Saturday, October 17, 2009

Fish Farms, Agriculture and the Latest Part of Life

Since reaching my site, my actual position (assistant to the principal of the demonstration school) has been largely theoretical. I’ve been told it exists but have seen no direct evidence. I buried myself in getting the library organized and running, amounting to a week of grouping and cleaning around 2,000 moldy books. The next two weeks were a philosophical quandary of what I’m actually doing here. I joined my roommate with some of his projects and brainstorm ideas to bringing positive changes to the campus. Hunger and poverty are major problems up here thanks to the 20 years of war. From what people have shared with us, this was a major strategic battleground during the civil war. You can still find bullet casings on campus, even after a year of cleaning. Fortunately the school did appoint a new principal and we've been working together on a lot of projects to get the school on a positive track. I'll talk more on that in the next posting.

The past few days you could say that West Africa Won Again (WAWA) many, many times so I’ve been dragging myself through the bottom of the rollercoaster. To get out of the funk, I decided to start making the place a little more homey, putting up pictures, cleaning all the mud and junk off the bathroom walls, clearing off the table (was a dump) and started coloring the windows with the crayons I brought along. Nothing like a little color to brighten up the day. My roommate and I also finished plans for a palava hut (sorta like a tiki bar) next to the fire pit.

People like to ask me why I run, so I enjoy giving playful answers such as: I’m being chased by lions, We’re out of palm wine, A group of crazed women are trying to marry me.

Ahhh, the fish pond. Gotta talk about the fish pond. Before the civil war this institution farmed fish to eat and sell at the market in addition to all the produce they grew. Big money. No fish farm and no produce. In comes the primary and secondary projects. Two weeks ago my roommate and I went down to the pond to start digging out the bog. Just he and me to start with for about the first 30 minutes with people stopping by to watch the volunteers work ... not to help. Two people were inspired by our efforts (or took pity on us) and joined. Gradually it became four and by the end of the four hours we were up to eight helpers. We threw a bash for them later that evening to show our appreciation for their hard work. Last weekend we had 15 help and this upcoming weekend we will have a whopping 25 helpers! What looked to take about a month to get done may be done within the next week. That plus some great runs this week have pushed the rollercoaster car from the bottom to the way up to the top of the next hill.

Another side project we’re working on is to start a Loma language book (for personal use, not Peace Corps) so with the help of my Namibian APCD Waldo, I procured an electronic copy of my Khoekhoegowab language training manual to use as a template for the Loma. Our friend Flomo just finished it today. Before the war he was working on putting together a Loma dictionary and is translating the Old Testament into Loma (they already have it translated for the New Testament). I’ve got a font editing program and am going to make up a Loma font so I can type it all up. What I want to do and I wish I would have done in Namibia for KKG, is to record conversations and make a podcast type of program or even use the webcam on my laptop and do a video language program. Lots of people here want to contribute to its genesis. It would be fun to go back to Namibia and do something like that for volunteers so they can have it for their iPods. It is fun to watch the reaction of people when you greet them in the local language and see the genuine joy on their faces. Reminds me a lot of KKG in Namibia

Oh, since getting drenched in a downpour a few weeks ago, my cell phone won’t let me dial across the pond to anyone in the States. It just gives this business about how the network is busy. Probably need to get a new phone or to use my roommate's and buy him some credit.

That’s about all the time I have right now. I’ll do an update this weekend. Take care, ya’ll!

1 Comments:

At 7:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sounds like the prototypical pc run! FYI - sent 2 packages and a separate letter with contents about 3 weeks ago. Hopefully they make it and get there before Christmas!

-Bri

 

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