Yossarian in Africa

This is a view of the Zambezi River from our favorite place on earth, the Boiling Point at Vic Falls.

This is one of the many colorful lizards at the Boiling Point.

Ahh...America. Luxury and Coldness. I've been here a few days and have really enjoyed seeing friends, family and sports. We have been working on getting our non-profit organization together. We're struggling write now trying to come up with a nameMore to say about that later, but for now here a a few pictures from Vic Falls I'm now able to add:

The guy was greeting us on the way down to the Boiling Point shortly downstream from the Falls. When we approached him he he showed us his teeth and we all jumped back. Apparently they just don't want you to walk in front of him. We walked caustionsly right behind him and didn't look in his eyes.

This was us at the bottom of the decent right after the baboon above. This area was really cool, it was practiacally a tropical rain forest. No rain, but it was maintained just by the midst from the falls. A trpical mist forest. Lindsey is sure lucky to have such a good looking husband.

This was the climax of Lindsey's panic attack. I didn't think she would be able to go through with it but she made it with clean pants. Mr. Sikwali, my friend and colleague, told me a story about how the cheif (or hompa) of the Vic Falls area one day trieds the bunji and wasn't lucky enough to return to the top with clean pants.

Here's me and my emerging bald spot in absolute terror, yet clean pants.

This was on the Zambezi river cruise. Just lucky timing.

Swimming trunks in Chobe Park in Botswana.

Two young kuku kissing.

more later...

Nov. 24
We are now halfway through exams. Only one more week remaining. All of my subjects are finished; all I have left is marking (grading). So far it has been pretty depressing. It looks like several learners will not be promoted. There are certainly a good portion of them who should not be promoted because of their apathy, but there are a few hard working students who may not make the cut. It’s especially sad when the needed percentage to pass is 20%. I can’t really stand to write more about this now.
I gave some questionnaires on my teaching the last week of classes. They have never been asked to evaluate their teacher before, so it was difficult getting quality information out of them. For example, when I asked how I could improve many replied that I am already a good teacher. Several learners told me that I needed to beat learners, whether the question was how to get learners to come to class on time, be quiet, or care about Physical Science.
The most recent highlight was the party I threw for my life skills class on the lst day of classes. They didn’t really understand the concept of a party. They asked if it was my birthday. They asked what we are going to celebrate. They asked if they will enjoy nicely. They had no idea what to expect until the day before when I asked them what kind of cool drink they like (“coke and pineapple”; Pineapple Fanta that is). I brought coke, chips, sweets, and made brownies for them. The best surprise was Lindsey, though. She was unsure if she would be finished at her school in time, but made it just in time. The girls really love her, especially Hambeleleni. When I first introduced Lindsey to them after several weeks of begging, Hambeleleni was clapping so enthusiastically when she saw Lindsey approaching that she was shaking her whole body. I don’t think she quit smiling for a week. After snacks we took a class photo and they demanded a picture with Lindsey.
They also gave me quite a nice surprise by decorating the chalk board. I realize as I type this that it probably does not sound impressive to you at all, but it meant quite a bit to me. If I had been a girl I’d probably have cried.
Thursday we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving. Lindsey and Mrs. Sikwali cooked for 4 or 5 hours, making chicken pies, chicken, fried tilapia, beef casserole, and potato salad. It was enough to feed 20, so it fed 6.5 very well, even by American Thanksgiving standards. Mr. Sikwali, son Muna, Mr. Phiri, and new Peace Corps Volunteer Sarah were the other guests. It was nice to not have to do any of the food preparations. I played with Muna and watched a little TV at Mr. Sikwali’s. Muna just learned how to walk and is no longer afraid of his two white neighbors. The most thankful part of Thanksgiving was finding out from my parents that the Tigers are ranked #3. I couldn’t stop smiling all night.
I have been anticipating the MU/KU match up for months, and it’s an even bigger with KU #2 (how did they get away without playing Texas or Oklahoma anyway?). I have been anticipating it nonstop since Thursday. And if that wasn’t enough, we just found out from Lindsey’s mom that #1 LSU lost to Arkansas last night meaning the winner of tonight’s Border War will be the number one team in the country. It’s so unreal. It was a crushing blow to find out the game will start at 7, not noon, and I’ll have to wait even longer for news of what happened.


Nov. 9
It’s Friday. We have one more week of classes, then 2 weeks of exams. I’ll do revision (review) next week so I am finished with giving real lessons for the year. Naturally this is has been a good time to reflect on the year and anticipate changes for next year. What progress was made this year? I think the relationships I formed with the learners was my biggest contribution. Many of them have never been exposed to a teacher who smiled at them, showed open disgust for the text book, drank so much water, had an awkward accent, did not settle for them just saying they understand and pushed them to communicate. Notice I did not mention adding fractions, negative numbers, conceptual understanding of the equal sign, or any type of critical thinking. And the great thing about that is that I don’t care. Except for general critical thinking (which is not on the syllabus), I do not think math skills are necessary life skills for most people. (That’s not to say that none of my learners can do those things, several of them can. But they are bright and they could do it before I arrived.)
Especially the second half of the year I have been more concerned with the learning process. Teaching them techniques for understanding, checking their understanding, note taking, studying, communicating ideas, and, most importantly, asking questions. Progress has been hard to quantify and harder to identify. A lot of time when I’ll ask a student “why?” they will just point to the board or their paper, or worse, just turn their head and ignore me until I leave. Nothing’s worse then asking a learner a question with the intention of helping them only to have them freeze you out. A big cause of that is the culture. I have no problem with respecting elders, but taken to the extreme it seems to prevent any relationship between adults and non-adults.
I am going to push communication even more next year. Thankfully, the grade 9s I’ll have next year will already be used to me from grade 8 this year. But I’ll have a new group of grade 8s to break in. I remember the first day of school this year. The grade 8s didn’t open their mouth despite my begging and asking questions.
I also want learners to understand the value of note taking. It’s frustrating that they seem to be taking notes only to satisfy my desires – like I care! I envision giving assignments where they have to refer back to their notes or old homework assignments, but I’m not sure how this would work practically.
Other goals for next year include starting a tutoring program for the grade 8s by the grade 11s. I think that if it is during study time it will give learners an incentive to participate. I think I would supervise an hour a week in the library. The primary purpose would be reinforcing and re-teaching basic math competencies that they should know, with the secondary purpose of studying current topics. Also, I would like to do some sort of fund raising via the Peace Corps Partnership. My principal has hinted at redoing the athletic facilities and getting new computers. I think I’d prefer computers, although smoothing out the basketball court and painting the 3-point line would really improve my Wednesdays. Those new XO computers at $188 are very interesting. It’s worth looking into I think. We’ll see, I need to think more about this.
Lindsey is going to renovate a “condemned” building at her school with PCP, and if I do the computer thing (or something else?) we figure it will be valuable experience. The non-profit we are trying to start will hopefully come together during 2008 also. We have several ideas and can’t wait to get working on them.
2008 should also be an exciting year back home. Regardless of who is the next president, they will surely be better. I’m still hoping for Obama. I don’t understand how Hillary is currently ahead. To me, Obama stands out from every politician I can remember from my short life. And that is a very good thing. Do the American people see that? I guess maybe we have different priorities. I guess my prediction that Al Gore would announce his candidacy during is Nobel acceptance speech was incorrect. I still think the Gore/Obama ticket would be the best option for the world. It’s too bad only Americans are allowed to vote.


Oct 3 (approximately)
Lindsey’s school just held a beauty pageant. At first I was hesitant to go – the beauty pageants I’ve witnessed and heard about in the past have been too risqué. The fact that beer was going to be sold and that the general public would be invited was another turnoff – the general public likes beer too much (In Namibia, “too much” means exactly the same thing as “very much” or “a lot.” For example, “Festus likes math too much.” But I think the American English use of “too much” is appropriate here). I was just too curious.
It was supposed to start at 7. So we thought we should go around 8:30. We arrived around 9. It started around 10. The first night finished at 3 am Friday and the second night at 3 am Saturday. When we arrived on Friday night, there was only one judge, so they recruited me. The seventeen contestants first came out wearing beach wear. Most were wearing bikini tops or bras and spandex short shorts. It was rather uncomfortable with the drunken cat calls and the fact that some learners were not quite 15. I immediately started trying to assign values to their walking style, smile, self confidence, neatness and body shape (yes, body shape!), but was eventually told this was not round one, but only the introductions. Anyone who flashed a genuine smile got 10s from me, but that was incredibly rare. Namibians can’t grasp the concept of a fake smile. Lindsey worked with them after school all week teaching them to “smile” and “walk.” Some were horrendous. One girls walk looked like a robot. It was probably her first time walking in high heels, and certainly her first time walking in high heels across uneven desks in the dark in front of 300 pairs of eyes.
The fourth and final round of night one brought both the most heartwarming and most funny moments. Round 4 was formal wear. I feel fairly confident in saying that these girls hadn’t ever worn any formal dresses before, unless it was another pageant. The dresses were super fancy. I couldn’t believe it. Not only in Namibia, but in the Kavango! They didn’t all fit perfectly, but the girls really seemed to enjoy being so dolled up, there were more real smiles this round. That is, until the questions started.
Yes, round 4 was also the question round. I think I was dreading it more than the girls. I took care into forming my questions. I didn’t want to embarrass them by asking something too hard, but I’ll be dammed if I was going to let them off too easy. I was just hoping I wouldn’t have to read a question first, then I could compare with the other judges questions. Of course contestant number 1 picked my number and I had to read the first question. The audience loved this. My learners have trouble understanding my English, so I took extra care in enunciating my words. The audience hushed instantly when I grabbed the mike. “Who is the president of America,” I asked in embarrassment, I couldn’t believe I asked such an easy question. Contestant number 1 couldn’t understand me, or so she claimed, and I had to restate the question (turns out this was a stall tactic all the girls would use). Then the MC had to restate my question, although his was ridiculously unintelligible. After a moment of thoughtful silence, the girl replied, “Elizabeth.” Oh. I guess it wasn’t too easy. Everyone laughed, even I couldn’t hold back a smile. But wait, she wanted to change her answer. The new answer of “Zambia” sent the audience, judges, and teachers into an uproar of laughter and open ridicule. However, no other learners faired much better. Here are some exchanges between judges and contestants that I can remember:

Judge: Who is the Deputy Prime Minster of Namibia?
Contestant: Mr. Hausiku (Mr. Hausiku was the girls teacher and also sitting right in front of her as the DJ).

Judge: Ok, good evening. Please state your name and age for the audience.
Contestant: Please repeat the question.
Judge. Your name and age.
Contestant: [delay, followed by something inaudible]
Judge: This is a very simple question. Very simple. Ok, what does HIV stand for?
Contestant: [long delay] Condoms.

Judge: If you had to choose between somebody and everybody, which would you choose and why.
[General confusion and wtf looks on audience]
Contestant: [long delay] The second one.
MC: Please repeat your answer.
Contestant: Number 19.