London Airport

We arrived home on Friday and did a load laundry, spent the day on Saturday running around with final errands and then had dinner with our friends from WWF and IRDNC.  On Sunday my friend Ilana took us to the Windhoek Airport and we caught our flight to Jo-burg.  Several hours in Jo-burg, an overnight flight to London and here we are, waiting for our final flight to Denver. 

I can’t believe I’ll be back at work on Tuesday!  We are so grateful to the generosity of people in Namibia, both personal friends and work colleagues.  And, we are so thankful for our friends and family back in the United States.  Amazing thanks to Erin and Josh for keeping Finn, for Erica and Jay for helping us find a new look for a new place to live, to DGS and UC Denver for allowing Doug and I to take this time in Namibia, and of course to our families who are tireless cheerleaders for our adventures. 

Can’t wait to have happy hour and share our adventures when we get home. 

Kunene

Doug and I had the opportunity to take one final trip before leaving for home during the first week in June.  We travelled up to the North of the country to the Kunene region which is populated by the mainly Herrero and Himba people.  The landscape was somewhat similar to Moab, Utah and completely breathtaking. 

On Saturday we drove to Wederslend (which means “World’s End”) which is an old farm that is now the property of IRDNC (this is the nature conservation organization that Doug has worked in partnership with since he’s been in Namibia).  We were in for a treat as the founders of the organization Garth Smith Owens and Margie Jacobsen (who are now officially retired) were at the camp and we had the opportunity to spend some time with them.  In addition, on Sunday we hiked the Wederslend Mountain –we started out around 9AM and returned around 3PM.  The mountain was tough with lots of rocks and the last 45 minutes of the hike included many, many stingy nettles!  Nettles are brutal.  We eventually scrambled to the top and what a view---a pic here of the mountain:

We took off of Monday with an old land rover and the Wederslend mechanic—Alpheus—as our driver and then spent the next five days visiting the conservancies in the area so that Doug could give presentations on solar technology and camping at the conservancy campsites.  We visited five conservancies including Torrah, Annabeb, Puros, Orumpembe, and Sessfonetein and drove all the way up to Ontavi which is quite close to the Angolan border.  We saw incredible landscape, and were able to see many of the traditional Himba villages where communities still live in relative seclusion from the rest of the world.  They are really beautiful people.  We arrived on Thursday in Opuwa the capitol of the Himba community—imagine visiting the grocery store and standing in line with a Himba women smeared in Ochre and in traditional dress.  It was an eye opening experience and certainly left me wanting to understand more about this special community.

We drove back to Windhoek on Friday and were able to escape a flat tire (we got one on the way there).  A  VW Polo was not meant to drive on the majority of roads in Namibia.   We are happy to think about returning home on Sunday but certainly grateful for the time we spent here.

 Doug in Puros

 Alpheus between Puros and Ontavi fixing our brakes!

 Hiking up to Lodge in Ontavi

 View from the top of the lodge

 Himba woman pumping gas

Desert elephants, climbing the cliffs

Cruisin' in Windhoek

Doug is still up in Caprivi so I had this weekend to myself in Windhoek.  The Polytech has been very accommodating by lending a car whenever I request it, and the only thing we are required to pay for is mileage.  This week it was slim pickings and all that was left was a VW Chico w/out power steering.  I just kept channeling my Granddad who once ripped out the elbows of his dress shirt cranking his steering wheel when my mom was a child.  It doesn’t turn on a dime but it works. 

Namibian cars drive on the other side of the road, have steering wheels on the opposite side of American cars and for the most part are all manual transmissions.  Luckily, Nancy and Larry made their kids learn to drive stick shifts in order to get a driver’s license and I quite miss driving a manual transmission, so I enjoy driving a manual car.  The other thing I should mention is that Windhoek is a very hilly town.  The airport is actually about 25 miles outside of the city because they didn’t have enough flat land to build runways.  I have been caught more than once utilizing the parking break in fear that I might drift backward into a Namibian driver.  But we’re all good so far.

Yesterday, I went to the Green Market (Farmer’s market) in the morning, drove over to the Franco Nambian Cultural Center for a cultural bazaar that was hosted by the diplomatic spouses’ wives (there I could sample food from Zimbabwe to Malaysia and was entertained by a Russian dancer and a Cuban hip hop singer) , and drove over to a favorite lunch spot for a snack.  Then last evening our friends Karine and Nat had me over for dinner and today I’m heading off to the Avis dam for a hike with some folks.

While I miss the independence of my own car back in the states, I really can’t complain that I can’t get around the big city.  As long as my parking break is in working order, I’m good to go.

Early Alert Update

Back at the Poly after a flight back from Caprivi---for the record—the tiny 16 seater plane from Caprivi beats the Intercape bus ride any day of the week.  The plane flew fairly low so we had a great view of the Okavango River.  I arrived back in time for several importantmeetings today regarding the kick-off of the early alert program.  Here is where we’re at…

I am finishing up my project here at the Polytechnic and have a little less than two weeks of work left.  Amazingly, enough--if all goes as planned--  my final day on June 3rd will involve doing a staff induction for the three newly hired academic counselors who will run the early alert program pilot.  While much less complex than CU Denver's system,  but the three schools invovled in the pilot are enthusastic.  They simply do very little around retention, so I am excited that this can be a basic start for addressing the needs of at-risk students. It has been very rewarding to feel that something concrete was accomplished in my time here.  This is not easy feat in Namibia.

I received final approval today from all the Deans and from academic support services to move forward with the project.  Stay tuned...

Last night in Caprivi

Tonight marks my last night in Caprivi.  I am flying back to Windhoek tomorrow to finish up my project at the Polytechnic and Doug will join me on June 1^st before one final trip.  After a long and relaxing weekend in Caprivi, I feel bad that I didn’t get to spend more time here.  And I am reminded why it was so easy for Doug to fall in love with Africa here.  How can you not develop a love affair where you can take horse ride along the Zambezi River, take a hike through a Mopane forest, and spend the evening sharing meals and drinks with groups of people from all over the world who have come here for many of the same reasons that lured Doug.  This year’s trip to Caprivi (less the next 24 hours) was snake-free but the wasps were still everywhere—luckily, I only got stung once.  Dinners included a wonderful penne vodka pasta made by our friend Karam, a “fajita night” by yours truly and many long days where we had no breakfast or lunch because we were out  in the field with Doug and food is not easily accessible.  This is a magical place and I don’t know how anyone could come here and not fall for this country, it’s land and the people who live here. I am one lucky gal to get to have the opportunity to be here.

Karam and Janet’s Big Adventure..

On Wednesday morning Doug sent Karam and I off on our own on an inter-country adventure.  In the span of 48 hours we went in and out of three countries, took a taxi, ferry, bus, boat and game drive truck.  We paid for food, accommodation and adventure in four different currency (including US dollar) and were able to shower once.

Doug dropped us off in Shesheke which is the town across from Katima and is Zambia.  We then took a bus to Livingston, Zambia where we visited Victoria Falls—one of true natural wonders of the world.  This is a Unesco World Heritage Site and is truly one of the most powerful and breathtaking experiences I have ever experienced in my lifetime.   

Thanks for taking my photo Karam!

 No one is going over these falls in a barrel...

Not a double rainbow, but almost as awesome:)  This is the bridge between Zambia and Zimbabwe.  Folks bungee off it!  Folks I date that did not tell me until after they did it.

We stayed at a hostel called “Jolly Boys” and other than a very cold shower, it was a great place to stay for the night.  In the AM, we got up and had a great breakfast (found a place that served mochas which was a treat) and then had  a taxi (local driver) drive us to the river front town of Kazangula—there we stamped out of Zambia, took a ferry across the Zambezi (and almost Chobe  River) and stamped back in Botswana.  From there we took another local taxi and got ourselves to Thebe River Camp Site in Kasane, Botswana where we found Doug’s tent and a sign in dirt, “WE ARE AT THE POOL.”   From there, we re-joined Doug and Colin and were able to take an evening boat cruise (best place to see elephants—proof below) and then a very early morning game drive where we were able to complete Karam’s African adventure with great viewing of two female lions and two baby cubs. 

We left Karam to find his way to the airport in Kasane  and took a local bus to the border of Chobe National Park. We had a great time and we loved having him there.   From there we then went back across the Zambezi River and again stamped out and Botswana and back in to Namibia.  We actually hitched a ride with two local Namibians who had just bought a car in Botswana (much cheaper there) but needed to leave it at the border post in Namibia for processing of final paperwork.  So they drove us the first hour from Botswana to Namibian border and then we drove them from the border back into Katima.  We arrived back in Katima this afternoon and I for one, need a nap.

 Hippo spotting-hard to catch them above the water

Elephants coming down to Chobe River at sunset--we counted 30 that came down to drink in this one spot

 Chobe River--elephant crossing during the sunset

Doug and Karam (we'll be stealing all of his photos from his awesome camera!)

Intercape to the land of enchantment..

Last Friday night, Doug, Karam and I hopped on the lovely Intercape bus and took an overnight bus ride up to the Caprivi region—the World Headquarters of Elephant EnergyJ We departed at 5:30PM and arrived around 9AM the next morning—not exactly our idea of a good time, but we survived. 

We asked the bus driver to let us off in a town (not really a town, more like an intersection) called Congola and Doug’s intern Colin would pick us up.  The bus driver just couldn’t believe the Americans would want to get dropped off in the middle of no where so he proceeded to blow past the intersection and instead dropped us off about a mile past the intersection.  Trip on the Intercape: $35.00, Walking all of your bags down a desolate strip of desert in Africa in the heat of the morning, Priceless.

We splurged on a 4wd vehicle and spent the day driving around Babwata National Park—this was one of my favorite parts of our trip last year so I was glad we could repeat the experience for Karam—the place is filled with lots of and lots of elephants.  After our day in the park, we stayed out at a friend’s new campsite and then Dan took us on a pontoon boat ride in the early AM where we got to spot lots of lots of hippos.  As you may or may not know, hippos only eat grass but they kill more humans than any other animal in Africa. Ironic for a vegetarian, I suppose.  Forget the honeybadger—the hippo’s going to give it a run’s for its money for the title, “bad ass of  Africa.”  Anyway, Dan’s boat had been “hit” by hippos six times in the last six weeks so we took extra caution as we approached any and all hippo spots.  Luckily, for us, we were able to stay far enough away to enjoy the hippos, but not be scared for our lives. 

Some photos from our excursion..

Up close and personal with Ele's in Nambwa

Sunset at the campsite in Caprivi

Etosha National Park

All--apologies--I've been keeping blog posts on my computer but only got the chance now that I am back in Windhoek to post these along with some photos...

I’ve been in and out of three countries in the last 48 hours and I am starting to fall far behind on my travel postings….so to catch you all up.  About two weeks ago our friend Karam arrived from the US.  Fresh from his plane we rushed him off to Etosha National Park.  Etosha is the most famous game park in Namibia and the place where I like to remind Doug (via the Lonely Planet)—“animals arrive at the watering hole not in twos, but in the hundreds.”  We were actually a little worried that we wouldn’t see much as it has been raining an incredible amount and lots of water actually means the animals don’t have to frequent the pans (watering holes) where they can be most easily viewed.  But no sooner had we driven into the park then did we get to see a CHEETAH and FOUR CUBS…this is a very special treat and there they were in the middle of the main entrance to the park.  Some people travel to Etosha twenty times and never get to see a cheetah.  So suffice to say, we were psyched.  In addition to our cheetah and four cubs we got to see zebra, spring bok, hartebeest, loads of giraffe, flamingo, eagles, jackals, impala, and the list goes on….

A large giraffe on the way out of the park..

Black faced impala and the randome two palm trees in the park

Zebras having a snack

In addition to all the animals we were able to see the very large (more than 60 KM wide) Etosha pan (think lake not watering hole) filled with water—again, this only happens every 20 years. It was quite a sight to see.

 

Stinky cheese sidenote:  The day before we picked Karam up, Doug and I went to a farmer’s market and bought several special treats for our trip.  In addition to some delicious meats, we picked up some very, very smelly and very, very tasty cheese from a local farmer.  Everytime that we would open the cooler, we thought that we were near a dead animal, but no worries—it’s just stinky cheese.    Maybe I’ll bring some home to the USJ

Happy Special Days Everyone!

Happy Mother's Day and almost Happy Birthday to my mom.  Happy belated birthday to my dad. I'm sorry I couldn't be with you both for your special day(s) but I promise we can celebrate when I return.   Happy Mom's Day to Doug's mom (Go Christie Vilsack for Iowa!), for all the people who are new mom's or those special friends are spending their last Mother's Day not being a Mom (you know who you are!).

Doug and I are picking our friend Karam up from the airport tomorrow and then off to Etosha Game Park for several days before heading up to our rural living quarters in Caprivi.  We'll be up in Caprivi travelling with Karam and getting to see Doug's work with EE in the Caprivi and then I'll be back in Windhoek at the end of the month to finish up work at the Poly.  Lots of adventures in front of us before we return in June!

I look forward to sending updates.

Wow, a photo with both of us!  Our friends took this up at lovely lodge up above Windhoek where went the other night for a "Sundowner" (aka happy hour with a view).

Early Alert Pilot at the Poly

Work at the Poly is humming along but will be interrupted this weekend by a three day holiday next week.  The students have been on two-week break but staff and faculty have been here helping to run “vacation school” which is when the distance learners come to campus for 1:1 time with the faculty.  Doug and I are in town this weekend and rest of week and then our friend Karam arrives from the US and will stay with us for two weeks.

Things are looking hopeful that I will be able to set up a “pilot” early earning system before I leave in June.  The program will involved three schools—Health and Applied Science, Communications and the Engineering Bridge Program (which is similar to remediation courses to prepare students for Engineering degree).  Each school will (hopefully) hire an academic advisor that will follow up with electronic referrals from the faculty.  These referrals will occur around the 7^th or 8^th week of class and then academic advisors will follow up with students and connect them to the appropriate resources on campus.  While by no means the complexity or depth or UC Denver’s EA program—I am hoping that this can make a meaningful and significant difference for struggling learners here.   And if the individual schools take real ownership of this issue—I think they will work to sustain and grow the concept.

Some continuing challenges:

·         Reluctance by Deans to hire someone from outside the university—I want to hire a completely new person and they continue to push to hire a current faculty member and reduce their teaching load.  I continue to push for an academic support staff, not a faculty member.

·         Resources—many of the places that academic advisor might look to send students to are resource challenged—e.g. Writing Center does not appear to have the capacity or ability to serve large number of students.

·         Pilot—while I’d like to see a longer pilot, they only appear willing to give it one semester before they decide if it is working. 

·         Politics—imagine that.  It’s also interesting to navigate challenges of different schools, center, departments, and individuals as I try to make these changes. 

Why I remain optimistic:

·         Everyone I have spoken to from faculty to the registrar see this as having great potential to make a real difference for struggling students

·         They want to implement quickly –often times in Namibia people are great about making a “plan” and not so great about implementing.  They are pushing for such a quick start b/c they don’t want to put all my work on shelf and watch it collect dust after I leave

·         I have met several key faculty who really seem to be committed to access to higher education for more Namibian students

Holy Shit! These Dunes and NaDeet are Awesome

Please excuse my French. If you watch TV in Namibia all types of profanity (including saying “jesus” or “God” ) are cut out.  But don’t you worry—the youth of Namibia are picking up a few good sayings here and there.  As we went to sleep on Sunday night at NaDeet environmental education center, we heard the kids who were in the tent next to us telling each other “Holy shit” and “What the hell”—aw, makes me feel like I’m back home.

But back up a bit—we arrived on Sunday morning at Sossusvlei—these are the largest sand dunes in the world and they are incredible.  While I do love the beauty of the Dunes outside of Alamosa—these dunes make those look like a mini-toy version.  And to make it even more incredible they have received an incredible amount of rain this year so the pans (which are typically dry water beds) had some water in them (this really only happens like every 25 years),  and the base of the dunes were also covered with bright yellow flowers.  The colors and landscape are incredible.

Doug and I hiked to the top of the largest dune –which took about an hour—and then we ran all the way down to the famous Deadvlei pan.  While we thought the run down would actually be fun, but the sand was SO HOT that we actually had to stop many times and push ourselves down on our bums.  The Deadvlei pan actually has some very famous petrified camelthorn trees which are completely eery!  Here are some photos.

 The view driving in...

 OMG it's dry out here!

 Water in one of the pans--this is very, very rare.

 Running down from the top of one of the dunes--hot feet.

 Ancient little forest of petrified camelthorn trees--eery.

After spending the bulk of the day at Sossusvlei, Doug and I drove about 100KM through the NamibRand (this is a collection of  private land that is marked for conservation –similar to Nature Conservation efforts in US) and found our way to NaDeet (Namibian Desert Environment Education Trust).  NaDeet was located about 11KM off the (already gravel) road.  The LONGEST 11KM of our life.  We were assured by Viktoria—the Director—that  the road was passable by 2WD.  I guess we have slightly skewed versions of what is “passable”—we drove through deep sand, huge rock beds and over large sand humps.  I was sure we weren’t  going to make it and would have to walk the final KM’s to get to the center for help.  Finally, arriving at NaDeet at sunset—Doug and I thought we’d have to live here forever.  Granted, it was a beautiful place to live forever—we realized that no other cars at the center were 2WD.  Note to others who go to NaDeet—don’t attempt with 2WD.

We spent the next two days at NaDeet with a group of students from Windhoek.  NaDeet was created in 1998 by an American (who has since married and become a Namibian) to teach kids about sustainable living practices.   Check out their website at http://www.nadeet.org/.

This place is amazing.  Kids  are never turned away b/c of their ability to pay-and basically for less than $100 American dollars they come to “camp” for six days to learn about climate change, air pollution, deforestation, biodiversity, etc.  Kids monitor their water and electricity consumption and the entire place is solar powered.  They take bucket showers, use composting toilets and sleep in recycled A-frame tent-houses.  In addition to learning, the kids and the staff cook with solar cookers, energy efficient stoves and solar ovens.  They prepare all meals with these tools.  They go on dune walks, learn about local plant and animal life and just have a whole lot of fun.  Doug is hoping that he and NaDeet can work together in the future so that when the kids return to their towns there are actually places where they can purchase the technologies they learned about at camp.

NaDeet Base Camp--can't figure out how to rotate this photo

 View at sunset from the base camp

 Students from Windhoek learning about solar cooking--they are in grade 6 so about 12 years old.

Karly--Peace Corps volunteer here teaching kids about how the solar panels provide energy/electricity to the learning center.

We left on Tuesday morning and drove the harrowing 11KM back out—Doug seemed to think the road was easier on the way out.  I was not convinced.  I said many prayers to the little baby Jesus and I think that did the trick.  We arrived back to Windhoek on Tuesday evening—and committed that the next time we visited the Dunes and NaDeet we will opt for a car with more clearance.



May Budget Rent a Car feel lucky this made it back in one piece.

Bill Withers Rolling in His Grave

I’m not sure quite why but Namibians love to play copycat versions of songs—these are mostly big US hits but re-mastered by UK  or Africaan artists.  And let me just say for the record—they are AWFUL. Doug mentioned the other day that he had never heard a Springsteen song sung with such little soul.  Agreed. 

Last Saturday Doug and I took off in our trusty 2WD rental for the desert.  We planned to drive the first day over a mountain pass and spend the night in a placed called Solitaire before heading to the most famous tourist attraction in Namibia—the largest sand dunes in the world—Sossusvlei.   We headed   off on a random road outside of Windhoek which was only on paved road for about 10 miles before it turned to gravel (fairly standard here).  Along we drove through rolling landscape for about 150 or so miles—we began to come across puddles of water and I was nominated to get out, walk through to check for depth and give the thumbs up.  About 5 puddles in, we ran into a tourist group (in a large, SUV).  The guides’ exact words, “If you try to go up this path, you will DESTROY your car.”  This was the first of two large SUV’s that came from the other direction and stopped to warn us—so we decided to take their word for it and turn around.

We then tried to take several different roads but each time realized that we simply weren’t going to make it in our little squirt mobile.  So, all the way back we drove to Windhoek and down the paved B1. Five hours later, we were in a real good mood.

Around sunset we pulled into Hardap Dam—Doug suggested it was the Lake Tahoe of Namibia, I would suggest something more along the lines of the Pueblo Reservoir.  We pulled into one of two campsites in this 1970’s esque rest camp and settled in for the evening.  The view of the damn was lovely.  The company, not so much.  Think of the reservoir crowds on holiday weekends—lots of boats, beers and barbecue.  Around midnight (hours and hours after we’d been asleep) the campsite next to us began their karaoke hour.  And karaoke hour consisted of only one song—Lean on Me—and not by Bill Withers.  Lean on Me with synthetic beats and a back up choir, over and over and over again.  I tossed and turned and weighed the options…not a lot of guns in Namibia—if I go over and threaten them, they probably won’t have a gun.   Only the fact that I knew my Mom would disapprove kept me from rolling out of my tent to kick some ass and take names.

5AM rolled around and Doug and I got up early to make it to the Dunes  at a decent  hour.  If I ever hear that tune again, I will hurt somebody.

Next day we saw the mountains we couldn't get over in our 2WD from the other side.

Doug Vilsack Ain't No Greg Mortenson: Elephant Energy's Work in Namibia

All--

Many of you have asked about Doug's work here in Namibia so I thought I'd take a minute to  make a shameless plug for EE's Global Giving campaign



Doug has been here since February and since he arrived EE has expanded their solar-powered light distribution network to nine rural shops in the Caprivi Region and are growing rapidly.  What started as one shop in the market has become nine and is providing local Namibians with a small-business opportunity in addition to the distribution of the small-scale solar technologies.   If you are interested in reading more about our work in Namibia you can check out our two-pager about the Energy Shops Project here: http://www.elephantenergy.org/uploads/EE_Fact_Sheet__April_2011_.pdf
 And, this weekend we'll head to NaDeet (an environmental education camp) where we're going to look at the capacity to bring the Solar Schools Project to life. 

I know many of you have purchased solar lights or made a donation to EE before, and I'm hoping that you'll support the work again. I would love to have any and all friends who read this blog  donate $20 (or more) via the Global Giving page so we can raise the last $3,400 we need to close out this project by the end of April:

http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/promote-renewable-energy-shops-in-rural-namibia/

In addition, Doug has created a Women's Project which you can read about here:http://www.elephantenergy.org/uploads/WE_Project_-_Rural_Women_s_Energy_Article__Final_.pdf

We're off to the desert tomorrow!  Happy (belated) Passover and Happy Easter weekend to all.

Retention at the Poly

My work at the Poly is becoming more defined each week.  Last week I sat in on many different first year classes and also met with the Offices of Student Life and the Center for Teaching and Learning.  During my time here,  I am going to help conceptualize three different retention strategies that will be instituted as pilot projects in the School of Communications and the School of Health and Applied Sciences (similar to a US school of Public Health with some other applied degrees --EMT, etc. thrown into the mix).  The system here is very de-centralized and each school acts on it's own.  These two schools both indicated that their faculty would committ to working on retention issues. The three ideas I am going to help them consider are an early alert system for students who are struggling in first-year courses (this will be my primary focus), the concept of a first year seminar to help the disconnect in the very large first-year courses, and the idea of a summer reading or first lecture series during orientation to help add an academic componenent that is also a small-group activitiy.  Last week I wrote several colleagues about how UC Denver and other institutions built their early alert program.  Thought folks would enjoy seeing the challenges/opportunities here at the university.  All in all, I've got my work cut out for me!

To offer some more insight about the retention challenges/differences

• K-12 system is very poor here--even best students are good memorizers but not good structured thinkers/problem solvers.  They are coming from a poor K-12 system into a European/American university model.
• Very large first-year courses.  All students are required to take a core that includes Basic computing, English, Mathematics, and some other core courses inside their school/major.  I've been to many of these classes this week and they have between 150-200 students.  How do faculty with such large classes know what students are and aren't doing well?
• Heavily based exam system rather than continuous evaluation.  Especially for large classes, multiple choice tests are only way professors claim to be able to grade everything.  And they often weight the final exam VERY heavily (sometimes as much as 60%).  Also--once a student fails an exam, the class is not available unitl the next year (e.g. English 101 only offered in fall semester and not again until next fall). 
• No advising system in place--students have to figure most out on their own.  Also--no such thing as an undeclared major--students are admitted directly into a school/college.  Admission process is that students score high enough on national tests and are then admitted to the university if their score is high enough. Small schools such as environmental health, journalism etc. only take about 30-50 students which is great for them, but 60% of student body is in the business school which some faculty label as the "throw away" degrees.  You can't get in to other degree programs, you are placed in Business administration or Human Resources degrees.  This makes it very hard to motivate students who wanted to be in the Communication school but are placed in Busines school instead.
• Personal issues: financial: many students have enough money to pay for tuition but not much else--several students in class I attended didn't purchase the book b/c they had no funds, transportation: no transportation system and bulk of 12,000 students live off campus.  Some walk 5-7 miles each day to get here.  I asked about a bus from the neighborhood where most live and they said they've tried that and the system was abused (not sure what that means).  And of course the usual college issues: drinking, dating, etc.
• Academic issues: English is official language of the university and the 3rd language of most students who come here.  Biggest academic need is english writing skills.  Problem solving/structured thinking is next--students can memorize but not problem solve. General study skillls: students take 6 courses per semester which are each 4 hours (or 4 days) per week.  These students are in class ALL DAY LONG.  Many have no idea how to juggle their schedule, study time etc.
• Self esteem--Namibian students are very polite but extremely timid.  Very few would have any sense of how to advocate for themselves here at the University.   They have workshops here on self-esteem but I think the larger issue is how to students begin to advocate for what they need.

Some opportunities:

• They do have a writing center and a Center for Teaching and Learning which does some professional development with faculty but sounds like it is fairly limited.  Essentially our version of Student success center, faculty professional development and K-12 outreach work all happen at the CTL.  Writing Center has potential but capacity is a big issue.  I have suggested using senior English/communications students to pay as tutors but they said that there schedules are so heavy that they don't have time to tutor. 
• Both School of Communications and School of Public Health faculty seem eager and willing to participate in such a system.  These two schools are doing more continuous evaluation rather than just exams than some other colleges which might make a 5 week check-in easier than a professor that won't have a test until mid-semester
• Students are highly motivated and hard workers--if they've made it here they are part of a very small percentage of students in this country who go to college (only 2 universities exist).  The sense of entitlement to a college education does not exist here.
• While faculty don't have a very diverse teaching style--mostly just lecture in delivery--those who I have observed are very good public lecturers
• Office of Student Life has capacity in terms of a social worker, health office (nurse), and counselor
• The Office of Student Life has done this type of "check-in" on their student leaders (student council etc.)--getting their grades half way through semester and offering help if they are struggling--they like the idea of providing this for everyone, not just their star students.
• Willingness on behalf of administration to build academic advisors into the schools infrastructure
• Willingess on behalf of administration to also take reccomendations under consideration about what is necessary to make such a model successful

Swakopmund photos

 It should be illegal to be this cute

 That's about a gazillion seals jumping into the ocean

Dunes in Swako

Swakopmund

The smell and sounds of the ocean--lovely. Smell of 80,000 seals hanging out--not so delightful--  But incredibly intertaining.  Doug and I headed out for our first trip to the coastal town of Swakopmund.  This little town is heavily german-influenced (cuisine and lots of white folks speaking German) and considered the "adventure" capitol of the country.  Weather was fairly overcast and a bit chilly so on Saturday we drove up the beginning of the Skeleton Coast and went to the Cape Cross Seal Reserve.  Doug kept trying to temper my expectations with comments that, "You know the seals might not be there, this might not be the best time of year...blah blah blah."  But we came up to the watch deck and there were thousands upon thousands of seals.  Little baby seals, big fat momma seals, brother and sister seals--will send photos as soon as I get them off the camera.  We wanted to bring one home for Finnegan but we thought he might get jealous.

On Sunday we decided to partake in some of the "adventure capitol" title of the town and headed out for a day of sandboarding.  There are HUGE dunes in Swakopmund and people fly over them, drive quad bikes on them, take tours around them and sandboard.  Doug did stand up sandboarding since he snowboards and I did the "lay-down" option.  So much fun and so MUCH sand.  I'm sure we'll be shaking it out of all of our parts for days.   Doug wouldn't like me bragging but everyone was impressed with his mad sandboard skillz--his years of snowboarding in Colorado gave him an edge on the other boarders for sure..  We'll definitely have to try this out at the Sand Dunes back in Colorado. 

We also were able to stay this weekend with Doug's friend Angela who was such a lovely host.  And she had two English labs named Phoebe and Hector so that was fun as well.  More later.  We have a short week as Easter holiday is both on Thursday and Monday--more details on our next adventure soon.

Daan Viljoen Park: literal translation—Gigantic Spider Park

Doug and I wanted to get out of the big city this week and get some hiking in so I inquired at the Poly about a nearby game park which was in Lonely Planet called Daan Viljoeen.  The bonus of the park was no animals that can eat you, so you are able to hike around.   Several people suggested that it was closed—in between owners—but we thought we’d drive out and see what we found.  When we got out to the park, a game guard from the ministry of tourism let us in and gave us a map for a lovely 10K hike and sent us on our way.   The park was clearly in between owners--trails were not well maintained and facilities were under construction but they said we were welcome to hike the trail.  We started up the trail when Doug stopped me immediately as I had almost walked through a spider web, where this lovely creature was in the middle…

We then took a moment to look on the trail and realize that the thick webs we had spotted in front of us were EVERYWHERE.  And so we went on our 10K hike like a scene from Indiana Jones—gigantic spiders all along the way, through the entire hike—with occasional breaks when we walked in dry river beds or got up on high hills where the wind had discouraged them from building a web.  About halfway through, Doug came up with the brilliant idea of a big stick to knock down the webs which prevent our passing—always being careful to try and not kill the spiders—we needed as much good spider karma as possible.

4 hours later and after seeing several other types of wildlife—wildebeests,  a large pack of zebra, a gemsbok, baboons and warthogs, we got back to the car and noted that we would not be returning again soon.

I checked on the web last night and turns out these spiders are in the argiope family and perfectly harmless—they even call them garden spiders in the US.  I don’t care—I’ll be adding freakishly large spiders to my list of –could have done w/out seeing those creatures to my list.  Right behind all the snakes here.  

 George Michael's Inspiration--Chameleon, taking a sand bath

Wildebeest giving us the eye--close up he had strips like a zebra

Landscape of the park--rolling hills.  If you look close--you can see the spiders everywhere.  Just kiddin. 

Work at the Poly

I started work  at the Poly on Wednesday.  During this first week I met with all the Deans of the schools and the heads of the departments to discuss the “foundation courses” (courses for first year students).  To give some background the Poly is an applied sciences college—the schools courses are both theoretical and practical—schools include the School of Business, Biomedical sciences, engineering, Communications and land management.  It is a European system where students typically have a three year diploma and some stay on for an “honors” 4^th year degree.  My time here will be spent thinking through what the school can do improve retention and in particular what can be done to make first year students more successful. 

Some challenges:

·         English—courses are taught in English and English is the national language of Namibia—yet only about 2% of the student population has English as their first language—for most students English is the 3^rd language that they speak.  They do not have teachers in K-12 who have mastered English and along with that, the professors who teach them here are also not often English-dominant either.  So for most they are really working on two degrees—one in their focus area and a pseudo-degree of mastering academic English.

·         Limited post-secondary options: In Namibia there are two universities—University of Namibia, The Polytechnic and that’s it.  There are some vocational schools but the concept of community college is non-existent.  The School of Engineering here has created a very successful “bridge” program where students come for a 1-year bridge year to help prepare them for the rigor of the engineering program—of those students who complete the bridge year—they are typically more successful than the students that gain immediate entrance into the school.

·         Critical thinking and problem solving:  the Namibian education system is not particularly strong and even the best students are not adept at problem solving.  They have been taught in a system where memorization not structured thinking is rewarded.  They often have a rough transition into a university model.

·         Transportation and housing: Similar to UC Denver, only about 400 students live in campus—the rest live throughout the city with a good majority living on the outskirts of town in Katatura (similar to Soweta in South Africa).    Many students walk 10K per day to get back and forth to class because they can not afford taxis (there is no bus system here). 

Some opportunities:

·         Students at the Poly come from all around the country.  There are significant government dollars available to send smart students to university.  The government also has an access policy that forces the university to take larger numbers of students than in the past---admittance is based on a test score.  While attending university is not common—the best and brightest from around the country will have an opportunity to study.

·         Students are very hard workers---there is no sense of entitlement about getting to college.  Not many students get to go, so if you’ve made it this far, then most students here take it all VERY seriously.  As one professor told me, “These students are not as many American students, coming to college to “party.”

·         Students are motivated—when asking professors about what their students’ strengths are, all of them mentioned that these students are very motivated to do well.  Sometimes they lack the ability but they are willing to try hard and put in the hours to learn.

Some interesting tidbits about general university culture here:

·         They have a tea lady in the admin office—her entire purpose is to bring tea, coffee and cookies to our meeting.  Very fancy.  I think we should have a tea lady at UCD--let's see if there is room in the new budget:)

·         Students attend 6 courses per semester—this translates to six 1-hour lecture courses that occur four times per week.  They are literally here from 9:00AM-5PM everyday.  Night classes begin around 5PM and the university only seems to go dark  around 10PM.

·         All the students love to wear NY Yankees and NY Mets t-shirts—they love the logos and have no clue about what either of those teams are in the US. 

The view...

This is our view of campus--the yellow building is where I will work.

Another view of from our back porch.  Windhoek is nestled around mountains.  Very green right now from all the rain.

 Everybody remember this guy? Handsome devil.

Denver-London-J-burg-Windhoek = arrived

30 plus hours of travel but I made it.  Doug and a driver from the Poly picked me up on Monday afternoon at the Windhoek airport--I was very happy to see his smiling face.  We were taken back to our super nice 7th story "flat" at the Poly Heights.  It's got a full kitchen, bath room, living room and bedroom--and it even has a washing machine (fancy). We'll settle in today and I start work at the Poly on Wednesday.  Will write more when I have some interesting news to report...

Getting closer...

Arrived in Heathrow and in for a long layover until my PM flight tonight to Jo-burg.  Flight to South Africa will be the longest and then a quick 2 hour flight to Windhoek.  I did consider wandering out into London but it's quite cold outside and my warm jacket is with checked luggage.  Only major travel snafu is that my Kindle was dead when I opened to read it on the flight.  Currently using my handy new outlet adapter to charge it up.

A study in contrast: living in Namibia

The modern city of Windhoek where I will work at the Polytechnic University. 

About two million people live Namibia, and one million are here. We will live in Faculty Housing at the "Poly" which is located on a hill above the downtown.  The university has nearly 12,000 students from all over the country.  

This is a photo of one of the houses at the "Fish Farm" where Doug works up in the Caprivi Region. The Fish Farm is on the outskirts of a city called Katima which is located on the banks of the Zambezi River.  This is about 13 hours away from Windhoek by bus.  So we have a place in the city and a place in the country.  Many more elephant and hippo sightings in this backyard.