February 14

A typical day for me (Laura) is to wake up at 6:00 am, shower, and make some instant coffee and oatmeal or yogurt with granola. I review my lesson plans for the day, and walk over to the school office. (It’s a short commute to work. Next to our house is the girls’ dorm, and next to the girls’ dorm is the office.) At 7:10 we have a staff meeting to make announcements and say a prayer. On Mondays, we go to church for an hour. On the other weekdays, I head to my homeroom to take attendance after the staff meeting. I teach 5 40-minute periods of science classes, take a 25-minute break, and then teach 3 more classes. There are 10 classrooms in rows; they are all close together. Here the teachers move from class to class, rather than the students. Also, students are called learners. I rush around from class to class like a maniac. Sometimes I treat myself to some nice fried fish or fried dough during break; every day some women come to school and set up a table to sell fried food. At 1:15 we break for lunch and Inbal and I make sandwiches. At 2:00 I go to the office for a few hours to work on lesson plans or grading, or to supervise study hall, and Inbal goes to the computer lab to supervise computer sessions. When I get home I do more lesson planning. If we have electricity and water, we cook dinner. In the evening we do more schoolwork or read or talk. Inbal and I spend more time together than we used to, and it has been really nice. We cook together and eat together. Our cooking has improved. We have fewer choices, so we’ve been creative.

Most weekends we’ve been hanging out in Odibo, taking walks around the village (we can walk to Angola in about 20 minutes), getting a ride to Oshikango to buy groceries, and socializing with the other teachers at the local bar, called Santa. Last weekend we visited some other volunteers that live a couple of hours away.

No one here can pronounce our names, so the other teachers at St. Mary’s have given us African names. I am now Rauna and Inbal is Imbeni Mutoto. (They said Imbeni Mutoto means Singing Baby.) Some people call him Hangwala (bald).


Here’s what else is on my mind:

The chicken house
One of the most enjoyable classes that I’m teaching is animal husbandry. We are raising chickens for our class project. We started out with 18 pullets (young females), but we’re down to 16 now. One of the chickens was DOA. (The learners brought the chickens from home for one of their homework assignments. Most learners brought them in big cardboard boxes with airholes. One brought her chicken in a plastic bag. That poor little guy didn’t last the journey.) The other death was yesterday afternoon, but I just found out about it today. One of the chickens was acting sick, it was coughing and it kept to itself in the corner. So the other teacher took it out of the chicken house to separate it from our other chickens. It died naturally outside, and the teacher asked the learners to burn the chicken’s body. We’ll have to keep an eye on the other chickens to make sure they don’t start coughing. The other teacher said that when it’s very rainy, the chickens get sick more easily. Hopefully they will all be healthy by the time we slaughter them and cook them in April. When I teach the class about different types of chicken diseases, I think I’ll add on an extra lesson that’s not in the textbook: avian bird flu. It has more relevance now that it has spread to Nigeria. Anyone out there have any good tips for handling chickens with the sniffles?

HIV and other public health issues
A few people at UMASS asked me questions about public health in Namibia, so I’ll address them here. There is better access to antiretroviral medication for people with HIV than I expected. Anyone with a CD4 count under 300 can go to a hospital (one of the bigger state hospitals) and get free antiretrovirals. They can’t get the medication after simply getting a positive test result; they have to wait till the CD4 count drops. Someone told me that the funding is from UNAIDS. The population of Namibia is smaller than other African countries, so maybe the program is easier to fund here. However, there is a high rate of HIV in the population. The reason there are enough drugs for everyone who asks for them is that most HIV-positive people don’t ask for them. Most people don’t even want to get tested, because of the stigma. Unfortunately some people who are HIV-negative die of treatable diseases, because when they get sick they are afraid it’s AIDS and don’t seek any medical care. Another question I was asked is whether there are any medical schools in Namibia. No, there aren’t. Namibians who want to become doctors have to go to school in South Africa. There are a lot of foreign doctors here. There’s a strong Cuban presence. Cuba supported Namibia during the war for independence in the late 1980’s, and there is still a strong connection between the two countries. Cuba is popular here, and so is JFK. Why not? One thing I’ve learned already is that I’m better suited to be a public health worker than a high school teacher. This has been a fun adventure and a learning experience for me but I’d like to go back to public health afterwards. I’ve learned lots about disciplining teenagers, although I have a long way to go to be very effective. (Maybe my new role as a disciplinarian will come in handy in the future if we have kids). And hopefully I’ll start an HIV club or some HIV prevention classes while I’m here, so I can still be doing some public health work. Anyway, I think education goes hand in hand with public health.

Beauty pageants
I will be judging my first beauty pageant this weekend. The school is organizing a beauty pageant and dance for Valentine’s Day. We will crown Mr. and Ms. Valentine. I asked the learners if I can compete and they said no. So I’ll be a judge. Stay posted for more details.

Beauty pageant update
I just showed what I wrote to Inbal. He gave me the breaking news about the beauty pageant. Unfortunately the pageant was cancelled, due to lack of contestants. The organizers wanted 10 boys and 10 girls in the competition. They actually had enough boys, but only a couple of girls wanted to do it, and none of the girls from the older grades would do it. So now we’ll have a talent show and dinner instead. Inbal and I are disappointed. We’ve never seen a beauty pageant before.