Back to School, Back to School

01.15.13

Back to School, Back to School

Well! Today was the big day!  Today was the first day of school!  I arrived at St. Barnabas around 7 am and waiting for the opening ceremony to begin.  All the children were lined up by grade in their purple, blue and red school uniforms and the principal welcomed them with some warm words, a bible passage and a prayer.  Then, the students were off to the classroom they were in last year and waited to be picked up from their new teacher and waited to see if they had moved on to the next grade or not.  However, this process in Namibian time was extremely slow and I had Mr. Mbai’s third grade class from last year from about 7 to 9:30 am.  With them, I reviewed some of the material and songs they had learned in grade 3 and what they might expect to learn in grade 4 with their new teachers, because in Namibia, you begin to rotate classrooms and teachers for each class, similar to middle school in America.  After that, I began to build relationships with the students and asked some of their favorite things while I told them where I was from.  They asked questions such as, “Is Nicky Minaj in the Illuminati?,” “Do I know President Barack Obama?” and was informed that “Michael Jackson is definitely the King of Pop.” Then, I introduced the children to “Heads Up, 7 Up” and we played that until Mr. Mbai wanted to pick up his new classroom of students for grade 3.  

He got the children situated in seats and went over classroom rules, and from about 9:45 am to 1 pm, when the bell rang, I was literally flying from the seat of my pants and taught the rest of the entire school day with extremely minimal school supplies.  I ended up playing a game with phonics and flashcards, read two books to the class, taught them a Days Of The Week song, and worked on a lot of classroom routines and classroom management strategies that I would be using throughout my lessons.  I did not want to go too in depth because we are going to Northern Namibia this weekend and will not be back in my classroom until next Tuesday.  Nonetheless, I pulled enough tricks out of my magical “teacher toolbox” to survive the whole first day of school without any supplies but some books and my brain.  The children were pretty good and I think were just excited to be back at school.  I knew from the beginning that we would most likely be teaching the first day but after the teacher meetings the day before, I didn’t think that I would be, as Mr. Mbai was very on top of things.  However, as the school day went on, it took two hours to fill up a water bottle and an hour and a half to go to the office.  Oh well, I’m not complaining!

Things I Have Noted Since Living In Namibia: 

• The first animal I saw here? A cow.
• People here drive on the left side of the road…Therefore I will never be driving here.
• Since traffic is opposite, crossing the street is extremely difficult.  Rachel, Suzy, Kelli and I were at the corner of a busy intersection for at least five minutes.  It hurts your brain trying to figure it out.
• Even the lines in grocery stores are opposite—they go from right to left and I quickly figured that out when trying to by a sandwich from the deli.
• The skies here are straight out of Toy Story—absolutely beautiful.
• The winds here remind me of home—they are constantly gusting.
• Sunflowers are the wild flowers here and it is constantly reminding me of home and my great grandpa.  Namibia gives me yet another reason for sunflowers to be my favorite flower.
• Wadadee is a Damara word and is actually spelled “hoadati” and means “ours.” 
• “The Big 5” in Namibia is the most sought after animals to hunt for but is also the hardest to hunt by foot.  The Big 5 animals are Elephants, Leopards, Buffalo, Lions and Rhinos.  
• Fidel Castro is actually a person who is respected in Namibia because he helped them during times of trouble.The bars and 
• Carwashes here have hilarious names such as “Bad Boys Bar,” “The Facebook Bar,” and I saw a place that was literally the “Kinder Garden.”
• Windhoek actually has 4G…they are so ahead of the United States.
• Giraffes actually camouflage in to their surroundings surprisingly well.
• The area of town we live in, Katutura, literally means “place we do not want to live” in Herero.  Yikes.
• I have learned one click in Damara! Ask me what #!oxpe! means and how you say it!
• Lion King is so accurate with the bugs in the movie.  Centipedes here are probably about a foot long and an inch thick and the Dung Beetles are probably about the size of a large AA egg.  Luckily they do not bite so I can (somewhat) tolerate them.
• It is “ideal” to be as light as you can be in Namibia.  Since many of the people here get a darker skin tone the longer they are in the sun, the lighter your skin is tends to represent your “level” in society.  Interesting because we always try to get as tan as we can and many Namibians try to stay as light as they can in this direct sunlight.

(Pictures to come and update from my weekend in Northern Namibia/Etosha National Park.)