Life in the fast lane, which is full of potholes

Earlier this term, one Thursday night while sitting at my computer trying to bang out some lesson plans before a weekend in Rehoboth, I got an sms from one of the teachers at the local junior secondary school that said simply "Hi."

I suppose I should detour this story for a moment, before it even begins, and explain why this is significant. The community where I live in southern Namibia, if not exactly Westernized, could at least be described accurately as being very Western-conscious; I daresay probably more so than a lot of our neighboring communities, thanks to the dual influence of American media and American volunteers. In addition to the two Peace Corps Volunteers who proceeded me in the community, the schools here have had a handful of World Teach volunteers over the past couple of years, so most people are accustomed to encountering real flesh-and-blood Americans. They know, for example, that Americans like things to start on time, and they know that Americans do not generally like to beat around the bush.

Knowing these things, however, does not change the fact that, just as Americans are inherently American, Namibians are inherently Namibian. My colleagues are usually willing to be direct with me, unless it is in regards to something Very Important and Serious, in which case their Namibian upbringings kick in and they go back to being...well, Namibian.

In Namibia, you greet first and ask questions later. How formal you need to be can vary depending on the situation and who's involved; for example, with the older gentleman who drives the only combi in town, it is usually necessary for me to exchange quite a few pleasantries, inquiries after family members, and comments on the weather before I can ask him if he has a seat for me to go to Rehoboth this weekend. (Assuming I want a positive answer, of course.) On the other hand, when I can't get the fax machine to work, my school's secretary will allow "Good morning, how are you, can you please help me get this f***ing fax machine to work," to suffice.

But as I said, things that are Very Important and Serious tend to cause people to jump to the highest echelon of formality, in which you greet first, await a regreeting (which is officially a word, starting now now), and only then begin the exchange of pleasantries that will proceed the actual reason you initiated the conversation in the first place.

The good integrated Peace Corps Volunteer in me appreciates the gesture of respect. But mostly? It just drives me nuts.

So here we go, the beginning of a Very Important and Serious conversation. "Hi, what's up?" "It's fine, and with you?" (BTW, this is a retelling of the story in American English, as opposed to Text Namlish.) "Good, just busy." "Are you very busy these days?" "Yes, very busy with the school. And you?" "Yes, the school and the library, there is a lot of work." "Yes, a lot of work." "Anyway, I just wanted to know how it was with you." "It's good." "Good to hear. Are you busy now?" "Yes, I'm trying to get some work done before I go to Rehoboth." (Work that this not-really-a-conversation is keeping me from.) "Oh, are you going to Rehoboth for the weekend?" "Yes." "Enjoy it." "I will." "Say, I wanted to talk to you about something." "Okay, well we can talk about it, but only on Monday because I am busy now." "So you're too busy to talk today." "Yes." "Oh, I just wondered if you were busy." "Yes, but I think I'll have time to talk on Monday." "Yes, Monday. That will be fine." "Okay then, talk to you Monday." "Yes, we will talk on Monday. You must enjoy your weekend." "Will do." "And I will talk to you on Monday." "Ok." "Okay see you then."

Thank God MTC gives me 100 SMSes per day.

So come to find out, once I finally got him to actually state his inquiry, the thing that he wanted to talk to me about but I was too busy (in addition to being fine and very busy and what), was co-teaching a basic computer class for adults in the community. To which I immediately agreed, in spite of a) being way out of practice at teaching adults, b) never having taught computers to anyone of any age or any technological skill level, and c) not having any of the relevant vocabulary to teach a computer class in Afrikaans. What could possibly go wrong, right?

Fortunately, this story doesn't end in disaster - if anything, I think it proves just how much faith my community members have in me (or how much they'll let me get away with because I'm American), and how quickly good ideas spread. The first day of class (which was Valentine's Day) we had about 10 students show up - eight adults and two of my Grade 7 learners. My co-teacher was late, our students were mostly on time, and so there I am, standing alone in front of a group of people, most of whom I know only tangentally, and all of whom are paying good money to sit there and have me teach them computers.

I thought I was going to throw up.

But actually, it went pretty great, for a first day. Turns out that Microsoft Paint is fun for all ages. Cool, I figured, we'll go at this one week at a time, work out the bugs, if it goes well maybe we'll have another class next term. Giving computer classes is something I'd previously thought about doing as a secondary project, since not all of the learners at the junior secondary school take computers and neither of the primary schools offer it either. Integrating ICT into primary and secondary projects...check.

The next day at school the rest of Grade 7 and most of Grade 6 came and asked if they could sign up for computer class. And all of a sudden what was supposed to be one class, twice a week has turned into two ten-person classes twice per week, plus prep and the inevitable post-class line of students with questions. I've already got parents sending notes to school with their children asking me to please pre-register them for next term's class, and the ones who got in for this term want to know if there will be another class for them to take in the winter. I went to explain the registration procedure to Grade 7 (come talk to me and be sure I write your name down before you leave - super fancy and complicated, I know) and my colleague took several minutes to extol the value of beginning computer classes in primary school.

Holy crap. If I'd known people were going to jump on the bandwagon like this, I'd have tried to start earlier.

To be sure, it's challenging. For one thing, neither I nor my co-teacher speak an adequate amount of Afrikaans to teach this class to the non-English speaking portion of the community. (For both of us, Afrikaans is a fourth language.) Fortunately, we've found that our more English-proficient learners are willing to help the less-English proficient when neither instructor can figure out how to explain "Click and drag to find your name, then press start" in Afrikaans. With the primary school kids, I have had no language issue, but they are used to my English; we'll see how he fares this week when I'm away on a workshop. We also have one student who we're pretty sure is functionally illiterate and are trying to figure out how to conduct the course in a way which will benefit him without boring everyone else. And of course, there's the problem that we're both balancing our regular teaching jobs, compensatory teaching, and other after-school clubs and activities with this class. Oh, and we're trying to get Telecom Namibia to lay cables so that we can get internet in the computer lab, and my school is starting to get on my case about acquiring some computers of our own...

Time flies when you're working hard! Can't believe it's the end of February already. So much for my plan to teach fractions this term.