mikechart, 26 May 2010 13:24 hours
Otjiwarongo, Namibia Work and more 26th May 2010
Hi,
Wow, the time flies by and there seems to be no end to things to do, with work and with travelling.
Since my last update in March quite a few things have been happening on the work front.
Firstly, the Regional Director wants to hold an Education Conference. Last year’s effort to get one off the ground failed, so this year a committee was formed (Always a good start????? I am not so sure!!!) I was drafted in as a member & things started well – 5 members at the first meeting ………………. Then only 2 of us at the next…………………
Last week was the first Management Committee meeting since then so the whole team (12 people) sat and debated the Regional Education Conference for over 3 hours!!! So much for Committees.
The title, topics and even the agreed dates were all changed – so no-one is sure where this is going now – frustrating to say the least!
I have been to the south to do a presentation on Venomous Creatures in Namibia, for the latest intake of volunteers and also managed to combine that with a visit to Keetmanshoop, even further south, to discuss a project they have there using classroom assistants.
My car , which arrived in Walvis Bay minus some of the things sent out from the UK, had to go to the garage in Windhoek to sort out some electrics problem on my return from the south, so I used the day to visit the Education Ministry to discuss the forthcoming policy on Inclusive Education.
I was then invited to a 2-day conference on the development of a new curriculum for Special Education, which was fortuitous, as the car needed more days at the garage.
Whilst in Windhoek I also attended an interesting evening at a meeting of Toastmaster’s International, an organisation aimed at improving public speaking and presentation skills.
Also, on the Friday evening there was a concert by an organisation called OYO, where one of our volunteers is placed. The evening was one of dance, around the theme of HIV/Aids & Responsibility, and included singing from Leonard Zakarta, a famous Zimbabwean singer. The evening was, in fact, a rehearsal for a similar event where the group are to perform on a cruise ship in South Africa at a meeting of South African Heads of State.
I then had a very exciting trip to the North East, to Khaudum National Park. The park is home to over 3500 elephants, big cats, and wild dogs.
We saw: one oryx, 2 hyena, one jackal in our 3 days there!!!!!!!!
There has been so much rain that the animals had no need to visit the waterholes so we will just have to go back in August or September. – A good excuse to go again.
The driving in the park was exciting, and a good introduction to Africa for the Landrover. Very deep sand was the main feature, but once tyre pressures were down to 1.6 everything went fine, although Cam, (you have to go with at least 2 cars because of the remoteness & conditions) had problems with his car overheating, mainly due to the accumulation of grass seeds, he then had a power steering pipe split, and finally a transfer box failure, meaning a trip back to Rundu for replacement & repairs before his planned trip onwards into Botswana.
Not that his trip back to Rundu was uneventful either. Tsumkwe, one of my school villages, had no petrol, and wasn’t expecting any for 3 days, so Cam had to scrounge some from the owner of the local Lodge to get him the 300km back to the main road and then stopped motorists to scrounge 10L here, 10L there, enough to get back. Such is travel here.
On my return from that trip Sandra (co-volunteer here at the Ministry), & I ran a 2-day Teambuilding & Leadership workshop for the senior staff. This was well received and already some staff are using the materials to run their own course out in schools.
We were then in Windhoek for the weekend, and on Monday morning read in the newspaper that the Deputy Education Minister was visiting out region this week.
When we got back to the office last Tuesday I asked the Director about it ………. And she did not know anything!!!!!!!!
She rang Head Office, who eventually sent through a fax late Wednesday afternoon, requesting a detailed itinerary for the visit by the Thursday afternoon at the latest! The visit was to include talks with the Local Council, Regional Office Staff and school visits, and was to be from this Monday to Wednesday.
As you can imagine there was some panic, although it was amazing that no-one organising this trip realised that:
• The schools are still on holiday until today (Wednesday) I can’t think of any school that would welcome a visit on the first day of term!
• Yesterday was a public holiday
Anyway, they did the Council and Regional Office visit on Monday, are visiting a local High School this afternoon and have extended their visit by a day to visit 2 more schools tomorrow.
Also last week, we had a visit by the new Deputy Prime Minister to a San Village project at Uitkam Farm. The Director asked Sandra & I to accompany her to that too.
It was interesting to see the village community, started largely by the efforts of the previous Deputy Prime Minister. There are brick houses, all with toilets, electricity, and a school, as well as the farm itself.
My niece, Hazel, has been collecting bottle tops so that we can provide counters and draughts boards to schools, and I took the first batch with me. The acting School Principal was delighted, since they have few teaching resources.
The visit itself was a bit of a farce really (by European standards)
The Deputy Minister arrived with entourage about 10am, which was the expected time for the speeches. He would not have been out of place in a North East Working Men’s Club!! Grey zipped tracksuit-type top and a flat cap!
He spent two and a half hours talking with the local officials and traditional leaders in a building about 500m from the school and finally arrived to do the speeches at 12.30. This, after about 50 villagers (and us) had sat waiting in the baking sun.
The speeches then went on for another couple of hours, until the entourage went on to inspect the solar power unit for the village and the farm and went for lunch.
We made our escape and drove back via Osire, a large village now, but originally a UNHCR run refugee camp for displaced people from Angola, Congo and other surrounding countries.
The Director met with a few colleagues there and we also bought some fresh vegetables from the community market garden.
I now have a few days in the office and then next weekend we have a VSO Global Education weekend in the north, on the banks of the Kovango River.
On Sunday, on the way back into the town, I spotted a large dead snake by the side of the road. Since I do the talk on venomous creatures to the new volunteers I decided that a few visual aids might be helpful, so the snake skin, (a Puff Adder) complete with head that was undamaged, is now with the local taxidermist for preserving.
Best Wishes
Mike
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