First Day of School

Think back to your first day of school. Perhaps you’d just bought a new outfit (some cool saddle shoes, maybe?). You had received your class list a few weeks ago. Your teacher had fun getting-to-know you games, showed you where your stuff should go, told you the rules, and maybe even taught on the first day.

Now try to conceptualize the first day of school in Namibia. Maybe, as the teacher, you would receive a schedule of your classes and roster of all your learners, get to know them, talk about who you are and what you’ll teach...

Scratch that. That’s not the Namibian first day of school AT ALL.

Here’s my day:

7:10 am – walk over to the teacher meeting, which is scheduled to begin at 7:15 and last for ten minutes

8:15 am – actually begin teacher meeting, which easily lasts until 8:45

8:45 am – freak out about the rain because student assembly was supposed to start at 7:30 outside. Oops...hello rainy season.

9:00 am – begin student assembly in the dining hall. 1,000 learners*, 33 old teachers, 11 student teachers, 2 new teachers, 1 principal

10:15 am – end meeting, head to teacher meeting to discuss time tables**

10:30 am – wander around looking for the teacher who has the time tables

11:00 am – find time tables; follow my roommate around to scope out my classes, even though they’ll all probably change this week; see the library

11:30 am – lose my roommate; sit in the teacher’s meeting room while a handful of other teachers sleep, chat, or page through books

12:30 am – meet with my Head of Department (HOD); he is sweet and speaks with enormous pauses between sentences; welcome to Namibia

2:00 pm – finish meeting with HOD; learners leave, so I go home

What?? Not your typical first day of school...but on the bright side, I don’t have to teach right away. This gives me time to get my act together, get settled, and make some broad lesson plans.

Already looking forward to visiting some of the other vols soon (there are 8 of us new ones in the north-central region and 5 extenders). Who knew how close you could get to people in only two and a half weeks? They are my lifeline in Namibia.

Rejoicing in being overwhelmed and knowing every past vol has survived, and so will I.

* in case I hadn’t clarified in a past post, children in grades 1-12 are called “learners” in Namibia, whereas people in college or university are called “students”

** time tables are the schedules of classes. they are not set before school starts; instead, they are set during the first few days of school instead of teaching