My top stories

1.       The so called report and SMS in the Media about the Ministry of Health and Social Services…. Or should I say kaNdishishi. Ok media and public we hear you and you should give the MoHSS or the kaNdishishi guy a chance to act. Sometimes your comments and reports can also be so destructive that people end up responding to them than focusing on important issues. One thing you should all know is…. ---à it is not easy to work in the public health sector while faced with challenges such as skilled health workers and even essential resource.

2.       The selfies, groudies, and whatever they are called. Who on earth came up with such “ies”? Soon we will see nudies posted on facebook. And who post about 10 selfies on facebook per day by the way???…. Are us soo into yourself that you have to post take 10 selfies and post em on bookface??? Enough of thes “ies” guys! And it is also not so cool when men do that.

3.       Air Namibia!!!! Yo what do I write about this company. It was downgraded and one of their planes had to land in Botswana… or is it huka in Zambia. And now there are even no direct flights from Hosea Kuutako to Frankfurt…Huh… and we are apparently regarded as an upper middle income country. Mxiuuw! Whom are we kidding here? And the management of that company is ever in the media. Can somebody please fix that parastatal.  The Min. of Transport apparently is never aware of what is happening with Air Namibia. Iyo!

4.       NEFF….??? What fighters and what are they fighting for? I thought the last fighters we had were the Freedom Fighters who fought for the Independence of Namibia that we got 1990….. 24 years ago to be specific. Young people of the republic of Namibia be wise and though shall not fall for such superficial parties. Let support SWAPO and our leaders to reach vision 2030!

5.       The Germans… or should I say the Germany as I keep seeing them on Facebook. They won the world cup and their flag has been on every 3^rd car I see in Windhoek the past weeks. But we all know KK is not happy about them. They claim the issues between them and the Namibian government are now settled. KK is saying no way… the government should update us. The presidential affair is saying there was no official communication. What should one believe???

1.       The future president and his boys! Hehe… can someone update me on this one? I am always lazy to read this story. But I checked out Cde Hage’s twitter account once in a while and the guy has some swag and does fit in well with the boys. 

What is so passionate about this????????

I have been hesitating to write about this topic for some time now. I mean …. Where does one start when you are writing about a topic such as the abuse and killing of women in Namibia? And why is it called passion killing again? What is so passionate about killing someone, decapitating them, cutting their body in pieces with a panga…. Or leaving an axe in their head!..... Eish – I am already getting cold feet as I write this!!!!!

I can’t even remember how many women and babies were killed last year… months or days ago. I lost count because the killing has turned into a daily basis thing. The last one I remember is about a 2 years old baby that was raped and killed by some crazy man. I mean …. How do you rape a 2 year old baby and expect the baby to live after that. .... mxiuuw!

I am speechless…. Scared and disturbed by such ill behavior activities that I can’t even continue to write about this topic. Perhaps I will cool down for now and continue later.

2 weeks later……. Mhhh – it has been 2 weeks since I started working on this blog draft but just can’t finish. I seriously don’t have courage to write about such a painful topic. Our founding father – comrade Shafaoishuna Nuuyoma said let us bury these evil men alive, while our current president honorable Hifikepunye Pohamba suggested prayers….. I can’t blame them for coming up with such options. Passion killing is just too devastating that one even end up thinking of impossible solutions. And I heard people talking about execution. Execution may sound extreme but we are left with no options! Period!

I have 3 suggestions: 1) Women let us raise our son to be caring men who are responsible and would not kill women over love or what so ever that makes them angry; 2) Men should men up enough to face life after being dumped or whatever is done to them. And take your own life if you can’t face life…. Leave women and babies alone!; 3) Media – stop airing things like Oscar Pretorius trial. We are not interested in hearing his lies. We just want you to air the part that says “Mr. Oscar your guilty!”……. Opuwo…. Finish….. Kapish!

The push down experts

Have you ever worked with a person who does nothing but push you down, bring you down and try all the forms of bringing you down????.... I worked with some few.  I even decided to call them the push down experts because all what they do is try to come up with tactics to bring others down.

I thank God that I was raised in a society and home that taught me to bring the best out of others. And it real pays off to know that I did x and x for someone and now they are out there making a difference. I just wonder what the push down experts benefit from bringing others down. Do they rise to the top…. Well, maybe they do… but if they do, then they do it by pushing others down.  And they should know one day those people will rise the professional way and pass their level.

Anyway… I don’t real care about the push down experts, because there are a lot of people out there who are willing to help others and bring the best out of them. And I cross the path of such many people and I am grateful for their assistance. And like they say…. don’t mind about someone pushing you down. You could learn a few things from such an experience that can make you even stronger. There is light at the end of the tunnel, and the grass is greener at the other side!

Be blessed Namibians…. People of the land of the brave!

 

The Blaming Game

It’s the ministry of Health's fault??? Who is the Ministry of Health hano naana? Is it the Minister, the PS, the managers, the directors, the nurses, doctors…. Or who are we referring to here?

I am seriously tired of complaints, complaints and complaints, which are aimed at blaming problems and challenges on other people or the system. Let me take an example of my line of work: Public Health. The public health system here in Namibia is complex.  And one would wonder why it is complex if we are only serving a population of about 2.5 million. Well, the population is about 2.5 million, but the land is just too huge leaving people spread all over 800 000 square kilometers. And worse Namibia is a resource limited country facing some serious challenges that can hinder health care provision. Those are such as lack of infrastructures, shortage of human resources etc.

Can you imagine having a Minister of Health or Permanent Secretary sitting in his office in Windhoek and is expected to solve challenges being experienced at a health facility in Zambezi region which is about 1300 Kilometers away????? Amazing right! But ideal the top officials are just supposed to provide technical assistance in decision making and other issues such as policies or rules. But that does not seem to be the case. Go to a facility and ask why certain things are happening and then you are told “it’s the minister’s fault”. And every once in a while you see the minister running from regions to regions to address challenges such as cholera outbreaks or maternal death cases. What are the directors and the managers in the so “respective regions” doing? Where are the epidemiologists who are supposed to be in control of such outbreaks of disease? Shouldn’t they be the ones running around in the regions and updating the Minister of Health??? Maybe we need to re-visit our staff establishment and ensure that regions are fully equipped with capacity which can handle the decentralized health care systems.

I am glad I had a chance to work at both levels of the health care system. And believe me each and every level in the health care system has its own challenges and reason to blame others. The lower levels such as facility level are blaming the district level. The district is blaming the regional level while the regional level is blaming the National level. And the national level is blaming the decision makers, or the lower level which in this case will be the regional level. And this blaming game is bi-directional. This leaves one to wonder who is real at fault in our health care system.

One of the most things that seem to be misused in the health care system blaming game is “shortage of staff” or lack of time. We know that shortage of staff has been there forever and is not a challenge that one can address overnight. You need to invest in educating nurses, doctors and other staffs needed in the health care system for about 10 – 20 years before you can see the change. But the question I ask people is .... “what is the little thing that you can do to address the shortage of staff?" So now you will just sit back and blame everything on shortage of staff? We need to change our mindset and move away from the blaming game to see how we can use the little we have in an efficient way and provide health care to our people. And like one of the professors from University of Namibia once told me, “time is fixed and can never change – we have 24 hours in a day- what one can do is manage your time in an efficient way”.  

I am public health worker and believe that our health care system in Namibia will change one day if we change our mindset and think positively.

I love Namibia – our land of the brave!

Homemade Toys

Who said one has to spent moola (money) to have fun? I came across this two lovely children having fun with toys that did not even cost their parents a single cent. And I thought let me write about this. And perhaps this will bring me back to my blog that I have been neglecting for months now.

Picture number 1: this little girl is using a metal recycled from a bicycle wheel to play. Isn’t she amazing? She is lovely and she is surely enjoying that toy and is having fun.

 

Picture number 2: this boy is just too amazing! Just look at him. Does he look like a happy kid having fun? He does! And the parents spent zero because the cart he is sitting in was recycled from a water container that was used to collect water at some point.  And his brother is pulling him while he is holding on to make sure he doesn't fall. Amazing!

 

This is what I call innovation and I don’t need to say much. And the photos were taken in the northern part of Namibia of course! Land of the brave… I love you Namibia!

 

Land of the Brave….

Land of the Brave….

So much has been happening here that I don’t even know where to start.

Lemme see…. The most shocking thing for me was the so called prophet who was apparently supposed to rise from the dead after 3 days… but only died and rose after few hours…. And the sun turned black. Her followers actually witnessed this?! I did not see any difference in the sky – the sun was normal to me. But who am I to falsify such prophecy??? All I know is that the bible warned us against this type of prophecies. And my take on this is that… I am catholic and shall not be moved by such prophecies!

Another shocking thing…. A so called website that trashed Namibia and made the country look real bad. I think the idea of freedom of speech was misused here. And I somehow think that this unique website is a sister to the so called “The Seals of Namibia” account on twitter that recently amazed me when they compared seal curving to women abuse in Namibia. There is only one thing I can say about such sites…. All countries have pros and cons. Trashing Namibia and creating a cyber war will not stop tourist neither the investors!

Another thing to write about is the bizarre letter that was circulated last year in Namibia. He he… that letter apparently consists of some guys who are known to be gay. Who cares about what sexuality people choose hano naana?! I mean gay, lesbian or bisexual you are still human. But believe me…. That letter must contain something big because it got so much attention and it almost ended up in court. And worse the guy who wrote it recently started a facebook saga against the former president or should I say the founding fathers …. Tate shafaoihuna. Huh…. I am skeptical about such things and it is better that I keep my comments to myself.

Remember Olufuko festival? I do. It happened last year August in Outapi. I am not against tradition or cultural practices but showing half naked young girls in public will leave us thinking that perhaps we should not bring back the old traditional practices because they can be harmful. Remember King Kamhaku ka Huhwa….. the former king of the Ombalantu tribe. People had to carry him around under a hut as there was not transport that time…. Worse someone had to volunteer for him to spit on. His saliva apparently never reached the ground. So why can’t we display such old practices??? Why only the ones that involve displaying half naked young women???

Lastly…. I observed that there are so many theorists here in Namibia. And if one is not focused you could end up in a wrong pool of theories. I mean why should we complain if the head of the Swapo Youth League could even be older than 40 year. He he…. Is Namibia using a different definition for young people. I thought the cut off age was 35…. Or even 30. My advise ----> Be smart young people and avoid being carried away by such theorist.

That’s all for now. I have so much to say about my lovely country. And YES I love Namibia despite all the predicaments that we are going through. United we stand and shall not be moved by false prophecy, and cyber war! 

The village woman’s blog

Should I be crucified for neglecting my blog? Not at all! I should rather be praised for at least having a blog. You come to my village and ask my fellow villagers what a blog is and they will not have an idea what you are talking about. Worse even most young people in Windhoek don’t know what a blog is. They only know what sheebens and cuca shops are. For real! In fact, most of them are drinking and partying as I write this blog.

So the village woman went to America. Experience all that - while learning some new skills and knowledge in public health. This woman is now back home. Not back in her village, but she ended up in the capital city – Windhoek. Her return home was not easy. I mean who would want to move from a place where you have access to everything, to a place where access to everything is limited. But she should not complain. This is her home, and if Peace Corp volunteers can adjust to living in a village somewhere in Ovamboland, then her situation should be easy. I salute all Peace Corps guys who give up an easy life to come and volunteer for developing countries. These guys must have big hearts to want to come here. Some even chose to settle here. Why? I guess it is for the same reason why we love our country – Namibia, the land of the brave!

The village woman spent the 2 months looking for a job, attending interviews, getting offers and turning down offers.  And just like she expected, she finally found what she wanted. It wasn’t an easy process, but she is grateful to join the Ministry of Health and Social Services.

I still don’t know how to thank the American people, specific the Fulbright-PEPFAR program for the opportunity that I was give. And everyday I think of my study objectives, which were to learn more technical skills and knowledge so that I can help my country fight HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria! And yes I have those skills and I am more than ready to put them in action. Thank you for the opportunity – I shall treasure these memories forever!

The village woman will stop here for now. She has so much to write yet she cannot put it down. And does anyone out there read her blog at all???

If yes then thank you for your time.