Site Visit

Goeiemore, goeiemiddag, or goeienaand! (depending on what time of day you are reading this)

This update begins in the sprawling metropolis of Rehoboth, Namibia. Actually, despite my sarcasm, Rehoboth is not all that small and is probably the 15^th or so biggest town in Namibia. As I said in a previous update, Rehoboth is the historical home of the Baster ethnicity, which is a specific group of Namibian coloureds. I’ll tell more about the Basters as I learn.

I’m actually wrapping up my visit at my homestay, sick. Other than picking up a Namibian flu, I had a very enjoyable and productive site visit in Rehoboth. From the PC supervisor workshop in Okahandja where we all met our principals, we drove down through Windhoek to Rehoboth. I met and ate with my host family on Friday, who I will stay with for the first 6 weeks of my service. On Saturday, I watched the All Blacks beat France in the Rugby World Cup with my future PC roommate and principal at his home. That evening, I went to a fundraising event where students were recognized for raising money for the school. There were also dance performances and skits from student groups. My principal introduced me to the whole school community and asked me to say a few words as well. The crowd applauded when I greeted them in Afrikaans and later in the event I had the honor of putting medals on the top three fundraising students. On Sunday, my host dad took me to a local soccer game, which provided a good chance to relax with some Namibians. The soccer was obviously not incredibly high quality but I found that wearing a Chelsea shirt was a good conversation piece as it seems most Namibians follow Premier League and Champions League avidly. My host family also took me by a lake resort about 7 kms outside of Rehoboth. It’s set up on a beautiful lake created by a damn surrounded by rolling savannas. Apparently there is also some wildlife on the grounds like giraffe and kudus, which I look forward to checking out.

My school (Rehoboth Primary School) is very nice and seemingly well run and organized. The grounds are kept very clean and there are several new buildings that were funded by donations from German, Namibian, and American companies. Included in these new facilities is a basketball court. So far my duties will be teaching upper primary (grades 5-7) and a couple of computer classes. I think I’ll also help set up a basketball team/town league and hopefully help with other sports (like rugby) as well. As I learn more about my school when we actually get to site, I’ll report more then.

To get back to Okahandja, a volunteer from a nearby town and I caught a ride with one the teachers from my school to Windhoek. In Windhoek, we fortuitously met up with 2 other volunteers also traveling from the south and got a ride for the 4 of us back to Okahandja in a taxi. Back in Okahandja, we all met up at bar in town and regaled each other with stories from our respective sites. What I’ve learned thus far is that the Peace Corps experience can vary incredibly, even within one country. My experience will be extremely different from volunteers who will be in northern Namibia. The north, I’m told, is much more densely populated, holding about at least half the population in a quarter of the country’s land. But, volunteers will tend to be in rural areas, possibly without electricity. I, on the other hand, will live in reasonably accommodated government teacher housing with a shower, refrigerator and freezer and work at a school with free, uncapped wifi. I believe I will also buy, with a Peace Corps stipend, a bike to ride to school. Many of you probably think I’ll be living the life but there are still hardships such as no Waffle Houses within thousands of miles.

The following week after site visit, we observed and then taught lessons at local schools. I went to a different school than I had gone to for the initial observations. I’m glad for that, as now I’ve seen three very different Namibian schools. Five Rand Primary is a much smaller school than Nau Aib Primary or Rehoboth Primary. There is only one class per grade and only seven or eight teachers on staff. I taught four lessons total, two of which were double periods. Overall, I think I did pretty well. The learners (I believe I have already told y’all how we are supposed to call students “learners”) are pretty well behaved even though we were told they didn’t practice corporal punishment at Five Rand. The lessons I taught ended up being review grammar lessons for the students but I still think I did well to elaborate on concepts like passive voice, conjunctions, and adverbs. I was anxious to teach but now that they are out of the way, I am excited (and more comfortable) for the prospect of teaching everyday. New challenges await in Rehoboth me aside from just giving lessons: learning names, giving marks, and coaching.