Christmas Blog
on John and Dinah with VSO in Namibia (Namibia), 20/Dec/2007 12:32, 34 days ago
Pics. again randomly on page, sorry! From the top clockwise they are parents and J on road to Swakop. The amphitheatre at Midgard. Sunset at Rundu over the Kavango River. Car Museum at Midgard. John at Cape Cross. Hotel at Tsumeb. Museum at Tsumeb. Our hotel at Swakop. Tomato seller on road to Rundu. Seal colony at Cape Cross.An overdue note to the Himarwa Fan ClubIn my efforts to amuse I realise I may have been rather too flippant about life in Mpungu and particularly about the various goings on at the school. This is misleading (Kelvin McEnzie like), and I want to correct the impression I have possibly made and report on some of the wonderful teachers here. This is not to say that I've been exaggerating or embroidering at all - in fact there is no need - but it is the balance I want to correct.I'll start with Jimmy (Mr. Tembwe - we are very formal here. J and I get away with Christian names because we can't say people's names. We've finally got them all except the Rukwangali teacher, Ms Kamukwanyama, who I nicknamed Ms Kamakase and this has stuck with J and me). Jimmy teaches Agriculture. We are in our first year here of teaching grade 11. Before that this school only went up to grade 10 and the grade 10 Agriculture exams at the end of 2006 were outstanding. Some learners (6-8) got grade A s in public exams, unprecedented for this school where grade C is considered good, and practically unheard of in Maths and Physical Sciences. This school (being in the middle of an area where Agriculture is the only industry other than making alcohol and running Shebeens) is a kind of magnet school for Agric. Well Jimmy discovered this year that there was no Agric. text book for O level which is what learners do in grades 11/12. Not daunted he has been writing one. In fact it is now complete and 13 chapters long. John is spending most afternoons editing. He makes suggested amendments and then he and Jimmy go through and Jimmy agrees most of J's ideas (usually a matter of spicing up the English). J has learnt alot about Agric. and when he invigilated the grade 11 exam reckoned he'd get an C! He's really enjoying this collaboration as Jimmy is a lovely man and very interesting to talk to. Most teachers find teaching fairly hard work without writing a book at the same time but Jimmy takes this in his stride and threw John out by marking his exams so quickly that the editing went on at the usual pace that week.There are a whole raft of really professional hard-working teachers. Although some like Jimmy and Ms Shivute come from outside Kavango (our region and the most disadvantaged in Namibia) I know of at least 2 that are local and come from families of subsistence farmers. We gave Mr. Kankara a lift to Rundu last week and we drove through his village on the way. He was telling us that he'd walk 15km to and from school regularly as a child. He got lucky and went to Elcin which is a school that is very well equipped and has a first-rate reputation. It is funded by a Finnish Lutheran Church. We have several learners here who I think could achieve as much as Mr. Kankara with the right help. Alex (the peace corps guy) was delighted that one of his grade 8 Maths class got 100% in one of his Maths papers. In fact Alex's whole Maths group performed much better than the other 2 grade 8 classes and Alex while being delighted is also frustrated that they didn't all get the same opportunity. Of course that is why we're all here. The teacher who was teaching the other grade 8s would not be able to do the O level Maths exam himself. I am supposed to be teaching him Maths, but he is the one who has been on strike so no luck to date. Since writing this he has in fact resigned. I'm sure this is best for everyone - as it turns out he was 5 years at the school and, as often happens, has got stale with it. Rather sadly there was no big send off for him as there would have been in an English school.There was great excitement on Tues. as suddenly we had cell phone network! This means you can text whenever you want. I hope we hear from everyone!John went to the docs last week for his usual blood pressure check. He had the lowest BP since records began. He has also lost 10 pounds in weight. I couldn't believe it but when I checked out a photo from the summer (taken at Jean's) it is true, he is much slimmer!Jackie, our Canadian fellow VSO who came to stay last week, got bitten by a scorpion (it was possibly a black widow spider, she was too busy screaming in pain to catch it as you are supposed to do!) Luckily it was thin-tailed, Nico says the thick-tailed might be lethal! She was picking up some litter that dogs has spilled out into the road. Not something the rest of us will be doing too often.School broke up on Wed. and all the learners had to come in and get their report cards. Many failed their grade. This means they will leave sch. in many cases, although some repeat the grade. This repeating means that learners are often in their 20s and still at school. You know that a grade 8 is bright if they don't look like an adult! In some classes nearly half failed. The exams are quite harsh, but it is also based on the year's work. Hopefully we can improve things for a few people.Off to Tsumeb tomorrow having a couple of days there on the way down to Windhoek where we meet my parents on Monday. They are coming for a week so we're off to Swakopmund which is a lovely cool town on the skeleton coast. I expect we'll freeze as we are now used to it being 100 degrees (still on fahrenheit). It will be great to see them. They have been doing terrific work fund-raising for our work. Will report from there!Had a couple of really relaxing days in Tsumeb. The photos of the pool and courtyard show how pleasant the hotel was and the town has a lovely park and museum (unfortunately shut while we were there) again photos attached.Our week with my parents went very well and without a hitch in terms of the planning. We had a nasty moment when the car refused to leave Tsumeb without a jump start. We bought a new battery later that day and are now in Windhoek having a new engine fitted! The car has 'raider' written on it. the previous owners christened it Lara after L Croft, tomb raider. We call it the purse raider! No complaints really as it is the ideal vehicle and cost us only the price of the previous owners repairs (clutch or gearbox, can't remember) so we can pass on some of this expense to the next VSO's to have it.We gave one of our learners a ride from Rundu and he spent a couple of nights in Tsumeb waiting for us. We were shocked to find that the uncle he was meant to stay with there had not been there and he'd had to spend the time on the street. To make matters worse he got robbed. He'd hidden his bag under a bush and of course the whole thing got taken. He'd foolishly left his birth cert. and ID card in it. We fed him and gave him a few bucks and dropped him at another uncles place in Windhoek and have since had a text saying he's fine. It is hard for them though. Meanwhile we are having a splendid holiday which we don't feel we have really worked hard enough to deserve! We will be doing plenty in Jan. so our motto is 'enjoy it while we can'.Our place in Swakopmund was pleasant and it was lovely to be cool! In fact it was almost too grey and chilly at times. Most of the time it was like a good English summer - not as good as Wales! J and I had long walks along the coast and then we 4 played lots of bridge, ate enormous (and delicious) meals and in general the whole thing was very reminiscent of a week we had with them in the Algarve a couple of years ago. There was even similar architecture with everything apparently less than 5 years old and loads of new buildings going up everywhere. Ideal for those who like beach holidays but really not our scene. However,the centre has some lovely buildings from the 1900s and is like the guide books say.We had a day visiting an amazing seal colony about 150 km from Swak. There are 250,000 seals and we knew that they were having their babies about now. We thought it would be cute. It was actually rather distressing. All round the edge of the colony were literally 100s of dead or dying pups. The smell was nasty! However it was very impressive overall and it was funny how there were no seals except the very crowded colony area. As J said it was like Land's End (where for those who don't know there is a wonderful cliff top until the tip itself which is a theme park of great ghastliness).We had a day at Walvis Bay which we preferred. It was less touristy being the major port of Namibia. The lagoon was attractive and the biggest we've ever seen although we had imagined it covered (like the seal colony) with flamingos and pelicans whereas we saw a couple.We had a couple of days at Midgard Lodge which is north of Windhoek and absolutely incredible. It is like a theme park itself but a wonderful one. It was built 1994 and no expense spared. It has a concert hall, amphitheatre, about 4-5 restaurants, 3 pools, loads of sports amenities (bowling alley, riding stables, table tennis, volley ball), a car museum, workshops etc. etc. All this and only 6 visitors! It was really quite spooky to start with but fantastic once we relaxed. It was owned by the owner of the brewery which makes Windhoek and Tafel lagers. He was obviously devoted to this project and it's something of a rich man's folly on an enormous scale. It is clear that no-one has the vision to carry on now he's dead and I really hate to think of the place being wasted. There were loads of staff and it must be haemorrhageing cash. It could be such a money spinner for Namibia and is in the most beautiful part of the country only an hour from the airport. Even so it is very wild and African. We did a safari drive and saw loads of animals in wonderful scenery. The climate there is also wonderful as it isn't too hot being high. I just adored it and wished we'd spent more time there although we realised it was pure escapism. J made remarks about Disneyland for grown ups!Now in Windhoek having a few days shopping and staying in a VSO's lovely flat. Off on our crazy kudu trip on Sunday and will report on all this next blog.In case that isn't before the new year I'll say Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year everyone who we are missing, particularly at this time!The views expressed in this weblog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of VSO.