The world is my classroom -- a mud hut is theirs

Part of my ever-evolving job description here in Mubiza is to assist with teaching life-skills classes both in school and as part of the JFFLS after-school program that I’m working on. Grif and I decided to team teach life-skills for grades 5-7. Each class meets forty minutes once a week, which isn’t very much time to cover the list of topics that we need to teach during the school year! Especially when the grade 5 learners hardly understand a word we say. Grade 5 is the first year taught exclusively in English; up until that point, classes are taught in a mixture of mother-tongue (Silozi) with English lessons given to prepare them for the switch. Even still, you will find that most Caprivian teachers will revert back into Silozi even with the higher grades – an option that Grif and I don’t have. There are times when it would be helpful in order for them to know what’s going on to briefly give an instruction in Silozi before switching back into English, yet I guess they will just have to adapt to our “English-only” teaching style.

Classes did not start until a couple weeks into the term, due to the schedule not being ready and the principle’s continued absenteeism. In the end, Grif and the other new male teacher were instructed to draw up the time-table for the entire school, even though they are the new teachers with no experience ever having done it. I should mention that there’s a host of much more qualified female teachers that could have done this, except for the fact that, oh yeah, they’re women in a male-dominant culture. Quite frustrating! Even now, a month and a half into the school term, notebooks have arrived, so learners are not able to complete any work or take notes, which is a very ingrained system here due to rote copying/memorization being the primary method of teaching.

The school is made up of three cement block building and two mud huts used for additional classrooms. Grif exclusively teaches in the mud huts (teachers rotate classrooms while each grade stays in their classroom), one of which is currently flooded with 45+ broken desks crammed inside. It’s the most squalid learning environment I have ever seen and more than slightly overwhelming to step inside to face 42 grade 5 learners, who haven’t eaten breakfast and then be expected to teach them.

Haven't we been friends for ages?

There are some friendships that start fast, with one person doing most of the initiating and just jumping into the friendship like you’ve been fast friends forever, even though you just met. Usually, I’m the one caught pleasantly off guard when this happens. Yesterday, I was in Katima trying to get a million and one things accomplished, things were taking longer than I expected (like usual) and I kept running into people that led to getting further behind schedule. A woman who works for the Ministry of Fisheries (yes, there is a ministry dedicated to raising fish here in Namibia) had been in Mubiza the previous day and Griffin had passed along my contact information to her, saying that I would have lots of questions for her (a kind way of saying that I haven’t the slightest clue how one raises tilapia). She called me up out of the blue and said that when I had a minute later in the day to give her a ring and she would pick me up so we could meet for a bit. Since I was behind schedule, I didn’t call her back until close to 4:30 and asked if we could meet next week since I just wanted to get back to the village (I had been hoping to get back by 2 to work in the garden for the afternoon). She seemed genuinely disappointed and told me that she going back to Rundu (where she is based) and wouldn’t be back for at least a month. She then added that she was hoping to have Griffin and I over for a braii that very evening! Even though she had never met me, she seemed really nice and so I said sure. Afterall, I’m learning to be flexible. So, 10 minutes later she drives up and we load my groceries and hardware supplies into the boot and proceed to complete several errands – picking up her daughter who was shopping for food, dropping her off at home where several Afrikkaner girls were waiting, picking up cakes and then driving back to the village so I could drop off my bags and pick up a surprised Griffin. She seemed so apologetic that we might have plans for the evening. Little did she know that once the sunsets, our activities diminish to playing games like “who’s candle will burn out first” or reading out-loud to each other. Why ever would we turn down a braii and helping with a slumber party for a group of 10 year old girls? It was nice to relax and enjoy an evening filled with new friends, good food and even live-entertainment! It’s not every Friday night that one gets to be a judge of a talent show. This encounter came right when I was feeling the effects of having to start yet again building a new social network in a new place. A good jumpstart and reminder that we aren’t alone here. Even though we are still new in town, Grif and I always run into people that know us in Katima. Usually our hikes in and out of town come from folks who have seen us on television (a lingering perk of the swearing in ceremony being televised