Hey everyone,

Wow it has been a long time since I last wrote. For all of you fervently checking every hour, the wait is now over. These past few weeks have extremely busy, with classes and a week long homestay here in the city. The more I am in the city, the more I love it. It is really manageable and has a lot of character. All of the facets are well integrated, from corporations to malls to government buildings to small shops. I'm not sure if I had previously mentioned this, but the Supreme Court is about a 15 minute walk from our house, so I look forward to going to see oral arguments in the coming weeks.

My classes have been very interesting, and are already heading into their fourth week. I'm taking Political Institutions of Namibia, Racism and Resistance in Southern Africa, Religion and Social Change, and The Development Process. As a part of the classes, there are many guest speakers that both come to our house and require us to travel to different locales around the city. Some of the speakers that we have had are a minister for a local church, a member of the Namibian government within the office of Developmental Planning, a leading figure in the labor rights movement, and the man who named Namibia and was one of the constitution's authors. All have been very interesting and obviously have provided a multitude of different perspectives, in both ideology and the bias of the position that they come from within society.

In addition to the academic workload, I and two other kids on the program began volunteering at an orphanage. The organization originally formed for kids who had been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS. However, they later changed that philosophy and start allowing any children who qualified to live there, as they deemed it arbitrary to only helped parentless children because of a certain cause of death to the parents. Working with the children has been very rewarding, especially seeing their outlook. I honestly have never been around happier children, and that is not hyperbole to counteract the stereotype that they are afflicted and have reason to be resentful and depressed. they are genuinely very happy children who embrace the community environment that they have grown up in. Watching the older kids look out for the younger ones and the babies is really special.

One of the things that we do at the orphanage is tutor 10th graders with their upcoming exams. While sophomore year of high is pretty nondescript in the U.S.,  it is the penultimate grade within the Namibian education system. In order to continue to 11th grade, you must pass a series of very comprehensive tests on about 10 different subjects, ranging from physics to accounting to math to English to history to physical science, and others. Seeing how these students need to prepare, as well as the lack of resources and quality preparation that they have to endure is disheartening. The pass rate of the exams hovers around 50% nationwide. One of the students that I tutor said that he studied very hard (which I fully believe given his motivation with me) but failed the first time, because he was not instructed what specifically would be on the exams. The students were told to just study the textbook, with no emphasis on what would be considered important. There are some resources that the schools provide, such as past year's exams, but students must buy them at rather high rates, especially considering all of the other expenses that go along with school. The way that the current system is set up, hard work doesn't always pay off. Not even close.

The education system, from my limited observations, seems to be really broken. While the constitution guarantees public education for all citizens, that does not mean that there is free education for all students (which seems counterintuitive). Rather, school fees must be paid to attend a school. Some schools charge much higher school fees than others, which predictably leads to better education. Right off the bat, there is an inherent inequality, as poorer students will be effectively forced into the poorer, and lower-achieving, schools. On top of the school fees, students must pay for all of their textbooks, all of their school supplies, and their uniform. For a poor family, the cost of education is exorbitant. For a family with no income (and Namibia has a 52% unemployment rate, so there are many such families), the cost of schooling is prohibitive to their children receiving any education at all. Even with studies done by the UN stating that for every dollar that the government puts into education, the economy will get back 10-fold (), the government does not put a priority on quality education for everyone. They claim to do so, but the costs prevent such claim from actually being truthful.

Next week, we are headed to our rural homestays for about a week, which admittedly is slightly disconcerting, considering some families don't speak any English. For that time we won't have classes and we will be with our homestay family the entire time. Afterward, we will go to the coast for a three day seminar then a couple of days at the beach. Then, the following week is fall break, where we have planned to go to Victoria Falls and a canoe trip through Botswana. And for all of you wondering (maybe there aren't any of you), I'm fully up to date on the Jets. The NFL international package is great. You can watch games whenever you want and the homepage doesn't reveal the scores if you want to watch after the fact, which I will have to do once we go to the coast.

Talk to everyone soon,

Evan

New York Jets: A Truly Global Franchise

One small thing that I keep forgetting to write but is pretty awesome. On one of our first days in Johannesburg, we were on a tour of a township in Soweto. In one of the large open squares, many people play some sort of music, a la subway tunnels in New York. One guy we saw was playing a recorder. What;s notable was his hat: none other than good ol' Gang Green. When I asked him about it, he didn't seem to have a clue what I was talking about, even though he spoke English, which Led me to believe he got it for fifty cents at Salvation Army equivalent. Even still, an unexpected and pretty hilarious surprise.

Oh yeah, I also finally discovered how to upload pictures. Welcome to the 21st century, Evan.

Northern Namibia

Hey everyone,

Before I get started, I'm just going to clarify the name change of the blog. In an attempt to be clever, I titled the blog NamEVANibia, meaning Evan in Namibia, literally. Ok, so maybe not that clever, but I've got more important things to think about. Like how the Jets could ever come out of this season with more than five wins.

Also, for all of you wondering how I could ever go a whole season without watching the games, I couldn;t go a whole season without watching and I'm not. Thankfully, the NFL sells international packages online, so I'm going to buy that. And when the internet connection is bad at the house, I'll take the 20 minute taxi ride over to the hilton hotel and watch with their internet. Hopefully Dad's diamond status, or whatever they call it that allows free stuff, can get me something. Additionally, if anyone has any fantasy football questions (Rich, I know you need the help), I'm still answering. Number one tip: Avoid Trent Richardson. He's a third/fourth round back going in the first.

So, to what I'm actually doing here. We had been away for about a week up in Northern Namibia, attending a wedding for one of our professors and exploring Etosha National Park, which is the main wildlife preserve of Namibia. One aspect of Namibia I did not realize was just how large area wise Namibia is. It's approximately half the size of Alaska, which would make it our second biggest state. The drive up north took about eight hours, but it actually wasn't that bad of a drive. The wedding was very different and very similar to American weddings at the same time. The service took place in a local church, with the reception taking place after the service, with a brief break for pictures in between. The service was predominantly done in the native language, whose name I am forgetting right now. For anybody who is familiar with Beth El's second day Rosh Hashanah service, the pastor gave Rabbi Kessler a serious run for his money with regards to the length of his sermon. No matter where you are in the world, there will always be religious leaders who presumably like hear themselves speak. The setup of the reception was also very similar to U.S. weddings, with the many tables covered in decorative (and somewhat unnecesary) centerpieces and napkin foldings. Pretty much all of the extra froo froo stuff that you would find at any wedding.

While there were many similarities, there were also many differences, with the most primary of such being the length of the wedding and the preparation that goes into it. In order to be married, a man does not have to just drop down to one knee and pop the question to the woman then planning for the ceremony begins. (If you think I might be being hetero-normative, it's because I am. Give me a break if you think there is gay marriage in Africa.) He must consult many members of her community, and gain their trust and acceptance. Although it is rare, anybody who has a concern with the marriage can add their input and have it be taken very seriously. So if Great Uncle Charlie finds the color of the tablecloth offensive, it has to be changed. Also, unlike American weddings, there are two receptions, one at each of the communities. Each reception is pretty much the same, but it is a formal acceptance of each member of the marriage into their spouse's respective communities. There is also a long process before everyone enters the main reception. First, the host community has to decide if they want to allow the other spouse's community to enter. It is all done in jest but actually lasts for about 20 minutes. Then gifts are given to the couple by the women of the host community, symbolizing giving her up to her new husband. Among the gifts, their were an incredible amount of woven baskets and clay pots.

Overall, the wedding reception was a really good time. We showed a lot of the kids frisbee and danced with them at the reception. There were times when we could tell we were noticed for our race (there were 11 white people at the wedding, 10 of which were from our program), but everyone seemed to be very welcoming.

After the wedding, we went on a two day trip to Etosha National Park, Namibia's primary wildlife park. Now I'm not usually a big nature person, but seeing all of the animals was pretty amazing. We saw springbok (which were my favorite), zebras, elephants, rhinos, lions, ostriches, kudus, jackals, giraffes, and others I'm forgetting right now. And we saw them by the hundreds. At one point, there were probably around five hundred animals at one watering hole. Definitely a really cool experience.

About now, we're finally getting into the flow of things here in Windhoek, with a weekend off then the beginning of classes next week. On Thursday, we went to a karaoke bar downtown. Not one to brag (well, I kind of am), but my performance of Without Me by Eminem was definitely the best of the night. I had the whole bar up at the stage and random people who I had never met were taking pictures of me. Granted, they were probably taking pictures of the crazy American, but I'll take it. There is a video of it which I hope to get soon.

Talk to everyone soon,



Evan

P.S. A very happy belated birthday to Cat Strada from the good folks at blogspot!