Such is Life

 With the teachers gone this week I’ve had half days of school. On Friday I decided that I would bring my Uno cards, playing cards and markers to my eighth graders and let them play during our class. They had so much fun playing cards and watching the Uno games that I was playing with the other learners. I think it’s important to remember that these students are just kids. They want to have fun sometimes. I am the only teacher here who plays games with them. A lot of the focus is on academics and passing exams. I know this is an important part of school but I firmly believe that letting kids be kids is also a part of school. To make them grow up so fast is wasting their childhood. They have so many responsibilities at home that range from watching the animals to pounding mohangu for dinner and watching the younger kids. If I can be a nice break during their day and we can still learn things then I’m perfectly okay with what I’m doing.

This weekend Hunter and I set out for Ongwediva to go back to where he’s from. I left him at the house for the weekend with his mother and his sister. They were so excited to see him! I think he enjoyed his time with other dogs. I spent the weekend with another volunteer and we had a crazy time. I think we were both feeling a little overwhelmed with the culture barrier this weekend. As my mom describes it “it’s like being a celebrity”. Everyone wants to talk to the American girls everywhere we go. We can’t go anywhere without being bothered for our numbers or having people touching us or talking to us. Sometimes I would just like to go shopping for food without having people either staring at me or talking to me. Such is life I guess.

Coming back from the weekend I took some taxis and then got into the back of a car with 6 other people. I kept saying to them…there is no room. But alas, there was room if you act like human sardines. The moment I got out of the car and started walking the mile into town it started to rain. I thought to myself “oh no big deal it’s not raining hard”. The moment I finished my thought, it started torrential down pouring on me and Hunter. Carrying a full hiker’s backpack, a full bag full of groceries and a puppy in a bag in the rain does not equal a very fun time. Especially since said puppy decided it would be fun to try and escape and make a run for it multiple times. When I reached the shops in the village I was completely soaked from head to toe and my shoes were falling off. As I walked past the shops I heard some of the kids crying out “Go Miss Chelsea!” No one else was out in the rain so I had quite a reaction out of all of the people in the shelter of the shops. When some of my colleagues came to me later they said that they had heard of my unfortunate event already. News travels fast here.

When I arrived home I found a herd of goats that were finding shelter under my roof and decided that my doorways were the best place to be. I didn’t want to walk to the outhouse in the rain after I changed so I popped a squat in the grass next to the goats. All I kept thinking was “this has to be a low point in my life”. Just the goats and I using the great outdoors as our personal toilets. May be too much information. However, this is Africa and these things do happen!

Peace and Love,

Chels

Nostalgia

Today in my free time I started thinking about home and all of the things I miss. It’s okay every once in a while to remember where you come from to understand where you are. One thing is Dunkin Donuts coffee! Here we have instant coffee that you pour into hot water. Definitely not the same. I was also texted by the other volunteer from NH and he asked if I miss being able to say wicked. I totally agreed that I miss saying all the normal things I say at home. With a language barrier I have to keep my vernacular pretty simple.

I also miss my friends and family. Especially my family. It’s nice to get to talk to them on Skype and swap stories about what is going on. However, I miss spending quality time with them and sitting and having Harry Potter marathons on Sunday nights. I miss getting to drive a car. I miss walking in the snow and feeling it fall on my eyelashes. I miss being able to take a hot bath when I’m having a bad day. I miss being able to go get an ice cream. I miss coming home from a long day and talking to my mom and dad. I miss talking to my brother about being "the chosen one" (Harry Potter reference). I miss telling my sister she's a ninny and i'm kind of a big deal, people know me (Anchorman reference).

Now that I’ve contemplated on what I miss I think it’s healthy to balance it with things I love about Namibia. I love my new puppy Hunter. I love my new friends I’ve made. I love walking and exercising. I love that I am eating new foods that I don’t eat at home. I love the stars at night. There is NOTHING like a starry night in Africa. I love the sun sets. I love my learners. I love teaching. I love feeling confident and independent. I love my new sense of myself and others. I love learning a new language. I love dancing to the music here. I love the other volunteers. I love being challenged.

Being able to keep a balanced life is pretty important. I think I’m able to better understand what that means when I threw myself into a situation where I felt so unbalanced at first. I am challenged all of the time with my environment and interactions. I am quickly learning to let things go that truly do not matter and hold onto things that do. Seeing one of my learners faces light up today when I shared some of my music with him for his phone was wonderful. I got frustrated with my 8B class and lectured them about laughing at other people. Even teachers because yes, we do have feelings too. I cannot pronounce their names, but at least I am trying. Picking your battles is important. I have a lot more to learn and I think in life we never stop learning. But at least I can say I’m still soaking it in and learning from mistakes and triumphs.

Peace and Love,
Chels

Weekend in the village

This weekend I stayed in the village to recover from Hunter staying up all night long crying at me this week. I missed the other volunteers but I got a taste of village life here on the weekends. Most of the teachers leave to go home so it was me and a few others who were behind. On Saturday some of the learners went to Eenhana to go run track against other schools. Being a fast typer, I was the one who made the list of learners who were competing in which meter race. Let me just say, some of these names sound made up. When I got to someone named George I was so happy because I could spell it and I knew I was doing it correctly. Then you’ve got names like Hishidhivali Elikan. Try saying that ten times fast.

When some of my colleagues got back from Eenhana I was just walking into the village to go hang out for a few hours and socialize. I met up with one of my friends who works at one of the small shops and she told me that I needed to stay and go do traditional things with the villagers. One of the bars was just opening and they made mohangu (traditional Namibian beer made from oats) and insisted that I drink it with them. They also slaughtered a cow earlier that day in order to feed all the people coming out to party. I actually ended up walking right into a puddle as I was mesmerized watching them pick apart the cow and hang it up. I ended up having some of the meat later on and it was delicious! It was wonderful getting to spend time with some of the people. Out of nowhere they started clapping and singing and stomping their feet. Later on in the night when I returned from dancing at the shop with some of the other women the people insisted that I get into the middle of the circle and they clapped for me as I danced and stomped my feet. It was so much fun! I got a lot of hugs afterwards from the older memes.

I also had a confrontation with one of the men. He was pushing my friend around and yelling at her. I got so mad that he was pushing a woman that I stepped in the middle and told him to relax and back off. He then informed me in Oshikwanyama as he pointed to our skin that he was black and I was white. That really set me off and I informed him that I didn’t care we were the same and I walked away. Later on that night he along with many of the other men were complimenting me on my dancing and asking me to come talk with them. I also had someone tell me they love me. It’s pretty common here to have this happen. I just laugh and walk away.

I tried to go into Eenhana this weekend and it ended up being an epic fail. I walked the mile out to the hike point and sat in the blazing sun for over an hour with only one car driving by that did not stop to pick me up. I ended up giving up and walking back to the village. At least I got a 2 mile walk in. I get frustrated sometimes with having to hike everywhere. I have to depend on other people for transportation. I also get pretty heated trying to adjust to what they call here “Africa time”. When people say they are “coming now” they mean like 2 hours later. Time isn’t as much of an issue here as it is in the U.S. When someone says now they mean much later, now now means in a little bit, and now now now means what we mean when we say “now”. I find myself asking people “Oh so when you say now, do you mean now now?”

I’m excited for this week because many of the teachers are gone for a workshop so grade 10 is staying home all week and grade 8 and 9 are only staying until break time which is 11:40. That makes my teaching week ten times easier than it normally is. The one drawback is finding what to do in my free time. Of course lesson planning is always an option but other than that…it’s not like we have a movie theatre or mini golf or anything really to go to. I have to occupy my time with very limited resources. Thank goodness I have friends here that I can play uno and chat with. I’m thinking about bringing out the deck of regular cards one of these days and teaching them to play rummy 500. Won’t be the same as when I play with Mom and Pat back home but at least I won’t be out of practice when I come home. J

Peace and Love,

Chelsea

Skip and Draw Four, Color..Blue

My new roomie has moved in and she is so very nice. The first day she arrived she started blasting Celine Dion songs and singing along. In that instant I knew we would get along quite nicely! There isn’t very much I think is worth reporting as of this moment but I hear from several people that they enjoy the blog posts so I will do my best to write about anything that comes to mind.

The other night I taught some of my colleagues how to play Uno. Yes, they got just as frustrated with the length of the game as I’m sure a lot of us do. Also, skipping people on purpose or giving them a draw four. I think that these things transcend any kind of culture barrier and bring out the competitive side of anyone. Yesterday I taught some of my 8A learners how to play Peggle after school. They were fascinated with watching me play and it drew a rather large crowd. I’ve been drawing a lot of attention to myself lately after getting the puppy. I often hear learners crying out “HUNTER!” when I walk by with him. My roomie Indira has told me that in fact I had a misconception about dogs around here. She said that they are a must in any of the traditional households. She also said that when you are dating someone you must go to their house and then you have to be invited back in order to properly be accepted into the family. Must be so much pressure!

I have also found out pretty quickly that people run their mouths a lot here. They love to talk and gossip about the latest and greatest news. I try to keep my life private here but it’s quite hard when learners and colleagues watch what I do and see things. For example, on the weekends when I’ve been going to Ongwediva, I know of several learners that have apparently seen me with my volunteer friends. They write about it in their compositions about their weekends “I saw Ms. Chelsea with her friends but did not say hi”. Or, “I saw Ms. Chelsea with her friend and her puppy and she looked very happy”.

I am very happy to have the puppy here for some company. However, just like a baby at a month old, he sleeps at odd times like…say….all day long. Then at night, he stays up and cries at me while I’m trying to go to sleep. I feel bad for my roommate because she didn’t really ask for this. She has been really great though saying that she doesn’t mind and she’s the auntie for Hunter. He has also been getting quite attached to my friend Jerry who allows him to bite his ankles. Just what I need after having Tobias Sassafrass Ewing (Toby)in the family at home is another ankle biter! J

As promised, here is the video from orientation with me in it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HizOkVoKMs&feature=youtu.be


Peace and Love,
Chelsea

Culture Shock 101

So it’s Friday at the end of the school week and I’m about to embark on yet another one of my weekend trips. This weekend is when I get my new puppy and as I have mentioned before, I am SO excited. It is also the weekend that I will have a new housemate move in with me. She is a newly hired teacher and needed somewhere to go. I hope she’s okay with having dogs. This culture isn’t as wild about dogs as Americans are. I have been told multiple times that they eat dog meat. I have also seen how some of the stray dogs here are treated. Not so well. I think a lot of the teachers think I’m odd for wanting a dog and they say I am going to treat it like a baby. This is entirely true because he is my new baby!

I think these days I’ve been going back and forth on the culture shock curve. We were told during orientation about culture shock and that it is something we must all go through. The best way I’ve found to get over some of this shock is to keep my sense of humor. This is my best weapon for everything lately. When people are laughing at me for trying to speak in Oshikwanyama or when they are talking about “oshilumbu” (white person) I try to just smile and wave. It won’t help anything to get upset over the differences. I am trying my hardest to adapt to their culture and I know that a lot of the people appreciate this. The only thing about this culture shock is that it’s like riding a roller coaster constantly. Very exhausting. Some of my teacher friends here at the school have quoted me from a few weeks back “Since I’ve come to Africa I’ve been tired all the time”. They find this really funny and ask if I will be tired all year. I sure hope not.

My classes have been going well and I have gotten into a routine of trying to play games with them on Fridays. We have made a deal in my English classes to work with me half the class on English and then the other half is games. In my computer classes I’m having a hard time getting them to listen to me when I say not to click around on the computers because they will change things that I don’t know how to fix. I understand that they are all excited about “clicking” on the computer as they call it but I’m getting really frustrated. One of the learners snapped at me to come over and I saw that his entire screen was turned sideways. I didn’t even know that was possible on a computer. Who would ever do that on purpose? As for the snapping thing, it’s part of their culture to snap at people. I have gotten used to it now but at first I was very offended when people were snapping at me to come over to them.

I think that culture shock works both ways. The people are still getting used to how I act and deal with situations. I also found out the other day that what we would call a truck in the U.S. is not what they call it here. Jerry (one of the teachers) was pointing to a truck and saying he wanted one of them and I said “oh you mean that truck over there?” and he stared at me funny saying “that’s a bocky (sp?) not a truck” Apparently they call shipping trucks a truck and everything else has another name. Who knew?

One thing I am SO grateful for is that I made some good teacher friends pretty fast. During orientation our field director warned us that it isn’t easy to make friends here especially with the women. I have made good relationships with some of the younger teachers here and it makes this transition a hundred times better.

Before we all left for our sites we talked about orientation and apparently clips from this video will be going up on the WorldTeach Namibia page so when that comes I’ll be sure to share so people can see what I said. The field director said I was very good. We shall see if that’s the case!

That’s all for now. Endoponawa!

Peace and Love,

Chels

Only the good die young

Hello World,

This past week has been crazy here in the village. On Thursday I had to go to a funeral for a 5^th grade learner at our school. He was having liver problems and his family brought him to the hospital one night and the doctors said there wasn’t anything they could do and he passed away. We closed school that day and a bunch of the teachers and learners and me got in the back of a truck and rode to the funeral in the morning. The funeral took place at the homestead where the boy had lived. We sat underneath one of the huts in the homestead and listened to the family talk in Oshiwambo and we all sang. And by we I mean the school teachers and learners that came because I don’t know any songs in Oshiwambo. I wish I did but it was beautiful to hear the community singing in their native language.

As they were singing the men in the community carried the casket into the middle of the homestead where they opened it and put out a donation bin. We then filed into a line to give money to the family. After this we walked into the field and arrived at the burial grounds for the homestead. There was a hole that had already been dug for the boy and we stood around the hole as some of the men finished digging. There was more singing and then the casket was lowered by hand into the hole and covered in the soil. One of the men then brought the sign that had the boy’s name and date of birth and death and stuck it in front of the hole.

After the burial we then proceeded to walk back to the homestead where the family had prepared meat and potatoes for all of us to eat and we sat around and talked. I was greeted by one of the ku kus (older women) in Oshiwambo. I am proud to say that I did the greeting correctly. All of my colleagues thought it was funny that I was speaking in their language. I also heard one of the teachers say oshilumbu which means white person in Oshikwanyama so I felt uneasy for a while knowing that they were talking about me. This happens quite often during the day. The people here assume I don’t know what it means but I’m learning fast some of the key words in their language.

At first it was a strange feeling to be the only white person around but I’ve gotten used to it. I think it may take some time for the people in the community to get used to the fact that I’m here and I want to be a part of their community. The other white people in Namibia as I’ve said are Africaaners. They speak Africaans. A lot of people assume I am one of them as well. Once they learn that I am American they feel a lot better. Apparently there have been some quarrels between some of the Namibians and some of the Africaaners.

I spent the weekend at Benny’s again with five of the other volunteers from WorldTeach. It’s always nice to see people that I know and get a nice hot shower. I think that seeing them on the weekends gives me comfort that I’m not alone in this. It’s hard sometimes to live in the bush and have no contact with any of the other volunteers. It’s relaxing to swap stories and support each other with anything that is going on.

I am starting to meet a lot of the people in the Onambutu village and introduce myself. Last night one of the other teachers brought me over to some of the village elders and introduced me. I sat and socialized with them for a while and Kawana was saying that they were happy that I’m here and teaching the learners and also happy that I had taken the time to introduce myself and become a part of the community. They are all excited for later in the year when I can communicate better in Oshikwanyama and they can learn some English from me. The official language of Namibia is English, however, a lot of the elders don’t speak it. Most of the younger generations know at least some English.

I’m going to lesson plan now but I hope everyone is well and happy. I’m on a countdown until I get Hunter (the puppy)…only 6 more days!

Peace and Love,

Chelsea