On Thursdays I do not have a class to teach until after the midday lunch break. During the mornings I usually try to complete any marking that needs to be done and to plan my lessons for the following week. I also make myself available to perform whatever random tasks my colleagues do not have the time to. I have retyped (and revised) field trip letters and taken pictures of the school for a principal’s report (which I assure you all I am trying to upload), and last Thursday I was asked to generate tickets for a school event Friday night, the Miss Oshikunde Valentine 2010 Beauty Pageant. After quickly typing up a word document, making copies, and turning them in, the teacher in charge jokingly inquired, “What is your cut?” I chuckled and responded that all I would require is the honor of attending this event, which in my mind promised to be quite interesting. He quickly asked if I would like to be a judge for the show, and the next thing I knew my Friday night was planned.
Friday afternoon we needed to quickly hitch to town to get prizes, light bulbs, and other necessary supplies for the night’s spectacle. The ride back was leisurely, with periodic stops at roadside shebeens (bars) to say hello to various community members whiling away the afternoon. Several hours later my colleague looked at his watch and said, “The show starts at 7:30, and it is now five ‘till seven, we should get moving.” My eyebrows raised, did I just detect a sense of urgency from one of my co-workers? This is something that is not completely absent in Namibia, but it is something that is conspicuously lacking. I replied that I would do what I could to help, and we started moving back to school. I quickly changed and unlocked my office door to give a learner access to the power switches for the school block which would serve as our arena, and then proceeded to sit….and wait. There was very little for me to do because frankly, there was very little that needed to be done. Strangely though, the event did not even start to begin until approximately 9:30pm. At that time I thought we had begun, but about 15 minutes into the event, the organizers wordlessly put the program on hold to rearrange the desks that comprised our makeshift catwalk, a task which took another quarter hour.
The contestants walked carefully on the improvised stage for four rounds, each requiring a new wardrobe and the necessary changing time, musical performances served as interludes, but each of these had to be restarted a few minutes in because the performer was not happy with how it was going and wanted a mulligan, and periodically large groups of learners would charge the stage and frantically bust a move for what struck me as completely impromptu dance break marathons.
A quick note for context: Power and water are scarce in Oshikunde, but wireless internet service is surprisingly prevalent. Because this service is free from the hours of 1-5am and I am seven hours ahead of the East Coast, my family and I have regularly spoken via Skype on Friday nights (6pm their time, 1am Saturday my time). Now back to the story…
I was extremely excited early Friday evening as the Pageant approached. The starscape above astounded me, I was beside myself with geeky laughter as I contemplated the fact that I was deep in the Namibian bush preparing to participate in one of the school’s biggest events of the year as a judge, and I was looking forward to sharing some of my own personally brewed Oshikundu (Namibia’s low alcohol traditional after dinner drink) with my colleagues, and finishing my Wu-Tang Collection movie “Kung-Fu Genius” while I awaited my weekly catch-up phone call with my family. Slowly, I removed items from this planned list as I first waited for the event to start. “Ok, I can watch the end of ‘Kung-Fu Genius’ tomorrow.” After the first round, one of my fellow judges offhandedly mentioned to me that she hoped the pageant wouldn’t last as long as last year’s which went all the way to 1am. “Alright, no Oshikundu tonight either, but even if it goes as late as last year’s which apparently was excessively long, I can still hustle back to my room to talk with family.” You may be able to imagine my frustration as the festivities dragged on and I watched my cell phone clock slowly click up to, reach, and move well beyond 1am. I tried to think to myself that I could still contact my family the next day to let them know I was safe, and that at that moment I should just recognize that I could not leave the event and should just enjoy the moment. But as the night wore on, with more and more learners falling asleep in their chairs in the audience, it was all I could do to stay awake and to remain in tolerable spirits. As the conclusion approached and it was time for the judges to deliberate, I learned that my two female colleagues had completely revamped their scorecards to assess the contestants in their own unique way. This was the last straw. I (politely as I could) explained that there was no way we could reconcile these, took everyone’s score-sheets, reinterpreted them as best I could, totaled everything together with my cell phone, circled the winners, handed them over to the other judges to explain what I did and ask for questions or comments, and submitted the results to the pageant organizer. Eventually the emcee announced the winners, and I…was…out of there. The time was three in the morning.
As I was leaving, those learners who had remained awake were still dancing on top of the desks on the stage. They obviously had had a blast that night. I too enjoyed pieces of the celebration. There were moments of genuine beauty, humor, and good ol’ fashioned fun. For example, there was a kind of raffle where learners could pay a dollar to draw a name from a basket so that person would accompany them down the catwalk. Unbeknownst to me my name was included and when it was called I hammed it up with a couple double-takes and “who me?”s and then chivalrously escorted a bashful young lady in front of the crowd to substantial applause. Nevertheless, the lack of concern for punctuality and time management is a serious difference between our cultures, so much so that even I really struggle to maintain my patience and composure, and I would like to think that I am a fairly laid-back person.
Friday night was difficult. Saturday our school hosted an athletics meet scheduled to start at 8am; I set an alarm. It did not begin until after 10:30 and had not completely finished when I left for another volunteer’s school around 6pm. This school was also hosting a Mrs. Valentine and despite all my best efforts I was roped in to judge again. This time I knew what I was getting into though, two friends were judges beside me, and another hysterical friend was emceeing the event in an absurd gold satin shirt and white dress shoes. After my tribulations the previous twenty four hours I was able to manage my expectations, and I was in stitches from 8 at night until 1 in the morning as I shared with friends one of the most fun nights of the year so far.
I slept in on Sunday. I will be at work early on Monday morning.
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