Week in Windhoek and ongoing issues of transport
on Marika VSO-ing in Namibia (Namibia), 11/Jul/2010 11:22, 34 days ago
After weeks of requests and basic pestering for transport, I managed to borrow a government vehicle for the morning to visit one of the final schools in the region, inaccessible last term from the floods and consequently relocated. As the river is going down now the road opened up and after several warnings of the potential of getting lost on the way, I recruited John R (Inclusion Advisor) to join me and direct me. Thank goodness he did as we turned off the tar road into a network of mud-paths where I was forced to learn to use the extra gear stick of the 4WD. With John’s occasional funny but good advice of “let’s just go” as we could see the sand ahead get deep and loose we managed to arrive with only two involuntary stops and no need for pushing. An appreciated visit after I deferred my visit from the last two Wednesdays (my current non-teaching day) dueto the absence of the Maths teachers, it was nice to also meet a female Principal, who by pure initial impressions seems to be significantly less ‘corrupt’ than many of the others I’ve met. As I discover that one of the Maths teachers misses one week of school every month due to her studies,I wonder how they are still surprised with the poor results. It’s great to hear that teachers are studying, but with no system in place for teachers to be covered, I wonder if the line is ever drawn to put their current job as a priority before their professional development. On this same day a learner from my school stabbed another learner in the shoulder in class. This reminded me of working in London and seemed so out of character for these learners. The ‘victim’ was back in school the next day after stitches, something I’m not sure I would see at home.The issue of transport has been most irritating these days as I see colleagues at the regional office taking priority over my requests to visit rural school outside town when I just see them cruising around town because they don’t want to walk. Take a group of Nigerian ‘volunteers’ for example who are here and being paid ‘nicely’ at home simultaneously, and have their own drivers pick them up each day two by two to go to their schools, then for lunch, then for dinner every single day and for any other whim for the last 3 months whilst the rest of us are practically begging and pushing paper to get access to a vehicle for a few measly morning hours to visit a school. The Ministry seems to be able to provide the JICA (Japanese) volunteers with guest-house accommodation as their volunteering company refuse tolet them live with others and turned down our accommodation for reasons of safety. Is this a clear message that VSO volunteers will tolerate all of these things other volunteer companies don’t? Both VSO and the regional office need to ‘pull their socks up’ as Sara from the VSO office would say, but instead in typical Namibian character no-one will confront anyone.I was offered a surprising opportunity to go to Windhoek this week for a Science Week based at UNAM (University of Namibia) as a bit of a substitute as both the Science and Maths Advisory teachers were on leave. Although I hesitated at the thought of leaving during term time, I immediately accepted the opportunity in the hope that my current levels of cynicism might improve. Unfortunately it didn’t work this way in terms of work, although I had a fabulous time in the evenings with the Windhoek volunteers. Sadly the vast majority will be gone next month so I was so pleased to make the most of their company whilst I was there. Good food, nice accommodation, football, games, and even a tripto the cinema (mustn’t miss that opportunity when we find ourselves amongst development!). The actual Science Week ‘Workshop’ (a term here used for all types of training) was a wonderful insight into Namibian organisation of any event. Being the 6th time running, you would have thought therewas more time to get their acts together (here I know I should imagine what it was like the first year and what good progress has been made), but let’s start from the beginning. Late notification/invite to the Regional Offices led to late notification to us and consequently if I hadn’t told my Principal personally, he was only informed by phone on Friday afternoon (here they should have asked permission really). Late notification allowed enough of a margin of time for the Regional Office to neglect the information long enough to miss the deadline, resulting in a late request for transportand not just saying no, but maybe yes right up until Saturday afternoon. Saturday morning then, I followed my instinct and chose to start making my way beginning with an entertaining free hike from entertaining Peter in his MVA (Motor Vehicle Accident) Fund company car and his amusing 'No money no honey' t-shirt). I stopped in Rundu for the night and for a Braai with volunteers Martjin (Netherlands), Robin (UK), Cameron&Yvonne (Canada) and their delightful children. Cam and Yvonne have the same role as me in the Kavango region so it was nicely re-assuring talking to them as they reach the end of their placements and validate my experiences and challenges. Sunday morning then as I am waiting to be picked up as agreed by the Katima colleagues (bone idle Upper Primary Advisor and two teachers from the town Secondary schools) they eventually inform me they’re still in Katima and they ended up only leaving with their own private vehicle after 2pm to arrive in Windhoek at 5am Monday morning. Thankfully, I was able to make my own way to Windhoek.The Monday 8am start became 10am without notification for the lengthy opening ceremony, the highlights being the always entertaining traditional dancing and guests including the highly praises ex-President (who played a major role in Namibia’s Independence) and the first Chinese astronaut to go into space. The afternoon was left vacant which seemed a waste. As the week continues and we attend a combination of lectures and presentations that I think were aimed to educate the teachers (no one stated an aim throughout the week), at either a very basic level (UK primary teaching topics that surprisingly teachers here seemed never to have been taught) or too detailed that it went way over their heads (as some said, “It was all Chinese to me”). Some interesting presentations and activities involving other learners from Windhoekschools, but unstructured enough for most of the Educators (groups of teachers and Education Officers who had come from various regions like us) to slip off somewhere. Overall it was fairly disorganised and a bit irrelevant to me but also informative in parts, especially fruitful in speaking to thepresenters, other Educators from other regions and even one of the students. From one of the students it was a pleasure to hear her happiness to receive government funding that allowed her to study there, where she claimed would have not been an option without this funding. An example of a success story for the able, yet financially challenged students of Namibia. For the return journey I saw that I would be having to ride in the back of my colleagues’ bakkie all the way to Katima (primary reasoning because I am female and this is a given!) and as I heard the car was then going into the garage on the Friday (we were supposed to leave on the Saturday) and my colleagues seemed a bit reluctant at the thought of leaving at 6am in order to avoid driving North of the Red Line at night, I followed my instinct again and caught the overnight Intercape with Susan (Irish) back to Katima on the same day. This allowed me time to enjoy a full weekend to watch the final matches (I’m starting to wonder what a loss we’ll be at in the evenings when the World Cup is over), and to host another cool Kiwi couch surfer/world cyclist, Pete (http://slownomad.wordpress.com), who is cycling from Cape Town to Denmark who is providing us with some great cooking ideas.In this time, I have had a couple of Namibian women who I have maybe just met once randomly openly tell me they‘want to be my friend’. One lady from Katima even found my number from her office records at the Government Garage from my previous visits and called me just to tell me this. I find it beautifully honest, innocent and flattering to hear them say this expression so simply and directly, as it feels so genuine, but my cynical side also makes me wonder if there are any underlying motives here. I like to think not. It seems that they are just happy to exchange mobile numbers with the potential to meet again and have (in classic Namibian style) texting conversations (which I admit to not reallyparticipate in as much as maybe expected). But this would not be valid for the girl I met in Windhoek on the street, knowing I was in Katima and neither of us had any intention of going to the other place, so maybe not meeting in person in the foreseeable future. So is it just a way of saying thatyou like someone, are in interacting with them again, whichever this way may be? I wonder if this kind of expression would be accepted if I attempted to use it in the UK in the same manner.I've just finished reading Margaret Atwood's 'Alias Grace' and had my 6th and I hope final toenail fall off which I'll just take as a gentle reminder of the awesome Fish River Canyon hike. To do the 8-day Naukluft hike with no river for water or not to do?