After a swim in the Indian Ocean


Sinead with a couple of African penguins


In a prison cell (2m x 2m) on Robben Island



View of Table Mountain

Table Mountain and Kirstenbosch

View from the Cable Car
A hairy baboon on Table Mountain (extremely rare sighting)
Silvertree
Guinea Fowl
Camphor trees (from China and Japan, but still beautiful)

Another beautiful Cape Town day Sinead and I rode the cable car up Table Mountain. We would have climbed it, but we weren't feeling so hard core that day (we might still do it later). Once we were up there we walked through some beautiful gorges and took in views of the whole peninsula. Later that day we went to the Kirstenbosch botanic gardens, which are most likely the best botanic gardens in the world, because instead of just being a stuffy collection of plants there are great trails through thick bush and woods and you can pretty much go whereever you want, including all the way up Table Mountain. Sinead and I especially liked the native plants like the silver tree, the waboom, and the forest fig (an enormous tree with beautiful bark). The Cape has this unique flora called fynbos that is found nowhere else on Earth, and it is fascinating to look at some of the crazy shapes and colors of this stuff. Unfortunately exotic species are a big problem here, but the garden does a great job of preserving and exhibiting native South African plants

Wine tasting in Franschoek

A few days ago we went on a tour of wine country with Sinead's parents. I'm not really high class enough for this kind of thing- I didn't know that you are supposed to spit out the wine, and I wore a bright yellow t-shirt to a fancy restaurant, but it was a great time and the scenery was lovely. It makes me feel like I'm back in California, except all the place names are Afrikaans instead of Spanish.

Cape Town

Goodbye to Owamboland.

Flowers at the Cape of Good Hope- the plant life here is incredibly diverse.

Baboons- if you let them in your car they will poop all over it. We saw one get in some tourists' car, but fortunately the chased it out quickly enough

One of the nice parts of Cape Town.

We are enjoying a lovely visit with Sinead's parents in Cape Town, site seeing, eating good food, drinking fine wine, watching movies, diving with sharks (not yet, but maybe soon)- its about as different as it gets from Oluvango.

School is out

So the first term has actually ended. The exams are over, the learners have seen their (unfortunately mostly dissapointing results), and Sinead and I are about to take off for South Africa. I have to say I'm very excited for this break, but strangely enough I aslo feel like I'm going to miss teaching and my learners for the next month. Maybe I'm being silly, but this place has really started to have a hold on me. But all that aside, I think both of us sorely need a vacation, as exams have been especially taxing.

Every day last week I had to invigilate (a crazy word, I thought it was a Namibian invention, but apparently its used in Ireland as well) two tests for 1 hour and 20 minutes. At first I thought this would be a chance to catch up on grading, but then I found out that learners had been cheating under my watch, so I had to give that up. So instead I just sat there, hot and bored, watching anxious teenagers take tests. I would get up every five minutes to walk around the class, but I never saw any evidence of cheating, so they are probably too clever for me. We were supposed to teach during the periods when there weren't tests, but my learners all wanted to study, so I made a compromise that I would teach the first half of the period and they could study for the second half.

Their studying was not so effective, as most of them did not get the marks they had hoped for. After the English test several girls came up to me and complained that "the test was soooo incredibly difficult Mr. Douglas". But it turned out that English wasn't as bad as maths, where the highest grades were Ds (which here is 50 -60 %). The tests were hard, but they were pulled directly from the end of the year exams that learners have to pass in order to be promoted, so they'll have to rise to the challenge at some point. I'm going to focus much more on teaching to the test next term, but I'm worried that at this point, and even before I got here, it is too little too late for many of them.

But enough worries and pessimism- I'm sure some of them will surprise me and do better than I hoped (one girl in ninth grade did that on this test, but her grade is so much better than her past performance that I'm pretty sure she cheated somehow). For now it is off to Cape Town and other adventures in South Africa- stay tuned for photos.

Anyone for mopane worms (fried caterpillars)? I haven't gotten the courage yet.

Exam Madness

The first term is really coming to an end, and next week we will be having our exams. This is leading to craziness in the staff room because the test schedule was only announced on the Friday before the tests were to begin. Our school has recently acquired a photocopier, but everyone is worried that if it is used too much it will break, so copying tests is strictly off limits. Instead we use a duplication machine, which you use by preparing a stencil (kind of like a carbon copy sheet) and then roll it on this big ink drum. After that you roll papers through and it makes copies. It's actually pretty cool, but you can't do pictures or anything unless you draw it by hand. Also, you either have to write everything out by hand or type it using a typewriter onto the stencil- which makes test preparation really time consuming, especially in English where there is a need for long passages.

Then there is the problem that there is only one typewriter, and everyone here types very slowly. So everyone has been rushing around trying to make sure their tests get ready and it has been generally much more chaotic than usual. Yesterday my principal asked me to type his test, which I resent a little, but at the end of the day it doesn't take me so long, and hopefully he'll return the favor some time.

Another interesting aspect of school here (a diplomatic way to put it) is the meetings. I recently heard on the radio that the two biggest problems in Namibia are making ends meet and making meetings end- I guess that's a common joke, but it seem particularly accurate here. Staff meetings from 2 to 5, where only a couple issues are discussed, are a common occurrence. The major stumbling block to efficient meetings is that the principal really wants to get everyone involved, but no one wants to participate, so after he says anything he waits a long time for feedback. The most contentious issue by far has been the use of the photocopier- the official policy has been somewhat paradoxical, since the principal and head of department are encouraging teachers to use it, but every time someone asks for copies they are told they are making too many. Also the principal and the head of department are the only people allowed to use the copier, presumably because it is too complicated unless you take a training course. Just so anyone doesn't get the wrong impression, both the principal and HOD are great guys- its the way of doing things here that bugs me sometimes, not the people themselves.

Last weekend we had another long weekend, this time with parents and in Oshiwambo. I was looking forward to a long meeting where I didn't understand a word. It was still long but the HOD was really nice and translated everything for me. The meeting was held in a kind of concrete barn, and midway through the meeting it started raining really hard on the tin roof, making it impossible to hear anyone. The parents approved the schools budget (a nice idea, though I don't think they really do much oversight) but the major topic of discussion was about learners going to cuca shops (a local term for bars). Apparently many learners sneak out at night and get drunk, and then have hangovers at school the next day. Also, when they sell fish it is so they can get money to buy beer. Everyone at the meeting was instructed to chase learners out of cuca shops if they see them there, even if the learners insult them, which also seems to be a big problem. I did see some learners watching a soccer game at a cuca shop a few weeks ago, and now I wished I had said something to them. At the same time though, its understandable for them to go there if it is the only place in the village with a TV. It would be great if they could start some kind of community center here, but for now that is wishful thinking.

Meanwhile my water has been off for about three straight weeks now. Twice now it has come back on briefly, I breath a sigh of relief, and then six hours later it is off again. It isn't so bad getting my water from the school tap until I think I'll have running water again, and then I get a little upset when my hopes are dashed. At this point I think it won't matter so much if it isn't fixed by the end of the term, but I really hope when I get back the water is more consistent. The biggest problem is that it is hard to wash myself and really hard to wash my clothes with limited water, so I'm getting smellier by the minute (thankfully I can shower at Sinead's place twice a week)