Just Call Me Ms. Jessie

Language lessons are over, our first load of hand-washed laundry was done, and we are officially a week through our Orientation. We had our second braai on Saturday night, and enjoyed local beers and music at the hostel.

At 8:00am on Sunday morning, we packed up our belongings and embarked on an eight hour drive to Omungwelume in the Northern region of Namibia to begin our teaching practicum week (our Field Director was a teacher here for the last two years, so he wanted us to experience his village and see how different the Northern region is). All fifteen volunteers (plus luggage) packed into two government vans and made the long and beautiful trip north. Ted and I were so incredibly excited that the teaching practicum week would be taking place at our village this year, so we would get to see our home, Ted’s school, and our new village before everyone else! More to come on what we found…

The landscape was stunning. While a lot of the trip was covering mostly barren land, I was amazed by the beautiful mountain ranges, the endless horizons, the wide variety of brightly colored birds, and the well paved highways. Warthogs, ostriches, countless butterflies and dragonflies made the drive so much less painful.

Several hours into our trip, we crossed the Red Line- a physical line (checkpoint) that divides the south from the north. This is a veterinary line which prevents cattle farmers from the north from selling their cows in the south, and visa versa. This line is extremely controversial, and I would suggest that you read a little more about it on your own. Anyway, being that we were in a government van, we had no issues.

We arrived at about 5:00pm in the town of Oshikati, which is the closest town to our village. We stopped at Spar, the local supermarket, to pick up groceries for the week. We have been cooking dinner in teams and needed to get food for the week. Surprisingly, the supermarket was well stocked and the selection was not terrible. I am still feeling really excited to taste and learn about all of the different fruits and vegetables here that I haven’t seen at home! All of the cashiers and security guards welcomed us so warmly and gave us a really nice first impression of hospitality here. Anyway, we got everything we needed and got back on the road to Omungwelume, which is about 30k from Oshikati.

Arriving in Omungwelume, my heart was racing. A first glimpse at our home was only moments away! We arrived at Eengedgo Secondary School, which is the school at which Ted will be teaching. It is a really quaint little campus- it is a gated school with lots of open spaces, nice shade, a common area in the middle of the campus, and lots of smaller buildings that are dormitories. We pulled up to our house- I hate to romanticize everything, but it is adorable. We have a fenced in yard, a clothes line in the backyard, and a sink out back to wash our clothes. There is also a spicket out back (garden will be coming soon!!!) The house itself is nice and spacious- it has two bedrooms (one of which we will be transforming into an office) a kitchen, dining room/living room, and an extra small room which we will be using for yoga!

Upon our arrival, we walked up to our door, turned the key…and as I peeked inside I nearly had a heart attack. The house was in THE WORST most disgusting condition that I think I have ever seen. The place was literally covered in spider webs, garbage, dust, dead insects… it literally looked like the last person who lived here just got up and left in the middle of the night (literally. They even left their underwear all over the floor in their bedroom!)While this was a bit discouraging, we were lucky to have a dozen other people here with us to help us tidy up and prepare for the week. All week, we are using our house to cook, and share meals, so it needed to be in decent shape. Let me just say that it is HOT here. Like really, really hot. It is very dry, which makes it more manageable, and it rains at night during this time of year.

So, after a shocking first look at our house, we settled in for the night. We knew we had to be up early on Monday morning to begin our first day of teaching practice!

Monday, we got up early to run with a couple other girls before our day started. The temperature at 6:30am is just perfect. Watching the sun come up and listening to the birds singing and the cows roaming is just a great feeling. Here in the village, we ran past a lot of our new neighbors. This time of year is when all of the farmers are sowing their seeds, so most of them are out and about at that hour. It is really important to say hello to everyone you pass in town, which is something that is going to take me a while to get used to (I have turned into a bit of a blaisse faire New Yorker). It was so energizing to interact with a lot of the kids in town- all of whom were so excited to see us and were waving and smiling at us- some even started running alongside us down the long, sandy roads.

We began our first day of teaching. Lots of local kids from the neighborhood (some will be my students at the other secondary school, and some will be Ted’s students at Eengedjo) came to study at our mock-school. We divided up the kids into two age groups- grades five to seven, and grades eight to twelve. I am working with the older kids, as I will be teaching high school. It was really impressive to see so many kids come to this “summer school” just for fun, especially after learning that many of them had already been up since the sun came up working on their farms, caring for their cattle, and cooking for their families. These kids are really quite inspiring.

My first lesson on Monday I partner taught with my colleague, Jamie, who is a math teacher also from the east coast. We decided to teach a lesson on breaking down boundaries between American vs. Namibian culture using a Venn Diagram- discussing food, what we do for fun, and things that are important to us. The kids had so much fun discussing the differences between America and Namibia, and were quite shocked to find out that we aren’t all that different, after all. I was really pleased to see such a high level of English in these kids and to see their enthusiasm. I haven’t had the opportunity to work with kids of this age very much, but I found myself feeling comfortable and at ease around them, which was reaffirming.

Teaching was off to a great start, and was followed by several more hours of sessions, debriefing, and discussion. While days like these are exhausting, watching the sun set here really can make you forget how stressful your day had been. Ted and I took a nice walk around the village. We found a few fig trees that are out of a fairy tale- you could probably stand ten people around them with arms spread wide. While some of our neighbors have concrete houses, many have thatched-roof huts on their plots. Seeing this way of life is surreal. I have thought so many times of people back home who say that “they have nothing”, then I see this and I think wow, this really is the definition of nothing. The simplicity of life here is so unfamiliar.

Tuesday was pretty similar. We got up with the sun to go for a nice run before the heat came. Jamie and I taught our second lesson, which involved creating a business card for your dream job (all of our students on Monday had agreed that getting a job and working hard were important, so we played off of their ideas). We taught this lesson twice- and surprisingly, both of our classes chose dream jobs that were very realistic- doctors, nurses, dentists, teachers, and pilots. Again, we were impressed by the creativity and energy in the classroom. When we asked the students to create their own business cards, they expressed a lot of interest and were eager to participate, which again, was reaffirming.

Wednesday and Thursday we continued with our lessons, followed by sessions with our Field Director. On Thursday, the learners who attended “Holiday School” this week were awarded with certificates, sweets, and new pens to start the school year. They were all very eager to have their photographs taken and were so proud of themselves! It was beautiful.

Thursday night, we traveled about 45k from Omungwelume to see the homestead of our Field Director’s girlfriend’s family. They treated us to a tour of their compound-style home- all of the family members build a small home for themselves within the compound as they enter adulthood. They also have traditional huts for cooking, meal preparation, prayer, and pounding of the millet, sorgum, and maize flour that they produce from their farm. We learned a bit about the process from seed to harvest to production, which is extremely long and labor intensive. After our tour, we were introduced to a traditional Owambo meal- small chickens that are roasted in gourds in  a sort of stew (tomatoes, onions, carrots, and oils from the mahungu trees) and served with a sticky bread. All of the eating is done with your hands. There are no plates on the table, and everyone shares the sticky bread and stew (one by one, you break a piece of bread and use it as a spoon to ladle the chicken from the gourd).

After dinner, we returned to the school campus. Ted and I went to town with our Field Director and his girlfriend to get a feel for the local bars. “Dumpies”, or what we would call a “40” of beer costs N$10, which is equal to a little more than $1.00 USD. Incredible. Also incredible was our government vehicle escort to the bar. This is the good life.

Some thoughts on Omungwelume- the village here has a bunch of small houses and huts. There are countless cows, goats, dogs, birds, and butterflies. On “the strip”, the main road, there are at least a dozen different shabeens (bars) which serve local drinks, coca-cola, and even some fruits and vegetables. I am noticing that a lot of these small shops and bars are multi-purpose! There isn’t any sort of a restaurant culture here. I did notice a bakery though, which I thought was really exciting! It looks as though we will have to go to Oshikati by car if we want to do any sort of grocery shopping or run errands, but I think we should be able to get fresh bread and fruit here in the village.

Right now, it is the season for guava and mangoes, which is basically a dream come true. Harvest here is year- round, and varies by season. Soon, we should be seeing lots of spinach, squash, and pow-pow (papaya). I am really hoping that I can get close with a few of my students who can take me to see their family farms- I am hoping to learn as much as I can about the agriculture here.

My emotions so far are mostly positive. While adjusting to life in the village is going to take time, I think this experience is going to have an impact on all roads I choose in the future. So far, my experience in the classroom has been fluid. I feel totally in my element.  Perhaps this will be an opportunity to fill in the gaps as far as what direction I should go in next in terms of my own education, job, etc. and to figure out new ways to make a positive impact in the world I live in. I am finding so much inspiration in the children that I have met here so far- many of them travel great distances to attend school, work on their family farms from sunrise until class time, and have great amounts of responsibility beyond anything we can understand (for example- a 5^th grader in school this week was bringing her 18 month old sister to class with her every day, as she was her caretaker during the day)

Being a spectacle is hard, but it is forcing me to constantly think and reflect on why I am here. Ted and I will clearly be the only whites living in the village, and standing out in such a way is somewhat uncomfortable at times, because everyone is so curious about who you are. While most of the children are really curious and excited to meet us, some of the adults are a bit more mocking. I hope that in time, and as we get involved in the community, the residents here will learn (just like my students this week) that Namibians and Americans aren’t necessarily all that different. I am really looking forward to building relationships here and helping out where I can in the community.

Adjusting to cold showers has not been an issue at all. When it is 100 degrees F every day, taking a cold shower is just about the most refreshing thing in the world.

Adjusting to the meat-filled plates, however, has not been so easy. No one was lying when they said that Namibians love their meat. If I were to draw you a diagram of what a Namibian plate would look like, it would be 90% meat with 10% mayo-filled pasta salad on the side. I am missing tofu and Dunkin Donuts and sushi pretty hard right now. Two weeks deep and I am amazed to say that I have managed to not eat meat yet.

Getting to know the other volunteers has been a very positive experience. All of them are intelligent, energetic, selfless and enthusiastic about making a difference in our short time here in Namibia. These girls are all an inspiration. I admire their braveness- being strong enough to travel here alone and embark on this journey is admirable. Many of them left behind quite a lot- their boyfriends, families, jobs, and lots of other things they care about. I feel really fortunate to have the opportunity to get to know people who care about so many of the same things that I feel so strongly about.

So, in closing for now, this last week of orientation, we will be back in the capital to wrap-up our sessions. Next Thursday, we will all depart for our sites and begin school next Friday. I’m feeling pretty excited and happy to be here. I don’t think that it has officially sunk in yet that this is my new home, most of the time I am feeling as though I am on an extended vacation. I just can’t seem to convince myself that this is real! I also have a slightly modified teaching assignment- it looks like now I will be teaching 8^th grade Geography and English, along with Basic Information Sciences. I’m stoked about the Geography!!!