I really do have to work - life at the NUST (the university)

Karen has been keeping everybody abreast concerning our experiences here in Namibia. However, some may believe that I am on some type of extended vacation since the blog has add very little information concerning the real purpose of my Fulbright Scholar grant at the Namibia University of Science and Technology. The university has approximately 15,000 students with undergraduate and graduate programs in engineering, health sciences, natural sciences, tourism and hospitality, and the like. It just recently transitioned from a Polytechnic to a full university several years ago so they still have a very applied, vocational type focus although they are building their research capacity.

The campus is very compact with very little actual green space. It has an actual upper and lower campus. We live on the upper campus and I have to walk down a hill to the lower campus for work. Most of the facilities are pretty modern. I work in the Engineering Building No. 3 which is the newest building on campus. A picture of the building is below.

The building is off-the-grid and would be what we would call a LEED certified building in the States. I work on the 4th floor (really the 5th floor but they number the floors differently here). The government is currently experiencing a fiscal crisis, so many of the offices, conference rooms, etc. have very limited and sparse furniture as you can see in the pictures of my office and departmental areas below.

I teach in the Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This semester I am teaching one undergraduate course in Water Engineering and one graduate course in Environmental Fluid Mechanics. The undergraduate course has already started and I have 36 students while the graduate course is a two-week course that starts in May. Teaching facilities are comparable to the States and the students are well-prepared, polite, and fully engaged. I do have some difficulty, however, understanding their English at times, it is a real challenge to pronounce their names, and they think I speak with a funny accent. They like to correct my pronunciation as I don't speak the King's English. 

Below is another picture of the interior of the building.

I have been invited to work on a NASA sponsored project that is studying atmospheric climate change in the southeast Atlantic. My involvement is looking at correlations with precipitation patterns and rainfall amounts in Namibia or something like that. I still not exactly sure what I will be doing on the project. I also hope to pursue my own research interest into the water resource management practices Namibia utilizes in their water-scarce environment. They are just now coming out of a severe drought and it rained here in Windhoek for the first time in three years a couple of weeks ago. So, water is a big deal here.

Below are a few more buildings on campus (the last one is the library).

Below is a picture of part of the upper campus taken from our apartment. The building with the red roof is the main administration building (the chancellor and provost offices). It use to be a hospital and is one of the oldest buildings in Windhoek (built in 1906).

I have been introduced to most of the university's administration. For some reason they think I am some type of eminent scholar. Anyway, they have treated me really well although it took almost a month for me to get completely set up in their IT systems. Most of their systems don't draw off a common database, so you have to go by each department or area and setup separate accounts. ID card, security card, library, Moodle, etc.

Security on campus is a big deal and the campus is surrounded with fences, including some with razor wire. There are security guards at all the main entrances and I have to use a biometric scan of my fingerprints to get into my building and office. Parking is free but very limited. Most students take taxis to school.

So, yes I really have been working.