Village Fever

So I am sitting in school. No learners, nothing to do. Yeah it’s the day before our month long vacation and I am so ready to get out of here and travel. I’ve been in the village for three weeks now. You know what you get when you do this? VILLAGE FEVER. It’s a common occurrence among those who cannot stay in a place with absolutely nothing to do for an extended period of time. I haven’t taught a lesson In two weeks I’ve only been monitoring exams and marking them for the learners to get their grades. After sitting in countless classrooms for hours at a time without being able to do anything except stare at the students taking their exams, and then having to sit for countless more hours giving them grades and watch most of my learners fail, I have earned this vacation.

Yesterday we had an assembly to hand out the grades. I had made some nice certificates for the learners that did the best in my English classes. Not only could I not pronounce their names in front of the entire school, after I was done the principal then announced that each class teacher would announce the two best learners in their class and then the worst. Thank goodness I’m not a class teacher because I wouldn’t be able to do that. I was told that it’s supposed to be a motivational thing, but I can’t stand when children are embarrassed and put down in front of their peers. Especially when the abuse comes from adults.

Exams have not brought out the best side in me or my school. I hope that this vacation will give me a fresh start for the second term. I am planning on going to Victoria Falls for the first week of the vacation and possibly to South Africa after that depending on how I feel after camping for a week. I’ve never really been camping in my life so this should be interesting. You would think I’d be less nervous about it considering I’m at a school with no running water and I live in the bush. Nope. Not the case.

I think that anyone living abroad has a breaking point where you go, “What am I doing here? What do you mean it’s only been four months and I’m here for another eight?” I’m at that point right now. I have been going back and forth trying to figure out if I’m going to stay here for another year or not. My mind set right now is telling me, “Get out of the bush!” but my heart is saying “Come on Chelsea, you’re suffering from village fever, just relax”.

So for lack of an optimistic blog post, here’s to a better day. I am ever hopeful that I will get over this little slump and move on with this experience.

Peace and Love,
Chelsea

Much needed Vacation

Day one back after vacation, can I go back please? Swakopmund was amazingly beautiful with the ocean on one side and the gorgeous sand dunes of the Namib desert on the other. It is a breathtaking place with much to do. There is amazing food and you could choose a different kind of cuisine every night. Who doesn’t want that? I also had great company. Many of the other volunteers came down to Swakop for the long weekend.

Monique and I travelled to the airport in Ondangwa and got on a flight to Windhoek. When we arrived there we went on a search for a kombi to take us to Swakop. The ride was packed with 12 people plus the driver and we broke down and stopped at least 5 times before we got near Swakop. We broke down for the last time when the engine failed and we were left standing outside in the Namib desert waiting for another ride to come. Over an hour later we got another kombi to Swakop where we met up with Damaris. She is our volunteer that lives in Swakop. Lucky duck.

That night we went out for an amazing meal. I had spinach and feta ravioli which was very good. Only thing is we had to sit outside and believe it or not, Swakop is freezing at this time. The restaurant provided blankets for us and we all talked and caught up with each other. Some of us hadn’t seen each other since orientation a few months back.

The next day we hung out and walked around town. That night we watched the sun go down over the ocean. During this vacation we had a lot of relaxing time which is exactly what I needed. The next day after that was spent wandering the beach and sitting and talking in the sand. The day after that we went to Dune 7 near Walvis Bay. This is the largest dune in the Namib desert. We went “quad biking” or as we call it, four wheeling. It was absolutely amazing to four wheel through the desert. The instructor taught us how to ride the side of the dunes and go down steep hills. Going the highest speed possible was the most fun. There’s nothing like riding around in the desert and seeing the views from the top of a dune.

When we got back after quad biking some of us decided to go climb dune 7. I wimped out half way through but it was fun nonetheless. I ended up part running, part rolling and part scooting on my butt down the dune. I wanted to see which was the most fun. It was definitely rolling down, except the amount of sand that I accumulated. I don’t think I’ve ever been that sandy in my life. I still probably have sand in my ears and up my nose.

Swakop is a nice place and absolutely gorgeous, however, I don’t know that I could live there. This makes me grateful for all of the nice people in the north. Most of the people if not all that live in Swakop are white Afrikaaners. These people are SUCH snobs. They don’t tolerate anyone who isn’t exactly like them and I wouldn’t be able to be around that all the time. Even the volunteers who are white, we aren’t Afrikaaners so we don’t count. I’m not saying that all of these people are like that but a very large majority of the ones I have met are.

Coming back was an adventure in and of itself. It was a day and a half ordeal because I left at about 8 in the morning and didn’t arrive into the Ondangwa airport until 6 pm. By that time, you can’t get a hike back to the village. I stayed over my housemate’s parent’s house for the night and saw my dog Hunter for the first time in 5 days. He was SO excited to see me and jumped and tried to bite my ankles for about a half an hour. The next day when I was going to leave I couldn’t find him. Turns out he wandered into the family room and got locked in. Then I was driven to the hike point where I realized that my phone had dropped out of my pocket. On the taxi ride back to the house Hunter threw up on me. When I finally got there thank goodness they had my phone. I then got another ride to the hike point and got into another car to get to the village. On the hour ride to the village Hunter threw up on me again. By this time it was now time for school. After a hectic morning and the cold weather in Swakop, I fell very ill and had to sleep for the rest of the day after getting some medicine from the clinic.

Speaking of the clinic, we have one just in our village. They have basic medical things and few medications to give. I always feel bad when I go to the clinic because the nurses let me go first because I’m a teacher at the school. Meanwhile there are about 20 other people waiting outside and I’m sure have been waiting for a while. Yesterday when I went they had a serious case. One of the older women in the village was having heart problems and needed to go to the hospital. However, when there is a serious case the transport has to come from Eenhana which is a half hour away and they have to go on the dirt road. This road is bumpy and terrible. I really hope that this woman was okay because she had to wait to go to the hospital and then on top of that it was her heart and I don’t know if anyone’s heart can stand that bumpy ride like that.

This week we have started our April examinations for the learners. Coming up we have our May break which is almost a month long. I want to go to South Africa but I’m hoping that I’ll have enough money to go for a short while. Being on a volunteer’s salary basically pays for food and transport and not much else. Oh well, such is life. I chose to do this and need to live with what I have.

Peace and Love,

Chels

All I really want is some peace man

I don’t even know how to describe how my last couple of weeks has been. Calling them exhausting and challenging would be an understatement. Sometimes when a person is challenged this often I think it’s fair to say that a burn out is inevitable. I know that the ministry would probably not like me to talk about the situation that I am in so publicly so I will just say that I have had a dispute over another colleague at my school and now I am awaiting results of this conflict. Let me just say, it is not wise to threaten someone who is on a foreign mission in your country. Don’t do it. Ever.

Sometimes I don’t understand people. Maybe I don’t need to understand this particular person. For my own peace of mind I think I need to let people who are in charge handle it and try not to worry so much. I have been trying to let go of things that I have no control over and trying to handle things that I do have control over.

I’m honestly getting sick and tired of some of the disrespect that goes on from some of the learners here. Why did I travel half way across the world to teach you if half your class is going to try and skip coming to my class? It is rude…and I’m done. I don’t want to keep repeating myself during the week to multiple classes. It is rude and disrespectful to not come to a teacher’s class. There is no excuse for it. I am less inclined to want to help you if you don’t bother to show up.

I am the only class that the learners can possibly skip because it’s the only one they have to walk to. I am also not the only teacher that is disrespected. I don’t know what it is with these upper grades but they have a tude problem that needs some fixing. This is exactly why I have my certification in elementary school and why I do not choose to work with middle or high school. I understand that they are still young and challenging authority, but I don’t want to be the target of it.

I think I haven’t written a post since the one about my daily life because I knew I wasn’t happy right now. I try very hard to keep positive with whatever is happening and I don’t want people to take what I’m saying the wrong way. I am still grateful that I am here but I think that every person has a limit as to what they can take and I’ve reached mine for the time being. What I need is a vacation.

And guess what? I have two more days of teaching this week and then Wednesday after school I’m going for the long weekend. I am travelling with some of the other volunteers back down to the south of Namibia to go to Swokopmund. This is the best thing for me right now. Swokop is the area on the coast where the ocean is. If you know me you know that the beach and the ocean is my “happy place”. I think the long weekend near my happy place will put me back into balance and give me some perspective. I don’t know what it is about staring out into the ocean, but it makes a person humble and remember how large this world is.

I would also love to post pictures for this blog but the internet connection is terrible and I am unable to do so at this time. So I am sorry you'll just have to imagine for now!

Peace and Love,
Chels