Saturday, October 27, 2007

A Night to Remember

It's been so long since I last updated. As you know, I can only use the Internet when I visit the Rundu, the regional city. But I'm finding fewer reasons to leave my village. This past month, more than ever, I've felt at home and at peace in Kahenge. Some of the Kwangali teachers have noticed this and joke with me that I am 'Kwanga-lizing'. I just say that I'm becoming an American Namibian.
It's really strange to leave my village now. I feel out of place. I try so hard, every day to integrate with my community and to mimic them, that it's not surprising how my own habits have changed. Probably one of the more distressing parts of this has been my slow slide into speaking 'Namlish', or the Namibian English dialect. I have started saying things like “I'm having a pen” and barely notice it. Or just saying “Yes” or “OK” as a greeting. When I first came to Namibia I felt an urge to correct people on these sorts of eccentricities, or what I considered horrible grammar. Certainly, I would not use them myself. Oh no. But its really hard when you hear it every day from everyone. And who doesn't want to fit in? I mean, isn't American English itself just a bastardization of British English?
The truth is, that a lot of these phrases come from a literal translation into English. For example, when you walk past someone, but don't want to stop and greet them, you say “Ewa” which means, as you might have guessed, means 'yes' or 'OK'. And if you want to say 'I have a pen' it is “Ame kwa kara pena”, where kwa kara, is in the present continuous (I think that's the right tense name ?) so it comes translated in English as 'I am having' instead of 'I have'. I'm also challenged a lot on my accent. It's kind of ridiculous to have learners tell me to my face that I speak English incorrectly. For example, say the word 'God'. I bet that when you said it, there was more 'A' sound than 'O' sound. There might even have been a smidgling of 'W'. Oh Gawd. Aren't we pronouncing this word wrong in the States? It should just be a short 'O' sound. Anyways, the end of all of this is that my speech has by now become horribly transformed, sometimes I sound Brittish, other times Robot-ish. And still I'm barely understood.
The computer lab is a tremendous success. Although it's been difficult to teach everyone from scratch, the enthusiasm is infectious. I've had crowds of 10 learners patiently leaning over my shoulder to watch me type some boring document. Breathless, they are eager to learn the secrets of the key manipulation. It's kind of like teaching a toddler how to open a candy bar-- they don't know how to open it, but they sure want to!
In my spare time I have been writing a grant proposal through the Peace Corps Partnership Program. Although we are thrilled with the 6 computers, expansion, in order to serve more learners, has always been the next step. It was a little hard for me at first to reconcile organizing donations where the previous computers had been purchased by the school. But in the end I see it like a fund-raiser. All schools need to raise funds and most schools cheerfully accept donations even though they could probably afford things themselves if they saved for several years. I think that many people want to help African children and African schools but don't know a good way to do it. When the grant proposal is finished it will include several measures to ensure that the money is spent transparently, efficiently and sustainably. And it's hard to argue with improving education in an impoverished country. Individuals would donate directly through the Peace Corps and online if they choose. The donations are for charity so it is also tax-deductible.
The school year here is almost finished. On Monday the 10th graders will leave the school and go home and await their test results which are announced just before Christmas. To celebrate and to say good bye, I threw a party at my house for my homeroom class (which is one of two 10th grade classes). To say that they were excited about this party would be the understatement of the decade. I heard about it every day, every hour, everywhere I went. The learners at the school have pretty tough lives in my opinion. They complain to me almost everyday about not being fed enough (they also say that the hostel cooks regularly steal food and then sell it). They don't sleep enough, they sleep 2 or 3 learners to a bed. They don't have any private space. So I thought I would it would be nice to give them something-- one night where they would feel special and actually have as much as they wanted to eat. I financed the whole thing, about $50. This went a long way-- I bought about 15lbs of chicken,6 lbs of spaghetti, and 4lbs of rice. We had a real feast that night. I have this image in my mind of smiling kids, sitting lazily in their chairs. Chicken grease is smeared all over their faces. One of the learners, Gabriel is outside, walking and jumping. His stomach is visibly distended. “Gabriel, why are you jumping and walking, you will become sick!” I told him. “Sir!” he replied “I want to make more room for the spaghetti!” We played cards games and MasterMind, which my mom sent over here. Snoop Dogg and bad Techno music are blaring out of my iPod. A lot of learners are standing outside of my yard with pitiful and jealous looks on their face. Inside the house there are a lot of mosquitoes but we are happy and full. It's all fine and good to be teaching learners science and to helping with the computers. But it's moments like these when I feel I am really doing my job here, which is making a difference in their lives. As one learner told, with complete sincerity. “Sir, I will never forget you or this night for the rest of my life.”

Here is a photo of me bungee-jumping in Zambia. The bridge is between Zambia and Zimbabwe. It is 365 feet high