So as you probably know, I've been volunteering at the Bernhard Nordkamp Center in Katutura, Namibia. Katutura is a 'suburb' of Windhoek, the capital city. I say suburb in quotes because it is basically a part of the city, but it is the place where the apartheid government sent all of the black Namibians who lived in Windhoek to separate them from the white Namibians and the Germans. Its an interesting place to live because it is considered to be the most dangerous part of Windhoek, but most of the violence occurs between people who know each other. I walk to work every day with the other people living in the house who are also volunteering there, and we stick out like sore thumbs walking down the street. We are literally the only white people in Katutura, so we get lots of honking, comments, and people saying hi to us, as if we are something extraordinary. And most of the people living in Katutura probably do not see white people walking very often, as the white population of Windhoek mostly remains in Klein Windhoek and the city center. There are also 3 main groups of people who live in Katutura, the Damara, Herero, and Otjiwambo. 99% of the kids at the BNC are Damara, and 2 are Otjiwambo. Damara is a fascinating language becuase it consists of words intermixed with clicks of the tongue. There are 4 mains clicks, and 1 that most people don't even know about because it hasn't really been used since the 1950's or so, and is only in about 3 words. So far, the only thing I can saw in Damara is "I'm good", and "I love you". But I can't write them at all. Clicks are written as an exclamation point, so "I love you" would be written (as it sounds, I don't actually know the real spelling) as "!Nam tsi da". So interesting!! So, as I've written before, I was doing a lot of remedial work at the BNC, tutoring kids who needed extra help, etc. But then on Monday of this week, 5 volunteers, the ones who lived with me, and who were the grade 1-3 teachers, went home. So, that left us in a bit of a predicament because suddenly we needed a bunch of teachers! Anna and Clarissa, the two girls who moved into the house last week and stay until just before I leave, took over grade 2, and Simon (a volunteer from Germany), and Katy (US) took over grade 3. That left Timna (Toronto, Canada), and myself to take over grade 1, with Marybeth teaching grade 4, and Meluma (Namibia) teaching math to grades 5 and 6 while Jim (US) teaching them English. So, we have no one left to do remedial work, but I think it will be ok, because several of the kids who were on the list don't actually need help anymore, since they have caught up with the rest of their classes!! Such good news! Me and the other remedial volunteers worked really hard to get them back to the levels they needed to be on, and I'm glad all the work paid off for some of the kids! So now I am teaching the youngest kids, grade 1. There are 15 kids in the class, and they are all adorable! Some of them are hard workers who want to do well, and others (mostly the boys) are crazy and run around all the time!! Monday, which was our first day, we had quite a but of behavior problems, mostly them testing us to see how we would deal with their behavior. So yesterday, the first thing we did was talk about the classroom rules, since they seemed to have forgotten the ones they made up with their previous teachers. We also are continuing something Amy and Katie (the previous teachers) had started. The Star of the Day is the person who is best behaved, works hard, and listens when other people are talking. Each day before class we have a short conversation about what the Star of the Day should look like (behavior-wise), and then they will have that in their minds during class. Yesterday we ended up doing the 'most improved' person for Star of the Day, and it went to a little boy named Deacon who is normally one of the worst behaved kids, but was really good yesterday. He had never gotten it before, and sometimes would get really upset when he didn't get Star of the Day, so he was super excited to get it! Although it did make another behavior child upset that he didn't get it, but maybe today will be his day to be good! We are also hoping that him having gotten Star of the Day will make him behave a little better from now on since he knows that he does have the potential to be Star of the Day. The grade ones are supposed to be learning basic addition and subtraction, so thats what we have been doing for math. English is basic sentences and spelling, but one thing I have noticed both through teaching them and doing remedial work is that a lot of the kids have trouble with the alphabet and don't actually know the names of the letters, they jsut know the sounds. So I think Timna and I will start doing some work on learning the alphabet better and learning the names of the letters! Other than that, work at the BNC is going great, and I'm really enjoying it! The kids are super friendly, and get really excited whenever we show up!
Now, I only have 2 weeks left in Namibia, exactly 2 weeks from today, and probably even this exact time, I will be driving to the airport getting ready to fly home. These next few weeks will be crazy, as I get home on August 19th, and leave for Athens on August 29th! I will be contuing to blog from Athens, mostly about what I'm studying, as well as my travels throughout Europe, and hopefully Egypt! Stay tuned for more blogging this week!!
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