Term Two Break

This will probably be my last post for a while. We officially close the school for break tomorrow (today by the time this is posted). This time it's a short one, just two weeks. My principal/supervisor is getting married on Saturday, then for mid-service medical exam in W'hoek and after that???? We'll see where life leads. Right now I'm just so excited because we get to stay in a hotel, which means HOT WATER!!! I may take a couple showers each day. A trip to the movie theatre ... pizza ... a stop at the Fruit & Veg. As my former high school hockey coach used to say on the bus when we went from our small town of Lindström to the slightly lesser small town (where he lived) of Forest Lake, "Ah, civilization boys!"

The final average for math was 26 out of 100, which is a point better than last trimester. One learner improved by 28 points! That made my day. About the only bad thing is the weather. Spring is supposed to be accompanied by strong winds, which we've had little of so far. I don't mind that. However, in lieu of the winds has been freezing cold. Last night got down below 0˚C! A few weeks ago, right before I went to Lüderitz, it snowed in Aus. Shoulda brought my cross-country skis...darn! (said in the same inflection as the "darn" in the Schoolhouse Rock! Interjections! song)

Take care everyone! I'll think of you teachers back there, suffering through workshop. Ha ha! I'm almost wanting to fly back to sit in on the the bloodborne pathogen session. Nah, I'll take the poking and prodding over here instead.

Let the Term Two Exams Begin!

I need to unwind/vent a little bit before I can get to sleep. I was sick for four days this week and missed some of my invigilation. That's where the learners sit in class from 7-9am “studying” and then somewhere from 9:30am-12:00pm they take an exam. We do this from July 31st until August 15th. Exciting?

Correcting the term two exams is in full swing. I just finished part two of the math and I want to poke my eyes out. Granted it was the tougher of the two exams, the class averages were ... oy. The top class average was 26.5%. Second place, getting nipped at the tape, was in at 26.1%. Third place strolled in at 21.7%. The top learner had 42 correct out of 60 for 70%, which is a B in these parts. The lowest was a 1! How do you score a 1 anyway? The person who teaches grade 8 math took my exam for fun, and scored a 37.

As one of my friends over here said, “I came over here to teach secondary math, not primary.” We volunteers could be doing so much more, helping to lay a strong foundation for the learners, if we were at the elementary level instead of trying to repair a collapsing structure in the secondary or as in many math cases, rebuilding a collapsed one.

My experience of teaching math in primary level, is hearing of it – the children singing a song about five monkeys falling out of a tree - every day. Counting down from five to zero. That's their math! In the upper primary levels they practice counting in the triple digits, going up or down by one. I don't hear any practice of addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, and I walk by their classrooms and listen in during my prep periods some days. I know language barrier would be a problem for the very young, but the math I'm doing now is 4th and 5th grade math. Why not teach it to real 4th and 5th grade learners?

Well, enough delaying. I don't think I'll be able to weasel my way out of correcting English papers 1 and 2. I'm mostly done with paper 1, which is when I forced myself to take a breather. Peut-être je devrais enseigner en français? I couldn't possibly do any worse than I have teaching them in English. Calgon, take me away! :)


Back to the weasel–reminds me of a Homer Simpson quote:

“Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel.”

One more thing - I saw that my old employer is trying to pass a referendum this November. Reminded me that one of my best math learners here couldn't afford to pay the school fees for this year (they amount to just over US$9 a trimester), so her family is going to give the school a goat.

Some Pictures

Here are a couple pictures:






Sun setting behind Brukaros












A boy at the Tses park opening ceremony













One of the first sunsets I saw in Tses










Birds out for an evening snack of insects














The church at Omaruru Rest Camp

Inspection by Catholic Church, a German Visitor & Lüderitz Wedding

This last weekend marked the first of two weddings for the staff at St. Therese, this one taking place in Lüderitz (I finally got to see it, sorta). I'll backtrack a little:

I've been battling some kind of chest cold since Tuesday, the day after I decided to start running seriously again. Or maybe it was because I was walking around the village with Matthias while being under-dressed on a rainy, windy morning. Matthias is a German volunteer visiting with Ms. Kusch. (who is here inspecting our lesson plans and teaching methods) Currently St. Therese JSS is 11th out of 11 schools in the Karas Region. Ms. Kusch was the first principal of St. Therese and is head of the education commission of the Namibian Catholic Bishops Conference. She's such an interesting character, having the energy and passion of an idealistic twenty-something. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to talk to her, but she'll be back in September.

I did, however, get to entertain her guest. If any of you know the German education system, learners are required to do volunteer work or an internship after completing “high school”, i.e. 13th grade before they can go to university studies, taking a full 12 month break. I cannot begin to tell you how energizing it was to have a visitor for the week! Talk, talk, talk

Then on Friday we all began the trip to Lüderitz for Rosy's wedding! My excitement couldn't be dulled by the over two hour stop in Keetmanshoop for ... something??? We didn't need a radio thanks to the choir in the back singing songs in Nama and Afrikaans. After almost 8 hours in the combi, we pulled into the port city. I stayed with Carrie (fellow Nam 25er).

Saturday I got part of the grand tour of Lüderitz. It's a compact town sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Namib Desert. Could probably walk from one end of town to the other in under 20 minutes. Most people in town work for the fishing industry, a mining company or NAMDEB (diamonds). You can get a smoked fish for under US$3 or a bucket of lobster tails for under US$10! Lots of German influence on architecture. The highlight of the morning was her friend Günter taking us on a sailboat tour of the coast, passing two lighthouses, diamond mining boats, an abandoned whaling station, Diaz Point, a seal colony and a Jackass Penguin colony. We didn't get to see any whales or dolphins - he saw both on the morning tour. I took lots of pictures and will upload them as soon as I can get them off my card.

After the three hour tour we went back to eat and to catch a much needed nap - I was still feeling a little sick from earlier in the week. Just a quick 30 minute nap. Well, SEVEN hours later I woke up, missing the wedding and the reception (I've been in Namibia long enough to know it is better to go to an event early than late). Carrie and I were going to do a bike ride on Sunday to see some of the flora & fona, but my health put the nix on that idea.

The combi was supposed to pick me up at 2pm on Sunday but came at 3, right on time by Africa standards. Fortunately Carrie gave me some earplugs for the ride back. With the way I felt and how loud the people were behind me, I swear I'd be on trial for at least three murders. To top off the evening ride, my backpack and jacket were slimed by melting fish packed on top of it. Darn that global warming! In an effort to get better, I took today off (and probably tomorrow too).

Other news: I finished my 27th book today. Have gone on a reading binge, putting down eight books since July 1st, three of them over the past five days! Two books I found at a used book store in Windhoek – Slapshot (what is that book doing in such a non-hockey country?) and Into Thin Air (about the Everest disaster-see the Imax movie). I'm starting The Eye of the World, a 782 page beast. That should keep me occupied for a couple of days.