We went on outreach to schools last week. Stephanie, the education manager, arranges with schools to provide them a 45 - 60 minute presentation on "A predators role in the ecosystem". We visited seven schools in three days. The difference between state schools and private schools was immediately clear. Our first state school did not have an auditorium or any room large enough to hold the 600 1st through 6th grade students. So the students were directed to form lines, crowded together in the courtyard. Stephanie gave the presentation as she stood a bit above them on the walkway. This was not her first rodeo as we say out west. She has created large canvas posters of many of her PowerPoint slides. As she spoke to the kids her husband Bobby and I flipped the posters. All went amazingly well.
The next day we were at a private school. Seventy five students in grades 6, 7, 8 gathered in a nice board room. There were comfortable, matching chairs for the older students to sit on while the younger students sat on the floor. The school had a computer and projector set up and ready for us.
The next school had an auditorium for the 500 students to gather in but no electricity that day. It was back to a poster presentation. And so it went for three days.
I chatted with the principal at one of the schools. She has 570 kids in the secondary school and the primary school has 600 kids. Many/most of the students are from rural farms. The school has boarding space in a hostel for 60 secondary students and 50 primary students. Not nearly enough to meet the demand for housing. Students not in the hostel try to find families in the small town who will take them as boarders. You can imagine the troubles that occur. Some families take the kids but do not feed them. Others have the kids working. One student told the principal she was not coming back after break because the family made her work in their bar at night serving beer. Another girl was found to be sleeping in the field behind the truck stop because her family kicked her out. Teachers live in a dorm situation too with four or five to a dorm room. Their building has no running water. There is a shower house and for drinking water teachers must go outside to the pump. The principal was worried about the kids, worried about money for text books and worried about housing for her teachers. School is now free in Namibia for all secondary students as of this year. It has been free for primary students for a few years. The government needs to fund the schools, the books and the teaching materials but there is not enough money. A familiar story. I found myself thinking that the problems she described were not much different than the problems we face in US schools and likely the same problems faced in schools the world over.
It was great fun to see a bit of the country, get away from the farm, stay in a guest house with AC, no ants and a TV. Nice going out to dinner and running a few errands but at the end of three days I was ready to come home to CCF. I was delighted to see warthogs as we drove down our 40 km of dirt road. The Tawny Eagle and the Black Snake Eagle were at their usual posts in the top of the acacia trees. The cheetahs were moving about in their enclosures and my friendly bathroom gecko was here to great me when I returned to my rondoval.
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| The 4 rondovals. Mine is the one in the foreground. |
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| African Sunset |
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| The gecko in my bathroom. |
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