Athletics, discipline problems, etc.

Hello

We'll start off with funny teaching stories, since everyone likes those. We've been doing athletics this week (which, by the way is exhausting—I've been working from 6:30 AM- 6 PM with a 2 hour lunch/siesta. That works out to 10 hour days, plus lesson planning, marking books, and preparing visual aids. I intend to mark all of the Grade 6 and 7 English and Grade 7 science books this weekend, which will probably work out to 6-8 hours of marking) anyway, there's a small girl who really likes me (her name is Forget-i which means just what it sounds like) and she was wearing a shirt with Ariel on it. I was holding her and she said to one of the other people in KhoeKhoe, "Look, it's Miss Amy."

Oh, also, the younger grades have been having a field day with my skin and hair, which I let them touch and do whatever to, as long as they don't get in my way as I'm recording scores. I'll have 10 or so grade 1-4 girls touching my hair and gently rubbing the hair on my arm. They were really excited about the underside of my arm for some reason. I think because it doesn't have hair and because you can see the blood vessels.

OK, I like my school again. Wednesday was one of my worst days. We got almost nothing done and the kids were just wretched to me. I have never had my own classroom, but on Wednesday they decided that, because of the lack of chairs and desks, myself and another teacher would have to move around to whichever of the other 3 classrooms was empty. This not only caused chaos for me and for the kids, and made it impossible for me to use the visual aids I had made as well as making it difficult to use the chalkboards (having to save things for other teachers), but additionally it made me feel like I was on the kid's territory instead of them on my territory.

I finally went into the library and had a good cry. I just feel so helpless with the grade 7s. I asked them one day why they didn't respect me and one of the better learners said it was because I didn't beat them. Then I (ironically I thought, asked them if they would like me to beat them and they all said "Yes") Anyway, yesterday (Thursday) all 10 of the teachers went into the grade 7 classroom and talked to the learners about their behaviour for about an hour. I might still have to deal with the kids being wretched, but at least I know I have some back up.

I've been trying a system where they can earn points towards a class party for being good, but it's difficult without a steady classroom. They say they have chairs and desks for us, but they're stuck in Otjiwarongo because of the rains. Which brings me to my last bit of good news—looks like we're not in a drought after all, it has rained every day this week, for a grand total of, at minimum, 30 mm of rain. Everything is starting to green up.

Finally, for those keeping track, I finished The Sun Also Rises, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and I started To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and The Call of the Wild by Jack London. I'm still halfway through Macbeth.

That's all from this neck of the savanna.

Hope you all are doing well

Lots of love

Amy

Recent Nam 25 PCV blogs and Namibian news for the month of January

Recent blog posts from some of Amy's teammates (58 Peace Corps Volunteers known as NAM 25) all across the country of Namibia:

Check out this video of the school where Irene teaches
Check out this article and video about Nam 24's Jonathan Reichel

Jason's page of Nam 25 blogger photos and links

(Nam 26 bloggers)

Amy:
Home, Movies, and Books (1/27) NEW
Welcome back to Me (1/18)
Article in Amy's hometown newspaper (1/9)

Amber:
PS (1/31) NEW
armed and dangerous, very dangerous (1/31) NEW
some humor... (1/19)
the itsy-bitsy maggots... (1/5)
Simmered Down (1/4)
MIA (1/4)

Andrew:
what what what (1/19)
Some photos (1/19)

Angie:
Updates since January 6 (1/15)

Beth:
Exciting family news (1/24) NEW
Refreshing holiday at the sea (1/22)
PADDED ENVELOPES a must (1/22)

Brock:
Grade 10 results (1/11)
Vacation (1/11)

Caitlin:
Post by Sheila (1/18)
The year in review (1/6)

Caroline:
How it starts (1/27) NEW
Tonight for dinner: Affel (1/13)
Travels with Mom and Dad (1/4)

Chester

Chris:

Coppelia:
I'm a new super hero (1/20)
Opuwo beads and seed (1/20)
First Ride (1/17)
Himba Hygiene or lack there of (1/15)
Welcome home (1/14)
Plane fun (1/12)
Resolutions? (1/12)
Safe and Sound (1/11)
Big Thanks (1/10)
Home for the Holidays - here are the highlights (1/10)
Whew! She's gone (1/9)

Courtney:

Cynthia:

Erikka (Amy's teammate from Nam 25) featured in her hometown news (1/7)

Irene
A Week (1/23) NEW
Also check out this video of the school where Irene teaches

Jason:
First day (Finally!) (1/30) NEW
Beginning of school (1/25) NEW
And we're back (1/14)
Jason featured in his hometown newspaper (12/30)

Jay:

Matt:
December (January?) Vacation - Zambia - round 2 (1/13)
December Vacation - Nkhata Bay to Lilongwe - the other way (1/13)
December Vacation - Lilongwe to Nkhata Bay (1/10)
December Vacation - Zambia - round 1 (1/9)
December Vacation - Khorixas to Livingstone (1/9)
Phone stolen (1/2)

Michael:

Pam:
Introducing the MYO kids... (1/18)
Bestest Girlfriends ever (1/12)
2007 - The year of PAM (1/1)

Patrick:
Quick vacation (1/25) NEW
The love of my life (1/24) NEW
The sky is on fire and the donkeys are dieing (1/24) NEW

Shonita

Silas:
Back in Namibia (1/10)

Will
first week back (1/21)

Nam 26 bloggers active lately:
Ben
Lisa
Kate
Chris
Ami
Lindsey
Maggie
Briana
Keith
Scott

Link to previous list of recent blogs (December 2006)

Recent news from Namibia

Todays Front Page from "The Namibian"

KhoeKhoegowab language lesson videos

KhoeKhoegowab is the language that the people in the village of Anker speak. Although most of Amy's classes are taught in English, she has learned enough of it to understand some basics and is able to read it.

More about the Damara people group and the language they speak.

Want to learn some KhoeKhoegowab?

Here are some video lessons in the language:



KhoeKhoegowab Lesson No: 1



KhoeKhoegowab Lesson No: 2




KhoeKhoegowab Lesson No: 3




KhoeKhoegowab Lesson No: 4

Videos about Namibia

Videos should play right on this page by clicking the arrow once:

"We children from Baumgartsbrunn"

22 min video about a school in Namibia where one of the Peace Corps Volunteers (Irene) works.






"Animals in Namibia" - a 1 min video about Etosha animals






"Cruisin Namibia" - a 4 min video about the adventure of getting around in NW Namibia






"Namibia - experience it yourself " - a 10 min video about some touristy things to do in Namibia

"Namibian Green Energy" - a 4 min video about renewable energy in Namibia

"Educating Namibia: A dream come true" - a 9 min video from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America about Namibians trained in the US and working in Namibia

Link to videos on other pages:

"Namibia's unexpected ecosystems" - a 3.5 min video about some of the unusual natural beauty in Namibia

"Namibia - This land is ours" - a 19 min video about the land redistribution challenges in Namibia

"Maturisa Ehinga- We are fighting AIDs " - a series of 4 videos (check the links on the left side of the page) about a project by Elon University students on the AIDs epidemic in Namibia

"Cats and Dogs work together" - a 4 min video about a unique conservation project near Amy's village.

KhoeKhoegowab lessons - 4 videos about the language that Amy is learning to speak

Namibia March 2007 - a 27 min video by a tourist with good video from near where Amy lives

Welcome to Namibia - 3 videos for the Namibian Tourism Board

Wolvedans- The Namib Desert - a 3 min video of scenery from the desert set to music

Namibia, a filmmakers destination - a 6 min film on movie sets in Namibia

Home, Movies, and Books (email from Amy)

OK,
I've decided that I must concentrate a few of my impressions from my weeks at home, or else I'll never get them down on paper. There were lots of enjoyable things about being at home-- a well stocked fridge, watching new episodes of CSI and Mythbusters with my mom, being viewed as (and, if I'm honest, actually being) poorer than everyone else for a change (trust me, if there's one thing I've learned here, it's that being viewed as wealthy is an enormous burden) and, of course, my wonderful, loving, infinitely patient family.

At the same time it was a sort of strange feeling, coming back. I felt a little like I stepped off an airplane and into another of my lives. It was sort of unnerving, kind of like you might feel if you stepped off an airplane and into your life at age 16. Still, there were parts of America that have become absolutely inscrutable to me. I was standing in the line for customs in Washington and this guy in front of me kept complaining about how long it was taking. Quite frankly, I was a little astonished to be on American soil, surrounded by white people with accents I recognized, and, in addition, in Namibia I've waited for a longer time just to listen to someone read a patently boring speech or to try to force a goat into a bakkie before. Everyone seems to be in such a big hurry to get everywhere, and everyone walks so fast, and no one greets each other. I suppose part of it is that I came back at the hight of the Christmas season, but here I greet and shake hands with every teacher every morning, often being asked, "How are you?" multiple times. Not greeting someone is like denying their personhood, and, although it annoyed me to no end at the beginning, I really love it now.

Other than that, I missed the singing most of all. I went to church and the music was beautiful, but I missed the old grandmothers who sing acapella with a lot of gusto and not a lot of accuracy. I missed the beauty of kids singing in circles in the afternoon, just because there is nothing else to do, and it's fun, and I missed the morning songs when kids might void singing because they are tired, but not because they're embarrassed.

Oh, also, CNN sounds a bit schitzophrenic, and massively paranoid to me. It's not like Anker is a bastion of pastoral bliss, but we only tend to worry about things that actually have a possibility of affecting us. I hear a lot about how we might be in a drought and whether we can get drought relief, about how to properly prepare the school filing system in case the school inspector shows up, and about how we'll manage to get the sports field cleaned up and the teams trained in time for the Inter-House tournament next week, and really, what more news do you need than that?

Last weekend I showed some movies to the kids. We made almost N$100 (US$15) for the school deveolopment fund off the entrance fee (N$1, US 15 cents.) It was a double feature. I showed Holes and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It was actually a lot of fun. I love watching the kids watch movies because they aren't jaded to them. They actually, audibly gasp at places. When the snake jumps out at the beginning of Holes I actually saw some of them jump and then the whole room went crazy. It was interesting thinking how they would think of things. I heard someone talking (in KhoeKhoe) about how Zero was a Bushman. I think it was a good movie to show them. They don't get many good role models for a more integrated society. Anyway, most of them were pretty exhausted by the time we moved to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and only about 30 or 40 were awake by the end.

This week has been more planning and more work. I have almost 40 kids in my grade 7 class and 38 in my grade 6 class. Let me tell you, that's not fun. Especially Grade 7, who have passed from the cute, naive 6th graders who stare at me blankly when I speak English, but who try to do what I say, into gangly, hormonal 7th graders who feel that they do not need to listen to instructions or be quiet when I'm talking, or stop hitting their neighbor. Oy, I think grade 7 might kill me. If only I were teaching one of the younger grades where they stare benignly at me as I try to find a way to change, "Draw a line" into simpler English

For those keeping track, this week I read Catch 22, Alice in Wonderland, Aesop's Fables, The Third Testament by Malcolm Muggridge, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid by Bill Bryson, and I'm halfway through I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Macbeth, and The Sun Also Rises. I had missed reading so much. It seems like, in America I have endless options for obtaining books--librarys packed to the ceilings, bookstores on every corner, books lying around in piles-- but so little time to actually read them (or so many distractions to pull me away) whereas here, I have a severely limited stock of books to choose from, but all the time in the world to read them (and, it doesn't hurt that they're way more interesting than the handful of repetitively viewed DVDs in my collection. There's nothing like laying around on a Friday or Saturday devouring chapter after chapter of a good book.) Anyway, this was one thing I actually was looking foreward to in the Peace Corps that has actually lived up to my expectations-- I'm actually catching up with my reading.