Red fish, blue fish

Kevin: I'm looking for John Dawid. Have you seen him?
Manfred: Hmmm. Is he the white one?
Kevin: He's not white!
Manfred: Well, he's brown.
Kevin: And what color are you?
Manfred: I'm dark brown... And he's light brown.
Kevin: And what color am I?
Manfred: You're white.
Kevin (holds arm against white t-shirt): But this shirt is white.
Manfred: Then you're light light brown.

Kids here are always openly making reference to their skin color!  (Usually, but unfortunately not always, in a neutral to positive way.)  It's funny though because from what we've noticed, it's almost as if everyone refers to themselves as brown, to kids darker than them as black, and to kids lighter than them as white! Always makes us chuckle a bit.

Pet Squirrel

You may remember from a previous post that boys sometimes find and try to domesticate "rabbits" (which were actually more like squirrels).  Last time I was caught off-guard in my classroom without a camera, but this time I was able to take a photo since these two visited us at our house.

Learner Food

The learners here eat all kinds of things (which they maybe shouldn't), and we have no idea why since the hostel feeds them breakfast, lunch, and dinner (which, if you're wondering, includes a lot of porridge, from my understanding).

If you read the previous post below ("You can't trust the quiet ones..!"), you'll know the learners eat paper. To add to that, when reviewing with one of my BIS classes (Basic Information Science, like Library class) about the rules of the library, one learner seriously offered the answer, "Do not eat the books." Correct!

Also, I have thrown my banana out the classroom window into the bush, only to see seconds later that some girls quickly searched for, retrieved, and ate it, as if they would perish if another had beat them to it. So now I know to courteously leave these, apple cores, orange peels, etc on a rock or ledge somewhere so some lucky learner can retrieve it without it being covered in sand. Not that that would be such a terrible thing because I've also caught my learners eating handfuls of sand as they are entering my class. I ask them why... "Miss, it's nice."

It's beyond me! And I even get the feeling that there are much stranger things that they eat, but I'm not sure that I want to know what.

You can't trust the quiet ones..!

I was standing in front of the class teaching as usual. At the table of desks in front of me, I notice a loose sheet of paper appear. I am unsure of which learner it belongs to, but before I can make any assessment, one learner quickly snatches the paper, which is followed by the other learners at the table joining in and very quickly grabbing back and forth across the table at the paper. In about 3 seconds, the paper completes 5 or 6 passes. Suddenly, Maria, a petite, quiet, bright girl at the table, manages to, in the blink of an eye: snatch the paper, crumble it, put it in her mouth, and swallow it. And it was gone. It happened so fast, as if these actions were somehow all completed simultaneously. It was all so discrete too, so I was fortunate that my teaching went uninterrupted. Although I suppose there was not much reason for major interruption to occur since what had happened, even if anyone else in the class would have noticed, would not have been perceived as very abnormal. If anything, the interruption would have come from me if I had not managed to cover up my laughter!

Culture shock vs. Adjustment

There is culture shock and then there is adjustment, which is sometimes followed by a bit of shock at the realization of how normal the once-abnormal has become! At this point, not too much shocks us that perhaps used to. There are countless examples, but this one just stood out to me for some reason.

The past week has been exam time for learners, so I was taking care of some things in my classroom a couple of days ago when two of my grade 6 boys came to visit. "Miss, we have a small rabbit." I asked for  clarification, unsure of exactly what they meant, so one of the boys reached his hand down the front of his collar and into his shirt and out came, well, a juvenile squirrel-like creature, wide-eyed and bushy tailed. Now in the States if some naive boys pulled something like this, I think I would have at least jumped back and told them to wash their hands, but I simply smiled and advised them to continue to take good care of the creature and thanked them for thoughtfully coming to show me. "Well isn't that just sweet!" ..And then I realized just how strange my reaction was since, if this had happened several months ago, it probably wouldn't have gone the same way!

The animal they were holding and petting fortunately seemed healthy and even bonded to the boys. They demonstrated that it is becoming domesticated by placing the squirrel on my classroom floor and walking away so that it would follow them. Pretty neat! They said they want to sell it as a pet to make some money! But I will have to follow up about it during Trimester 3 since the learners all went home (to "the farm" for most of them) earlier today for the 2-week school holiday.

Term 2 (of 3 for 2011 and 6 total) completed! Time sure is flying!

A touch on marriage and family

Kevin and I were chatting with a colleague of mine yesterday, an older lady teaching lower primary school. In the middle of our conversation she made reference to Kevin as my boyfriend. I was sure she knew we were married, so I laughed and reminded her of this. She said something to the extent that we aren't married until we have kids!  Despite the wedding ceremony and reception, vows, rings, marriage certificate, living together, having a dog(!), to some here, we are still not considered a married couple!  And all this time, I thought we'd been married for almost 4 years!

We probably should have expected this response because having children with your partner and then getting married is far more common than the vice versa here, even among the younger, more modern generation. This is in part because a woman's ability to birth children is of great importance to the man and so it is in his interest to do a (or more than one) test run.  It is also helpful to have more time so the couple can save money and prepare for having a large wedding.  Aside from that, it's just the norm.

To bring up another point, one that is possibly politically incorrect, we're honestly not sure how this fits in with Namibians' Christian beliefs and practice. (Remember, Namibia is 90% Christian, and from we can tell, is largely church-attending.)

So you want to join Peace Corps...

 

Youtube = truth.  And it's hilarious.

Homeful! (Addendum: "Safety")

Mom wants to know about safety, of course.  (Thanks Mom!)

I think our new place of residence is more safe than not.  Safe because we live in a row of brand new houses, constructed within a year.  (We are the first ones to dwell in the house we are in now.)  New means money, which means less crime.  New also means secure locks on all the doors and windows.

However, we do live behind "location," which means less money.  Hopefully this is not offensive to anyone, but less money often correlates with more petty crime and excessive drinking.

Unfortunately, I think we have already fallen victim to some petty theft.  I must have forgotten to bring my shoes in one night, and we think it was at that time that they went missing.  At first I wasn't sure if I just misplaced them from the moving.  But the last place where I remember them being is on our stoop, so that night someone must have seized the opportunity.  I also think they seized one of Patches' toys!  Well, now we know to be on-guard.

Definitely feeling a bit down about that situation, as well as a bit victimized.  But all in all, nothing irreplaceable or of great value was lost.  Honestly, the biggest thing we are worried of having stolen is our Patches!  And as I think I mentioned in a previous post, this DOES happen!  Someone decides they want something, for instance, one's dog, so they just take it.  And many people will voice that way of thinking as you pass them also.  "Give me your dog."  "I will steal your dog."  Usually this is just someone expressing that they like something, but some will act on it!

Still trying to understand it, but from what I can tell, it almost seems like people here who are doing those things may not even see it as stealing.  Difficult for my American, capitalist -background mind to comprehend.  But I'm wondering if it's sort of like sharing.  Or just not stealing.  I don't know, but it's food for thought.  Interesting to me, so thought I would share it with you too.  :-)

Finally, I consider the culprits.  I would not be terribly surprised if it was just young children who were wandering about, noticed some things they wanted, and thought it would be OK and fun to go and take it without anyone noticing.  Maybe they go home to their family, and the adults there also see nothing wrong with this.  And so the cycle continues.  Just a theory.  Really I don't know anything!

Changing your standards and expectations

A comment was made on a photo I posted that I looked sunburned.  I had to stop and think about it-- "I don't remember getting or having sunburn that day..? Was the color in the photo just off?"

Then I realized that perhaps my standard of what being sunburned means has just changed!  In fact, many of our everyday standards and expectations are naturally being adjusted... What "being on time" or "making progress" is or what "planning ahead" looks like (ref: our housing saga).  Or what a nice house or ride is like.  Or what "being friendly" means.

For better or for worse, it's just the way it is!

Change in perspective

So I was chatting with some Host Country Nationals (PC prefers this terminology over "natives") the other day, and they were curious about the States and asking me questions and stuff.  They then mentioned how they'd like to visit America, but are afraid to because of the terrorism, suicide bombers, and school bombings!  I of course knew what they were talking about, but it was so strange to hear people living in Africa say they would be more concerned for their safety if they were to come to the States, since really so many Americans are fearful to come here!  But it was cool to realize how safe this family felt living in Namibia and how culture affects our fears!  Meditate on that one... I know I am!  Really interesting stuff!

Dancing

On Saturday we partook in some cultural exchange with a group of young (school-age, more or less) Namibian dancers. They taught us their thing, and we taught them the electric slide, etc. I think it's safe to say they were more skilled than us, but to be fair, I think they perform/compete quite a bit. Good times were had by all. The video doesn't do the dancing justice, but here is a preview (in which I also am featured!).

Our First Namibian Braai

Last Saturday, the PC trainees and their host families (along with PC staff and trainers) held our first cross cultural feast, this one of Namibian food. We cooked in groups based on the language we speak or are learning to speak (there are 8 of them), since different tribes customarily cook different foods. Preparation and cooking took place nearly all morning, from about 8am to 1 or 2pm.

At this "braai" (basically the Namibian version of our BBQ), nearly everything was done the traditional way.

Cooking outside over fires (NB: the Namibian flag in the background), as if it wasn't hot enough (Weather has been a very consistent 80-85°F with clear blue skies. We saw clouds on 1 day and not yet a drop of rain.):

We made fat cakes, which are made of dough boiled, or essentially deep fried, in cooking oil:

And also braai bread, which are made on the grill (healthier than fat cakes by a large margin):

It was the one thing Kevin could eat since he unfortunately was sick with a stomach virus for a couple days. (Which wasn't much unlike a stomach virus we have in the States. He is better now and received satisfactory attention and care!) The bread lover was not complaining:

Everyone helped, but I give credit to the trainees who wanted to experience slaughtering and preparing the chicken (probably the freshest meat many of us have had in our lives):

Finally food was served. Trainees went first (since we were considered the guests) and children last (as is custom in Namibia). We could try a little bit of everything, and tastes varied from plain to just unfamiliar. The most exotic of the delicacies were probably the caterpillar and maybe the cow stomach. I wish I could say I was in love with some of the food, but at this point, I'm not really. I'm happy though since we've had easy access to fruits and veggies (phew).

And of course, cute babies were in attendance. This guy is one of the language trainers sons, what a face:

"How to eat a taco"

It's been nice to not have a million things to do (at least at this point), and one thing we've had more time for is cooking!

Our host family is happy too since we got to make tacos for them last week. (Let us know if you can think of other suggestions for American foods that might not be available or common here.)

The tricky part was that the local grocery stores don't stock much in the way of Mexican food. But... we managed!

Meat, cheese, and lettuce were easy. Salsa we made out of enchilada sauce and tomato puree. We put it on our tacos and dipped chips in it that weren't anything like tortilla chips. So the chips and salsa weren't really the same, but they were tasty. We also made the rice more Mexican with tomato puree and some Mexican spices. Refried beans were insanely expensive. The alternative: mashed up kidney beans.

The tortilla shells were the greatest challenge (and really, they weren't very difficult), but also the most rewarding. It was our first time making them from scratch, and luckily (we were nervous at first) they came out awesome and so fresh. I don't know if I'll be able to buy them pre-made anymore.

Hit the spot:

Notice also our lovely kitchen and dining area in the background of the photos. Not much is stocked behind those cabinet doors and drawers (in the way of both, supplies and food), but it certainly is enough to meet our basic needs.

The following video is entitled, "How to eat a taco" (which is a sequel of "How to make a taco.") You can experience our host family with a bit more animation here. :) (Sorry the quality isn't great. I think the mode got switched at some point when our camera was in the hands of a young host cousin.)