Smugglers, Big Waterfalls, Rastas, A Big Lake, Infections, and Bribery in Africa: The Road to Malawi Pt. I

Our first trimester had just ended for 2014. I only had about four months left of service (leaving in September) and by then I had been able to travel to almost all of Namibia. On the coast I got to see Ludderitz, Walvis Bay, and Swakopmund. I was able to see the amazing sand dunes in Sossusvlei, the three central towns/city of Windhoek, Rehoboth, and Okahandja. I went out east near Botswana to see Gobabis and way northwest to see the Himbas in Opuwo. I’ve been through the central north in Ovamboland, covered the Kavango (my region), and to the far east into the Caprivi Strip. So for our last large holiday before the end of service I wanted to travel outside of Namibia and visit other countries in Africa. My nearest neighbors, Tim and Lindsey have been my most consistent travel buddies so we began to plan a trip to Malawi via Zambia. Meeting us there was also Kelsey and Sara, two incredibly hilarious girls who were going to meet us at our final destination, the idyllic Nhkata Bay in central Malawi. 

 

Kelsey and Sara by the river in Shamangorwa

My journey first started when Kelsey and Sara came up from central Namibia to visit my village. It was amazing to have guests, it gets real lonely in the village and I’ve spent many a Friday night staring at the wall and being in bed by 9:30. Having them over was awesome. They came over and I cooked a bunch of food for them (I bought too many things from the grocery store and I gave us a mission of finishing all the food in the house, we put in a valiant effort but we were unsuccessful, at least the village dog got to have a hearty meal when we left). Our plan was to hitch hike to Divundu (a small town 60 km from my village where volunteers where rendezvousing before we struck out into central Africa). Problem was that the main road was 7 km away. We ate a huge lunch that day, entered a food coma and tried to wait until the sun wasn’t so high before we started walking. As soon as we started to head out the door though, one of my teachers pulls up and gives us a ride in his car to the tar road. Once we are there we start flagging down cars for about 45 minutes while Sara and Kelsey are doing Sara and Kelsey things (dancing, acting weird, talking in strange voices, all that). Two lorries (sixteen wheelers) finally stop and take us to Divundu. Next, we jump into another car, get dropped off at the volunteer’s site in Divundu, crack open a bottle of wine, ate some homemade pizza (big up Steph!) with salami imported from the U.S and had a jolly night. 

Next morning we rouse ourselves and get back on the road and start hitch hiking the 300 odd kilometers to Katima Mulilo (means burning fire), the capital of the Caprivi region which is the border town to get into Zambia. We were a group of five, so not very good numbers for hitch hiking. We waited for about thirty minutes until two lorries came by. Turns out the two drivers were brothers and came from Rehoboth, the same town that Sara was working at. So Sara and Kelsey start speaking to them in Afrikaans and they agree to take us for free. There was only one stipulation, the police where recently cracking down on lorrie drivers who carried passengers so whenever we passed a police checkpoint we would have to find a way to hide. The lorrie driver told us that the fine was 3,000 Nam dollars (300 American). We didn’t want to get the drivers in trouble but they insisted that we would be able to hide and that it would be fine. Tim and I jumped into one while Lindsey, Sara, and Kelsey jumped into the other. If you’ve been inside a sixteen wheeler you know that there is the driver seat, the passenger seat, and the bed behind the seats for where the driver can rest. That is where we were sitting. 

 

The Dream Team - Tim, Lindsey, and I

I forgot the name of our driver, very cool guy though. He had an auxiliary cord so we were able to put in my Ipod and jam out together. We were 100 kilometers out when we came across our first police checkpoint. As soon as the driver saw it he yelled “get down, get down!” As it was only a small bed I pretty much had to lay down on top of Tim to hide. His hip was poking my head, very uncomfortable. Luckily these lorries are very tall so we weren’t seen. The police woman comes up, asks the driver for his license and registration, she also asks if he is traveling with anybody. He boldly says no, flirts and jokes with the police office for a little bit then we head out. We get up and start whooping and celebrating that we didn’t get caught. First time ever being smuggled past the police! Definitely gets the adrenaline pumping. About 50 km later there is another check point. This time it’s a man in an army uniform at the checkpoint. This man actually climbs up the lorrie and takes a look inside, we get up before he sees that we are hiding therefor avoiding pissing him off. He asks us where we are going, takes a look inside our bags, then speaks to the driver in Afrikaans. Turns out that the army does not really care about lorries giving people rides, they were more looking for drugs. Funny thing was that the soldier had told the driver to watch out for us Americans, that we could be dangerous. It was strange but then we reflected later that it must have something to do with the Illuminati. People in Namibia believe that Americans are part of some secret group called the Illuminati and that they are trying to take over the world. I still have no idea where this rumor started but it’s shocking to people here when we tell them that the Illuminati does not exist. Anyway, we all had a good laugh at that once we passed through the checkpoint.

 

Victoria Falls - Our first target in our trip

We go for another 100 km and the driver tells us that there is another police checkpoint ahead. He told us that at this one the cops where a bit more thorough so he dropped us off at a bridge .5 km before the checkpoint. The plan was for us to walk up to the checkpoint, go past it, and meet up with the driver on the other side. At the time it sounded like a good idea and that we would be able to make it look normal (the check point was in the middle of nowhere, two white guys emerging from the bush, walking by the checkpoint nonchalantly and disappearing again into the bush, not really normal). So the driver drops us off and Tim and I start walking. We adhere to the philosophy of if you walk around like you own the place nobody will bother you. So we tried that. We walked up to the police checkpoint where there was a line of cars and trucks, kept walking past the police with bravado but no actual confidence, and passed the checkpoint. We made it about 15 feet before one of the cops called us and told us to come back. We smile at the officer, shake his hand respectfully (handclap included), and put our brains into overdrive. “Where are you guys going?” Asks the officer. “Oh we are just going to Katima, we have a friend that is coming from that side and he is going to pick us up around half a kilo up the road” (This is when I realized how stupid of a lie we were trying to pull off). “You can’t go over there, there are wild animals! Call your friend and tell him to pick you up here!” Says the officer. “My phone is out of battery, I can’t really call him, it will be fine, he will come close” I said. “So just stay here, charge your phone in our office and he can come pick you up here.” (Oh oh!) At this point another less friendly officer comes and starts questioning us more aggressively, “where are you coming from, where are you going, who are you?” Tim and I did not want to talk to that guy, it seemed like he noticed that we were being suspicious but luckily at the same time the friendly officer asked “so what are you doing here in Namibia all the way from Europe? America?” Tim and I talked right over the short aggressive officer and tried to continue our conversation with the friendly officer. So we chatted with him for a bit, told him what we were doing, showed our passports, made some jokes, complimented him and his country and eventually the angry officer went away. The friendly officer takes us to the office to charge my phone, we enter and our bus driver was also there charging his. We pretend not to know each other (driver gives us a wink and smile while the officer isn’t looking) and I connect my phone. The officer seemed like he wanted to help us out so I ask the driver. “Hey how you doing man? Any chance you heading to Katima?” “Yes, yes of course, do you guys need a ride?” Replies the driver. So we agree on our ride and I ask the officer respectfully, “Sir, this man is also traveling to Katima, would it be alright if he helps us out?” By that time something else had distracted the officer so he just grunted in affirmative and we were off! Another close call but we made it!

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.