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The last three reports have given a testament to the range of jobs we are given, or take on, at Gobabeb, and even the range of challenges that lie within each of those jobs. The range only increases as the year goes on, as you gain more confidence pursuing new areas and become comfortable enough to recognize areas that can be improved. This variety in our jobs has made the recent task of nailing down a job description (to aid the next fellows and give the position some structure) especially difficult. Many of my requirements have either come out too general, "maintain quality training courses," or too specific, "continue creating secondary modules according to timeline in funding proposal." It's hard to find a balance between general goals, respecting the importance to remember your overall mission and contribution, and the specific tasks that you can be accountable for, and that often change each year or month.
So since it's fresh, I'll summarize the position and the main responsibilities and areas where it bends and bulges. I divide it up, in my head, into three headings: training, interns, and outreach. Those obvisously overlap and one could even be considered a subheading of another but those are three biggies. Responsibilities in training include offering quality training courses to people who Gobabeb educates: designing courses, organizing logistics, doing the actual teaching, and everything else. One big project within this is the development of secondary school and community courses, to be written-up so that others can easily execute the course. Internships fall somewhere in this mission, but the task is so big and differently handled, it has an area of its own. You are responsible for corresponding with recruiting and accepting intern applications, as well as selecting this and supervising them when they come. The goal for this would be interns have a rewarding experience and also their projects contribute
to Gobabeb output efficiently and relevantly. Specifically, focuses coming up are getting additional funding for Namibian interns to come to Gobabeb, and working to standardize the "Gobabeb internship" somewhat. The last category is Outreach, which includes all training Gobabeb does in the community, as well as general Gobabeb-community relations. This area is more vague but includes working to define community needs and expectations from Gobabeb and increase activities at the local school. Apart from this, there are numerous other tasks you can get involved in, but these are primary duties.
Sometimes, you drop your concrete tasks and devote a few weeks to a station project that incorporates many of them. For example, Open Day. Open Day was nearly upon us when I returned from a vacation in the north. This is a day when Gobabeb offers information, walks, talks, tours, and other events to the general public. During this preparation, I wrote newspaper ads, erected displays, created budget expenses spreadsheets, edited talks, chased lizards, and almost ended up speaking on television. The day was a success and while we were all watching the African drumming in the dunes, I was impressed with what we accomplished as a small, relatively young staff. The diverse tasks continued within training. The variety of groups I saw in my last few months alone seemed to attest to the range I'd seen throughout the year. I taught an extremely energetic and interested group of 6th graders from the poorest area of Swakopmund, led a group of students from North Carolina State University on biodiversity surveys for an
ecology course; held the final session of a many-month computer training course for local community staff; designed a Geography field course for 4th year students from University of Namibia, consisting of a 2-week group project on impact of tourism in the area; and finally, interspersed among these, trained several interns for 3 month stays at Gobabeb.
My constant description of the variety of tasks here may lead someone to believe that there is no potential for using experience gained from to advance on the road of mastery. This is not the case. You most certainly get more competent as the year goes on, but not in the way that you simply learn to do something and then next time can repeat it. Training groups, for example, rarely come twice a year. But I learned to extract aspects of other courses, even from the very beginning, and apply those things to new courses. I tried different methods of teaching the scientific method to younger students, I knew what writing mistakes college students made, and I learned what teachers teach in grade 8. This is the way you learn the ropes, but it takes time, and I'm glad being here a year gives me the opportunity to not just stop there. I've watched many interns comes for 3 to 6 months, and have a great time here, but it seems linear - they have a challenge in learning the ropes, adapting, in getting comfortable, in
accomplishing or mastering a task, but then once they have done that, they leave. A year allows you to swing from the ropes, if you will, to not only maintain the organization, but to improve it and contribute to it what you can. But perhaps even more important, there are pauses, and phases, and lots of moments of perspective. I reached several moments when I could take a break from the struggle to keep up and was forced to ask "what now?" What else do I want to get out of this and where else can I contribute?
But you don't come in empty-handed. We fellows have so many great skills for handling this variety, but since they are completely different strengths than others there, it creates an environment where things easily diffuse on the steep gradient. Let me explain. Gobabeb is in Namibia. Most things about it are very much African - obviously the location and geography, the surrounding villages and towns, most of the staff, the atmosphere, the culture, even the pet meercat. But many other aspects of the station itself are very Western, or, rather, to avoid forming that spectrum, very academic. It is the only place where I can spend the morning on an establishing-contact visit with the community, eating freshly braai-ed goat, and the afternoon writing a proposal for funding for the UNAM course (who will interview the same community for their projects). I might not know, coming here, that at the start of a work day you always say good morning before getting into anything else, or about Namibian politics, but I know
how to write well and form an argument for a proposal, and maybe even talk to VIP's. And although I'm certainly not saying it becomes "I know the academic side, you know the Namibian side," wherever one's comforts and weaknesses lie, the nice thing about Gobabeb is that everyone can teach something to everyone else.
Drawing out that spectrum reminds me of why I became interested in the Grinnell Corps Namibia program in the first place. Before I left, when I would tell people what I would be doing for the next year, some would respond by saying "that will be such an experience," as if the whole reason to do it is to have an experience…an experience for the sake of experience. I don't deny that I am indeed having an "experience," and a great one at that. Adapting to a new, very different environment, with new people and many people depending on you to do things you don't yet know how to do all foster personal growth. But what I liked about this program from the very beginning is that there is more to it than that. The tasks I would be challenged with line up with my professional interests, the people I meet with challenge me intellectually, and the skills I gain will serve me in the future. So I guess, in a sense, I'm not only having an experience, but also gaining experience, both of which will be invaluable
to me in the future.
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