Development with a capital D

I've been reading "The Last Train to Zona Verde," a new Paul Theroux book about a former Peace Corps Volunteer traveling through southern/western Africa. It's a little condescending and his writing style is a bit weird sometimes, but he brings up some good points.

One of the ones which I found particularly salient has to do with foreign aid. Theroux discusses it in terms of monetary aid, but I think this issue can really be discussed more broadly – including aid in the form of money, personnel, advice, etc.

Africa as a whole is pretty much overwhelmed with foreign aid. Basically any organization of people with some kind of goodwill see that there is a lot of need in Africa, and think that their contributions can probably fix some of these things. It's a fair point, and I really think it's great that we have these people who want to contribute to those whoa re less fortunate.

But Theroux also brings up the counterargument, which is one we have heard from Peace Corps time and again (when it comes to money). If you give people everything, they don't learn how to do it themselves. Giving a man a fish, and such. You can imagine the argument. If we (and I mean "we" in the broadest sense – anyone from a somewhat more developed area who is trying to do something good) provide EVERYTHING in terms of aid, people and organizations here aren't self-sufficient. If we provide the expertise to set up businesses, governments, and other organizations. nobody knows how to go about it the next time around. If we give the money to build the schools and computer labs, there is less ownership, and the people truly value these things less.

Here's my question, though. To what extent does this argument reach? I can imagine an extension that goes, "If we provide the teachers for the schools, the locals don't learn how to teach, and the kids don't have local role models. They need these role models – teachers and otherwise – to see that they can really be successful in life." I think this argument has legitimacy, personally. However, it's also hard to say I don't have a legitimate role here. Peace Corps tries hard to make sure our efforts are "sustainable," which means I'm not just a teacher, but I should also be training the other teachers n skills so that they can continue on their own. I shouldn't be creating new programmes unless there is a local counterpart who will continue it when I leave.

The role of volunteers can definitely be debated. But I think that the question is more interesting when you dig down farther, because volunteers truly can make only a limited difference. What about foreign aid in the broader sense?

My village has gotten a TON of things from various investors and sponsors and … aid. I've thought about it broadly, but some of the local implications are still coming out. Here's an example: we are starting to plan the 50th anniversary celebration for my school, which will happen in about a year. In conjunction with this, we are discussing the future of the school. What is our vision, what do we need, etc? It's all really exciting. But when we discuss this "development" of the school, it usually comes down to money. Don't worry, they tell us. We can write grants and proposals and get the money from somewhere.

It's the same on a smaller scale. There isn't financial planning. When the kids go to sports competitions, the teachers end up contributing all of the money because these expenses aren't assumed by the institution. When the school runs out of paper, the principal has to buy it out of her paycheck. When the staff wants a microwave in the staff room, we all buy it. These are small things, but in my opinion, they are examples of how the school hasn't yet learned to PLAN. Income should be greater than expenses, but it hasn't happened yet.

Many of these things are cultural, sure. Namibia is a young country, development is still occurring, people are still getting used to the modern world of capitalism.

But still, you have to wonder. Would "development" happen faster or slower if we just left the village to itself? Is the aid a necessary component that is required to get things started, or are we simply delaying the process by which people and institutions will become self-sufficient?

"African Black Magic"

A few days ago, my kids started getting possessed by evil spirits.

I know this sounds absurd… I don’t technically believe in witches, witchcraft or “African Black Magic” as they have been calling it. That didn’t stop the last few days from freaking the hell out of me!

Sunday afternoon—my kids say something bad happens every Sunday at our hostel—two girls collapsed outside of the girls’ block (dormitory). The sisters started seeing people who they knew but could not name, screaming, writhing, kicking… Apparently they were possessed by a spell. Honestly, I wasn’t paying much attention because I thought it was a bunch of crap and would soon resolve itself.

After a few hours, the girls had indeed recovered and all was fine at the hostel again. But after dinner, a bunch of other kids “got it.” I was having our Sunday night family dinner with the volunteers of Tses, and when some of them went home they told me that there was something big going on at our eating hall. When I got there, there were about 10 learners lying on the floor of the hall, screaming and writhing, with a bunch of different elders and pastors there to help and pray for them.

I, with some of the other teachers and community members, was there from about 9 until after 3am – sitting with them in the hostel, holding down kids who were literally trying to get up and run away, restraining kids who were trying to claw at each other. Most of the children affected were girls, but there were also a few boys. Apparently this kind of thing is more common with girls and it is also more common around times of stress, like exam time. I know there are probably millions of psychological explanations for everything that happened – but in the end, it is children who are in a great deal of physical and emotional pain, and regardless of why you think it happens, it definitely, definitely sucks and is really hard to watch!!

As we were in the hall that night, there were obviously times of more and less panic. Sometimes the kids were quiet and we sat around drinking tea, and sometimes they were literally punching and kicking at us! We had some help from a few other learners, as well as company from those who were unwilling to go sleep in the blocks that night.

All of the affected learners slept eventually, so I assumed it was all over. But Monday morning at school, more kids started going wild! More learners were affected during class and many of the same ones from Sunday were still having issues. The story goes that there were a few “main” learners who were being witched by a jealous lady who worked at the hostel, and those few were the ones who suffered the most and for the longest time.

Monday afternoon, the kids were a mess. They were all scared of the hostel/blocks/kitchen/food/matrons, and a few were still “possessed.” We tried to send these ones home to their families ASAP but some of them stay far away so we sent them to other families in Tses, just to separate them (so they couldn’t build off of each other anymore). It was so strange to go around carrying some of my learners who were unconscious, when they are normally very strong individuals; holding some when they thought they were being choked, etc. A different way of seeing them, I guess. When I wasn’t busy there, I was going around to all of the different groups of kids around the hostel, trying to comfort them as much as I could. Which wasn’t much, but at least some of my normal visitors came over to visit my house (as well as another group of the boys who I normally think are very independent but were clearly terrified).

Monday evening, we had what must be called an exorcism. We had leaders from all the different churches in our hostel’s eating hall along with community members, all of the hostel matrons, most of the teachers and all of the kids from the hostel. There were all of the “affected” kids (including a few new ones) in the back, writhing; and all of the learners in the front, praying and being prayed for. After what seemed like hours of prayers, the pastors prayed for every child individually (it took forever!) and sent them back into the blocks. They were obviously terrified to go alone, but I think it helped some of them to overcome that fear. At this point, the pastors “got out the demons” from the affected children. The pastors prayed, touched the children, yelled at them, spit holy water in their mouths and faces. Eventually, they got every child to say that they believe in God and Jesus as our savior. (I’m really glad I understand Afrikaans, since the entire night was not conducted in English!)

Almost the whole time, there were weird things going on. Girls rolling around in the back, clawing at each other, kicking. A bunch of them truly seemed like they were possessed by something strange. One boy wasn’t allowed to sit with the others (he had been possessed but was now feeling better) so he sat in back with me. He seemed fine, just weak and scared, and kept leaning on me or holding my hand or something. It was really cute but also really sad to see him this way, because he’s normally a really rambunctious kid!

By today, most of the weird stuff seems to have settled down. There were a few odd cases throughout the week, and our school is now really empty because most of the hostel learners have left for their families for the week. Last night, we had another church service to try to keep the kids on the right track.

Coming from my culture at home, this stuff all seems weird. And I know that probably most people reading this will agree that it is all a load of crap! But guys.. honestly, I don’t know what to say about all of this. Do I believe in witches? Not really. Being possessed? Not really. But obviously, something was psychologically and physically affecting my kids, for a long period of time… and no matter what you think it was, it was really sad and really hard for the kids. Everyone at my school is exhausted because nobody has been sleeping (even though I wasn’t personally too scared, I had about 10 kids sleep in my house for a few nights because they were afraid of the blocks… and getting woken up in the middle of the night because they were scared). Whatever is going on—even if it is some kind of mass hysteria (or “exam-phobia” as the regional education director just called it), it doesn’t matter much to me. The effect is not good either way!

The One-Year Mark

Well, Peace Corps Namibia Group 36 has officially been at site for over a year! I thought we’d never make it.

I can say that it’s been an adventure. I’ve done many new things (eaten donkey, gone to a wedding, led a youth group…taught a class) but in many ways, it’s not so different from home. I’ve built up my family and friends, and I definitely feel like I belong to my community here.

I had a crazy moment last week, though: Thursday night was our annual academic achievement awards ceremony. It was the first event I was here for last year, too. In this evening, we award learners with certificates for outstanding academic achievements, improvements, and other things (sports, behaviour, commitment). I remember last year being horribly bored watching the ceremony, and also feeling bad for not being able to help control the kids from the audience (where I was standing to take photos).

Our pastor giving the Keynote Address

This year was different. The 3 hour ceremony honestly felt like nothing. I felt like a proud parent, smiling all the time and mouthing directions and taking billions of photos of my kids. (Sorry Mom for rolling my eyes when you “played the piano” with me in my performances and stuff…)

Some of our top academic achievers

More importantly, I feel more successful as a teacher now. To start with, I was actually able to help keep the kids in the audience under control when they needed to be. But further – and this is my crowning victory of the last month or so – I have discovered that I am one of the teachers now.

The only awards I, personally, handed out - to the "Sportsmen" and "sportswomen" who are good leaders, athletes, and teammates.

I helped choose the new prefects, I helped choose learners for the awards, I helped make the awards. And my input was taken on different issues. I have been trying pretty hard to follow Peace Corp’s policy on only intervening when your help is asked for, but I felt like there was a glaring problem with our Awards Ceremony programme. You see, in the 49 years of my school’s history, only Head Boys have given a speech at it.

But we have a Head Boy and a Head Girl. And let me just tell you, the Head Girl this year is way more competent, and a much better speaker, than the Head Boy. So for the first time since I’ve been working here, I straight-up argued with my colleagues for hours until they let me add a Head Girl speech to the agenda.

Our new Head Girl for the 2014 school year giving her speech!

I know one speech won’t change gender relations; it’s not even a drop in the bucket. But at least we’re trying, right? There is so much male superiority happening in this place, and that extends to the learners. Hopefully if we can continue to make changes, even small changes like this one, to the way we interact at school, we will be able to help some of these girls grow up to be self-confident and capable individuals!

Our Role

As Peace Corps Volunteers, we have three specific goals set forth by the Peace Corps. These are, vaguely:

to improve Namibians’ understanding of Americans,

to improve Americans’ understanding of Namibians,

to assist with development in Namibia in whatever way we can.

As a teaching volunteer, I have another set of goals. These include things like improving learners’ marks, improving teachers’ capacities for teaching effectively, improving management at the school and improving English and critical thinking skills among both learners and teachers. There are more, but you get the idea.

So, teaching volunteers are placed at schools where there is perceived to be a need. Schools where learners consistently underperform. The thought is that at these schools, learners probably are not getting the support they deserve from teaching staff, and teaching staff are probably not doing their jobs as far as showing up to school every day, teaching effectively, communicating ideas in English. It’s our job as volunteers to come in and do whatever we can to improve the situation, set a good example as a teacher, etc.

But what do I do when these common problems are not the problems faced by my school? It’s something that I’ve been struggling with, and I would absolutely love advice from anyone reading this!!!

Many other volunteers complain regularly about teachers who miss weeks of school at a time, or teachers who sit and do nothing rather than teaching at the front of the classroom. Teachers who don’t speak English well and therefore are not well equipped to help the learners pass their exams. Here’s the thing though—my community doesn’t suffer from these problems. My teachers, in fact, are a pretty amazing set of individuals. They care a TON about the learners, they come to school every day, they TEACH in school every day, and their English is actually very good.

Yet, I had a 15% pass rate on my recent end-of-term exams, among my grade 8 and 9 learners. These learners attend school every day, and most of them have at least 2 hours of mandatory study time every day. We taught every day during the term and reviewed before the exam. The struggle at our school right now is: why and how is teaching occurring, but learning is not happening?

Now, I know I’m a teaching volunteer, so my primary position is in the classroom. But if the reason I was sent here was to improve the pass rate of my learners, we need to figure this out. From talking to teachers, learners, community leaders, and church leaders, the best I can figure out: it’s a cultural problem, not a school problem. The culture in my region is not a culture that values education highly. The Nama people were herders, suffered under the German genocide in the early 20^th century, and after that faced apartheid. Most of the adults haven’t completed formal education past grade 5 or grade 8, and many of them honestly don’t see the need, since they subsistence farm for a living. Many kids don’t have frequent parental supervision, and parents definitely aren’t checking if they have finished their homework or if they are passing their classes. Many of them aren’t even checking if their children have eaten 3 meals in a day.

We recently hosted a “parent meeting” – we have one at the beginning of every term in order to try to keep a supportive school environment. 14 parents attended, and I have about 210 learners. This is the kind of support we are commonly receiving from the community.

My philosophy so far has been that probably I can make more of a difference by working with the community rather than spending all of my time in the classroom. Working with the young people here to stay busy and motivated (and be good role models for the kids and good future parents), working with parents, working with the community leaders. But I don’t know. How do you work within this kind of community and expect to make any kind of difference?

August in photos

Mom came to visit, I saw some places in the north. Enjoy!

Etosha national park:

Real family and host family meet up in Okahandja:

Steph's village outside of Rundu:

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!