A dramatic drama
on John and Dinah with VSO in Namibia (Namibia), 03/Nov/2007 08:12, 34 days ago
A dramatic drama.The grade 11 learners put on a play about the school and they portrayed 3 'teachers'. It was a great evening full of laughs and inventive and witty. Unfortunately they had one teacher using more than necessary physical force (not too bad just horseplay) and another behaving highly inappropriately with a learner. The trouble was that these were not generic teachers but were highly recognisable, being in fact brilliant impersonations. The horseplay teacher is in fact a dedicated teacher (who poss does overstep the mark but no-one seems to believe worse than that). He was very hurt and is now refusing to teach them next year which would be a great pity for them as he is by far and away the most successful in exam terms in the sch. The second teacher concerned is a problem. He has been missing a lot of sch. and apparently coming home roaring drunk midweek and disturbing his neighbours, our friends the peace corps. If he is also inviting learners home and giving them drinks and sitting rather close to them watching TV as portrayed, then he has certainly overstepped the mark. No-one has expressed doubts that this is true.Today we had a heated staff meeting with these 2 offended teachers taking issue with the show's producer. Several people weighed in and the teacher apologised fulsomely for allowing such obviously recognisable characters to be used in the drama. We felt that was needed and that the issues should be aired, lots of people seemed to want to stop all further dramas. Let's hope the drama will continue as it was a great way of raising important issues.Bizarre story no.43. One of the teachers is on unofficial strike following the promotion of another. This striking teacher didn't get the job which he didn't apply for! He thought he should be offered it by right. Our principal is from Caprivi (neighbouring region) and unfortunately so was the successful candidate. The fact that the latter also worked hard and fulfilled his other obligations may have been factors. This disaffected teacher is stirring things up against the principal and has recruited the hostel matron (chef). This chef went on local radio and apparently railed and lied about the sch. and the principal. He wanted 'foreigners out' ie. Caprivians, but could mean a Nigerian and obviously us and the peace corps. This was now 10 days ago and no-one has mentioned more about it so I think we're safe. However a final amazing twist is that the chef is now refusing to leave (he has been sacked) and is squatting in a cupboard!We are supposed to get an average of 6 days rain in October here. Until today we had what amounted I guess to about one day's rain. It was great to wake up today to the sound of heavy rain and thunder. The whole earth seems grateful. I looked out of the window and saw a man on a horse cantering past. Cantering! It made me realise I'm used to everthing (including us) moving unbelieveably slowly. The temperature has been in the 40s and it has been quite exhausting so I have been doing some yoga to celebrate! Less than 2 months ago I could do most of what I attempted today! I must try and make myself do it. It's a similar sad story with our Rukwangali (no, I don't mean I could do it 2 months ago).Mr Tembwe (Jimmy) was very excited and told me to take photos of the valley today and again in exactly one week. The difference is going to be enormous apparently. In place of sand we will see a great greeness. I can't wait. Only problem is that snakes lurk in long grass so we won't be able to wander as freely. As it's mostly too hot to walk this won't have such a huge impact until about March. Another benefit is being able to have our curtains open in the day time. It is cooler with them closed but depressing.Jimmy mentioned that some friends of Julie's in the UK very generously sponsored the learners garden last year to tune of about 150 pounds. He hinted that maybe some of our friends would like to step in this year. I promised to put this on the blog with no guarantees so if anyone would like to contribute a few pounds it would be very gratefully recieved. Jimmy pointed out that this garden is a great learning opportunity which will allow the learners not only to be self-sufficient but poss. make a living later in life. Agriculture is the speciality of the school and learners come from all over Namibia to study it here.We are constantly being surprised at the things learners don't know. I did a lesson on fractions and asked what fraction of a week 3 days was. Half the learners weren't sure how many days were in a week. These were grade 8 which means they've been in school at least 7 full years, nearly 8. Most in fact will have done more as they have to repeat grades they fail, some will have repeated more than one grade. Ditto hours in a day (how many? 20 seems about right.). Forget grams in kilogram - not one knew that. It's because they don't use watches and move round the school when the ghastly bell sounds. As it's a boarding sch. they don't do much shopping and this means that some are even uncertain how many cents are in a dollar. This makes it hard to relate the maths to their experience. I've now tackled fractions by getting them to draw lines 12 cm and then work out half, thirds, quarters etc. Only problem was they don't own rulers so I had to beg to borrow the geom. sets (kept under lock and key for exams). Naturally having no experience of using rulers so they couldn't measure lines. Not too bad doing the actual 12cm but once they had to do 4cm sections total collapse for most. I did this with 2 grade 3 classes (about 60 learners) and 8 managed to split the line as wanted. Of these 8 at least 6 are very bright and could do it in a few mins. and should be zooming on. We are going to start a club for these to get a chance to spread their wings a bit. I'm also thinking of a Maths club for more average but keen students. As ever resources are the problem so I will be making games.Likewise many of the English exercises seem totally alien. John was very surprised when no-one from grade 11 had heard of William Shakespeare! In view of all this their attitude is wonderful.Twice this week I've taught lessons that were meant to end after 40 mins. but as the next teacher didn't turn up and I was free I offered to carry on with the lesson and got taken up on this EAGERLY!! I promise no self-respecting English class would understand. It makes teaching very rewarding and challenging. How best to help?We wonder about doing more than 40% of a time-table next year as we are getting increasingly unsure about the training (difficult to justify the cost when there is so little money on the ground). Also taking teachers out of the classroom even more. There is no attempt at cover. Work is not set. The main motivation for attending workshops seems to be to escape the classroom and get some free hospitality. Lots of teachers are absent at the moment because they are marking public exams. They get paid extra for this and time off sch. to do it so why wouldn't they do it? i'm sure I would, if I was them. And of course the more people do it the more acceptable it becomes. We talked to a very conscientious VSO last weekend and he said he'd gone into sch. one day and found the situation very bad and had felt so heartily discouraged he went home and read a book all day. To be fair he had no classes of his own and would have been covering classes who would have no work and he'd have been improvising all day. Even so he would never do such a thing at home and seemed a bit puzzled by his behaviour. It seems almost inevitable that it will rub off.VSO are rightly concerned with the sustainability of our work. This means if they were hungry feeding them might seem best but actually some feeding and teaching agriculture would be better. Is training the teachers agriculture or in fact is teaching the children just as sustainable? More so if they are more receptive and actually act on what we teach. I realise I sound quite negative about the teachers but in fact I should emphasise that there are several excellent ones here.Tomorrow we are going to a game reserve (Mahango) so very excited and hoping to see some big game. We have our super binoculars (given to us as a farewell gift by my siblings and parents) ready and camera poised so you may get some pics next time!!! I realise that I'm hopeless Jean.Lots of love to all.The views expressed in this weblog are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of VSO.