20 letters) because they want to sound good when their new American pen pals read them. It's the most reading I've ever seen them do. We're also practicing geography (climate, time zones, seasons and map-reading were all on the recent geography examinations and we have worked on all of them already). Although I am only able to take the kids after school hours, it is actually convenient because it is roughly the same time our friends in Indiana have class.

4 of my absolute favourite grade 10s (who unfortunately/fortunately have finished at our school! grade 10s left in late October after they wrote national exams)

more learners, by our school's St. Theresa statue

Sunday, November 16, 2014

Networking, Namibian Style

Due (I think) to some really great begging done on my side, I managed to wrangle an invitation to last weeks Namibian Energy Policy Forum. It was hosted by NCCI and GIZ ("The first renewable energy conference organized by NCCI...and GIZ! German taxpayer money sponsored the event!" says one of my colleagues - wonder how the Germans feel about that??)

IT WAS SO COOL.

Those of you who know me know that renewable energy is basically what I want to do with my life. This forum was attended by the Namibian Minister of Mines and Energy, Minister of Trade and Industry, GM of NamPower (Namibian energy monopoly), CEO of NCCI, Minister of Finance and about 50 other private and public businessowners, policymakers etc. It was absolutely the coolest thing. And more impressive than anything (to me) was the fact that we managed, while remaining polite, to overstep some of the bureaucratic nonsense that takes up half of most meetings here, and really discuss some of the issues among key players.

For any of you who are interested, here are a few of the highlights from the conference.

1. The conference was opened by noting the relationship between energy capacity and employment and wealth in a country (especially as a country is still developing industrial capacity, as in Namibia). Although this seems obvious, I thought it astute of the keynote speaker to bring it up immediately as a concern. Another minister addressed energy needs for the "socio-economic upliftment of the people" - kind of just using words, but a good point nonetheless.

2. We went through some shocking statistics. Namibia has the HIGHEST solar irradiation in the world. Yet we pay the third highest amount for electricity in SADC (Southern African Development Community), while South Africa (whom we buy energy from) pays the lowest. We also pay about 3 times more than the US per kWh. Clearly a country like Namibia will struggle to industrialize while in such a position.

3. The maximum energy demand from Namibia is around 500 MW (excluding some of the big mines). This is a country of 2 million. PECO (the electric company for the Philadelphia area) has almost 4,500 MW to serve the same population. But our electricity is still not local - we import from Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, etc. And, even though Namibia is arguably more developed than our neighboring countries, we still don't seem to be planning for energy independence.

4. Namibia is talkign about the Market as a means to find efficiency. It's wonderful. Right now NamPower is a politically appointed monopoly in terms of electricity, but people are still talking about ways around that.

5. Smaller ideas emerged as well. The government is currently pursuing a mass housing project; why not include solar hot water heaters on all houses? (I didn't know that all ministry houses now are required to be built with solar heaters. How cool is that?!)

I am proud to start getting involved in this field. It is becoming, more than ever, apparent how much we will struggle to incorporate renewable technologies into every field of life; however it is also apparent how hard some people are working to accomplish just that. I made a few connections of my own and am hoping to be able to work with a few Namibian organizations to pursue these things in the next year while I am here!

A New Look

Most of you probably know that my two new gap year volunteers came to Tses a few months ago. They are 18 year old boys from Wales and Holland, but they're staying with me in the same house. I always think it is interesting to help them through their first few months around, as they are learning everything for the first time. Language, culture, places, everything. The first experiences of hitchhiking and learning a new language are usually kind of hard, but after that they catch on fast!

We had another few firsts this weekend that were pretty fantastic. I took the boys to their first "potjie" (A dinner using a 3 legged black pot, which is basically Stone Soup. Everyone brings whatever is in the house and we cook together and have a few drinks.) We were together with one of my favourite teachers (and my Peace Corps counterpart) and a few other guys from the village.



Then yesterday afternoon we went to go see "The Waterfall" on the Fish River! The Fish is only about 15-20 km away from Tses, but it is difficult to get there since you need your own car. But my principal took us on the way to the farm, so we walked around and enjoyed the amazing scenery there. The river has carved out huge channels through the surrounding rock, which is impressive given the fact that it is currently dry! There are only a few puddles remaining here and there, due to the fact that most of the water is held back by a dam up in Mariental.

The water next to "The Waterfall"

My principal and current Mom-Away-From-Home, Ms. Pauline. (I am actually shocked how close we have gotten in the last year or so. It's great.)

Driving home with the sun setting in the distance and the dust from the bakkie kicking up behind us