My saving graces

School Sucks
Monday, 14 June, 2010

Last week ended horribly and this week started just about where I’d left off. So I’ll say only one thing about my school day: it ended with me lying on a bench in the staff room telling the few other teachers there that, “I can’t handle this! I hate 6B! Ms Mughongora, what do you think of them?” “I hate them too.” Well, great. No one really know what to do about them.

But AFTER study, the day can still be saved. There’s about an hour of daylight afterwards, it gets dark around 5, and Lami came to me at the beginning of study and said, “Madam, you have to come get sweet potato after study.” OK, I can handle not being in my house for a little while.

So I went home with Lami and her brother Kaura, from my 6A class. We dug around their sweet potato patch for about a half hour and I brought home the biggest stash of sweet potatoes I’ve ever seen. I guess I’ll be eating sweet potatoes for a while!

It was a good reminder that my life doesn’t have to revolve around my school day, I can focus on that one hour afterwards where I can choose what I do with my time.

Sisters
Friday, 18 June, 2010

I left America with one sister - Sophia. I had friends who felt like they could play that role, but in that culture, they were really close friends.

I will return to America with a whole slew of sisters.

This morning I didn’t even try to teach - I had kids missing because it was a Friday before a home weekend, kids missing because they were on their way to Rundu for netball tryouts, kids missing who were competing in a culture competition. And most of the teachers were as absent as the kids since it’s pay weekend for them and they all want to go spend all of their money as soon as they get it.

So I stood in the sun and hung out with the culture kids waiting for their ride.

When I went to stand with them and hang out with the ones I teach - those in grades 6 and 7 - I inadvertently stood in Sophia’s sun. A few seconds later, she turned to me and said, “Madam, I’m cold!” It was cold this morning. She moved to stand next to me so we could both enjoy the sun. I realized my mistake and put my arm around her to warm her up. She melted into my body and hugged me. I’ve been trying for a while to get her to open up in class, to be friends in class. But she’s a serious learner, and it shows in both her attitude and the marks she gets. So it was nice to be able to have that moment with her outside of class, but still at school, where we were sisters instead of teacher and learner. There were some older boys around who I don’t know well, and I said to them, “This one is my sister.” Sophia knows that my sister in America is Sophia, so I think she understood, but they had no idea.

After school finally ended at 9:45, Nicky came over and we were planning to go to nearby ministry offices to try to get her a birth certificate (my first official step in trying to get her to America one day, not in December - I love her and will miss her, but I’m also not ready to be her person in a place she doesn’t know, to essentially adopt her). Instead, we walked the 7km to the youth center where the culture competition was taking place. Some other kids found us on the walk and we all walked together down the gravel road. Once there, Yondo immediately came over to me for help with her top that had broken. I managed to tie it back together. But suddenly, that whole group of girls - Sophia, Yondo, Bertholda, Shimbaranda, Kapapero - were my sisters. Kapapero told me she’ll cry when I leave - I’ll cry too. This is her first year here. We’ve only known each other for 6 months. I’ve known the first 3 for a year and a half. We’ve made huge marks in each others’ lives, in ways we won’t ever know.

Nicky and I spent time watching some of the performances, but then we both got overwhelmed by the crowd - I did first. I went to sit by the river and listen from afar. I walked back not long after, looking for safe drinking water, and she was looking for me. She told me she was tired and wanted to sleep. I asked about the crowd - turns out it was too many people for her too. We bought some snacks - fire roasted peanuts, fresh bread and NikNaks (for Nicky) - and hid by the river for a while. We went back in time to see our school perform, and then we were ready to go.

Luckily we got a hike back home. From a school board member, who wouldn’t let me pay.

When we were walking to short distance from the gravel road to my house at school, I asked her if people say anything to her because we’re together. I know that I offer more positives to her than negatives with my friendship and support, but I do want to know about frustrations she has that might be byproducts of our friendship. She said when I left to sit by the river, a man asked her, “Who was that white woman who was standing with you?” She pleaded ignorance. Upon the second request to know who I was from someone else, she came looking for me.

We hung out together in my house, playing Go Fish and listening to music. She requested pizza for dinner, which I’d promised her this weekend, but I’m too tired for that today, so we made a plan for tomorrow instead - I’ll go to her house before lunch and eat with her, then we’ll come back and we’ll make pizza together; she wants to know how to do it.

School is lame, but living here is the best thing I could have ever done for myself.