For one of my final assignments here in Namibia, I had to interview one learner and write a paper about them and go to their home to meet their family. I first chose Cindy, but she said her house was too far away (takes her almost 2 hours to walk home from school) and she suggested I choose Kerly, so I took her advice.
Kerly Kamure is a very bright young girl from my 7A class at AI Steenkamp Primary School. Kerly was born on October 30, 1998 at Rhino Park Hospital in Windhoek, Namibia. She grew up in Katutura in the Nama Location. The history of her family comes from the Nama culture, and consequently her first language was Khoe Khoegowab (KKG). In this culture, special dresses made of different materials with head wraps along with special shoes are worn. Kerly currently lives with her mother, father, brother, who is eighteen, and sister, who is fifteen. At twelve years old, Kerly is the youngest in her family. Kerly's mother works for the Municipality Worker Company and her father works for Lida Cleaning Services. At home her family speaks mostly KKG, though English can be understood by everyone, she mainly only speaks it with her siblings.
The Nama Location of Katutura is fairly close to the community hospital and is only a fifteen minute walk from school. There are also a variety of shops in the neighborhood, a church, and a community hall. The community hall serves as a central place for the people to come together for various reasons. There are meeting held there for neighborhood business, such as child abuse issues and accidents to be addressed. This building is also used for fun events, such as cultural activities and dancing events, where all ages are welcome to come together. Kerly enjoys attending these events as well as playing net ball, soccer, and swimming.
Kerly is very attentive in class and I could tell from the first day of school that she was a good learner with high aspirations. In talking to Kerly, I quickly found my assumptions to be true. Her favorite subjects in school are english, maths, and science. Kerly is one of the two prefects in the 7A class and takes on additional responsibilities along with this title. She is always promptly ready for class unless her duties take her elsewhere, but she jumps right back on task when she returns to class. Kerly was recently selected as the Headgirl of the school, which means she is the utmost of a model student and can be trusted with almost any task. Along with strong leadership skills, Kerly exhibits excellent academic commitment and excellence scoring the top score on last year's end of school exam and receiving high marks in all her classes. Kerly is currently the top learner of all the grade seven classes.
Kerly has plans to continue her education and complete high school through grades eleven and twelve. She hopes to then go to the University of Namibia in Windhoek to study pre-law and go on to study at law school somewhere, though she is not sure where yet. She wants to become a lawyer so she can defend people who are innocent. In order to accomplish these goals, Kerly will have to apply for many scholarships as her family does not currently have the means to pay for this type of schooling for her. She is well on her way, however, as she has been selected as one of the few learners from each grade to be sponsored by an outside organization. These learners will have all their school fees, outstanding and future, paid for, all their school stationary purchased for them, personal hygiene products provided for them, and a small amount of pocket money given to them. Kerly will be covered by this scholarship through grade twelve as long as she continues to show strong leadership skills and high academic achievement.
Kerly has just confirmed for me that it is okay with her parents that I make a visit to their home. Due to timing, I have not yet made it to her home, but plan to do so early next week. I look forward to meeting her family and getting to know more about Kerly and her culture through this interaction.
This is Kerly on the left and Andria (the other 7A prefect) on the right
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