Long term
on John and Dinah with VSO in Namibia (Namibia), 09/Apr/2009 05:03, 34 days ago
We tragically lost my nephew, Will, last month after his long battle with cancer. As we have already been home 3 times and seen Will and the family at Christmas we decided not to return for the funeral. My sister Weena, Will's mother, sent me the order of service so we were able to have our own private service at the same time as the one in London. We spoke to everyone and learnt that over 500 people had attended in London. Some people had come from USA and Australia and we were distressed not to be able to join them but we hope they understand we already said our goodbyes and if we travelled from here it would be at the very least 2 weeks off work as with Rachel's wedding.Africa has obviously got into my soul as I think I'm going fast but it's clear when I measure my output that I have slowed down to a gentle stroll rather than my usual manic whirl. I really feel I've been too busy to write a blog but in fact we have been spending many more weekends in Mpungu thinking it too much effort to go to Rundu and enjoying the peace out here. Other factors, especially Will's death, have also made this term seem rather like wading in treacle. It is unbelievably long. We began in mid Jan. and it's now April 8th and we still have another 3 weeks to go. We did have an extra day off 2 weeks ago for Independence Day but otherwise no half-term. This is hard at our advanced age!It is with great relief that we have tomorrow to survive and then Easter weekend! We are off work on both Fri and Mon and are taking the opportunity to visit the Waterberg Plateau which is meant to be amazing. It will certainly be great to really wind down and get some good walking in. The trails there are reportedly lovely and we are looking forward to the game drive on the top which is at 6 am but worth it, we are told. Anyway it will feel like 7am to us as we are now an hour ahead of the rest of Nam in Mpungu. (A situation that we find hilarious but unfortunately will be rectified before the start of next term.)Once we return on Tues. the exams begin and we are in for invigilation and marking which though tedious is relatively restful! We have been working more effectively because we feel we have a better understanding of how things work here and feel part of the community. It is clear why VSO prefer 2 year placements but it is really too long for us to spend away from the family and we won't do it again, at least not for so long. It has been a very tough term emotionally.Namibia has had a ghastly time with flooding and there have been deaths as a result over in the Oshakati region. I am attaching pictures of the river in Rundu. People with homes by the river have had their lives totally uprooted and are living in tents provided by the Red Cross. It somehow seems worse that this should happen in a desert country where often people are desperate for water. The cause is actually further north in Angola. They have had very heavy rain so the Kavango River is in spate. As you can see it is everywhere, while it's normally like the Thames at Richmond. We have also had significantly more rain than last year and have taken pictures to show how green Mpungu has been although it is already beginning to revert back to bare sand. The dated picture shows the village when we arrived from almost exactly the same spot.I will briefly go through our other headlines since the last blog. So much has happened but a few incident seem to give a flavour of life here. Last week I gave a computer lesson to a couple of teachers who work 30 km across sand from here. They have no transport but came to Mpungu footing (walking) for a meeting. When they arrived they discovered that the meeting had been cancelled but no-one was able to inform them as they have no phone coverage. They were quite unperturbed. Now they are keen to learn to use a computer and are prepared to foot here for lessons. I'd better make sure I'm not ill!John got some of the learners to write to our grandchildren Florence(16) and Ella (13) as pen pals. Their letters were great and the girls replied very sweetly with photos attached. Florence had Milly (her baby cousin) in her arms for the picture so naturally the learners assumed it was her baby. It is so common to see very young girls with babies or to hear a learner is dropping out of school due to pregnancy. There was a lot of tittering in the staff meeting when a particular pregnancy was announced and a particular teacher was getting meaningful glances. He looked really proud. This is a man we both like and a good teacher. These things are hard to swallow but what is the option? We are not going to change the culture here and it's debatable if we should if we could. Recently a learner's baby died suddenly at about 7 months old. The poor girl was totally distraught, as you would imagine, and so were other learners including her brother. I don't know if being so young makes this even harder or not. Perhaps you recover more quickly at that age? Ella sent a photo of herself on skis. The snow caused great excitement and John has used the first African to qualify for the Winter Olympics as a follow-up lesson. We also showed them 'Cool Runnings' which was a big hit.The PC vol in Mpungu, Chaz, has got a proper projector and is showing films to the community and also coming to school with it. Sadly next Friday's film will be cancelled as Mr Mendai thinks it wrong for the learners to relax at all in exam time. All games are also put on hold. Again we see this very differently but he is inflexible on this issue! We did a school countdown competition and got lots of enthusiasm so now we have challenged another school. As this is Maths I trust he will permit such frivolity! We plan to meet the enemy prepared and I have the team practising frantically. Another VSO, Hannah, at Kandjimi will be Carol to my Richard! Next time we will include the anagrams if this is a success. If we're not careful it could get out of hand like the spelling bee.These are excellent and we were very impressed by the bee at our school last year. However this year there was a grand regional event with 175 contestants in the first round. It started at 10 am on Sat. and took until 8 at night to complete. Less of a bee and more of an elephant. Our team did very well with all 3 making it in to the last 10 (only St Boniface, the top private school in the region can say the same). They did enjoy it despite the fact that they had been there all that time and only spelt about 4 words each! They were picked up at 11 am on Fri and arrived there at 3 am so must have been exhausted. The people here are so much more patient than at home. I wonder what would have happened with British learners?!We have had a busy time with visitors. A fund-raiser in London for VSO had an auction and one of the items sold was a trip to Nam to see the sights and see something of our work here. The itinerary included a visit to us and they were brought here by Daan our chief in Windhoek. They came armed with posters, calenders and union jack pencils etc. I have put a poster of Obama with the slogan 'Yes we Can' in the classroom as they are fans and hope the attitude will spill over into Maths! The pencils were great prizes for the countdown. Calenders and poster now going out to local schools. We also got our program manager visiting. Already we need to think about our replacement and much of the focus of his talk was on that. We are now about 8 months from finishing and the time is starting to gallop.John has been very busy with a project to build a school football pitch. We are relying on a friend, Graham, from England who is a builder and says he will come out and help after the holiday in May. Getting enough concrete etc. and making sure it's here when we return from Windhoek with Graham are not easy when you consider the quantities required and distances involved. John is also getting lots of help from a teacher who is very good at these things and the learners will be used as labour. Apparently there work can count towards their Agriculture course!Missing another English spring although we are now moving into Winter - the best time of the year here for us. As ever our thoughts are with you all.THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN THIS BLOG ARE THE AUTHOR'S OWN AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THOSE OF VSO.