Suz in Nam

Trip in Southern Africa Jul/Aug 2010

2010-08-24T10:44:00.000-07:00

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!

The End is Nigh!

2010-07-01T12:19:00.001-07:00

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!

April and May

2010-07-01T10:32:00.000-07:00

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...

Easter In Namibia

2010-05-18T05:22:00.000-07:00

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!)

Six Months in!

2010-03-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

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!

Rundu in January!

2010-03-23T23:52:00.000-07:00

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!

Food and Drink in Namibia

2010-02-23T05:56:00.000-08:00

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)

Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya (Dec ‘09/Jan ’10)

2010-01-29T01:43:00.000-08:00

I had a great trip in East Africa over my Christmas break. Since internet access was going to be scarce during the trip I decided to try to survive for 2 whole weeks without a computer or phone and without even trying to find an internet connection. I managed just about! I kept a semi-regular travel journal which I’ve now typed up to form a (very long) blog about my trip.

Kigali, Rwanda. Sat. 19th December 2009
My trip to East Africa got of to a rather uncertain start when, on arriving in Jo’burg from the short flight from Windhoek, I discovered that the AirRwanda flight to Kigali had been canceled. It had been cancelled for over a month, although no one had thought to inform me, but I soon discovered that Kenya Air had taken over the AirRwanda flights. However the replacement flights (which would bring me there via Nairobi) weren’t leaving until the next day but I didn’t even get time to be concerned before I was whisked away to a complementary airport hotel (with a pool and DSTV) given meal vouchers (delicious all-you-eat buffets for both dinner and breakfast) and even rang ImTrav to sort out my airport transfer for when I arrived. The only down side was that I had no bags (since they were checked and currently MIA) but there wasn’t much I could do until the morning. I was discouraged from heading into downtown Jo’burg (more from the price of the taxi – US$25 – than from the dire warnings and horror stories of fellow travelers) and made use of the newly developed shops back at the airport (RSA has World Cup fever and whole chunks are being dug up and made over)
After a comfortable night and a hearty breakfast I headed back to the airport to track down my bags before my flights. I spent an hour sitting around and ignoring vague assurances the bags would be fine until I met a nice copped-on Kenya Air lady who tracked them down sent a guy to find them and check them on. She also told me to check on them before I boarded the flight, I did, and thankfully it all worked out and my bag made it Kigali on the same flight as me! The flight was delayed a few hours (naturally) and got in late to Nairobi (which was chaos) but I made my connection (a tiny twin engine plane about the size of a bus) and was picked up in Kigali and brought to my accommodation.
It’s late, and dark and I’ve missed out on my day in Kigali but at least me and my luggage are here in one piece. Tomorrow I meet the group who will be my travel buddies for the next 2 weeks!

Ruhengeri, Rwanda. Sun. 20th December 2009
Early this morning after a quick breakfast we loaded ourselves onto the bright orange Gecko’s overland truck (while attempting introductions) and set off the first day of our trip.
Kigali is a fairly small city (pop.700,000, 10 million in the country) and seems to based around a collection of hills. It has modern western style houses and clusters of small shack-like structures, mixing typical African and Western or European influences, but I didn’t get to see too much of the capital city. French is the prevailing European language and after the emptiness of central Namibia is seems quite crowed.
Its not as westernized as Windhoek but is a very clean. We were told that one Saturday each month is set aside as ‘cleaning day’ when the whole population spends time tidying and cleaning their streets, homes and places of work. They plant trees, paint walls, pick up litter and repair damages. Even the Prime Minister gets invloved and there are fines and punishments for those who don’t help out!
Our first stop was the Genocide Memorial Museum, built both to commemorate and inform visitors and residents about Rwanda’s harrowing and horrifying recent history. The grounds contain the mass graves of 250,000 of the victims of the 1994 genocide. There are many more all over the country (over 1 million were killed) but some bodies may never be recovered. Inside the building there is a very well laid out and revealing display, using text, photos and videos, to try and explain and chronicle the 100 days of unimaginable brutality and hatred. There was a heartbreaking memorial to some of the children who were killed and a section comparing it to other instances of recent genocide. The location and design of the memorial meant it wasn’t as chilling or immediate as a visit to Auswitz in Poland or the S-21 prison in Cambodia but the fact that it happened so recently made it somehow more unsettling, and begging the question how can it keep happening? A very somber start to the day and the trip.
After lunch we had a chance to go to a tiny supermarket (for snacks and essential supplies – toilet roll and for-ex!) I had some money issues, as the visa for Rwanda cost US$60 and used up most of my spare US dollars, and ATMs here don’t take international credit cards but I changed the last of my euro into local currency (the Rwandan franc; 1US$ = RFr 500) which will keep me going.
Then we headed for the hills! A 2 hour drive along steep, narrow curving roads to R?? at the edge of the volcanic mountains and jungle on the border with Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We were upgraded to dorms tonight (which saves the hassle of putting up a tent for one night) and finally got around to official introductions at dinnertime. There are 3 crew; Chris, the guide, Eunice, the cook and (magic) Johnson, the driver - all from Kenya. There are 17 in the group, 12 from Australia, 3 from the UK, one from the Netherlands and me. There is an uneven number and I’m the odd one out (there are 4 couples, 2 girls and 2 guys travelling together, which leaves 2 single guys and 3 single girls – but the other 2 have already paired up!) Everyone seems friendly enough and I’m sure I’ll find out more as we go! We went to the bar for a few drinks (Primus beer) in the evening but as we’re an early start we all went to bed fairly early.

Kisoro, Uganda 21st Dec 2009
Today was an early start and a long day but the gorilla trek was worth every bit of strain! We arrived at the HQ of the Parc National des Volcans in the Rwandan Virungas (volcanic mountains) at around 7am and were divided into groups of 6-8. Only 7 families of gorillas are habitualised to humans and can be visited and only 8 can visit each group in a day – which is what make the permits so hard to get and therefore expensive (US$500). Our group (2 girls, 5 guys, a guide, a trainee guide and an armed escort!) were off to see the Umbango family group, under the care of a silverback called Charles!.
It was a cool day (perfect for trekking, esp with long sleves, long combats and runners!) and even before we started the scenery was amazing. In the morning there were picturesque cone shaped mountains , some partially covered in jungle, rising out of the mist. We first drove to the foot of the mountain (well bumped over a rocky, rutted path of sorts in a range Rover) then walked across some village farm land (where they were growing potatoes, maize and what looked like daisies for making insecticides) After climbing a wall we were in the park and on our trek. We walked along steep narrow paths in single file up the side of the Volcano. I had to go first as the guide decided I was the slowest ( I really must get fit one of these days!) but everyone was happy to stop often for a rest and drink. The first hour or so was hard going but not too uncomfortable. Then we got into tougher territory with giant stinging nettles (that stung through my long sleeved t-shirt) but kept going. After 2 ½ hours I was getting really tired and wonder if I’d ever get to see them. The gorillas are constantly followed by trackers that move with them as they munch their way across the mountain. The gorillas make nests at dusk and sleep so the trackers leave them but are back at dawn the next day to continue following them and relay their movements to the guides with walkie talkies. It is still a job to find them and you can never tell exactly how long it will take.
This was proven for us when, just as we arrived in the area where the tracker said they were, only to catch a glimpse of black, as the family suddenly decided to move and we had to scramble up a steep muddy bamboo and bush covered mountain side to follow them. After several minutes of scrambling about on rocks and mud and jungle plants we rounded some bushes and there were two gorillas lying only a few metres away, one chewing on a bit of a tree, the other sprawled in the sun!
In the course of the hour we spent with them we got even closer. We saw a mother cradling her cute little baby, only a few months old, and trying to put manners on him when he wanted run off. We saw adolescents playing and climbing and hanging out, We saw an older female napping by a tree, looking for all the world like an old woman, we saw Mr. Star a blackback tearing through the jungle and making the trees shake, we saw the family lying in the sun for a while grooming each other and we saw Mr. Charles the huge silverback, who made a charge at us when we got a bit close. Gorillas are peaceful vegetarians but have vicious teeth, are very strong and territorial? One of the guides got too close to a mother and baby which caused her to charge too: we very sensibly backed up... quickly! It was amazing; we got within metres of them (sometimes nearly falling down the side of the mountain), took tons of photos, marveled at how human they appear and the time flew by.
The trek down only took only 1 ½ hours and was much easier since we were heading down hill. We were the last group back to the campsite, since the other gorilla families were closer that day. We left straight away to make it across the Ugandan border before it shut.
We stopped at a camp site in Kisoro, where I paid US$4 for a upgrade to a dorm (which I had all to myself) since it was almost dark and we were leaving again in the morning. There was no bar (or at least no cold drinks) so after a hot shower and dinner I went to bed

Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda 23rd Dec 2009
Yesterday morning we left early to drive across south eastern Uganda, on good and bad roads, to Queen Elizabeth National Park. The views, especially some of the small lakes in the morning mist, were lovely. Uganda is also quite hilly and very green with crop growing on every plant-able surface. The steep hills terraced and planted with potatoes, maize, Kasava and bananas reminding me a little of parts of south east Aisa.
We stopped in the town of Kabale to stock up on essentials (mostly snacks and alcohol) and go to go to an ATM (which worked) to get some Ugandan schillings (US$1 = UsH 2000 – too many zeros for me!) We stopped by the side of the road (with an audience of locals) to prepare and eat our lunch of sandwiches and arrived in the park in around 3pm. The Park was once very famous and full of a wide variety of animals but is now trying to recover from losing a lot of animals during the fighting in the 70s. We arrived at our camp site near the shores of the Kazingo Channel and put up our tents (first time this trip for me!)
After dinner I opened a box of wine I’d bought in a messy supermarket earlier and some of stayed up around the camp fire. A lot still seemed to head off to bed early but some stayed up!
Today was spent in Queen Elizabeth National Park; we had a safari drive in the morning and a both trip on Lake Edward in the afternoon. A families of elephants crossed right in front of our truck and seemed a little nervous of us – which is unusual compared to other African national parks I’ve been to –still wary of humans even though its almost 30 years since they were hunted by both malicious and hungry soldiers. It must be true that elephants have long memories. We also saw giraffes and risked a fine going off road to see some young male lions lazing about. We spotted lots of antelope/deer type animals including the Ugandan Kob who looks alot like all the other antelopes (but I tend to get the gazelle/kudu/Oryx/hartebeest/waterbucks etc. mixed up!) On the boat trip we got quite close to hippos, buffalos, crocs and lots of birds. There were some local fishing on the river but through conservation programmes they don’t hunt the animals instead benefitting from the tourism that they bring.
Red Chilli Hideaway, Kampala, Uganda. Thurs 24th December 2009
It’s Christmas Eve and I’m last one to bed again! A few of us (3 of us and Chris the guide) stayed up to have a Christmas drink and play pool. I’m in a room again - it was drizzling when we arrived and putting up a tent didn’t seem worth the effort for a night.
Today was mostly a travel day, crossing Uganda to the capital. It seems a large and modern capital although we more or less skirted the city to our campsite on the outskirts. Like Rwanda, I really will have to come back and see the place properly!

Jinja, Uganda. Saturday 26th December 2009
Had an extremely relaxing Christmas in the delightful town of Jinja – not that I honestly saw much beyond ‘Adrift Bar’ at our campsite!
We left Kampala in the morning (some brave soles having headed off to do some whitewater rafting) to stopping to do some shopping for our Chrismas dinner. We stopped at an animal market to get a goat (no turkeys for traditional festive dinner here!) but they were sold out, it being Christmas morning and all, so we bought a sheep, which they cleaned and butchered for us. We then bought lots of fruit, alcohol and decorations from market stalls and mini supermarkets!
After a quick lunch of sandwiches I helped out making the punch (I’m better with drink than with food) by chopping up fruit (papaya, mango, pineapple, watermelon and peach) and putting it and a load of alcohol (including, but not limited to gin, whiskey, vodka and sparkling wine!) into a clean cool box. A quick stir and let it settle and we had a delicious Christmas punch! We spent the rest of the day drinking it and in the afternoon had the roast sheep with lots of veg, which was nice too! There was also sheep’s head soup – great for a hangover I’m told – but I passed as I didn’t have one and it smelt awful!
Christmas night was spent in the campsite bar, having switched to beer when the punch ran out! The Adrift bar (same name as the campsite and white water rafting company based there) was perched on rocks overlooking the rapids of the Nile, shortly after it had flowed out of Lake Victoria) and had a large wooden deck under a reed roof and lots of comfy sofas. I was last to bed – which is becoming a habit, but it was barley midnight!
‘Stephen’s Day was spent in much the same way as Christmas night. There was the option of painting walls in a local orphanage in the morning and quad bike riding in the afternoon but I decided I was on holidays from volunteer work and felt like having a thoroughly lazy day off! So I sprawled my self on the squashy sofas ate chips, drank beer and just hung out all day reading and chatting to the other like-minded travelers.

Kericho, Kenya Sunday 27th December 2009
Left Jinja early this morning and crossed into Kenya by the Busia border crossing (supposedly one of the busiest in East Africa but fairly quiet today.) We paid our US$25 dollar vias fee and had our yellow fever vaccination certs checked.
We’re staying at the Tea Hotel, and as we could see as we drove into the district, this area produces quite a lot of tea! This hotel has quite a colonial feel to it and we had afternoon tea in the hotel to sample the ambiance! We also ordered fruit cake – which turned out to be a huge hunk of dry maderia cake with about one rasin in it! The tea however was delicious! They are big fans of their chai here in Kenya.
It was pretty wet this morning – we had a few showers in Kampala and Jinja but nothing major and it was still warm – and absolutely poured this afternoon and evening. I’m actually cold today and it’s the first time I’ve put on my runners, combats and fleece due to the weather in months. We ate our dinner in two sheds tonight (one for the cooking and one with our camp chairs set out for eating) The hotel bar was pretty quiet, and the lads were soon engrossed in some soccer match so I decided to have a hot shower and early night (I’ve paid an upgrade for room again - camping isn’t any fun in the rain!) but there was no hot water but at least the bed has lots of warm blankets!

East Africa Mission Orphanage, Nakuru, Kenya. Tues. 29th December 2009
On Monday morning we had a tour of the tea plantation and learned all about how tea is grown and harvested (eg tea bushes can live to be 45 years old, tea is made from the green tips which are picked every 2-3 weeks by ‘pickers’ that can pick up to 60kg of leaves a day!)
We then travelled on to the East Africa Mission Orphanage near the town of Nakuru and had a tour of the Orphanage by its Aussie owner Ralph. He explained how he and his wife moved to Africa with their family over 15 years ago and after a time decided to foster 2 orphans. This became 3, and then 5, and then 10 - after which they decided to open a small orphanage. But the number continued to grow and they now find themselves running an orphanage of over 170 kids, with 30 staff. They moved from temporary accommodation 10 years ago to their present location, a 50 acre site purchased by Ralph and which is still evolving. I was actually kind of surprised to see that it seemed like a wonderful place with genuinely happy kids and relaxed staff. Compared to many orphans in Kenya, these children would appear to be lucky. They have their own bed, 3 healthy meals a day, a school on site and even some toys and new clothes. There seemed to be a family feel to the place, with the older ones helping the younger ones, like brothers and sisters. The children range in age from a few months to about 14 or 15.
Ralph seems very innovative and pro-active, constantly fundraising to keep the place running and improve the building and facilities (they recently opened a new girls’ dorm built by Canadian sponsors and he plans to turn the old dorm into proper classrooms to replace the wooden sheds they’ve been using) He is also looking for new ways of developing the orphanage such as planting their own vegetable garden and a flower farm (which as well as food and money – flowers are a growing cash crop in Kenya - will also provide potential employment for some of the children as they grow older.) He joked with kids (who all call him ‘Dad’) and staff, as he chatted to us, answering all questions with a typical Aussie straight-forward frankness. He never tried to ‘sell’ the project to us (although we were, of course, potential donors) and we never got that guilty, uncomfortable feeling you sometimes get when you visit charities.
We ate dinner with kids, each of the group ‘adopted’ by one of the orphans who made it their job to ‘mind’ us and show us around. Geckos bring tour groups there every few weeks so all of the kids get a chance to be tour guide if they want. I was adopted by 6 year old Suzy who was very shy but well able to fight her corner if anyone else tried to hold my hand. She was also fascinated with some balloons that were in the truck (left over from Christmas.) After dinner there were prayers and singing before we settled down to watch ‘Garfield: The Movie’. It was very relaxed with little kids coming and going and climbing onto your lap. As their various bedtimes arrived the younger kids were shepherded off to bed by the older ones (without any complaining!) and by 8pm they were all, more or less, in bed. They seemed to manage this, and the cleaning up after dinner, pretty much among themselves with very little adult intervention or direction.
Today we spent a full day in Lake Nakuru National Park, most famous for its flamingoes that turn the lake pink with their numbers at certain times of the year. We saw lots (although in the distance on the lake as it was very difficult to get close since this meant walking across smelly sticking mud and they just fly away when you get near anyway!) We also saw white rhino (actually grey in colour but identifiable by their wide square mouths for grass grazing) and later saw the rarer black rhino (also grey but with a pointed upper lip for browsing on bushes rather than grass) before he ran off because of a rain storm. We saw more olive baboons (constantly grooming – i.e. picking fleas out of each other) vervet monkeys (cute and the males have bright red and blue balls!) and the black and white colobus monkey (with cape of white fur and solemn looking faces) We also lots of the usual buffaloes, zebra and antelope (which we hardly get out of seat to look at now) as well as giraffe and a family of hyenas.
The scenery in the park was also amazing – especially as seen from top of Baboon Cliff when blue sky, fluffy clouds and the distant hills could be seen reflected in the lake, all surrounded by lush African savannah. The cliffs also lived up to their name when we were attacked by a baboon! There were qute a few tourists and vehicles on the cliff top view point and the crafty primate made a dash for one of the open top vans while we were all admiring the view. He almost got inside but was seen off by some guides with sticks. While we all laughed about this he crept around and made another attempt, this time making off with a plastic bag containing some unfortunates lunch. Well out of reach in a tree higher on the cliff face he didn’t seem very impressed with his haul since most of it was wrapped in plastic and was thrown away.
After a quick stop in town for banks/supermarkets/coffee we headed back to the EAMO. We had dinner on our own and a few glasses of wine around the camp fire before bed.

Crayfish Camp Site, Naivasha, Kenya. Wed. 30th December 2009
We were waved off with songs from the orphans this morning and then drove to Lake Naivasha. Our camp site is nice – it has the usual chalets and some quirkey ones made out of small boats, old cars, busses and other vehicles. It also has a nice bar where I spent the afternoon, instead of an arduous bike trip through Hells Gate N.P, which I don’t regret since it poured rain!

Acacia Camp site, Masaai Mara Nature Reserve, Kenya. Friday 1st January 2010
After an early morning boat trip on Lake Naivasha (getting very close to schools of hippos) we drove to the Masaai Mara Nature Reserve on the Tanzanian border (the Kenyan side of the Serengeti) The roads in the park were pretty bad (exacerbated by the recent rain) craters inside potholes in some places. Another overland bus got stuck at one particularly muddy river crossing and had to be towed out. Our driver proved he was ‘magic’ in getting us to our campsite without getting bogged or stuck.
For New Years Eve we made more punch and stayed up late (most until just after midnight - which is exceptionally late for most of this lot – and a few of us until 3am!)
Today we spent on another game drive through the Masaai Mara, where, apart from the now usual buffaloes, hippos, elephants, wildebeest and antelopes we saw quite a few cats! We say lions on honeymoon, protecting a kill and just generally ‘lion-ing’ around. We also saw some cheetahs – a mother teaching her offspring to hunt by pouncing on and chasing each other.
We had a Masaai warrior dance before dinner and lots more rain (which is becoming a regular feature) but it luckily hasn’t been cold.

Nairobi, Kenya. Sun 3rd Jan 2010
I finished my trip in Nairobi last night with a group meal at Carnivore Restaurant. It was expensive but unusual enough to be worth it. We got a plate and servers came around with ridiculous amounts of meat on huge skewers and sawed off bits onto our plates. It was all you could eat ostrich, crocodile, kudu and beef! There was some potatoes and veg – but only if you asked. They also had a wide menu for the ‘boozivore.’ We then had a few drinks in the hotel bar before saying goodbye to everyone.
Now I’m back at Nairobi Airport (I was up at 4.30am) on my way home – to Namibia that is. It was nice to stay at a hotel last night– with a double bed, my own bathroom and endless hot water only steps away! I’m also looking forward to unpacking and washing but not necessarily to going back to reality!
Its been a great trip, an unusual Christmas and New Year and I feel I’ve been away longer than 2 weeks. Although I feel refreshed I’m not particularly looking forward to work on Wednesday… but who ever likes going back to work in January?

3 Months in (Dec 7th)

2009-12-17T02:02:00.000-08:00

Turns out that keeping a blog is more difficult than it seemed – somehow over a month has passed since my last update! I think its something to do with spending the whole day in an office in front of a computer typing that makes writing a blog in my spare time a bit of a chore. Or perhaps the novelty has worn off or I’m just lazy! There is also the fact that the last 6 weeks or so haven’t been all that noteworthy! November in particular has been an unremarkable month. Like at home its just a month to get through on the approach to Christmas. Not unpleasant or even particularly boring, just unremarkable.

Work-wise I’ve been continuing to plod away at NIED. Even though I’m working up to 2 hours longer each day it hard to judge if I’m making any progress. Maybe its because teaching is so hands-on and everything here can seem insubstantial, long term and its hard to see results. Mostly I’ve continued to wrestle with ‘the bloody manual’ (as I’ve come to think of it) which is slow and mostly unrewarding work, since I’m still not convinced of its actual necessity.

One of the more interesting aspects of my recent work was a workshop I organised for local teachers. It was what at home would be called a course or a lecture (on some language games, some strategies for teaching reading and how to use ‘the daily news’ effectively) Nothing too challenging - fairly basic stuff really but the local teachers of grade one and two seemed to really appreciate it. They don’t get much by way of in-service training and their initial training is often poor. They have tons of challenges; the language issue, the class size, lack of training and resources to name but a few, but pretty much every teacher that was invited turned up (some were even turned away) so there is an enthusiasm to learn.

I also showed the how to use a Big Book but I also had to show them how to make one as they aren’t really available (it was pretty basic since I had to keeping in mind the resources available to the teachers) but they seemed impressed and keen to make their own. Can you imagine the reaction of Irish teachers if it was suggested at a course they make their own resources?! My Mam thinks it’s hilarious the same as when she left Mary I in ... well I won’t say but it was a while ago!

Teachers here generally have a reputation for being unmotivated and disinterested - teaching isn’t so much as career choice as a last resort for many. I’m told there is a particular disinterest in the lower primary teachers as they are seen as the bottom of the barrel since they are considered the least skillful and the worst trained! Considering the pay and conditions I suppose it’s not that surprising. I haven’t seen it personally but teacher motivation is apparently a big challenge for teacher trainers.

Last week it was finally time to present the work so far on the manual to the Lower Primary Advisory Teachers. There is at least one for each region and it their job to advise, train and support the primary teachers in their region. They were a very mixed bunch – some seemed very coped on and ‘with it’, others seemed kinda clueless! It’s their job to advise on the direction and content of the manual and eventually train the teachers on using it (and persuade them to ‘plan in an integrated manner’) It was interesting to hear their reactions which were mostly very positive although they tended to get caught up on little, fundamentally irrelevant details (for example the use of the word ‘soil’ or ‘clay’ in a list of building materials) rather than looking at the big picture (the progression of the maths scheme from week to week). In fact in some ways I’m not sure they saw the difference. I also shared the literacy presentation that I did with local teachers so that they could (possibly) do that ‘workshop’ with local teachers in their regions.

Socially things have been good. I’ve headed into Windhoek most weekend (all bar one in fact) where I’ve met up with other volunteers to eat out, go for dinks, have a braai and generally hang out. One weekend I hired a car and we got to see a bit more of Windhoek (which is quite spread out) and even drive into the ‘country side’ 20 minutes from the city centre and you’re in the middle of the Veld (scrub land) with baboons on the road!

We also had a ‘Global Education Weekend’ which was where VSO very kindly helped fund an educational camping trip to the Waterberg Plateau National Park (for about 35 of us) We had some lectures but also went hiking and did lots more eating/drinking/hanging out (except this time in tents) There were 2 large storms while we were there, I left my tent open during the first (but everything dried within 2 hours once it was over) and the other was at sunset which was amazing to watch. Because the land around was so flat we could see the storm approach as the sky changed from blue to black going through a hundred shades of red, orange and pink in between. There was cool lightning and even a full moon to top it off. Unfortunately my photos don’t even begin to capture it - you just had to be there!

We also had a birthday party for Katy last weekend. The theme was ‘debauchery’ but even though we played drinking games, ended up with lipstick all over us (well some of us!) and underwear on our heads (well clean lingerie) it was actually pretty innocent (although the neighbours weren’t happy with noise and there were some hangovers the next day!)

We’re starting the run up to Christmas now, and the same as at home, it kind of a wind down at work (but since I’m in an office there are no hyper kids or Christmas concerts!!) Its not my first Christmas in a hot climate but it so hard to get used to the ‘festive season’ in 35 degrees. I quite like that there isn’t same hype here – less decorations and carols blasting from everywhere. Its calmer somehow as its more of a religious and family celebration with people travel home to their villages or heading for the coast (where its cooler) I suppose people don’t have money to spend on ‘the trimmings’!

Sometimes I can't believe I've been here 3 months already, and sometimes Wexford, Ireland, Scoil Mhuire, Bridge Drama and all the rest of it seems like years ago!

Going Mental Down in Mariental (aka ICT2) 26 OCt

2009-11-06T07:13:00.000-08:00

The week long training session (called ICT2 or In Country Training, part 2) began on Saturday 17th when I was picked up by the Canadian family plus Jelda on their way from Rundu/Etosha to Windhoek. We met up lots of other volunteers (some newly arrived and Mignon after a 10 hour combi journey) for supper at Alan and Jo’s (yummy baked potatos, roast veg and beer/wine/crisps.) After lots of catching up ad stories of ‘life up north’ we camped out on all available floor space.

On Sunday we had breakfast, we did some shopping, sorting and had a quick lunch before heading off to meet at VSO for a 2pm leaving time. We left VSO just after 3pm (TIA after all!) and after a 3 ½ hour drive south we arrived at Lapa Lange Lodge 35km outside of the small provincial town of Mariental in the Haardap region. The lodge was on a large farm (part game reserve and part actual farm.) Our tents were all set around a lawn with a large pond (with a pagoda in the middle) and 100m away there was a water hole where eland, giraffe, orynx, ostrich and springbok came to drink. There was also a large bar/restaurant area under a pretty thatched roof and a small conference room. My only complaint about the place was that there was only one shower for all 10 girls, although it somehow sorted itself out with no major queues or traffic jams!

Breakfast was at 7.30am every morning and the sessions ran for most of the day (usually until 5pm) so despite our luxurious surroundings and the holiday like atmosphere we worked hard. The week included reviews of our placements and guest speakers on issues like history, politics, business and agriculture. I learned quite a bit about land reform policies, a little about history but not enough about the culture, language and customs of some of the regional tribes.

We also worked on group presentations on various local issues. My group’s presentation was on local politics - so we interviewed the regional coordinator of SWKOP. It wasn't as interesting as I’d have expected but I guess politics can’t be too exciting when there is really only one party - they got 2/3 of the vote last time. Still with elections next month, things could change...
The presentations were entertaining and surprisingly creative. We had role plays and reports, a trading game and the Coq Time* Quiz Show (with condoms as prizes!) Our presentaion involved a pass-the-parcel political quiz , with a SWAPO t-shirt as the prize!

We also visited Mariental to hear a presentation on AIDS (which was very tedious, mainly because of the heat) and hear an informal performance from the Haardap Youth Choir – who sang amazing songs with beautiful harmonies – I’d love to get my hands on some of them to produce a musical! Performance seems to come so naturally to Namibians, they all seem to have rhythm and be able to sing in harmony. No one seems to be the least bit shy about singing or dancing either.

We also had a presentation about the dangers connected with spiders, snakes and scorpions! It was kind of freaky in a ‘aggahhh we’re all going to die horrible painful deaths’ kind of way until I really thought about it and realized these creature are not the most dangerous in Africa. Nope it’s not the hippo or damned mozzie either – it’s humans. I’m far more likely to be attacked or murdered by a human than a snake lurking in my loo and far more likely to hit by car/bus than bitten by a poisonous spider hiding in my footwear. So I’ll be careful but not paranoid!

The training and seminars were interesting, useful and well presented but the social side of things was, for me, the high-light of the week. We’ve played football and frisbee (with some violence) lots of cards (Asshole, Shithead, and Cheat– with lots of violence, spilled beer and philosophical arguments on the limits of cheating allowed in cheat) and drank rather a bit! We went on a game drive (didn’t see much but it was nice to get out) ‘played’ in the pool (very small and a bit dusty but nice in the hot weather) invented games (‘Bugger’ by Steve and ‘Pool Runnings’ by Katy and Steve) and generally enjoyed ourselves!

The food was good all week, especially pizza night; although the early pizza were burned and a bit experimental and the later ones had a limited choice of toppings, mine was fantastic!! ON the final night we had a farewell party (also to celebrate Jo and Mignon’s birthdays) with a braai (Brian killed and help prepare the lamb) and cake! And lots of dancing to Coq Time*!

*The Coq Time phenononem began the first night when the owner played an Afrikaans pop tune called ‘Captain’ – I think its about a the sea or a ship – but with the accent it sound like he was saying ‘cock time’. Steve was captivated by this and made an effort to work it into all conversations until the week became ‘International Coq Time’ instead of ‘In Country Training’ The bloody tune is kind of stuck in my head too!

The week was rounded off with another chilled weekend in Windhoek. We got back on Saturday afternoon, in time to have lunch in Paul’s Café and later headed out to celebrate Mignon’s 30th bday some more. It was also Louise’s last night so it was a great excuse to party. Went to El Cubano – a Afro-cuban bar/night club that played everything from hip hop and salsa to Jive Bunny and Boy George!

On Sunday afternoon we headed to Katutura Municipal Pool for a birthday picnic (part 3 of Mignon’s 30th bday celebrations) We were the only white people there so we attracted a lot of attention (that and we had quite a bit of food with us) we ate, swam (or splashed about) and played some more cards (Uno this time – one of the local boys watching us remarked it looked like a great game as the idea of it seemed to be “keep insulting each other as much as possible”) We – Jelda and I – spent the evening at Kat and Steve’s (more eating, more card playing) before Cam and Yvonne picked us up for the trip back to Okahandja. They stayed the night before their long trip back to Rundu/Mpungu, which meant another late night of beer and movie/photo swaping.

This volunteering thing is a tough life , but now back to reality!

Sand Dunes and Swakopmund (Monday 5th October 2009)

2009-10-09T03:54:00.000-07:00

Just back from a fab weekend in Swakopmund! Emails have been flying back and forth for almost 2 weeks to plan a weekend trip to the costal town of Swakopmund; cars to be hired, accommodation to be sorted and places to be confirmed. In the end, there were 12 of us in 3 cars (Jo, Alan and their kids in their own car/tank and the rest of us - Kat &Steve, Katie & Kev, Louise and her boyfriend Will and Sanne - hired 2 (tiny) cars.) We borrowed tents from VSO, hit the road – well everyone else did - and on Friday night 11 Windhoek Volunteers arrived in Okahnadja.

We went next door to the Reit Club for dinner. There was only steak and burgers on the menu - but they were out of burgers so we all had steak, probably a whole cow between us judging by the size of the pieces of meat. Rare meant blue and 300g steak meant the size of a dinner plate! After that we had a drink in the bar while the owner did his own country karaoke /one-man-band thing – the likes of which you’d only see in the outback of Australia, mid west USA or the Porter House on a Wednesday night! The local Afrikaans farmers were very keen to get us up dancing and bought us shots of cherry vodka, but they were ultimately disappointed cos we all went home by midnight and even with all my beds there were still people on the floor of my living room.

We hit the road at 7.30am for the 3 ½ hour drive across the desert to Swakop. After a stop for coffee in Usakos we arrived in the town at 11am. We set up our tents (dodgy camp ground but it only cost N$20/2 euro per person) and I was glad of my previous African camping experience which made putting up the VSO tents (brand new versions of what I was used to) very easy. After lunch we headed down to the beach and looked at the Atlantic (too rough and cold to even consider swimming – plus it turned cool and almost misty on Saturday afternoon) and strolled around town.
Later in the afternoon we headed off towards Walvis Bay to find dune 7 – the biggest/steepest/tallest(?) sand dune in Namibia/Africa/the world(?)! After acting like 6 years old when we got on the sand first (jumping and running around) we faced the challenge of climbing the infamous dune. I struggled up - 1 step up ¾ of a step back – out of breath and taking lots of breaks. The view from the top (in fact throughout the desert) was amazing and well worth the climb. We walked along the ridge, took a million photos and watched the sun set from the top of the dune, before running down for a glass of wine from the eskie.

We then headed back to Swakop for dinner in the lighthouse restaurant (I had oryx schnitzel and Katie had the biggest burger I’ve ever seen.) After a quick drink in the Swakop Lodge (where I stayed when I was here over 3 years ago) we headed back to our camp site for more wine and some seriously needed sleep.

We got up at 8.00 (since its pretty impossible to lie-in in a tent once the sun is up) had breakfast (but no showers since they were gross – and it wasn’t worth our while anyway!) and packed up. We were then picked up to go sandboarding – which basically holding on to a thin piece of hard board as you shoot headfirst down a sand dune. There was also duneboarding which was snowboarding in the sand (more difficult and less fun, I think!) The going down was fun but the climbing back up was a bitch! I only did 3 runs for this reason but really enjoyed myself because hanging out in the picturesque dunes was no hardship! Then they gave us a sandwiches and beer before they dropped us back to the car. The journey home felt long and I was aching all over (still am – too much exercise in 24 hours for my lazy bones!) but luckily I wasn’t driving and I slept most of the way.

It wasn’t an expensive weekend by home standards (it only cost about €150 for everything including car hire, petrol, camping, food, drink, sand-boarding and bit of shopping) but that’s nearly 2 weeks wages here! Still that’s what my savings are for (ie FUN!) I hope there’ll be lots more!

Schools in Namibia (5th Oct 2009)

2009-10-09T03:33:00.000-07:00

I spent two mornings last week visiting some local primary schools, which was a very useful exercise. It gave me a much better idea of the realities/practicalities instead of just the theory, and a better feel for the problems/issues faced by lower primary teachers. Although I only visited 4 classes in 2 school in a certain area, I’m told they would be fairly typical as an example of an average school (in the middle of the spectrum that has a tiny rural village school ‘up north’ on one end and a private well funded Windhoek school on the other)

Children start school when they are about 7 years old (grade 1) but unfortunately these lower primary classes are probably the most crowed and have the poorest trained teachers (if a teacher shows ability they are ‘promoted’ up the school!) Very few children have the chance to attend pre-school or any kind of formal education before they are 7 (although the Ministry for Education has recently realised the value of early education and are trying to improve this – which is partly the reason the likes of me are here!)

School stars between 7am and 8am (depending on the area) and finishes about midday. Teachers are expected to stay much later, in fact many live in the school grounds. Most children can, and do, attend school as it is more or less affordable and there are schools available (there is even accommodation/boarding schools for those who live to far away from a school to travel daily) However the drop-out rate is high and the standard of real literacy is poor.

The problem with schools/education here is more the quality of education rather than access. This is probably due to a lack of training, poor support/curriculum/policies, teacher attitude/apathy/ability and management problems (most likely a combination of all of these plus a few I don’t know about yet!).

Even though no one at home would consider me any kind of an expert in lower primary, during my visits, I could easily spot some very basic inadequacies in the teaching – mostly in their fundamental approach, technique, classroom management.
Things like, always getting the whole class to chorus the answers and not checking who understands and who doesn’t. There was lots of asking them to count/recite/repeat but very little asking them think/explain/answer individually. A lot of time was wasted in copying things down from the board (in a 40 minute maths lesson they got through 4 written problems, 2 as a class, 2 on their own and where most of the class were not able to complete the task) A lot of effort goes into teaching handwriting (which was admittedly very neat) but not into the content/understanding of what they are copying/writing. There seemed to be little or no organisation, aims or focus to the lessons and there didn’t seem to be any real understanding of the children’s capabilities or level. There were very poor strategies for informal assessment and for identifying/dealing those not getting it. In an English grammar lesson the teacher walked around for 20 min, then corrected the work, in almost all cases it was completely wrong but then instead of allowing the children to do corrections or re-explaining (the task was way too hard anyway) they just sat there for a further 10 minutes while everyone else finished off.
That might sound pretty negative and there was some good teaching going on. One of the 4 teachers I saw asked individual questions, one tried to have a learning support group and three genuinely tried to help those having difficulties. They were all lacking in confidence but most of them seem to genuinely want help and ways to improve.

Another serious problem is language. There are 13 national Languages and English is the official language (although almost no one speaks it as their first language) In schools, the ideal situation would allow children to complete the first 3 years of their educational development in their mother tongue, while learning English as a second language and then, by the end of grade 4 they are all supposed to be proficient enough in English to continue with it as the medium instruction for the rest of their education. It’s kind of complicated but it would be like if we –in Ireland – started school in English and then tried to get everyone up to standard to continue their education as Gaeilge from 2nd class on. The big problem, of course, is the teacher’s standard and ability in these languages (before we even get to their ability to teach!) Also many children cannot access education in their mother tongue so are being educated in another African language, or worse English! (Imagine a Gaelscoil in a DEIS band 1 area with classes of 40+ and poorly trained teachers who don’t really speak much Irish!)

There are also the physical factors; a class size of 40 to 45 is the norm with no learning support teachers and pretty basic resources. The children were obviously not well off – only some had school bags, other had plastic bags. Pencils, rubbers and toppers were in short supply, and guarded jealously! They did have some class sets of text books (although not to write in) and they all had a set of copies (carefully covered in newspaper/brown paper and kept in a neat stack on the edge of their desks) Extra resources, like jigsaws, crayons, toys and library books were not in evidence. There were some wall poster but almost none of the children’s art was displayed, leaving the classroom looking quite drab as well as crowded.

So where can I help? I’m not really in a position to do anything about the language or resource issue but hopefully I’ll be able to do something to help with training teachers, even if it’s only something small (I’m planning a workshop to develop teaching literacy skills for local teachers). Working with NIED I might be able influence things nationally too (aggh the pressure!!) although there isn’t much I can achieve in a year, since national policies and workshops/training take a long time to develop and implement (especially here!) Hopefully I can motivate my colleagues or help them be more efficient and effective - even to get them to move a bit faster on things and be more practical in their support. I can also help promote the importance of Lower Primary Education (its very under valued and staffed, even here at NIED) How am I going to that? Well I’m still working on that, but at least I’ve a better idea of the problems!

A Weekend in Windhoek: Taxis, Beer and a Penduka Braai (Sunday 20th Sept 2009)

2009-09-20T12:17:00.000-07:00

Just back from Windhoek, where I had a great weekend. I set off early on Saturday morning, not knowing how long it would take me to get there. I had some numbers of taxi drivers but they didn’t work out so the gate guard sent me to the far side of town where the taxis to the city leave from and sure enough as soon as they spotted me, I had no problem securing a taxi! I was a bit worried as we sped along toward the city (paranoid visions of being robbed or murdered and left on the side of the road) and I vowed I was going to have to buy a car but then we arrived safely in Windhoek so I started to rethink that! Its not like driving my own car here would mean I’d be perfectly safe – although the roads are good and straight all of the drivers aren’t!

I spent a pleasant morning shopping (I got a dongle – 3G device that allows you get internet over the mobile phone network, and that you top up like a prepay mobile - and it works! yay) The city centre is similar to any big city, but with an African flavor and had lots of shops. However they are only open till one on a saturday (which is a good thing cos I can't afford to shopping on my current wages!) Then I met Lousie, another volunteer, and we spent a nice chilled afternoon and evening sipping beer in shady cafes and bars around the city. Everything is outside and the weather at the moment is pretty perfect! IN the evening we met up with some of the other volunteers in a wine bar overlooking the city, It was lovely but very quite and still considering it was a city on a Saturday night!

I stayed with Louise on Saturday night, as Brian, another one of the volunteers, had invited everyone to a braai on Sunday at his place in Penduka (a sort of craft centre/restaurant/accommodation run by a community group north of Katatura, where his placement is) We got a tour of the centre and a very enjoyable afternoon of hanging out, eating, drinking and catching up.

The centre is really nice, right on the edge of a dam and Brian is actually living in a mud hut! Although it’s a super delux model mud hut! Its made of clay and recycled coloured glass bottles, it quite big and it even has an upstairs and hot and cold water and electricity – I’m almost jealous!

At 3,30 I finally headed off to find my way home – I got a taxi from Penduka to a taxi car park (a scrubby desert area off the high way) where I squashed into another tiny taxi with 2 men, a woman, her 2 children and the driver and our bags. There were no seat belts, the petrol gauge flashed the whole way and the car seemed seriously strained! But again, despite my worries -,this time dying in a horrible wreck or conking out in the middle of the desert - we made it safely to Okahandja. I guess I’ll just have to get used to the taxi system here!

End of Week Two: Living and Working in Okahandja (Friday 18th Sept 2009)

2009-09-20T12:14:00.000-07:00

Last Friday afternoon I left Windhoek for my new home. We headed north, passing through the industrial area on the edge of the city (power station, brewery, maize factory among others) but within a few minutes we were driving (on a nice tar road) across the dry scrub land that surrounds the city. The soil seems to be just stones and sand although it’s covered in dry brown grasses, with some thorny bushes and the odd tree. There were very few houses or settlements until we reached Okahandja.

I was brought straight to the NIED campus on the edge of town where I will work and live for next 12 months or so. After a brief visit to the offices, a meeting with my new boss, I was brought to my house (House One) just inside the main gate.
The house is far beyond anything I would have expected – for starters its huge! There are 5 bedrooms (one ensuite – now mine – and one I’ve ‘converted’ into an office!) a decent sized kitchen attached to a large dining\sitting room. It has everything from a washing machine and dryer to microwave and toaster (although it missing some essentials like a kettle and a iron) It also has a garden (although its just dry earth and few trees) and a garage!

NIED is on the outskirts of town of Okahandja, on the main road to Otjiwarango. Its opposite the railway tracks, with a riding club/stables, a few guest houses and homes separating it from the town itself. It takes 10/15 minutes from my house to the edge of the town (a petrol station and some traditional woodcarving markets), a further 5 or 10 minutes brings me to the nearest supermarkets (Pick and Pay and U$ave) and onto the main street which has banks, municipal buildings and a variety of shops (selling everything from furniture and clothes to hardware and books) Another 5 minutes or so brings me to far side of town (where the ‘best’ supermarket is – Spar) There are a few coffee shops and bars (also called Gambling Houses) but look pretty rough

I spent most of the evening unpacking and arranging everything to my satisfaction (which all took about 2 hours!) and spent a lazy weekend, pottering about, reading, watching DVDs and generally enjoying the peace and quiet of my new home.

Work started on Monday and it was a really strange morning where I spent about 3 hours being introduced to people and then promptly forgetting their names and what they do. Everyone is very friendly and keep telling me how great it is to have me here and that they can't wait to work with me! Expectations are high soI hope I have the expertise they're looking for!

Tuesday to Thursday were pretty quiet as my immediate bosses were away so I spent the time reading the NIED handbook and the Lower Primary Namibian Curriculum, but a lot of time surfing the web (very slowly – cos either the computer or internet connection are very slow) It’s nice to have a settling in period, I suppose, and it’s probably just bad timing that my arrival coincided with them both being away, but I actually like having something constructive to do, rather than trying to look busy.

On Tuesday I also open a bank account – which was an experience. I went to the bank on Monday to get the forms needed (they gave me a letter to type up on NIED headed paper) and returned first thing on Tuesday, I was there for almost 2 hours! It wasn’t that there was any hassle, or they were slow or particularly long queues, it’s just everything took so long. The first lady had to photocopy everything 3 times and fill in lots of forms (which I had to sign) and fill in lots of stuff on the computer – she also had to ask for help and confirmation a lot – but finally after about 40 mins, I had opened a bank account. Then I wanted to lodge some travelers cheques into my account (who knows when I’ll be paid!) This took another 40 min, I really think the guy had never done this before or they have the most complicated computer system ever!!! Then, after queuing up to get my card, I had to wait another 20 mins for the driver to come back. I was in no rush so I didn’t really mind but it gives a good indication of why business matters take so long – bureaucracy, antiquated systems, poorly trained staff to name but a few – and why I am definitely going to learn patience here!

On Firday my boss/colleague Alina was back and we had a meeting to discuss my job description and talk about what I’ll be doing. I’m still not completely sure what exactly I’ll be doing but I’m starting to get an idea – basically anything and everything to help the lower primary and broad curriculum department. So what do they do? A far as I can figure, they seem to work with teacher trainers (called inspectors and advisory teachers ) in how best to deliver the curriculum and also advise/ train the teachers in their areas how to do this. They are also involved in constantly reviewing the curriculum and text books/programmes, researching and improving the standard of teaching in Namibia and writing manuals for pre- and in-service teacher training. The closest thing we have would be the PCSP. How exactly I fit into this I don’t know but I’m starting to get an idea.
Today Alina showed me a syllabus manual they are putting together (it will be divided grade and will replace one that is divided by subject) We had a chat about it and at this stage my involvement seems to be to help simplify long winded explanations, make it more user friendly (for teachers to use) both in language and layout/organisation!

After work it’s pretty quite around here. Alot of the staff live in Windhoek and get a bus back straight after work. I spend the evenings doing domestic stuff (trying to cook or clean) but mostly reading or watching movies (I have about 400 gigs of movies with me on an external harddrive!) It’s actually a bit of a novelty to have absolutely nothing to do. At home there is always something I should or could be doing so it nice to have nothing – no project, no planning, no organising, no work! I’m sure I’d get bored of this quickly and I’m equally sure it won’t last once I start work in earnest. Till then.... bliss!

End of Week One: ICT and VSO (Thurs 10th Sept 2009)

2009-09-20T12:12:00.000-07:00

I arrived in Windhoek (via London and Jo’burg) last Sunday afternoon, after over 24 hours of travelling but thankfully with all my baggage. It’s a smallish city seemingly slap bang in the middle of a semi arid desert of bushes, scrub and sandy coloured dry grass. We were brought to temporary accommodation (which is very nice; a flat shared with three Dutch girls but I’ve my own room) where we will stay during the next few days of ICT (that’s In-Country Training: VSO love their acronyms!) There are 17 of us ‘new volunteers’ - us 4 girls, 2 guys and 5 couples (3 with children)

The training has been good (especially in that it gives us a chance to acclimatise, meet other volunteers and get some basic information about living and working in Namibia) but sometimes boring (some of the sessions were not great or badly organised – especially the language training)

We did one particularly good exercise in which we were dropped off in Katutura (a very poor, predominately black suburb, north west of the city) with a list of 3 community groups to visit and find out about. Until this point, we could have been forgiven for thinking that we were in a first world city, let alone a second world / developing one. The area where our accommodation and the VSO offices are, are nice, clean, well developed suburbs. In Katutura we were quickly reminded that although Namibia is quite high on the list of developing countries (according to GNP type scales) there is a huge amount of abject poverty. Although there some rich and quite a few people who are very comfortable the majority of people are very, very disadvantaged. In fact we were later told that Namibia is one of the world’s most unequal countries in the world, where 5% of the population own 95% of the wealth.

We also had a chance to socialize during the week too; dinner at Joe’s Beer House on Sunday night (I ate some zebra, kudu, ostrich and springbok )a pizza lunch with other Windhoek based Volunteers on Monday, dinner in a Cameroon Restaurant on Wednesday night and an afternoon braai (bbq) to finish off today. It was also nice to cook dinner (well i ate and washed up) hang out and watch a movie with my flatmates on the other nights.

ICT Namibia

2009-09-10T03:24:00.000-07:00

Just finishing up my 'in-country training' in Windhoek. It's been 4 days of information, discussion, training and tasks to get us ready for working in Namibia. Its a bit like being in Limbo - I'm in Namibia and finding out lots about the country but in a very sheltered way. It has been a great way to get to know the VSO staff, meet the other Volunteers and start getting aclimitised. Tomorrow I'm heading to Okhandja and the real world....

2009-08-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

Off to Namibia in 10 days!!!