NAMIBIA! Land of the brave!

Reflections on Namibia

Yes
Toilet Paper
“Click” Languages
Weather like Tucson (big blue skies, no rain, hot)
Do-rags
Bright houses and dresses
White people who are very tan and dutch looking
Western-style grocery stores
Oprah Magazine
Rap music
High HIV-AIDS rate (1 in 5)
Big wildlife—just on the way from the airport our group collectively saw a giraffe, several different types of antelope, wild boars, and babboons.
Multi-lingual people (everyone speaks 2-8 languages)
Spanish!!!!! (Many Namibians went into exile into Cuba and are quite fluent in Spanish)
Sand—it’s everywhere. Actually Namibia feels like one large beach town without the beach

No/few
People—where are they?
(Namibia is one of the least populated countries in the world)
Traffic
Malaria (well, at least in the south)
Mud huts (I’ll be in a concrete house)
Public transportation (hitching is the name of the game)
Big cities, or really even Medium-sized cities
Lions outside my house (yay!)
Mosquitos (in the south)
Salsa dance (if it’s here, I will find it)


Reflections on Peace Corps So Far:

Staging: Mostly the same old information we got before or found out on our own. What was nice was to bond with our Nam27 group. So far everyone is extremely friendly and nice, and I get along with pretty much everyone, which is a shock.

The flight: Not nearly as painful as I thought it would be. Watched a few movies, slept much of the time, talked to Lily.

Jo’Burg: Very nice hotel, free wine and cheese, yay. Loopy from the malarial medication.

Shots so far: Polio, Tetanus & Diptheria, Rabies #1, Typhoid Fever, Yellow Fever, Meningitis.
Getting jabbed, or as Namibians say, getting candies: It’s becoming normal now.

Shots to come: Hepatitis A, Rabies #2, Rabies #3, Flu #1, Flu #2, Gardasil

Namibia:
I thought Namibia would be a lot like the places I’d been. It does have the weather and scrubby, rocky landscape of Tucson (minus cactus), the cement style homes and greeting habits of Latin America, and some convienences and body types you find in the US (western style grocery stores, flushing toilets, etc).
However, from the time we stepped out onto the tarmac in the bright sunshine and could only see flat, scrubby desert without a house or a person or a car for miles, Namibia gave me a very different feeling from anywhere I’d been before. They weren’t kidding when they said this country is the land of wide open spaces. We really knew we were in Africa when we stepped off the bus in Okahandja and were greeted by our trainers singing songs in several different languages they had known since forever. Yes, this is a place I’m supposed to be.

Right now: I’m in a confrerence center and hostel in Okahandja typing on my laptop. There is electricity, flushing toilets, nice rooms, mosquito nets. There are many Namibian trainers who speak great English as well as many other languages. There are 69 other Americans with me at the compound. There is pasta, beef, chicken, porridge, cereal, instant coffee, tea. There is a great grocery store 5 minutes down the road. There are big wild animals around here, but it’s safe to walk around. There is safe drinking water from the tap. There are hot showers and hot water in the sinks.

Am I really in Africa?

Cultural misunderstanding #1:
Several of us put instant coffee in our porridge, thinking it was cinnamon.

Placement:
Because of medical reasons (???), I am not allowed to be placed far from Windhoek, which means I will be placed within several hours of the big city on the central plateau. Not exactly what I wanted, (I’d ideally like to go far from any city, near South Africa, perhaps), but I’ll take it. I’m trying not to have any pre-concieved notions. I was promised that Afrikaans would be the language I would learn.

Language:
We finally got our language placements, and surprise of surprise, after being promised Afrikaans as my major language, I was placed in the Khoekhoegowab group. Actually it did not come as much as a surprise considering (1) PC’s random-as-hell placement strategy (2) my language experience (3) languages found near Windhoek.
For the non-linguists of the group, Khoekhoe (KKGW) is a Khoisan language that is one of the oldest languages in the world and not related to any other language group. It is popularly known as the “click” language, but unlike common sterotypes about Africa, a small, small minority of Africans speak the language. Actually, click languages are only found in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa among minority tribes.
KKGW is a combination of Nama and Damara. The most-made-fun-of click language is San which has many more clicks than KKGW. Lucky for me, there are only 4 clicks, but you must bear in mind that they are all pronounced differently when paired with vowels and consonants and depend on which of the 4 tones (I’ve only learned three) the vowels are.
For instance /a, /ā, /â, //ā, //a, //â, !a, !â, !ā, ≠a, ≠ā, ≠â are all pronounced differently and with different “clicks.” Most of these are also words ranging from squeeze, hang to dry, and slaughter a goat.
/ is pronounced as a ‘tsk’
// is a sucking sound in the back of the throat
! is the loud pop sound typical of click languages
≠ is a high pitch sharp pop I am incapable of pronouncing as of yet.

My language training site is Oshimbingwe-where the community based training will take place.

I am excited to be one of the few people on earth who will speak this language, but I highly doubt that I will be fluent in KhoeKhoe when I return, which for me is a great dissappointment. Why live somewhere for 2 years and not be fluent!? I base this on former volunteers experiences, but I guess things could be different with me (?).

This is going to be hard, but if I can do the clicks that will be a great accomplishment right there.