Happy New Year!
I’m officially a Peace Corps Volunteer, no longer a Trainee!
Here are some updates:
New Years: New Years was a blast and made up for a boring Christmas. In the afternoon Obie and I practiced dancing salsa for the talent show. I had been feeling a little sick from dehydration all day, but that resolved itself. Then, we headed to the dry riverbed where a bonfire was in progress. It was a really fun party!
New Years Day: Leslie and the gang organized a fabulous breakfast for us consisting of french toast, real scrambled eggs, and pancakes. I love them forever.
Talent Show: That was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I performed a salsa dance with Obie. Among the other entries were Jeff B. playing guitar, Justin and Grace performing poetry, Sarah and Chaz lip-syncing, the ladies dubbing Britney Spears to “Not a PCT, not yet a PCV,” Jay and Griffin singing the theme to Gardener’s Daughter, a fashion show of PCTs in traditional Damara/Ovambo dresses, Selma performing traditional African dance, Jeff K. solving a rubics cube, Chris robot dancing, Leah and others singing songs, Kengo doing a funny skit, etc. It was pretty much hilarious.
Awards: My room 22 girls got the award for having the cleanest room. See below to see if you agree. Also the Bing girls got an award for “Most Remarkable CBT experience.” We rock. As a result Leslie invited us to Swakopmund over Easter break. Yay!
After the Talent show: We had a braai (barbeque) with absolutely fabulous grilled veggies, chicken, green beans, apples, and pineapple. It was to celebrate the Redskins making it into the playoffs or something like that. That was the best dinner in Africa so far! And then we dance partied into the night.
Why I keep talking about food: Not normally being a person concerned with food, I’ve suddenly appreciated any American cuisine. Food generally speaking in Namibia is rather blah-se. For instance over the past few weeks my menu has been:
Breakfast: cornflakes and hot milk, bread with tons of butter and a teeny bit of jelly.
Lunch/Dinner: pasta with mayonaise, pasta with butter 2 slivers of onion and a bit of tomato, squash drenched in butter and sugar, carrot slaw with raisins and apples and sugar, goat, sheep, beef, gemsbok, canned peas, etc.
The highlight of CBT was bread with peanut butter. It made my day.
In Mexico, even though there were not a lot of ingredients the food was damn tasty. Here not so much, unless you like your veggies tasting like butter and sugar. You can probably see how I’ve gained 8 pounds since I’ve been here. Yes, I’m at a whopping 106 pounds! Apparently girls go back to the states weighing 20 lbs more, and boys go back weighing 20 lbs less. I’m well on my way there.
LPI—The day before the language exam we were all studying like crazy. It went surprisingly well, and I even got the score I was supposed to “Intermediate Low.” This makes me think that I can really master Khoekhoe in the years I’m here, but it will take a special effort I’m not sure I want to make, as when I return to the U.S. I doubt I will ever use it again besides as a nice party trick. I’d rather concentrate on keeping up my Spanish.
Shopping Spree in Windhoek: We were given money to go shopping in Windhoek and we went to town buying stuff for our house. It’s so nice to have things now.
Best group: The training manager and trainers agree that we are the best group ever. For the record, most groups have 6 or 7 people leave before training is up, and we only had one. Everyone got along, there was surprisingly little drama, we were well behaved and respectful, we actually studied the language and scored relatively high. We rock!
Swearing In: On Wednesday, we were sworn in by the Ambassador at the Community Hall in Okahandja. We were on the news and in the newspaper apparently, but ironically us PCVs have no access to those things. Afterwards people started to leave and the tears began. I wasn’t that sad because I knew I would see all these people again, but it will be a long time (until May).
Last Night in the Handj: Luckily for me, I got to stay one more night. Leah, Ashley, Jessica, Chris, Danielle, and Julia went out for Pizza one last time. Then we got curtains at the fabric store and snacks at Spar. In the evening we watched Obie’s slideshow of his wedding, and chatted with those who were left over.
Everything goes down hill: Ashley left for Opuwo, so I’m the only one left in my room. It takes all freakin day to get to D-town even though it is only 2 hours from Okahandja:
8:30—time I’m supposed to leave
10:30—time counselor of Okahandja picks me up and brings me 2 blocks to his house.
1:30—time regional counselor of Okahandja region picks me up to take me to Windhoek
2:30—arrival in Katutura at my supervisor’s house.
5:30—car trouble prevents earlier leaving, leave for grocery store
6:30—mechanic meets us and we bring him along to Dordabis, normally a one hour ride. Because car’s fuel injection is not working well, car stalls every 10 minutes.
11:00pm—arrival in D-town.
The long arrival time wouldn’t have been so bad, except that once we arrive I found out that there is nothing in my apartment. I lived with my supervisor for several days before Waldo, our APCD, took matters into his own hands and pulled some strings at the ministry. The next day, I moved in with a hotplate and some suitcases. The following day, the ministry brought my fridge and furniture.
It was lovely, except that my fridge was full of cockroaches. Yes, even the freezer. Mofos. And they are not the slow and stupid kind like in Costa Rica. These ones are the evil tiny kind that won’t come out of the cracks until you are not looking or the lights are turned off, and then they take over. Ick. I’m going to be a clean freak by the time I get back to the States that is for sure.
First Days of School Namibian Style: Drink tea, cover your files in pretty paper and plastic, have kids sit there for about 5 hours straight with nothing to do at all (and expect order and silence), leave every 20 minutes or so for random tasks and class becomes total chaos. Such is life here.
Oh, we did decide what classes we would teach. I’m teaching English grades 6 and 7, Basic Information Studies (i.e. library), Life Skills (i.e. Health), Religion and Moral Education (i.e. Sunday School), and Physical Education. Basically they gave me the other courses which “don’t matter” because you don’t have to pass them to move to the next grade. I’m cool with all of them except Religion and Moral Education, but hey, maybe I can make it interesting. Thirty of fifty-two 5th graders failed the grade last year. This is normal. To me, it speaks volumes about the quality and quantity of teaching, the nutrition, and treatment these kids get throughout their young lives. To sum up, it sucks.
I got nothing but love for the 5th and 7th graders. They are so hungry for affection and attention. But the 6th graders might be the end of me. I didn't win them over in the beginning, and from then on it was a disaster. I am keeping them up to an hour after school for detention. There really are no "bad" kids, you know, the spiteful kind. But there are a lot of kids who are illiterate and bored or craving attention and that means they act up in class. We'll see if they settle down with time.
· Things to look forward to:
February—I’m going to visit Megan in Mariental.
April/May—Reconnect (in-service training)? First Vacation!!!
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