Happy Thanksgiving

November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving started out a little rocky. The night before, some stray dogs got in a west-side story brawl outside my flat. And then the roosters… oh, the roosters… The roosters and I are at war. Every home owns at least one. They start at 4:30am and continue until 7:00 or longer. This is to say, I have not gotten a complete night of sleep for a few days. When I arrived at school, my colleague who met me in Okahanja was joking about the culture shock the Peace Corps informed us of before we headed to our site. When she asked me how I was, I told her it was a major holiday in America and that I was a little sad. The word spread and I got happy thanksgiving wishes all day. Then, at the end of the day the teachers sang to me and gave me a thanksgiving/going away/see you next year card with $50 Namibian dollars. It was too much already… then, I got a hug from nearly every one of them.

I had a wonderful thanksgiving dinner at the tourist rest stop about 3km west of here. I had chicken, French fries, carrots, REAL coffee and guava juice. Real coffee was the kicker. They have a variety of instant coffee (all of which I am convinced do not have caffeine) and, maybe, if the grocery store is nice and wind is blowing the right direction they have one pack of ground coffee on the bottom self. I am still ok though because I’ve been rationing the pound of Stumptown I brought. I did not bring any for my two weeks of traveling around though. All that to say, I really enjoyed the coffee. The other Nam 27 trainee, our Norwegian SCORE friend and I celebrated Thanksgiving with about 8 black cats begging. Also, our VSO UK friend showed up later and offered us a ride home… Yes! My achin’ feet

Which smoothly brings me to my next point. I think I have redefined a “walk-able distance”. I have been staying on the far side of the location. It is about a 10-minute (maybe less) walk to town. My colleagues at the school are convinced I am crazy to walk this at any time of day, let alone in the heat… and to walk it everyday… for fun… unheard of. Today, I walked to town to refill my phone minutes, walked back to my flat, walked to the hospital, walked to town for internet, back to the hospital then 2-3k out of town for dinner. Oh, the comments I got. What can I say? “Miss Jessica must like the walking.”

I am a little wary to tell you of the flat that I am in as it is not mine. My coworker has been very generous to let me stay here and to put up with my American-ness. I will tell you about the other PCT’s flat though. She is staying in a dorm on the hospital grounds. Her flat used to be nurses’ housing. The ‘waiting room’ area is very nice-ish. The toilet room has a working toilet (amazing!) but the sink is filled with potpourri (it has not worked for awhile). The shower and bathtub work. The ‘kitchen’ does not have a sink… so they wash dishes, hands and teeth in the bathtub… but all this is perfectly fine with the mouse that lives in the corner.

There are many things that are going to take some patience. For instance, the water has gone out for the night… as well as the electricity. They go at unplanned intervals. Usually, it is not too much of a nuisance… unless, as in my case, the nalgene has gone dry, my teeth are dirty and I have to pack up to leave before sunrise tomorrow… All I have to say is, Thank God for headlamps and the fact that the PC will pay for all of my cavities for the next two years.


November 25, 2007
Drumroll, Please…And my permanent site: Khorixas (pronounced Core-e-haws). It is seriously the American old west. I expect there to be a cowboy walking by with spurs at any moment. Don’t be fooled though, the people are very African. It is the heart of Damara-land. There are many different tribes in Namibia… different races, some say. Tribal issues are raging in some cities. Windhoek has a different location for each tribe. They will not mix. Khorixas, though is mainly Damara. Which means two thing 1) There are not as many tribal conflicts and 2) they speak KhoeKhoe and LOTS of it. I am sure they would love for me to be fluent it their language. I only know because they told me… many times.

Town is two roads wide. They have a “Multi-Save” grocery store, a “PEP” everything store, a couple of bottle stores (alcohol), a post office (I have a box, I’ll get you that number soon), two tourist camps with pools, a private clinic, a bakery and approximately four Afrikaaner families (I only know from gossip). The location is huge… in my opinion. Three of the four primary schools are in the location. The hospital, small stores, soft serve ice cream, many bars, and a couple of take-away restaurants are in the location also. As I said before, I live on the far edge of the location, just before the squatter’s camp. The Donkerhoek is about 50 years old. A German volunteer came after independence and built a beautiful building to serve as a kindergarten. Land of contrast I am living in, it is placed right in the middle of the Donkerhoek. Are you kidding me? I suppose it goes with the beautiful youth center that no one really uses…

On Friday, Jill (the other NAM27 PCT in Khorixas. Her blog is called “sand in my shoes” But I don’t know the address) and I got a free ride from the hospital where she volunteers. They were picking up a nurse in Okahanja. The funny thing about rides here is that they are uncommon. So, when someone is driving a far distance they must have a full car… Jill and I were the second to be picked up. There was already a patient, I think, in the car. They we picked up three kids from the location and their electric piano. We ran a few errands in Khorixas before we headed out of town. We picked up another trainee in Outjo (the gateway to Etosha National Park) and dropped off one passenger. Then we traveled to Okahanja. We got a room at our retreat center. Oh, how amazing that retreat center was! Hot water! Flushing toilets! Pizza within a short walk!

Saturday morning we slept in… until 7. Sometime between 5 and 6 is the norm. We went to the bakery across from the taxi park for breakfast and another cup of real coffee. We all sat and stared with awe and fear at the taxi park. We couldn’t really figure out what was happening. Some taxis would pull up and honk and then the other drivers would swarm. We went back to the retreat center, got our bags, swallowed the lumps in our throats and walked out to the taxi stop. I was sure that three white girls with huge backpacks would cause some sort of swarm thinking they would be able to rip us off. When we walked around the corner, an older man said “Windhoek?” We said, “yup.” He said “hop in.” We said, “how much?” He said, “35.” The correct price is between N$35 and 45. It was so easy! We’ll see how often that happens again.

In Windhoek, I was getting dropped off at the Peace Corps office. I was there to meet a teacher from the NAM25 group. There is a lounge for the volunteers. It has fast free internet and a self full of books for us to borrow. Right now the selection is really good because group 25 is getting ready to go back to the states. There is also a self of stuff that wouldn’t fit in their suitcases. I got a lock for free. I also got a copy of the book Eclipse… Erin. The teacher I was meeting and I went to the mall to pass some time before the other trainee we were meeting arrived from her site. I got some Haviennas (sp?) flip flops and nail clippers. Sweet! There were a few other NAM25/27 groups getting together for a week of shadowing. We all went out to lunch together. It was a lot of fun.

I am currently at a school southwest of Windhoek. It is only a school. There’s literally nothing else here. The kids all stay in the hostel. There is a “college” across the street with 47 students. There they learn business skills mostly. It is beautiful here. The sunset and moon-rise last night were national geographic worthy. I can tell I would get a lot of reading done if this were my actual site. This is her last week here and all the kids are in national exams so I’m not really sure why I’m here to job shadow. It is a really nice time to chill and read though.



November 26, 2007
My “job shadow” has been going really well. Mostly we have been cooking (pizza, pancakes, apple pie) and watching season one of Lost. I had never watched consecutive episodes before but everyone is right, it is really addicting. We wanted to IMBD some questions we had about Hobbits and Polar Bears on tropical islands but, alas, it is luxury that is long gone.

The learners here are really great. We got to help some third graders with a Christmas craft project today. It was a lot of fun. During the reading of the Nativity story, it felt like I had just recently been sitting in a schoolhouse doing the same thing… Then it hit me! Christmas in July! Camp! Oh, gosh…

Yesterday, we walked about 7K to a “ghost” house. It was built by a rich German man before the World Wars. He lost his fortune in Germany and could never return. The furniture was looted and all the windows are gone but it is huge… and creepy. It reminded me of the Adam’s family.

That’s all for now. I am sure I will write later when I have actually done something note-worthy… unlike this post
:)