Ek es Skol Jevrou

They opened the cafe late for us tonight! More thoughts from me below (I didn't spell check them). And in response to the comments: chump change is a common phrase meaning no big deal. The lab is a pretty exciting place also - I had a conversation about fractional distillation with a science teacher here yesterday (they are missing labs here). And I miss sugar so much I eat it any time I can - I think I will not give up a chance if one presents itself in december... sorry.




November 8, 2007
Yesterday I found out that I was going to be learning Khoe Khoe Gowab (sounds like koi koi go baa). It is a clicking language. There are four different clicks. Then, on top of the clicks, each vowel has a low, high and nasal pronunciation. Today was my first language lesson. It was so fun to click, cluck and tsk. I can only make three out of four of the clicks right now but I find myself practicing them everywhere. Not all of the words in the language have clicks, however, those that do are meaningless without a click. Our trainer says that the conjugation is similar to Spanish. I do not know if I will make it as far as conjugating something, though.



November 9, 2007
Second lessons of KhoeKhoe today! It didn’t go as well as the first. Apparently, clicking is a skill you can loose overnight. It is just such a different noise you have to completely retrain your mouth. Honestly, I got a little frustrated today. Our lesson was on the various different combinations of goats that were possible. You may ask, “How many different combinations could there be?” Well, since you asked… I will just let you know that there are separate words for the following combination of goats: one male goat, one female goat, two male goats, two female goats, three or more male goats, three or more female goats, one baby goat, two baby goats and three or more baby goats. Obviously, this raises the question “what if we don’t know the sex of a goat when it hops over our fence? What do you call it then?” As it turns out, you can just remember the word for one male goat and get by in everyday life. This is where I discovered my silly American need to accomplish something in a class. All was solved a little later when I got to practice my KK conversation. Everyone around town, especially the little kids, love to listen us try. Mostly, the kids get a kick out of it but its fun to see them laugh.

Not everyone in my training group is learning KhoeKhoe. On Wednesday, we found out which language we would be learning. Each language is spoken in certain regions of Namibia. This gives us all clues to our final site assignment. However, we do not know our assignments until next week Friday. KK is spoken in many regions that are south of the Red Line (the area north of the line is the area Namibians fled while SA was in control). Other languages provide more clues than mine. For instance, those learning Silozi will be in the Caprivi Strip. Silozi has some similarities to Swahili so I like to eavesdrop in their group. Other trainees are learning one of the following languages: Oshiwambo, Otjiherero, Rukwangali, Thibukushu and Afrikaans. We all got basic Afrikaans lessons as well because it is the “second official language after English.”

Last night, I had the opportunity to hear a church choir practice. They sang in KK. It was beautiful! They insisted that we dance and sing with them. After we danced, they all sat down and it was our turn to perform. There were only about 10 of us there but finding a song to sing between us was difficult. I suggested “You ain’t nothin but a hound dog” but it was shot down in lieu of “Tula Pele” (a Namibian song we’ve been learning – those are the only two words in it). Thinking we were safe, they surprised us with a request for our national anthem. Oh gosh, ten people was not enough for those high notes but we made it through. Then, they insisted that we sing their national anthem as well. So, we sang the Namibian anthem also. Seeing how we have spent a week in this country, have learned two songs, their anthem and have spent time working on two of their languages, I thought that we had done a fair job. However, the choir had to stifle some laughs at us. I think that is something I will have to get used to. I know that I laugh at cultural misunderstandings but I think they are funnier when I actually know what was funny… 

The church choir was in the location. The location can be found on the outside edges of the township. It is where the black people live. The middle of a township is know as “town” and it is where the whites live/lived. This is the way it was way back when but those expectations still exist. Some townships are only locations and some have many locations with a town in the center. It is an interesting idea and really different from our inner-city/suburb dynamic in America.

There is not much else to report these days. We have one more week this school type setting before we can experience more of the country through site visits, job shadows and host families.

I loved receiving some emails the last time I was at the Internet café. The line was so long I only had time to post a blog and download the emails onto a USB drive. Next week I will post this and send out my replies.

I hope that November rain is beautiful and cold. I hope that some of you are wearing fake Target Uhgs and I hope that you had a great cup of coffee today.

Very much love, Jessica




November 12, 2007
Yesterday, I got a chance to go to a church in the location. The service had started at least an hour before we got there. The church had huge windows in the back and as we pulled up it was almost a face off between the 15 volunteers and this huge congregation. The entire service was stopped for the MC to come out and greet us. Then he had us follow him to the front of the church. They cleared out the front two rows of pews for us to sit in. The old women who were sitting there were banished to the steps of the stage. This was done to keyboard music with a canned beat. The whole process was vaguely reminiscent of a Monty Python sketch. The service was held in four languages. English was the least used. Lucky one of our trainers was present and translated the message. The rest of the service we were on our own. The MC paused the service half way through to address us in English. He told us that even though we didn’t understand everything we belonged. He said that we were brothers and sisters simply because we shared a roof. Then, as becoming our custom, we all introduced ourselves and sang the Star Spangled Banner (just the PC group… on stage… for everyone). Why does our anthem have to be so hard to sing?

Saturday was also an interesting day. Lunch was all traditionally cooked. We killed chickens, ate goat face and liver, roasted peanuts, and made fat cakes. It would have been fun but I could only handle being outside for little bits at a time. The increasing summer heat has been getting to me these past few days. I can do what I normally do but lingering in the sun causes a lot of nausea. You may think it was the goat face but it wasn’t… it was the heat. Despite the heat, I did get to discover that fat cakes are where it’s at. The name may make you shy away but I am sure they have less fat in them than donuts.

Khoe Khoe lessons today were really fun. First, we accidentally learned a bad word. We were practicing a two-syllable word and kept pausing on the second syllable. Our teacher was obviously agitated about it. He finally educated us to the meaning of the second syllable on its own. Now I say that word as quickly as I can. Then, we learned how to say “Where are you from?” This phrase it fun for two reasons: One, because it doesn’t have any clicks and, two, because it sounds like an evil laugh. “Maba xu du ra ta ha?” Also, we got to learn yes and no. Yes is “i” (put it in the nose and say e) (I can’t find the nasal symbol on the computer). No is “hi-i” (put it in the nose and say e-e). The squeaking was making me laugh so much that I started crying.

This afternoon I need to work on getting a cell phone. Cell phones are very common in Namibia. Hopefully my cell phone will also act as a modem for my computer. I do not expect to have service and internet access totally set up for awhile. I will make sure to let you all know as soon as I have a number though.

I think that this will be my last post for about three weeks. I am leaving our training town to visit my permanent site next week. Then, straight from there, I am going to shadow another volunteer. I am unsure of internet access for those two weeks. If I get a chance to write I will. Otherwise, I will not be back in this town until the end of my shadow.

I love hearing stories from home! Please send them! I know it requires patience to get a reply but they make the world smaller. I heard a story about my cat yesterday from my dad and it was great.

Ok. I’ve got to go break the Namibian banking secret code to buy this phone. Wish me luck!