Week One: Check.

We have lived to speak of our first week of teaching. While it certainly had a rollercoaster feel to it, I think all in all, it was a success. As I mentioned in my last post, I am still trying to create a new system for measuring success in my new job here, but for this week, the fact that I didn’t come home sobbing every day is a victory in my book. On Monday, I started teaching full time at Omungwelume Secondary School.

I am officially teaching two sections of grade 8 English, two sections of grade 8 Geography, and two sections of grade 10 Basic Information Sciences. While I now have an official schedule, I am still lacking class lists, proper textbooks, and lots of other things that we think of as essentials back at home. I am the only teacher at my school that doesn’t have a classroom of their own, so I am moving about throughout the day.  So far, the classrooms are all equipped with a chalkboard, and most of the time, enough desks and chairs for all of my learners. While my grade 8 classes are only about 25 learners each, my grade 10’s are close to 40 in each section. The classrooms are very bare-bones as you might imagine. They have concrete floors, plain walls, and not much more than that.

I am finding my grade 8 learners to be intriguing, dedicated, and curious. On our first day together, I asked each of my learners to write their name, birthday, favorite subjects, etc. on an index card. After review, I discovered that my 8^th graders range in age from 12 to 20 years old. This in itself is a huge challenge that is completely out of my control. While their English skills are pretty poor, I think that they are more willing to take risks and not always be correct. Learners here are trained not to ask questions, to say yes miss and no sir, and to keep quiet. Creating an interactive classroom is going to be a challenge for me for the whole year. When learners do volunteer an answer in class, they speak so quietly and cover their faces and never make eye contact. It makes me really frustrated in the moment, but after reflection, it makes me more sad than anything. One of my goals in all of my classes is to get my kids to be confident and comfortable enough to speak in front of the class. When I told them all this, they buried their heads in their hands and shook their heads in disbelief. This got me excited.

I wrote my learners a letter for our first day together, and read it out loud to the classes. I told them about who I am, why I am here, and how excited I am to be able to work with them this year. I have a feeling that none of their other teachers have done this sort of activity with them before, as they were all so happy to have each received a printed copy of the letter at the end of class. Simple things make these kids so incredibly happy. For homework, I asked them to write me a letter in response. This would be a good opportunity for me to gauge their written English, and also determine what kinds of lives the kids are dealing with outside of the classroom. Some of their responses were hilarious, and some of them were more serious. Most of my kids said that they love dancing, singing, and making jokes. A lot of the girls said they love modeling, too. One of my more advanced learners wrote, “remember, education is the greatest equalizer”. This brought me great joy.

Something that I found troubling, though, is what these kids are doing before and after school every day. They are working on their farms, watching after animals, doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, and caring for their siblings. I get upset when I see that kids are falling behind and it is only week one (some have missed all 3 out of 3 homework assignments) and then I think, wait, how can I possibly give a kid shit for not writing in their journal when they are going to school full time and working labor intensive jobs after that? This is something else I am going to have a very hard time with this year.

So yeah, teaching is going to be a lot of fun, but I think I am in for more of a challenge than I ever could have imagined. I think that I am making perfect sense- speaking slowly, using basic language, etc. and then I look at my kids and see completely blank faces. I ask if they have any questions, and they say no. Can I win? Between the age differences, the poor English skills, the gigantic classes, and the exhausted learners, I am definitely going to struggle. In addition to the all of that, I am having a hard time dealing with the lack of instruction/guidance I am receiving from my school. Their expectations of me are not clearly defined, and being that I have never taught before this, I am finding just planning for the week to be incredibly hard. Hopefully with time, I will get better at being more self-sufficient and expect less in terms of receiving directions. As for now, I feel that I am just going with it and trying to figure out what is going on most of the time. It is a bit overwhelming.

In addition to the difficult school situation, the heat here is almost unbearable. At about 3:00pm here, the sun is so strong and so hot that it has to be near 110F. Even the simplest activity becomes exhausting and takes way more time and energy than expected. Sleeping at night is also a bit of a chore, as we have to keep the windows closed to minimize the number of extra mosquitoes that can come in during the night. We sleep under a net, but I don’t think I have ever been around so many mosquitoes in my life. At night, I literally lay in bed and listen to them buzzing around me to fall asleep. Did I also mention the wall spiders? Some of them are gigantic, but I am learning to love them (as they eat my mosquito population!)

I don’t want to make this all sound negative, as in reality, I think I am having a pretty good time here so far, and I am thankful and happy to be here. We had a few victories this week (I am learning quickly that the smallest victories are the greatest moments of satisfaction here). Ted and I treated ourselves to a new frying pan this weekend- the one that was left at our house had NO HANDLE and everything stuck to it and burned. My love for cooking was a bit scarred while trying to make an omelette in a pan with no handle, as you might visualize. We also treated ourselves to a few Tafels, a delightful Namibian beer, and Savannahs, a lovely hard cider, also made here. Our kitchen is now well stocked, and we are enjoying learning about all of the unfamiliar products in the supermarkets in town. We have cleaned the yard, gotten the house pretty clean, and are finally feeling a bit more organized and at home. Every night, we sit outside in awe at the sunset. We laugh when a tiny boy walks by with a herd of 20+ cattle. We enjoy the music, especially the school kids singing, and look forward to sharing dinner and chatting about our day every evening. Waking up with the sun (and roosters) is a fantastic feeling every day. Did I also mention that guavas are now in season? That is pretty spectacular, too.

Appreciation is the thing that has made me smile this week. Even though most of these kids are so shy, they have gone out of their way to tell me “we want to know you”, “will you be my best friend”, and other cute things. They will come and find me at my seat in the library just to say hello. I think that these special moments are going to be the ones that keep me motivated this year. Some of the community has made me feel the same way. Yesterday afternoon, we hitched a ride into town to pick up some groceries. I was talking with the man driving, who has four children and also lives in our village. We talked for a bit about my work, his kids and their education, and he said, “I appreciate you coming here. My kids are suffering because they are struggling in school. The children in our community are not succeeding in English. Thank you for your work.”

I am missing my family and my friends and a lot of the conveniences of life back home. Please know that I am thinking of you all and wishing I could share some of these moments with you. If you have the chance to visit, please do. I would love for you to feel what life is like here for yourself, rather than read about it. Love to you all.