Water, Water Everywhere

I had a fantastic weekend in Rundu with Amy and Tanya (and other expat friends along the way)! Truly, I couldn’t have asked for a more rejuvenating, relaxing, and enjoyable time.

However, returning back to Owamboland was a shock. This is rainy season, so the oshanas have been full for a while – that’s nothing new. However, as soon as I caught a taxi north from Ondangwa, I was filled with a foreboding sense of disaster.

The floods have hit, and they’ve hit hard. Many people suspected that we had avoided the floods since they usually occur in early March at the latest. In fact, rainy season should be ending any week now, so the fact that things have worsened is surprising. People say the pattern of floods here has changed drastically since 2008 because of Global Warming. I’m no expert, but those of you with good internet should look into it.

There is water everywhere. What used to be several oshanas spaced many kilometers apart is now one giant flood plain. Entire homesteads and villages have been washed out and people are struggling more than ever to get food and clean water for their families.

school under water

Even my own house and village have been affected. An entire stretch of shebeens, hair salons, and small family businesses in town are completely underwater. As I returned home Monday evening, I approached my house to find it surrounded by high-standing water several yards around. As I stood and assessed the situation, I realized the very thing that we all have to come to terms to – you just have to deal with it. You can’t move to a new location and you can’t stay holed up in your house. You simply have to wade through the water and pray for health and safety during these flood days/weeks.

The biggest issue with the floodwaters is the filth that fills them. As I’ve said before, cattle roam freely north of the Red Line in Namibia. That means we frequently have cows, goats, pigs, chickens, guinea fowl, and various dogs roaming in our front yard – and “doing their business.” Clearly, that creates an issue when mixed with water. There are also no laws against littering, so garbage and broken glass is strewn across yards and streets in places – also not a good thing to have floating through the water. However, despite the rare risk of typhoid, cholera, and schistosomiasis, people walk through these waters every year and survive.

stretch of shebeens and small shops in ohangwena

The floods clearly cause many issues. When businesses and homes are washed out, families lose their few possessions and their livelihood. When homesteads and farms are washed out, families and communities can lose a year’s supply of food (remember that it only rains for three months of the year here). When learners have to walk through chest-deep water to get to school every day, they drown. Already we’ve heard that there have been several drownings in the north-central regions just in the past few weeks, although all of our learners have thankfully been spared.

shebeens under water - usually thriving with life and loud music every time i walk past!

On Wednesday, I received many texts from fellow volunteers concerning our schools’ decisions about the floods. Today, I learned that 26 out of 31 schools in our circuit have closed for the next 2-3 weeks minimum. This is a HUGE deal. In the immediate time frame, it means all those children are at home or on the streets with nothing to do. Learning completely ceases for the weeks that the schools are closed. The term is scheduled to end in four weeks; the last 2-3 weeks of the term are used for circuit-set exams. With big exams coming up, clearly closing schools right now will have a huge effect. Thankfully, like the States, the schools are required to make up these “flood holidays” just like we have to make up snow days. Unfortunately for everyone, that means the April holiday will be significantly shorter.

As I’ve mentioned before, Grade 10 is a crucial year in the Namibian education system. Our school has already been warned that as one of only five schools remaining open in the circuit, we will likely have to take in Grade 10 learners in the coming weeks so that they will still be prepared for the upcoming exams. It’s great that we (supposedly) have the facilities to take them in, but it will be a challenging logistical situation, for sure.

school under water

And what about our learners? Several of my homeroom learners have been absent for many weeks in a row simply because they cannot get from their villages to school due to the waters. Again, that’s a huge deal with exams coming up, and unfortunately exams are the most important thing in a learner’s success. Perhaps our school will work to house more learners in the hostel, but even that has been a difficult situation in the past few weeks.

So, if you’ve made it to the end of this lengthy blog post, please pray for the following things:

-       that learners stay safe as they commute to and from school

-       that the flood waters recede

-       that we all make wise decisions in how to deal with the floods

-       that the people with power (at the circuit, region, or Ministry) make wise decisions concerning education and safety over test scores

And rejoice that Namibia even has rain! A taxi driver admonished me for even mentioning the fact that the waters were “floods” today. “Rain in Namibia is a good thing; a very very good thing.”