Showing posts with label peacecorpsfun. Show all posts

Sunday, December 6, 2015

A few fun facts about Kasote

Hello all! Don't you just love the adorable learners I get to work with. On Thanksgiving we did this fun art project. :) Naturally, Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Namibia so we did still have school. I apologize for the quiet past week, I have been attending conferences for Peace Corps 25th anniversary serving in Namibia and it has been rather busy. Keep an eye out for a future blog about the fun stuff and exciting stories about our conferences/celebration. Not to mention a bit of music. However, in the mean time I thought it would be fun to share a few fun facts about Kasote (the village I am serving in).

Kasote was discovered by the Nyemba peopleIt was named after the animal “kasote” because at the time there were several in this area. From what I am told kasote is an old Nyemba word meaning Springbok, the animal displayed on Namibia’s ten-dollar bill. A woman named Elina Menavava and a man known as Kanyonga discovered the village. In 2013 a tree in my village for some reason fell, roots and all out of the ground. The tree stayed sitting in the road for over a day blocking the small gravel pathway. It is completely unknown how, but one morning the tree was found standing perfectly planted and upright, as if it had never fallen. The tree is of decent size so in order for a person to replant it the aid of machinery would have been need. The mystery of how the tree stood again is still unknown.

In 2013 a tree in my village for unknown reasons fell, roots and all completely out of the ground. The tree stayed sitting in the road for over a day blocking the small gravel pathway. It is completely unknown how, but one morning the tree was found standing perfectly planted and upright, as if it had never fallen. The tree is of decent size so in order for a person to replant it the aid of machinery would have been need. The mystery of how the tree stood again is still unknown.

Most homesteads have families of 3-4 generations living in the compound. The average homestead size is 15-20 people. (The homestead I live on has 12 people)

Kasote is located along the Kavango River which is the boarder between Namibia and Angola.

Again I apologize for the lack of activity but I pinkie promise the posts will pick up! Be ready for stories/photos of the 25th Anniversary, a post about traditional foods, and a little something I learned being away for Thanksgiving

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Storytime

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” - Dr. Seuss

Last weeks instagram post:

"They say attitudes are contagious... If thats the case I want to infect the Learners at my school with a love for reading and books. What better way than with story time" -Me :)

Reading, in my opinions is one of the most amazing gifts a person can have. Reading expands the mind and opens up worlds beyond what we can travel. It gives hope and creativity. Reading brings a sense of a million lives lived, and a million more to be lived. Anything is possible with literacy. So when I found out helping establish a reading culture at my school was one of their hopes I was both ecstatic and a bit heart broken. When I arrived to my school I came to find we have only a small "library" tucked away in a storage room which also doubles as the office of a couple teachers. There are books, but not many at all. An attempt at alphabetizing had been made, but not enforced by any means. Almost all teachers expressed one of their desires of me is to increase to reading abilities of learners, aid in English development, and help establish an actual library. That is a loaded request, but not impossible.

A Grade 10 teacher who uses the "library" as an office and I had the opportunity to chat a bit over a library concept and ways to get learners excited about reading. After the two of us spoke with our principal a bit we came to the conclusion that we could utilize school space a bit better by moving the library to a place where we can also have room for learners to sit and read. We also discussed building hammocks outside under the trees with the rule of the hammocks being that if you want to lay in the hammocks, you must have an open book in your hands. Just a little something to appeal the idea of opening a book to learners.

So after learning about this desire I decided to really look into what the library has and needs. First thing I noticed was they need an organization system, and that knowing the levels of books would be beneficial as well. I figured once I have things organized I would have a better idea of the inventory. Little by little I began carrying books from the "library" to my desk to dust them off and google what the book's reading level is. During one of my trips one girl would lives close to me asked what I'm doing. I told her I was trying to help the library because I love books and were suppose to take care of the things we love. I asked her if she likes books and she nodded. So I handed her a children's story that looked to have some fun pictures. She is only a Grade 1 learner but she has amazing English! She told me she didn't know how to read all the words so I asked if she would like me to read to her. This made me super excited, so I put down the pile of books I had and sat with her to read. Children here, as in anywhere are very curious. One little girl turned into two, which turned into four, and later to about 20. Lower Primary learners leave earlier than the rest of the school so they caught me on their ways home. We read a couple short simple books and they went on their way. The following day they requested another story when they saw me in the school yard. This thrilled me to know they wanted more story time so naturally I agreed. There was down side though. As I mentioned before lower primary learners are excused from school early so a heard of us outside reading caused some distraction to other classrooms. One lower primary teacher then requested that I come to her class to read the following day to learners, a request I has happy to fulfill.

I knew I would be with them for about 2 class periods so I decided lets make a project to go along with reading. We read a story about a tortoise whom in short lost her shell after taking it off and it being stolen by monkeys. Those tricky monkeys! Eventually the tortoise's friends help her to retrieve her shell and they had a party dancing and playing. We read the story, then all the learners were instructed to draw their own picture of animals having a party, they could use the same animals in the book or add new animals. Being that they were Grade 1 learners I was skeptical about how much they would understand. With some aid needed from the regular class teacher story time along with the arts project after went much better than I had hoped for. The learners were so into the story, and even helped me pick up a few new words in Rukwangali! One learner even invited my tattoo to her party and drew it into her picture. It was a great experience, and I hoping for future opportunities to have more story times with learners.

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Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Wacky Wednesday: A few humourious misconceptions of the USA and a bitof insight

We don't know what we don't know right? I for one had a few misconceptions of Namibia prior to arriving. For example: Discovery channel loves to emphasize on the Namib Desert. I watched several documentaries about it, so part of me expected to see sand dunes every where I turned and an occasional cheetah on my walks to school. Well, after all of PST and almost one month into actual service I have yet to see a sand dune or a cheetah. I also believed my tattoos would get me kicked out of the country and wearing shorts shorter than knee length would make me out to be trashy. Both of which were false. My tattoos have lead to some great conversations (and a couple friendships), and although I don't intend on wearing any "mini-minis" as Benna would like to call them, I don't feel the need to be so conservative.

On the opposite end, I have had to just giggle at some of the funny misconceptions Namibian locals have of America and thought I would share.

1) The joys of reality TV: "Is it true that all American women look like Kim Kardashian?"
            As much as I wish I could have curves like that.... its not going to happen. I mean I guess plastic surgery is an option but I hate doctors so.....
        Funnier part is when another volunteer and I asked if we look like Kim Kardashian to him he responded with "..No, you look more like Martha Stewart...... you know the girl from the Twilight movies who's always sad about loving vampires." I thought it was funny! Especially considering I was totally team Edward.

2) Americans are rich: "All Americans are rich like Tyga and Wiz Kalifa. We also all run around throwing money in the air like Lil Wayne because we have more money than what fits in the bank."
         I wish this was true as well. However it has lead to some interesting conversations about what student loans are and how independent some people can be. As annoyed as I've gotten over a thing or two, this has also lead to some of the more enlightening cultural exchanges I've had, even for myself. There is dish cable and watching music videos is popular so its easy to understand how this idea came to be.

3) The Lumanati!
        I'm learning a lot more about this concept here than I knew in the states. The more I hear about it, the more I think its silly. But, who knows....... I suppose Beyonce and Nikki Manaj would have the answers from what I hear.

I think one of my favorite aspects about living abroad is encountering assumptions about American life, and also learning about how my own mind is shaped.

For example: The concept of sharing. There is a saying here that "In Africa, we share." Up until this point I thought I was great at sharing. Back home I had a habit of just giving someone something of mine just because they said they liked it half the time. I'm pretty quick to just give this or that. I do have a habit of taking friends' hoodies, hats, or loose shirts (blame my gypsy soul) though, just ask my friends. If I had company I either tried to cater to them, or they knew me well enough to just walk straight to my fridge grab a snack and start mixing up margaritas. However, here I'm starting to realize I'm a bit more selfish than I originally thought. Sharing here goes right down to sharing any little bit you have. People are not shy to offer you their only apple. When one piece of bread is left rather than the family bicker, they happily split the slice amongst 5 other family members and each take a sip out of the same Fanta can, all while chit chatting about the day. In all honesty, its mesmerizing how willing and far sharing goes here. Even more so with out questions asked. It's like second nature how people have come about sharing. I think in some ways my tight budget living on the allowance of a volunteer has made me a bit more reluctant. The other day I was upset when my tea time snacks were eaten with in 48 hours of me buying them and not making it to a single day of tea time. So when tea time approached I was sour for a moment about not having a snack. Then, one of the workers dropped off a glass of juice on my desk and said "Here you go Tena". Almost every day at tea time she has done this with nothing but a smile. Not once asking for anything in return. That put things into perspective quickly for me. Here I am, in this beautiful country. Namibia is seriously breath taking! I'm Surrounded by people who didn't even know I existed 6 months ago and they have completely opened their homes, community, schools and themselves to me. This includes feeding me some amazing meals and even adapting to my 274824 food allergies/sensitivities. I ran into my host mom from Bunya in town this weekend and she came up to me with the biggest smile on her face saying "Its my daughter Jamie, I'm so happy to see you! are you coming for holiday?". My new host sister introduces me to people when we go out with excitement telling others "This is my sister Tena." In the short time I've spent with each of their families they have completely taken me in as one of their own. Where I once lived VERY guarded, they've shown me love, and I too have grown to really care for them. Yes, being a volunteer means I'm well, a volunteer so the budget I have at my dispense is extremely limited. However, here I am, with the amazing opportunity to see how to simply open myself to giving. Whether that's snacks, or a smile, there is so much that I can learn from the locals perspective of sharing. This is indeed a beautiful lesson to be learned.

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