Too many Kids, Not Enough Parents/Time/Attention/…

One of the things, which I’ve always known but have been especially hit with this year, is that there are not enough parents around for all of my learners. Every time I have a bond with one of them, I want to give them my attention, time, motivation, and help. Sometimes this means buying a new pair of school shoes (thanks everyone at home who has helped to make this financially possible!). Sometimes this means calling them in for extra study time or one-on-one tutoring. Sometimes this means sitting on the front stoop of my house and just spending time together.

But the thing is, there’s not enough time. Just to give you an idea, here is an example of my kids’/my schedule during the week:

6:45-1:30 school

1:30-2:30 lunch

2:30-3:30 resting time

3:30-5:00 afternoon study

5:00-6:00 sports practices

7:00-8:30 evening study

9:30         lights out (for the kids… but seeing as I’m now an old grandmother my bedtime is usually not far behind!) 

 It’s awesome that we keep them busy, especially the hostel kids who have limited supervision as it is at the hostel (2 supervisors on duty at any given time, for up to 144 learners). But it becomes a problem when you’re looking for time to take the kids one at a time or in small groups!

 In terms of being a teacher, I’m lucky. I don’t have my own kids/husband/family to worry about, so I have more free time than most. I’m teaching fewer classes than my colleagues, so I have less stress with lesson planning and marking. I tend to be organized and dedicated to work, so again I have more time to give than many. But the sad fact is, and I know it is true at nearly all Namibian schools, these kids just don’t have enough support. When I was young, I remember my parents checking on my homework EVERY DAY so that it would be finished for tomorrow’s classes – and we simply can’t do that for each of 250 learners in our school! How can we give them all that they need in order to grow up into disciplined, moral, educated young people?

Either way, I’m lucky to be close to a lot of the learners and have them come to me when they need help. And I take that role as seriously as I can!

Oranjemund – it’s a “private town”

At the end of March I traveled to the small, PRIVATE (?!?) town of Oranjemund with some of my athletes. In true form, the Regional Athletics (track and field) competition was postponed twice, only to discover that “we need a track to hold the competition,” so then it was moved from our capital Keetmanshoop to Oranjemund. Although it’s only 400-500km away from Tses, it took us two days and more than 8 hours of travel on questionable roads to reach our destination.

But the view along the way was exquisite – not many people in Namibia get the chance to see the Orange River (marking the border between South Africa and Namibia), because it’s a private area. The entire area around Oranjemund (starting about 100km before it on the road leading there) is private-access. You need a permit to enter – thank goodness we were traveling with a Ministry or we would have had trouble! They gave me enough confused looks as it was – first because they thought I was a learner, then because I had a passport instead of a Namibian ID, then because they didn’t understand my accent…

The kids and I at the mouth of the Orange River

Oranjemund is private because the area is owned by a diamond company. Yep, that’s right, diamonds. There are signs everywhere stating, “Stealing diamonds hurts all of us.” Diamonds are a pretty big industry in Namibia and a huge source of national income, and it was cool to actually see where the mines are (even though I couldn’t tell you what any of those buildings are for).

Once we reached Oranjemund, the town, we realized that it is basically a little oasis! The water must cost a fortune, but every lawn is watered and has grass; the roads are well kept-up and everyone there is RICH. It was very strange. But we had a great time and met some really kind people there (one nurse who helped out one of my kids who cramped up in the COLD and misty weather asked about the school, and then proceeded to send me home with two huge trash bags of really nice clothes to distribute to the kids! Namibians helping Namibians, love it!!)

Rain in Tses

...falls... rarely.

About 1-3 times per year (at least in the 10 or so months I’m actually IN Tses to witness it), it rains.

Okay, sometimes it sprinkles or drips, but in my experience, 1-3 times per year, it RAINS hard and for more than 30 minutes. When this happens, everyone celebrates! The dams will fill up again, plants will grow, animals can eat and drink. We’re much more in tune with the water cycle here than I’m used to in the U.S.

The funny thing about living here is that, although the ground is always parched and cracked, very little water is absorbed. The rest all runs off (taking all kinds of rubbish and small plants with it) into rivers and streams. Although it’s more frequent in the North where the rainy season is really serious, it’s not that uncommon for small villages to be cut off from the rest of the country by a river which has suddenly appeared.

The Tses River after the rain… compared to the Tses River the rest of the year

Although I don’t think it was more than waist-deep, this tiny river had a strong enough current that it was actually impossible to cross! (I know… I tried.)

The Tses River, among many others, flows into the nearby Fish River, which flows into the Orange River, which flows into the ocean. The Fish doesn’t flow the whole year…but after the rains, it flows and flows and flows!

We went to visit the waterfall which is about 20km away from Tses. It’s the first time in 3 years that I have made it to the Fish while the water was still falling!

Nobody told us… don’t swim in the water. It will make you sick for days. (Totally worth it though!)

Our 25th!!

On 21 March, 2015, Namibia celebrated its 25th birthday. 

As in America, this Independence Day merits a huge celebration - but unlike in America, many Namibians remember pre-independence life and are really actively grateful for the independence they enjoy today.

Of course we celebrated the day at school!

Kids prepared for our Independence celebration at school

One class performing their dance

Traditional Namastap dance performance

Grade 10s reenact a scene from the South African freedom fighters' movement movie, "Sarafina"

Zonal Athletics - a lesson in patience

Saturday I traveled to the nearby village Berseba (40km away from Tses) for our local athletics (track/field) competition. Although the actual thing was great, my kids were on their best behaviour and I had a good time with them, it was one of those days, generally, where everything seemed to go wrong.

It started a few weeks back, when we started trying to arrange transportation. After two weeks of promises, the Ministry of Education finally told us that they couldn’t assist us – leaving us 2 days to make another plan. The school combi (minibus) had, at that point, two punctured tires and, unknown to us, an ENORMOUS hole in the exhaust pipe. Eventually we decided we’d just drive it anyway, making multiple trips to get all the kids there and back.

When we got to Berseba Saturday morning, things continued. Although my kids had been great, on time, and prepared, the other team was NOT. We arrived and there was nobody else at the track – in fact, although the school had insisted to me that we begin by 6:30 am, we didn’t start until nearly 11. Meaning it was now the heat of the day, in the desert, and the kids had to run in it.

Running the 1500 in the heat of the morning

To contribute to my frustration, the late start meant that most of the teachers from my school – meant to come to help officiate – got bored and started drinking. Not only did my kids think I had been excessively strict the whole season, telling them that if I catch them drinking anytime, anywhere, they are off of my team, but then the teachers rubbed it in their faces by drinking and getting drunk in front of them at the school event. GAH!!!

But all of those issues were with the grown-ups. My kids were wonderful, the whole day. They won, they competed, they tried their best. I am really proud of how they acted the whole day and how good they were!           

Even this one kid, who’s insanely fast but insanely cocky (he celebrated before the finish, tripped, fell, and faceplanted over the line) still won his race! I told him he was dumb, then helped him clean up the blood.

Sundowners

Sundowners are one of our (‘us’ being the Tses volunteers) favourite ways to spend the evening. On days when I don’t have evening study to supervise/help out at, it’s really great to take a long walk out to the sand dunes and drink a beer with the other volunteers.

The thing we realized, though, is that the kids never get to do this. Especially the hostel kids don’t get the time out of the blocks, and the kids who are from Tses don’t really see the point or don’t have someone to go with.

So one of the new German volunteers, Carolin, who is here for just a few months to help out at the school, and I decided it was time to remedy this. It’s easier now that we are two at St. Therese. We took a group of about 30 learners from the athletics (track) team out of evening study one night as a ‘teambuilding’ activity, and took them to the dunes for a sundowner.

It was absolutely incredible to see them playing, scuffling around, enjoying themselves with no worries for a change! Even if it was only for one night, we all really enjoyed ourselves. (And were thoroughly exhausted afterwards.)

Our "Reading culture" - help please?!

I'm looking for donations!!

Thanks to some generous assistance, mostly from Catherine’s Northwest School and my mom (you are awesome!!!), I brought back a bunch of new books with me when I returned to Tses this year.

It's nice to see kids studying - but even cooler when they are practicing their English skills for fun!

For those of you who know me, when I was little I used to spend inordinate amounts of time reading. I would go through hundreds of books during summer vacation, curled up in my mom’s chair or sprawled on the stairs. Now, it has made me so happy to be able to give my kids great books to read!

Although the school has a library, it is mostly old reject books from the US or UK. They aren’t “nice” reading books and the kids just aren’t interested. Now, armed with an arsenal of Ramona, Goosebumps, Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, Roald Dahl etc., I have actually gotten a bunch of kids interested in reading! I see them with my books not only during ‘study’ time, when they have finished their homework – but also sitting around in their own free time. Seriously, it makes me feel so great.

Once these girls got their hands on my Ramona series, I didn't see it again for a week.

BUT! I have a request from the kids for MORE. I don’t have a lot of difficult books (difficult is about the Ramona level for them) because I brought back mostly books for my remedial English classes. Now that I see that the better readers are also getting into my books, I don’t have enough for them! They are begging for more Ramona, specifically, and other “nice” books. Medium level, funny and interesting stories. I actually think those Beverly Cleary books are better for being old, because there isn’t as much cultural stuff that doesn’t make sense to them.

If anyone has extra books of that level lying around, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to get some more donations for my kids. Even if you can afford to ship an envelope with 2 books we would be incredibly grateful.

Thanks in advance for your support!!!