A Man, A Machete, and A Python

Mr. Rumeta the python tracker

This is the story of how I ran into a python, fought it, and won. I was out running with one of my fellow teachers, Mr. Rumeta. We were on the way back from a 10 k run, all of a sudden Rumeta stops and points to the ground. “That’s a python trail in the sand!” I looked over to the bush where it was heading and all of a sudden this big fat head of a snake pops up and starts slithering quickly towards me. I yell and start backing away. An old man holding a machete throws it to me and I catch Russell Crowe style in Gladiatior and in one smooth motion I decapitate that thang. Following that I started skinning and wore it as a belt on the way home. Used the rest for some new shoes. The head became my new belt buckle. My new name in the village is The Great Snake Killer and Savior of All Things That Are Good….. 

So how long did I have you for? Did you believe me until I said I wore it as a belt? Did you stop believing when I said I cut its head off? Well anyway I did see a python trail but that’s where the story stopped, I just wanted to get you to read this post! Sorry for the deception! Hope you like the rest! 

Before

<A few weeks ago> Just had another classic up and down Peace Corps day. I started with my grade 9 English classes and as usual I was having trouble communicating and teaching my kids. They just weren’t understanding what I wanted them to understand. After my first two classes I went to the library. For the past few weeks I have been organizing our library. It took a while to get to this point. The principal did not want anybody to touch the library because he was afraid that students and teachers would steal books. After a year and a half of cajoling, convincing, and charming him I finally got him to give me the keys to the library and to organize it. First off about our library, wow was it disorganized, books everywhere, dust collecting on every shelf, spiders, termites, ants. Took several days to clean it up. After that I began registering the books in the accession register. This means that I had to record every single book that we have in the library, write downs its name, author, publisher, year published, and language. I am going on 1,500 books right now.

After

It’s been a lot of work. But I’ve kind of enjoyed it, I’m getting to see what our library has in stock and I’m very impressed/excited for what our kids will be reading. I think we will end up with 2,000 books although my principal says he still had some locked up in his office so the number might be higher. Amazing for our school which is chronically underfunded and never had enough materials. I took a break for a few minutes and my principal came by. This year I got to reduce my teaching load by quite a bit, I am only teaching grade 9 English compared to grade 9 and 8 English and grade 9 geography last year. We started talking about how we had just received a new teacher from one of the top schools in Namibia to teach English at our school. She seemed like a very impressive lady, had even studied abroad in the U.S for six years which is an incredible rarity out here. My principal told me that if I wanted to I could move down to teach grade 8 or even not teach English at all therefore leaving me with no responsibilities besides being the school librarian. I am a bit self-conscious/defensive about my teaching skills. I have no idea if I really am a bad teacher or not but because my learners don’t perform as well as I would like them I always have a nagging voice in my head telling me that I am doing something wrong. So when my principal told me that I had the option to not teach anymore I took it as if I was being demoted. Felt pretty bummed for a few hours after that. I told him that I wanted to stay on with grade 9 and he accepted readily. Thinking about it now I think he was just trying to help me out, I am sure he has noticed that I am much more in my comfort zone working on projects for the school and communicating with learners outside of class rather than in the class teaching. But at the time I felt pretty down that I was asked to teach a lower grade or not teach at all.

My two cameramen and their nicknames

  

Later on in the day during afternoon study hours I walked by the grade 10 class. These were the grade 9’s that I taught last year. They all yelled “Mr. Andre!!!! Come in here we want to talk to you!” So I went in the class and everyone started talking at once, “Mr. Andre why aren’t you teaching us anymore? Mr. Andre we miss you! Mr. Andre we want to come by the library later and ask you some English questions!” I still can’t believe that last question! Back in the day when I had just arrived I could not get ANYBODY to speak in my class! And now they were calling on me and telling me that they had a bunch of questions! And so goes Peace Corps, feel like you’re in the dumps in the morning only to skyrocket back up a few hours later.

First came Kaveto Joseph (one of the kids I talked about in an earlier post), he was receiving small business advice from me, I had lent him my camera and he was taking pictures of students all over school. The students then tell him how many pictures they want, give him the money and I print them. It’s pretty cool seeing the entrepreneurial spirit, especially since this was completely his and his classmate’s idea. So he takes a bunch of pictures (I’ll post some here and on facebook if you want a better look) and he gives me a detailed list of who wants what pictures and how many copies; very professional. So he leaves and I continue registering the library books. During the past few weeks I had let some kids inside the library room to show some books, kind of build up the anticipation for the library opening. There are a few beautiful reference books about planet Earth jam packed with information so I pulled those out along with some illustrated encyclopedias. Six of the tenth graders came in and they started asking their English questions first, things such as complex and compound sentences. Then they started reading the books and got absolutely and completely absorbed in them.

My current grade 9's

Posing for pictures

After a few minutes they started peppering me with questions. There was one book about robotics and one of the kids, Mukuve Joseph began asking how he could build his own robot. I asked him how did he become interested in robotics and he told me that he used to work on the streets fixing all kinds of electronics and he had learned a lot about those things and wanted to increase his knowledge. Hustling on the streets is the way he put it, and it sounded right, he was taught by his older friends on the street and then put his knowledge to good use and made some extra money. Whole lot better than hustling drugs on the street. Another girl, Elfriede (you might remember from a previous post as my top student) asked about tsunamis. I then told them my story of how my family and I had been in Phuket in 2004 and survived the tsunami (I’ll post that story one day). Next topic was evolution and creationism! This is a deeply religious community and I’m pretty sure I’m the only one here that believes in evolution. I loved how they were asking these intelligent questions. I told them about my beliefs in evolution and how humans came to spread all over the world. I told them about the belief that humans evolved from apes and slowly migrated around the world. “Sir even white people?”, “Yes, even white people.” I then told them how people settled down everywhere and how over time people began to look different. They were especially interested about the Aborigines in Australia, they definitely didn’t believe me at first that the first people in Australia where black.

Then we moved on to careers! And they were initiating all these conversation! I didn’t make a single prompt or even ask a question, they just launched into it! Mukuve Joseph asked me, “Sir I want to keep working with machines and build robots, what can I do?” I told him, “Pass with high marks in high school and get yourself to a university. There take a specialized course where you can learn more about fixing electronics, you already have a natural talent for it and a base knowledge, university will take you to the next level.” Then he asked, “Sir I am always noticing how Namibians are suffering, I want to help them to” (I felt like a proud father at this moment). I suggested he get his degree in electronics start his own business, then get his own young apprentices, just like how he was helped when he was young. He could do the same thing to the next generation of kids and help them get jobs. “The number of electronics in Namibia is only going to increase so you picked a good profession to go into,” I advised him. Next was Elfriede, she asked me, “Sir how do I get a job where I get to move around a lot like you, and I am also interested in tourism, what should study in school to get that job?” I told her “Get your English to a very high level and go to school for tourism or hospitality and management.” I suggested to work at a lodge/hostel after, and not as a waitress or a cleaning lady, go for a big job, apply to be a manager. Work for some time there, learn the business, save some money then start traveling! Or even start your own lodge!

We talked for about two hours that afternoon. It was just amazing how much they had come along since I had first stepped into their class in January 2013. They were confident now! Actually starting conversations with me! In my close to two years here I haven’t ever felt the ‘fulfillment’ feeling that teachers are supposed to get when they teach. This afternoon though I finally got there and I need to admit, teaching is not my thing, I am never going to like it, but just to see how far my students were able to go, and how I was able to inspire them to reach way beyond what every other student at our school reaches for was amazing. It’s a bit presumptuous, but I honestly feel like I have made a life altering effect on a few of these kids. I do think that for a few of them I’ve opened a new world of possibilities for themselves, and the belief that they can achieve their goals. It’s an awesome feeling to have. Who knows maybe I’ll run into one of them later in life and they will tell me that they became some important wealthy person because of the advice I gave him/her. I do think that they have that potential and that they are also starting to believe that they have that potential. And I didn’t even believe that for most of my time here.         

The Year of Development at Shamangorwa S.S.S

-One of the teacher's at my school, Mr. Mukena, came up with the brilliant idea of starting a school newspaper. He asked me to contribute to the newspaper so here is my first article which is about all the development that has been going on at our school. It will also give you a good idea of the kind of work I have been doing outside of teaching. 

2013-2014 has been a time of many changes at Shamangorwa S.S.S. In the past year we have been able to build our first source of clean drinking water, there is internet at school, and the school library will soon be organized and ready for use. In the coming year we can also expect to have two new houses built for our wonderful teachers and for the construction of our much needed school hostel to begin.

Water Project: For many years our school has tried to find a way to bring water to our learners and teachers. Peace Corps volunteer Sam Schuna spent two years fighting to bring water to our school but because of lack of cooperation from neighboring villages the project could not move on. Once Peace Corps volunteer Andre Heard arrived he committed himself to work with the principal and teachers to make sure that our goal was accomplished. After many meetings in Rundu, the Office of Rural Water Supply agreed to finally build the borehole behind our school and provide water for our school and village. This came after the tragic death of one of our third graders who was killed after fetching water from the river. May she rest in peace and be joyful that the next generation of children will be safe. After the borehole was built, Principal Mayira and Mr. Heard decided that they wanted to continue our school’s development. So we contacted Kashoro Construction and they built pipes that went from the borehole to the school water tanks and to the teacher’s courtyard. (Many thanks to all the students who helped with the digging!) They also built two water taps at school and a tap near the headman’s courtyard so that the people from the village could also fetch clean water. With the project complete, learners no longer need to fetch dirty water from the river and can avoid becoming sick. Clean water is making our learners much healthier and allowing them to come to class more often and get high marks. 

Library: After years of no action in the library, Principal Mayira has decided that it is time to organize our stores of books and make sure that our learners are receiving knowledge from our large collection of books. So far we have 1,500 books in the library that are being organized and prepared by Mr. Heard so that they can be read by students. Principal Mayira has also promised more books to be brought in from the Administrative Office storerooms and it seems likely that our school will have close to 2,000 books for our learners and teachers to use in their pursuit of knowledge. Once the library is ready for use I encourage everyone to read as much as you can. This is the fastest way to learning English and improving your writing skills. It is also a fun activity to do and it will make sure that you learn about things that you have never even heard of before. At least one hour of reading per day should be everyone’s goal. 

Internet: After many telephone calls to Telecom, the Namibian cell phone provider has finally come and brought internet to our school. I cannot exaggerate how gigantic of an accomplishment this is for our school. The internet is a computer program that lets you read articles written from all over the world. It also lets you listen to music, watch videos, communicate with friends living in other countries, and find any information that you wish to find. Teachers will be able to use their laptops and computers to find any information they want, making sure that all of their lessons have the most accurate information possible. And learners, once the school has organized a computer lab you will also have the opportunity to use this wonderful tool. You will be able to watch videos of life in the U.S, look at pictures from Brazil, and even listen to music from Japan.

Hostel:  Principal Mayira and Mr. Heard spent many Fridays driving to town and speaking with your Ministry of Education. The purpose? To make sure a school hostel is built at Shamangorwa. As we all know our students suffer to come to school. Some walk from as far as the tar road, Tjova, or Mbambi. These are all unacceptable distances for a learner to be fully prepared and rested for class. In February the Deputy Director and Chief Education Planner of the Ministry of Education came to our school and announced that our school will be receiving a school hostel. The process will probably take several years but the process is starting. In the future instead of having to wake up at four in the morning and walking ten km to reach school you will be sleeping in the hostel, wake up at 6:00, get yourself ready and only have to walk a few meters to reach your classroom. After class you will even have lunch waiting for you, and it will only be a thirty second walk away. 

Teacher Housing: The Ministry of Education is paying special attention to our school this year. With the hard work and persuasion skills of Principal Mayira, our teacher courtyard is receiving two brand new concrete houses, complete with electricity and running water. In the meantime Mr. Mukuve has had to move houses as his had to be destroyed. Once the construction is done we will have space for Mr. Mukuve and three more teachers in the houses. Anybody that drives by our school will know that this is a place where the teachers and students are very serious about their education and are working hard every day to build a better future for our country.