A Day in the Life of Me

February 14th, 2008

During the Week:
5:30am Wake up, hope clock says a different time, get out of bed to check cellphone just to make sure the time on my clock isn’t wrong. It isn’t.
5:45am Take cold bucket bath.
6:40am Staff Meeting—think awkward silence and funny requests.
7:00am School begins. I love these kids and want to adopt them all.
9:00am Tea Break
9:30-11:00am I am pulling my hair out trying to tone down the kids energy.
12:00-1:00pm I hate these kids and want to murder them all.
1:00pm School is out. I go home and eat leftovers.
2:00pm Naptime!
Afternoons: Afternoon classes, lesson plans, handwash clothes, sweep and mop, regain energy, fall in love with children again when they come visit me.
8:00 Eat dinner, watch the same movie for the 189th time
10:00 Bed time

A Typical Saturday in Windhoek (my shopping town):
9:00am Wake up next to colleague’s random family member who I am sharing a bed with.
10:00am Eat huge meal loaded with butter.
11:00-1:00 Do something. Sometimes read. Sometimes escape to the Peace Corps Office. Sometimes pretend to be interested in the TV programs and African music videos.
1:00pm Eat huge meal loaded with butter, oil, and meat.
1:00-8:00pm See 11:00.
8:00pm Eat huge meal.
9:00pm Climb into bed with lady I just met.

During the Weekend in D-town:
10:00am Wake up. Love life.
10:30-1:00pm Clean (The wind and dust don’t make for clean houses)
1:00pm Cook and eat yummy food. I love making crepes now (in absence of a stove to make chocolate chip cookies.)
2:00-6:00pm Do something. Normally organize something (photos on my computer, books in library, clothes, etc). Sometimes laundry.
6:00pm Cook and eat.
8:00pm Movie Time
10:00pm Bed time

So you see, my life isn’t so eventful. Really I feel like combination old lady/mother of 75 children/entertainment for community/part of the 6am-1pm working world. But for some reason I feel more grown up.

The good thing is everything I’ve ever done in my life can be of use here. If grad school confirmed how much I don’t know, then Peace Corps is confirming how much I do know (in my brain, not in a book).
For instance ….. prepared me for ……
1. A childhood fascination with art: Art class
2. Creativity: Art projects with no resources whatsoever
3. English major: English teacher
4. Salsa dance: something for youth to do instead of contract HIV
5. Learning to cook over the past 2 years: cooking without many options
6. Costa Rican cockroaches: African cockroaches
7. Learning to wash clothes by hand in Mexico: Washing my clothes here
8. Living in rural Mexico: Living in rural Namibia
9. Learning to be alone at Grad school: being alone here
10. Finding out that directors commentaries are actually interesting in Grad school: doing the same in Africa.
11. Tucson desert climate: Namibia desert climate.
12. Teaching spanish 102: teaching younger kids English (many of the activities are the same)
13. Living in another culture in Costa Rica and Mexico: “”
14. Working at a school in Nogales, Mexico: Working at a school in D-town, Namibia
15. Spending a lot of time in libraries: teaching library class
16. Typing papers for 6 years: Helping teach the principal to type

I could go on.

Other Random Thoughts:
One person I just met said it was interesting that I did not feel uncomfortable being here, what with being new and alone in a community. I don’t. Hmm. Guess I’ve travelled too much now. It’s normal to be the weird white lady living in a place few white people come to.
Valentines Day:
Someone is sitting in “my seat” in the staff room. I sit instead by my male colleague (1 of 2 at the school). He says, “Do you know what today means?” There is general laughter. I say, “Yes, it’s the day my mother sends me chocolate.” That ended that.
One of my best learners writes me this note (not corrected):
To Mrs. Leo,
First of all I will great you than I will say that there is a special joy in heaven and even in me.
Happy Valentine day I hope that you will enjoy your day with peace and Happiness.
You are the special teacher I have never had. the smile which is always on your face show me that you like me as well as the others children in the class.
From: Toshline

This is so cute really. I asked her later what teachers she liked besides me. She said noone. This is because teachers here are mean. I mean downright mean to these kids. I can’t imagine the damage it does to their psyches.
I gave valentines with personalized notes to all the kids. They will love me forever.
Kids love books. Every time I am in the library they are practically fighting to get in too. This makes my year.
Bugs: There are some massive bugs here including a 7inch long grasshopper and beetles that are 5 inches long. At least they can’t come in under the door.
I emptied my fridge of cockroaches but they moved into the cabinet. This is war now.
I had a bag of empty cans and yogurt cups outside (so the cucarachas could enjoy them in peace) and someone stole it. What? It was a bag of trash! On a sidenote, in Katutura, apparently thieves steal blankets through open windows off people who are sleeping. I’m changing my locks.
Things kids have eaten in my class: a picture I gave them, paper, piece of eraser, chalk, an entire tube of toothpaste, sweets, stickers, pre-chewed gum, etc. There really is no sense of germs here. I.e. I threw out chicken bones for the goats/dogs. 5 minutes later my neighbors son is eating them. This is a kid who has food. Now I put them in a bag when I throw them out.

I’m finding my place here, but I wish I could get out more in the community. Besides church there’s basically no interaction between me and the town at all. I am so busy all the time with school stuff. And it’s so hard to integrate with this language business. Everybody speaks Khoekhoegowab and Afrikaans, but not necessarily English. And obviously I don’t speak either of the first two. I debate back and forth about which one I will make some effort to learn. Haven’t decided yet.

Photos

In case you want to see photos of Namibia, check out the photos I uploaded to Facebook. You should have no problem seeing them at this site:
http://arizona.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2228163&l=5d1e6&id=10131893

Hope you enjoy!

I'm a PCV!

January 13, 2008

Happy New Year!

I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer, no longer a Trainee!

Here are some updates:
New Years: New Years was a blast and made up for a boring Christmas. In the afternoon Obie and I practiced dancing salsa for the talent show. I had been feeling a little sick from dehydration all day, but that resolved itself. Then, we headed to the dry riverbed where a bonfire was in progress. It was a really fun party!

New Years Day: Leslie and the gang organized a fabulous breakfast for us consisting of french toast, real scrambled eggs, and pancakes. I love them forever.
Talent Show: That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I performed a salsa dance with Obie. Among the other entries were Jeff B. playing guitar, Justin and Grace performing poetry, Sarah and Chaz lip-syncing, the ladies dubbing Britney Spears to “Not a PCT, not yet a PCV,” Jay and Griffin singing the theme to Gardener’s Daughter, a fashion show of PCTs in traditional Damara/Ovambo dresses, Selma performing traditional African dance, Jeff K. solving a rubics cube, Chris robot dancing, Leah and others singing songs, Kengo doing a funny skit, etc. It was pretty much hilarious.
Awards: My room 22 girls got the award for having the cleanest room. See below to see if you agree. Also the Bing girls got an award for “Most Remarkable CBT experience.” We rock. As a result Leslie invited us to Swakopmund over Easter break. Yay!
After the Talent show: We had a braai (barbeque) with absolutely fabulous grilled veggies, chicken, green beans, apples, and pineapple. It was to celebrate the Redskins making it into the playoffs or something like that. That was the best dinner in Africa so far! And then we dance partied into the night.
Why I keep talking about food: Not normally being a person concerned with food, I’ve suddenly appreciated any American cuisine. Food generally speaking in Namibia is rather blah-se. For instance over the past few weeks my menu has been:
Breakfast: cornflakes and hot milk, bread with tons of butter and a teeny bit of jelly.
Lunch/Dinner: pasta with mayonaise, pasta with butter 2 slivers of onion and a bit of tomato, squash drenched in butter and sugar, carrot slaw with raisins and apples and sugar, goat, sheep, beef, gemsbok, canned peas, etc.
The highlight of CBT was bread with peanut butter. It made my day.
In Mexico, even though there were not a lot of ingredients the food was damn tasty. Here not so much, unless you like your veggies tasting like butter and sugar. You can probably see how I’ve gained 8 pounds since I’ve been here. Yes, I’m at a whopping 106 pounds! Apparently girls go back to the states weighing 20 lbs more, and boys go back weighing 20 lbs less. I’m well on my way there.
LPI—The day before the language exam we were all studying like crazy. It went surprisingly well, and I even got the score I was supposed to “Intermediate Low.” This makes me think that I can really master Khoekhoe in the years I’m here, but it will take a special effort I’m not sure I want to make, as when I return to the U.S. I doubt I will ever use it again besides as a nice party trick. I’d rather concentrate on keeping up my Spanish.
Shopping Spree in Windhoek: We were given money to go shopping in Windhoek and we went to town buying stuff for our house. It’s so nice to have things now.
Best group: The training manager and trainers agree that we are the best group ever. For the record, most groups have 6 or 7 people leave before training is up, and we only had one. Everyone got along, there was surprisingly little drama, we were well behaved and respectful, we actually studied the language and scored relatively high. We rock!
Swearing In: On Wednesday, we were sworn in by the Ambassador at the Community Hall in Okahandja. We were on the news and in the newspaper apparently, but ironically us PCVs have no access to those things. Afterwards people started to leave and the tears began. I wasn’t that sad because I knew I would see all these people again, but it will be a long time (until May).
Last Night in the Handj: Luckily for me, I got to stay one more night. Leah, Ashley, Jessica, Chris, Danielle, and Julia went out for Pizza one last time. Then we got curtains at the fabric store and snacks at Spar. In the evening we watched Obie’s slideshow of his wedding, and chatted with those who were left over.
Everything goes down hill: Ashley left for Opuwo, so I’m the only one left in my room. It takes all freakin day to get to D-town even though it is only 2 hours from Okahandja:
8:30—time I’m supposed to leave
10:30—time counselor of Okahandja picks me up and brings me 2 blocks to his house.
1:30—time regional counselor of Okahandja region picks me up to take me to Windhoek
2:30—arrival in Katutura at my supervisor’s house.
5:30—car trouble prevents earlier leaving, leave for grocery store
6:30—mechanic meets us and we bring him along to Dordabis, normally a one hour ride. Because car’s fuel injection is not working well, car stalls every 10 minutes.
11:00pm—arrival in D-town.
The long arrival time wouldn’t have been so bad, except that once we arrive I found out that there is nothing in my apartment. I lived with my supervisor for several days before Waldo, our APCD, took matters into his own hands and pulled some strings at the ministry. The next day, I moved in with a hotplate and some suitcases. The following day, the ministry brought my fridge and furniture.
It was lovely, except that my fridge was full of cockroaches. Yes, even the freezer. Mofos. And they are not the slow and stupid kind like in Costa Rica. These ones are the evil tiny kind that won’t come out of the cracks until you are not looking or the lights are turned off, and then they take over. Ick. I’m going to be a clean freak by the time I get back to the States that is for sure.

First Days of School Namibian Style: Drink tea, cover your files in pretty paper and plastic, have kids sit there for about 5 hours straight with nothing to do at all (and expect order and silence), leave every 20 minutes or so for random tasks and class becomes total chaos. Such is life here.
Oh, we did decide what classes we would teach. I’m teaching English grades 6 and 7, Basic Information Studies (i.e. library), Life Skills (i.e. Health), Religion and Moral Education (i.e. Sunday School), and Physical Education. Basically they gave me the other courses which “don’t matter” because you don’t have to pass them to move to the next grade. I’m cool with all of them except Religion and Moral Education, but hey, maybe I can make it interesting. Thirty of fifty-two 5th graders failed the grade last year. This is normal. To me, it speaks volumes about the quality and quantity of teaching, the nutrition, and treatment these kids get throughout their young lives. To sum up, it sucks.

I got nothing but love for the 5th and 7th graders. They are so hungry for affection and attention. But the 6th graders might be the end of me. I didn't win them over in the beginning, and from then on it was a disaster. I am keeping them up to an hour after school for detention. There really are no "bad" kids, you know, the spiteful kind. But there are a lot of kids who are illiterate and bored or craving attention and that means they act up in class. We'll see if they settle down with time.
· Things to look forward to:
February—I’m going to visit Megan in Mariental.

March— Bing Family Reunion in Swakopmund!
April/May—Reconnect (in-service training)? First Vacation!!!