Photos of my new 'do to follow in a couple of days. It's SHORT now...above my shoulders short! I'm still not used to my new look, but I am also still feeling the buzz from cutting it off and may cut it even shorter next weekend (above my ears?)!
Last week I asked all of my students to write lifelines for their past, present and future. It was really a shock to learn that so many of my students have lost one or both parents. This is so common in fact that the principal asked the class teachers just the other day to pass around a sheet of paper with the words "mother" and "father" written on the top. The students then had to put a tick or a cross underneath.
Death and sickness are very common here. Funerals are mostly held on Saturdays, and many of the other teachers and students go to funerals at the weekend. Some of my students are absent for weeks at a time. Whenever I ask where they are I am just told that they have gone to the hospital. One boy came back yesterday and after saying how pleased I was that he was feeling better and back in class, I asked him if he had had malaria. He said no, but didn't elaborate on his sickness.
Recently my younger students have also been writing diary entries. What different lives they lead to the 13 year olds I know in Ireland and America. They wake up at 5am in the morning, make tea for their family, go to work in the fields cultivating mahangu until 7.30am, and then walk whatever distance they must to get to school (many of the younger students do not live in the hostel). After school they head home to work in the fields again, after which some must go back out in the evening to round up their cattle and/or donkeys to bring back to the kraal.
I am also always amazed by the fact that it is common to see very young children walking around by themselves. I know that the dangers for children are different here, but dangers still exist. I guess that most families here in rural Namibia do not have the same luxuries that we have back home to put in place measures to safeguard their children. It's also very clear that children are crucial to the rural workforce.
Last week I asked all of my students to write lifelines for their past, present and future. It was really a shock to learn that so many of my students have lost one or both parents. This is so common in fact that the principal asked the class teachers just the other day to pass around a sheet of paper with the words "mother" and "father" written on the top. The students then had to put a tick or a cross underneath.
Death and sickness are very common here. Funerals are mostly held on Saturdays, and many of the other teachers and students go to funerals at the weekend. Some of my students are absent for weeks at a time. Whenever I ask where they are I am just told that they have gone to the hospital. One boy came back yesterday and after saying how pleased I was that he was feeling better and back in class, I asked him if he had had malaria. He said no, but didn't elaborate on his sickness.
Recently my younger students have also been writing diary entries. What different lives they lead to the 13 year olds I know in Ireland and America. They wake up at 5am in the morning, make tea for their family, go to work in the fields cultivating mahangu until 7.30am, and then walk whatever distance they must to get to school (many of the younger students do not live in the hostel). After school they head home to work in the fields again, after which some must go back out in the evening to round up their cattle and/or donkeys to bring back to the kraal.
I am also always amazed by the fact that it is common to see very young children walking around by themselves. I know that the dangers for children are different here, but dangers still exist. I guess that most families here in rural Namibia do not have the same luxuries that we have back home to put in place measures to safeguard their children. It's also very clear that children are crucial to the rural workforce.
posted by Sinéad at 8:37 AM
1 Comments:
It was really sad to read about how different your students' lives are from kids growing up in western cultures. The fact that death and sickness is such a commonality and that there seems to be such little time for fun due to the amount of physical work they have to do.It's amazing that they find the time for school at all!
And I can't believe you cut your hair! ahhh! pictures soon please!
luv nic x
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