Sunday, January 11, 2009

Practicum Teaching, Etosha, and Tsumeb

I am currently in Tsumeb - a medium size town in the north. I spent the last week in a small village north of here. We did our practicum teaching in a hostel school there. For four days, I taught a group of students for two periods each day. Since learners have a break from school, they had children from the village come in for our classes. It was quite interesting because there was a huge range of ages! Since I am one of the few to be teaching grade 5-7 this year, I got the youngest learners. I had a class of learners that ranged from 2 years old to 8 years old! The oldest student was in grade 2. This was quite a struggle because only a few of them knew English! In Namibia, learners have classes in their native language for the first few years of school and then in grade 3 or 4, all of their classes are conducted in English. It was also a struggle trying to teach this class with toddlers in the group! I spent half the time teaching with a baby on my hip! It was a great experience though. The children are amazing! There were 7 and 8 year olds taking care of their 2 year old siblings. I did not see a single parent the entire time we were there. When asked what they did the night before, most learners said they plowed the fields, cooked dinner, worked outside, or took care of younger siblings. They LOVE to get their pictures taken. Everytime I took out my camera I had 10 or more kids posing and begging me to take their picture. I really want to post pictures on here, but I still haven't found a computer with USB access.

To reward ourselves and take a break, we have a few days off. Yesterday we drove through Etosha National Wildlife Park. It was unbelievable! I saw a ton of zebras, springboks and wildabeests. We also saw a male lion! Apparently it is very rare to see one in Etosha - we were very lucky! He was just chilling in the shade. The most amazing part was seeing an African elephant! It was walking next to our bus and then walked down the road right in front of the bus for a ways. We also saw a giraffe from a distance, wild dik-diks, warthogs, and a handful of African birds. I will definitely be making a trip back to Etosha in the next year! Today, we have the whole day free in Tsumeb, which is a nice town. Since it is Sunday, we struggled finding anything that was open. After a long trek, we found a gas station with one computer! The hostel we are staying in is great. There is a pool and very nice rooms. There are birds all over the hostel, including a beautiful peacock!

We drive back to Windhoek tomorrow (Monday) and spend the rest of the week in the same hostel as before. I am very excited for my language training this week. I will have daily lessons in Oshivambo. Friday we are having a braii (traditional BBQ) with live music to celebrate the end of orientation. On Saturday we all travel to our placements and then I start teaching on Monday (19th). I am very anxious and excited to get to Ogongo, get settled in, and start teaching!

4 comments:

The Chameleon said...

What an interesting teaching experience! Your students certainly live a life of work. I wonder what students here will think when I read your post to my English 9 class next week. We will respond to your post as a group. I know they will appreciate knowing what you are doing! I found where you are teaching on Google Earth, so that will be a tool I will be teaching students. (Or, they will be teaching me!).

And the animals you saw, amazing! I can't imagine. I am looking forward to pictures!! I hope to have students locate pictures and post them to Google Earth, as well as your journey and other information we learn about Africa from you and other research they do. By the way, do you know any stories they would appreciate - about teenagers, or the culture there? I appreciate any recommendations - but I will be on the lookout as well.

I love reading your posts, Rachel - Your students here will be following your journey along with me!

Jill

Cath Manley said...

Hi Sweetpea!!!

GREAT to hear from you and know you have a few days off. Weren’t the animals in Etosha aMAZing?? I am soooo happy you got to go! My favorites are the Giraffes, Elephants, Lions and dik-diks. They are sooo teeny. Speaking of teeny, we have a little flying squirrel in a cage in Gin’s room, since Sally is here for a week (otherwise we’d use Meg’s). You’d love it! He needs medicine twice a day but he’s such a trouper about taking it, if not a little bit scared still. We’ll probably have him until the Spring. Such a vastly different world your learners live in… so young to have so much responsibility. Do they look healthy? What kinds of foods do they eat? Doesn’t your computer have a usb port? Can’t you plug your computer into the internet outlet of any of the ones you get to use? Let me know if I can help somehow with that. What kinds of vehicles do they have there? Are you nervous riding in them or are they pretty sturdy? How do you like the food? What kinds of fruits do they have? It’s such a good thing you have been able to connect with your colleagues over these last months and weeks. I’m sure it makes it a lot easier. Dad filled me in on his chat with you the other day so I’m trying not to duplicate questions – hence the kind of lame ones above – but still, they’re an integral part of your daily life. I wonder what kinds of animals you will find around Ogongo? I remember the birds being amazing. And there will likely be cute (and maybe some not so cute) smaller mammals that might come looking for handouts… Sooo glad you are there and fully experiencing life in Africa. Miss you like crazy and can’t wait to hear more. I’ll give you a call soon as well. Love you, love you, love you sweetheart. Take care, have fun and soak it up! (including the sweat…eeeeewww! ). Cath oxoxoxtoprug

gooze said...

Hey Rachel!
It sounds like an amazing and interesting experience!! The wild life sounds just amaszing and breath taking!!
Love reading your blogs and hearing about your experience out there!
Margaret

Anonymous said...

Hi, Rachel!
You must be very busy. I have not seen a recent post. I really hope things are going well. I am on break and have been trying to get a message to you to see how things are going. Let me know your correct email or tell me to blog - which I am not good at - or send a letter? Tell me which, okay?
TAKE CARE!!!
Carol