Hello again!
Please excuse my long absence from the blogging world. My last post was a bit
on the depressing side of things so if you think that I might have gone and
hidden under a rock and stayed there, don’t worry I didn’t! The screen on my
laptop broke so I was out of the writing world for a bit. I tried writing on
paper but my hand can’t keep up with my thoughts so I didn’t continue with
that. One of my best friends, John Prager, is also working as a volunteer but
in China. He is working with fifth graders in a small town and we have been
exchanging correspondence through facebook and the great man even took the time
and sat down and wrote a letter for me (pen to paper!) and sent it all the way
to Namibia. Took about two months but it arrived and it was very nice to see
his chicken scratch handwriting again along with some pictures of our old times
together. I’ll write to you soon man, promise! I’m just on village time now and
these things take a while! Time really is a funny thing the more time you have
the less quickly you are able to work.
But now let me
try to catch all of you up on what’s been going on in the last fivish months.
After my breakdown I was able to come back to school and get back to work.
Looking back, those last few months are under a strange haze in my mind. But I
leaned on my other teachers and was able to get back into the swing of things.
My grade nines performed admirably during their final exams for English and
Geography. 89% of my class passed and I even got one A in English
(Congratulations Elfriede Mukoya)! There also some huge improvements from a few
kids that I had been trying to spend extra time with. Also, my oldest student,
a 29 year old, was able to pass. Here in Namibia once you pass grade 10 you are
eligible for the work force particularly the police force and the army. This
particular learner has been in and out of school for several reasons but his
determination has never wavered. Very responsible man who is trying his best to
reach his goal of graduating grade 10 and I am very proud that he has been able
to stick through and keep fighting towards his goal. Teenagers are the same everywhere, and we all
know how in high school people get picked on, made fun of, and excluded for the
most trivial of reasons. I am sure it has been the same for this student but he
has kept persevering and in a way he is one of the best role models for our students.
One other
student that I would like to highlight is Gabriel Anna. She is one of my best
grade nines. She is seventeen years old now and she came to our school in the
fifth grade. Anna and her entire family is from Angola. Our northern neighbor
is a much poorer country than we are (even though it contains the most
expensive city in the world, Luanda) and living conditions are even worse than
here. Last time I checked the life expectancy there is of 50 years. Her parents
decided to send her to school here in Shamangorwa as the educational system
here is more developed. Anna arrived with her fraternal twin, Victor, speaking
only Portuguese and not knowing a word of English or the local languages
Rumanyo/Gciriku and Thimbukushu. One of my fellow teachers spent every day with
them teaching English and the local
languages. This was in fifth grade. Now in grade nine Anna is one of my most
intelligent, charismatic, well spoken, and studious learners. During the year I
was giving my students vocabulary quizzes. Four new words per week. For the
third trimester I had a vocabulary tournament and Anna made it to the finals
with two other students. I was quizzing them on 25 of the 30 words but all
three were getting 100 % on the definition of the word and creating an original
sentence using the word. So I task them with all 30 words. Again these three
wonderful students get 100% and Anna after I return her quiz starts talking to
me in front of the class, “You see sir, I do not play! I am a serious girl! I
know these things!” One of my proudest and happiest moments of my time here,
I’m even getting a bit emotional as I remember it. My two biggest struggles
here have been to get the kids to work hard and to become confident. Now here
is Anna not only showing to the whole class that she has worked her tail off
and that because of that work she is now confident and even bordering on cocky!
To a lot of people cockiness is a sign of overconfidence and that there might
be a need for the person to tone it down. I’ve always been a fan of a bit of cockiness,
confidence is good but I think it is a beautiful thing when a person has
complete and utter confidence in themselves and aren’t afraid to show it. One
of the other finalists was also a girl and they both started dancing and
singing “Girls run the world! Girls run the world!” Wow, another great moment;
the community here is very male dominant and women are strictly supposed to
have children, raise babies, and take care of their man. Now I have these two
girls in my class that are confident and believe themselves to be capable of
succeeding in a male dominated country! To make Anna’s story even more
unbelievable is that she lives on her own. With four other younger children.
Who she alone cares for. No parents, no older brothers or sisters, no aunts,
nobody to help Anna, nobody for her to lean on when she needs help. I have no
idea how she is doing it. Her family sends her money from Angola and she raises
the other children who are in grade 7, 5, and 4. If anybody has ever had odds
stacked against her its Anna but she is always in class smiling, asking
questions, learning, and most important of all, succeeding. Anna is also one of
the prettier girls in our school which terrifies me, teenage pregnancy is so
high here and it’s certain that there are men who have intentions with her. I
pray that she can make it out of the village and its gravity which pulls too
many young men and women into early parenthood, alcoholism, and destitution.
I enjoy looking at statistics so I am
going to write down some of the learners who I am most proud of and how they
did compared to the class average. I don’t think I will be embarrassing them
too much by posting their grades online since they have no chance of using the
internet while in school. Also I decided to give you a bit of context on some
of these learners.
Class Average English : 52%. Top
performer : 82% Worst Performer 34%
Top Performers:
Elfreide Mukoya: First Trimester: 77%.
Third Trimester: 82%
Elfriede comes
from Walvis Bay which is a well-developed town in the south of Namibia,
education there is a lot better than in the Kavango area so her English is
light years ahead of most of her class. Intelligent girl who is always writing
very interesting essays. I just worry a bit since she is so above the rest of
the class here that I think the lack of competition might be causing her to try
less then she could. Also I wish our library was functioning so she could read
more. She has the potential to become a very strong writer. It was her first
year in the village so her adjustment must have been very difficult, especially
since she didn’t know the local languages. One of the few that can keep up when
I make jokes in class, the rest don’t understand when I make a joke. One of the
more popular girls who I am also hoping stays safe during the school holidays.
 |
| Anna and Elfriede |
Mukosho Thomas: First Trimester: 78%.
Third Trimester: 75%.
Thomas comes from Rundu and this is his third year in
Shamangorwa. Students from town usually have a more developed English and this
is definitely the case with Thomas. He is the class clown and if I have been
able to understand Namibian high school social life one of the more popular
kids in school. One of my favorite students, he is the one that is least scared
of talking to me and engaging in conversation. He has a bad habit of trying to
imitate my accent but I let it slide, imitation being the most sincere form of
flattery and all that. Thomas has high goals, most kids don’t know what they
want to do in the future but Thomas already knows that he wants to become a
banker. One of the younger kids in class, he is only 16 when the average age is
about 18. I would be surprised if he doesn’t pass all of the following grades
and graduates as one of the top kids at our school. Although most likely when
he passes grade ten he will move to another better school.
Gabriel Anna: First Trimester: 65% Third
Trimester: 73%
You have already
met Anna, she improved quite a bit from term one through to term three. Her
writing has especially improved. She was always able to write some of the most
sophisticated and original ideas in class but her grammar and word usage
weren’t the best but she has improved quite a bit. Also the best public speaker
in our class.
Kaveto Joseph: First Trimester: 68%
Third Trimester: 70%
Joseph
snuck up on me. I have 50 kids in my grade nine class and for whatever reason I
didn’t notice Joseph during term one. Second and third term though as I really
started learning names I began noticing that Joseph was consistently one of the
top performers of the class. A bit older, Joseph is eighteen years old, it seems
like a few years ago he wasn’t trying as hard in class as he is now which
caused him to repeat grades. Best friends with Thomas, these two make a
formidable combination of jokes, confidence, and curiosity. Many a times have
they asked to listen to hip hop on my Ipod and for me to explain what ‘Pac and
Rick Ross are saying. When my family were visiting we met him on the road with
his slingshot as he was hunting for birds so he could eat lunch. Very kind and
respectful and even though he didn’t really show it I am sure he was excited to
meet my family (the kids here are beyond shy towards people that they don’t
know). Favorite moment with Joseph: before the geography exam he came up to me
and said “Sir I will perform the best in class in the exam, I promise you” Lo
and behold he did! That’s the confidence that I like to see in my students!
 |
| Joseph being tough |
Mukosho Theresia: First Trimester: 68%
Third Trimester 70%
Rounding
out my top five is Theresia. Very shy girl, I don’t believe I have ever heard
her speak in class except for when I ask her a question directly. Seventeen
years old, she suffers from an eyesight problem and always sits right in front
of the blackboard. But she makes sure she takes notes on everything I say and
write down on the board, one of the better prepared students in my class. Also
delivered one of the funniest sentences I’ve read from a student in one of her
essays. The essay was about teenage pregnancy, she wrote “Lover boys (boyfriends)
are not good. They are always wanting to be with girls and eat candy without
the wrapper. We girls must stay away from the boys until after we pass grade
twelve.” One of the only metaphors I have seen the entire year, she was
basically saying that the boys here never want to wear condoms while having
sex. Probably not funny in the U.S but here where the reality is different I
couldn’t help but laugh at how she described the situation.
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