On our drive from Spitzkoppe to Ongongo Falls we really began to see animals. We had seen some zebras and some giraffes in the previous days, but we got to see one of the Big 5 on this drive, an elephant named Sebastian. We began seeing the animals up closer and I never thought that I would think “oh that’s another giraffe, keep driving.” Little did we know that once we got to Etosha animals would be everywhere and very close to our bus. We spent three nights at Ongongo Falls and we delved into the cultures surrounding us, but to me visiting the elementary school and meeting the Himba women impressed me the most.
I hope to be a teacher when I grow up so I have a great interest and sensitivity to education in other parts of the world. Warmquelle Primary School is very different in comparison with the elementary school that I attended. Perhaps the most unique difference is that there are students who live there at the school. I know plenty of people who have gone to boarding school as high schoolers, but that is completely different from students leaving their parents to live at a school as young as age 7. They really do not have any other options though because they live too far away to make a daily commute. About 360 of the 420 students are boarders and they live in hostels with women who live on site to take care of them. They must learn to be more disciplined and independent at a much younger age than children in the United States. Some go home on the weekends, traveling by donkey cart, but many children stay there all the time because their families live too far away. Another difference is that every child in my school had a desk and chairs, but the headmaster there said that they are lacking about 70 desks and chairs. It would make the learning environment so much more difficult in these conditions. Also, these children eat mealie pap very frequently, which is a white mush similar to grits. When I ate lunch or snacks at school we had much more of a variety than grits every single day. The children eat with their hands and do not always have a drink. They don’t bring a packed lunch from home with cookies from their mom. It is just a completely different environment at this school. Despite all of the differences, it is so obvious that it is a thriving learning environment. I was very impressed by the headmaster. He was well dressed, spoke good English, and was very passionate about the learning experiences and well being of his students.
Because we had about half of the money left over from the Charity Challenge we decided that the school would be the best place to give the rest of the money to. As in the case with the Nama family we were concerned with how the money was going to be used and whether the students would actually benefit from it. The headmaster told us that they are always in need of pens and paper and so we tried our best to get that for them. We went to the only nearby little store and bought some BIC pens. It cost $55 US to buy 150 pens. This is unbelievable and there is no doubt as to why they don’t have enough pens. They are so expensive relative to everything else in their stores. Bread can be baked easily so it is much cheaper where as the pens have to be imported and thus are much more expensive. So we gave them those pens and gave the rest of the money to the headmaster in cash and hopefully he will put that money to good use. Again, this just makes me realize how lucky I am to be able to have new pens and paper whenever I need them.
We also visited the Himba and the Herero people of this area. The Himba people live together in homesteads and live lives very similar to those of their ancestors. They wear very little clothing and cover themselves in a mixture of animal fats, herbs, and mud. They twist their hair and cover it with this mud mixture making it very heavy. They used to attach hair from the goat tail to the bottom of their twists, but now use artificial hair. The women wear goat ears on their head to signify that they are married which I thought was a very unique tradition. We got into an interesting conversation with these women about age. They were all between the ages of 21 and 35 and each had many young children. I think that they were surprised to find out that we were all around 20 as well and weren’t married and didn’t have any children. It is hard for me to understand why these people choose to live the way they do. I ask myself, why don’t they want to be westernized and have modern clothes and technology? I could not imagine living without full coverage clothes and shoes and having electricity and running water. I haven’t quite figured it out, but this is the way their families have lived for so long and they are content with continuing on the tradition. One thing that was obvious is how much these women love their children. There were probably eight or more little boys running around and they were all so helpful to their mothers and the mothers seemed so happy to be surrounded by the little ones. I could not picture a culture that was more different than the culture I live in. A culture like this would not be able to survive in the United States. At the very least they would be arrested for indecent exposure!
We also visited the Herero people which are closely linked to the Himba. Instead of goat ears on their heads, these women wore traditional Victorian long dresses. In the mid-1800s when the Europeans came to colonize Africa, the Herero women started to change their dress to reflect these people. They also adopted a headdress that is supposed to resemble the horns of a cow. These two cultures are very unique and are most prevalent in Namibia.
Between the school, the Himba women, and the Herero women, our nights spent at Ongongo Falls revealed many aspects of the daily lives of rural Namibians. We left Ongongo Falls to head for Etosha, the final highlight of the trip with all of the animals!
No comments:
Post a Comment