I have been
slacking on documenting my experience and for that I apologize but this term
has been crazy and frankly has kinda sucked. I found myself working my butt off
and not having time to sit down and write about what I’m doing. It’s
unfortunate that this is the first time since March but such is life.
I have
realized that one of the reasons I have been so busy is because I play so many
different roles throughout the day. I’m pulled in so many different directions
that there leaves little time to myself which is fine but it’s been exhausting.
Here’s a little insight into my daily life this past term.
7am – Teacher
Everyday I wake up in the morning, some days earlier than
others and arrive at school to teach English. Some days are longer than others
with my “library” classes but I generally am an English teacher 6 hours a day.
We do listening comprehensions, reading techniques, grammar busy work, and
class discussions on hostel life, corporal punishment, school uniforms, and who
they admire most in life. 4 real classes and 2 “administration” periods that I
should be able to use for grading, or preparing for future lessons/days.
7am-430pm –
Babysitter
Part of the reason this term has been so horrible is because
out of three months of school, there has been a fully present staff a total of
5 different days and only 28 actual days of learning in class. Absenteeism has
been extremely high and there has been absolutely no planning for it.
Substitute teacher are nonexistent out in the village so when a teacher fails
to show up for class the kids are either left unsupervised in a classroom or
are instructed to “find an open classroom”. After the principal and the head of
department (vice principal who is a teacher), I teach the least amount of
classes because I am only allowed to work a certain number of periods a week
being a volunteer. So when the kids have nowhere to go the first teacher that
is looked to is me. In a normal uncontrollable/emergency situation I would be
completely fine with this. After all I am here to help but it got to the point
that I would have the same kids in my classroom for three whole hours because
there were no other teachers present to teach them or watch them. Had I been
notified that I would take over a certain teacher’s classes for a whole week I
would have prepared extra lessons for kids. I was never notified until the
period started so what ended up happening was I babysat the kids. Half their
teachers weren’t there to give them work and there is 5 hours outside of school
that is set aside for mandatory study time so the kids had nothing to do but
sit there causing trouble resulting in them not doing anything educational in
school and me not being able to do anything while actually IN school. I tried to
stay a step ahead of the game but when I would prepare extra lessons and extra
work the kids would refuse to do it or refuse to come to my class. They would
find another teacher that wouldn’t make them do anything then come and bother
me because they were bored and doing nothing. No one was present to discipline
the kids or keep them in line so I fought a loosing battle for a good 2 months.
3pm-430pm (Mondays
and Wednesdays) – Volleyball Coach
Against my pleas and promises that I knew nothing about athletics
I found myself as volleyball coach. There were actually three coaches but the
other two failed to show up more times than they were there which left me
flying solo with maybe a ball and/or a net, maybe not. Okay boys lets um do leg
workouts. Okay run a lap, okay lets talk about sportsmanship and teamwork. Lets
work on communication skills. I had a whistle and a loud voice but I’ll just
recap the season as a fail. Nonetheless, the boys had fun, I think
After school – Tutor
Teachers being absent meant that lessons could not be taught
meaning the kids had to learn the material and do the work without an actual
teacher. The kids all know I am good with math and sciences so multiple times a
week I had kids running to me terrified they were going to fail grade 8 because
they did not understand why letters were now being used in their math books.
Nights and Weekend –
Banking Services
Being stuck in a village for a month it can be really hard
to budget your money if you don’t know anything about saving. Saving is not a
value that many kids are taught by their parents so when they arrive at school
for a month with money from home its all gone within a week or two and they are
stuck. Then it turns into Miss Riley can I have 5$ to go to the movie night
with everyone, Miss Riley I need 30$ to get home, Miss Riley I’m so hungry I
just want a 10$ for bread. Instead of free handouts of food, money, soap,
whatever I tell them they can have the amount of money they need if I get their
cell phone or school shoes or something personal of value that I know they will
want back. I lent kids money before and I was out like 150$ at the end of term
one so now I have a system. It works quite well until I found out one of the
cell phones that a kid gave to me for 10$ was in fact stolen from a girl in the
hostel. Well that was a fail but his punishment was no more Miss Riley banking.
I also have a few kids give me their money after coming home
so that 1) it doesn’t get stolen and 2) so that it doesn’t burn a hole in their
pocket.
Nights/Weekends/Holidays
– Cruise Director
I use the term cruise director in reference to my mother who
always plans fun events and activities when friends and family come to stay at
“Resort Riley”. Becoming my mother in yet another aspect I now consider myself
the Cruise Director of the hostel and school. Being a teenager living in the
middle of nowhere Namibia and not allowed to leave the hostel gates except on
one weekend a month would drive anyone flipping bonkers. I don’t show it but I
truly feel bad for these kids. I remember all the different things and
activities I was involved in as a teenager and how it helped to balance my schoolwork
and my students have none of it so what I have tried to do give them something
to do in their free time. There’s only so many Harry Potter and Hunger Games
books that grab kids attention so most of the time it is a movie night with the
school’s projector (I know SO Peace Corps right) and if I’m feeling really
generous with my time, I will make them popcorn to sell (Kelley Riley Popcorn
to be exact). Other events offered are
sports activities, workout videos, cleaning Ms. Riley’s flat and doing some of
her wash.
Random Times and Days
– Doctor/Nurse
My kids are violent, they’re mostly city kids with dark
pasts and so you throw them all in a hostel together with hormones they punch
walls, scratch each other, and bash each others faces. At 8pm just last
Thursday night I had a kid at door with blood running down his hand. He punched
a wall and needed a Band-Aid. Okay here are two, don’t punch walls any more.
Sometime they fell playing soccer and a simple Band-Aid wont help at all but
like every little kid, its like a miracle drug and all of a sudden they are all
better.
About a month ago I had a girl who fell and knocked her head
on a concrete step. Okay come in, sit down let me look at your eyes, here’s an
ice pack (which is actually a bag of spirit alcohol I purchased in Malawi for
purposes like this), talk to me for a half hour, let me assess if you have a
concussion, no you’re good. Just take some pain pills and take it easy.
Flu season was pretty bad. That was lots of hot water with
lemon. Miss my head is paining and I don’t feel good. Okay how long has it
hurt, how much water did you drink today, you need to drink more and take some
pain pills before bed and try to sleep early.
There was one day during study where a kid came up to me
asking if he could sit with a girl to get something out of his hand. There was
the Namibia equivalent of a sliver in his hand meaning it was a microscopic
thorn that had broken off in his hand when he as playing soccer in the
location. It was his writing hand and he said it hurt a lot so I said yes if
she could get it out okay that’s fine just stay quiet. Wait do you have
tweezers? No can I go outside to get the thing she uses? She’s really good, she
knows what to do. Okay whatever just don’t talk. Well the kid brings back an
acacia thorn. For those of you who don’t know they are extremely long and
strong thorns and getting one in your shoes unexpectedly pretty close to
stepping on a Lego. Well the girl tries for about a half hour and gives up, no
luck. Miss can you please try. Okay fine come here. I do not know how I did it
but I managed to extract the microscopic thorn using the same kind of thorn
that was in his hand. I felt like nurse of the year with that one, the kid was
so happy and I felt really warm and fuzzy inside.
Weekends – Big Sister/Mentor/Life
Coach
Most weekends kids are bored so they stop by to say hi but
more often than not they come over with a story or a question. These range from
girl fights, to troubled pasts, to bad friends, to relationships, to sex
questions.
Ah Miss these girls in the hostel they are all two-faced and
talk about you behind your back. Yeah well unfortunately it doesn’t get better
as you get older, there will always be people that don’t like you and that say
bad things all you gotta do is learn to keep your head up.
Miss theres this girl that I like but the problem is she has
another boyfriend who she doesn’t want to break up with because he has a heart
problem and she doesn’t want to make him sick. Okay hun you are too young to
date and even if you do like where are you gonna go? You’re not allowed to
leave the hostel grounds or even have relationships in the hostel. Go write me
an essay about it.
Miss you know a lot of like stuff right? Like these STI’s or
whatever? Well theres a guy at the hostel who has a something on his something
and everyone is saying is herpes. Okay well it could be that or another
infection, but it could also just be a pimple, it happens but if it starts to
hurt or grow he needs to go right to the clinic. Okay thanks Miss.
I even had one day where there were three large boys at my
door at 1130 in the morning asking for their essay books and toothpaste. These
were not the most dedicated of students and it was a Thursday and there was no
school, some holiday that meant everyone got the day off,.1130am, three
extremely large boys asking for toothpaste and homework why? They were drunk as
skunks and thought it was funny. Between breakfast at 630am and right at that
moment these boys managed to leave the hostel grounds get their hands on a
fifth of whiskey and finish it before coming back to school. I was furious, not
only at them and their stupidity (actually one was 18 so he was technically
legally allowed to drink) but also for the lack of security and supervision on
the part of the adults at the hostel. They wanted the toothpaste to mask the
smell but I knew that even if I gave it to them it wasn’t going to help much. Now
with them showing up at my door, I was either an accomplice or the one to rat
them out. These boys would be expelled from the hostel and unable to attend
school to finish the term if anyone found out they had been drinking. I began
to interrogate them: who let you leave the hostel, how long were you gone, who
did you buy it from, where did you drink it, WHY DID YOU COME TO MY HOUSE IN
THIS STATE HAVEN’T YOU LEARNED ANYTHING, WHY, WHY, WHY? Their answer: Miss, its
because we trust you. We’re not going to make any trouble, we were bored, had
nothing to do, and wanted to have some fun. We just wanted you to help us with
some toothpaste and we are going to bed. I ended up not ratting them out, because
while I realized it would have been the correct “adult” thing to do, these boys
trusted me. They skipped my class most Fridays, would sleep on other days, one
of them once threw a dead bird into my classroom, and not one teacher trusted
them to do anything productive ever, but they trusted me and the last thing I
wanted to do was break that. I wanted to make sure that in the event that they
really screwed up, that they knew they could come to me for genuine help. In
the end, it was a good gesture and I really thought I was going to get
somewhere with these boys but since then all three have been expelled from the
hostel or other incidents and only two returned to finish school. Well I tried.
Days are long and many are tough. You get defeated a lot but
you also win a lot. Its not easy filling so many roles and being pulled in so
many directions but it is worth it. Even if I only write one blog post a term…
