Yossarian in Africa

March 10

Last week was my turn to supervise silent study, which is from 4-5 and 7:15-9 every day. I lucked out having it this week. The counselor (just a local politician) made a surprise visit and spoke to the learners from 4 to 8 on Monday while I sat in the staff room and marked (graded papers). When they were released at 8, they had to fetch their now cold dinner and report to silent study by 8:30, so I only had 30 minutes to supervise. Because this weekend was a home weekend, there was no silent study Thursday afternoon (because they needed to clean the campus) or Friday.

I witnessed some discipline during my silent study. I am going to report these facts objectively. Kneeling is a common punishment because "it is painful" (pronounced pain-i-ful). One teacher punished about 20 of my learners during silent study for the way they behaved in his class. He divided them into groups of 4 or 5 and made them kneel in front of the four 8th and 9th grade classes and explained to the 8th graders (who were busy taking an exam) that this is what happens when you misbehave in his class. They kneeled between one half and a full hour.

One staff member threw his set of keys at a learner (I am unsure why), then called him as he was running off to fetch the keys. After the keys hit the learners, they landed in a soapy puddle, so the learner first had to go wipe them off before returning them.

After hearing of a learner who slapped another learner, a teacher called the perpetrator and victim to his class after school. He then instructed the victim to slap the perpetrator, which he did. This caused the two brothers of the original perp to "beat" the original victim. When summoned to the principal's office by the management team and involved teacher to be "heard" and told of their ensuing suspension, they raised the objection that a teacher should not be involved in perpetuating violence. Their objection fell on deaf ears, and the boys ended up walking out of the "meeting" in anger.

My behavioral expectations are lax, respectively. One evening during silent study I was in one of the 9th grade classrooms helping some learners with their homework while a learner made a noise on his cell phone. I ignored it, then a few minutes later it happened again. So I got up and went to the boy who I thought had it. He denied it and told me he didn't know who had it. So I told the class they wouldn't be dismissed at 9, but would stay until I had the phone. Of course they all knew who had it (as did I), but no would rat him out. At 9:10, after most of the learners spent the past ten minutes screaming in my face to let them leave (in which I returned a blank stare), I let them leave. Soon after, two girls ratted the boy out and I pulled him back into the room. I explained I could care less that he had a phone and that if he had given it to me I would have given it back to him at 9, but instead he lied to me, which really made me angry. So I made him clean the classroom (a joke punishment that is just sweeping and erasing the board) for the next two nights and told him if I caught him lying to me again I'd give him a more serious punishment (like weeding).

Jimmy, the best basketball player at ELCIN (other than Mr. Scott), is organizing a league. There are three teams; he and I are on the same team, which is honestly going to be less fun because we will dominate. The team not playing (the third wheel) is in charge of officiating. Games are going to be Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The other day I was trying to explain to Jimmy how popular basketball was in the U.S. I told him about the rec center at MU, college basketball, and the NBA. He asked me if anyone from my college went to the NBA. Some of them, I said, but it is rare. "You're one of them?" he asked presumably.

That reminds me of another ridiculous question I've been asked several times about America by intelligent Namibians: Is racism over?

This week we were finally able to access the internet in my principal's office. It is anything but consistent, we were successful only one in five attempts, but at least he paid the Telecom bill. We are considering getting the internet at our house, if we can get the Namibian rate, which is 6 times cheaper than the foreigner rate.

March 12

I finally got some answers from the woman wanting the sewing machines. There are five people in her group, and they will meet once a week. They will have electricity. The supplies they need are sewing threads, a tape measure, scissors, threads and designs. They don't know the cost of the materials; the selling price will be determined by the production cost. They would like "2 knitting machines, 2 sewing machines for hard materials and 2 sewing machines for soft or simple materials." Knitting is with hooks and sewing with seems, whatever that means. They would like to make bed sheets, blankets, jerseys (?), and saris (an Indian type garment). I read an interesting article in a TIME recently about micro financing – which is giving really small loans to very poor people in under developed countries. The thought was that "these people" would not pay loans back, but in fact, they have turned out to be just as financially responsible (if not more because in many cases they are afraid of the public stigma of not repaying) as more affluent people. The idea is that the loan will cover the startup costs of a small, sustainable business. Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin said this in the most recent GQ South Africa: "Often it's just that small amount of money that can get you off the ground. While traveling to Africa a woman approached me and asked me for $300 for a sewing machine because she believed she could create ten jobs. I gave her the money and three months later she gave it back having established a viable business. Not a unique idea but she was sure she had an idea and could make it pay." That made me more optimistic. It would be nice to reuse some one's old machines, but maybe it would be more cost effective to purchase machines here? I'm sure shipping would be outrageous. Thoughts? Ideas? Questions?

March 15

I am really missing the start of the tournament, which should tip off about two hours from now. I have always said today and tomorrow are the best days of the year, with the weekend a close third and fourth. No Mizzou this year. SMS? I mean, Missouri State… Without even seeing a bracket or a game this year, I don't have the expertise to pick winners like in the past (Syracuse, Maryland in November, and North Carolina a year and a half before). However, my final four is Ohio St., Wisconsin, Florida and Texas. LSU (without Tyrus Thomas – by the way, how's he doing in the league?), Kansas (Mario Chalmers will miss a wide open lay-up after cherry-picking in the final minutes, then commit a stupid foul, effectively blowing the game they led by 7 shortly after half time), Michigan State and UCLA will be upset in the first or second round. Duke will fall one game short of the final four.

Yesterday was our first league game. It only differed from previous games in the way we determined each team's basket. After the jump ball (which I easily won), there was seemingly mass confusion. Remember my days at the Boys Club I was sure that this was due to the players not knowing which direction they were going. I was yelling at my teammates to go toward "our" basket while silently laughing at the opponents who were shooting at both baskets (I was too confused to move from where I landed after the jump ball). When the opposition finally scored on our basket, I made sure to point out to the ref that those were our points. Only then did they bother to explain to me that whoever scored first on either goal consequently selected their team's goal. After my team dominated game one, we started over (so I'm not sure if it actually counted for a league game, or which game was official), got off to a 0-8 start with Jimmy and me on the bench, them came back in the final minutes to secure victory. At least that game was a challenge.

That reminds me of a play my dad thought up when he coached us back in the day. After half time, when our team would throw in the ball from half court, three of the players would line up on the wrong side, the defense following them. We'd throw in the ball to the lone player in the backcourt (actually the frontcourt) who would then have an uncontested lay-up. Worked every time.

I have yet to write about the president's visit last weekend. It was…uneventful, I guess. It was hot, for sure. He arrived via helicopter, which was a surprise, but seemed logical in hindsight. Air Force One was parked in soccer field between our house and the soccer field he spoke at (the pilot or guard was asleep in the shade when we walked home, anyone could have come up to the copter from the other side). They closed down part of a road, I'm not sure why, though, because the rerouted traffic was closer to the podium then the road. Maybe they just heard you are supposed to do that. There was also an armed guard patrolling the main intersection and also one guarding a random path, who appeared to be giving some kids the third degree as we walked by, waved, and took his picture.

It's good to know that we don't have the only uniformed president. He asked if my school still existed (and I seem to be the only one puzzled by this). In Bush-esq form, he declared that we were in Mpungu (a small, dinky village 30 km away). His "speech" was really just a political rally for his SWAPO party comrades running in the upcoming town officer's election. SWAPO has been "campaigning" heavily for the past six weeks, mainly by shouting from a bullhorn while driving around in a crowded truck adorned with red, blue, and green flags and scarves (they all wear the coloured scarves, hats and shirts), honking and driving recklessly. SWAPO comrades must find this entertaining, because it is certainly unnecessary given their 80 to 90 percent majority in the country and region.

I'm too tired to write anymore. Lindsey is going to try to use the internet tonight at the Finnish missionary's home.