So, I've now seen rain on the continent of Africa. That's pretty cool, especially since Namibia is so dry, but it rained a little today. It started out as a little drizzle, that got us all very excited, and then really started to come down for a few minutes. It was really refreshing.
Anyway, you might be wondering why I haven't posted in about three forevers. It's mostly because I'm lazy, but I've actually been super busy the past couple of weeks. Before leaving for Swakopmund I had a big paper due, and then I was sans internet for 5 days, and I've now had a lot more work to do since I've been back, both with school and with planning my fall break trip to Victoria Falls, which is going to be SUPER AWESOME.
Swakopmund (known to the locals as Swakop, for short) is a touristy costal town where you can feel the German influence much more than you can in Windhoek. Most of the architecture is very German, there are more signs and things written in German, and there are a lot more German tourists, so you here the language everywhere. The ocean is really beautiful there, but it's much colder on the coast than it is in Windhoek, so it was too cold to spend all our time on the beach. A good portion of our time there we were free to just explore the city and do fun things, although we did have some educational things to do during the day, like visiting some NGOs and talking to government officials, mostly about free trade--there's a big important harbor near Swakop called Walvis Bay which is an Export Processing Zone, which basically means foreign businesses can come there and set up factories and the like with no tax and little government intervention. It was decently interesting, although all the educational stuff was not quite as organized as it could hve been.
We had Saturday completely off, and a lot of people had already planned things like ATVing on the dunes and going on marine-life boat tours. A few of us just decided to wing it when we got there. 'd heard of something called sandboarding, which is basically snowboarding down dunes, but didn't really know too much about it. However, I randomly met a guy who was staying at the same backpackers' lodge that we were who worked for a sandboarding company and gave us really good rates. It was a blast! We graduated to bigger and bigger dunes over the course of the morning, and also got to slide down a really steep one on these waxed pieces of masonite. It was awesome. Once Laurie gets the pictures onto her computer, I'll try to share some. The desert is really amazing there. First of all, it comes right up to the ocean. So driving along the coast, if you look out one window, you could be in the middle of Saudi Arabia, and if you look out the other window you could be on the Oregon coast. It's really quite remarkable. And then once you're over the first row of dunes, it's just sand as far as you can see in any direction, which is simultaneously mind-boggling and breath-taking. We had a lot of fun exploring the city, too, we found some fun little restaurants and clubs, and spent a good deal of time being really cold on the beach.
There's not all that much else to report, really. We leave for the North, which includes our rural homestays and going to the Etosha game reserve on Sunday or Monday, and the six of us in our fall break group (Me, Lizz, Christiana, Kayla, Maggie and Caitlin) are going to catch a bus straight from there to Livingstone, Zambia to hang out at Victoria Falls. There's a lot of cool stuff to do there, and we'll probably venture into Botswana a little bit as well--we're really just winging it, while staying at a really cheap (US$8/night) backpackers' hostel. There are some really cool things to do there that I will be to scared to do, like bungee jumping into the gorge of the falls, and going swimming at a still pool right at the edge of the 400 ft falls, with 500 million liters of water around you rushing over the edge every minute. Those would be cool stories to have, I just don't think I'm up for that adventure.
Right now I should be working on this resreach paper. The prompt is to talk about one aspect of globalization and how it's either helping or hurting society, so I'm looking into philanthropy/social welfare projects and philsophies of multinational corporations and the theories behind them. It's pretty interesting, althoguh I'm kind of sick of the paper. Like everything in the world of development, there's a lot of both good and bad involved in it.
My internship is going pretty well too. I don't absolutely love it, and I still sometimes feel like I'm floundering in the classroom, but I'm defintiely starting to have a better time there, and occasionally feel like I'm really doing something useful. Monday I only had six kids, so I did a math tournament with basic math facts the whole time, which was pretty fun, and today we sort of rambled and talked about a lot of things, and then I tried to teach them about past tense verbs, esp. irregular ones (I got the idea to do that because I noticed that nobody knew how to make "fight" past tense when I had them write about Sam Nujoma, who was the first president of Namibia). I think that went over decently. I did struggle a bit philosophically, because I was told to tell them that they weren't allowed to speak Damara in the classroom (apparently a lot of them had been swearing or something). I'd already been thinking a lot about mother-tongue education and how it's probably so much better, so that really hit home for me. Especially because the catalyst of the Soweto uprisings in '76 was Afrikans being used as the medium of education in Black schools. I don't really see all that much difference with Black children in Namibia and South Africa (and at Hispanic people in the States) having to learn everything in English. So that's something that I'm struggling with, and not really expecting to get any answers on. Although maybe some insights will grow as I continue my work and study
I think the only other interesting thing that I have to report is that this morning we went and saw a really interesting speaker who is a pastor at the Dutch Reformed Church, which if you happen to know anything about the history of Southern Africa, you'll know was pretty much the church of Apartheid, which makes sense being an Afrikaner institution and all. This guy was far from a bigot, though. He grew up in the Church but always had serious problems with Apartheid (all his playmates growing up were Black South Africans, to the point that for a while when he was little he thought in Zulu). He became a pastor in the mid-80s right around the time that the church was changing its positions, and was a voice in favor of doing so. He's still pushing for more liberalization of the church, and to the chagrin of a lot of his parishioners, welcomes homeless people into the church on a regular basis. He also had some cool political views. For one thing, he was very much for mother-tongue education, which was refreshing, although, that brought up the question of whether or not that would de-facto re-segregate the schools, and whether or not that cost was worth the benefits. He was also very much wary of any sort of foreign, or even internal, aid, because he thinks--and I agree, mostly--that the people receiving the aid must determine what form the help takes. You have to ask people what they need and provide it instead of just decided what they need and giving that to them. That, he said, is a form of modern Apartheid. It was interesting that he talked so much about that, since it's a lot of what we've been discussing in Development class. He also shared, which I thought was cool, that in the Dutch Reformed Church, the highest paid employee is allowed to earn no more than seven times the lowest paid employee. Which not only keeps things more level but makes it so that if the head honcho wants to give himself a raise he has to bring everyone else up with him. He said a lot of other cool thing that I'm not remembering right now, but if you're interested feel free to ask, and I'm sure I can pull some stuff out.
Anyways, I think that's all for now. Don't hesitate to ask anything!
I now need to either get some work one or go to bed
Best,
Jimmy
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Fasting in the Desert
Hey all,
A meaningful fast to any of you Jews. I'm on a break between services right now and listening to the Knights' (Carleton a capella) version of Apologize by One Republic, cuz we thought that would be appropriate, and we couldn't find Sorry to play or Atonement to watch.
So it's been awhile. Sorry about that, I've been pretty busy, both with class and related activities, as well as just trying to enjoy Africa as much as possible. My homestay finished up pretty well. Last Saturday I got to see both the Katutura hospital, which was kinda depressing, but interesting, cuz we were visiting my sister--she was feeling a lot better though, so that was good--and then to Oscar's workplace at a small airport, because he got called in on Saturday. It was cool to see what he does, which is basically manage a warehouse of cargo, and we met one of his co-workers who was pretty awesome. On the way home we stopped at the graveyard to visit their son who died three years ago when he was 6 months old. It was really sad, both for obvious reasons, and also because a lot of the graves didn't really have headstones and most were not well-kempt. I told Oscar about the tradition of putting a stone on headstones, and he really like that idea. Sunday was pretty ueventful, until I left. I did go to church, which I was upset at the time about having been 3 and a half hours of no English (it was mostly Oshivambo, and some Afrikaans) but then I realized that that's what this morning at Shul was. Granted it's different, but this morning put that in perspective a little bit.
Also, from a funny but also sociologically interesting perspective sometime Saturday or Sunday my little 5 year old cousin decided I was from a tribe called Damara, and started saying really mean (for a 5-year old) things to me because of it like "go away, you are Damara" and "i'll beat you, you are Damara." She seemed like she was just joking around, but it's still interesting that that would even be somethign she would think about, and it really highlights the strife that exists between different black ethnic groups within Namibia. We learned a little more about this on Thursday in history class. We heard from a speaker who had been detained along with 1-3 thousand others by SWAPO during the liberation struggle on the false suspicion that they were spies for the South African Army. Terrible things were done to thsese people, and SWAPO still refuses to talk about it. When I asked her how they went about "deciding" who to expect, she basically said that anyone who wasn't Ovambo was more likely to be detained than to not be. It's interesting that people fighting against racial discrimination will commit the same things within their own group. I guess power corrupts, or something like that. The experience of hearing this woman speak was especially interesting because earlier on Thursday we'd gone to see Heroes' Acre, which is the monument to all of the freedom fighters, and basically glorifies the SWAPO struggle. Now, of course they did something very good for Namibia and Namibians, but it was really fascinating and important to see both sides of the story.
Back to the home stay real quick. Leaving was, I think, an overall good thing, but not completely. While I'm glad to be back here at the house, I do feel like I'm experiencing Namibia a little less fully, y'know, a little more like I'm just in Europe or something. It was a really good experience to have had though, overall, despite its hardships, and I definitely want to go back there for dinner or something a few times.
My itnernship is going pretty well, although it's kinda unorganized--I'm never really sure what grade I'm going to have until I get there, although it seems as though they've settled me at 3rd grade as my go-to. I've found it a little hard to keep their attentions, and to figure out exactly where they're at. But all of that will come with time. I'm also not totally sure whether or not what I'm doing is all that helpful. Neither me, nor any of the other volunteers, really, have much experience in education, and its inconsistent who's there on a given day and what exactly they'll be doing. I mean obviously it's something, and it's always going to be an uphill battle, but I feel kind of inutile there a lot of time.
Classes are pretty good. I feel liek I'm learning a lot, although it's kinda weird to be back now consistently in a more regular schoolish setting. granted it's not the same structure, we have long (4 hour) classes, once a week per class, and often a lot of that class time is taken up by field trips and/or speakers, but it's still weird having assignments and papers and stuff while being in such a different setting. Also, a lot of the assignments are personal reflections, which I see the use of, but I feel like there have been too many, and I really don't like them all that much. But at least they're not too hard. I do have a couple of real papers coming up though, so that should be cool.
Aside from that, I've also still managed to find some time to hang out by the pool and go to the 'Box. We went for dinner on Thursday. They have a braii (Afrikaans for bbq) on Thursdays and Sundays, so we went to check it out. It was pretty good, and a springbok sausage (tasted pretty much like regular sausage) and some oryx which was pretty good, but took longer to cook than a regular steak would for some reason.
That's about it from here for now. Yom Kippur is alright, it's like 4:30 so I'm getting into the hungry stage (home stretch though!) Temple is a little weird. I have the same issues with it that I did on Rosh Hashannah, only Hebrew, kinda impersonal, too much self-guided/not enough communal etc. Although the Canadian guy has been leading so some of his tunes are familiar, esp. for like the Aleinu and stuff. Anyways it's still nice to be in temple ,adn comforting to know that my family and Jew-friends are doing the same things today (at least the ones who don't suck at being Jewish, I'm looking at you Ethan and Zoe). Anyways, we're going to head back to temple now for Ne'ila and so that I can atone for that last statement.
I'll post again before Wednesday when we leave for the coast for 5 days.
Good shabbes and good yontiff, and peace out!
-jimmy
A meaningful fast to any of you Jews. I'm on a break between services right now and listening to the Knights' (Carleton a capella) version of Apologize by One Republic, cuz we thought that would be appropriate, and we couldn't find Sorry to play or Atonement to watch.
So it's been awhile. Sorry about that, I've been pretty busy, both with class and related activities, as well as just trying to enjoy Africa as much as possible. My homestay finished up pretty well. Last Saturday I got to see both the Katutura hospital, which was kinda depressing, but interesting, cuz we were visiting my sister--she was feeling a lot better though, so that was good--and then to Oscar's workplace at a small airport, because he got called in on Saturday. It was cool to see what he does, which is basically manage a warehouse of cargo, and we met one of his co-workers who was pretty awesome. On the way home we stopped at the graveyard to visit their son who died three years ago when he was 6 months old. It was really sad, both for obvious reasons, and also because a lot of the graves didn't really have headstones and most were not well-kempt. I told Oscar about the tradition of putting a stone on headstones, and he really like that idea. Sunday was pretty ueventful, until I left. I did go to church, which I was upset at the time about having been 3 and a half hours of no English (it was mostly Oshivambo, and some Afrikaans) but then I realized that that's what this morning at Shul was. Granted it's different, but this morning put that in perspective a little bit.
Also, from a funny but also sociologically interesting perspective sometime Saturday or Sunday my little 5 year old cousin decided I was from a tribe called Damara, and started saying really mean (for a 5-year old) things to me because of it like "go away, you are Damara" and "i'll beat you, you are Damara." She seemed like she was just joking around, but it's still interesting that that would even be somethign she would think about, and it really highlights the strife that exists between different black ethnic groups within Namibia. We learned a little more about this on Thursday in history class. We heard from a speaker who had been detained along with 1-3 thousand others by SWAPO during the liberation struggle on the false suspicion that they were spies for the South African Army. Terrible things were done to thsese people, and SWAPO still refuses to talk about it. When I asked her how they went about "deciding" who to expect, she basically said that anyone who wasn't Ovambo was more likely to be detained than to not be. It's interesting that people fighting against racial discrimination will commit the same things within their own group. I guess power corrupts, or something like that. The experience of hearing this woman speak was especially interesting because earlier on Thursday we'd gone to see Heroes' Acre, which is the monument to all of the freedom fighters, and basically glorifies the SWAPO struggle. Now, of course they did something very good for Namibia and Namibians, but it was really fascinating and important to see both sides of the story.
Back to the home stay real quick. Leaving was, I think, an overall good thing, but not completely. While I'm glad to be back here at the house, I do feel like I'm experiencing Namibia a little less fully, y'know, a little more like I'm just in Europe or something. It was a really good experience to have had though, overall, despite its hardships, and I definitely want to go back there for dinner or something a few times.
My itnernship is going pretty well, although it's kinda unorganized--I'm never really sure what grade I'm going to have until I get there, although it seems as though they've settled me at 3rd grade as my go-to. I've found it a little hard to keep their attentions, and to figure out exactly where they're at. But all of that will come with time. I'm also not totally sure whether or not what I'm doing is all that helpful. Neither me, nor any of the other volunteers, really, have much experience in education, and its inconsistent who's there on a given day and what exactly they'll be doing. I mean obviously it's something, and it's always going to be an uphill battle, but I feel kind of inutile there a lot of time.
Classes are pretty good. I feel liek I'm learning a lot, although it's kinda weird to be back now consistently in a more regular schoolish setting. granted it's not the same structure, we have long (4 hour) classes, once a week per class, and often a lot of that class time is taken up by field trips and/or speakers, but it's still weird having assignments and papers and stuff while being in such a different setting. Also, a lot of the assignments are personal reflections, which I see the use of, but I feel like there have been too many, and I really don't like them all that much. But at least they're not too hard. I do have a couple of real papers coming up though, so that should be cool.
Aside from that, I've also still managed to find some time to hang out by the pool and go to the 'Box. We went for dinner on Thursday. They have a braii (Afrikaans for bbq) on Thursdays and Sundays, so we went to check it out. It was pretty good, and a springbok sausage (tasted pretty much like regular sausage) and some oryx which was pretty good, but took longer to cook than a regular steak would for some reason.
That's about it from here for now. Yom Kippur is alright, it's like 4:30 so I'm getting into the hungry stage (home stretch though!) Temple is a little weird. I have the same issues with it that I did on Rosh Hashannah, only Hebrew, kinda impersonal, too much self-guided/not enough communal etc. Although the Canadian guy has been leading so some of his tunes are familiar, esp. for like the Aleinu and stuff. Anyways it's still nice to be in temple ,adn comforting to know that my family and Jew-friends are doing the same things today (at least the ones who don't suck at being Jewish, I'm looking at you Ethan and Zoe). Anyways, we're going to head back to temple now for Ne'ila and so that I can atone for that last statement.
I'll post again before Wednesday when we leave for the coast for 5 days.
Good shabbes and good yontiff, and peace out!
-jimmy
Friday, September 10, 2010
More on the Homestays
So this morning I had class, and there was this really really interesting speaker. He was talking about how Namibia has the largest inequality between rich and poor in the world, and then talked about some of the reasons for that and solutions to the problem. Aside from the obvious legacy of apartheid, was the fact that Namibia gained independence in 1990, as the Soviet Union was falling and Reganomics was the name of the game. So, private property became sacred in the constitution, so any redistribution became impossible, which only hindered redevelopment. Further, the prevailing idea of Black economic empowerment didn't do all that much structurally, as this speaker said it only changed the CEO from Mr Schultz to Mr Okavonga. This man was working on a project called the Basic Income Grant, which would provide every Namibian under the age of 60 regardless of any other factors with N$100 a month unconditionally. The rich people would give the money back via taxes, and any conditional program necessarily leave people out, so it seems like a pretty decent idea. He also had this theory that was interesting in which African countries would refuse to export raw materials, to force production to stay in the country creating jobs and bringing in business. Also seems like a pretty cool idea. Anwyas, that was just an interesting experience that I wanted to share.
And one more before I start talking about the homestay in earnest. Last night I went to services for the second night of Rosh Hashannah (Caitlin and I went the first night too, which was really nice, but didn't go in the morning b/c we had class) The service itself was unremarkable, but these two black-hats from Joburg who had come up for the Holidays invited us back to the place that they were staying. Pretty awesome to be having Rosh Hashannah dinner with 8 Jews in Windhoek. But on the walk over Caitlin noticed that one of the other girls was wearing a Boston University shirt, and she asked where she was from, and turns out she's from Missouri, which is crazy since Caitlin is from St Louis. But that's still not the crazy part. So we asked why she's in the area, and she was studying dance for the semester at the U of Cape Town and taking her "spring" break backpacking and hitchhicking by herself through southern Africa. She'd been in Zambia the previous day and gotten a ride to the border with a diamond smuggler and then taken a bus to Windhoek. Also crazy, still not the craziest part. So we kept talking and it turns out that she goes to U of I, and is best friends with a friend of Ethan and Adrienne. I know this guy too, and she knows Ethan and Adrienne!! Small world, huh? (especially among us Jews)
So. On to the homestay..
I'm living with Oscar Shikeva, his wife Hllma, his three kids Mathheus (17) Anna-Marie (15) and Saraphina (12) and Hilma's niece Lilly (5) who's really cute but a bundle of energy. It's just been a really really interesting experience. As I've described, they are quite poor, so the inequalities we've been talking about in class are really self-evident--or just when you think about how our house has 4 people and 3 stories, and they're 6 people crammed into this little house. But the community is pretty tight. I was over at Kevin's host fmaily's house (he lives just across the street) and they were serving dinner, and I said that I didn't need any, I was just visiting, but the mother said "There's always enough, even for the guests." Which really struck me, because it's totally not a sentiment that you'd usually hear in the U.S, where we have so much more--so that's something to think about.
I'm glad I've been living close to a couple of other kids, because that means we see eachother some times and get to talk about the experience, which I think is really important. I think that that's where the learning and growing really happens. Kevin, Alissa, and I talked the other day about what to do with this experience when we get home. Is it enough to just be more aware of how different people live, and the systems that cause those problems? We decided that it probably wasn't really enough, but we didn't really get at what would be. But that discussion still helped me feel better about the experience as a whole. As did seeing some cultural things, like a wedding last saturday, and that party afterwards. Both of my parents sang in the choir which was pretty cool. They also had a Boyz-2-Men style R&B band, which was fun. There was also a party later that afternoon, and I've never seen that much food. It just kept coming! We hung out in a room with my parents' choir friends which was cool, since there was a lot of singing. The next day was hard, though, despite cultural experience. We went to regular chucrh, which was like two and a half hours, none of which was in English, so I ended up making silly faces with the toddler sitting in front of me, since neither of us knew what was going on, that was pretty okay. But later we went to what was supposed to be a baptism party out in the informal settlements. It was supposed to start at 3, but ended up not really starting til 5, and even when it did start nothing really happened .So it was a lot of me sitting around an extremely impoverished neighborhood with the music too loud for me to talk to anyone outside of a one-room tin shack. So that was pretty tough on me.
They also don't do all that much, so being at their house is a little bit boring. While I've had some good conversations, especially with my father, and occasionally play cards with the kids (I taught the son Casino!) or help them with math, which I'll get to in a sec. But really, they spend most of their time in front of the TV. Not that this is any product of poverty or Namibian-ness, it's just an observation. They also don't seem to have many books in the house, so I bought them each a book as a gift, including Bartholomew Cubbins and the 500 Hats!
So the education system seems to be really floundering here despite the fact that apparently the Namibian gov't spends more per student on education than any other African country. Apparently throwing money at problems is not the only solution. But yeah, my 17 year old host brother is struggling really hard with even very very simple mental math. I learned at my internship the other day that the school day consists only of 4 45-minute classes, which just doesn't seem like enough to educate anyone properly. And of course the quality of education still reflects old Apartheid ways. You have great education in the fancy, formerly all-white, now mostly white, expensive private schools in Windhoek. Then the schools in nice neighborhoods in town, again, mostly white, and now white and neavuau-riche black, and then the township schools, like the ones in Katutura, and then out in the bush. When unemployment is through the roof, and people are starving, a good education is one of the only ways out, and if people aren't getting that, things won't get better. They also don't seem to get any education about non-Christian religions (although I don't know if its all that relevant that they do) since my brother seemed very confused about being Jewish meant.
People do seem to have ways of making ends meet. Aside from both parents working, they also sell cell phone minutes out of their house ( a relatively common practice, nobody has plans here, they just buy prepaid minute cards) and Oscar has a meat saw in the (tin) garage, and HIlma makes extra food most days that both of them sell at work. It's encouraging that people have the initiative to do what needs to be done, but disappointing that that needs to happen.
They do seem to live pretty happily though, although one of the daughters has epilepsy, and between yesterday and this morning she had a number of small seizures and was taken to the hospital this morning, but she's doing okay. I can't even imagine being in that financial situation and having to deal with a chronic condition like that.
Anyways, those are my major impressions so far. If you have any questions about my experience at all, don't hesitate to ask, and I'm sure I'll think of something to add later.
Not sure what the homestay plans are for this weekend, although I've got some homework i should do while I'm there. And we come home Sunday afternoon. Which is mostly exciting, but I am having a good, although definitely tough, experience in Katutura.
And one more before I start talking about the homestay in earnest. Last night I went to services for the second night of Rosh Hashannah (Caitlin and I went the first night too, which was really nice, but didn't go in the morning b/c we had class) The service itself was unremarkable, but these two black-hats from Joburg who had come up for the Holidays invited us back to the place that they were staying. Pretty awesome to be having Rosh Hashannah dinner with 8 Jews in Windhoek. But on the walk over Caitlin noticed that one of the other girls was wearing a Boston University shirt, and she asked where she was from, and turns out she's from Missouri, which is crazy since Caitlin is from St Louis. But that's still not the crazy part. So we asked why she's in the area, and she was studying dance for the semester at the U of Cape Town and taking her "spring" break backpacking and hitchhicking by herself through southern Africa. She'd been in Zambia the previous day and gotten a ride to the border with a diamond smuggler and then taken a bus to Windhoek. Also crazy, still not the craziest part. So we kept talking and it turns out that she goes to U of I, and is best friends with a friend of Ethan and Adrienne. I know this guy too, and she knows Ethan and Adrienne!! Small world, huh? (especially among us Jews)
So. On to the homestay..
I'm living with Oscar Shikeva, his wife Hllma, his three kids Mathheus (17) Anna-Marie (15) and Saraphina (12) and Hilma's niece Lilly (5) who's really cute but a bundle of energy. It's just been a really really interesting experience. As I've described, they are quite poor, so the inequalities we've been talking about in class are really self-evident--or just when you think about how our house has 4 people and 3 stories, and they're 6 people crammed into this little house. But the community is pretty tight. I was over at Kevin's host fmaily's house (he lives just across the street) and they were serving dinner, and I said that I didn't need any, I was just visiting, but the mother said "There's always enough, even for the guests." Which really struck me, because it's totally not a sentiment that you'd usually hear in the U.S, where we have so much more--so that's something to think about.
I'm glad I've been living close to a couple of other kids, because that means we see eachother some times and get to talk about the experience, which I think is really important. I think that that's where the learning and growing really happens. Kevin, Alissa, and I talked the other day about what to do with this experience when we get home. Is it enough to just be more aware of how different people live, and the systems that cause those problems? We decided that it probably wasn't really enough, but we didn't really get at what would be. But that discussion still helped me feel better about the experience as a whole. As did seeing some cultural things, like a wedding last saturday, and that party afterwards. Both of my parents sang in the choir which was pretty cool. They also had a Boyz-2-Men style R&B band, which was fun. There was also a party later that afternoon, and I've never seen that much food. It just kept coming! We hung out in a room with my parents' choir friends which was cool, since there was a lot of singing. The next day was hard, though, despite cultural experience. We went to regular chucrh, which was like two and a half hours, none of which was in English, so I ended up making silly faces with the toddler sitting in front of me, since neither of us knew what was going on, that was pretty okay. But later we went to what was supposed to be a baptism party out in the informal settlements. It was supposed to start at 3, but ended up not really starting til 5, and even when it did start nothing really happened .So it was a lot of me sitting around an extremely impoverished neighborhood with the music too loud for me to talk to anyone outside of a one-room tin shack. So that was pretty tough on me.
They also don't do all that much, so being at their house is a little bit boring. While I've had some good conversations, especially with my father, and occasionally play cards with the kids (I taught the son Casino!) or help them with math, which I'll get to in a sec. But really, they spend most of their time in front of the TV. Not that this is any product of poverty or Namibian-ness, it's just an observation. They also don't seem to have many books in the house, so I bought them each a book as a gift, including Bartholomew Cubbins and the 500 Hats!
So the education system seems to be really floundering here despite the fact that apparently the Namibian gov't spends more per student on education than any other African country. Apparently throwing money at problems is not the only solution. But yeah, my 17 year old host brother is struggling really hard with even very very simple mental math. I learned at my internship the other day that the school day consists only of 4 45-minute classes, which just doesn't seem like enough to educate anyone properly. And of course the quality of education still reflects old Apartheid ways. You have great education in the fancy, formerly all-white, now mostly white, expensive private schools in Windhoek. Then the schools in nice neighborhoods in town, again, mostly white, and now white and neavuau-riche black, and then the township schools, like the ones in Katutura, and then out in the bush. When unemployment is through the roof, and people are starving, a good education is one of the only ways out, and if people aren't getting that, things won't get better. They also don't seem to get any education about non-Christian religions (although I don't know if its all that relevant that they do) since my brother seemed very confused about being Jewish meant.
People do seem to have ways of making ends meet. Aside from both parents working, they also sell cell phone minutes out of their house ( a relatively common practice, nobody has plans here, they just buy prepaid minute cards) and Oscar has a meat saw in the (tin) garage, and HIlma makes extra food most days that both of them sell at work. It's encouraging that people have the initiative to do what needs to be done, but disappointing that that needs to happen.
They do seem to live pretty happily though, although one of the daughters has epilepsy, and between yesterday and this morning she had a number of small seizures and was taken to the hospital this morning, but she's doing okay. I can't even imagine being in that financial situation and having to deal with a chronic condition like that.
Anyways, those are my major impressions so far. If you have any questions about my experience at all, don't hesitate to ask, and I'm sure I'll think of something to add later.
Not sure what the homestay plans are for this weekend, although I've got some homework i should do while I'm there. And we come home Sunday afternoon. Which is mostly exciting, but I am having a good, although definitely tough, experience in Katutura.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
5 days in "The Place We Don't Want to Live"
First of all. If you asked me a question in the comments earlier I answered them.
So, I've been living with a nice family in Katatura for the last 5 days. They're pretty poor, which is hard and thought-provoking, but they make ends meet, and are a good family. Their house was an old apartheid house which meant it originally was four small rooms (2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a sitting room) with no water or electricity. They've added another bedroom and a garage made out of tin (a lot of families there have made more legitimate additions) and they have electricity including a TV and a nice computer--but no internet, and a sink with running water in the kitchen, although the bathroom is outside. I don't have all that much time right now, I jsut wanted to let you know that I was alive and was learning a lot on this homestay. There are lots of interesting issues and stuff to wrestle with, as you can probably imagine. More later, probably tomorrow--I'll post much more detailed summaries and such then. Miss you all!
So, I've been living with a nice family in Katatura for the last 5 days. They're pretty poor, which is hard and thought-provoking, but they make ends meet, and are a good family. Their house was an old apartheid house which meant it originally was four small rooms (2 bedrooms, a kitchen and a sitting room) with no water or electricity. They've added another bedroom and a garage made out of tin (a lot of families there have made more legitimate additions) and they have electricity including a TV and a nice computer--but no internet, and a sink with running water in the kitchen, although the bathroom is outside. I don't have all that much time right now, I jsut wanted to let you know that I was alive and was learning a lot on this homestay. There are lots of interesting issues and stuff to wrestle with, as you can probably imagine. More later, probably tomorrow--I'll post much more detailed summaries and such then. Miss you all!
Thursday, September 2, 2010
And time marches on
So, as per usual it's been quite the few days since my last correspondence. Sunday was very relaxed, we had a picnic lunch/house meeting in a beautiful park, and then some of the guys went to go try to find somewehre to watch the Liverpool soccer game--Sam is a huge fan. It was a bit of an adventure, but along the way we met an awesome cab driver who came into a place to check out if it was safe to watch in there, and then took us to somewehre else for free when it seemed a little shady. So now we've got a guy to call when we need rides. Made another friend later at the bar, Maggie and I talked to a guy who runs some Safari programs--he was really cool.
Monday was the first day of my internship, and I was really nervous. But it turned out I just had to go in the afternoon, instead of all day, like i usually will on Mondays. So I got there and got shown around by the boss, Mary, an American perpetual volunteer. She's spent the last 13 years running programs in different parts of the world, which is pretty cool. Most of the time, though, I just spent hanging out with the kids, mostly playing four-square, which was fun. They usually have class time in the afternoons, to try to get the kids a little extra help, but they're on school break right now, so they just played all afternoon. Next week, when school starts again, I am going to be teaching 4th graders English and math, which should be interesting--an experience to say the least. The kids are mostly poor and not doing very well in school, but they're at least a little motivated, because they have to choose to go to the program. It's tough, though, some of the kids have been through a lot. So yeah, that's my internship, more or less. I went back Wednesday morning (I'll usually be going on wednesday afternoons, but the schedule was a little different yesterday) and did a little grunt work stapling and stuff, and then tutored a tenth grade girl in math and science. She was really nice, and clearly bright but hadn't been given much opportunity to learn.
Most of Tuesday we were at a team building retreat at a farm in the desert on the outskirts of town. It was really pretty out there. The program was a lot better than I had been expecting. It was cool to hear people's stories, and it was interesting because the program is (at least partially) about recognizing our privilege as a group, but that reminded me of my privilege within the group, which was an interesting realization. But yeah it was a fun time. We came back and just chilled, and then watched a movie for the third time in four nights. This time it was Matilda, which was fun, if not a little dorky.
So yesterday morning I went to my internship, as I described above, and learned that I'd be teaching, which is a little nerve-racking, but exciting. Then we came back and learned about our home-stay families and more about our expectations for them, and such. Then I did some reading for History class, which was this morning, and Development, which is tomorrow, and then a few of us went to the bar to celebrate out last night together for a little while. And that was really fun.
This morning was class. Which was long, even though we went to a museum for an hour in the middle. It was a museum about native peoples, and was kinda bad, clearly underfunded. It reminded me a little of the Mitchell Indian Museum in Evanston. Then we went back and talked more about different groups and general history of Namibia. It was interesting, but I was a little tired.
So, my homestay parents are coming in like 20 minutes to pick me up, which is kinda terrifying but also exciting. They live in Katatura and are a family of five, a 17 year old son, and two younger daughters (12 and 15, I believe). So that should be cool. It's ten days. It's a little weird that this is starting right as the normal schedule is also starting up. But s'all good. It will be good to see another part of life--how different people live. I don't think we're going to have much time to get settled at any time. Every couple weeks we're doing something different. That's pretty cool, although I wouldn't mind a little more structure. Well, that's all ofr now, I need to finish getting all packed up for this homestay. I'll try to post at some point in the next few days, but don't know what my internet situation will be.
Thanks to everyone for reading!
--Jimmy
Monday was the first day of my internship, and I was really nervous. But it turned out I just had to go in the afternoon, instead of all day, like i usually will on Mondays. So I got there and got shown around by the boss, Mary, an American perpetual volunteer. She's spent the last 13 years running programs in different parts of the world, which is pretty cool. Most of the time, though, I just spent hanging out with the kids, mostly playing four-square, which was fun. They usually have class time in the afternoons, to try to get the kids a little extra help, but they're on school break right now, so they just played all afternoon. Next week, when school starts again, I am going to be teaching 4th graders English and math, which should be interesting--an experience to say the least. The kids are mostly poor and not doing very well in school, but they're at least a little motivated, because they have to choose to go to the program. It's tough, though, some of the kids have been through a lot. So yeah, that's my internship, more or less. I went back Wednesday morning (I'll usually be going on wednesday afternoons, but the schedule was a little different yesterday) and did a little grunt work stapling and stuff, and then tutored a tenth grade girl in math and science. She was really nice, and clearly bright but hadn't been given much opportunity to learn.
Most of Tuesday we were at a team building retreat at a farm in the desert on the outskirts of town. It was really pretty out there. The program was a lot better than I had been expecting. It was cool to hear people's stories, and it was interesting because the program is (at least partially) about recognizing our privilege as a group, but that reminded me of my privilege within the group, which was an interesting realization. But yeah it was a fun time. We came back and just chilled, and then watched a movie for the third time in four nights. This time it was Matilda, which was fun, if not a little dorky.
So yesterday morning I went to my internship, as I described above, and learned that I'd be teaching, which is a little nerve-racking, but exciting. Then we came back and learned about our home-stay families and more about our expectations for them, and such. Then I did some reading for History class, which was this morning, and Development, which is tomorrow, and then a few of us went to the bar to celebrate out last night together for a little while. And that was really fun.
This morning was class. Which was long, even though we went to a museum for an hour in the middle. It was a museum about native peoples, and was kinda bad, clearly underfunded. It reminded me a little of the Mitchell Indian Museum in Evanston. Then we went back and talked more about different groups and general history of Namibia. It was interesting, but I was a little tired.
So, my homestay parents are coming in like 20 minutes to pick me up, which is kinda terrifying but also exciting. They live in Katatura and are a family of five, a 17 year old son, and two younger daughters (12 and 15, I believe). So that should be cool. It's ten days. It's a little weird that this is starting right as the normal schedule is also starting up. But s'all good. It will be good to see another part of life--how different people live. I don't think we're going to have much time to get settled at any time. Every couple weeks we're doing something different. That's pretty cool, although I wouldn't mind a little more structure. Well, that's all ofr now, I need to finish getting all packed up for this homestay. I'll try to post at some point in the next few days, but don't know what my internet situation will be.
Thanks to everyone for reading!
--Jimmy
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