Oh, the first days of school in Namibia.

They were very similar to the last days of school, somehow. No real organization. Learners running around everywhere. Teachers not in the classrooms. But there difference is, there’s a feeling of optimism.

Monday and Tuesday were days for just teachers. I arrived in the staff room on Monday to find a group of refreshed, energetic teachers. We sat down and sorted out the calendar for the first term, penciling in dates like our first staff meeting, the Interschool Athletic Competition and when the control exams would be. We then went over a list of about 50 tasks/committees and delegated them between the teachers. I was put on Library Committee, Team Building, and Fundraising Committees, and made Vice Chairman of Athletics. Lots of responsibility, but it’s going to be nice to have something to do outside of the classroom.

Tuesday we registered learners. Each teacher was given a class list from last year, and the parents were to check with us to see if they paid their school fees from the year before. I registered 4 learners in 5 hours. To me it seemed like that indicated there wouldn’t be many learners there on Wednesday when school started for learners. Boy was I wrong.

On Wednesday I woke up for the first time to the sound of learners running around screaming. It’s a good thing, because the past couple days we had started at 8am and we would be starting at 7am that morning. I went into sprint mode at 6:55 when I realized this, and somehow made it to school only a couple minutes late. God bless my 2 minute commute.

We got to the staff room and were told that we would be registering learners again. I spent much of the morning trying to figure out if I’d have a homeroom class. The rest of the teachers were acting under the assumption that they would have the same homeroom classes. All I knew for [fairly] certain was that I’d be teaching Grade 5 Math. Part of me wanted a homeroom so I’d have a classroom to call my own, but part of me was terrified of the responsibility.

The learners went to the classes they were in last year, and those who passed were sent on to the same section of the next grade (i.e. 1A goes to 2A, etc). This was easier said than done. Grade 4 has 3 sections while Grade 5 has 4, so we spent about an hour trying to figure out how to split them up. It took another hour going from classroom to classroom trying to find the learners in each class. There was a similar dilemma with the Grade 6 (4 sections) to Grade 7 (3 sections) transition. I was told by the Head of Department that I wouldn’t have a homeroom class. I was told by my colleagues that there weren’t enough teachers for me not to have a class. Couldn’t really get a solid answer from anyone. I went home confused, exhausted and passed out.

Thursday led to more confusion. The time table wasn’t nearly made up yet. I spent much of the day working with the Athletics Committee trying to figure out the most effective way to split up 1000 learners into Red, Green and Blue teams for the Interschool Athletic Competition. We finally decided after much deliberation that the best way was to get the class lists from the year previous (class lists for this year haven’t been made yet) and write R, G, B, R, G, B down the side. We then argued about the sex ratio of Namibia and the world (my male colleagues are convinced there’s a UN Survey that came out saying it’s 5:1 and 20:1, male to female, respectively, thus making it ok for men to have 19 girlfriends on the side). Even bringing up the CIA World Factbook which shows there are actually slightly more men than women in the world couldn’t convince them.

It was decided that we would spend from 11:30am to 1pm every day until the Interschool Competition practicing athleticism. Part of me cried for the hours of class they’d miss out on, but to be honest, the first weeks of school aren’t really spent learning anyways. It’s better that they’re doing something productive, at least. We started Thursday by announcing the teams and sending them off to the teachers on their team to be separated into age groups.

Friday brought about much of the same. One of my colleagues was in Windhoek taking a test so I watched her Grade 4 class. We played games until break, like Heads Up 7 Up and Simon Says. They got a little rowdy so I made them color and received a few pictures to post on my walls. After break, the upper primary teachers were called in for a meeting and we were told what classes we’d be teaching. To my surprise, I was assigned Grade 6 instead of Grade 5. Good thing I haven’t done any lesson planning yet. A few teachers were switched to another grade for their homeroom, and were fairly upset about it. It’s going to involve moving classrooms, and after seeing how many files Namibian teachers have to carry I can understand their concern. I was also given Grade 6 P.E. so I’ll have to bust out my whistle. I already have the awkward short haircut so I’m set there. My only concern is that right now, Grade 5 doesn’t have a math teacher since one of my colleagues Mrs. Ilukena, got an HOD post at a nearby school. We were assured that they would open the post and it would be filled by the ministry soon, but I’m a little worried that the Grade 5s will get behind. Sure enough, at 11:30 we broke out of class and the kids ran circles around the netball courts with the encouragement of teachers.

So, no learning happened in the first days of school. I was expecting this, but the confusion was more than I could ever have imagined. I am excited to get in the classroom next week and start teaching. Next week. Maybe.