First Semester Completed at NUST

I have completed my first semester here at NUST as I submitted my provisional marks (they use the term "marks" instead of grades) on Thursday. Note that the marks were referenced as "provisional". This is because the marks have to go through a rather involved process of review and oversight before being approved as final. First, the instructor calculates the provisional marks for the course much in the same manner as in the States except the marks are reported as overall percentages instead of as letter grades. These marks are entered into the online student information system (this itself was a more involved 5-step process than the straightforward 1-step process I am use to at UNC-Charlotte). That is what I finished on Thursday.

Instructors are required to keep graded copies of all student work assessed during the semester (i.e. assignments, quizzes, exams, etc.). None of the work is returned to the students although students can come by your office to review their work. At the end of the semester, all this student work is compiled, put in big envelopes, and sent to external evaluators. The evaluators can then make changes and/or corrections to the marks based on the result of their review. The revised marks are then sent back to the instructor for review (I assume the instructor can object to any changes). The department head and the college dean then have to approve all the marks before they can be posted as "final" and released to the students. My stack of submitted student work was probably 15-inches high. There is no way that I would ever want to be one of the external evaluators as I can't imagine how tedious it must be to review the volume of such work. I guess they adopted the procedure as a quality assurance mechanism to ensure the rigor of courses and to avoid grade inflation or manipulation. Faculty in the States would vehemently revolt under the guise of academic freedom if an attempt was made to adopt a similar review system.

50% is considered the threshold for passing a course with 75% or greater being designated as "a mark with distinction". This holds for graduate courses as well. So, the performance standards are lower than the States. I had a graduate student thank me for giving him a 63% for the semester - in the States that would have been a failing grade and he would have been suspended from the graduate program. NUST also has a mandatory second chance exam policy where students that have a cumulative score of less than 50% on all their exams (the minimum exam score to pass a course) are allowed an opportunity to take an additional exam in an attempt to pass a course. One of my colleagues gave some of his students three extra exam attempts to pass the course. Me, I just made sure my students learned the material and I had no students qualify for the second chance. So, the university works really hard to give students the opportunity to pass their courses.

Many of the courses on campus are still taught in an all lecture format with only one final exam at the end of the term. No other assignments or assessments are conducted during the course. These final exams are administered in formal exam classrooms with lots of proctors (called invigilators) and security guards. The security guards check student backpacks for unauthorized cell phones, calculators, materials, etc. before students are allowed to enter the exam room. The security guards also keep all outside people away from the exam rooms and buildings. I had to walk a different route to my office as they wouldn't let me walk in front of the building. These exams went on for about a three week period.

Overall, my classes went pretty well for the semester. My undergraduate students came to class (normal attendance was 95% or higher), had good rote memorization and analytical skills, but struggled with critical thinking exercises. My graduate students generally had weaker analytical skills than my students in the States but probably had a greater societal and global awareness and empathy. From a pedagogical viewpoint, I am not fan of the short 2-week lecture block they use for graduate courses - but that type of block system may open the door for me to return to Namibia to teach in the future. Several students have asked whether or not I would be teaching their course next term. Many of the students indicated that they really liked the application based manner in which I taught my courses. So, I guess I have made a few fans and can call my first semester a success.

Mormon Helping Hands Service Project

Last Saturday, I participated in a Mormon Helping Hands service project where we helped to clean up the grass and weeds around the building. There was a pretty good turnout from two of the branch congregations located in Windhoek. At times, I felt like the token "white guy" but I am beginning to feel like a normal African and rarely feel out of place being the only Caucasian in a group as everyone treats me the same as everybody else. Little kids, however, sometimes don't know what to make of me.

The school is located in the rich part of town, so the facility is not representative of what most schools in Namibia look like. Although there are clearly poor areas in the region that require our help, all forms of service are important as even well off people need help once in awhile. So, hopefully no one is too judgmental that the project wasn't out in one of the areas of extreme poverty. In any case, here are some pictures.

The school has about 500 students from grades 1 to 7.
Hostels are visible in the far background as many students go to boarding schools in Namibia

 

We cut down a camel thorn bush in this area

The grass and weeds had been about 60 to 100 centimeters tall in this area

  

You will notice the lack of any power tools or equipment. Don't find those much here in Namibia. Everything was done using rakes, shovels, hoes, slashers, wheel barrels, etc. By the way, the ground is very rocky and almost as hard as concrete. So, the digging wasn't particularly easy. It was amazing that anything can grow. I also had to use pliers to remove camel thorns from my shoes when we were done. One of the dangers of doing yard work in Namibia.

Drinking Reclaimed Water in Windhoek

Most people don't know that we use reclaimed wastewater as part of our drinking water here in Windhoek. Windhoek is one of only a couple of cities in the entire world that intentionally incorporates treated wastewater (i.e. sewage) into the potable drinking water system. And they have been doing it since the 1960's. When you live in a desert, water scarce area there is no such thing as "waste" water. Karen and I have been drinking the water since January and haven't died yet.

I recently visited the Gammans Water Conditioning plant (i.e wastewater treatment plant) that is the start of the reclamation process. As most people are probably not familiar with the processes used, I will walk people through the process with the following pictures. The plant utilizes many of the same processes as found in the United States and elsewhere.

Gammans Treatment Plant

The first step is the inlet to the plant where the water goes through a grit chamber and screens to remove large, floating debris from the water.

Grit Chamber at Inlet

The water then travels through a flume to measure the quantity of water and then through a splitter box that diverts the water to a number of primary clarifiers. The clarifiers allow the heavier dirt and material to settle to the bottom of the tank while the cleaner water is siphoned off the top through a series of weirs. These initial processes are referred to as primary treatment.

Parshall Flume to Measure Water Quantity
(something by the way that was invented at Colorado State)

Divertor Box that can send water to 8 different clarifiers)

Primary Clarifier

(note weirs around circumference)

The water then is sent through another series of diversion boxes which sends the water to the secondary treatment processes. The plant utilizes biological activated sludge and trickling filter processes. They are essentially processes that try to mimic the bio-degradation processes found in natural rivers and streams. Microbes eat or consume the organic waste material in the water. So, you are converting the organic waste (i.e. "food") to living organisms - growing microscopic "bugs". The treated water then is sent to secondary clarifiers where the "bugs" settle out and the clean water is siphoned off the top through weirs.

Splitter Box that sends water to secondary treatment

Activated Sludge Basin

Aeration in Activated Sludge Basin
(purpose is to add oxygen to the water so the "bugs" can survive)

Trickling Filter Tank

Secondary Treatment Clarfier

The water in the region has a high nitrogen content caused by agricultural and industrial processes. As a result, the plant has a tertiary treatment process utilizing constructed wetlands to remove the excess nitrogen from the water (essentially, the plants absorb or uptake the nitrogen).

Constructed Wetland at Outlet
(Wildlife such as birds and fish live here as well)

After spending days slowing moving through the wetlands, the treated water is then transported directly into the drinking water treatment plant (I haven't visited that plant yet). There, the water is mixed with normal freshwater and turned into safe drinking water. It is a mixture of 60% freshwater and 40% treated wastewater that comes out of our faucets.

All of the stuff that has been removed and settled out from the wastewater (dirt, "bugs", etc.) becomes sludge that must be treated. The sludge is first sent to anaerobic digestors, which is an oxygen free environment that kills and stabilizes the "bugs". The stabilized sludge is then sent through a series of filter presses to remove the excess water. The dewatered sludge is then removed by conveyors where it is sold as fertilizer and compost.

Anaerobic Digestor Tank
(note gas collection pipes running from tank)

Filter Presses

Sludge as it collects at the end of the plant

The anaerobic digestors produced methane gases as the "bugs" decompose. The gas is collected and sent to an Bio-Gas internal combustion engine generator that produces electricity that powers part of the plant operations. So, they try to reuse all parts of the byproducts of the wastewater treatment.

Bio-Gas Generator

So, that is where we get our drinking water. The plant utilizes modern processes but you will notice that they don't exactly follow OSHA safety standards in Namibia. For anybody visiting us in Namibia, we will raise a glass of reclaimed wastewater as a toast for dinner.

Cindy visits PAY

While Cindy was still here and the kids were out exploring, she went out with me to PAY. Cindy had brought books and clothes for the PAY children from the States. It was so much fun to prepare a lesson and teach with her. We decided to introduce the children to African fables, read a couple to them, and have them write their own. I had a terrible cold during this time and kept losing my voice, so Cindy stepped up and did most of the talking. The kids loved her.

 

We also had a rare treat of popcorn. I never had popcorn prepared this way. It was popped in oil, like normal, but then while it was hot, they sprinkled it with powdered sugar and salt. The sugar stuck to the hot popcorn and made a sweet, salty coating. It was sure easier than caramel corn!

I am having the children finish their fables this week. They will type them in computer lab when they are finished. We will then make crayon relief batik style illustrations to go with their stories. I plan on hand binding them into a book. Some of the stories are very creative, such as "How the Cheetah got Its spots" and "How Ostriches Lost the Ability to Fly". I will have to see if I can post a few of them later on. 

Penduka means Wake-Up!

We have had visitors the past two weeks. Bruce's sister, Cindy, and her daughter, Molly, her son, Aubrey, and his wife Kimee have been down from Utah. It was wonderful to have family here and see some familiar faces. They spent most of their time here out and about exploring Namibia, but we did end up taking them to Joe's Beer House and Restaurant. This is pretty much a tourist place, but they serve up a wide variety of game and local food. Aubrey and Kimee had game platters that consisted of Springbok, Zebra, Gemsbok, Crocodile, and Onyx, while Cindy went with a sweet potato potjieko (a stew made in a cast iron, three legged pot over and open fire). It was a fun night out.

The kids then went down to Sossusvlei to see the sand dunes. Cindy stayed here with us in Windhoek.

The first day minus kids, we explored the Goreangab dam on the outskirts of Katutura.

It is a very lovely area on its own, but we went to visit Penduka, a organisation that helps rural women all over Namibia to create their own jobs and obtain an income by making and marketing crafts. Penduka means Wake-up! By making crafts, the women can support their families in the villages. Each week, they travel to Penduka to pick up their work and return the finished product the next week. There are also women who work at the site.

They have a large sewing room which in addition to the crafts they sell, takes orders from the surrounding area. The day we were there, they were making laundry bags.

A Hererro woman at her sewing machine.

The women you can barely see in the back of the room where ironing hand embroiderd labels for all the crafts. 

Penduka has groups of women doing embroidery in Katutara, on farms and in the areas around Otijwarongo. The women embroider stories about life in the village, their childhood, farming and anything that interests them. As well as being hand-done, each work in unique. 

They also make glass beads from recycled glass bottles. This department was started especially

for hearing impaired women. They break the glass in small pieces, put the splinters in a casting mold and melt it in a home-made clay oven. While the bead is still hot, they make the holes, let it then cool down, sand and polish the beads before creating necklaces and jewelry.

The clay oven

Molds for the beads

Bottles waiting to be crushed

Women string the beads. The woman in the center was also embroidering on bicycle inner tubes to make beads. It was super cool way to recycle and you would never in a million years be able to guess what they were made of.

Some of the finished work. 

Penduka also makes pottery using both clay molds and a potter's wheel. 

Another interesting craft is batik. The designs are painted on cloth using cake flour paste which is allowed to dry in the sun. They are then painted by hand. The removal of the dried paste forms the design. They had some beautiful work. 

Here is the light table where the batik patterns are traced onto material. The pile on the side have been traced with the flour paste and are waiting to be color painted. 

They also had a couple of examples of traditional village homes and an exhibit of making bottle houses.

They use wine bottles for the foundation and beer bottles for the walls. Two of the windows were made from the door of a washing machine. Penduka is teaching how to use the available materials when there are few resources. I can certainly see how a bottle house would better than the corrugated tin sheds. 

The San women that embroider Penduka products also run a restaurant. They grow their own tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms and peppers. They also have a small chicken farm for eggs. We are a very good lunch consisting of traditional foods: Chicken with spinach and peanut butter,  Mopane worms with pap, Chakalaka with rice, and Bobotie with yellow rice. 

Chakalaka is in the large bowl.  It is basically a spicy curry vegetable dish. Pap is in the small bowl.

You eat the Mopane with a bite of pap (corn mush). They were pretty good.

I was very impressed with this organization. They were taking the limited resources available to the poor and creating jobs and income. Penduka was established in 1992, so it is obliviously successful. Not only do they extend a helping hand to women with few opportunities of their own, the quality of the work was excellent. By making these crafts, the women can show their pride in their culture and support their families in the villages.