Training

Welcome to Outapi Odyssey, which is my record of my time as a volunteer teacher of English and math at a school in northern Namibia. I am working here as a volunteer with the nonprofit group WorldTeach, which places college graduates as teachers in developing countries.

The first official part of the WorldTeach Program takes place in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. It is a suprisingly modern-feeling city of approximately 200,000, but it has excellent infrastructure, water, electricity, and modern buildings. The whole group of approximately 20 is staying in a backpackers' hostel and we train in a shady area alongside the dormitories. The hostel is nice and the weather is actually quite pleasant -- not yet above 90, and a very dry heat at that. Evening is cool, sometimes requiring an extra layer even in the summer.

Because I have teaching experience, I was selected as a Teacher Fellow, which means that I share responsibility for some of the training. The first week of training has been pretty intense, because I'm teaching new material for the first time and feel somewhat underprepared. When the rest of the group is relaxing after training, I've been staying up late trying to prepare the next day's lesson. Of course, this is nothing new, but still. I'm looking forward to the next four days when my 'students' will now have some practice teaching sessions too. Soon, they will be feeling the stress with me.

The people in the group are very nice, though I don't feel like I've 'clicked' with anyone yet. We are nearly 20 people. There are three young couples, including two couples who got married less than six months ago. There is one more mature lady from Canada, Bonnie, who seems very nice though I don't know her much yet. Then there are a couple of late 20-somethings, Jesse, Kate, and Jocie, and then a small plethora of people just out of college. Everyone is very nice, but it's also very different of course. I'm a little lonely, and a little unsettled, and can't wait to get to my placement in two weeks so I can finally unpack.

Today we shift locations, going to Rehoboth, a smaller town an hour south of here, for praticum teaching. We also will spend a night on a farm to rest, and then a day at a dam where we can swim. New Year's, we went to a traditional Herero restaurant and were served german potato salad, green salad, rice, carrots, and many roasted goat heads which were carved in front of us. I ate some cheek, ear, and tongue. The tongue was the only thing that I really found palatable. Other than that, we are eating communally and I have not wasted away to nothing!