hi all. i'm still in namibia.
i ate the single most difficult thing to get down that i've ever tasted the other day. it was a sheep jaw, complete with teeth, but most of the food was the lips and cheeks. it really looked like it was smiling, and had a really rough texture not unlike the inside of buddy's lip as i remember it. it was colored green from the marinade. top that, if possible, with the fact that it was accompanied by a chunk of nose, complete with some hairs on the inside. i didn't eat the hairs, but got everything else down with a smile. i thought, "this is what i was looking for."
and yesterday, i had the best game of frisbee (catch, not ultimate) that i've played in namibia. myself and this little 5th grader from the hostel were standing maybe 50 feet apart just winging it at each other. really hard. and catching it and narrowly missing screaming girls that were standing in the middle and running to make catches and all that good stuff. it really left a smile on my face.
and i got really whipped playing poker for the first time last night. some of these kids are really catching on. the kid was showing me bluffs, convincing me to raise when he had the nuts, and basically leading me around like a donkey on a short rope. it was really worth being a part of--i felt like he knew exactly what he was doing and that i could learn something from playing with him.
and i had a really good morning in the class with my grade 9s. we introduced trig, worked on memorizing the definitions for sine, cosine, and tangent, and figuring out hypotenuse, opposite, and adjacent sides. not rocket science, but stuff that my grade 10s struggled with and they were mostly really catching on. they were uncommonly motivated because i was giving them one chance to improve their term mark. we're technically done -- the exam is written and we were kind of finished, but the principal decided to keep the kids at school an extra week, so i pulled this out of the hat as a motivational trick.
then, this morning. argh. apparently, one of the 'close friends' i told that i was going to leave if we don't get someone reasonable to be in charge passed it on, and it is all over the village that i'm talking bad about the school and teachers and that i'm planning to leave. i deserve something, i guess, for saying something to someone that i wouldn't want everyone to hear, but i'm not sure i deserve what happened in that room. they really layed into me for not doing some things the namibian way. specifically, for not forcing learners to do homework and then not giving passing marks to students who aren't doing any work. also, for considering putting them through unspeakable hardship by not giving at least 6 months notice before i leave. there were other things, but those were the major ones. it really sucked, and i defended and clarified as best i could, but i think it's just another round of some kind of abusive relationship dynamic where they really lay into me and then are pretty nice and i'm supposed to learn not to say anything about the school to anybody and that the cardinal virtue is maintaining appearances.
i've been doing a lot better, and have been considering staying around. there are some things that are going pretty well (for example, i'm spending a lot more time and getting to know some of the community low-lifes), and other things that i'm coping with that are difficult. i just don't know, though. it's a pretty marginal situation and i don't know how helpful i'm being by giving the learners an example of someone who doesn't give a rats ass. i just really don't know.
i ate the single most difficult thing to get down that i've ever tasted the other day. it was a sheep jaw, complete with teeth, but most of the food was the lips and cheeks. it really looked like it was smiling, and had a really rough texture not unlike the inside of buddy's lip as i remember it. it was colored green from the marinade. top that, if possible, with the fact that it was accompanied by a chunk of nose, complete with some hairs on the inside. i didn't eat the hairs, but got everything else down with a smile. i thought, "this is what i was looking for."
and yesterday, i had the best game of frisbee (catch, not ultimate) that i've played in namibia. myself and this little 5th grader from the hostel were standing maybe 50 feet apart just winging it at each other. really hard. and catching it and narrowly missing screaming girls that were standing in the middle and running to make catches and all that good stuff. it really left a smile on my face.
and i got really whipped playing poker for the first time last night. some of these kids are really catching on. the kid was showing me bluffs, convincing me to raise when he had the nuts, and basically leading me around like a donkey on a short rope. it was really worth being a part of--i felt like he knew exactly what he was doing and that i could learn something from playing with him.
and i had a really good morning in the class with my grade 9s. we introduced trig, worked on memorizing the definitions for sine, cosine, and tangent, and figuring out hypotenuse, opposite, and adjacent sides. not rocket science, but stuff that my grade 10s struggled with and they were mostly really catching on. they were uncommonly motivated because i was giving them one chance to improve their term mark. we're technically done -- the exam is written and we were kind of finished, but the principal decided to keep the kids at school an extra week, so i pulled this out of the hat as a motivational trick.
then, this morning. argh. apparently, one of the 'close friends' i told that i was going to leave if we don't get someone reasonable to be in charge passed it on, and it is all over the village that i'm talking bad about the school and teachers and that i'm planning to leave. i deserve something, i guess, for saying something to someone that i wouldn't want everyone to hear, but i'm not sure i deserve what happened in that room. they really layed into me for not doing some things the namibian way. specifically, for not forcing learners to do homework and then not giving passing marks to students who aren't doing any work. also, for considering putting them through unspeakable hardship by not giving at least 6 months notice before i leave. there were other things, but those were the major ones. it really sucked, and i defended and clarified as best i could, but i think it's just another round of some kind of abusive relationship dynamic where they really lay into me and then are pretty nice and i'm supposed to learn not to say anything about the school to anybody and that the cardinal virtue is maintaining appearances.
i've been doing a lot better, and have been considering staying around. there are some things that are going pretty well (for example, i'm spending a lot more time and getting to know some of the community low-lifes), and other things that i'm coping with that are difficult. i just don't know, though. it's a pretty marginal situation and i don't know how helpful i'm being by giving the learners an example of someone who doesn't give a rats ass. i just really don't know.
