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on John and Dinah with VSO in Namibia (Namibia), 02/Aug/2009 12:19, 34 days ago
This last couple of weeks has been a test of our self-discipline! There have been all the usual frustrations and a few extra bothers. Our printer which is really essential for our work died. I went on-line and got some tips and only succeeded in dropping a tiny part which was then lost forever in the works. Instead of sending one coded distress-signal it was sending 2. We took it to Rundu and basically got told the thing was kaput. I find it really distressing that it only lasted 20 months but the climate and the sand here are very punishing to everything. We went to buy a new one and discovered that you pay 3 times as much in Rundu as in Windhoek. Luckily another volunteer, Nico, knew someone in Rundu that could 'get' one for only 50% more than in Windhoek. His shop is not really recognisable as such so god knows where our printer came from........We were delighted to hear from the Insurance brokers that the claim for our stolen car had been approved. We had to complete about 6 more forms and send the final paper work. We did so, and then sent a second batch as something had been forgotten (by them). Neither lot have arrived to date. We posted them by registered mail so should be tracable but more hassle and worry! I just hope that they agree to pay us into our GB account as we will probably have settlement after we return at this rate!Much of our thoughts have been given to our return and I suppose that doesn't help get the most out of our time here. We are so looking forward to being back but we still have another 4 months left. I have to keep pulling myself back into the present and make this time really count. This can be difficult when progress is so minute. I feel that the work with the learners is great most of the time. Sometimes though I am really discouraged by another reminder of just how weak they are. This of course is not their fault and some are doing really well when you consider their education and home environments. This is again not the fault of the parents, families or teachers who in turn have not had a fraction of our opportunities. But the result is nevertheless a daunting gap between them and the people they will need to compete with if they make it down to Windhoek or even Rundu. The thing that really keeps spirits up is that they are SUCH great people.A small illustration. This is a very Christian country. John's learners were asking him about which church he belonged to (not in doubt in their minds). When he said he didn't attend any and moreover wasn't even baptised they were really alarmed. He was informed that he would burn in heaven as he was a good person and wouldn't be going to hell.There has been a lot of commotion in Mpungu caused by the recruitment of workers to support the engineers on the new road. As jobs are very short people are flocking. The temporary school secretary, who is really lovely and excellent at her job, managed to get a job. She is now getting up at 4 to get to work in time (90 mins walk and no transport) and then is cleaning as well as secretarying as they haven't got the cleaners yet. She is exhausted but feels unable to challenge the conditions. She is not too enthusiastic about the people who seem to be white south Africans of the old school ie. look down on anyone who doesn't speak Afrikaans etc. There is also some hullaballoo about our learners. The girls naturally. They are being lured in with small gifts and then seduced (or worse, we have heard one report of rape). The men are now complaining that the girls are stealing the food. In fact we understand that the men give away their room-mates food and then say the learners ate it!Our replacements are definitely coming in September, which again makes us feel near the end. They have 2 children and are going to job-share and look after the children together. I think it could be a wonderful way of doing the job here and certainly a very interesting opportunity for the whole family to get under the skin of Namibia. The learners in the primary school are very interested in us (as strange, white people) and will love having some children to get to know.We have a visit very soon from Jean (John's sister) and Mike her husband. They will come here but by then exams will be in full swing. In fact we only have one more day of lessons before then. Crazy that last day of lessons is Aug. 3rd but term ends 3 weeks later. This happens every term. The emphasis here is tests, exams, punishments, formal learning (PE lessons outside should be replaced with theory), copying from the blackboard ie. old-fashioned! Our attempts to make learning fun are seen are trivialising the important work of educators. I am desperately hoping that the results will speak for themselves and they may decide that there is more to my madness.We went on a cross country trip yesterday to collect some reeds from the river for Hannah's chicken run. She is another VSO based nearest to us but still 80 km away and has no car. She was told that the reeds were not far but of course that can mean anything and turned out to mean about 50 km in the opposite direction! It was interesting to see though and people here are expert in the precise type of mud, reeds, wood whatever for the job in hand. Only these would do!Will post this now although again not got pictures to add. Meant to take some but without a printer the camera is featuring far less in our lives!THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS BLOG ARE THE AUTHOR'S OWN AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF VSO.