Zambia/vic falls

Today we are in Livingstone Zambia! We went to vicotira falls… I thought this would be uneventful, you know just looking at the falls, but we ended up hiking to the bottom of the falls in this thing called the boiling pit, whih I thought would just be stairs, but not really—we waded through two streams and climbed over a series of rocks to get to the bottom (after the stairs). When we got to the bottom there were tons of little Zambian boys from a soccer team already down there who were apparently really excited to see us and started taking pictures with us. Then they helped us to find limes since there are tons of lime trees at the base of Victoria falls!! After we climbed back up (much easier), we decided to buy some food from local vendors—which was nice, except baboons grabbed our food. The first time, we didn’t know it was coming and it just grabbed a bag of fruit. But the second time we were trying to run away from it and it chased me and grabbed my peanuts!!! Then it did a victory jump/dance while the Zambians around laughed at us. It was pretty funny, but that’s the second time a baboon has stolen my food. Next time, I will throw a rock at it. Grrr. Anyways, after that we got rained on again—friends where supposed to bungie jump but it wasn’t a good idea in the rain. We ended up coming back to town... Its amazing here! There are mango trees everywhere. No one even sells them, we just pick them off the trees! They are delicious—plus at the open market we saw mushrooms and eggplant and bellpeppers and avacadoes. Really though I’m excited to eat anything we can get off the tree. That’s all for now!

One Year in Namibia!

So it has been a long time since i have updated—and it will probably be a long time until i do afterwards, so don't worry that its so long!

I can't believe I have been back from the states for two months. The time has flown by—it wasn't hard to readjust to life here. I think that I just can't think of both home and here at one time because they are so different! Except for maybe walking in the sand, my host sisters were just cracking up when I got back and one of the teachers started calling me oshilumbu again (literally translates to: thing white) again. And, I had just convinced her to call me oshibrowna right before I left.

This last trimester has been a bit different—its the end of the year, so people are starting to check out a bit. Grade 10 learners were finished back in october and the rest of them just finished yesterday! Its made getting things done at school a bit difficult, so i have spent most of this trimester thinking about and planning for the projects I want next year. I'm still looking for something big that will take me a whole year but my time is running out.

So, I have been here one whole year and am approaching my halfway point for the end of my service—there are a lot of things that I have grown used to, but in their place, new, and probably more serious things have popped up. Peace Corps staff and ex volunteers always warned us that after a year, we would feel like we knew nothing about our society. I don't feel entirely like that—I know some people pretty well and feel comfortable where I am. But I have learned that there are a lot of things that I have never understood, even from my experiences with culture at home.


New Volunteers!!!!!!

Its strange to realize that I am no longer new here, and this feeling is reinforced by the new volunteers who have just arrived. I met them when I arrived at training—they had only arrived five days before and were just as wide-eyed and scared as I was last year. While I was sort of nostalgic for training, I don't envy them at all! Just knowing where we were and how to interact with people gave us so much freedom, as opposed to last year when we were confined to our training center and really couldn't imagine anything beyond it.

I now have two trainees shadowing me for a week—the prospect of having them here was really exciting, but now that they're here I'm kind of stressed out. They're excited and eager to be here and also excited about their sites. I don't want to ruin that. Also, coming to my site is kind of a step down for them in terms of creature comforts though since both of their sites have running water and electricity in the forms we expect in the states. Its also difficult because I don't want them to judge me as a volunteer, especially when I have days when I doubt myself. (They're not actually judgemental fortunately) I found myself justifying to them why I decided to stay here, in Omuthiya, when I had the option of being at another site with more basic comforts, and it was hard to explain! I have thought about the idea of changing sites or even moving somewhere nicer at my site (there are some flats here that are pretty nice), and I can't bring myself to make it happen. I can't think of any concrete reasons, except for that I am happy where i am, and that's not something to underestimate.

Old Hat

One major thing that marks this one year anniversary is simply the fact that I am used to things were once ridiculous. This is probably what has made my blog entries less frequent—the fact that i have spent several mornings chasing goats out of my homestead (simply because I left the gate open) has sort of seemed normal. In fact goats and chickens have become standard—except for the day that it rained and I found a bunch of goats in the outhouse. That was frightening.

Another thing that has become standard is how no one is going to be on time. Now, since most of you know me pretty well, you know that I am not on time unless I absolutely need to be. Here, no matter how hard I try, I always seem to be early. Usually this is because I have decided to actually show up for an appointment. I guess this is ok, since I might as well enjoy it while it lasts. I should clarify, not everyone is like this here, but when working with the community in Omuthiya, this is how it generally goes. I am currently waiting for a group of people that was supposed to meet at 8 to give me a list of children that should receive teddy bears. One is here, but is leaving. We have 200 bears to donate. She gave us our first five names. AHHHHHHHH!

There are some things that I pretend I'm used to. Like transportation—I am still not used to getting in a taxi, waiting an hour to pile in about 8 people, and then taking an hour and a half to go 70 km. Ahhhh. But, now, at least people know me. Back in the day, they used to not believe me when I said I was going to Omuthiya (Gauri and Stephanie wrote “Omuthiya” down as their destination when they first arrived in Namibia. The guy at the passport desk said to them what everyone says about Omuthiya--”are you sure? why would you want to go there?”) Now, if I'm trying to get a hike anywhere, like, Windhoek, three people stop and ask if I need a hike to Omuthiya. I don't know who you are, how do you know who I am? Its not just me either, for example, those volunteers living in towns find that taxi drivers will know where their house is. In the states, this might be scary, but here it is kind of nice. It feels like people know you, and when people know you, they help you out. Or so i think.

New perspective

There are also a lot of issues that made me really angry. For example, people asking me for ridiculous things. I got blankets donated for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in June, and some teachers continuously asked me for the blankets. Complete taboo to me—you are making a regular salary, why would you want this blanket, which is going to keep some poor child warm for the winter?! I know you already have a blanket. Even now I struggle with reconciling myself with this idea and would never do it myself. However, as I've gotten to know the people in question a bit better, I've gotten a better idea of why something like this might be ok—All of these teachers support children that are not their own (in addition to their own). They don't do this grudgingly, but simply because they are making money. Those who have are simply expected to share. You find people here regularly paying for schooling up to the university level for nieces, nephews and cousins. So if there are blankets sitting there, they should simply be available.

Also, another volunteer gave me some more insight into people asking for something—for people here, asking can be a way to initiate friendship. This is really unusual for me since both of the cultures I come from frown upon asking for things—if you want to be friends with someone, you give them something (information, invite them somewhere, etc). Here, asking can mean you trust the person to give you something quality (i.e. That won't kill you). That doesn't mean I always give something to everyone, but it does mean I ask for a lot more! Aha.

Another thing that I have found difficult is the generalizations people make here—about each other, themselves, and Americans. In general, I don't like generalizations (ahaaha, i just made one), but in my first three months here, I found myself making them.. about Ovambos, Namibians, Southern Africans, Americans, and on and on. It took a heated discussion with another volunteer who had been here much longer to realize what pattern I was getting myself into—when people here say things like “Oh, us Africans, we cannot do this...” and nothing is getting done, sometimes its easy to think, yeah maybe you're right. Of course, it helps that I know many Africans who accomplish a lot and ultimately it just becomes frustrating because people use these generalizations to make excuses for themselves. Its even more frustrating because they often truly believe them.

The only way I can think of to avoid these is to remember that I really only know about the north of Namibia, and that there are always exceptions to every generalization. It also helps that people here constantly make generalizations about Americans, based on none other than, tv and movies. Oh yes, and their interactions with Peace corps volunteers who are obviously very typical in US society.

Self-Imposed Boundaries

Ultimately, I have found that its easy here to find things acceptable that you wouldn't think are ok in the states. In some ways this a good thing, like when I am riding in a taxi, or when I don't want to kill my Meme for waking me up at 5 in the morning to borrow some salt. In other ways, I have decided that I need to draw a line even when Namibians don't understand it. Basically, I've decided that I'm not a cultural relativist. This is kind of a strong statement because it means that I don't think all things are ok because a certain culture decides that it is acceptable. Well ok, i am a cultural relativist to a certain extent, but there are certain issues where I draw the line—like sexual harassment, abuse, murder, theft, etc. etc. It seems like these are easy boundaries, but here, I find that when it comes to gender relations they are not. Our definition of sexual harassment would get a lot of men arrested here—and it would not be accepted by some women also. When I first arrived here, it seemed to me that most women were content to be with men who dated other women regularly (even to the extent that they would have several live in girlfriends) or even beat them. There have been situations where I found myself conforming to this and feeling bad that I was “overreacting” to situations that were normal here in Namibia. However, upon closer inspection, it seems to be a situation that they simply accept b/c they don't see another option. This doesn't mean that all women are unhappy, but it does mean that a lot of them are living with situations that they would change if they felt like they could. Ultimately, to react negatively to these situations however, is pretty much looked down upon. After a lot of thought and talking to some other volunteers, this is one situation where I have decided that I will not conform with the culture here. Fortunately, there are at least a few people that agree with my perspective and some others who never thought about it before and don't exactly hate it. I hope that by maintaining my perspective I will be able to change at least a few minds here!

Ultimately, I've accomplished a few things in this year, both personally and professionally. I've had to constantly remind myself of such accomplishments the days, like this one, that I am just sort of sitting around waiting for someone I made an appointment with to show up. I think the one thing that I am most proud of that I've managed to stay reasonably optimistic most of the time— both about people in general, and that these women might just show up in the next few hours.

Random Observations

Once again, I have been lax on updating—partially because work has been a bit busier, but also because a lot of things that I have observed in the past seem sort of normal to me, so I think i don't notice them anymore. For example, the other day I was riding in one of my principals' bakkie, and he was filling up the gas and suddenly the car starts moving up and down. To me, this is now standard—at filling stations people will pump their entire truck up and down to fill it up with more gas. The first time it happened though, I thought they were trying to get me out of the car.

So maybe today will just be series of random observations:

1.Today, as I was walking from an office, I saw an entirely naked baby wearing only white tennis shoes. It was bent over and screaming aaha haha. I think it was happy.

2.A teacher warned me earlier that some kids were messing up my class room. I went in, told them to get up, clean up, and get out. It was the strictest I've ever been (they had left old corn and candy wrappers on the floor, PLUS dumped all my things on the floor!). My karma it seems, came to get me, when I tried to lock the door. The lock sticks, but usually it works ok. Today however, I try to open it and suddenly the key moves smoothly—why? b/c the key broke in the lock.

3.Also, today, I went to visit a school in my cluster, about five kM from the road. There were three classrooms constructed from the normal cement, and then five zinc shack classrooms for 200 students. Its a new school, which in Namibia, means that the Ministry might not have gotten around to it? We went to two classrooms. In the first one we found some older learners who stood up when we walked in (standard). Then we went into the next class room, where there were sixty small kids in one, rather large, but not large enough, classroom. When we left that one, I looked back into the first classroom only to find the kids still standing.

4.I got bored and taught Grade 8A how to use the Internet. They were fascinated most by the pictures of lions, giraffes and elephants that they have never seen before, even though there is a game park only 17 km from Omuthiya, my site!

5.Recently attended a meeting under a tree. Quite possibly the most efficient meeting I have been to since arriving in Namibia. The group, saving to buy a tractor and use it to raise money to fund affordable housing, has collected N$41,000. The meeting took thirty minutes, and had absolutely no written or discussed agenda. This does not mean that nothing happened at the meeting, just that we didn't really spend much time talking about what was going to happen at the meeting.

6.This week, I attended a staff meeting for the school closest to my house. The teachers have taken the initiative to build a second water pipe for our school, in addition to planting a diverse variety of fruit trees all over the school, clearing and creating a new soccer field, planning a school trip to Grootfontein, organizing a HIV/AIDS awareness week march and drama competition, and painting a new school emblem over our old one.

7.Last week, I shadowed a woman who works with the World Food Programme to understand the feeding scheme and maybe talk to some of the people who do the distributing. All the people who appeared at the Feeding points were mostly old women, but they were talking and laughing as they picked up the heavy bags of maize meal. I realized that these old women weren't picking up the food for themselves, but for the Orphans and/or Vulnerable Children they had taken in. I also met a woman working for the UN. She was a Namibian who only passed Grade 12, but had found herself in a successful position as an AID worker. We visited the small village center near one of my cluster schools and ate some really good chicken that only cost $2. Not only was it covered, but it also had pepper in it! Way nicer than Omuthiya Location market. Also saw a really really hairy brown baby donkey.

8.Visited the village of a friend with no electricity and no water except a tap, but was very nice. Even though only about an hour and a half from my site, this village had an entirely different landscape. Vast savannahs (as in the Namibian national anthem) and open spaces, while here we have a lot of trees. Met two small kids with my favorite names: Ndafa (means: I am happy) and Boyki (a combination of afrikaans and english, which just means, “small boy”). Ndafa, who is also named Ndiddymeche (I think may be her real name), can compete for the prize for cutest small girl in Namibia. Also saw some really tiny baby goats, but have a feeling they won't be cute for much longer.

9.SchoolNet installed OpenLab4 on our computers. Now, we have SEVEN functional computers in our lab! (this is what allowed me to teach grade 8A, i guess). Only disadvantage is that it makes my Internet REALLY slow. Still, Ndafa!
10.Before that attended peacecorps wkshp at Red and Yellow hotel in Ongwediva. Got to see everyone, very exciting, and met our new peacecorps director, who prefers to be called Hannah. She knows one of my French teachers, Professor Drame from her time as a peace corps volunteer in Senegal!!!!!

11.Had a huge HIV/AIDS awareness day march and then drama competition later in the week. Notable Incidents:
1.A poster which said, “safe sex safes lives.”

2.Riding in my counterpart's really nice car while hundreds of kids ran behind us singing songs about HIV. I felt a little bad, but not nearly as much as I would have when i first got here. After all, I am “Miss Ami”, sometimes Oshilumbu, sometimes Oshibrowna.

3.The Police Officer chasing back Waa Pandula P.S. Learners (basically small kids), back with a stick. No one sees this as out of the ordinary. Fortunately, no one gets beaten. The police officer wants the picture I took to memorialize the event.

4.Got donations of prizes from a local grocery store. The owner had to verify that the prizes were for kids to make sure not to include alcohol.

5.During the drama, there were at least four plays about sugar daddies. One of them was named “Mr. Cash” and was on a vendetta to infect people with HIV/AIDS.

6.To simulate having HIV/AIDS in the Drama, my host sister, who was the star, borrowed my jeans (which were too big and falling off). In addition to promoting an incorrect stigma of AIDS, it made me feel kinda fat.

Sooohooooooo

So, I promised a blog entry a week, and I shall deliver. I have chosen Wednesday because a) I'm feeling awake today and have accomplished almost everything on my list of things to do today and b) b/c today is the day I take my mefloquine aka malaria prophylaxis, which often leads to interesting dreams and mood swings, so I thought it might make this entry more exciting. If any of you are still reading this. This week is starting to pick up, although as predicted my June 1st OVC meeting is postponed. No problem, as now i've learned to go with the postponements, but its also goign to be bigger than i expected b/c the RACE office from Ondangwa is planning to attend the meeting. Will we really accomplish anything? What do they want to talk about? Will anyone understand me while I am speaking. The suspense is unbearable, but I will have bear it until next wednesday.

There are some other things I am working on though. In the Namibian (or maybe world tradition) of having holidays for diseases (or maybe more PC, infections), AIDS Awareness week is the third week of June, so we're having an event and a local store has already agreed to donate some prizes for our contest. The contest will be basically a cultural show, where people can read poems, do dances, peform dramas, or read stories about or related to HIV/AIDS for both the school and community members. It should be exciting, and I think PEP may also be donating some things. The Area manager is calling me tommorow, and he seems to have had a great relationship with the previous volunteers so things are looking up. I've also started my OVC database as two schools in the cluster and the local OVC coordinator have given me lists of local OVCs.

The current project which does not seem to be working out is the school newspaper I am trying to start. Everyone seems to want a newspaper to instantly appear, but no one wants to do anything. I am going to have a meeting today with my kastaff (meaning, in namlish, small staff) and in addition to playing musical chairs with them, i plan to have them write something, anything really, down on a piece of paper and then have their neighbors rate what they have written. Just to get them started. Its going to work! And, everyone is going to want to be on the paper when it is finally done. In my ideal world, this will all happen (and I will also figure out a way to take hot showers every morning instead of boiling a really big pot of water and bucket bathing... winter has finally arrived, although that just means its freezing at night and warm during the day. on the bright side, i dont feel like i need to take a shower during lunch and can spend it attempting to work, or at least sitting in the tuck shop with the teachers).

Speaking of sitting in tuck shops with teachers, I don't know if I have mentioned about the Namibian (and from what i studied in college, west african) tendancy to speak in proverbs and use metaphors constantly in conversation. I'm not sure if its used so frequently in english simply because of tradition or also because people don't know the words for things in english, but unless someone is directly addressing me, I often have no idea what people are talking about. (this happens to me frequently in the tuck shop... kind of a canteen i guess). For example, a conversation will go "He is going to the bank with the officer." "oohhhhhhh, soooooohoooooo. they ahve gone as two and will come back with one loan." everyone bursts into laughter. Ok so maybe this one wasn't that hard to catch (on to, but if i added these two words, my namlish would not be complete), but it took me a while. One that I've heard used frequently in reference to the namibian man's tendancy towards multiple girlfriends is, "he is not serious, he just wants dessert after dinner." eeeeeeek, I guess I got that one the first time. The problem is, I can't relay to you the conversations that I dont understand b/c I can never remember what they are saying. I think today some teachers had an argument about a paper in a book and taking it out, but i'm really not sure. hmmm. but, I've decided to retaliate by referring to everything as " that thing." Its frustrating because no one ever knows what "that thing" is even though I am usually refering to something we just talked about, although they seem to always know what each other are referring to. Assimilation is definitely not as easy as it looks on the surface. So, If I come home refering to everyplace as that side of Washington DC and everything as that thing, please forgive me and congratulate me b/c I may have finally achieved integration into Omuthiya.

Mweeeeeh

As we were sitting at a campsite in northern Kunene, we heard a voice of disdain... maybe it wasn't as strong an emotion as disdain, but rather just laziness. Mweeeeeeeh, mweeeeeeeh. It was like someone was summing up my emotional state of the moment (and ok, possibly of every moment since I graduated a year ago)... I had to meet this person who so clearly understood me. Unfortunately, my attempts to find my soulmate were thwarted by the fact that it was a bird and afraid of all of us. It flew away from the tree right above me when we attempted to move closer. I have no idea what kind of bird, but i've started hearing it everywhere in Namibia (and not just from my own mouth, since I can't make the sound nearly as well as some of my fellow volunteers can).

From following the mweh bird all over north western namibia to playing german monopoly (where I lost spectacularly. As if the fact that I'm broke wasn't enough to indicate to me that I am terrible with money), I have to say I've had an exciting month without any time for updates... including two sort of vacations. Well the first one was a full blown vacation, largely due to the fact that it was entirely planned by group 25ers (aka the people who came here last year). They rented a car and two of us from 26 came along for the ride. It was all in Kunene, but Kunene is ginormous (is that a word?), so we did a lot of traveling and saw a lot of different landscapes. We spent the first four days on the kunene river.

At the first place we went, the staff was really nice to us b/c they're not used to getting younger people coming to see them (its usually older europeans), and we went on this river boat cruise thing, which was nice but we didn't see any crocodiles. This may have been fortunate since most of us (including our tour guide, who lives there, so I trust his judgment) ended up swimming in the river, but I was still disapointed. And don't worry, it moves too fast for schisto... or so they told us.

At Epupa Falls, which was even harder to get to but definitely worth the bumpy travels... we were just driving and driving and suddenly, you look down the hill and see palm trees and water falls in the middle of the desert. I thought i was seeing a mirage. (Once you climb up a bit higher than we were you can see that the falls are actually huge and the angolan side of the border is much greener, but that moment was pretty shocking, especially after miles of desert). Our campsite was right infront of one of the smaller falls, and right next to it was a small delta with little water falls that was safe from both schisto and crocodiles so we could swim there also... it was amazing. There was a huge baobab tree right in the middle and tons of little himba (you're gonna have to look this up) kids playing in the water. A bunch of them braided my hair, but my favorite was a little girl named wendy... i didn't keep it in for long b/c it really hurt, but apparently it looked allright and someone has a picture of me and wendy after I got my hair braided. I tried to give her a bunch of cookies, but a bunch of kids swarmed me, so I settled for just giving her two instead of one. (One of the 25ers found a bag of them at a store on our way there. I think he said they said “South West Africa” on them. Well, he might have been joking? Either way, delicious. Oh how my standards for food have gone down.) Ok so maybe my favorite was also happy boy, this fat fat little baby who was sitting in the water giggling while we splashed (or uh... rolled) water on him. How did they name him so appropriately?

Anyways, after epupa, we went on to some desert campsites where we were supposed to spot elephants and rhinos. We didn't see any rhinos (unfortunately, since someone just told me i look like one...mweeeh), but we saw an elephant and tons and tons of zebra, giraffes (we got a momma and baby crossing the road), oryx, kudu, and even a few warthogs. And off course the standard cows, goats and donkeys that you get everywhere in namibia (today i saw a goat wandering around by it self bleating... it was so depressing... i never realized that goats can't be alone, but i had no idea how to make it feel better. somehow petting it didn't seem like the right thing to do.) PLus, the campsites we went to were all nicer than my homestead. Some how most of them had electricity and ALL of them have hot water. I am so gonna figure out how to set up a woodburning waterheater at my site.

Second vacation was to Grootfontien, Rundu, and Divundu (the latter two being in the kavango). We mostly hung out with other volunteers, but it was cool to see what life is like in the kavango. We saw rundu beach on the kavango river, although we stayed out of this river since it was pretty still and obviously could have shisto, although apparently no crocs b/c little kids were swimming in it. On the other hand, volunteers east of Rundu in kavango have mentioned that they lose 5-6 learners a year to crocodiles when small boys/girls are sent to fetch water. Maybe corporal punishment is the kinder alternative in some places, eeek. Anyways, we hiked out to divundu which is right on the edge of caprivi strip, and stayed with the volunteer there who lives in this amazing amazing youth center. we're apparently supposed to get one like that out here, but uhh.. who knows when that will happen. we spent most of our time cooking and watching sex in the city, but we did make it out on a river cruise, which was really cool, we saw a lot of hippos!!!!!, water monitors (huge lizards), baby crocs and cool birds. The guide must have had like 20/0 vision b/c he could see everything and kept on pointing out stuff to us that we would have never noticed. Everything was great in dividu until we had to hike back... we waited for FIVE hours to get a ride to Rundu and had to split up. Its a nice place, but i dont know if i could handle the difficulty in traveling.

So I am back at my site after many travels! I plan on spending time at my site, but imma rolling stone (ahaha, i jsut wanted to stay that), and I can't say that I am ever just happy sitting still in one place. But now that I'm back, I've decided to get to work at getting work now that I am here, but its still slow coming. We were supposed to have a meeting on June 1 for this new job description that Mr. Matengu helped me to create for myself, where I will be working with OVCs (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) within our six cluster schools. I'd say maybe 60% of our kids are OVC, so I'm not gonna be working with all of them, but just what the OVC coordinators at each school decide are the cases in need of attention. I'll be monitoring their weekly progress and school, applying for food and blankets from the government and local businesses, and hopefully doing some activities with them, which I am still trying to work out, b/c I want them to be fun and some how also confidence building. Any ideas anyone?

Unfortunately though, the ministry recently decided that school should be postponed another week, so I have a feeling this meeting will not go as planned. It makes sense that it is postponed, b/c it was supposed to start this week, but we get friday off for africa day, but its weird that they decided that this should happen last week. well it will be figured out next week.

So that is whats goign on... I am also continuing to work on my peer counseling thing/ school newspaper/income generating projects/legal assistance and looking forward to GAURI visiting meeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!! For now, it is weird b/c I feel like I am doing a lot and its tough to keep it organised, but at the same time, I feel like I am doing nothing.


Mweeeeeeeh.

5 cent

So... finally updating! I think I am going to stick to weekly updates, b/c honestly, now that you guys know my daily routine, life is relatively unexciting on a daily basis. Well, its still exciting for me, but to hear that I ate beans and corn from the field again today could get boring, and I want to keep you guys coming!

Miss Ami

So yesterday, my three dedicated PHEs actually practiced a presentation in front of my future is my choice and I was scared to DEATH. Like to the point that I didn't want to watch them b/c I was so scared. But, fortunately, they did an excellent job. They were confident, loud, and knew when to improvise and speak in oshiwambo! I am totally throwing them a party next week after I get back from windhoek. I told them that, and they didnt really understand...but they will if I find cookies in windhoek. Cookies always make a good party. Actually... I think I might make them! Anyways, I was very excited, plus 5 more kids signed up.

Beans and Maize

So this week, I've basically been hanging out with my family for dinner everyday b/c I love the beans and corn... they were eating mahangu one day, but it was with beef, so they got me more corn and maize so I could eat with them... it was really exciting. *i know it doesn't sound that exciting... but really, it was* Then, I promised to show them Indian dancing if they showed me how to do oshiwambo dancing, which is basically feels a lot like step. They like sing and clap and basically stomp to the rhythm in the middle of a circle of people... As opposed to my abysmal attempts at step though, I think i actually got this, and then I showed them some garba/a little bhangra (they loved it, but somehow could not do the steps without falling down. made me feel pretty skilled). Somehow though, the night ended in us attempting to do ballet and the splits in the middle of our homestead... i was in pain for at least a day after that. The next night we did the same thing... except we decided to play this game where someone listed different things after someone picked a category. We decided on musical artists and after we got through all the namibian artists, my host sister decides to try an american one... specifically, "5 cent." hahahahahaa. try making a dollar out of 5 cent. ok just kidding.

Fried Chicken

So, I stayed in Omuthiya for the weekend and went with my host sister to this... well they ahve this tradition where the girl goes to the guys homestead to meet the guys family, so me, my host sister, her sister, and some of her friends headed up north in my host sister's little red city car. (think VW bug with like 7 people in it... yesssss). It took us forever to get there... my host sister stopped at their cuka shop to do her hair, and made me go home and change into indian clothes (probably should have grabbed a snack). Then we finally left for Ondangwa, but once we got there, we stopped at pick and pay to go shopping... and then... some how my host sis got the newsflash that I got all the way back in Omuthiya that something might be wrong with her car so we stopped at a mechanic who basically told us it was no big deal. I guess it wasn't, but the car did stall out in the middle of ondangwa, lol. But once we got to the homestead, about 5 km outside of Ondangwa, it was pretty nice. They had like full out building in the homestead, but they had arranged this area outside for us to sit in with snacks and drinks and stuff. It was cool, but then they took forever to come. First, the meme came and greeted each and everyone of us and left us some Oshikundu (this oshiwambo drink with, shocking, mahangu in it). Then a few people would come every couple of minutes and introduce themselves. Finally after an hour or so, everyone in the family came and greeted us each individually. Then... we all introduced ourselves (I did in oshiwambo! I only said like two lines, but they got so excited that they clapped for me... then the guy next to me said the exact same two lines, and they thought it was funny and clapped for him too)... and then they gave speeches, and then FINALLY we ate, but it was worth the wait. It was like fully stocked southern meal... with mayonnaise in it. We had fried chicken, macaroni salad, mashed potatoes, carrots, spinach... oh my god, it was delicious, especially after a week of corn and beans. I mean I love corn and beans, but, i forgot how much loved real food.

So thats pretty much for this week... next week will be more exciting. My friends are coming up tiommorow! THen were going to ruacana falls and then I go to windhoek!!!!! yessssss.

Serious Business .....and cookies.

So, today, I once again wished I was a teacher, but apparently my job just involves all the fun parts of teaching, aka playing games with learners after school. Not exactly what I am doing, but still, a good time.

Monday, I had my PHE class, where I only have four kids, but they have made a noticeable improvement. When they first got to my class, they didn't look at me when they talked, they didn't talk loud enough, didn't make eye contact, and were basically incredibly shy. On Monday they did a condom demonstration for me (with a wooden penis fresh from the RACE (Regional AIDS Council on Education I think?) office, thank god they give me so many materials), and they looked at me, spoke loudly, and two of them didn't even need to look at the book to remember all the steps. And they weren't embarrassed!!!!!! It was very exciting, and I am so proud of them... even if I feel like there is too much HIV/AIDS education going on at Iipundi, I realize I can't really stop these kids from what I've started. Although I am thinking about starting a debate club... they could definitely use the skills they have learned there.

Tuesday, I actually presented again in a workshop at Okankolo, north of Ondangwa. Despite knowing nothing about needs assessment before I came here, I think the second time around I actually managed to convey something useful. I did this activity where I did a bad interview and a good interview without telling them what I was doing, and I think I kind of scared the guy I did a bad interview with... I was yelling at him and asking questions like "does your mother have a job." it was kind of funny, b/c he really did look scared but right before my session, Helena did a session on gender and the guys were like there shouldn't be a woman president and they had split themselves off by gender, so it was a little bit fun to scare one of the guys. I also got to go to a friend's site which is pretty close to mine to help with the workshop there, although since I had already presented on needs assessment i just helped with the gender presentation... except we have a more expanded concept of gender than they do here, I guess simply because people are a bit more experimental in the states. I was trying to explain to them about how gender can be how someone sees themselves as opposed to sex, but really, the idea of seeing yourself as a woman when you are biologically a man just confused them. I dont think very many people talk about the 13 different genders in Namibia.

Today I basically had my school newspaper club, which has been a bit difficult to get started b/c not all of the learners are really motivated or really ready to unleash their creativity (cheesy, but i know its there). When they first got into the room, and I started talking, it was pretty clear that none of them were paying attention, so after 5 minutes of blank stares, I decided to play fruit salad, which is this fantastic game which I can't really explain here. After that things were a bit easier and I finally got them to come up with story ideas... granted, they were like "a story about a wrong boy", "introduce our new school newspaper" and "the environment at our school," but really, its their paper, so they can write about what they want. at least this is what i am trying to impress upon them! I know I sounded really cheesy when I was talking to them about why it is important to be fair and accurate... i think i said something like "everyone will be a critic, so this is serious business!"... and then i started cracking up. Not sure i gave them the right impression, but I'm working on that.

Oh yes and my Tuesday Legal Clinics are finally starting!!!!!!!! Here is a draft of the AD in English that is going to be translated and put on Oshiwambo radio.
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The AIDS Law Unit of the Legal Assistance Centre is a project dealing with HIV/AIDS from human rights based approach. The project believes that the protection and promotion of human rights is neccessry to empower people to respond effectively to HIV/AIDS and to reduce their vulnerability.

It is therefore against this background that the Unit is extending its servirces across the country. The Unit is pleased to anounce that it will provide legal aid clinic at Omuthiya. The community around Omuthiya is invited to make use of this free service. Any members of the community with any legal problem are encouraged to visit our office. The legal problem should and not necessarily limited to:

* Discrimination or stigmatisation because of your HIV status,
* Dismissal from employment because of your HIV status,
* House/land eviction because of your HIV status,
* Disinheritance as sanction for causing spouse death,
* Refusal of treatment at public health facilities because of inability to pay consulation fee,
* Refused or delayed treatment without reasonable justification,
* Refusal of social grants,
* Refusal of OVC school admission because of inability to pay school development fund,
* Assistance with will writing,

That last one worries me a little bit, but after not really knowing anything before I came here about what I'm doing and figuring it out, I am confident that I'll figure this one out too. Or tell them to go to the office with a real lawyer in Ongwediva.
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Sorry this entry is so long, but I also went to Walvis Bay and hung out with some of my favorite PCVs there. Its beautiful, and quite possibly the most unique landscape I've ever seen. On one side, there is a desert (technically not a desert, actually) filled with sand dunes which stretch for miles and look kind of like the waves of the ocean, and on the other, there is an actual ocean. Its such a contradiction. Swakop is really developed, so from the beach you can really only see a boardwalk, but the beach is also, contrary to what we had been told, very clear and perfect to swim in, although a little cold. We also saw seals really close to the beach on these rocks that were serving as a barrier between the ocean and the water near the beach. We decided to kind of climb the rocks (they weren't incredibly high), and off course I was terrified b/c I am always terrified of heights, but I climbed them anyways to the part looking over the ocean... everyone else made it safely, but off course once I got up there I got SOAKED by a wave. Fortunately, I saw it coming and sat down, so it didn't knock me off the rocks, but off course, it was just my luck. and off course, my friends took pictures, so they will eventually be posted.

We also ate a lot of food... I FINALLY got sushi, thank god! no spicy tuna, but it hit the spot. And garlic mussels. And we found black beans at the grocery and made mexican food, and coconut milk and made thai food. I must have gained some weight, which I will undoubtedly lose this week b/c a) I am broke and b) we have been eating beans and maize from the field everyday. (yes, the same beans that I earlier sowed in the fields... its a good feeling). mmmmmmmmmmmm. i'm getting hungry now (notice how many of these entries center around food... what can i say... people respond. My mom is sending me soft baked cookies. clearly, while i didn't think there was a way for me to love her more than I already do, it has somehow happened).

Read Kate in Namibia

Read kate's blog. she got into an accident, but I am jealous, b/c its hilarious.

Always a First Time for Everything

So today, I took my first ride on an open bakkie. Think me, helena, saki and 25 community members in the back of a truck driving pretty fast. It was actually really cool because we were riding with the youth that we organised to the fish breeding project withsome guy from the ministry of fisheries. They have a dam full of fish already, but it may not be as easy to start because the fish are old and tough, so they may have to breed new fish and also get funding for good food although the fish can eat anything. It definitely seems like its gonna work really well, especially since the regional council has taken credit for the program we've organised! Next, Chicken breeding project and feedback meeting for those who are not a part of these two projects! I don't really care as long as it works, i just need to feel like i'm doing something.

Apparently, I am school secretary, they have my type assignments for them constantly. Today a teacher at my school gave me this like 10 page assignment she had and asked me to please type it so I did, except i was like ok, you want this in a couple days right? apparently not, she said it was due today, so i was like ok, no problem. But, i found out when i came back at 2 with it halfway typed that the assignment was due before then. Clearly I've created some myths about my typing abilities here, but i dont know how they got started.

probably from all this blog writing.

Oh yes, my family finally likes me! I think? I had dinner with them the other day (some kinda fish, was pretty good) and spent the evening stirring oshikundu, and my meme and I actually had a conversation sort of which was pretty amazing considering she could not even understand my greeting in oshiwambo before. Then I fed her cookies, which obviously the classic way to anyone's heart regardless of culture. If the milk in namibia was any good, probably wouldn't have broke that out too. They don't have those big soft baked cookies here though... mmmm........ i miss those. lately I've been having food cravings for east asian food. Hopefully thats gonnna happen soon, one of the volunteers found coconut milk in the store, that was pretty amazing.

I am off to Walvis Bay/Swakop for the independance holiday... where I will eat sushi. Will let you know how that goes. Also, lucy, the vol there might be getting high speed so will attempt to post many many pictures. yeayy!

Finally!!!!!

Finally have a P.O. Box of my own, so no excuse to avoid mailing me nowwww!

Send your professions of love to:

Ami Shah
P.O. Box 19042
Omuthiya
Namibia

Rights of Passage

So, I have had some pretty insane experiences with public transportation in namibia... but today, I honestly think that the comvee driver I had won some kind of prize for worst driver ever. I mean... so a couple of other pcv's and myself decided to meet down south for just the weekend. Its a pretty long trip for me, so I left at 6 am this morning to get a hike from Ondangwa, which was one of my Namibian friend's idea. Clearly, she had never done this before, b/c we end up getting there at 7:30, which is fine. Then, the taxi driver takes our luggage out before we knew it and puts it on a comvee... we thought he was joking so helena asks him to open the trunk and our luggage has been deloaded on to this bus. Meanwhile, there is a police man trying to get us on this minibus, which apparently is going to leave first. Clearly, this man is confused b/c, as we found out later, none of those buses were gonna leave any time soon. So I am getting irritated and we decide to go to Shoprite and get some food for the trip, and we find another comvee driver who tells us he is leave now and isnt going to wait to fill up the entire bus... instead he promises to fill up along the way. After waiting at our comvee for about a half an hour, we decide to finally go over to the other comvee that said it was leaving soon. The guy puts down our names, and asks us to pay, and I decide, from previous experience not to pay the guy until the bus starts moving...he's like no we are leaving now! And I am like ok, I believe you, I will show you my 100, but I will not give it to you, and seriously, the man is starting me down. But at this point, I am still believing that I am gonna go this weekend, but by 9:30, i know it is going to be too late, but probably will still go anyways. Still, we have not left, so I start yelling at the guy about how he has lied to me and how this is a serious problem and we need to leave, so the comvee starts moving! yesssss! noo... wait, we are pulling up to the gas station. However, we are not filling up, we are just standing there, picking up more fares. The police man shows up and randomly shuts the door about every 15 minutes to say that no one else gets on the comvee, but clearly, he's officially proved himself to be worthless b/c no one in any of the comvees is listening to him and besides, the comvees not exactly overloaded. So i wait another half an hour...clearly at this point I am livid and literally start yelling at the driver b/c i know he's gonna stop all the time on the way. I ask him to give me my bag so I can go to OMuthiya, b/c I"ll just take a taxi back, but he says no... at some point I threatened to not pay him anything, and by the end, I was like you should just give me my bag b/c i swear you will not get a dime from me. I doubt he understood what i was talking about, but he knew what I meant when i said "no money." but back to the saga... So we move again... to the gas pump. Then, we're leaving again... getting excited! but no... we pull up to the hike point again. And 20 minutes later, we're leaving again... and no... we go back to the gas station. We do this about 3 more times until I am at the point of hysterical tears, but then, randomly, this guy on the bus starts getting pissed too, except he sounds like oscar the grouch..maybe something scarier. Everytime he talks, I can't concentrate on what is going on because its hilarious. Unfortunately, his voice does not intimidate the driver into leaving, but finally at around 11:15, we do leave, and find ourselves stopping about 5 more times on the way to omuthiya. Somewhere in there, someone on the bus gets a phone call, and starts saying in very very loud oshiwambo something about how the driver is completely dishonest and cheated them out of their money. Thank god I wasn't the only one. When I got off at Omuthiya, they were still trying to convince me to go to Windhoek and were liek I will give you a discount, but not really that much of one. Clearly, they did not realize how close they came to me biting their heads off. They were like, ah man, you are not good. I was liek did you really think you were gonna screw me over like that and still make money of me. I swear I know they're just trying to make a living, but I need some service please? Off course my morning ended with a bunch of little kids from the primary school following me and laughing. I still don't know whats behind my back, but this evokes sad memories of the 5th grade and I dont want to relive them so I leave. Ah... clearly, we had no rights of passage, but helena thought of the title, and it seemed appropriate. I hope you all have a good weekend... and that I do too :( now that the comvee driver ruined my plans.

Water Shortages motivate me to organize.

Basically, I have decided that my blog needs to make more sense. I have lots of time to do this, so I don't know why it hasn't happened yet. Honestly, I've never had this much time in my life, and until very recently, didn't exactly know what to do with myself. I'm not really sure that I do now, but I am working on it. Its kind of exciting actually, because one of the reasons why I wanted to come to the peacecorps is to do the things I've never had time to do. And help people, off course.

PHE Class

Anyways, yesterday, I had my second PHE class, it was much better than the last. 4 out of 5 of the learners seemed to understand me, and we played musical chairs, so that was great. Also, I think I am getting better a gearing the activities towards learners here—obviously, i still have a lot to learn, but I can relate to the teachers. Things you would normally expect to go wonderfully (or things that have gone really well for me before) can fall flat here... well honestly, i can't even tell if they're going well or not because the kids are so quiet. I know its cultural that the kids are so shy, but I also feel like despite culture, I don't want them to be shy around me. I don't have to deal with the same discipline issues that teachers do, because fortunately, I already have good learners.

Discipline

Speaking of discipline issues I had a conversation with some teachers on saturday about methods of punishment and not using verbally abusive language to punish learners, but i was kind of caught in my own inexperience. I guess it was obvious that I was speaking to them from the perspective of a student, just having finished being a student myself. Basically though, they had a valid complaint... people are always saying they should do things differently, but they never suggest how. I can understand that, but still have nothing to offer them. Any suggestions? I am thinking about it and realize i should ask fozia, since she is the only person i know with real training to be a teacher. If you're reading this... yeah, let me know.

Dirty Details

Outside of work, Omuthiya is fine, except there is no water for the second week in a row. Well, to be fair we had a small intermission between pipe breakings last week, but then someone accidentally hit the water pipe again saturday and the water has been out since then. Fortunately, my homestead has an outdoor tap that I can fetch water from, but I really am not enjoying doing it for extended periods of time. Plus, it does put a damper on my avoiding the pit latrine scheme, b/c a pit latrine is really the cleanest option during a water outage. I am sure you all wanted to know about that... haha, but you wanted the dirty details on Namibia, so there you go.

Chickens and Cats

So, I've grown pretty accustomed to seeing animals everywhere. Its just how it is, people let their animals roam around, and I can't really think of a problem with it, its just weird at times. For example, yesterday, I was sitting in the computer room, and a chicken walked it, and just chilled out in here for a good 15 minutes. For some reason, the contrast of me sitting online reading CNN and typing up my PHE syllabus for the afternoon while a chicken clucked around me seemed hilarious. Unfortunately, I had no camera, but one day, it will happen, and I will display it for all to see forever when I return to the states. Yesssssssssss.

Also my cat, which i am starting to hate, has started doing this creepy thing where it jumps through my window at night and tries to jump on my bed. Eeeeeeek. This morning, i seriously freaked out. It also has the effect of ruining my screens. Well, that is all for today. I realize that is more understandable, but probably more boring. Like I said, I'm working on it, I have time.

Packages are wonderful.

I got my first package from my birthday this weekend, from my parents! Did anyone else send packages? if so... I will eventually get them, PC just takes forever to got them to me. For now...I have to figure out my P.O. Box situation in Omuthiya. I had a box from the previous vol, but then, she had left all these fines on it and I thought I could just open up a new one on Feb 1st, but then there was a delay and now its March 1st. I hope that date doesn't change... if it does, i'll just give you the schools P.O. Box, b/c my friend whose box i was thinking about using actually has a bocx in Ongwediva, which is a bit far. I mean not really, but I dont wanna go up there every weekend to check my mail.

Anyways, so the last week or so has been kind of eventful... I started my peer health education program. Think kids staring at me blindly while most likely having no idea what I'm talking about. It was ok though, i think i will warm them up soon enough. We played this game where you spell your names with your hips b/c they really weren't talking. I think the next time I will have to be enthusiastic enough for all of us...they willllll talk to me! Next week, i'm going to do what some of the education volunteers did with their PE classes... play duck duck goose. ALthough, there is a fine line between enthusiastic and scary that I might cross if I'm not careful... I dont know why I feel like games will make them open up, but it seems like a good icebreaker, which we clearly needed. I also think I was aiming my curriculum for town kids... kids in Tsumeb were far more responsive to the types of activities I came up with, maybe just because they were able to express themselves better in english. Plus they've been through workshops and stuff before. Maybe it will be good... i can work out a curriculum that can be used universally for village kids. or maybe its just the fact that I dont know any Oshiwambo. AHHHHHH!.

Also, I went up to Ongwediva with Amon from the LAC on Monday, and on Tuesday we spend a couple hours going over what they want me to do, and it seems pretty exciting! They want me to hold these legal clinics where i just do intake for them... which worries me a little bit, but they said they would get someone to help me with the oshiwambo for a while so that will be nice, and I dont really have to dish out any legal advice. Although they have all these trainings they want to give to people, and I went to this meeting for community AIDS volunteers and it seems like they would be really open to it. Everyone basically wants to figure out how to make money, so information on grants and income generating projects seems like the best way to go and the LAC has some trainings on that! I mean, they need lots of things, but I can understand why their primary concern is finding employment...People have information, they just need a reason to put it into action...aka a real life with food on the table.

Well, we'll see... Gis might actually come up this weekend... a combination of things from parents meetings to broken water pipes in omuthiya have kept it from happening, but we are determined! Or at least I am. haha... ok that is all for now. Commentt pleaseee, it makes me feel good to know that ppl are still reading my blog, plus I wanna know what you think.

Pictures

Some pictures up on webshots... takes forever to load, so not really alot of them!

French Fry Sandwiches

As you may be able to tell from this heading, I discovered a new namibian delicacy this weekend. The French Fry Sandwich. Basically, you buy chips (aka fries) and you put them in bread... sometimes with vinegar or mayonnaise (the ultimate namibian condiment). Just had to write about this, b/c it reminded me of a) the atkins diet, ahahaha...... and b) sharita b/c it seems like her ideal sandwich. Anyways, thats all I have for now. just thought i'd put it in!

Meetings Meetings Meetings

So, yesterday was kind of a low point for me, b/c i came to school b/c we had a staff meeting and realized I have no real job here yet. It kind of sucks. Also, it is hard not being near to people who you can be close to. It was easier in Okahanja b/c everyone was going through the same thign so we all needed to hang out, but here everyone else has a life, so while I have made friends, its still a bit lonely. I did go over to a friends house Tuesday to watch the season finale of Paloma When you are mine, aka the namibian national obbession... she was totally into it... it was interesting in the same way a good bollywood movie is... aka bollywood could be huge here and they need to bring it here to make money except there are not really movie theaters that i know of in the north. Well apparently there used to be one in ondangwa, but now its gone. Anyways, back to the job, But i do have a job at the community center and we met the regional councilor today and apparently some of our income generating projects are possible except he didn't really give us concrete details. Hopefully that will work itself out...i mean he wont mind us bugging him b/c we definitely will! The school is even willing to share a soccer field with the community so that is also excellent. Today I have more of a job, b/c i have to write some letters and convince people to donate some stuff. Apparently ppl at the school are already doing this (asking people to donate)... another reason why I feel superfluous here, but who knows. The resources are here, whether they would be used or not I dont know. I hope so! So I totally didn't realize that my blog is amusing... or that people are reading it, so thats exciting. since people are will post more regularly!

Meeting!

Yessssssss... today Helena (the Comm Development Coordinator) and I held a youth meeting and I even introduced myself in OShiwambo and they understood me. At first no one was there, but then like 60 ppl showed up and once they came they wouldn't stop talkign! Apparently, although there is a youth officer for Oshikoto region, he's really not meeting their needs. CRAP, we have a lot of work to do, but I am super excited about it. Anyways, another highlight to my week... also I am loading pictures on my webshots. clearly, these are really old pictures b/c i kind of stopped taking pictures when i realized i couldn't load them. but i am going to steal other people's pictures when i go visit them and soon I will post everything! it will just take time...

YESSSSSSSSSS!

Oh my god, I am so excited, I am going to be working with the Legal Assistance Centre's Aids Law Unit... It will be awesome! They sent me an agreement and everything and they're gonna pick me up and take me to Ongwediva to meet the lawyers... so so excited. I will mostly be doing awareness programs and client outreach and intake. Basically what I would have been doing for the Washington Lawyer's Committee except for HIV/AIDS. I was really determined to work with them so this is like the highlight of my life. So I spent the whole weekend here this weekend. I know why PC volunteers don't lose weight now. I cooked everything. I made lasagna, chicken, saag something and parathas, brownies for Helenas birthday, potatoes, bread. And I ate cucumbers. besides that my weekend was pretty boring. I hung out with maria, who is one of Jennifer, the old PCV's friends. She is really cool, but unfortunately is pregnant, so we really can't do much. But i brought her some lasagna and she liked it... ok yes, i live a really boring life. but... besides that... Work is picking up, we're having a youth needs assesment meeting tommorow, plus we should have a cluster (group of 6 schools) meeting on thursday, so I will start having things to do, b/c I am supposed to work with OVCs from the cluster (Orphans and Vulnerable Children). Really I am just wondering when the staff meeting for the school I am at will be. Who knows? guess I will find out! Allright... thats all for today... probably for a while unless the youth meeting is particularly eventful

Tandi Kunu omakunde

So basically, yesterday, i started working on this Peer Health Education program... it is kind of a lot of work? I also met the OVC coordinator from the primary school near by which was cool, b/c he told me that they needed help. Ahh, then again this is what everyone says, but with what, is still pretty amibiguous. He did talk about Windows of Hope, so my UNICEF obbsession will be allowed to continue, yess! Anyways, after a day of accomplishing nothing conclusive I still went home exhausted for some reason, and decided to take a nap until my host sister, Donnacky knocked on my door and asked me if i wanted to sow beans. Unsure of what this meant, but having little else to do, i decided to check it out... basically what she meant was digging a little hole with your bare feet and throwing two beans in. It was cool yesterday so it actually turned out to be a lot of fun, and was also great because it reminded me of why I wanted to be in a more rural area at the end of the day. I also sort of bonded with my sisters and learned how to say... my family loves me b/c i sowed beans today in oshiwambo. YESS. On my way to fluency. Just kidding... but really I am working on it. I am starting to love the greeting stuff b/c it makes people really feel like i know what i'm doing. Anyways, after that I was going to cook dinner, but realized I was seriously craving mahangu and whatever they were cooking (fish!) and ate with my family... i dunno whats happening to me, but i even liked the sandy texture. Although, I have to admit, i loved the way they cooked meat from the beginning b/c they make it spicy. It was just the oshithima, which is the mahangu porridge which I had to get used to... guess i'm there. Allright, lets see who will actually read this blog so often now that I have regular internet access! Haha...

ps. took a shower outside and discovered that we actually have hot water! Oh my god... it kind of cancels out the pit latrine. Which i still avoid like the plague, but still.

A Cool Day in Omuthiya

By cool, i mean literally cool, its fabulous outside today. Apparently this season is really not supposed to be as scorching hot as it is outside here, and today we got the weather we're supposed to have yess! so sorry i have not updated in a while, but I have been settling in to my permanent site in omuthiya. our new years was kind of anti-climactic, but we did have brunch on the day of made by some of the ladies in our group. It was nice...but anyways, we swore in on January 7 and then most of the health volunteers (excluding myself) left right after the ceremony, which was pretty depressing for me as I am very close to them. We were also on national television! Apparently they had a shot of me, but only people who were looking for me saw it. I looked pretty different anyways, as I was wearing indian clothes and looked nice. Other people took pictures which I am going to try to steal and put up... its just that most ppl dont' have the same internet access i do, so they can't exactly update it on a regular basis. Another vol, chris, put some pictures up, but none of them are of me, although you can look if you want at www.sundaymorningblues.com. Well he doesn't know that i am giving out that link or anything, so don't link it anywhere.

Anyways, i got to site and after some obsessive cleaning, my place is fairly nice. I have electricty and sort of running water... no faucets in my part of the house but an outdoor shower and a sink in the kitchen on the other side of the house.

Oh my god it started raining... so exciting. Clearly i am turning into a Namibian, but we've been waiting for the rain forever, and I am pretty sure all their crops depend on it. Anyways, I can't leave so this entry may be a little longer, yess. So Omuthiya is an interesting little place. I realized last night when hanging out with one of my friends here that there are little "town", "location", and village sections of Omuthiya. Its supposed to expand to become the center of the Oshikoto region, but currently much of the stuff that is the center of the Oshikoto region is located in Tsumeb, so i'm pretty sure officials there must be dragging their feet to get it started b/c Tsumeb is so beautiful i doubt anyone wants to leave it. Omuthiya is pretty nice too though, its just neither as green nor as developed (which is the thing i think really gets people). Its located really close to a spring and Etosha National Park, both of which I am going to try to see this week when Gisella arrives (she is visiting me for the weekend!), should be very exciting. Anyways, I am still trying to figure out my job although now I am working to start a peer health education program b/c my future is my choice, the existing UNICEF program, does not have the funding to provide more trainings. I am using it as a basic template though, and hopefully getting in touch with planned parenthood of namibia b/c they fund some PHEs up in the Ohangwena region. There used to be a volunteer there, but she got into a car accident! I think she wants to come back, but she's in the US/South Africa (not sure which) in physical therapy. aaaaaaah. It sucks to lose members of the group! Anyways, I am also working with the Community Development Coordinator to organise a youth meeting and possibly a work shop based on youth needs. We'll see what happens. Apparently in a few months I will have more work than I can handle, and I can't wait! I have so much downtime here its ridiculous. If only i could hook up my comp to the internet i would respond to all emails, but... yeah. I'm working on it. Anyways, keep me posted!