Grandpa, this one’s for you.

I don’t know much about farming, but I am always a little interested in it because of the family farm! Not that my kids believe me when I say there are farms in America, but still.

Namibia’s currently facing a huge, horrible drought. Last year, there was pretty much no rain in my village and everywhere in the country experienced significantly less rainfall than normal.

Over our August holiday, I got the chance to see some of the north of Namibia, where things are generally greener and farming is a much bigger deal. They can also actually raise cattle because there’s enough water and food. But all I heard from anyone in the north was how dry it is right now, and how worried everyone is about having enough food and livestock to make it through the year. If the rainy season is not good this year, it will be a big problem. Luckily, at least in towns and in some villages, the government is providing drought relief in the form of supplementary food—but it isn’t enough for most families, and we don’t know how long it will continue.

When I was coming home, I got a lift with a farmer from the middle part of the country. He had a few more details for me. He said that last year he had about 150 head of cattle. Cattle are better to raise if you can afford it, because they are harder to steal and big enough that jackals cannot pick them off of the herd in the night. Well, this farmer had about 10mm of rain in 2012 instead of the ~200 he needs to keep his cattle on his land. He sold a bunch, so he is down to 76 with an additional 36 calves. He is waiting for the calves to make 200kg so he can sell them too, because there just isn’t enough food and water.

The problem with this was that farmers all over Namibia had to sell livestock early this year, so prices were horrible and most of them lost money. Now they are trying to make it up in a poor economy (not that I know much about economics, but the dollar keeps gaining on the Nam dollar) and in a climate that is not helping them out!

In a country where farming, and subsistence farming at that, is a primary source of livelihood for much of the population, things like droughts hit really hard. And since everybody here has accepted climate change and knows it will continue to worsen, you have to wonder how they will manage to stay afloat?

sorry it's been so long since the last posts, guys! More to come soon about my recent holiday travels and our school here =)

Is she a Nama lady??

Guys, I’ve made it.

I’ve made it hard.

Someone asked last night if I was Nama.

But I digress - the occasion was actually the point of this blog post.

There was a Nama wedding celebration last night. It was for the brother of a friend of mine, and Jenita, Lily and I were invited to attend the celebration.

It was awesome – we got to get dressed up in Nama clothes!

The actual wedding was in Windhoek last week, but this was the traditional Nama wedding/celebration. When we got to the house where the wedding was being held, we were invited inside to sit with the elders. It was a huge honour and we are still not sure why they allowed us!

After a few minutes, the actual ceremony began. Some of the elders began to dance outside of the traditional hut, and the groom escorted the bride out of the hut where they must stay (per tradition). Her head and face were covered with a towel, so he had to lead her. They danced the traditional dance with the elders for awhile (which is really impressive given that she couldn’t see anything!!)

After the dance, we all went back inside the living room, where the bride and groom were seated at a table. An elder led a short prayer and ceremony, and the groom’s sister uncovered the bride’s head.

Each elder was given an opportunity to speak. We couldn’t understand any of the blessings since they were in the Nama click language, but we are told they were very beautiful, inspirational and wise. The groom, when it was finally his turn to speak and thank everybody, was really sweet and switched to English for a minute. He informed us that the elders had been blessing the new couple and passing on their knowledge as 2 they could. He also thanked us for attending and for trying to follow their culture (wearing traditional dress, etc.).

When the ceremony had concluded, the ladies from the family served the food they had prepared ahead of time. Then the younger generation (kids and the young twenty-somethings, us included) escaped outside to dance for awhile. Eventually, the elders and the new couple prayed again and all the extras slowly left.

It was such a great honour and experience to be able to witness such a wedding! Even my friend Elden said he had learned from the ceremony, because these traditions are not often followed anymore. A great learning experience all around!

A Hard ‘Nuff Life

(I recently discovered that I don’t have the Annie soundtrack on my computer, it’s a problem.)

Being a kid is hard. But the weird thing is, I remember when I was growing up, I used to always wish I was a few years younger. Really, no matter what age I was, I would always feel like I’d had so many fewer worries 2 years ago.

The thing is, I’m not sure it’s the same here. Yes, kids have fewer worries than adults. Probably. And yes, in general there are people around to care for them. Probably.

But then you have kids who take on the responsibility of finding food for their families, because their parents don’t provide. And hundreds of learners staying in the hostel with 2 adults around to supervise them. Let’s be honest, they’re basically fending for themselves at that point.

Some of my girls who were here for the “out weekend” –they live too far away to go home just for the weekend, so they were stuck at the hostel. They came over to my house to hang out, listen to music, do some sewing and make a cake (I felt like they deserved something nice and felt badly that they couldn’t go home!)

I get frustrated with my kids a lot. They don’t do their homework, they’re not up to grade level in school, the can (really frequently) be really rude, disrespectful, demanding and obnoxious. But I guess I’ve been starting to wonder if I can really blame them. Most of them don’t have parents to direct their behavior, and half of those who do have parents who are alcoholics, abusive, or in some other way not really able to be there for the kid. Which means the kids (at our school, we have learners who are only 12 or 13, but there are also hostels at primary schools) are responsible for doing their laundry, mending clothes, keeping themselves clean, finding snacks when they need them, finding rides for themselves to get to/from school from breaks, etc. The kids who aren’t at the hostel usually have it even worse – some of them have adults at home, but even those usually don’t eat 3 meals a day, have functional clothes and shoes.

 A bunch of our learners received blankets from a local organization called OYO. These are the kids we deemed most “vulnerable”—which in this case, meant the kids who are staying in Tses for the winter and don’t have a blanket on their bed.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that, at least for most of our kids here in Tses, being a kid isn’t what I think it is. It’s not carefree or easy. And yes, there are probably parts of America where the same is true. But let’s be honest, not where I grew up. And I’ve gotta say, I’m just so thankful.

Hardloop, hardloop lekker!

“run, run nicely!”

Well, I started writing this post about a month ago and lost track of it. But I’m gonna give it a shot:

Pretty much any time I see a new person, or a kid, while I’m running, I’ll get pelted by cries of “hardloop, hardloop, hardloop!” run, run, run.

But my favourite is when those kids yell at me, but then decide to tag along. I kind of felt like the pied piper today—I was running out of the village and at the edge of the houses, there were a bunch of kids playing in a field. They saw me from a ways away, and ran across the field to watch me.

It was really impressive, I had 2 kids—a 10 year old and a 12 year old—come with me for probably 5 miles! I’m not gonna claim that I’m in shape right now, but we were probably going somewhere in the vicinity of 8:15 miles. (yes, I’m staying in Namibia, and yes, we use metric here, and no, I still have no idea how to measure my mileage in kilometers.) Dang African kids. Anyway, I was surprised. I tried to talk them into coming to St. Therese when they get to secondary school so they can run with me, but I’m not sure if it’ll work.

Even though I usually only have time to run twice a week here, I’m still really REALLY glad it’s part of my life. And that it’s acceptable (although weird) in my village. I’ve found that not only it is, obviously, a way for me to stay healthy and relieve stress, but it also helps me to get out and see people (and for them to see me). Yay running!

Acceptance

At home, things were different.

When somebody did something stupid or got himself fired from a job, I sometimes associated that action with the person. I might not ask them for help on another project because I know they have flaked out before, or interact with them differently because I feel I have some new insight into their person.

But I find that the way I interact with people has changed.

There was a security guard at my school. He was, quite honestly, a pretty bad security guard. He slept on the job, left the gate unlocked while he was sleeping, and sometimes just missed work for no reason at all. He got fired a few weeks ago. A year ago, if I had seen him after these events, I might have thought to myself “he deserved that” and “why should I bother with this person when he can’t even keep his job?”

But I saw this particular man this morning, when I was out for a run. Not only did I stop to greet him, but the first thing I said was “we miss you over by the school.” And I surprised myself, because when I thought about it, this was true. He’s a great guy who, regardless of his work ethic, really cared about the kids. I invited him to visit me at home sometime this week so that we can try to work out a sports program for our learners. Because even if this man isn’t a great security guard, he’s loves soccer and is interested in helping out. And if I have a reasonably good person who is eager to help out, well, I’m certainly not going to turn that away.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, when it comes down to it, you just have to be grateful for the people in your life. Whatever they are willing to do, and wherever and whenever they happen to be motivated to help out others, well, I’m learning to be grateful for those small things.

AAAAAnd we’re back!

Today marked the first day my 2^nd full trimester as a Namibian teacher! Today was just the teachers, so we spent a few hours in a staff meeting discussing plans for the new term as well as results from the first term. Our most impressive result: a 2% pass rate from our grade 9 learners. WHADDUP NAM EDUCATION?!

Ok but really. This, plus the results from a big regional education conference that happened during break, led to a conversation this morning about what is going on in our school. First off, we are approximately the last choice in secondary schools due to our results.. the good schools accept only the top tier of learners, and so on until we are left with those who have not been successful in the past. We talked about home life, parent support, and teacher support as major influences on learners, as well.

We also discussed the lack of educational alternatives for learners who are just not cut out for “normal” schools. 99% of our learners qualify as needing extra classes, but we simply don’t have the teacher-power to provide them with the extra classes, in small groups, that would be required. Many of our learners have undiagnosed (or even diagnosed, but what can you do about them?) learning disabilities or other problems that may even be preventing them from ever being successful in a standard classroom setting. One of the things we are wondering is: is there a way to get a vocational or “special” school in Karas? Our region currently lacks any of these options for learner support. Why should the learners from our region be prevented from having these resources?

Anyway, at the end of the day we decided it comes down to the teachers doing the best they can given what we have. So, back to the grind – at least we are once again a full teaching staff and can try to help each other make it through the term! 

lions and cheetahs and nelephants!

Since term 1 ended in April, I spent the last few weeks traveling around. I spent a week at Gobabeb with Noah, a few days in Windhoek for a Peace Corps conference, and then about 2 weeks traveling north.  To get there, you spend a day getting to Rundu, a day getting to Katima Mulilo, I spent a night in Matt’s village (Sangwali) in Caprivi, and then we went across the border to Livinstone, Zambia (home of Victoria Falls).

Here’s how Google Maps shows the trip from Tses to Sangwali to Livingstone.  Total trip ~2,000 km.

For the details, I’ll leave you to the photos on my Facebook because even photos can’t capture everything we saw. The highlights, though:

Life in the North. Everything is made of mud and reeds! Ok not everything, but most structures in most villages. So different from the south. We think there might have been an apartheid rule banning traditional houses below the Red Line, but we’re not sure. Matt’s house is a huge mud hut with no electricity or water – a totally different experience from where I stay!

There’s lots of interesting food to try. When we went to the market in Livingstone (the “not-tourist” one), we tried fried fish, African bubble gum, chinga chinga berries, termite mound (yes, they eat the dirt that makes up termite mounds), and baobab fruit.

Victoria Falls. It’s amazingly huge and there is SO MUCH WATER (especially for those of us who have been living in a desert!)

Matt has the photos, but we also went for a canoe trip on the Zambezi. We saw a herd of elephants in the water, a few crocodiles from far away, and jillions of birds!

Elephant/Cheetah/Lion encounter. totally worth the cost. When else will I ride an elephant, cuddle a cheetah or walk a lion?

At the end of the day, it’s always the sunsets in Africa that leave you speechless. I don’t think I’ll ever get sick of them. Watching the sun set over the Zambezi sitting next to friends was one of the best things ever.