There's a lot of talk going 'round about breaking up Big Tech, and while it's prudent for a small organization such as ours to remain on the sidelines in regards to our largest questions of political economy, we have nevertheless decided to put on a pair of vintage Teddy Roosevelt bifocals and break Amazon up into three separate gift cards that we are raffling off as part of our annual holiday fundraising drive. Here's what our activism has wrought:

Please don't tell our Board Chair about our trust busting, as she is another two years from her employee stock there completely vesting. Gift card denominations are $100, $75, and $75. Drawing will be held December 29.

Following along with our Amazon theme, our Director has agreed to get the same haircut as the Amazon CEO if we raise $2500, something like this:

Tickets for the raffle are $10 each or 4 for $20 and can be purchased through this here PayPal button:

If you live in Koko then everything's the same, except 10,000 and 20,000. You can either wire your wons to KEB account #403-890078-53707 or hand our Director cold, hard 현금 the next time you see him kicking up his heels on Itaewon Street.

The school year is half over so what better time to introduce y'all to our newest scholars, of which there are many and at many different schools. Of our 19 new scholars this year, 11 are enrolled at just two schools, while the remaining eight are spread out among four other institutions of senior secondary learning. Whatever, distribution not important: just something to say to before sharing two group pics then a bunch of individual head shots. Also just something to say when mentioning it wasn't until being nearly done with this post that the office intern noticed some of the scholars pictured were part of last year's intake. The Director merely glanced at the pictures and assumed everyone was a new scholar. That's why he hired an imaginary intern, whose sole responsibility is proofreading three blog posts a year as well as brewing four pots of coffee a day. Please contact us if you're looking to work somewhere that pays in experience instead of cash money.

Students enrolled at Uukule Senior Secondary School:

From left to right, back to front are:

Ndahangetate Helena
Fillipus Sakeus
Kalomo Abiatar
Amukugo Salomo
Iyambo Messias
Makili Ester
Nashikaku Kristophina
Angombe Selma (2018 scholar)
Haimbodi Julia (2018 scholar)


Students enrolled at Nehale Senior Secondary School:

Left to right, front to front are:

Titus Aily
Alugodhi Jacobina
Kambungu Joel
Simon Jeremia


Students enrolled at schools other than Uukule or Nehale:

Left to right are:

Shapumba Rosalia
Ndaoya Mike
Kaluvi David
Iyambo Johanna (2018 scholar)


Students enrolled at schools other than Uukule or Nehale who evaded capture by the camera:

Amutenya Patricia
Hamutenja Junior
Kaukemwa Justine
Nepando Ismael
Shikongo Nehemia

Congrats to all our new students and thanks to any of y'all who've supported their journeys with your cash money.

After weeks of email spam, micro-targeted Facebook advertising, and 1990's era direct mailings promoting GCE's annualish holiday raffle, we finally drew names out of a child's bucket of wooden blocks. The winners are...

Congrats to y'all that won and apologies to y'all that didn't. Tried to rig it for you but we've been priced out of the Russian bot market. Maybe in 2020.

Lots of gratitude to spread around for all the generosity shown to our small NGO:

- The Southside Parlor and Pocket Seoul family for (1) hosting our Yo' Dad Haiku Battle as well as (2) generously donating 10% of their December profits to us.

- La Mer Collections, Amazon, and Bozart Family Dentistry for donating prizes to our international raffle drawing, La Mer Collections especially for their continued support of GCE. We've called them 1000 times asking if they'd like to pitch in and they've said yes 1001 times.

- Magpie Brewing, Route 66 American Bar, On a Lark Sodas, Morocco Cafe, and Shuttle Delivery for their donations to the Seoul-based raffle we held at our Yo' Dad Haiku Battle.

- Alex Sigrist, Andrew Yoo, Jason Lee, Natalie Pool, Nick Hayes, Robbie Nguyen, Ryan Smith, and Seri Lee for slamming each other's dads in our Yo' Dad Haiku Battle. Congrats to Seri Lee for having the only father beyond reproach AKA our battle winner.

- All y'all who bought a raffle ticket.

We've recently learned we have 19 new scholars to support during the 2019 school year (informative post coming soon), so every last won and dollar helps more than you could possibly know. Whether you contributed to our fundraising through the purchase of a raffle ticket or through donating prizes to entice more people to buy those tickets in the first place, we can't say thank you enough since we couldn't do this without your support. Tangi unene!

It's been a whole two years since GCE hit the public up for some of that sweet, sweet holiday money. Not sure if we skipped fundraising last year because we had more than enough in the bank to take care of our scholars or if the Director just plain forgot. Either way, we're back with hat in hand asking y'all to help us continue our mission of getting Namibian students through high school.

This year, like every other year, we are hosting a raffle in conjunction with our annual-ish Yo' Mama Haiku Battle; except this year, unlike every other year, we are hosting a Yo' Dad Haiku Battle instead, presumably because your mom is still recuperating from all the burns two years ago. The haiku battle will be December 14 and is again hosted by The Southside Parlor in Seoul, Korea. A raffle will be drawn at the battle for local prizes while an international drawing (international, sounds so debonair) will be held December 21 and posted to our website. Prizes for le drawing internacional are...

Watches from La Mer Collections, timepieces inspired by travel and the finest your mom I mean your dad has ever seen:

Echo speakers from Amazon:

And Sonicare FlexCare Platinum toothbrushes:

Tickets for the raffle are $10 each or 4 for $20 and can be purchased through this here PayPal button:

If you live in Koko then everything's the same, except 10,000 and 20,000. You can either wire your wons to KEB account #403-890078-53707 or, better yet, come to the aforementioned fundraising par-tay and buy your raffle tickets there. Do it before 11:00 pm since that's when we will have the drawing.

Legalese: Raffle prizes are restricted to people who buy tickets. Limit one prize per person assuming that person only bought one ticket. If they bought two then they are theoretically allowed to win two prizes. If they buy ten tickets, well then, we hope you win them all! Please remember that in the 501(c)3 world the purchase of raffle tickets is not tax deductible, so if you'd like to make a dedicated contribution then please include a note with your donation and we will issue you a receipt instead.

The Seoul Baseball League, a group of Seoul-area expats who get together on spring and fall Saturdays to play recreational sandlot baseball, recently hosted a Friends and Family Day. A tall, angular man who goes by the name of Paul Surette (or just Paul in his native Québécois) offered to organize a 50/50 raffle benefiting GCE, to which the Director said: Oui! The pot came to $150, meaning $75 to GCE and the other $75 to...

...the Director of GCE! Funny how these things work out.

The GCE Director was about to spend that $75 on fruit gushers, beef jerky, and non-alcoholic tequila, but the stink faces from all the people who didn't win the 50/50 raffle convinced him his $75 should also go to the GCE scholars. So $150 added to our funds, which is enough to sponsor 60% of a student's high school. Not a bad haul from an afternoon of baseball, hot dogs, and young children running the base paths.

Thanks again to the SBL community for buying raffle tickets and Paul Surette especially for offering his time and effort to raise us some mahangus. Otu li pamwe!

First and most important update is our newest batch of scholars:

Please say hello to Selma, Julia, Johanna, and Asteria. We normally would have introduced them back in January after getting their test results but thought what a great time to generate interest in GCE by building a whole lot of unnecessary anticipation. That and some logistical hiccups.

Second update: Those logistical hiccups. If you don't recall or didn't notice or didn't whatever, GCE changed its funding formula a couple years ago after the Namibian government abolished school and testing fees. Whereas we used to make just a single payment to each school on behalf of our scholars at the beginning of the year, we were now making similar payments to the schools (government wasn't paying hostel costs) in addition to individual payments directly to the families at the end of the year to reimburse them for transport and uniform costs. Our man on the ground generally makes the payments when he's back in the village for December holiday and mistakenly applied a payment we had sent for the previous year's transport and uniform costs to the following year's hostel costs, and it's been an adventure ever since getting the families caught up on what's theirs. Nearly sorted, though.

Third update: Perhaps you picked up on us using the past tense when talking about our new funding formula to account for the Namibian government covering the tab for school and testing fees. Well, the Namibian government is now broke with a capital NOOOOOOO and can no longer afford those fees, so GCE is once again back to our original funding formula. Bad news for the students of Namibia but okay news for anyone who needed a Tylenol after reading this.

Newest Board Member Kaitlyn recently passed through Namibia and put together a GCE Scholar Day, which we hope becomes an annual occurrence.

16 of our scholars spent the day touring the University of Namibia's Engineering and Nursing Campuses and meeting with advisors to apply for university and scholarship opportunities next year. They also attended the Ongwediva Trade Fair, where they got to meet representatives from other universities and technical colleges in Namibia as well as talk to entrepreneurs and members of various cooperatives and government programs.

The Scholar Day was a great opportunity for our students to begin the university application process as well as mentally prepare for the grand scale of university life relative to their previous experiences attending school in a rural village. Tours like these are rare in Northern Namibia, where students generally apply to university site unseen and arrive on campus with neither idea of what to expect nor what is expected of them. Exposure is paramount to a successful education, and hopefully now our scholars will be able to better prepare for the adventure that awaits them upon high school graduation.​

Happy 25th Birthday to Gabriel Alugodhi, better known 'round these parts as our man on the ground.

As our staff MOTG, Gabriel is responsible for all the logistics that can't be handled from a laptop in Seoul, which basically means he's responsible for 100% of GCE logistics, things like telling the students their money's coming, telling the students' parents their money's coming, and telling the schools their money's coming. Then he drives around wide swaths of Owamboland to make sure all that money that was coming has gone to where it's supposed to. And like the rest of us here at GCE, he does it for free, because omunwe gumwe ihagu itompola na, and Gabriel is there to help.

Best wishes from the entire GCE community to you, Gabriel, and may your next 25 years be even more fruitful than the first.

Apologies for the late announcement but the gentleman tasked with tracking all this info down and subsequently publishing it has just welcomed a beautiful, tiny boy into the world and has been a bit distracted.

We are excited to announce we will be supporting 15 new scholars during the 2017 school year. 15! That is obviously a record intake for us, and if it wasn't obvious then now it is since we just told you so. Add to them the 7 scholars from last year and we are throwing coins at 22 students total this year, also an organizational record. Additionally, 77% of Gosen students passed their JSC exams, meaning they are entitled to enroll in senior secondary school to finish their high school education. The national pass rate was 55%, so better than the average bear.

2017 Scholars

Elago Kefas
Hamukwaya Hendrina
Hituwamhata Erastus
Inasiu Shivute
Ipinge Anna
Iyambo Jackson
Kapuka Tomas
Matheus Justina
Mutilifa Jambeinge
Nambahu Benedictus
Ndengu Maria
Nghifenwa Lucia
Nesmus Beatha
Shikongo Martha
Shidweda Lydia

Pictured from left to right are Beatha, Erastus, Lucia, Benedictus, Martha, and Maria. We will publish photos of our other scholars right after our next fundraiser. Please consider donating so we can buy a wipe cloth for our man on the ground that he can use to clean his camera lens.

If you are curious about the hand signals the students are flashing, they are adjudicating Namibia's version of Biggie vs. Tupac. Erastus and Maria are representing M'shasho while Lucia and Benedictus are GMP. (Beatha just wants a peaceful resolution.) The GCE Director is GMP for life so is currently figuring out a way to double or even triple their scholarship awards.

The aforementioned GOAT Basketball 3v3 Tournament for the Good of Namibian mankind went off without a hitch last Sunday. One team won, nineteen teams lost, and GCE came away with a $950 donation from all these kind folks and the ghost of Shawn Kemp:

As to how our Director fared: He went 13/17 on the day along with 16 assists, 18 rebounds, and only 2 turnovers. His team didn't win but they should have. Hashtag alternative facts.

Thanks again to Hindson Her and GOAT Basketball for all their generosity, both money-wise and the gentleness with which they treated an old man's ankles. We here at GCE generally try to raise money by hosting events that combine the spirit of giving with the spirit of community and fun, and oftentimes the work of conceiving, hosting, and executing such an event turns into quite the slog; so it was a true blessing when Mr. Her asked if we'd like to benefit from exactly the kind of event we'd put on had we the same charismatic skill set as his. Perhaps we should ask him to organize our haiku battle in the spring...