My name is Anna Mappe. I'm 13 years old and doing my grade 7 at
all of Palmer Primary School. Our school is big and then it is from grade 1 until 7 and it
all comes with dates of about 1,600 children. And in class we have about 38, some classes I
think 38, some classes I think 40 learners. I feel good going to school because some kids are not
given the opportunity to go to school. They are just in straights and they are just straight kids.
I hope to be a civil engineer. I would like to construct roads and bridges for Namibia because
like these roads in Namibia they are like creaky. The people who are doing constructing the roads
are like not serious at all. The roads are just upside down. My name is Travelling. I was born
raised and I lived here since day one in my life. I live with my mom at the moment because my brother
is out on police trainings. He'll be back around December when he starts duty as a police officer.
And my other brother is up north also but on a job. He's a truck driver. My sister is in Canada.
My mother had a job as a social worker at a school but due to sickness she had a problem with her
back so they had to give her early retirement. So now she just gets a monthly fee and runs her own
business for her mom. So this is my mom. My mom tells us for a living. She makes all different
kinds of clothes at different prices but from her point of view I think she does it for a really low
price. Too cheap. And also sometimes she sells like a price and sells some perfumes and lotions
and also that they are all that but mostly she makes clothes.
There are a lot a lot of shabins here. Every other house is a shabin. Now that especially on
Thursdays and Fridays the noise becomes a bit of a problem. Just because of that fear of trying to
keep money they don't open a shabin at another plot or rent a room for a shabin. They do that in
their own houses. So the front room which is usually a big room would be the shabin and to go
through the bedrooms and the house to go through the shabin on the other side. So when kids have
to study or when a kid comes from school they witness all the things that happen in the shabin
before they get to the house. Now a lot of people that have the plots here are not educated or
if they had education was maybe to grade five or grade six and then they had to quit either due to
financial problems or they just didn't have the they didn't see the need to be educated. So now
that they have their own homes yes some of them have jobs but they don't make as much as they
need to sustain their families. So they discover their talents and see different potential business
opportunities and then because of the expense in rent and also in buying a new plot they decided they
just decide to do to do it at their plot the ones they already have which which let some avoid paying
rent dealing with other people's houses and stuff so they do their businesses at their homes.
I am Mrs. Maritas I'm the librarian at Greenwood Matungu Library working for the City of Intuk.
Greenwood Matungu came about through the partnership between City of Anta, City of Intuk and then when
it was built everything Ministry of Education also came in as a partner. So and for the past decade
there was this working relationship between City of Intuk City of Anta mentorship they came down to
us guide us give us some advice we went there and look at their library set up and we learned
from each other. So Greenwood Matungu Library is one of a kind at this stage. I never knew there
was a library in my location until two years ago I started coming by read books and take out some
books by then I was I was out of school yeah so no I never really had much interest of hanging out
at the library I just come get a book and then go back home so yeah until last year when my friend
Malcolm he was a volunteer before I was he started telling me about being a volunteer and I never
really liked doing anything for free yeah and then he said it will build character as well you
know and then he brought me over to meet Miss Hayes. Actually the first one who came was Malcolm
and he had another friend with him whose name I can't remember now they started but then unfortunately
his friend moved to another area and couldn't come anymore so he asked me can I bring another friend
I said by all means so he brought traveling and from the beginning due to his outgoing nature he
was just in your face all the time and he was just like a sponge drinking in and and gaining
and he became really our right hand in this and due to his friendly and outgoing nature he is just
someone you like to work with. The volunteers are young men out of school all of them at the
moment is studying but in their part time they come to the library at this moment in time they
don't receive any money for what they are doing here. Traveling for instance is running our
computer lab he is the one responsible there with the help of the permanent staff members but
the workload is just too much for the staff members that's here to do everything so they
are helping at the counter helping with the kids some people help at the photocopier sometimes they
help at the counter or they help with the shelving of the books or supervision in the study room
or at the computer lab or helping kids with homework or playing with the kids outdoor so
there's various tasks where they get involved. At 10 a.m. on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays I give
computer basic courses until 12. My IT skills came from watching I should say
I mean I never was a computer geek until until I got involved with the library my brother had
a computer at home so I used to watch him click around and do stuff so at least I knew I knew
how to play music and send files receive files and boot and the basics and then when I came here
I met with the gentleman who used to give the computer courses so he gave me a few tips
and short courses maybe one week or two days then my head just bursted.
Another thing is the computer trainings that we give more and more community members we cannot
keep ahead of the requests they are for computer trainings because that is the era we're living in
people can't find a proper job without being computer literate so that's another service that
we render. The download is eating up all our internet time and that is why our internet is
down every last week of the month and we are going to put this up everywhere because now I am at my
last end yesterday it was 30% this morning it's 30% so 20% in a day it's a bit much I just thought of it last
okay what else should I put here we pay for a package that say you have 20 gigs of internet
time per month and that is running out it's the 10th and we already used 50% of it so then I have to
buy boosters and up and up and up and I don't know where it's going to end we have to find the
solution but we are working we are trying to solve that problem because we cannot at this stage if
we stop the internet completely we will be in serious trouble because people are now used to it
children know they can come in they can find answers on the internet they can do their assignments
they can make printouts so yes we have to to get that one going all the time now this is very
important because we need to keep all the computers cool if they get a bit too warm then they start
freezing and shutting down and all that stuff when when I started off I just thought I'm doing
something for the library for the community but it turns out I'm actually doing something for myself
with my IT skills I got let's say I gained IT skills and I'm gaining experience on how to work
with people we have people with different characters someone will come there stressed or angry
because of something someone did to them when asking for help they don't ask in a needy manner so
doing that I also learned from the library and meeting all the different kinds of people and
learning a lot of lessons I thought school was awful well that was before I started growing up
and oh school is important but then I used to play with school that's why I failed grade 10
after failing grade 10 and then failing the second try again you know I realized if I don't get
serious now I saw a lot of people suffer with jobs you know like my elder brother and some other
older people I know like spend five years six years looking for a job once they get a job is
just maybe being a waiter or security guard so I noticed if I don't pay attention to education
now I might as well start looking for jobs and do odd jobs in places so I took it upon myself to
be serious and because it's my future I remember my dad he said we must always go he said when he
left us in the house he said there's a new library that we must always go to the library
and go and study we must not stay in the streets and in twos but that time I didn't take it serious
the time it was 2009 2010 it looked like my other friend who was my neighbor she used to come to
a library every day and I asked her why I come to a library every day then she answered the library
is fun you play games there there's internet you can use the internet that time when I came first
in the library my dad came from from from the north he came he was also doing this course of
welding in VTC so we came together then we were like playing the puzzles reading the books
then 2011 that's when my mind opened that I and my friends were doing a project on internet
that's where I started getting interested about the library more each and every day
the prefetch we started that was even before the volunteers we started when I came here two
years ago I get a group of 10 young people at that stage they were all primary school and in the
meantime some of them become secondary school next year they will be in the grade 10 so then I don't
want to take up all their time their study time so I gradually introduce younger ones of which Anna
is at the moment our top prefix they come whenever they have the free time in the afternoons they
have to study but whenever they have the free time they come to the library they also help with the
kids they also help at the counter basically the same duties that the volunteers are doing now
but as I say we started with them long before the volunteers came
since I came here Anna was the child that read the most in this library
and that is how I learned to know Anna because she was always coming to exchange books and
it's her and one of my other prefix they were the ones that was reading all the time
and then I met one of the teachers of Olive Palmer where Anna is schooling
Mrs. Maxx and Mrs. Maxx just said that is one of their top students so when I at one
library campaign that we have when I mentioned that she's our best reader then the teachers
realised that that is why her work is so good why assignments is always the best in the class
so last year Anna became one of our younger group of prefix Anna is always here
yeah I like to be a prefix it was to be a prefix it's enjoyable we like to get new friends and
and know new things through the other people that you didn't know and stuff all like that
the best part is just to help the the kids doing their homework and help other people
on internet and when they struggle to print you print for them and you type CVs for them
kids come to the library every day there's more and more of them coming with little pieces of
papers saying I need information on this and then you have to show them how to look for it
what to do now in exam time as you can see it's outside it's inside it's everywhere where there's
a little hole people are sitting studying even outside if the kids are not coming for homework
or for reading they come to play outside and we encourage them to come because of this area we
are living in this library is situated in one of the maybe one of the worst areas in winter
because of Eveline Street the infamous street for shabines car washes it's just not a happy
environment for kids to grow up and at home I mean they don't have electricity they don't have
proper facilities at home so they come here they play all afternoon we try to have programs with them
we have our holiday programs we have educational toys if at all time allow it we play with them we
learn through play and and for them it's a place of safety where they can come
I the library did a great big change actually seeing how young people kids especially used to
spend their time going out to funny places doing funny things and and stuff like that and now that
the library came you know most of the time at the library either doing their homework or researching
or playing at the library like like now so which is a better thing to do than than take a film go
to the dam some of them falling to the dam accidents happen so the library caused a big
change actually yeah normally Namibians don't have a very active reading culture because we
come from a background especially in this cultures they they have oral tradition telling stories
and and now they are not reading that much but it is it is increasing because if you think of
the poverty in the area where people I have to worry about food on the table I mean if I as a
parent have to worry what's my kid going to eat tonight I will not think of buying him a book or
investing in in that type of thing educational toys things like that they don't even have ordinary
toys but that is why we try to assist in that way in providing and the more they are exposed to
books the more they will start to because that is how they learn to love books it's okay Joseph
we're not angry with you tell him we're not angry we're not angry it's okay what the kids experience
here it is a wonder in their eyes if they ask some information and you can take a book and you can
open it and show them it's there and they take this message home to their parents and parents
start to come so it's it's maybe going upwards back from child to parent because a lot of our
parents are also illiterate which we have this this big gap
I usually do the children's homework I help them doing their homework and playing the puzzles and
playing with the children dominoes I go on internet I take my email if I've got email
then I check on new scholarships on internet because I need a scholarship
I would like to go to Polytechnic of Namibia but further from Polytechnic of Namibia I would like
to be in study in America because it would be a good example like they are having these other
roads which are designed very well which impress me when I check them on internet
I like to travel in California in America because I would like to meet this other famous person
that we were taught in school he's an actor Arnold Schwarzenegger he's a former governor of California
I would like to meet him why is that do you know him? Because I've never met a governor which plays
movie and good in good work like to be a governor no he's the only first why no
yeah I think I'll get employed to be a civil engineer but I don't think it would be easy
because some people believe that civil engineer must be just for men not for women that's the
problem that's only the problem of civil engineering but even if they don't employ me I'll find
somewhere to get I'll get a loan and do a company so we can construct roads for Namibia
I won't be like be that rich be that rich but I would like to be in the middle not that poor
not that rich I would like not to be that wealthy because when you are wealthy you don't think about
others then you think when you make mistakes you think they are correct then you won't admit
that you are wrong then you think you are the boss of everything then think negative about yourself
because the more you think negative about yourself the more you lose what you have
that's only my message they have
now there's no there's no black or white anymore but there's actually rich or poor or poorer so
the richer you get you are able to move to another better location now on this side of
window you get people who have low incomes which are the people mostly who never had who never had
education and so it goes on and on and on until to the other side where you get sharks and and
corrugated iron homes where people really really live a difficult life whereas you go to the other
side there are people who live really good lives air conditioning in the house and everything so
there's there's no black or white but the differences the money and the income is the difference
now libraries are few it's just one here there is another one in okreangawa there is one
it's actually just a reading room in in kathutura so the need for libraries
it's it's vast and also a need for bigger like a big library it's not just just a library like this
one which is really small and cannot accommodate everyone and because you have people even though
not students they need to do their research now you have students studying or using your computers
business people or just members of the community come to use the library there's no room for them or
and everyone is so crowded at one library where there should be at least two or three libraries in
in an area to accommodate everyone
a let's say maybe in in five years i say this library
grown the building itself maybe will be developed and we'll be able to accommodate more of the
community now speaking of the community i think we by then we would have given so many trainings
that the community themselves know how to use the computers or use the resources around them
to make create a better living for themselves like in terms of creating decent businesses
finding the right jobs for them what they've studied for or what they're passionate in
and also doing something that is worthwhile
and as for me i see myself in five years as a big short technician for the library
and also branching out to other parts of the library as it expands and helping out maybe
classes or a small school that i'll open an it school that if i that's when i get all my my
qualifications yeah now a library is is a gateway for other people to communicate with
with the outer world to make new people communicate and also a gateway to bring information in for
the people to help the people develop themselves and make themselves better like just to read
what's happening around the world or discover new business ventures for business people
education like how finding the perfect career online that's information coming in for the
community to build and develop itself
you
