A Fairy Tale – Teaching Awards

Are you sitting comfortably?  Then I’ll begin.

Once, not long ago, in the heart of the bush, near a little village called Bukalo something very important and exciting was going to happen.  The day of the annual teaching awards had arrived.  Great preparations had been going on all week with Principals missing school to order food and organise agendas, lists, certificates and the like. 

All schools were invited and every person who worked in a school had to attend from the institutional workers (cleaners) down to the principals. 

The day dawned wet and cloudy following heavy storms in the night.  There were puddles everywhere along the unmade roads.  In fact if you stood still for too long your feet began sinking slowly in the sand, it was so wet.

It was important to call into your school first just to see if it was still there.  The celebrations were due to start at 8am but it was important to be at school by 7am – just in case. 

The journey was in a three-car convoy so that all of the staff had lifts.  The destination was further down the road by some 20km.  The sun was beginning to appear from behind very dark clouds and the puddles were drying rapidly.  It was a magical land with long waving grass of different colours and heights – some higher than a man.  The trees had many leaves and looked perfect.  Small thatched round houses appeared every now and then, organised into small villages.   There was no-one walking on the roads, as children were not running to school today.  “Hooray!” they cried from the bush as we passed.

Not even the two vultures sitting at the top of the tree turned their long necks as we sped by.  Not even the flock of shrieking parrots bothered to look down.

A mingling crowd of people jumped out of cars and all manner of trucks and government vehicles at the venue for the event.  Everyone met up with friends and relatives and made their way across the sandy playground to the ‘Dinning Room’ which was the only room large enough for such a large crowd. 

Once inside, visitors were shown to their own special place to sit, Principals on the soft red chairs, Heads of Department and special visitors from overseas on the grey chairs to the side and everyone else in the middle of the hall on smaller blue seats.  There was a very high table at the front for the speakers and honoured guests.  These spaces also had soft red chairs.  Before the event began, two of these had to be exchanged for even larger, black leather chairs with wheels and arms which were just the right size for the most honoured guests.  Their tables were covered in rich cloth and two urns stood on each end filled with beautiful plastic flowers.  Real plants stood on the floor making the whole effect very imposing.  A lectern stood at one end ready for the speeches.

For the first hour until fifteen minutes past nine o’clock we waited.  Then at last, some action.  Orders of Ceremony were distributed followed by printed sheets of school league tables for Grade 10 and Grade 7.  “Oh no!" the English results have not been included!”  These sheets were hastily collected in again before any one could say Jack Robinson.  Within fifteen minutes they were re-distributed by the hard working hand maidens and were exact copies of the first sheets.

Dignitaries began to arrive and take up their places.  Everyone was very friendly indeed, with much hand shaking; even a queen arrived all dressed in white robes and head dress and sat among the H.O.Ds because that was her place.

The event was very well organised with a Director of Ceremonies to keep everything on time and in order.  As is the custom, everyone rose to sing the National Anthem.  Beautiful singing voices filled the hall right to the ceiling in what was to be the highlight of the proceedings.  This was followed by all present listening to the Regional Anthem as the words and tune were not well known.

A tall principal was called upon to say the opening prayer, as is the custom.  He took a moment to read two relevant passages from the Bible including, “What does the worker gain from his toil?” before saying a prayer to bless the gathering.

Now it so happened that an Inspector, in an important large white suit, perfect for the occasion, addressed the teachers.  He spoke very softly (microphones and other new technologies would have ruined the occasion) and advised everyone present, “Call me Uncle Malo” he whispered, “Don’t be afraid of your Uncle”.  He told a story of a baby piglet drinking from a small hole in the ground, the mother pig couldn’t drink as her snout was too large for the water hole and when the piglet grew its tusks, it couldn’t drink from the small water hole either.

Just then the fairies arrived with crystal clear water for everyone and the ripping of the plastic wrappers around the bottles could be heard more loudly than the speech.

Following the important inspector it was the turn of the district ‘counsellor’, who had been elected to represent the local people in the elections that were held the previous year.

He began to make a very strong and very motivational speech with some political and serious points which the teachers listened to most carefully.  “The purpose of regional elections and the regional council is to become the Spearhead that produces quality learners in our schools.”  The teachers leaned forwards in anticipation of praise and encouragement from the regional council representative.  This was the awards ceremony after all.  He continued, “We need unquestionable commitment.  Some teachers are specifically and straightforwardly playing truant.”  His strong fingers pointed to the teachers who were sitting open mouthed.  “We need to come together.  Are we together?  The inspector (he pointed to his right) is called upon to eradicate the selling of fish by teachers when they should be in school!”  He told how he had had calls to his office from teachers reporting absent colleagues and he encouraged more of this.  “Teachers have to perform before being paid.”

In the background and moving very quietly and carefully a portable projector screen arrived and began to be unfurled. 

The councillor continued, “Teachers who do not perform, I will have transported far, far away to another region”.  He returned to his place quite exhausted.  A ripple of polite applause accompanied him. 

A fairy godmother from the Teachers’ Union was next to the stage as a small table arrived for a projector.  The godmother made some rousing and sympathetic remarks and said she had gifts for all schools in the form of free calendars.  A loud cheer was heard all around the hall.

Next the Traditional Authorities Representative rose up to speak.  Now this was a very slight, wiry and wise man.  He represented chiefs and traditional leaders.  He spoke entirely in the first tongue of Sobia but spoke with more strength and authority in his voice than any other speaker.  It was easy to understand his version of motivation as all the teachers muttered “yes” from time to time and seemed to be agreeing with his wise words.  He spoke with suitable humour and they laughed.  He spoke with passion and conviction.  He spoke with his hands and his fist and his fingers in a very positive manner.  He was truly a wise man.  Later, a translator explained, that he had challenged the councillor on what right he had to send bad teachers far, far away so that other small children would suffer.  If there were problems in this region, then this region had to sort them out where they were.  He was so impressive that the whole hall fell silent, transfixed by his presence.  “There is only one chance for education” were his words.  He received a warm reception and the negative guests fell silent.

Four strong and young men were specially chosen from the teachers group to creep to the back of the hall during the next speech to move two tables to the front so that breakfast could be served at 11.45am.  Lunch was to follow at 1pm, it was announced.

The magic projector was used to show four slides of results statistics for the all the schools in the circuit, ranked from top to bottom.  There followed a very short presentation of the Circuit Committee’s Key Actions for future improvement in examinations.  Think of these as twinkling comets and you will not be surprised to read familiar gemstone ideas:

     Begin extra teaching in the afternoons and complete each syllabus in two terms instead of three

     The April and August exam papers will be written so as to closely match those that will be set in December so teachers will be able to predict with accuracy failure and success

     Exams (in Grade 7, 10 and 12) will be centrally marked by specially trained panels so that there can be no cheating.  Markers will be given food and a small coin for every paper they will mark.  (The crystal did not show whether the markers would miss their classes to mark or work after school hours)

     The professional dialogue of the examiners’ report for 2010 should be studied by all schools and in order to take proper notice of the recommendations for corrective action

      There will be external moderation of the Lower Primary (Grade 5) Reading Exams which are internally marked by each school.  The school results will be re-assessed and agreed by these moderators.  (The crystal did not show whether the markers would miss their classes to mark or work after school hours)

     Every school should learn secrets of success from high performing schools and emulate their practice

     The Circuit Management Committee will monitor how the end of year examinations are carried out in each individual school

Finally the moment of the grand finale arrived – the certificates and trophies were produced.  “Aaah!” the teachers cried.  “Oh no!” the officials replied.  “There are no names on the certificates”, they discovered.  There is no place for mockery in a serious, although fictitious fairy tale.  However, irony is allowed in the genre.  There was hushed discussion about the certificates while officials tried to match unnamed coloured certificates to central lists.  Modern technologists had designed certificates with their setting on Letter size but printed on Magical A4, such that all certificates were off-centre, and to a perfectionist, this was almost tantamount to heresy.  

All went un-noticed to teachers and Principals who had finished their breakfast discretely (apart from the jarping and shelling of hard-boiled eggs which could not be suppressed) just in time, during the presentation.  They were ready to jump up and rush as their school or name was called.  Ritual yodelling and dancing broke out as whole schools of teachers stamped and cheered.  What a delight at last.  Trophies still wrapped in plastic were the greatest prize, with two going to the same school (Highest Results and Best School).  That Principal also won the Best Principal certificate, so the prizes were shared round fairly.

A teacher gremlin, who landed on my shoulder, growled, “And what about Grade 1-4 teachers and the cleaners and secretaries?  Why are we here?”

All too soon the excitement was over for another year and the final announcements were made.  As is the custom, a tall Principal was called upon to say the closing prayer.  He took the opportunity to read a passage from Romans, in the New Testament, ‘Re-commit to the submission of the authorities and there is no submission except that which God has established’.  He urged all present to have to will to change; to be willing to change. 

He finished with this quote, “As Africans we always resist change”.

The story ended thirty minutes after mid-day  and everyone was encouraged to just hang around for lunch which was in the back of a ministry truck coming all of the way from the nearest big town.  The pixie arrived fast with food for three hundred with only a hundred left to feed on a Friday.  Everything ended in a ‘happily ever after’ mood, with food to take home as well.  They will probably remember this for a very long time.

Field Trip to Rossing Mine - Namibia

70 km inland from the west coast town of Swakopmund is Rossing Uranium Mine.  Here, at the southern end of the Namib Desert and the Skeleton Coast , the landscape is inhospitable.  The desert in the area is rocky rather than sand with very sparse vegetation.  

Rossing Mine is a large open-cast pit of immense proportions and is the third largest mine of its kind in the world.   A great pit has been blasted out of the earth and a crater opened up which currently measures 3km by 1.2km.  Its depth is 390m and when you stand on the viewing area, tiers of terraces fall away beneath you into this impressive chasm.  Today most of the valuable ore comes from the very bottom of the pit and has to be transported to crushing machine on massive trucks.

Uranium was discovered in the Namib Desert in 1926 by a scientist and his wife who were prospectors.  It was not until the late 1950s that exploration became more intensive and interest grew.  A British Company, Rio Tinto , took over the rights to mining exploration although the ore was found to be very low grade.  In 1976 Rossing Uranium Ltd began operating commercially.  Today the Namibian Government only has a 3% shareholding in the company.

The uranium ore is found in a granite rock called Alaskite which is a very hard rock.  Levels of uranium found in the rock are only slightly higher than would be found naturally so it is expensive and difficult to make the mining profitable.  About 3.5 tons of uranium-bearing rock is needed to produce 1kg of uranium oxide.

One billion tons of ore has been mined to date.  After processing the end product is uranium oxide.  This is exported by ship from Namibia to nuclear power utilities around the world.  Uranium oxide then needs further processing before it can be used as fuel for a nuclear reactor that generates electricity.  Customer countries for Rossing Uranium are Asia ((46%), USA (32%), Europe (11%), Japan (11%).  In the world, Kasakhstan produces most uranium (36%) with Canada close behind (26%).  Namibia produces 12%.

This industry is very important to Namibia as there is not a high degree of any kind of manufacturing throughout the whole country.  Surprisingly, Namibia does not produce any of its own electricity and the Government is only now in talks with Rossing Mine regarding using the uranium to produce its own nuclear power.

Mining consists of three main activities: drilling and blasting to break the rock (blasting operations are weekly); loading the ore by gigantic shovels onto the trucks; and hauling from the pit (to the processing area or to a stockpile).  From the viewing area these massive trucks move almost in slow motion and silently because they are so far down.  It’s like looking into a model landscape.

Eventually and not too many years from now, the pit will run out of useful granite so new areas are being blasted and opened up in readiness.  Blasting took place during the visit.  A huge plume of debris and smoke dust appeared first and then the blast itself was heard.  

A very exciting and educational tour.

Rossing Uranium Mine Namibia photographs

The crater where the granite is mined.  The terracing goes very deep and the trucks can drive right to the bottom layer.

Here you can see the drills preparing for further blasting to expose fresh supplies and widen the mine.  Everything moves at a slow pace and does not seem to stop at all.

This was the moment the blast went off.  Although it looks quite close the guide said it was  15 km further away in a new area.  The top rock has to be scrapped as it does not contain uranium ore so it takes a long time to prepare new sites.

The Deserts

Namibia is a vast country.   The coast line to the Atlantic Ocean (2253 miles long) is its west border.  The tropic of Capricorn is about half-way north and south across the country so that summer and winter months are almost opposite those in the UK.  The surface area of the country is 824,268 square kilometres.  It is bordered by Angola and Zambia in the north (close to where I am in Katima Mulilo), by South Africa in the south and in the east by Botswana (also close to where I am in Katima Mulilo).  
 

There are two huge ancient deserts in Namibia, the Namib (from which the country derived its name) and the Kalahari.  The Namib Desert is a long narrow strip of moist coastal desert between 50-140 kilometres in width and 1350 kilometres in length from the north of the country to the south.  The Kunene River borders the north of the Namib and the Orange River borders the southern end.  This desert is thought to be the oldest on earth along with the Atacama Desert in South America.

The Kalahari Desert is in the east of Namibia, beyond the central plateau highlands (between 1000 – 2000 metres in height).  This desert is has typical long, vegetated dunes of deep red sand. 

There are granite landscapes in the Damaraland and Brandberg where isolated mountains of hard jagged rock rise up from the surrounding areas.  Mineral deposits including diamonds have been found in the rocks in a coastal region north from the Orange River.   

Many other rocks of Namibia are sedimentary, formed 600 million years ago at the bottom of huge primeval seas.  Since their formation they have been pressurised, transformed and eroded to make the desert landscape.  Over millions of years the Orange River has eroded and carried away vast amounts of sand from its origin or source, in the highlands of Lesotho and all along its journey through Namibia to the Atlantic Ocean. 

 

A very strong cold current flows onto the coast, called the Benguela Current.  This current works to rebuild the landscape that the Orange River has eroded and transports the sand northwards from the river’s mouth and deposits it on the shore again to create huge coastal dunes.  The wind then lifts the sand and moves it again northwest until it is deposited inland again.  This process is known as the ‘marching of the dunes’ and it continues at an average rate of 20 metres each year.

The dunes themselves form a variety of shapes but all have a more gentle slope on the exposed side (windward) and a much steeper sheltered side (leeward). Some of the dunes can be 300 metres high (1000 feet) making them the highest of anywhere in the world.  

Try to locate the area described on Google Earth and see if you can track the shape of the dunes.  Along the coast are crescent shaped dunes which lie perpendicular (at right angles) to the strong southerly winds (ref: Google Earth: Fly to: Namibia Skeleton Coast Park).  Further to the east there is a belt of transverse dunes (north and south trending).  These lie parallel to the southerly summer winds but are also affected by the strong easterly winds which blow in the winter months.   Star dunes are to be found to the east and south of the transverse dunes.  These have three or more ‘arms’ extending from their peak or high point.  Star dunes are formed by multi-directional winds that move the sand in many different directions.  The dunes here ‘rest’ on a horizontal solid sandstone terrace (ref: Googlearth: Fly to: Namibia Sossusvlei).

Next weekend, driving to Swakopmund from Omaruru on the C33 and B2 roads we will cross the southern edge of the Namib dunes / desert.

Inter-House Athletics Mubiza

Athletics 2 – Inter-house Competition

I arrived at school today expecting the Inter-house Athletics competition to be held after school, instead of which it began at 7.30am!  Cool start as we set off down the sandy track through the bush (which is really beautiful – long tall grasses of different varieties all in flower and shady trees) to the sports field (about 300m or so).  Actually the children set off long before the adults and arranged themselves loosely amongst the trees and in the trees waiting for the events to begin.

Somewhat miraculously, equipment appeared, including a shot, a discus, five steel javelins and a high jump kit (no tug-of-war rope or relay batons though!). Then chairs for the teachers.  Children were dispatched to bring down tables for those teachers recording the names of first, second and third – you didn’t count if you came after third.  They carried the tables on their heads.  Children are often required to do things for the adults which they always do as if it were a privilege and they never question or complain.

The teachers had too much to do so the children supervised themselves and the little ones were so happy to be free, they celebrated in the treetops, riding bendy branches as if they were on horseback.  Another game was ‘who can touch the top of the termite mound first’.  Climbing the termite mound had to be achieved first – still I suppose they were practicing their athletic skills for the future – there were no events for them today!

You need to read a few blogs back as to how the events were organised form longest to shortest distance, except today the field events were interspersed.  The children had been divided into three ‘houses’, Impala, Zebra and Buffalo and points were awarded for first, second and third but the teachers who were scoring took a long time discussing whether first was 1 point or 3 points and whether this would result in the ‘house’ with most or least points winning the whole competition.

A portable blackboard and stand was brought next and set up under the trees.  Mr Mukwata, who was organising the sports, did what every British PE teacher would have done on Sports Day, he wore his best football shirt (French National Team), trainers, cut off trousers and baseball cap!  He had produced an excellent programme of events and had brought his friend along to help. 

Many of the children wore different clothing today and I found they had been asked to wear sportswear which had been loosely interpreted as ‘your best clothes’.  Most took part bare footed and there were piles of shoes under the trees but they ran (in the heat) in such outfits as tight jeans under skirts (girls), leggings and frilly skirts (girls) and strapless tops (girls) and school trousers / shorts and tee shirts (boys) but could they run and jump despite this!

As the 3000m for under 17 year old boys started, so did the long jump competition.  Sand pit ready made by just removing the long grass; plastic rakes to hand (from the field cleaning) so no costly maintenance contract from the local authority!

The events followed the programme, with a bell and whistle alerting the spectators and competitors to the final lap.  The teachers recording the place winners had a job keeping up, as they had not recorded in their (brand new) exercise books the order of the events and also because another race would start before the first one had finished.  Predictably after just two events, the scores were muddled but resolved after another lengthy discussion.

The javelin competition took place in the centre of the ‘track’ with competitors running up to the footpath which crossed the track and then hurling (full sized) javelins to the best of their ability (some practising going on in the background).  No one was hurt at all.

The high jump followed on from the long jump and was a very serious competition with children (girls in tight skirts etc) hurling themselves over an ever raising bar.  The boys on the whole had the most daring of techniques; some head first into the sand pit.  No one was hurt at all.

You need to remember also that there is no water at the school due to a breakdown in the pumping system (it actually comes from a well or bore hole so should be in plentiful supply).  At regular intervals both boys and girls were dispatched to the neighbouring village, across the race track, to fill two plastic jerry cans and a watering can so the water could be shared around.

An unfortunate incident happened to the ‘head boy’ (oldest boy who puts out the flag and clock in the mornings and rings the bell between lessons) who collapsed after the 2000m and almost passed out and lay prone on the ground for a very long time.  I was quite worried but a teacher doused him down and sent him home (over the tar road) to his village, hung out between two boys who had just finished the race.  He could hardly walk and collapsed again at the school office.  Shortly after he was taken home, his mother came back into school to shout at the H.O.D. (who was in charge due to the Principal being on a three day Curriculum Committee Meeting for Silozi).  The mother’s point was that if the boy collapsed whilst in the care of the school, the school should take him to hospital for treatment.  A fair point I thought.

The only car that was available belonged to Mr Mukwata who, if you recall, was running the sports event.  He was duly called from the field to drive over the road to the boy’s house, whilst I waited to go in the car to the hospital if that was required, which would leave Mr Mukwata to return to his sports duties and another teacher to drive his car (it is about 20km in either direction) to the clinic or the hospital.

The two male teachers were gone for over half an hour only to return and say the boy was recovering (heat exhaustion and lack of fluid I would think).  The mother had calmed down and had bought the two teachers a cold drink from the ‘shop’ in the village.  I hope to be able to post a picture of a typical village soon.

The sports continued whilst this was going on and the teachers who had not been allocated a ‘recording’ duty were by now leading the javelin and shot.  I was astonished to see the Grade 1 teacher actually demonstrating, fairly accurately, what I remember as javelin technique with run up, from secondary school. 

So everyone played their part, Zebras won, the Grade 1 children were called for their porridge first and its District Athletics on Saturday!