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

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

Our Role

What is our role as Peace Corps volunteers? I am in Windhoek for a meeting with the HIV Committee, and a conversation with another volunteer got me thinking.

What is our duty towards Peace Corps, and what is Peace Corps’ duty towards us? One older volunteer a few weeks ago commented

to me that Peace Corps does much less than… basically any other employer, in terms of personal development. Most companies send you for trainings, ensure that you develop skills, and assist you with whatever training or development you think is really necessary to improve at your job. These skills are then transferrable if you end up moving to a new company or position – you are a more qualified person by the time you move on.

Peace Corps, on the other hand, tends to do very little of this. But at the same time, most of us do not go into a Peace Corps experience expecting it. I was actually arguing with another volunteer this morning that it is our duty in fact to spend our two years helping with “on the ground” development – and by way of volunteering with Peace Corps, we have also given up our ‘right’ to personal professional development. Is that right? I probably have too idealistic of an outlook on this – we are people too, and we also need to develop skills and be qualified for jobs when we get back home. Additionally, many people use Peace Corps as a turning point in their careers – a way to stop what they are doing and change directions – and if they can use their experience to gain skills that will help them do so, why the heck not? Some volunteers want to use Peace Corps to find positions that will help them personally - for instance, work with an NGO on behalf of Peace Corps, or work within the Peace Corps offices to develop 'management' skills. Is it wrong to desire the formal training that we received in our first 2 months of service, throughout our service??

ON THE OTHER HAND. Maybe I’ll just blame my family for my idealism (thanks Mom and Dad). But It seems to me that if you are willing to give up two years of your home, family, job, income, and friends, you should really invest in what you are doing. Which is helping people on the ground. Not working with big organizations, not networking for the sake of networking (although of course, it happens sometimes), but really doing what you can for the small number of people who you can work with, in person, frequently, individually. Wasn’t that the original purpose of Peace Corps? Can't we get some amount of training and development from our Namibian counterparts?

Or from our day-to-day work and jobs?

Or, have we already left the ‘original purpose’ and, with global development and economic development around the world, are we in a new position to help on a bigger scale. Is there a right or wrong for something like volunteerism? It seems like you can’t blame someone for wanting to take something for themselves at the same time as offering their services to a community, but it also seems a shame to give up the maximum benefit you can deliver to that community for your own self-interests.

Introductions

Catherine this is mostly for you and your school, I meant to get more but shit hit the fan at school. I'm working on it.
Quality is probably crap, but here is an idea of some of my better English speakers and some scenes from the hostel yard. (Also, just so everyone knows, I have no idea how to edit videos and did not even have time to attempt it here. These are just random clips from around our hostel!)

kids being kids while shut in our hostel for the weekend

One of my 'daughters' in the hostel talking in front of my house- Agnes is one of our older grade 9s, but she has turned over a new leaf this year and is working hard and I think she will probably pass! She's also one of my soccer captains and clearly one of the more outgoing kids...

And, one of my 'sons' - our best soccer goalkeeper, also a very outgoing grade 10 who may help us improve our pass rate this year!!

Ups and Downs

This week has been... illuminating. I guess?

To start out with, I have been talking with an ex-learner of a former Peace Corps volunteer (she served maybe 8 or 10 years ago in Namibia?). I am meeting this weekend with hime and a group of his colleagues, who are trying to start a Trust to help with development, motivation etc. of Namibian children in an effort to better care for and prepare our vulnerable children to be the future leaders of the country. It is so cool 1) to see a former learner of a PCV really working to try to improve his country, as well as taking initiative to do something brand new, on his own and 2) to be consulted like I actually know something! It is also terrifying to be "consulted" because this group of Youth (essentially my age) seem to be assuming that I KNOW how to start a business, run a business, do everything. Totally bonkers. But it is simultaneously really cool to work through it with them.

Then the bad news of this week...
Our Catholic Brothers have continued with their aggressive/disrespectful treatment of learners. Not that they have significantly injured anyone or anything, but they demean and talk down to learners to the extent that I hear about 10 times per day, "Miss I hate him." This all came to a head this week, when in two separate-but-related incidents, our learners tried to stone/stab 2 of the Brothers. Injured one successfully with stones, but not the one they really wanted so they have continued plotting.

Now, we have had 4ish hours/day of study for our grade 10 learners for the last month or so, trying to help them prepare for their national exam series. I have gone to almost all of them, helped to supervise learners, helped to control learners, tutored them in maths/physics. I have also taken some of our more 'rebellious' kids into my class, because they seem to do better with less attention from the brothers (if you don't continuously antagonize them, they can sit and do work) and a more controlled, supervised environment. They have submitted to this willingly. Now, the Brothers say that I have been plotting with the learners against them (because I have been with the 'troublemakers') and my "study help" is in fact a threat to all of the teachers. I promise that I did apologize, but honestly I swear I have been trying to help! These boys have been threatening me for the whole year that they want to attack the brothers, and I have been trying to hold them at bay by having many, many talks with them, trying to counsel them as best as I know how, etc. What else was I supposed to do????? Gah!

Violence is a thing of the.. Present

I started writing this post almost a month ago, but I have a new story now to add to the mix.

Last term, two hours before rugby practice, one of my most well-behaved learners brought me a note. It said, “Mis I cant attend the practise today. My aunt was steped [stabbed] by my uncle i have to go.” Obviously, I thought “JESUS what is going on?!” and said, “Of course honey, I hope everything is ok at your house.” The next day, he came in and told me, “Miss, my uncle stabbed my aunt seven times.” Concerned, I asked if she was ok (although how ok could you really be after something like that?) He responded, “Yes she is fine, but she is no longer with us.”

The last few nights at evening study, where we have the hostel learners return to school for an hour and a half of homework time, we've had some 'incidents.' There are three grade 8 boys who are really independent/aggressive/maybe potheads, and they don't respond well to very firm teachers who talk down to them and give them no freedom. The brothers being some of these teachers. They were scolded for something and chased out of study for the rest of the term by one brother, last week. Then they returned Monday night and were sitting quietly, but asked to leave again because they had been told not to attend. Rather than leaving quietly, they fought one brother, left the school, then started throwing stones at another brother and injured him! For this they were suspended from the school yesterday... but since they didn't leave until the evening train, they came BACK to study with knives and rocks and tried again.

Finally, About a month ago, one woman from Tses was out at the club late at night. An acquaintance escorted her from the club, raped her, murdered her, and left the body laying in a field. Although this particular man seemed to be a pretty stupid criminal (he left one of his shoes and one of her shoes at the scene of the crime… and brought home one of her shoes and one of his shoes) and was apprehended within 24 hours, this type of story is not uncommon in our area of Namibia.

Obviously this kind of violence (or worse) is also frequent in some parts of the US. First of all, it’s interesting to note that, with respect to geographical location, socioeconomic groupings are basically flipped here from how you would expect them to be. There are no “inner cities” in Namibia. Instead, the center of cities/towns tend to be very upscale and expensive, while the poor reside on the periphery. In many senses, this helps to keep the poor poorer, since these individuals frequently walk for hours or struggle just to afford transport in and out from the city.

It is also funny though, that “sleepy” villages like Tses (and in fact most small villages in the south) suffer from extreme violence. Even learners fight and stab during class, and fights and serious stabbings are extremely common in the clubs at night. As with basically every significant problem we see here, we tend to chalk it up to culture, general acceptance of the behaviour and poverty… but that still doesn’t help address the issue.