Happy 4th of July (7-4)

Last week all staff members were required to attend a meeting for all staff members of schools in our circuit, a division of the region. The meeting was scheduled from 11:00 to 3:00; so we had the first three classes before leaving. Teopaulina and I were the only two teachers to teach the third class, but we didn’t realize that the other teachers had left early until the end of the period. I think the learners knew, as their behavior was not good that day. When the staff left, the student teachers had sports activities for the learners for the rest of the day.

On the way to the meeting with Wilhelmina, we stopped at to purchase cooked food to eat for lunch. When we arrived at the school at 11:20, many other cars were arriving; so we ate our lunch in the car before going in. The meeting started at 11:50 and ended at 4:50 with a 15-minute break during which we went to the car and ate our snacks. When we left at the end of the day, we were given a wrapped hot dog, an apple or an orange, and a drink, which was the lunch we weren’t given due to lack of time.

The purpose of the meeting was to announce pass rates for all grades in all the schools in the circuit and to introduce the newly mandated Performance Management System. The first were read off the screen on which the print was so small that we couldn’t read it even though we were in the front. This took a long time. The Performance Management System is goals that have been set for all staff members each quarter, and we are to sign off that we have read them and be accountable for meeting them. Shades of performance-based evaluation that is espoused off and on in the U.S. The system was to start now—the July to September quarter—but there were so many questions about it and how it will be implemented and evaluated that they put off the starting date. The woman presenting it did a poor job, reading from her computer, the content of which was projected but was also too small and blurry to read from the front where we were sitting. She was scheduled for 30 minutes but spoke for 45 and then there were questions and discussion for another 45 minutes. The planners had not planned on this; so we were more behind on the timetable. As a result of the confusion and questions, each school will have someone who learns about it or will have someone from the region go to the school to explain the new system. I hope they learned from our day and did a better job with time management for the other circuits.

Fortunately, the last speaker was a motivational speaker who was pretty good. He was scheduled for 45 minutes with 45 minutes of discussion. He spoke for the whole time and then said we wouldn’t have discussion due to the late time, which was good.

The best part of the day was the school’s choir singing the national anthem and a couple other songs and their traditional dance group performing. The dancers performed a dance similar to what the learners have done at school on special days where a group of girls chant while two go to the front and do a fast step dance. They were quite good.

I left the meeting at 5:00 with Aina, and we went to the mall where her truck was parked. Then we went shopping before leaving. After stopping for gas, we went to Somewhere Ompundja to pick up the two learners who had gone to the meeting. We were there for half an hour while Aina made a number of phone calls, I think to figure out what to do with the girl. Of course it was dark by then, so she couldn’t drive fast of the back roads. I arrived home at 7:00. It was a very long day.

Thursday after school there was a sports competition with another school. A third of grade 9 learners and all the grade 10 boys were not in class due to preparing for the competition. The grade 10 girls and I had a good time. They did an oral story with each telling a short bit before passing it to the next girl. Then they wanted to sing. Two girls sang solos—English pop songs. While they sang, a couple of the girls got up and danced. It was fun to see them being themselves rather than formal learners. 

One of the tasks to prepare for the competition was marking the lines of the fields. These were small furrows in the sand. The boys played soccer, and Kapolo won; so they will go to the next level in Oshakati. 

The girls played netball, which I hadn’t seen before. It’s similar to basketball with different rules. One interesting difference is that when someone says she is throwing the ball into the net/basket (hoop in our case since there is no net), everyone stops. She stands still and lifts one leg while she throws the ball. One or two girls from the other team can try to block the ball but no one else goes near. The girls played well but did not win.

In the last three weeks I have seen two donkey carts, which I hadn’t seen before.

People have commented on how dry it is here this year. Wilhelmina told me that there is usually a lot of grass through July. This year there is none. Other teachers have commented on the lack of grass for the animals to eat. Aina is collecting paper for her goats. When I returned at the end of May, the lakes near the school were dry. During our meetings, Rachel told us that we might run out of water at our homes, which has happened to previous volunteers. If that happens, we’ll need to purchase water in town. Brita’s homestead ran out of water three months ago as they have only rain water, which there wasn’t much of this year. After talking to her, I really appreciate the water that is piped in here and that Kowmongwa fills the jugs for me every week. She has since left the country because of the water problem.

Saturday Hollyanne hosted a 4^th of July get-together for local Americans—WorldTeach and Peace Corps volunteers and the Filipinos who work at her school. I decided to be social and join them, especially since she was the host, as she has been friendly. I left home at 12:30 and arrived in Ondongwa at 4:00 with a half-hour stop at the mall. It was not a good hiking day for two reasons. One, afternoon is not a good time in general, and two, many people do not drive on the road now because it is in poor condition. They drive on back roads. I walked for an hour before a man stopped to pick me up Two cars had driven past very quickly, and two had indicated that they were turning off the road. Other than that there was no traffic. So, when the man stopped for me, I was especially grateful, and I was even more grateful when I entered the car and learned that he had air conditioning. The trip back took an hour less.

The party was good. I enjoyed chatting with several of the young Peace Corps folks and with a few of the Filipinos. Food was good. After eating, the young folks played drinking games and sang karaoke. There was talk of us WorldTeach folks singing a song, but, fortunately, that didn’t happen before I left. I had a room in a nearby hostel so I could take my old, unsociable self there and not have to hang out with the others all night. When the Filipinos left at 8:15, I hitched a ride with them, as I was done being sociable. Hollyann thanked me for joining them, which was nice. I was looking forward to having a shower. It wasn’t a great shower, but the water was hot and it flowed out of the shower head on the wall. So I was happy. It was also nice to be able to turn the lights out when I wanted to.

I took chips to school for the holiday, which everyone appreciated. They disappeared very quickly.

On the way to school Monday morning I came upon Helena threshing the last of the millet.

The winter solstice has come and gone. Around that time, morning temperatures were so cold—low 50s according to MSN—that I needed my hood during the early morning—just after sunrise— walk to the toilet. I was also filling the cup with boiling water so I could hold it to warm my hands after this walk. Now there is a need for neither of these extra measures to keep warm. At the same time, when I wore long sleeved t-shirts, I was hot during the afternoon; so I stopped wearing them. MSN reported high temperatures in the upper 70s and low 80s. I still use two blankets at night, and I still wear a sweater to school, removing it before 8:00 most days.