Trick or treating with the US Embassy

We've enjoyed several functions sponsored by the US Embassy this year. Trick or treating house-to-house is a little hard in Windhoek, given the burglar bars and barking dogs in front of every house. So, the Embassy employees set up a Halloween function as a substitute.

We started at one home, where kids arrived in costume (and some adults). After the activities (see photos below), we left to drive to several other Embassy employees' houses. Kind of like a progressive dinner, but trick-or-treating. At a couple of the houses, the candy was handed out through the locked burglar bars, which was a little odd. But, everyone enjoyed the activity. The Embassy surely went to a lot of work to organize it.

Some photos below. More on the Picasa site.

Tristan spotted his costume in a local store.

Musical chairs to the tune of "Monster Mash".

Gwen and Annie (our fellow Fulbrighter family, the Bates') do some trick-or-treating at one of the Embassy homes. Burglar bars are still burglar bars, even if they've got cobwebs, eh?!

Happy birthday, Tristan!

Tristan turned 12 on Oct. 23, and his party was today (Halloween). Tristan asked to have a paintball party at a local paintball center.

The teams, suited up.

He invited several friends, and Dad even got in on the action to make the teams even.

It was our first time to play paintball, and I'm guessing it won't be the last. Quite a fun way to spend a couple hours. Everyone started with 100 balls, and the first game went fairly quickly as we learned you have to conserve ammo! We reloaded between games.

Tristan after the second game. An unconfirmed source states that it was his father who shot him in the face. This cannot be confirmed by official sources.

During breaks between games, we had a Halloween cake. More photos on the Picasa site. Kudos for Kelly for venturing into the arena with a mask on to get the action photos.

Trick or treat

There is a Halloween sub-culture in Namibia. It's a holiday that most people know about, and a few celebrate the "American holiday."

Kelly convinced me to come along with her to the Future Professor Pre-Primary (preschool) where she's been working. Teacher Suzy was beside herself when Kelly told her that I taught at Polytechnic. "Students," she whispered. "You are Future Professors, and here we have a real professor!" Hmmm...debatable.

Kelly worked with the kids on their ABC's, and then it was time to have some Halloween fun. Kelly had brought stick-on mustaches for everyone, as well as some masks. The kids just had a blast. They started calling each other "Grandma" and "Grandpa" because of the mustaches.






Happy Halloween from Namibia!

Day of reckoning

Today was 'semester marks' day at Polytechnic. It is the day that lecturers have to turn in semester marks for courses. It marks the end of the lecture portion of the semester. Yes, Spring Semester is over.

November is examination month, and a student has to have a 50% mark in the class thus far to sit for the final exam. So, today, students were running around to see which courses they were going to be able to write final exams.

It is not a common occurrence to fail the semester marks. One colleague had 10 students out of 26 fail his semester marks. Another had 6 students of 20 fail. One of my fellow lecturers told me that her first-year instructors 'curved' the semester marks so that 50% of the class members failed. Hmm...talk about artificial selection!

When a student takes the final exam, they have to achieve at least a 40% to pass the course. So, you can have a 90% on the semester marks, but if you don't get a 40% on the final exam, you don't pass. I think that is correct...it's very complicated, and I'm not sure I really do understand.

I'm not sure how to describe the mood of the students today. Failing a course is not the end of the world for them...they can take it again next year. So, there was this odd atmosphere of students running around to check lecturer's doors. No one acting really mad if they failed. Most probably expected it. It was kind of like learning you didn't win the lottery. Oh, well. Next time.

I'm happy to report that no one failed Ecology II. Yet. We'll see how the final exam goes.

Ring around the sun

On Wednesday, October 21, 2009, Windhoek witnessed an interesting solar event...a halo around the sun. Kelly was at her preschool, and the kids went outside to look at the "rainbow circle". Students at Polytechnic were pointing at the sky.

I've seen rings around the moon, but never a ring around the sun. The photo at right is from The Namibian, which confirmed that the halo is produced by ice crystals in high cirrus clouds, which refract sunlight to form a rainbow.

That was the scientific explanation.

However, the paper also reported that the Nama people of southern Namibia held a belief that such a ring around the sun predicted the death of an important leader. Ironically, Wednesday was the day before the funeral of Rev. Hendrick Witbooi. Rev. Witbooi (1934-2009) was an important figure in Namibia's independence movement, and shared his name with the Captain Hendrick Witbooi (1825-1905), who is featured on all Namibian paper currency.

Putting fire back on the veld

Namibia and Nebraska have many things in common, and one is that the use of fire on grasslands has been greatly diminished in the past 100 years. The effects of fire suppression in Nebraska result in cedar tree infestations. In Namibia, there is concern that bush encroachment (acacia trees) may be enhanced when fires do not happen, and seedlings survive in mass numbers.

My colleague at Polytechnic of Namibia, Dave Joubert, is studying the effect of fire on seedlings. He invited me to come out to his study plot this week to help with pre-fire preparations and the prescribed burn. Photos of both experiences are on the Picasa photo site.

It is always a thrill (in fearful and fun ways) to watch a patch of grass burn. And, it's interesting to think about landscape dynamics that have been changed as humans have learned to control fire. The veld (rangeland) is a product of the dynamics that shape it, and the removal of an important dynamic, like fire, should have consequences. The results of Dave's study should be of interest to farmers in Namibia who are looking for ways to increase grass on their farms (by decreasing bush).

Back in Nebraska, my graduate student, January Frost, and I have had a paper accepted for publication in the journal Restoration Ecology. It details the effects of cedar encroachment on bird communities along the Niobrara River in northern Nebraska. This type of research (effects of bush encroachment on bird communities) has yet to be done in Namibia. It might be a reason to return!

Even the French are having problems...where are the hunters?

In the midst of the current battles on health care in the US (yes, we have CNN and BBC), it is perhaps a little heart-warming to find out that there is something that even the French haven't figured out. No, not health insurance. Hunter recruitment.

Today, The Namibian newspaper reported that the average age of French hunters is 54 (click here for the same story at Yahoo News). The US is facing similar declines in hunters and fisherpeople, which threatens funding of conservation. Hunters and fisherfolks pay considerable amounts of money through their licenses and other purchases which not only support conservation, but directly provide the budgets for state wildlife agencies. Agencies are now engaged in hunter recruitment campaigns to avoid laying off staff and cutting programs. On the educational side, my UNL colleagues and I have started to participate in a national program designed to expose our wildlife students to hunting.

It is interesting to consider why The Namibian printed this article about French hunters. Approximately 3% of Namibia's GNP comes from foreign hunters (including many French). If you doubt this, take a look (below) at the number of horns being processed during one week by one taxidermy shop in Windhoek! If the number of hunters declines in the US and in Europe, Namibia's ecotourism industry (the hunting portion, at least) can plan on a similarly-paced decline.

Essentially, the message appears to be that if you are considering investing in hunting-based tourism, you might want to reconsider.

It will be interesting to come back to Namibia in 25 years to see how hunter-based tourism plays out. It is an industry (from the hunter's assistants to lodge workers to the taxidermy workers) that is supported by the current low wages paid to uneducated assistants. Liability insurance is also a minor component of business expenses, at the present time. The hunting industry in Namiba could face hard times if (1) the number of hunters shrinks (as projected), (2) worker wages increase as Namibia becomes more developed, and (3) if liability insurance becomes more expensive here.

Stay tuned.