New Faces and Old Problems

It’s that time of the trimester again where I get to do the worst part of teaching: grading. That time when you start to wonder if you just dreamt being in class teaching since these scores show the kids obviously weren’t there. Maybe it’s just some anti-malarial drug induced hallucination… if so, I want different drugs. Since absolutely nothing exciting has happened in the past few weeks, this’ll be an update on the not-so-exciting things.

If you were able to make it through the marathon post that was “Science Fair” you know that I have a particular aversion to arrogant drunk teachers on buses. I submitted my report (complaint?) to the Director of Education. Instead of reliving that mess, here’s a copy of the complaint:

RE: Inappropriate conduct by teachers of Grootberg Primary and Welwitchia Junior Secondary schools during travel to the 2006 regional science fair in Opuwo.

Mr. Director,

On the 5th of July 2005, the Khorixas cluster schools departed from Khorixas in a government bus. We reached Kamanjab at approximately 2:15pm where we met up with schools coming from Kamanjab and Outjo. When we left at approximately 5pm, Ms. Hoeses from Grootberg Primary School was on our bus. Both Ms. Hoeses and Ms. Vasserfal, a Welwitchia JSS teacher, were sitting at the front of the bus while I was sitting near the back with my learners. Shortly after leaving Kamanjab, Ms. Hoeses walked to the back of the bus and began berating my learners. She never made her reasons or motives clear, but she did threaten reprimand for breaking her "rules and regulations" of the bus. She told my students that, as a teacher, she was "allowed to drink." As she walked back to the front of the bus, my students informed me she appeared inebriated. As we continued driving, I observed Ms. Hoeses and Ms. Vasserfal both drinking from a 500ml Tafel bottle in plain view of primary and secondary learners, as well as other teachers.

This type of behavior from teachers sets a terrible example for our learners and brings disgrace to our region as a whole. I request that, as our director of education, you take disciplinary action against these teachers. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
Matt Peterson
US Peace Corps

I got a response from the director this week. Here it is:

RE: INAPPROPRIATE CONDUCT BY TEACHERS: 1. MS. HOESES
2. MS. WASSERFAL

I acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your undated letter in respect of the above.

Kindly be informed that your letter has been forwarded to the Inspector concerned for follow up and investigation purposes. Any action to be taken can only be determined thereafter.

Best regards
MR. KABAJANI KAMWI
REGIONAL DIRECTOR

“… your undated letter…” This guy doesn’t miss a thing. So my neighbor down the street, Mr. Dax, has been assigned to work on the investigation along with the inspector. Carl told me that they both came to his school to question him and have him write up his own report. I’ve given up on the idea that these two women will get fired, but there’s at least a paper trail started. It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out (if it goes anywhere).

We’ve had some new arrivals in town lately. Earlier this month, Terje (Ter-ee-yay), arrived from Norway. Terje is the new SCORE volunteer who is replacing Anne. Similar in size and age to me (though he’s built like a truck) with dirty blond hair. He lives three doors down the street with a host family. He’ll be doing sport stuff in the community like doing PE at schools, organizing sports clubs, and other sporty things. As of right now, he’s even scheduled to come to my school next term to help with our PE classes there. Maybe he can teach me how to coach a soccer team on the fly!

Terje is staying in another house because we have a new Peace Corps teacher in our house. Mariel was “working” for the Teacher Resource Centre in Gobabis before she was transferred here. I say “working” because her supervisor (the TRC manager) had her doing nothing and made an effort to prevent her from doing anything on her own. This seems to be the theme among the few PCVs we have working in TRCs: PCVs are supposed to hold teacher workshops (that no one comes to), develop the resources at the TRC (that the supervisor doesn’t want), and help the schools in the surrounding areas (that they don’t have transport to). It’s a brilliant job where they have a complicated job description that they can’t, or are not supposed, to do. So instead of spending two years sitting at a desk, gathering dust, Mariel has moved to Khorixas to work at Welwitchia (Ws are pronounced with a ‘v’ sound) Junior Secondary School as a teacher of English and Math. A brief description of WJSS: Welwitchia is the other secondary school in Khorixas. As a junior secondary school, it only has grades 8, 9 and 10. They recently got a new principal, who everyone seems excited about, who replaced the former principal, Mr. Dax. Welwitchia is also the poorest performing schools in the entire country with a pass rate of… get this… seven percent. For every 100 students they have, seven will graduate. And remember that “passing” is a grade of 30%. What would be the lowest possible passing percent in US high schools is a ‘C’ here. In spite of all this, they have some good teachers (except for Wasserfal). Mariel told me that one of the teachers hasn’t been paid in six months and yet he still comes to work every day and even grades some of the other teacher’s papers. Of course the school needs help and I think that Mariel will have a good time there. I think the largest factor in making this job meaningful is how dedicated the staff is. I get up looking forward to each day because of the kids, but I get back from vacation looking forward to the term because of the staff.

I’ve got three students going to the science fair in Windhoek at the end of this month, where I’ll already be for my Mid-Service Medical Exam for PC (whoopee…). We’ll see what other madness I can get into before next term starts.