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on John and Dinah with VSO in Namibia (Namibia), 30/Jan/2008 15:09, 34 days ago
See how green it's got! My class one week apart. Growing by the day like the vegetation. Mr. Mendai, the principal and his secretary Ms Kasai with a rare smile.Goats in one of the teacher's garden!New School Year BlogThe school year has creaked into action. It is already one week into the term (Wed. 23rd Jan.)The first rather startling discovery was that 3 of the teachers from last year were not returning. Even the Principal didn't know this until the first day of term! He obviously was aware of the situations involved but without confirmation it was impossible to plan. It appears that one had impregnated a learner and his name was on the birth cert. (otherwise he could have denied it, I suppose) and had been fighting to continue anyway. Another also had been transferred to another sch. because of disciplinary matters, whatever that means.The third is Nigerian and has served his 2 years here but wanted to continue. He came to teach Maths and Physical Science and taught grade 11 these subjects last year. He obviously would like to finish them off (or teach them grade 12!) He was meant to have a full 2 years but the sch was a year late starting grade 11. The problem is that they advertised his job and got 3 Namibian (inexperienced) applicants. Under the system here they should have priority over a foreigner (fair enough). But given the circumstances he might be allowed to circumvent the rules (not allowed in the event). I am teaching the Maths but there isn't anyone here who feels confident about the Phys. Sci. (Jean? You'd love it!)However we did know that the learners would need exercise books so I'm not sure why 2 teachers had to go and get those from Rundu on a sch. day! Not only that but when they returned they used 6 extra seats on the combi for the books (which couldn't go on the roof because it's the rainy season!). This meant N$65 x 6 plus the N$130 x 2 for the teachers travelling expenses. Not to mention the teachers pay for the day being effectively wasted. We could have got enough books for my classes to have homework books as well as classwork books if J and I had picked them up ourselves from Rundu! 2009 will have to remember this.As mentioned this is the first year with grade 12 so 2 new classes but not a single extra desk or chair has been purchased so furniture is constantly a problem and it can take 20 mins. to just have everyone sat down to start the lesson. Some have been ordered we are told but when they arrive is anyone's guess. Also the problem is exacerbated by the size of the classes. All the grade 8 (new learners) classes are nearly 45 as are the grade 10 classes. The latter were 3 grade 9s and are now 2 grade 8s. There are no more class rooms so we have to manage. Apparently lots won't return next term so things will be better then (?!).John has one of the new grade 8s as his register group and they couldn't get in the classroom for 2 days. The key was missing. J was going demented with these poor little new kids wandering around trying to find an empty room they could call home for a while!Because new teachers are still in the process of being appointed (!) we have a supposedly temporary time-table. This means that everyone here has to teach more than expected (of course) so J and I have lost our day when we don't have any lessons. This was meant to be when we went out to other schools and did our 'training'. Since writing this we got our day back - Wednesday and today (30th) tried to do a visit but failed because there has been so much rain and the roads are horrible. Very slippery and covered in enormous puddles hiding hideous potholes. The rain is great for the country though and you can see from the pics how green everything is getting. Also much cooler which is great for sleeping.However, talking to other people all this confusion is perfectly normal and already things are settling down.We have had a serious row with OPODO. We are now at war with OPODO!! If you don't know they are an online travel agency. We made the mistake of booking our trip for the wedding with OPODO. We booked flights and a hired car for the same dates (!). In Nov. OPODO sent us a notice re-scheduling our flights. They had been moved several days. Luckily this was OK (if they had been moved the other way we wouldn't have been home for the wedding!). However I replied that I assumed they had rebooked the car. I sent OPODO 4 emails about this before they replied. OPODO phoned us in England and got Jen who rang us. We then spoke to OPODO. We had earlier moved the dates and been charged a hefty admin. fee for doing so. OPODO said that if we wanted the same car it would now cost an extra£48! This was nothing to do with them as it was the airline who'd moved the flights. When we booked we followed a link to car hire, but this is nothing to do with them. We refused to pay any more so got our money back less £15 as apparently we only would get a full refund if we cancelled withina week of purchase. John told them that we would tell everyone not to use them and would like you to pass this on to everyone. We are going to tell all VSOs to boycott them and that's lots of business. OPODO don't care about service they want your money and not to do anything to earn it. This kind of hastle at the moment felt a bit final strawish.Wed. 30th JanAnother week has passed and it really seems incredible. I meant to post the blog but it's been mad. Not all work but lots of that. We also had a Burns night on Sat. with the other VSOs mainly but also a few Namibian guests. It seems that I agreed to co-host the evening weeks ago (I have vague memories of doing so). Anyway Linda who was the real power behind the evening is a workaholic and we arrived somewhat shattered on Fri. evening in Rundu looking forward to the fleshpots there! As it transpired we had Fri. chasing around the education office trying to get paid (for Oct. Nov. Dec. and Jan). They gave us a cheque for Jan. which we were persuaded to part with as otherwise we wouldn't be able to take the one next week for the full amount. We are reliably informed that we made the wrong move and should have hung on to the bird in the hand. Too late and we'll see when we try again on Fri!Back to the Burns night. Linda is a perfectionist and Fri. evening was spent shopping, making soup and then having take out pizza's, so very pleasant but not exactly restful. We had stuff to do in Rundu on Sat. morning so arrived back at Linda's about midday for more cooking. We also were having lunch there with Jackie, our young Canadian friend, who shares with Linda, so it wasn't all work. Jackie had a tempting choice because a job had come up at her old school in Canada. She is having a tough time here still and her boyfriend went back home again so she was considering it. We got the impression she'd stay here as she wants to turn it round and make a go of it. She deserves to succeed and I really admire her determination.We finished cooking in time to go back for a half hour rest, then set out for the evening. It was a terrific evening after all that but never again. Next time we'll let one of the lodges do the work! I was really too shattered to enjoy it fully. There was lots of toasts and poetry readings and the 'haggis' was piped in and everything. the evening finished with much more toasting and thanking and a 20 verse version of Auld Lang Syne. The Namibian guests took it all very calmly as if this is exactly what to expect when you go out to dinner.The music Linda wanted for piping in the haggis (sorry took camera but forgot to use it) was on Jackie's computer and Linda (very unwisely) asked me to try and put it on her ipod. Well I managed to delete every song Linda had from the ipod. Linda was extremely kind to me and repeatedly assured me that it didn' matter as the music was still on her computer and that anyway she needed to go through and decide what she really wanted on the ipod, so no damage done. I was still feeling like a vandal. As the evening progressed I started telling everyone about the time I dropped Luke on his head when he was a baby, fracturing his skull. I also recounted helping my mother move house and dropping an entire box of her collection of china ornaments (very precious to her). For some reason everyone (including myself) found these ghastly memories hilarious.More drama at sch on Mon. as we were presented with a new timetable at the staff meeting. This was to be with immediate effect. No problem for me as I am still teaching the same classes. Not so John. He had been teaching 2 grade 10s but was suddenly confronted with one 10 and a 9 (plus the original 3 grade 8s). He had the 9s first 2 lessons on Mon. and had literally no idea about where they were or what to do with them. He was very upset. In fact he has only really calmed down now after sending a blast of letters to everyone concerned. Alex, who did the actual timetable, couldn't believe that no-one had consulted J. He was under the impression that everything had been agreed. Poor J didn't sleep Mon. night as he was seriously considering resigning. He felt primarily that he was unable to do the job like this and I've been trying to persuade him that even if not ideal, it's still better than not at all - at least for the learners. It is amazing he hasn't considering resigning before, my bet is most VSOs do. I did after about a month!A new teacher turned up today defying all my predictions about this not happening for weeks. I suppose that means another new timetable very shortly. I wonder how many temporary TTs we'll have! Learners are still arriving and being admitted even though Mr Mendai (principal photo above) has told us we won't take more. I took a photo of my registration group last week and this so you can see how it's grown. They loved having it taken and I am going to use it to try and learn all their names. Once we have a permanent TT I'll do the same with each class we teach. The names are difficult and there is an additional problem of hearing them say them. This is partly because I'm getting rather deaf but also they do speak very quietly and of course not with the same accent as me!It seems my blogging rate may drop to one every 3 weeks or even once a month so don't read anything into that. It just means we are busy and also when everything is new there is obviously more to report. It is quite time-consuming but I'm pleased to hear from loads of different people in response so really worth while. Plus it's a record of everything for us when we get home.The views expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of VSO.