Officially a Volunteer and Moving to Site

For as long as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a Peace Corps Volunteer. I’ve wanted to be a volunteer for so long, that I stopped asking myself if I really wanted to do it anymore or if I really thought I could do it. It wasn’t until I had already accepted and started preparing for leaving that I began the process of questioning my decision. Going through training, I found myself asking myself more and more, “Do I really want to be here? Am I wasting time and resources being here?” I wasn’t having a tough time or anything, I just felt like I needed to really think it over. On the 15^th we officially swore in as volunteers, and that childhood dream became a reality. And as that happened, I found those questions that had harassed me all PST were gone and I was so ridiculously happy. I walked through town that day in my Damara dress and thought I can do this. And now I’m sitting in my flat in Karasburg, typing this up, and thinking there is no place else I could possibly be right now.

On the 16^th, two other volunteers and I made the long trek to the deep south of Namibia, I however, went the deepest. Pull out your maps of Namibia folks, ‘cause here comes a geography lesson! In Namibia, most people only consider two regions north: Ovamboland and Kavango (Zambezi and Kunene seem to be in another category that I haven’t quite come to understand). Everything else is south. Windhoek is south. Okahandja is south. So saying I’m in the south doesn’t mean anything, hence the “deep”. Karasburg, where I now call home, is so far south, the nearest big city is actually in South Africa. I am living in a teacher’s flat at school here and so far really enjoying it. I went out yesterday to buy some dishes and what not. I don’t actually have a kitchen yet, so I can’t buy much food (no stove and no fridge). I get meals from the dining hall brought to my flat a few times a day by learners, which took some getting used to. Still can’t say I’m too used it, but it’s a good chance to get to meet some of them.

I made fast friends with the Afrikaans teacher, who is about my age, and came to introduce herself to me the first night. I’ll probably end up asking her to tutor me in Afrikaans since that’s what everyone speaks here. And while I can understand a lot of what’s spoken at me, I can’t respond and I understand nothing of what the kids are saying most of the time. At least picking up Afrikaans should be easier than Khoekhoegowab, although I still hope I can learn that as well.

Karasburg itself is a small town in the middle of nowhere. It’s on a flat plain with mountains just barely visible on the horizon. There’s scrub brush all around, but nothing very tall to obscure the view of the plains. It makes me think of old west movies. In town there’s an Agra (farm store), Shoprite (grocery), Spar (grocery), and PEP (clothing and house stuff). When I walked into PEP yesterday, “Love, Love, Love” by Of Monsters and Men was playing and it was the most surreal experience ever. Sometime later this week I hope to go to Agra and look into starting a garden in front of my flat. It would be something to do in my free time and help me save money on vegetables and herbs. However, the rainy season is rapidly approaching, so I’ll have to be really careful about when I start. I also have no idea how anyone gardens in the soil here. It’s pretty much sand all around, but they manage, so I’ll ask around and pretty soon so will I.

It’s tough to describe the land around here without sounding like I dislike it, which is horrible because I really love it. It has its own sort of sparse beauty that I came to love instantly, but when trying to describe landscapes that don’t resemble home, I find myself without the proper words. I hope I can get better at that over time, because it really is pretty here. In town and in the location, people have gardens and paint their houses bright colors. When I walk around later, I’ll try to get more pictures.

I’ve been spending some time meeting the students who live in the hostel as well. They are all really friendly and I find them hilarious most of the time. A few of them are really shy, so it can be hard to talk to them. Most of the older ones speak English very well, so communication is not a problem at all, but when they aren’t talking directly to me, they all speak Afrikaans. I did manage to find a handful of them who speak Khoekhoe, so I should probably see if they would be interested in letting me practice and learn from them.

That’s it for now! I’ll try to update with more about Namibia next time! There are so many small things that are different in how people speak here that I want to make a whole post on it, so look forward to that! I also want to talk about how the school system is set up, so maybe I can combine the two. Feel free to ask questions in the comments, because I would love to answer them!

I am grateful for...

I thought of trying to structure this post around the grateful game. For those who have never played, the game goes like this: people take turns saying things they are grateful for. When we play here, the woman that usually starts the game has a few extra rules she enforces strictly: no back-handed gratefuls, or don’t say something that is more negative than positive, and it has to be something you are really, truly grateful for, so don’t say something along the lines of being grateful for oxygen or something. So, in the spirit of the game and the extra rules, please read further.

Today I’m moving from Outjo back to Okahandja where we have training and I’m pretty sad about it. Not tears-streaming-down-my-face sad, but just sorry to leave. I’ve really come to love it here in Outjo. Even things that were difficult at first (mostly, figuring out how to navigate my host family) have become just normal parts of my life here. After two months in Namibia, I had finally gone from the numbness created by being unable to process all the changes happening around me, to a relatively functioning human being once more. While here in Outjo, I woke up at 4:30 AM every day with no complaints and a smile on my face for my 40 minute walk to work. And I loved it. I taught a class of 40 with no lesson plan on my first week, and I loved it. I learned how to make lesson plans and execute them effectively. I learned when the planned lesson is not working and how to change pace on the spot. I (hitch)hiked for the first time. 

I was a minor celebrity around campus, with kids from grades I had never taught greeting me every day. I made the best Irish stew I’ve ever cooked for my host family (and they ate it). I went to Etosha, the largest game preserve in the world. I got really good at braiding my hair in the morning. I figured out how to unlock the two doors and gate to get out of the house every morning. I had real coffee. I practiced Damara with people I didn’t know. My kids would greet me in town. I met half the town. I managed to live on hardly any money. I made friends. I found out one of the guys on my program is related to me (or that we have a recent common ancestor). I stargazed using the map my friend gave me. I saw a ton of bats flying around and listen to them echolocating every night. I finally found a place in my host family. I painted my host mom a picture and she loved it. 

The list goes on. 

For the past four or so years I was in school, I have been constantly stressed about a number of things. It eventually became so constant that I didn’t even realize I was stressed anymore until now. While there is obviously still a lot of pressure being here, I just don’t feel it the same way I did back in Minnesota. I don’t want to get too deep here, but I really want to emphasize how good a decision joining Peace Corps was for me. Even though I’m the one who is supposed to be the teacher, I’ve been learning so much from everyone around me, Americans and Namibians, young and old. I am so overwhelmingly grateful for the experiences I’ve had so far and I can’t wait to see where this journey will take me. 

I’ll briefly wrap up with an explanation of the photos scattered in this post, since there are a lot of them. I took all of these my last day. Most are of my students in the 5^th and 7^th grades. 7^th grade was by far my favorite class. Those kids are so awesome and I hope for the best for all of them. One is of the woman who sells us fat cakes every day. One of the good things about Okahandja is my access to fat cakes with disappear, so I hopefully I can go back to losing weight! Some are of the San kids from the cultural club. One of them was one of the orneriest kids we had to deal with, but we all loved him anyways because while he was a little brat, he was really smart and would usually try pretty hard. He’s also a fantastic dancer! We were thrilled he found an outlet for all of his energy! There’s one of me and one of the other Minas at school. Mina is a very common name in these parts. There’s one of me and our co-teacher Mrs. Kabajani as well. 

I guess I’ll sign off for now! In Okahandja I will not have reliable access to internet again, so I may not be posting pictures for a few weeks. On Monday I will try to briefly post about where I’ll be moving to (we find out site placement at last!) and on the 15^th is our swearing in ceremony. The 16^th is when we will move to our permanent sites. Hopefully by then I’ll have figured out a way to obtain semi-regular access to working internet so I can post some pictures!