Having a Field Day

It’s been a couple of weeks since the Youth Leads kids hosted their own field day. But they did such a good job, and were so proud of their accomplishments, that I thought it deserved some recognition here on my blog.



After 11 weeks of after-school training in sports, leadership and health, 15 learners in grades 5, 6 and 7 organized and conducted their very own field day for the younger kids.



Our kids taught other students the games they’d learned from me and Tonje. They made signs for their stations, broke learners into smaller groups and made sure everything ran efficiently—all on their own.

It was a proud moment—not just for them—but for us, too.


Beauty Teaching "Bang"


Battleship


Rosa and the Girls Teaching Crocodile Crossing


The Kids Playing Crocodile Crossing

Getting the Green Light ...

It doesn’t take much to get the green light. That’s one of my favorite things about working here in Namibia. There’s no red tape, no background checks, interviews or paperwork. If I have an idea, I just have to offer it up. It almost always becomes a reality. Schools are eager to enrich their programs. Teachers are anxious to lighten their loads. And it seems almost everyone wants to work with the American.

In some ways this makes my life easier. But I’m finding the “system” is not without flaws. When the go ahead is quick to come by it can be hard to gage the real level of others’ commitment. So there are times when I’m ready to get the ball rolling and despite their initial enthusiasm, others are nowhere to be found.

Like today.

I was scheduled to start a session of Youth Leads (the after-school sports, leadership and life skills program Tonje and I did) at a new primary school. Gino (one of my Nam Friends) and I met with the principal last week to discuss our plan for the term, our lessons and our activities.

I swear he was on board when we walked away.

But it’s been a week since we talked. Three missed meetings and one totally MIA teacher. So understandably, I had some reservations when I headed to school this afternoon. That glimmer of enthusiasm I’d felt from the principal in our first meeting must have flickered out when he missed so many more.

I stopped at Gino’s house on the way, ready to discuss plans for our first day. And though he’d volunteered to help—more importantly, been excited to—he wasn’t ready to go, because, I found, he wasn’t even there.

Then I arrived at school to a missing principal. (Again.) And a missing teacher. (Still.) And a bunch of learners who’d never been informed. (Of course.)

It’s frustrating, but it happens when people and projects don't require much up front. So I’ll go back to school tomorrow. And then again next Tuesday (when hopefully we’ll start). Because in a place without paved streets or traffic signals, getting the green light may not always mean go—but it certainly never means stop.

Little Victories ...

Tuesdays in Khorixas mean Youth Leads—an after school program that uses sports to teach about self-esteem, health, fair play and leadership. It’s another way—one that doesn’t rely on Ministry tools like The Bird of Love (see previous post)—to deliver life skill messages.

Our hour-long sessions start with a silly game. Usually one that involves learners—most in grades 5 through 7—sitting in a “somehow” circle for play. These lead into an often disjointed (but always entertaining) discussion about sportsmanship, teamwork, problem solving and role models.

Afterwards we take to the field for soccer, netball, or some other new game, and put the day’s lessons to work at play.

Some people argue that sports aren’t a valid vehicle for real education. Schools in the states are scaling back recess and cutting budgets for athletics. Sure. Youth Leads teaches life skills under the guise of play. But, like sports, it also trains young people to be disciplined. To be leaders in their class. To be leaders in their school.

Older students learn a wide variety of games, and at the end of nine weeks, run their own field day for younger classmates. It may not be the serious charts and graphs of health class or life science. But at least here we can be sure the kids are learning.

How?

When another PCV visited last week, our learners were eager to explain Fruit Salad and Leader of the Band—two games that previously opened meetings. And when Tonje, the SCORE volunteer, missed a session, it took little prompting on our part to get students to volunteer information and rules for the games we’d played in her absence.

But the best proof came this weekend.

Tonje and I spend Saturday mornings in the Dungerhoek (squatter camp) at the edge of Khorixas doing Sports-4-All. It’s informal. A drop-in activity that starts when the balls hit the ground, and ends when we decide it’s time to collect them. Older kids organize pick-up games of soccer while Tonje and I entertain younger kids with slightly more advanced versions of Duck-Duck-Goose.

Last weekend, while older boys sported their ball handling skills on the field, Kennedy, one of the youngest members of Youth Leads and easily the smallest learner in grade 5, gathered the smaller kids for a game of Battle Ship (like tag, but with teams). Tonje and I stood by while tiny faces with big eyes and open ears listed to Kennedy explain the rules of play in Damara. Staying safe. Getting tagged out. He divided learners into teams, and when one of the girls volunteered to be “it,” Kennedy stood on the sidelines, waiting to be sure rules were followed. Waiting to be sure they all understood.

Maybe it's not much—Kennedy getting out there and organizing play. But it’s definitely something. It’s more than reciting the ABCs of HIV prevention or what it takes to make The Bird of Love fly.

It’s more, because for the first time, I saw the littlest learner in grade 5 with a handful of classmates looking up to—and learning—from him.