Yes, You Can Have A Baby Even If You Have Only Passed Grade Two

Guess what? Hilde, the 16 year old girl with the baby fathered by Gideon, is not actually 16, but 14. She doesn't even turn 15 until July. And guess what? She only passed grade two. Surprised? Don't be.


MB spent the evening at this household:

Grandma. Grandma has six children.
1) Lazarus (lives away from home) has a child Michelle (13) who lives in the house. His girlfriend also lives away.
2) Aleita has Cien (11), Nono (3) and Diola (three months), and her partner (there are really no marriages here, they are too expensive) Dion lives in the house as well.
3) Frieda has McCreney (14), Edelsine (12), and Ruru(8). McCreney has a different father than Ruru and Edelsine. Her partner Donovan lives away.
4) Martha (died last March) has Hilde (14), Daffney (18, deaf), and Mayorine (13). Their father Jonathan lives away.
5) Yvonne (died last January) has Charleton (9), Papas (15), and Mario (5). Their father, Tha, lives in the house with his new girlfriend Mona.
6) Mapuse (lives away from home)


Think About This:

Some old sleazy guy whole lives next to his family frequently tries to fondle Daffney. Daffney is deaf and slightly mentally retarded, and stays home all day taking care of Nemo, Hilde's baby. She obviously can't hear the baby cry. She has no life skills. She is basically just a warm body to cradle Nemo the whole day.

Hilde is 14, has a grade two education, and a three month old baby. She doesn't want to go the the bridging school, which will take her, but she doesn't want to walk that far to school. It's probably an hours walk from her house. (A bridging school is a school for children who dropped out of school and are 13, 14, 15 years old but at a first or second grade level). Today Hilde asked MB what Catholic AIDS Action is doing, because it seems to Hilde that MB is doing all the work around the center. MB was surprised at her comment, and glad someone is finally realizing all her hard work. After all, MB is doing the job of the social worker on top of everything else. MB also explained to Hilde today that if she goes to school, she needs to make sure she doesn't have another baby. Hilde said, "I know Mary. I know". Hilde told MB that she is on birth control -as is Daffney. Think about that. Daffney the deaf sister. MB thinks that Daffney is being raped, and by making her take birth control, it guarantees her not getting pregnant. If MB puts Daffney in school, Nemo's babysitter is gone. If Daffney is gone, then Nemo would have to be in daycare. MB doesn't want to have to deal with that, because then Hilde gets what she wants; everyone but herself taking care of her baby.

Gideon works for Catholic AIDS Action. He gets $500 a month (Namibian dollars) for cleaning the center. He works maybe 30 minutes a day out of his 4 hour shift, and frequently tells the younger children to do the work for him. Basically he is getting paid to play dominoes. Kiersten was holding Nemo yesterday, and after an hour she went over to Gideon and tried to give him the baby. He told her that he didn't want to take him, to give him to someone else. Meanwhile, Ilga had been holding the baby for the first two hours. Kiersten just said to him, "No, Gideon, Nemo wants his father". He got frustrated and just took Nemo when Kiersten wouldn't give up.

Michelle, 13, went to Auas in 2005 for grade three, and took her exam, fourth grade in Auas school in 2006, but didn't take the end of the year exam. In 2007 she was enrolled in grade four again, but dropped out. Michelle's younger sister lives with their mother and their mother's boyfriend, who is probably sexually abusing her. Michelle left that house because her mother's boyfriend was making sexual advances towards her. Michelle had $50 for school. Hilde convinced Michelle to give her the $50. $30 was spent on formula for Nemo (because Hilde won't breastfeed so that she doesn't have to be "tied down" to Nemo all the time) and $20 for food for themselves.

Ruru is 8 years old. He dropped out of kindergarten last year, just walked out of class and decided he didn't want to go or perhaps his mother made him stay home. We can't be sure. Ruru is now in grade one at Auas, in a half-day afternoon class, and he hasn't been showing up. He doesn't want to go to this class because he has to walk pretty far no one is there in the afternoon and he prefers to be at the center in the afternoon with all the other children.

McCreney failed school last year, and so is now in class with Edelsien. Apparently you have to be pretty bad to fail. Kids pass with 18s, 27s, etc.

Edelsien is being raped. MB thinks she has HIV. Ilga and I agree. Her hair is patchy, and today during track and field she passed out from weakness.

Develien is 16. She dropped out of grade four years ago.

Charleton, 9, dropped out of kindergarten.

Set graduated from Steinkamp. Now he is enrolled in 8th grade at school so far away that he just doesn't show up. MB offered to pays fees at the closer school, the school less than a block away from his house, but he doesn't want to go there because "all the girls are getting pregnant and all the boys are dropping out".

MB spent $700 each (totaling about $100 US dollars) on Morris and Gerome, out of her own pocket, to put them in school and get them uniforms and school supplies (after she swore that she wouldn't ever help them again for the violence and stealing they've done). They started Monday. Guess what? They have already skipped out on classes. The secretary at their school called MB today, letting her no that they didn't show up.

Michael went to school at Auas, dropped out of grade 6.

Usho is maybe 13, and not in school. Bully. Great soccer player. MB doesn't know his story other than that.

Pattern maybe? Every kid who has dropped out of school has dropped out of Auas; Hilde, Michelle, Morris, Gerome (failed out), Rodney (dropped out of Auas and then Stienkamp), Develien, and Michael. Auas takes these dropouts perhaps because they have space, and the kids just end up dropping out of Auas.


Mb explained to Kiersten that there is a phrase in English, beggars can't be choosers, which perfectly explains all of this.

Kids who aren't in school have very bad home situations; education is not their parent's priority, whether alcohol replaces it, or the parents never had it themselves and so don't understand its value. Kids like Cien, who's mother is really on the ball and motivates Cien and makes sure he is in school every day, is in 5th grade and a total exception in his family.

-Side Note-
While MB was in El Salvador, she tried to put eight year old twins in school. When the school said they were full, totally out of desks, MB bought and hand delivered two desks for the kids. When the school then told MB that the door had to be able to open and close all the way, and that wasn't going to happen with the two new desks in the room. MB hired a carpenter and helped switched the hinges on the door so it would open out, not in. After three weeks MB went to visit these two kids, Siomara and Roberto, and check in with their teacher. She told MB that they had stopped coming to class. MB hiked all the way up a volcano to the children's house, where she found the two children sitting outside their home. When she asked why they weren't in school, they told her that their father had a job for two days and used the money for a new TV. They had to stay home to watch the TV, and make sure no one would steal it, for if anyone did, the children would be to blame. Not to mention that their electricity was illegally thread into their house through a wire running up the volcano.

This situation is not unique to Namibia or El Salvador.

MB's Definition of a developing third-world country
No shelter for battered women.
No adult education programs for young girls like Hilde who have babies.
No special education programs for deaf children like Daffney.
No health benefits or even health care.
No pensions.
Unemployment.
No social services (pensions, minimum wage, unemployment benefits).
Lack of police service and other public protection services.
No free education. $100 a month for kindergarten (only private kindergartens here; no government kindergartens), $250 for elementary children, $600 for grade 8-11, and $1080 for grade 12.
No school busses.


Here is Namibia for you...

People walk into the New Start HIV/AIDS free testing and contraception and take the free condoms, and sell them at the shebeen(bar).

A man named Abia, who worked for Catholic AIDS Action , embezzled tons of money from home health aid volunteers. He forged their signatures and stole their Christmas stipends. The women who were supposed to receive the money didn't even know it was ever supposed to have existed. They quietly mentioned how last year they received $30, and then nothing this year. CAA then told them that they were supposed to recieve $50 each this year, but the women never received any of the money. Abia also stole money from school vouchers that were supposed to go towards uniforms and school fees and supplies for the kids.

Lots of "Witch" doctors in Katutura sexually abuse their patients during "magical healing ceremonies".

The security guard for the PC Center/Africa One Television next door to our house said to MB as she was getting the rubbish bin, "Give me food." MB said "Excuse me? You are the one with the paying job. I am a volunteer." and the woman replied by saying "No, that's a lie, that's not true". And this is not the first time she has done this. WHen MB was using Ger and Jose's bakkie to pick up bread for the kids on pool days, the security guard would run up to the window and demand rolls.

NBC Namibia workers recently went on strike after not receiving more money from the government. The government has replied by saying, "become a news station, and then maybe we would consider it". Apparently it is a joke of a station; they don't know anything about camera control or white balance or how to run programs. MB and the Rotary Club here in Windhoek were donating an ambulance to Okahandja. They invited NBC to the dedication ceremony a week beforehand, and NBC showed up as people were getting in their cars to leave. Two and a half years after they did an story about MB, it is still playing the the station. People come up to MB in the grocery store and ask her if she is "that woman from that story on NBC". 18 months after it first aired, it's still playing as a story.

There is one qualified paramedic in Namibia.

Most people hire private security companies to keep homes and company buildings safe, because the police force here is a good-for-nothing bunch of men and women collecting their government pay.