A Firesale and Farewell

I’d planned all year to give most of my clothes away but I was pretty uneasy about the logistics. I mean, should I give them out to my favorite kids? Should I try identifying learners who looked most raggedy this year? On second thought, since I’m twice the size of so many of the kids, should I just target the tallest kids? Despite the popularity of big clothing, mine would look like king-size sheets draped over most of these tiny Namibians.

Last Sunday, a day before the last day of school, I went to watch soccer with Paulus, a learner from grade 9, and met another kid, Joseph, there. The three of us got to talking about me giving my clothes away and Joseph told me that a previous volunteer had gotten class captains (elected heads of each class) to write a list of the orphans in their classes. Wow, such a good idea. I had to steal it.

So the next morning, I asked my class captains to do the same: list the orphans in each class. I had about 20 articles of clothing which I figured, out of the 150 kids left in grade 8 and 9, would cover those who were orphaned.

God I was so wrong. The numbers came back: 11 in grade 9A, 10 in 9B, 10 in 8B and…17 in 8A - about one in three kids. If I emptied my entire closet, I still couldn’t produce 48 pieces of clothing. So I was forced to chose which two classes would get clothes; simply because the numbers worked, I chose 9B and 8A and gave their class captains bags of my stuff to hand out. In addition, Kauma, Ngombe and Matheus, the three tallest kids at school, got pairs of my pants, which wouldn’t fit anyone else anyway.

It was hilarious watching these tiny grade 8 girls walking around with my dress shirts and cargo shorts spilling off their bodies. Although giving away clothes goes against everything I’ve ever read or learned about effective and lasting aid in Africa, it felt good knowing there’d be some tangible mark left by my year here. A selfish reason? Probably.

And now, with the final exams marked and report cards written, there’s less than a week left. Sunday is the Christening of my friend’s daughter, my farewell party is Monday and then Tuesday the kids come back for their report cards. Wednesday I’ll leave Sitopogo for good and head down to Windhoek to kick off a two-week jaunt to Mozambique, then back to the US on the 23rd! As expected, it’s all surreal and blah blah blah. It just doesn’t seem real that I’m leaving. I’m sure that’ll change in a week when I’m gone.

So with that, I’d like to thank all of you who took time to read my stories from Namibia. Sometimes the only way to process my experiences was to write about them, if only retell them so later I could believe they actually happened. A lot more people followed this blog than expected. But with that large audience of friends and family, I was afforded the chance to share my thoughts and experiences with so many while over 7000 miles from home. Thanks again.


PICTURES:
1: Ndumba Elisabeth, the highest performing kid from grade 9, and her baby brother.
2: Mr. Makoi, the school's Agriculture teacher and best soccer player, and me in his classroom - grade 8A.
3: Little kid getting dressed by his sister for a photo op.
4: Kids from 9B who contributed to the newspaper: l to r, Justina, Emmy, Lucas, Theresia and Beatha.