Playing Bantumi

Finalmente! Jason and I are at Univ. of Namibia northern campus in Oshakati with an hour of internet time before the library closes at 16:00.

Communication with friends and family back home has been rather difficult lately! Our efforts to post here or send a worthwhile email were thwarted two weeks ago when the power for all of Oshakati and Ondangwa—the two “cities” in northern Namibia—went out for an entire day. The more upscale supermarkets were running on generators, but everything else, including the computers at the Peace Corps office, was dead.

School life has been bordering on the hectic lately; things are in full swing. I made it through my first round of 145-essay-grading , and Jason has already given two math tests. The results of these assessments have been less than encouraging though. There is a paucity of critical thinking skills here. Our learners are extremely talented when it comes to copying notes from the board. They are also good at using their rulers to draw straight lines under the title of the day’s notes. They can repeat definitions of words from previous lessons verbatim. But, do their words mean anything to them? I’m finding that for 80%, the answer is probably “no.” It’s incredible how they can act so completely bored when we talk about using the present simple tense . . . “Miss, we know this already.” But when asked to complete the most simple of worksheets, it’s as though we never had a lesson the day before. I try to walk them through the thought process I would like for them to complete on their own, but in the end, it seems that they are only good at reproducing the exact examples we do together, incapable of applying the same concepts to new words. So, that aspect is a bit frustrating. I’m really accomplishment-driven, and we have been moving at a snail’s pace without much to show for it.

On a brighter note, our efforts at the library have begun to pay off, I think. Jason decided to make himself available for tutoring at the library for an hour in the afternoon; more and more learners had been coming to our house to ask for help, making it virtually impossible to walk around naked. So . . . I offered the same opportunity to my English classes, and the response has been great. Our kids chant the “Education is the key to the future” mantra that the ministry has seemingly indoctrinated into everyone without many tangible results, but some of them really are serious about doing well and going abroad for tertiary education. To me, these students are so much more serious about school in comparison to the stereotypical American adolescent, but it’s because they have to be. There aren’t many options for them if they don’t score well on the national exam next year in grade 12. So, a lot of them are coming for tutoring. Also, this has meant that the library is open every weekday for at least an hour, and so many kids have been checking out books! I’m such a nerd, but it makes me so happy. I took my classes for a “How to use the library” lesson (because they’re wrecking what organization we have in there) and I asked them all, “Is it good that the library is open only 2 days a week?” Usually, they just agree with whatever you say, but this time, I got a nice, strong, “No!” So then I encouraged them all to consider becoming library prefects so that the learners can help run the library and open it up a couple hours a day, six days a week. The kids who signed up are nothing less than the sort of people I would have hoped for—they are the more responsible bunch—and we’re having our first meeting this upcoming Monday. I really hope they can handle checking out the books and reshelving, etc. because it has felt like so much work thus far; I’m ready for an easy supervisor position. It will be a while before that happens though. I’m sure that running a small library sounds like small potatoes to you guys back home, but you just can’t understand how problematic it is to communicate directions to someone here and have them complete the job thoroughly. What’s more, I think we’re going to have to train some of them how to put books in alphabetical order, (including the librarian!) but . . . no big deal.

A nice anecdote for you: I was tired of leading learners around to pick up trash as punishment for various things; why should I have to be out in the sun? It’s too much work. So, the other day I decided to have so unruly learners meet me at the library, where I was going to be anyways, and had them look up words in the dictionary. Now, psychologists would say this is promoting ill-will towards using a dictionary, but I have to say that I never got into the habit myself until I was forced to read a novel for Spanish lit and walked around with my Spanish-English dictionary attached to my hand. So, those guys were going to look up some words. As I thought it over, it occurred to me that these learners weren’t going to understand much of what they looked up, so why not have them look up words I’m interested in? Unfortunately, I hadn’t been maintaining a personal vocab list (another nerdy statement for you), so I skimmed the dictionary for random words. Then those poor learners . . . it still makes me laugh, they were trying to copy those definitions and use the words in sentences . . . I’m talking preposterous words, like “holism” and “perspicacious.” Some of my favourite sentences they came up with are: The cows here are incoherent. AND Us, we are going to make some wassail? I would have never guessed that wassail was spelt the way it is.
I felt guilty after looking at their work; they just don’t have a clue, and then I felt REALLY guilty when they asked me to return their work to them the next day in class so they could look at it. So, I decided to compile a list of words they can actually use. It will be a good use of time for them, and it’s a lot easier of a “punishment” to manage.

I’m sure you’re all interested to here some news regarding my personal development . . . I’m trying to create a more aggressive, forceful persona, primarily for use in the classroom. Jason and I learned a game, Bantumi, from our cell phone that has, rather absurdly, inspired me. The way to win in Bantumi is to stay on the offensive and force the other person to react to your moves. This tactic, I have found, is equally useful in The Real World. I hadn’t realized the extent to which I wait for people to show me how they would like me to react to them instead of simply setting my own agenda, and applying the Bantumi Principle has been surprisingly effective in helping me to relax and just be firm with people instead of getting frustrated and/or upset. So in class, when my kids are being rowdy or incredibly slow in passing homework up for the upteenth time, instead of reacting to them and getting angry, I simply tell the troublemakers they have a date with me in the library that afternoon. Bam! Taking the offensive, forcing them to react to me, which they do, whining and complaining. When the LADD coordinator consistenly missed club meetings without telling me she wasn’t going to be there, I was initially frustrated and felt taken advantage of. I had to remind myself to be firm, not angry. So I talked to her about it the next day, forcing her to react to me instead of festering in my growing resentment. Bam! It was such a strong move that she felt inclined to lie to me about why she hadn’t come the night before. (I knew from reliable sources that she had just stayed home). LOL This is all of course very corny, but it’s really helping me deal with all the craziness here. Just can’t be too serious.

Well, we just had a black-out and I thought I’d lost this text, but my computer is back up and Word saved a recovery file(!) However, Jason’s letter was lost and he’s, of course, really ticked off. So we’re going to go to some friends’ house and finish emailing everyone from there.

Love you guys, and will write more asap, electrical power willing.