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!