After some farewells in Okahandja on the 8th of July I headed into Windhoek and caught the Intercape bus (16 hours!)to Katima Mulilo in the Caprivi strip of far eastern Namibia to start my 5 week trip in Southern Africa. After a few days in Katima, staying with other VSOers and watching the world cup final with some eagar (but ultimately disappointed) Dutch volunteers, I crossed the border into Zambia and caught the local bus from Sesheke to Livingstone. For 2 days I relaxed, ate, slept and read books at Jbackpackers and generally got used to the idea of being on holiday! I also did the touristy thing by taking a microlite flight over Victoria Falls. I’d visited the falls from both the Zimbabwe and Zambia side on previous trips and got the obligatory photos but and a flight over the falls (kinda scary - like flying in a chair with wings and a tiny motor) was a fantastic way to get a real sense of the size and remarkable beauty of the Falls.
After relaxing, it was time to head into Zimbabwe and join my tour group. I spent a day in the town of Vic Falls (trying to avoid being harassed by touts) before heading off to Hwange National Park . The roads here seem a bit better than Zambia so that you’d almost think Zimbabwe was quite developed and stable. The fact that the US dollar is the official currency and the lack supplies in the many shops tells a different tale. Our camp site in Hwange NP seemed nicely remote and we spent a few days on safaris as well as visiting a sanctuary for the endangered African wild dogs (also known as painted dogs) Then we headed to Bulawayo, and on to Antelope park (near Gweru) a private and rather up-market game reserve. We had the opportunity to take photos while walking with lions and riding elephants which was nice but the conservation spiel that they’d tried to sell to us had a distinctly false ring to me.
The end of our time in Zimbabwe was spent at the Great Zimbabwe Monument, a UNESCO world heritage site, which gives the country is name (it means ‘large stone houses’) It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe about 600 – 800 years ago, and is evidence of an advanced civilisation in Africa long before Europeans came (and denied for a long time by the former white Rhodesian government). I found that it was astonishingly like an iron age ring fort that you might see in the West of Ireland.
We crossed into South Africa and spent a night at the Tshipise hot springs which were over-run by South African campers (who tend to take camping very seriously and bring everything including the kitchen sink and a satellite dish!) We then spent a few days in Kruger (camping in Berg-en-Dal) but having been on so many safari in different parts of Africa at that stage, and having already seem the ‘Big Five’ - some of them several times - I was difficult to impress. Kruger had lots of animals but was missing some of the ‘in the wild’ feeling you get in other places. Our final stop of the trip before ending in Pretoria, was to take in some of the spectacular scenery around Graskop and Pilgrims Rest. We saw the breathtaking Blyde River Canyon, ‘Bourke’s Luck Pot Holes’, the ‘Three Rondals’ and the aptly named ‘Worlds End’.
As the tour finished and the group went their separate ways I continued on to Maputo in Mozambique (after another long Intercape bus journey and expensive time at the border) The sudden and complete change in climate was unreal; only a few hundred miles west and the chilly nights and cool days changed to hot days a balmy nights. I spent less than 12 hours in Maputo (but had time to fit in some delicious fresh seafood) before I took the shuttle bus north to Tofo beach. I spend several days there diving (with whale sharks, turtles and manta Rays) enjoying the empty white beaches and eating (yet more) sea food. It really reminded me of parts of South East Asia and overall I found Mozambique to be very relaxed and relaxing.
Manzini in Swaziland was next on my itinerary (after another day in Maputo where I got to see a bit more of the city) but it didn’t really stand out for me, so I continued on back into South Africa. I got a ticket for the ‘Baz bus’ (a hop-on-hop-off backpacker’s bus) and started my costal trip in St. Lucia, a cute seaside town. South Africa seems so developed after the past few week (maybe even months?) but so are the prices (although not quite European prices!) I went on a day trip to Cape Vidal , a UNESCO protected site for its 8 inter-linking ecosystems. It was pretty cool to drive through the iSimangaliso Wetlands drinking beer and spotting hippos and rhinos before stopping for a braai on the beach and going snorkelling in the Indian ocean.
Next stop was Durban, which despite its reputation for crime seemed to be a relaxed, pleasant city right on the beach. It was also my first chance in a while to avail of city luxuries (like Mug & Bean chocolate cake and a trip to the cinema!) I barley spent anytime in Port Elizabeth before continuing on to Jeffrey’s Bay (or J’Bay) a famous surfing town with yet more gorgeous beaches and an extremely chilled atmosphere.
Then it was on to Storm’s River, where I did a bit of hiking in the Tsitsikamma National Park, and then Pletternberg Bay and Mossel Bay, where the weather took a turn for the worse. I’d heard about horrible winter weather in south Africa but this was my first experience of it. I’d had a few cold nights but for two days I had weather that made me think I was in Ireland in February; bitter winds and freezing rain. It meant my planned shark cage diving trip couldn’t go ahead but I amused myself by getting a pedicure, going to the cinema and by hiring a car for a day and visiting monkey and bird sanctuaries.
By the time I reached Stellenbosch the weather was back to ‘normal’ (lovely and sunny in the day and cool at night) and perfect for a wine tour - I could hardly not being in the famous wine lands of South Africa! However, not a connoisseur at the best of times, I could hardly tell Chardonnay from Sauvignon Blanc by the end of the day as we had five or six wine ‘tastes’ in each place, but I wasn’t complaining!
My trip ended in Cape Town, my favourite city in Africa. I visited Robben Island (so recently the prison that held Nelson Mandela and the leaders of the anti-apartheid struggle but is now a monument to peace and yet another UNESCO heritage site) I did a city bus tour and took the cable car up Table Mountain (for amazing views of the city) I also got to do some shopping and have lunch in the very posh Camps Bay.
Before I knew it I was back in Windhoek for (yet another!) weekend. There were lots of goodbyes to said; I met up with the other volunteers who were also about to leave and we had a farewell picnic in the parliament park. I was also invited to luch by my former colleague Alina (who presented my with a traditional Ovambo dress) So now, even though my year is officially and completely over, it still just doesn’t seem real yet!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The End is Nigh!
It’s the first of July today – usually the first day of the summer holidays, or in recent years, the start of a summer course! – but today I find myself in my NIED office starting my final report on my placement. Its so strange to be at the end of my placement, as it seems not so long ago that I was at the half way point and now I’m all but finished. The last few months have flown.
I’m a typical teacher, and I’m really only thinking only of my forthcoming holidays. I don’t think it’ll hit me that the year is actually over until sometime in September! There have been lots of volunteer leaving in the last few months. Many of the volunteers who came out with me have already left; Eva, a German volunteer, at the end of April, Jelda and Mignon, Dutch volunteers left in June. There seems to ‘leaving parties’ every second weekend but it still hasn’t hit me that my ‘year out’ is almost over.
These past few weeks in work, ever since the ‘National Training’ in fact, have been all about finishing up and it turns out that the training workshops on the ‘Integrated Planning Manuals’ were the perfect way to finish off my work with NIED. The two weeks of training went really well – to be honest, far better than I had ever expected. However it was hard work as there was some resistance to some aspects of the manual at first, particularly to the section on assessment and the structure of the lesson plans.
Assessment here is all about teachers assigning grades (each learner is given about 40 grades on various subjects in each term!) but the manual suggests moving away from this and that the purpose of assessing the learners should be to find out where they are having difficulties and then trying to help them. Although everyone agreed this was right and should be emphasised, some Advisory Teachers and classroom teachers at the workshop needed convincing that filling in record books with lots of ‘criterion referenced’ grades was not the best way to go about this. Assessment in Lower Primary will be a focus area for the next few years but hopefully the first steps in improving assessment procedures have been taken.
Everyone also agreed that lots (if not most) teachers are having huge problems in structuring lessons and planning the work to be covered in each week but they were very worried about introducing new ideas that would “confuse” teachers. But when we explained the thinking behind the 2 part lesson plan in the manual wasn’t new but would help teachers be more organized (they have to write a weekly overview of the main content of the week’s planned work and then use it to write their day’s lesson plans that concentrated on the ‘how’ of the teaching – very labour intensive by our standards but that was a big cut back from the previous structure) We then demonstrated, step by step how it would be done, as well as having the participants do a practical exercise in using this type of plan and they were slowly but completely converted!
By the end of the workshop, when we were coming up with the key messages of the training, a few Advisory Teachers claimed that they felt so enthusiastic about the manual that they couldn’t wait to go and show it to teachers. I’m not sure how serious they were or what the quality of the follow-up training will be but it felt good to have been involved in something that teachers felt positive about!
As part of the training workshop we also included some sessions on teaching methodologies/strategies, which weren’t strictly speaking to do with planning but were lapped up by the participants. It so rewarding to see teachers have ‘light bulb moments’ (when I explained that a teacher should have a purpose in mind when playing a game or teaching a song) and get excited about been shown some simple games (Simon Says and Fruit Bowl) and strategies (using the Daily News) In some cases they got a bit over excited about playing the games and learning some simple songs. At one point I had 22 something middle aged women ready to beat the heads off each other over a game of Chinese Whispers and at another stage I had half of the same group literally rolling around the floor to the song ’10 in the Bed’!
On the last day I even got the offer of a woman’s son in marriage if I would stay in Namibia and do more workshops. Another lady tried to top this offering me a farm and 2 goats! It was very flattering and humbling even if they were joking (I think!) Alina was practically glowing with pride by the end of the 2 weeks and kept telling me how she felt so much more confident in herself and in organizing workshops.
So it is feeling very positive about my work that I end my time in Namibia. I’m pretty sure I haven’t solved any major educational issues in Namibia and ‘the bloody manual’ is about as far from perfect as it could be, but I think it is an improvement on what was there before and if it clarifies things a bit or helps a few teachers do their job better that’s enough for me. As for the other part of my work, ‘sharing skills’ with my counterpart, I’ve seen Alina’s confidence grow immeasurably in the past months and she is definitely more organized in her approach to her work. Since I didn’t come out here to change the world, or even try, at the very least I can be happy that I didn’t do any harm!
I’m a typical teacher, and I’m really only thinking only of my forthcoming holidays. I don’t think it’ll hit me that the year is actually over until sometime in September! There have been lots of volunteer leaving in the last few months. Many of the volunteers who came out with me have already left; Eva, a German volunteer, at the end of April, Jelda and Mignon, Dutch volunteers left in June. There seems to ‘leaving parties’ every second weekend but it still hasn’t hit me that my ‘year out’ is almost over.
These past few weeks in work, ever since the ‘National Training’ in fact, have been all about finishing up and it turns out that the training workshops on the ‘Integrated Planning Manuals’ were the perfect way to finish off my work with NIED. The two weeks of training went really well – to be honest, far better than I had ever expected. However it was hard work as there was some resistance to some aspects of the manual at first, particularly to the section on assessment and the structure of the lesson plans.
Assessment here is all about teachers assigning grades (each learner is given about 40 grades on various subjects in each term!) but the manual suggests moving away from this and that the purpose of assessing the learners should be to find out where they are having difficulties and then trying to help them. Although everyone agreed this was right and should be emphasised, some Advisory Teachers and classroom teachers at the workshop needed convincing that filling in record books with lots of ‘criterion referenced’ grades was not the best way to go about this. Assessment in Lower Primary will be a focus area for the next few years but hopefully the first steps in improving assessment procedures have been taken.
Everyone also agreed that lots (if not most) teachers are having huge problems in structuring lessons and planning the work to be covered in each week but they were very worried about introducing new ideas that would “confuse” teachers. But when we explained the thinking behind the 2 part lesson plan in the manual wasn’t new but would help teachers be more organized (they have to write a weekly overview of the main content of the week’s planned work and then use it to write their day’s lesson plans that concentrated on the ‘how’ of the teaching – very labour intensive by our standards but that was a big cut back from the previous structure) We then demonstrated, step by step how it would be done, as well as having the participants do a practical exercise in using this type of plan and they were slowly but completely converted!
By the end of the workshop, when we were coming up with the key messages of the training, a few Advisory Teachers claimed that they felt so enthusiastic about the manual that they couldn’t wait to go and show it to teachers. I’m not sure how serious they were or what the quality of the follow-up training will be but it felt good to have been involved in something that teachers felt positive about!
As part of the training workshop we also included some sessions on teaching methodologies/strategies, which weren’t strictly speaking to do with planning but were lapped up by the participants. It so rewarding to see teachers have ‘light bulb moments’ (when I explained that a teacher should have a purpose in mind when playing a game or teaching a song) and get excited about been shown some simple games (Simon Says and Fruit Bowl) and strategies (using the Daily News) In some cases they got a bit over excited about playing the games and learning some simple songs. At one point I had 22 something middle aged women ready to beat the heads off each other over a game of Chinese Whispers and at another stage I had half of the same group literally rolling around the floor to the song ’10 in the Bed’!
On the last day I even got the offer of a woman’s son in marriage if I would stay in Namibia and do more workshops. Another lady tried to top this offering me a farm and 2 goats! It was very flattering and humbling even if they were joking (I think!) Alina was practically glowing with pride by the end of the 2 weeks and kept telling me how she felt so much more confident in herself and in organizing workshops.
So it is feeling very positive about my work that I end my time in Namibia. I’m pretty sure I haven’t solved any major educational issues in Namibia and ‘the bloody manual’ is about as far from perfect as it could be, but I think it is an improvement on what was there before and if it clarifies things a bit or helps a few teachers do their job better that’s enough for me. As for the other part of my work, ‘sharing skills’ with my counterpart, I’ve seen Alina’s confidence grow immeasurably in the past months and she is definitely more organized in her approach to her work. Since I didn’t come out here to change the world, or even try, at the very least I can be happy that I didn’t do any harm!
April and May
Ooops, I'm falling behind on posting my blogs. I wrote this one at the start of June, but never got around to posting it... but better late than never (as my Dad would say!)
It’s been a strange few months. I feel I’ve really settled into a routine and feel totally at home here now yet it’s been anything but a routine in the 7 weeks since Easter.
I’ve been busy work wise; my first challenge was the NIED being invited to present at the Mathematics Congress in Swakopmund. This came up before Easter, and when Alina told me that she’d asked, I just casually said “No, problem, sure I’ll help you something on Maths games” It turns out the Maths Congress has become something of a big deal in the Namibian Education world (it was opened by the Minister of Education) so there was alot of hard work to put together a presentation on Maths games in Lower Primary. The presentation went quite well (despite some time issues) and the congress itself was very interesting. It was, in way, gratifying to see the same seem to problem exist at all levels of the Education system and a bit frustrating that there is still little acknowledgement of the vital role lower primary education plays in this. If learners are failing in the upper grades because of a lack of basic mathematical knowledge surely it’s obvious that Maths teaching in the lower grades is the place to start with support?
The infamous ‘Integrated Planning Manuals’ for Grade 1 and 2 are almost finished (officially) but I think they still need alot of fine tuning. I’ve tried to get actual teachers to try out the schemes/lesson plans to give us some feedback but that hasn’t been very successful. Most of the feedback is just pointing out typos, or tiny errors in semantics, which is helpful but not really comments on how teacher think the content or plans would work (or even if it makes sense to them!) Maybe teachers don’t have the confidence or professional knowledge to comment on them? Some of the Advisory Teachers did send in comments on the content but unfortunately a lot of these showed a lack of understanding of the fundamental concept of integration!
Next comes the ‘National Training’ and as far as I can work out, this is where Alina and I train the Advisory Teachers on how to using the manuals, and then they go on to train the teachers in their regions. So we’re now working on planning and structuring the training although I’m not sure if I, or the manuals, are ready for this but we’re about to find out!
On the lighter side of NIED, the Sports Club, which I’d been hearing about since I arrived suddenly came to life at the end of April to begin training for a competition organised by Ministry of Education where all the Regions (+NIED) compete in Soccer (men only) Netball (women only) and volleyball (mixed). The plan was to train four evenings a week for an hour or so (rather than once or twice a week for the whole year which might have helped with commitment and fitness issues!!) and then head off to Keetmanshoop for week for the competitions. So I joined the ladies to play netball (first time I’d even heard of it beyond ‘Home and Away’) which I was told was a very easy to get the hang of (it wasn’t)
The ‘training’ and organisation of the whole thing was typically haphazard, with a real lack of communication/information, but since I didn’t take it very seriously it didn’t bother me! I went along to get to know some of my colleagues, have a few days away and get a bit of exercise! On these I was successful, although NIED didn’t do terrible well in the competitions (the volleyball team was picked randomly minutes before the first match, didn’t do any training and then wondered why they were hopped off!!) The whole thing did allow me to confirm to myself why sport isn’t really ‘my thing’!
There were quite a few public holidays in May (it’s school holidays for teachers and Learners) so that meant a few long weekends for me. For one I just hung out with Katy and Kev, who were house sitting for the former VSO Namibia director. This turned into a long relaxing lazy 4-day weekend in a Windhoek mansion watching DSTV (a whole series of ‘Friends’ and hours of ‘Come Dine With Me’)
On the last long weekend in May we decided to get away to Luderitz (a lovely quite little harbour town about 1200km south-west of Windhoek) so we hired a car and hit the road. Althoug Most same Europeans wouldn’t consider driving that distance for a weekend, it doesn’t seem to be an issue in Namibia and we did what should have been a 10 hour journey in about 7 as the roads are so straight and good you find yourself doing 160km without even realising it! We spend our few days visiting a mining ‘ghost-town’, drinking beer/rum while watching the sun set on the coast and eating lots of fish but the highlight of the trip was a catamaran trip out into the south Atlantic. We had fantastic weather and saw penguins, flamingos, 2 different types of Whale (Humpback and Southern Right) and lots of dolphins – we even sailed with a whole school of them for a while. It was fantastic!
So between long weekends away or in Windhoek, Sports trips and conferences I’ve hardly been in Okahandja at all this past few weeks. Next week end we’re off for our second Global Educaion weekend in Ngepi (a whole day’s drive north east of here) and then straight to the ‘National Training’ workshop in the Harmony Seminar Centre outside Windhoek for two weeks. Not that I’m complaining...
It’s been a strange few months. I feel I’ve really settled into a routine and feel totally at home here now yet it’s been anything but a routine in the 7 weeks since Easter.
I’ve been busy work wise; my first challenge was the NIED being invited to present at the Mathematics Congress in Swakopmund. This came up before Easter, and when Alina told me that she’d asked, I just casually said “No, problem, sure I’ll help you something on Maths games” It turns out the Maths Congress has become something of a big deal in the Namibian Education world (it was opened by the Minister of Education) so there was alot of hard work to put together a presentation on Maths games in Lower Primary. The presentation went quite well (despite some time issues) and the congress itself was very interesting. It was, in way, gratifying to see the same seem to problem exist at all levels of the Education system and a bit frustrating that there is still little acknowledgement of the vital role lower primary education plays in this. If learners are failing in the upper grades because of a lack of basic mathematical knowledge surely it’s obvious that Maths teaching in the lower grades is the place to start with support?
The infamous ‘Integrated Planning Manuals’ for Grade 1 and 2 are almost finished (officially) but I think they still need alot of fine tuning. I’ve tried to get actual teachers to try out the schemes/lesson plans to give us some feedback but that hasn’t been very successful. Most of the feedback is just pointing out typos, or tiny errors in semantics, which is helpful but not really comments on how teacher think the content or plans would work (or even if it makes sense to them!) Maybe teachers don’t have the confidence or professional knowledge to comment on them? Some of the Advisory Teachers did send in comments on the content but unfortunately a lot of these showed a lack of understanding of the fundamental concept of integration!
Next comes the ‘National Training’ and as far as I can work out, this is where Alina and I train the Advisory Teachers on how to using the manuals, and then they go on to train the teachers in their regions. So we’re now working on planning and structuring the training although I’m not sure if I, or the manuals, are ready for this but we’re about to find out!
On the lighter side of NIED, the Sports Club, which I’d been hearing about since I arrived suddenly came to life at the end of April to begin training for a competition organised by Ministry of Education where all the Regions (+NIED) compete in Soccer (men only) Netball (women only) and volleyball (mixed). The plan was to train four evenings a week for an hour or so (rather than once or twice a week for the whole year which might have helped with commitment and fitness issues!!) and then head off to Keetmanshoop for week for the competitions. So I joined the ladies to play netball (first time I’d even heard of it beyond ‘Home and Away’) which I was told was a very easy to get the hang of (it wasn’t)
The ‘training’ and organisation of the whole thing was typically haphazard, with a real lack of communication/information, but since I didn’t take it very seriously it didn’t bother me! I went along to get to know some of my colleagues, have a few days away and get a bit of exercise! On these I was successful, although NIED didn’t do terrible well in the competitions (the volleyball team was picked randomly minutes before the first match, didn’t do any training and then wondered why they were hopped off!!) The whole thing did allow me to confirm to myself why sport isn’t really ‘my thing’!
There were quite a few public holidays in May (it’s school holidays for teachers and Learners) so that meant a few long weekends for me. For one I just hung out with Katy and Kev, who were house sitting for the former VSO Namibia director. This turned into a long relaxing lazy 4-day weekend in a Windhoek mansion watching DSTV (a whole series of ‘Friends’ and hours of ‘Come Dine With Me’)
On the last long weekend in May we decided to get away to Luderitz (a lovely quite little harbour town about 1200km south-west of Windhoek) so we hired a car and hit the road. Althoug Most same Europeans wouldn’t consider driving that distance for a weekend, it doesn’t seem to be an issue in Namibia and we did what should have been a 10 hour journey in about 7 as the roads are so straight and good you find yourself doing 160km without even realising it! We spend our few days visiting a mining ‘ghost-town’, drinking beer/rum while watching the sun set on the coast and eating lots of fish but the highlight of the trip was a catamaran trip out into the south Atlantic. We had fantastic weather and saw penguins, flamingos, 2 different types of Whale (Humpback and Southern Right) and lots of dolphins – we even sailed with a whole school of them for a while. It was fantastic!
So between long weekends away or in Windhoek, Sports trips and conferences I’ve hardly been in Okahandja at all this past few weeks. Next week end we’re off for our second Global Educaion weekend in Ngepi (a whole day’s drive north east of here) and then straight to the ‘National Training’ workshop in the Harmony Seminar Centre outside Windhoek for two weeks. Not that I’m complaining...
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Easter In Namibia
My sister Angela and her husband Mike arrived in Namibia just before the Easter break, and I took some extra time off to spend time with them. They claim I was more excited by the contents of their luggage than I was with seeing them (which wasn’t true although they brought me Irish Chocolate, movie magazines, a mini hard-drive full of films/TV shows and some new clothes - well old clothes I hadn’t seen in a while!) It was great to see family but kind of strange to have people from my pre-Namibia life here!
We hired a truck (called a double cab bakkie here) with 2 tents on the roof, loaded it up and headed off for a road trip around the country. After a night in Okahandja (and the grand tour of my ‘little’ house), we went north to Etosha. We stopped off at the Cheetah sanctuary along the way before arriving in Okakojou, where we met up with Katy and Kev (2 other volunteers) and their foreign visitors. We had two days in the park and saw lots of giraffes, antelopes types, hyenas and, just as we were about to leave, a huge bull elephant. It perhaps wasn’t the best time of year to be in the park for animal viewing (the water holes at the camp sites were deserted) but we enjoyed a visit to the muddy salt pan and driving through the wide open spaces.
Next we headed further north to Oshakati to stay with Mignon (yet another volunteer) before venturing further north to the Angolan border. The roads along the Kunene river (which divides Namibia from Angola) from Ruacanna to Ruacanna Falls and on to Epupa were pretty rough and it took all day to cover a relatively short distance(but Mike, being a typical boy, loved the challenge of the tough 4x4 driving)
While in Epupa we visited a traditional Himba village, which wasn’t as uncomfortable as I’d expected. The Himba women and children (the men were all ‘away’) in the village either didn’t put any pass on us or seemed genuinely curious about us. We paid a guide to introduce us (i.e. show us around/translate for us) and brought gifts of food (maize meal, cooking oil, flour, salt, sugar etc) to the village so I guess everyone benefits. I’ve heard of people who had negative experience on ‘traditional village tours’ but we found it quite interesting. The chief’s first wife was very shocked to learn that although I was the older sister I wasn’t married. When I asked her if she would recommend Namibian men she laughed and said that she wouldn’t!
After Epupa we headed south to Opuwo but after sudden heavy rains some the rivers we had to cross were quite high and we had to wait for about an hour for on to go down before we could continue. We travelled on to Twyfelfontain for rock carvings and more spectacular scenery and on to Uis for views of the Branberg mountain. We had a braai almost everynight, which meant careful planning and calculations to buy food (especially in Opuwo, where the supermarket seemed to be out of alot of basics) and get ice and wood, but spending each evening sitting out under the stars with a beer (or wine) in hand was wonderful.
The end of the first week brought us to Swakopmund for 3 nights. There was a sudden change in the temperature (we went from sweating in 35® in the morning to putting on sweatshirts and socks by lunchtime!) After some quadbiking, dune climbing and a visit to Walvis Bay we headed south again to Sesriem. We climbed Dune 45 for sunset and visited Sossusvlei and Dead vlei the next morning (my third time) to take another million photos.
We then headed back to Windhoek to meet up with some other volunteers and a meal out (in an actual restaurant!) and then back to Okahandja for a rest before it was time for Ange and Mike to head home (narrowly avoiding the ash cloud chaos)
It was, of course, very hard to return to work after such a long holiday and going back to being a volunteer and not having any Irish people around (I’ll have to slow down again!)
We hired a truck (called a double cab bakkie here) with 2 tents on the roof, loaded it up and headed off for a road trip around the country. After a night in Okahandja (and the grand tour of my ‘little’ house), we went north to Etosha. We stopped off at the Cheetah sanctuary along the way before arriving in Okakojou, where we met up with Katy and Kev (2 other volunteers) and their foreign visitors. We had two days in the park and saw lots of giraffes, antelopes types, hyenas and, just as we were about to leave, a huge bull elephant. It perhaps wasn’t the best time of year to be in the park for animal viewing (the water holes at the camp sites were deserted) but we enjoyed a visit to the muddy salt pan and driving through the wide open spaces.
Next we headed further north to Oshakati to stay with Mignon (yet another volunteer) before venturing further north to the Angolan border. The roads along the Kunene river (which divides Namibia from Angola) from Ruacanna to Ruacanna Falls and on to Epupa were pretty rough and it took all day to cover a relatively short distance(but Mike, being a typical boy, loved the challenge of the tough 4x4 driving)
While in Epupa we visited a traditional Himba village, which wasn’t as uncomfortable as I’d expected. The Himba women and children (the men were all ‘away’) in the village either didn’t put any pass on us or seemed genuinely curious about us. We paid a guide to introduce us (i.e. show us around/translate for us) and brought gifts of food (maize meal, cooking oil, flour, salt, sugar etc) to the village so I guess everyone benefits. I’ve heard of people who had negative experience on ‘traditional village tours’ but we found it quite interesting. The chief’s first wife was very shocked to learn that although I was the older sister I wasn’t married. When I asked her if she would recommend Namibian men she laughed and said that she wouldn’t!
After Epupa we headed south to Opuwo but after sudden heavy rains some the rivers we had to cross were quite high and we had to wait for about an hour for on to go down before we could continue. We travelled on to Twyfelfontain for rock carvings and more spectacular scenery and on to Uis for views of the Branberg mountain. We had a braai almost everynight, which meant careful planning and calculations to buy food (especially in Opuwo, where the supermarket seemed to be out of alot of basics) and get ice and wood, but spending each evening sitting out under the stars with a beer (or wine) in hand was wonderful.
The end of the first week brought us to Swakopmund for 3 nights. There was a sudden change in the temperature (we went from sweating in 35® in the morning to putting on sweatshirts and socks by lunchtime!) After some quadbiking, dune climbing and a visit to Walvis Bay we headed south again to Sesriem. We climbed Dune 45 for sunset and visited Sossusvlei and Dead vlei the next morning (my third time) to take another million photos.
We then headed back to Windhoek to meet up with some other volunteers and a meal out (in an actual restaurant!) and then back to Okahandja for a rest before it was time for Ange and Mike to head home (narrowly avoiding the ash cloud chaos)
It was, of course, very hard to return to work after such a long holiday and going back to being a volunteer and not having any Irish people around (I’ll have to slow down again!)
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Six Months in!
I’ve just passed the half way point of my placement and suddenly time has begun to fly!
January and early February were a bit tough. It was hard to go back to work after the Christmas break – the January blues can strike even in 30 degree heat of the African summer! January has always been one of my least favourite months and I thought being away and having good weather would change that – it didn’t! The trip to Rundu was a nice break but work was slow and there were no plans to go anywhere as everyone was broke – very like an Irish January really!
By mid February things picked up again. We had lots of birthdays (and therefore parties) and some of the other volunteers came to Okahandja for a weekend (in which a ridiculous amount of alcohol was consumed!) We then spent another weekend making a movie (I sometimes forget how much fun you can have with no money!) we went camping at a local lodge (that had a lovely pool) and I even treated my self to a luxury weekend (I hired a car, did some shopping and had a pedicure!)! The next thing I knew it was March!
Work has gotten busy again (mainly due to a lack of proper forward planning; deadlines that I never heard about just suddenly come up!) We finally finished the grade one version of ‘the bloody manual’ and have sent it out to other Education people to look at it. I also suggested we give it to some actual grade one teachers to see what they thought – this ‘novel’ idea was greeted with enthusiasm. We’ve now started on the grade two version, but this should be much easier as I have a much better idea of what I’m at and what teachers need. Most of March and April will be taken up with devising schemes of work to help grade two teachers plan their teaching.
The maths curriculum still continues to be an issue that I can’t really do anything about except try to convince Alina that it needs a serious review and overhaul sometime in the future! By asking her to use it to come up with a scheme of work for a year she is really starting to see that the curriculum asks far too much of the students. They jump from addition/subtraction in the range of ten (e.g 3+5=8 & 8-4=4) at end of grade one, to addition/subtraction with renaming in the range of 99 (e.g 27+38=65 & 62-37=25) in grade two, with no real work on place value or developing strategies for basic addition or subtraction. And don’t get me started on the fact that they start learning their multiplication tables in the same year! [There’s my rant for the month finished!]
I also did another workshop with local teachers. I picked a bad day so it wasn’t as well attended as the first one but I taught them some action songs and rhymes and gave them cds of the songs when they left which made them very excited! We also had an unexpected trip to Khorixas (in the isolated north west) to do some classroom observations and I got the opportunity to do some more workshops. Again teachers were very enthusiastic but of course it will take more than a workshop for a few hours before they can make any big changes to their teaching. Teachers here need lots of support, continuous reminding /demonstrations/training to build up their skills and confidence before they can really change the way they teach.
The trip to Khorixas was very useful as it continues to build my understanding of what its like in an Namibian classroom and the challenges teachers face. In one school I even got to take over the class and do some teaching! However it was hard to work to play language games with them as they were used to just repeating everything the teacher said as a chorus! It took ages to explain how to play Simon Says. I also met my first scorpion in my accommodation (I’m not sure who was more scared!)
St. Patrick’s Day was pretty strange here as Namibians have only the vaguest idea where Ireland is, and most think its part of the UK (but so do some Europeans I’ve met!) I suppose they are probably about as familiar with it as most Irish are with Namibia! They’ve usually heard of Guinness or U2 or one of our more famous exports and lots had even heard of St. Patricks Day. It was even used as part of a Carlsberg promotion in one city pub (“Go Green on St. Patrick’s Day!”)
To celebrate I wore a green dress on the day, forced some other volunteers to go out for a few drinks (on a Wednesday!) I also ended up teaching some NIED staff how to do some Irish dancing! They picked it up incredibly quickly since almost every African I’ve met are fantastic dancers and singers. They had to perform it as part of a team building exercise that week and, naturally, my team won!
Last Saturday was Independence Day (20 years) here which meant a long weekend (20th -22nd) There were celebrations in the capital and, on Thursday, we went to a cultural song and dance show in the National theatre. For the weekend itself 6 of us hired a combi and hit the road! We travelled 1600km in 3 days taking in ancient rock art, amazing desert scenery, the skeleton coast, ship wrecks, a seal colony and a burnt mountain. There were some difficulties along the way (losing beer to the Atlantic ocean, falling over a disgusting dead seal, almost running out of petrol miles from anywhere, sea mists and some people going stir crazy in a confined space!) but it was a great trip!
So now with only 3 months left in my placement (and 5 months left in Africa) it seems like my ‘year out’ will be over in no time! However my sister and her husband are arriving tomorrow – which means more holidays and travelling so I’m certainly not complaining right now!
January and early February were a bit tough. It was hard to go back to work after the Christmas break – the January blues can strike even in 30 degree heat of the African summer! January has always been one of my least favourite months and I thought being away and having good weather would change that – it didn’t! The trip to Rundu was a nice break but work was slow and there were no plans to go anywhere as everyone was broke – very like an Irish January really!
By mid February things picked up again. We had lots of birthdays (and therefore parties) and some of the other volunteers came to Okahandja for a weekend (in which a ridiculous amount of alcohol was consumed!) We then spent another weekend making a movie (I sometimes forget how much fun you can have with no money!) we went camping at a local lodge (that had a lovely pool) and I even treated my self to a luxury weekend (I hired a car, did some shopping and had a pedicure!)! The next thing I knew it was March!
Work has gotten busy again (mainly due to a lack of proper forward planning; deadlines that I never heard about just suddenly come up!) We finally finished the grade one version of ‘the bloody manual’ and have sent it out to other Education people to look at it. I also suggested we give it to some actual grade one teachers to see what they thought – this ‘novel’ idea was greeted with enthusiasm. We’ve now started on the grade two version, but this should be much easier as I have a much better idea of what I’m at and what teachers need. Most of March and April will be taken up with devising schemes of work to help grade two teachers plan their teaching.
The maths curriculum still continues to be an issue that I can’t really do anything about except try to convince Alina that it needs a serious review and overhaul sometime in the future! By asking her to use it to come up with a scheme of work for a year she is really starting to see that the curriculum asks far too much of the students. They jump from addition/subtraction in the range of ten (e.g 3+5=8 & 8-4=4) at end of grade one, to addition/subtraction with renaming in the range of 99 (e.g 27+38=65 & 62-37=25) in grade two, with no real work on place value or developing strategies for basic addition or subtraction. And don’t get me started on the fact that they start learning their multiplication tables in the same year! [There’s my rant for the month finished!]
I also did another workshop with local teachers. I picked a bad day so it wasn’t as well attended as the first one but I taught them some action songs and rhymes and gave them cds of the songs when they left which made them very excited! We also had an unexpected trip to Khorixas (in the isolated north west) to do some classroom observations and I got the opportunity to do some more workshops. Again teachers were very enthusiastic but of course it will take more than a workshop for a few hours before they can make any big changes to their teaching. Teachers here need lots of support, continuous reminding /demonstrations/training to build up their skills and confidence before they can really change the way they teach.
The trip to Khorixas was very useful as it continues to build my understanding of what its like in an Namibian classroom and the challenges teachers face. In one school I even got to take over the class and do some teaching! However it was hard to work to play language games with them as they were used to just repeating everything the teacher said as a chorus! It took ages to explain how to play Simon Says. I also met my first scorpion in my accommodation (I’m not sure who was more scared!)
St. Patrick’s Day was pretty strange here as Namibians have only the vaguest idea where Ireland is, and most think its part of the UK (but so do some Europeans I’ve met!) I suppose they are probably about as familiar with it as most Irish are with Namibia! They’ve usually heard of Guinness or U2 or one of our more famous exports and lots had even heard of St. Patricks Day. It was even used as part of a Carlsberg promotion in one city pub (“Go Green on St. Patrick’s Day!”)
To celebrate I wore a green dress on the day, forced some other volunteers to go out for a few drinks (on a Wednesday!) I also ended up teaching some NIED staff how to do some Irish dancing! They picked it up incredibly quickly since almost every African I’ve met are fantastic dancers and singers. They had to perform it as part of a team building exercise that week and, naturally, my team won!
Last Saturday was Independence Day (20 years) here which meant a long weekend (20th -22nd) There were celebrations in the capital and, on Thursday, we went to a cultural song and dance show in the National theatre. For the weekend itself 6 of us hired a combi and hit the road! We travelled 1600km in 3 days taking in ancient rock art, amazing desert scenery, the skeleton coast, ship wrecks, a seal colony and a burnt mountain. There were some difficulties along the way (losing beer to the Atlantic ocean, falling over a disgusting dead seal, almost running out of petrol miles from anywhere, sea mists and some people going stir crazy in a confined space!) but it was a great trip!
So now with only 3 months left in my placement (and 5 months left in Africa) it seems like my ‘year out’ will be over in no time! However my sister and her husband are arriving tomorrow – which means more holidays and travelling so I’m certainly not complaining right now!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Rundu in January!
Rundu and Education in Kavango.
After 4 months hidden away at NIED, I decided it was time to actually see ‘the real Namibia’ and head north so I convinced my employers to let me off on a field trip to Rundu. The majority of Namibia’s population live in the north of the country along the fertile strip of land near the border with Angola. Its also where the poorest people of Namibia live.
I got a lift in a truck delivering pre-primary materials and as we drove the 700km north, the countryside changed dramatically. The brown scrub land and rock became brown/red soil and green veld with trees. Crops were growing in fields and animals were eating grass. Long, empty, and impossibly straight roads, where we passed through 3 tiny towns in 5 hours, gave way to numerous villages and settlements full of life and people and goats (one even lost its life under our truck when it changed its mind just as it got across the road and dashed back the way it came!) Once we crossed ‘the red line’ it was almost like being in a different country.
The weather in Rundu is rather a bit hotter than my home in central Namibia and receives a good bit more rain. Apparently you get used to it, but not in the space of a few days and I admit to remarking on the heat rather frequently – and was told that it was quite cool compared to last week/month! There were also sudden, heavy but short showers as we’re coming into wet season.
My purpose in Rundu (apart from getting out of NIED and travelling a bit) was to meet with the Education Volunteers there and get an impression of life, schools and education in the Kavango region. I stayed with Jelda (another Sept 09 Vol like me) and her house mate Karin, an Inclusive Education advisor who’d been there over a year. I also met with other education volunteers from Interteam (a Swiss group)
Everyone was incredible nice and eager to bring me along as they did their jobs.
On Wednesday I got visit a large town primary school on the first day of term – which was chaos. There was a staff meeting at 6.40 and school began at 7.10 with the principal introducing the staff and making a long speech. Then parents queued to pay the registration fees (a complicated process of form filling and receipt writing that was supposed to be done on Monday and Tuesday) or collect last year’s report so their child would know if they had passed and what class they were in now (all fees had to be up to date before they could get this). Teachers tried to track down their timetables, class lists, book lists and get hold of enough furniture for their classes. All the while the 1200 students wandered around, no real messing just hanging around. No one seemed too worried or surprised by this lack of organisation. I was told most classes wouldn’t get started until the following Monday.
The school facilities were quite good but they had problems with maintenance and toilets. They had recently gotten flush toilets but the children didn’t know how to use them properly and they soon got clogged with leaves and grass and twigs been thrown in (instead of toilet paper) Then they trained all the kids to use the toilets (even though some were still a bit suspicious) but soon ran out of toilet paper again and the kids began to use old plastic bags (since they knew they shouldn’t use leaves and twigs) which caused worse problems. They are still working on that but have also constructed some ‘drop’ or ‘dry’ toilets to use as well.
In the afternoon I met with 2 of the local Advisory Teachers with regards to what they saw as the education challenges of the region (and what they feel NIED should be doing!) It was a very interesting discussion (although the meeting was over an hour late to start) and gave me some good input on the needs of the region (more training, follow-up training, language training and transport to provide training being the reoccurring themes!) Most of what I had worked out for myself held true but it was good to have it confirmed!
On Thursday I visited some of the nearby rural schools. For the first one we drove along a twisty rutted sand track and then parked at the edge of the village and walked the last bit on foot (the last bit of the sand track was too deep for the car) The village huts were made of mud and straw and arranged in groups with a reed or wooden fence around them. Women were sitting under trees washing clothes, cooking, grinding maize/pap or just chatting. Some of them called out to Karin in the local language (the sequence of greeting is long and complex and seems to involve repeating ‘ehh’ alot!)
The school had 4 classes. We visited the principal first, who was filling in his roll books, while his class just sat there (they were still doing that when we left an hour later) One of the teachers was out sick so her class were just sitting there too. Another was teaching but had 40 learners and only 20 seats and about 12 desks. They were all piled in, sharing desks and chairs while in the corner of the classroom was a large heap of broken desks and bits of chairs that unfortunately they didn’t have the materials, tools or skills to fix. The last teacher invited us to see a lesson she had prepared, which was very good (she played games using flash cards made out of old cardboard boxes and chalk to draw boxes on the cement floor) She was really keen for feedback and tips to improve. The kids, especially the girls, were a bit shy about playing games - not used to it and afraid of making a mistakes.
The next school was bigger and still sorting out classes and books, as they had a new, very young and inexperienced acting principal (it quite had to get staff for the rural regions) The last and most remote school had serious problems. Like the other 2 they had no electricity or running water but this school didn’t have any kind of toilets (the kids just went in the bush)they had temporary classrooms (built of straw and reeds) large classes (one had 72) and some serious staffing issues (the principal was a non-functioning alcoholic who didn’t really speak English!)
All that sounds very bleak but I also met some wonderfully friendly teachers doing their best with what they had and eager to learn and improve. Karin has been working with many of them over the past year and finds most of them want to develop their skills, even if the progress is slow and hard won. The children in all of the schools were remarkably well behaved (no messing if the teacher wasn’t in the room!) enthusiastic, welcoming and cheerful!
On Friday I also got to visit one of the ‘special’ classes for the hearing impaired. There are a high number of children with hearing impairments as childhood ear infections often go untreated and lead to serious hearing loss. This class is a recent development and they are working still on getting funding and specially trained teachers. There are over 60 children in it (it’s attached to one of the more advantaged schools in Rundu) ranging in age from 7 to their mid-teens. At the moment they are all in one class but the staff and volunteers have gotten the ok to hire more teachers and carers (as the children live in a hostel attached to the school)
The provision for SEN in Namibia at the moment is pretty poor – not surprising considering the challenges in providing quality education to the non-SEN. There are no learning support teachers, the teachers have huge classes and little time or ability to provide for the learning needs of the less able. Children who fail to pass a grade must repeat it (sometimes more than once and with no help to overcome their difficulties) Unfortunately for those with SEN, even of the mildest kind, there is little provision at present. There is an official government policy of ‘inclusion’ and an aim ‘to provide education for all’ Strategies to tackle the issue are being formed but the facility to provide help on the ground is, so far, non-existent.
Apart from Education matters in Rundu, I also got to see a bit of the town and area as well as getting to know some of the Northern volunteers. We had pizza in the Omshare lodge (while looking at Angola across the river) and had a pancake night with some of the volunteers and their friends. We had a movie afternoon (when it rained) ate/drank ice-coffees and I even bought a bike at the ‘House of Love’ (a second hand bike and repair shop ) I shopped in a huge Shoprite (much better than Okahandja) and lived the life of a Rundu volunteer for a week. I also took alot of showers and slept with the fan on to survive the sweaty heat!
After 4 months hidden away at NIED, I decided it was time to actually see ‘the real Namibia’ and head north so I convinced my employers to let me off on a field trip to Rundu. The majority of Namibia’s population live in the north of the country along the fertile strip of land near the border with Angola. Its also where the poorest people of Namibia live.
I got a lift in a truck delivering pre-primary materials and as we drove the 700km north, the countryside changed dramatically. The brown scrub land and rock became brown/red soil and green veld with trees. Crops were growing in fields and animals were eating grass. Long, empty, and impossibly straight roads, where we passed through 3 tiny towns in 5 hours, gave way to numerous villages and settlements full of life and people and goats (one even lost its life under our truck when it changed its mind just as it got across the road and dashed back the way it came!) Once we crossed ‘the red line’ it was almost like being in a different country.
The weather in Rundu is rather a bit hotter than my home in central Namibia and receives a good bit more rain. Apparently you get used to it, but not in the space of a few days and I admit to remarking on the heat rather frequently – and was told that it was quite cool compared to last week/month! There were also sudden, heavy but short showers as we’re coming into wet season.
My purpose in Rundu (apart from getting out of NIED and travelling a bit) was to meet with the Education Volunteers there and get an impression of life, schools and education in the Kavango region. I stayed with Jelda (another Sept 09 Vol like me) and her house mate Karin, an Inclusive Education advisor who’d been there over a year. I also met with other education volunteers from Interteam (a Swiss group)
Everyone was incredible nice and eager to bring me along as they did their jobs.
On Wednesday I got visit a large town primary school on the first day of term – which was chaos. There was a staff meeting at 6.40 and school began at 7.10 with the principal introducing the staff and making a long speech. Then parents queued to pay the registration fees (a complicated process of form filling and receipt writing that was supposed to be done on Monday and Tuesday) or collect last year’s report so their child would know if they had passed and what class they were in now (all fees had to be up to date before they could get this). Teachers tried to track down their timetables, class lists, book lists and get hold of enough furniture for their classes. All the while the 1200 students wandered around, no real messing just hanging around. No one seemed too worried or surprised by this lack of organisation. I was told most classes wouldn’t get started until the following Monday.
The school facilities were quite good but they had problems with maintenance and toilets. They had recently gotten flush toilets but the children didn’t know how to use them properly and they soon got clogged with leaves and grass and twigs been thrown in (instead of toilet paper) Then they trained all the kids to use the toilets (even though some were still a bit suspicious) but soon ran out of toilet paper again and the kids began to use old plastic bags (since they knew they shouldn’t use leaves and twigs) which caused worse problems. They are still working on that but have also constructed some ‘drop’ or ‘dry’ toilets to use as well.
In the afternoon I met with 2 of the local Advisory Teachers with regards to what they saw as the education challenges of the region (and what they feel NIED should be doing!) It was a very interesting discussion (although the meeting was over an hour late to start) and gave me some good input on the needs of the region (more training, follow-up training, language training and transport to provide training being the reoccurring themes!) Most of what I had worked out for myself held true but it was good to have it confirmed!
On Thursday I visited some of the nearby rural schools. For the first one we drove along a twisty rutted sand track and then parked at the edge of the village and walked the last bit on foot (the last bit of the sand track was too deep for the car) The village huts were made of mud and straw and arranged in groups with a reed or wooden fence around them. Women were sitting under trees washing clothes, cooking, grinding maize/pap or just chatting. Some of them called out to Karin in the local language (the sequence of greeting is long and complex and seems to involve repeating ‘ehh’ alot!)
The school had 4 classes. We visited the principal first, who was filling in his roll books, while his class just sat there (they were still doing that when we left an hour later) One of the teachers was out sick so her class were just sitting there too. Another was teaching but had 40 learners and only 20 seats and about 12 desks. They were all piled in, sharing desks and chairs while in the corner of the classroom was a large heap of broken desks and bits of chairs that unfortunately they didn’t have the materials, tools or skills to fix. The last teacher invited us to see a lesson she had prepared, which was very good (she played games using flash cards made out of old cardboard boxes and chalk to draw boxes on the cement floor) She was really keen for feedback and tips to improve. The kids, especially the girls, were a bit shy about playing games - not used to it and afraid of making a mistakes.
The next school was bigger and still sorting out classes and books, as they had a new, very young and inexperienced acting principal (it quite had to get staff for the rural regions) The last and most remote school had serious problems. Like the other 2 they had no electricity or running water but this school didn’t have any kind of toilets (the kids just went in the bush)they had temporary classrooms (built of straw and reeds) large classes (one had 72) and some serious staffing issues (the principal was a non-functioning alcoholic who didn’t really speak English!)
All that sounds very bleak but I also met some wonderfully friendly teachers doing their best with what they had and eager to learn and improve. Karin has been working with many of them over the past year and finds most of them want to develop their skills, even if the progress is slow and hard won. The children in all of the schools were remarkably well behaved (no messing if the teacher wasn’t in the room!) enthusiastic, welcoming and cheerful!
On Friday I also got to visit one of the ‘special’ classes for the hearing impaired. There are a high number of children with hearing impairments as childhood ear infections often go untreated and lead to serious hearing loss. This class is a recent development and they are working still on getting funding and specially trained teachers. There are over 60 children in it (it’s attached to one of the more advantaged schools in Rundu) ranging in age from 7 to their mid-teens. At the moment they are all in one class but the staff and volunteers have gotten the ok to hire more teachers and carers (as the children live in a hostel attached to the school)
The provision for SEN in Namibia at the moment is pretty poor – not surprising considering the challenges in providing quality education to the non-SEN. There are no learning support teachers, the teachers have huge classes and little time or ability to provide for the learning needs of the less able. Children who fail to pass a grade must repeat it (sometimes more than once and with no help to overcome their difficulties) Unfortunately for those with SEN, even of the mildest kind, there is little provision at present. There is an official government policy of ‘inclusion’ and an aim ‘to provide education for all’ Strategies to tackle the issue are being formed but the facility to provide help on the ground is, so far, non-existent.
Apart from Education matters in Rundu, I also got to see a bit of the town and area as well as getting to know some of the Northern volunteers. We had pizza in the Omshare lodge (while looking at Angola across the river) and had a pancake night with some of the volunteers and their friends. We had a movie afternoon (when it rained) ate/drank ice-coffees and I even bought a bike at the ‘House of Love’ (a second hand bike and repair shop ) I shopped in a huge Shoprite (much better than Okahandja) and lived the life of a Rundu volunteer for a week. I also took alot of showers and slept with the fan on to survive the sweaty heat!
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Food and Drink in Namibia
Food and drink here in Namibia, perhaps southern Africa in general, isn’t terribly exotic. It’s not like traveling in South America or Asia, where the food is an experience in itself. There isn’t really such a thing as Namibia food. I can get most of the foods I’m used to in Ireland in the city supermarkets – even if there is far less variety. The restaurants are mainly fast food or European (Italian and Steak Houses being particularly popular) with a few Indians thrown in! In fact I’m not sure if there is such a thing as a Namibian or traditional African restaurant in Windhoek!
Meat is the staple of the Namibians diet. Boy, do they love their meat! A Namibian meal, especially a braai (which is basically a barbeque) often consists solely of different types of meat. Some Namibians (especially those with European influences) might also include something along the lines of bread, some veg or salad, but otherwise its just meat! They might have lamb/mutton chops, pieces of beef steak, boreworst (kind of long fat sausages made from different types of meat) and even some game meat (orynx, zebra, springbok etc.)
Claiming to be a vegetarian would probably lead to being viewed with some suspicion (and then you’d be offered some chicken or fish!) However the meat here is good and cheap. It is easy to find steak in a restaurant (a massive slab of beef - cooked to your tastes) for under E10. They are also big fans of biltong (strips of raw dried meat, often flavoured with chillie) and I’ve seen a woman in a taxi munching on a packet of cold hot dogs/frankfurters.
The other staple food, especially for the poor, is pap – a white, rather tasteless porridge made from ground maize meal and mahangu. It is served with all kinds of meats and stews and is usually eaten by taking some and molding it into a ball with your fingers and then dripping it in what every sauce or gravy is available.
They also have a sweet tooth but not so much for snacks (since they prefer meat!) but in drinks! Most Namibians I’ve met put between 5 and 7 spoons of sugar in a cup of tea or coffee! The also put coke in their red wine!
With regards to alcohol, beer is probably the most popular drink, ‘Windhoek’ and ‘Tafel’ being the most readily available. You can get foreign beers (Carlsberg, Bud etc. if you a willing to pay a bit more!) A bottle of beer ranges in cost from 50c in the supermarket to E1.20 in a nightclub. Wine is fairly popular – almost always imported from South Africa (you can buy it in 5 litre boxes - for about E5) There are of course local liquors, some illegal (available in poorer areas in the small shack-like pubs called Sheebeens) and mostly pretty lethal!
That's not to say that I haven't had some delicious meals here - I just don't think I'll be developing an african cooking style (even if I had one)
Meat is the staple of the Namibians diet. Boy, do they love their meat! A Namibian meal, especially a braai (which is basically a barbeque) often consists solely of different types of meat. Some Namibians (especially those with European influences) might also include something along the lines of bread, some veg or salad, but otherwise its just meat! They might have lamb/mutton chops, pieces of beef steak, boreworst (kind of long fat sausages made from different types of meat) and even some game meat (orynx, zebra, springbok etc.)
Claiming to be a vegetarian would probably lead to being viewed with some suspicion (and then you’d be offered some chicken or fish!) However the meat here is good and cheap. It is easy to find steak in a restaurant (a massive slab of beef - cooked to your tastes) for under E10. They are also big fans of biltong (strips of raw dried meat, often flavoured with chillie) and I’ve seen a woman in a taxi munching on a packet of cold hot dogs/frankfurters.
The other staple food, especially for the poor, is pap – a white, rather tasteless porridge made from ground maize meal and mahangu. It is served with all kinds of meats and stews and is usually eaten by taking some and molding it into a ball with your fingers and then dripping it in what every sauce or gravy is available.
They also have a sweet tooth but not so much for snacks (since they prefer meat!) but in drinks! Most Namibians I’ve met put between 5 and 7 spoons of sugar in a cup of tea or coffee! The also put coke in their red wine!
With regards to alcohol, beer is probably the most popular drink, ‘Windhoek’ and ‘Tafel’ being the most readily available. You can get foreign beers (Carlsberg, Bud etc. if you a willing to pay a bit more!) A bottle of beer ranges in cost from 50c in the supermarket to E1.20 in a nightclub. Wine is fairly popular – almost always imported from South Africa (you can buy it in 5 litre boxes - for about E5) There are of course local liquors, some illegal (available in poorer areas in the small shack-like pubs called Sheebeens) and mostly pretty lethal!
That's not to say that I haven't had some delicious meals here - I just don't think I'll be developing an african cooking style (even if I had one)
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