I Found It!

I found the internet cafe! I found Namibia! It is hard to get time on the computers but here are some of my thoughts for the past few days:



October 29, 2007
Today was the first official day of “Staging” in Washington DC. This is a time for the Peace Corps to collect our final paper work and prepare us physically and mentally to go to Namibia. For such a monumental task they allot two days. The information is mostly common sense but it is really nice to be able to talk through a lot of things. We compared anxieties, aspirations and the most common goodbye line. It is a great mix of people though. We come from all over the country (70 total with 4 from Oregon and 3 from Washington!) and various backgrounds. For instance, we had to order Aloha pizza tonight instead of Hawaiian. I find it intriguing though that all this will be ‘chump change’ in a few days and we will find more in common in Namibia than we would in the States.

I did take the opportunity to check out the memorials and Smithsonian this morning during my free time. It was great to get to see some of the sights. Though, Dad, they do look just like the pictures. But now I have my own… J

I am missing everyone back home very much. Every so often I have to swallow a huge lump in my throat. The only solution is to think about getting to Africa. I am so excited for this opportunity! All of the pictures, videos and stories from Namibia they’re using for preparation are only making me more excited!

Another update to come!




11-3-07
Last night we made it to Namibia. We left our hotel in Washington D.C. at 5:30 on Wednesday morning. After a few inoculations (none for me, thanks to junior’s abroad), we headed to the airport. The flight to “Jo’burg” was 15 hours and 30 minutes. It was intense! But, thankfully, there were a lot of people to get to know and visit with. We spent Thursday night in Joburg. The hotel was very nice and very welcome sight for some smelly, jet-lagged Americans. Also, in South Africa we met our Associated PC Country Director. He was very nice and, as I was soon to find out, the most informative person in the PC thus far.

The flight to Windhoek (Vind-hook, for the natives, and Wind-hook for us) was only 2 hours long. Sitting in the window seat was a great opportunity to take in some incredible views. It was mostly bush (imagine Arizona-ish) but there were some great “mountains” (Oregonians would call them hills). When we landed in the airport, about 20 of us discovered that the airline just simply didn’t send our bags with us. There were only two who didn’t receive either of their two bags. I was lucky to get one of my bags. It was the bag with coffee, sharpies, sweatpants, one shirt, a sleeping bag, host gifts, and shoes. The other bag has all of my other clothes. The airline assured us that the bags would arrive that night or Saturday. I was a little skeptical. Those doubts of mine were reaffirmed today, when we got a second assurance that they would arrive today or Sunday. Despite the downer, I found myself and most of the other trainees in up-beat moods about the whole situation.

After filling out papers in the airport for our luggage, I walked around the corner to the bus to find a huge Namibian flag and about 20 white people shouting at me. They were representatives of all the volunteers currently serving in Namibia. Just talking to them briefly, I was a little jealous. They had already gone through all the hard things that I still have to figure out.

We boarded the buses and drove 45 minutes into Windhoek and 45 minutes out of town to our training site. When we arrived our trainers were standing out front singing loudly in all the different languages of Namibia. They continued to sing as we all got off the buses and walked behind us, singing us into the training center. It was an awesome reception. They ended their singing by singing the Namibian national anthem. Then they requested our group to sing our national anthem. There are 70 of us but I was sure that would not be enough to hide my voice. Luckily, our trainers hummed along with us. It could have been the hours of flying, being on the wrong side of the world or the Mefloquine but I got a little teary. We had a quick dinner, a few impromptu “goodnight” language lessons, washed some clothes (my only clothes) and hopped in bed for a long night of staring at the ceiling.

Today has felt like we have been in country for at least a week. The day was a little hard. The trainers gave us a lot of logistic information for our post. We also got a chance to learn about the school system. It was very very interesting considering we had little to no information through the whole process thus far. Nam 27 is the largest group. This is because we are implementing a new plan by the ministry of education. Also, the Caprivi Strip is now a safe place to send volunteers and about eight of our group will be heading to that tiny piece of land. Also, we learned that our group will be teaching mostly upper primary, grades 5-7. We met with a 2nd year PCV science teacher who alleviated some of our fears and may have created a few more. Overall, it seems like every situation will have it’s own challenges and reward. As we were reminded several times today, “this is the toughest job you’ll ever love”!

Tomorrow, the science teacher trainees are meeting to discuss site situations. I have to make a lot of decisions about what I would prefer in the way of town size, grade level and location of my future site. I know I can’t post this until a little later, but I could use some prayer. I have a lot of choices in the next 24 hours.

Much love, Jessica



November 6, 2007
Well, I flew out of Portland a week and two days ago but it might as well have been a month or so. I just want to give you a few quotes from our past few days of training that made me giggle:

“Don’t buy that fish … you might be buying yourself a coffin” –during a lecture on cooking and proper food preparation

“If you don’t lay down the rules from the beginning two years will be long time” –briefing on future classroom conduct. It’s really only funny with an African accent, I guess…

“We like to call shots candy. Please, report to room two for your rabies candy.” –trainer (I’m not immune to rabies yet. I need two more shots… ahem, candies. But being one-third immune makes you way more aware of stray dogs.)

“You say Quesha quesha quesha quesha and you send out a compliment” – trainer
“Wasn’t it wok-a wok-a wok-a wok-a…?” – us, later in town.

The Peace Corps is very good at allowing us time to adjust to the country. We have many Namibian trainers who were hired to teach us language, provide medical care and take care of logistics in general. They have spent a lot of time introducing us to the culture, politics, money, health information, songs, jokes, games and the many languages of Namibia. It has been so much fun to talk with them and learn about their country.

For instance, I spent a long time talking with Entertaining Ed (we all had to attach adjectives to our names to make them easier to remember. I was “Just”). I heard all about growing up in Namibia during the fight for independence. For those of you who don’t know (IFY), Namibia was occupied by South Africa. Namibia formed the South West Africa Peoples Organization (SWAPO). SWAPO and most of the population fled to the North and a little into Angola. SWAPO fought down from the North and eventually won their independence in 1990. I also got to learn about business in Namibia, Fishing, mining (Namdeb – for Namibia DeBere’s. I am unsure of spelling), and cattle are all big. We talked a bit about the fishing towns Swakopmund (Swa - coop – moon – d) and Oranjamund (Or – aun – g – moon – d). Oranjamund is in Namibia but you can only access it from South Africa. The government is working on building a road right now. “Mund” means “mouth of…” so Swakopmund means “the mouth of the Swakop River.”
They also have different words for river. One means a year ‘round river and the other refers to one that only runs for part of the year. Anyway, all that to say it has been really fun to learn about a new country. So far, the things I have heard make me very excited to see more of the country.

In fact, we were getting antsy about seeing more so a group of us climbed up a rocky hill nearby. It was really great to get some exercise after a long time in the training center. It was so beautiful at the top… and huge! It went on forever. The sky was awesome.

Overall, training has been very educational, a little too much at times (see: AIDS video), but mostly fun. Nam 27 has its quirks… but overall, they are a great group. They are so supportive of each other. When we had lost our bags (mine came late Saturday night) everyone was willing to share. It’s amazing what being on the other side of the world will do to strangers.

So, basically, all this means it that you all are going to have to visit me!
1) Because I miss you all very much and think of you often:
Mom: I saw tear art in the hills
Dad: The whole river conversation
Dan: I met and African Razor back that gave me some medicinal doggy slobber
Tilikum staff: I got Nam 27 trying to snap their fingers the “correct way”
… who am I kidding, too many to list here

and 2) because Namibia sounding pretty amazing!

Much love, Jessica