Lost Week

Sunday, 14 January 2007

So it looks like my plan to write every day went down the tubes a little earlier than I expected, but in all fairness it has been quite the week. We started working on Monday and it’s been rather intensive. A few key people involved locally with MYO stopped by the office to give us presentations about teaching in Namibia and Rob also went over a lot of the basics: logistics, administration, etc. Other than that, we’ve been looking over the curriculums from both the Namibian government and the previous MYO teacher, Shannon. At first glance, the scope of the academic program intimidates me, but hopefully Casey and Alexis will be able to keep me afloat with their teaching experience. I don’t mean to get too precise with our goals and bore you, but it looks like we’re aiming to coordinate our curriculum with the national one to make everything look and run better as well as make lesson planning easier for the future. Believe me, if all that sounds overwhelming… I feel your pain. Things should get a little less hazy in the next week or so, though. That’s when the last volunteer, our manager, Katie, shows up.

Another project we’re working on is driving around to get updated pictures and biographies of the returning students. That part has been very interesting since we get to visit the kids at home, meet their parents, and get the community more and more used to seeing our faces. It seems like most people already recognize our combi (van) with the MYO logo, but the three new white faces driving around in it are a different story. This is especially evident in places like the DRC (Democratic Resettlement Community), the poorest part of the township. Its location about a kilometer beyond Mondesa sort of isolates it from most outsiders, particularly whites. The residents are sometimes taken back by our presence there, but those who know us seem to be especially friendly to us—probably because they realize that our work carries particular importance to the futures of their children. Overall, meeting the kids makes the experience here in Namibia the most worthwhile. I get the feeling that I will be repeating this point over and over again in many ways throughout the year, but it cannot be overstated. One smile or one hug can erase an entire day’s worth of frustration or stress from the office (or even a bout of homesickness) so I hope you’ll forgive me there.

On a different note, we took a day off and went camping on the coast with a few of the kids Thursday. It was a little more hectic that I would have expected, but I’ve never taken part in a 14 person excursion either. 4 kids from MYO went, along with 1 sibling and 2 other girls. Each time I get a chance to do something new with the kids from Mondesa, it really opens my eyes. They are so well behaved and generally excited to be doing something new that it makes it fun just to be around them.

The place we went camping was just about 90 minutes north of Swakop, at a place called Mile 72. (I’m not sure if that means it is 72 miles north or not; I wasn’t really paying attention… plus the distances are all metric here.) Along the way to the campground, we stopped to see a seal colony at Cape Cross. Holy shit were there a lot of seals! I took a lot of pics so hopefully I can get them uploaded to my picasa site for viewing soon. The “do not cross” rails were very close, so they would come up pretty close to us and bark, smell bad, etc. Cape Cross is also the first place where the Portuguese explorers landed in southern Africa, so there were a couple of crosses commemorating that landing inscribed in Latin. While a couple of us went to read the plaques near them, a little game of soccer broke out, too. Ah, traveling with kids.

From the seal colony, we headed to make camp. Mile 72 is right on the coast, and the actual campsites are just off the beach. (I hear there is another campground a little farther north where you can camp right on the beach… I’ll definitely be visiting that one ASAP.) Once we arrived and set up camp, which was basically 2 small tents next to the combi, everyone went down to the beach. It was pretty chilly, like an overcast 65 degrees, but a few people still went into the ocean. The boys played soccer on the beach, and the rest of us relaxed. After a while, I started employing a new technique for finding pipis (shellfish, like muscles) that my Australian counterpart taught me. Soon enough, with the help of a few others we had a heap of the little guys. I learned how to open, clean and cook them, and soon enough we had our appetizers. Some of the kids were really into them, others not so much. One in particular, Ephraim, couldn’t get enough. I think he burnt himself a couple of times because he was dropping them on the edges of the open fire and pulling them out with his fingers since he didn’t want to wait for them to cook in the skillet. Yours truly was also in charge of dinner because the girls (Lexy and Kc as they will often be referred to) prepared everything for the braai (Namibian barbeque) we had the night before… oh yeah, we had a braai the night before to meet one of our local board members and his family; it was very nice. I made a Greek salad that was a hit, and let one of our local volunteers take care of the braai since it’s a big Namibian tradition for the men to braai (think running the grill in Texas). I’m pretty sure the tales of my manliness in salad-making will soon spread throughout the region.

Somewhere in the fray before dinner we also got a pretty competitive game of half-field cricket going (thank you Mr. Sean Flower for teaching me that one). After dinner, my Canadian counterpart took charge and got the smores going. In retrospect, feeding 7 kids chocolate and marshmallows before bed probably wasn’t the best idea, but they did enjoy it. So then the chore was getting everyone to bed at a decent time, and that was pretty much a losing battle. I did get to sit up late with Julian, our tennis coach, talking about all kinds of stuff: travel, work, Namibia, etc. One of the other great parts of MYO that doesn’t get as much publicity is how Rob has managed to get local young people that don’t have much opportunity and/or direction involved so they can learn skills and gain mentoring that will help them make more of their own lives. I’ll take a moment here to thank everyone who has served as a positive role model for me and taken the time to teach me basic work ethic, problem solving, among so many other things. Those are things that I take for granted, but I’m sooooo glad they are a part of me now. I digress.

Sleeping arrangements were a little here and there. With only 6 tent spaces and 4 in the van, Rob, Alexis, Casey and I were relegated to sleeping “under the stars”. It wasn’t too bad until the mist fell in the middle of the night, then again when the boys in the van woke up at 5:30am and started making noise. Ah, kids. The morning went pretty quickly, and we only had a few hitches. The most important for me was not having enough fresh water for coffee—and let me just advise against boiling instant coffee mixed with milk in the same pan that was used to serve oily Greek salad the night before. Enough said.

I’m rambling on now, but I have one more story to tell. Yesterday (Saturday) we finally got to see a few of the kids in action on the tennis court. They are pretty legitimate little hitters. I got my first doubles action with Julian as my partner against a couple of kids, and we definitely weren’t cleaning up. Then after thoroughly tiring myself just hitting for over an hour, I challenged Ephraim to a little match to 5 games. About 3 games into it, I remembered that I hadn’t put any sunscreen on and panicked. So I finished him off as quickly as I could (5-2, Mr. Beau victorious) and ran home to lick my sunburned wounds.

Ok, I’m getting hassled for “writing a novel” so I’ll spare you all from having to subscribe to Mr. Beau’s book club (kind of catchy, neh?). I’ll be back with more soon. Goodnight and good luck.

Beau

P.S. If anyone wants to call me, feel free (family pay attention here). I’m not sure how much it costs, but there is calling card info all over the net… and let me know if you find a good one so I can spread the news. I can call the States, but it’s pretty expensive. I tried to send texts, but they’re blocked. I haven’t been able to get to the internet café much recently, plus the connection makes me want to punch myself in the face. Sorry, if it takes me a while to get back at you.